Thoughts to ponder

Shedding a little light can make all the difference....

....maybe a little reflection goes a long way because

the real solution can be found when we change our focus.

Counting down that 30 days of Nature.

I'm a little proud of myself for sticking to this commitment I made. The photos may not always be great but I'm doing it! Since yesterday was a holiday and my post was strictly about that, I decided to add 2 photos in the Artography section of my blog. I felt like that was the fair thing to do since I was suppose to have 30 days of nature. However, since it is my blog I suppose I can be the one to determine what meets that requirement. 

Remember the fallen

Memorial Day celebrations are a great way to welcome in the upcoming summer season. Holiday cookouts and picnics usually mark the beginning of hot weather fun. In fact, in just a few hours we will be celebrating in much the same way. However, it's so very important to take a moment to pause and remember those who   served our country and paid the ultimate price for doing so. Peace and blessings to you on this holiday.

Beauty in the darkest places

Although this isn't what I would consider a great photo.I can't help but love the juxtaposition between the iron gate and softness of the wildflower in this cemetery. I can only imagine Charles must find it beautiful from his angle too. 

More than a mouthful....

I'll be the first to admit, this is not award winning photography (yes, I know I said that about the previous entry) but it's not every day you get a chance to capture this image. 

Day 25......I think

As I continue the "30 Days of Nature" theme I have been rather fixated on insects. Another reason I seem to gravitate to small objects and creatures is due to the macro lens I own. I love this lens, it's like having your own Alice in Wonderland potion only you don't drink it you just simply look through this magic lens. The detail I can capture while using this lens amazes me all the time. It shows me how many miracles I am unable to see with the naked eye. 

Gardening Bliss

Our vegetable garden is well on its way to producing (hopefully) a bounty of yummy goodies. So far we have onions, green beans, potatoes, cucumbers, beets, broccoli, tomatoes, cayenne peppers and cantaloupes. We will also be planting corn, squash, sweet potatoes and a few other items before the season is over. It's a great feeling to know you can grow much of your own food if you invest the time and energy to care for the plants. It's kind of like their "thank you" to you when you give them the things they need to flourish.

It seemed like the perfect time to produce a little inspiration for my flower/herb garden. Sometimes the most unassuming items make the best pieces.

Celebration

My dad passed away a week ago today and since that moment I have been rather busy with cleaning out his house, meeting people and family for the first time and gathering the usual type of  information required to finalize some things. 


I've also heard some amazingly unbelievable stories about my dad. Some are funny, sad and shocking. One interesting thing I learned about my dad was how much he loved fireworks, apparently to point where it wasn't uncommon for him to spend most of his check on them around certain holidays. So, I thought the most fitting memorial was shooting fireworks the night he passed away. I have said many times how I hope someone does that for me when I die and having been a part of this type of celebration I'm pretty adamant that happens. Maybe I will put that in my will. Celebrating sad events in ways that bring smiles to our faces is a much better way to remember someone. 


So I've included a few pictures from that night as part of my 30 days of artography. 

I said everything under the sun

Before I started this blog I created about 4 others. They never seemed to take shape and it was so addicting to come up with all these cute names. I would get excited in the beginning and then they would fade into the background....UNTIL NOW. Jil gave me a great idea, since I am finding myself loving this blog and it pained me to think I needed to delete the others, UmbrEllis is going to be the portal to the others!! This may be a gradual process because I have some pretty awesome ideas for the others but for now I will start small so enjoy this delicious treat.

....28 days to go

Since I didn't post yesterday I'm just going to combine them today. Is that cheating? Lance and I have a small vegetable garden at his mom's and we went out there to do some maintenance type tasks. While there I took the opportunity to view nature up close and personally. I like to think the toad was helping rid the garden of menacing pests. I LOVE the photo of the bean sprout! Seeing the soil cracked and busted proves the determination of the seed to grow. It's amazing to me how tiny seeds can produce such a massive quantity of food. Sometimes you just need be at ground level to see miracles. 

30 Days of Nature

I recently started a new job and I am adapting to living my life in semesters rather than being on the typical 12 month calendar.....and I'm loving that. It seems to fit nicely with my limited attention span. So along those same lines is a brilliant idea I borrowed from my friend Jil. Sometimes I allow time to pass and before I know it, it's been a week (or more) since my last post. Hopefully this will keep me on my toes and who knows, maybe a new habit will develop. 


For my first "30 days" endeavor I've chosen a very broad topic. Since nature can prove to be many things to many people I thought it would be a safe way to go. Enjoy my artography.

Mother's Day

It's been a busy Mother's Day weekend over here. Friday we spent the evening at the assisted living where my grandmother lives. Cheesecake and coffee (which I don't drink) were served while we visited with my grandmother but the highlight was the live entertainment. A lady was serenading the audience while playing a dulcimer and she had chosen some rather interesting lyrics. It seems we were in the preparatory stage.....apparently the audience needed a reminder about how close they were to the "end" of their adventure. I heard a lot about how soon we would be meeting Jesus and the tranquility of heaven. I'm not so sure the folks in the assisted living facility needed the reality check. 

Saturday proved to be a bit more lively. I went to a farmer's market and bought eggs and these lovely tomatoes. So, you guessed it, we had fried green tomatoes, ratatouille and warm goat cheese salad for lunch. Delicious. 

Sunday has been the crescendo to a weekend filled with activity. We spent the day in Asheville looking at cool crafts, art and sampling a few culinary masterpieces. It was debated whether Andrew needed this tiny hat to make a BIG statement at school but in the end he decided purple wasn't his color. 

Even though he decided against the hat. The theme for the day was how much he needed a necklace. I'm not sure why or where this came from but we never found anything cool enough for him to sport on Monday's field trip. The only logical thing for me to do at this point was come home and make an adornment suitable for the occasion. I new I would find a way to sneak a craft in this weekend and the cheesy smile must mean he loved it too. Happy Mother's Day!