Crop Circle

What better picture is there in Kansas than something farm or field related?

This morning I went for a short (well ok, not so short apparently) walk and stalked dragonflies, followed animal tracks, was scared nearly to death by a quail, and got attacked by plants along the way. Despite all that, after an afternoon filled with scrapbooking, we went out again, after supper, to the fields in search of picture opportunities. This was just out front, in the field facing the house. Beautiful isn't it?

Rodeo?

 This picture does not do justice to the vision in my head. Have you ever wished you could print out or share what you saw, or thought you saw? I thought I saw a tractor with a cow tied on and being dragged along with a cowboy on a horse chasing it. As you might notice...it was actually a lady on a lawn mower, with a barrel (dressed like a cow) behind and a cowboy was roping it. Photo credit actually goes to my mom for this, as I was driving, thus my different perspective on reality. Welcome to Kansas :)

Storms rolling in

Late this afternoon, the clouds came rolling in and the temperature dropped, the wind started to blow and lightning lit up the sky. It was a good old fashioned Texas thunderstorm. As the clouds rolled across the sky, I went outside to check them out. I chose this shot because you can see the vivid greens of the trees in the distance, the size of the apples on the tree and the darkness of the sky, while the tree is lit naturally. My next several photos will be from Kansas, or perhaps Oklahoma along the way.

Muscles!

Matthew's 2nd birthday party was this evening, and we went down to his house for playtime, dinner and a cookie cake. One of the (many) pictures I got of him was of him "showing us his muscles" here. Just looking at it makes me laugh just as hard as I did when he first showed us! He also makes a great "cold" face and arm motions and well, he is pretty much our expression boy, from happy to sad to frustrated, he has so many faces to share. Happy Birthday little man!

Seeing double?

At the Ross baby shower today, their twin nephews were running around playing. They were having a lot of fun with the balloons. I thought it was cute the matching pair with one coming and one going. Unfortunately, one of the balloons got away and floated up to the top of the second story. They kept looking up at it and trying to figure how to get it down. It was a good time, a great shower, a fun afternoon.

Texas Storms

Though we drove through a huge storm yesterday on the way home, we got none of the rain at our house. Today it looked promising, the skies got dark, the clouds were moving quickly and there was lightning in the distance. I took this shot, with the sun out and the dark clouds passing over. There's a bit of a rainbow reflection in the top left corner as well. However, despite all the threats, we got merely a few drops of rain and then it moved on past us and cleared off. We may yet get some tonight, but so far, it's dry here.

Gliding

We drove from Kansas to Texas today. There were many sights, cows, horses, birds, bugs, and even a rainstorm but I only took these pictures, not something you see every day. It's one of my "not great photos but at least I took some" days.

Peek A Boo

Adding to the list of wildlife running around in my grandmother's neighborhood is a raccoon mom and her three babies. On the way back to the house from the hotel to pick up stuff for mom and bring it back, she called and said there were raccoons. Thankfully, I had grabbed my good camera on the way out the door. When we got there, they had run up a tree, but Judy got her flashlight and we went searching. We found momma raccoon in the crook of the tree peering out at us and the babies had run up high and were hiding amongst the branches. I was able to get a couple shots before leaving them and chasing another bunny.

Neighbor bunny

Last night the owls and bats were out, today the squirrels and bunny. There are always so many squirrels running around and up and down the trees in grandma's neighborhood. This morning on my run, I saw a robin, a sparrow, dogs, and a sweet gray cat, as well as many squirrels. This evening, as we returned from Jake's funeral, there was a rabbit in the yard across the street. I chased him around the yard then went and got my other camera and did it again and then as we went to look for owls, he came out again. He seems to be living around the pine tree near where the owls came from last night. I headed to the hotel before the owls and bats came out.

Owl babies

Six baby owls were just learning how to fly in the yard across the street from grandma's house this evening. We were probably quite a sight zig zagging across the street as we chased the babies from tree to tree trying to get pictures. We ended up with 9 people and 2 flashlights and a couple cameras...here are a couple shots I was finally able to get despite the low light and fast moving birds.

Yummy Apple

Kittens are often easily entertained...however, this was a new one for me! Not only did the kittens enjoy sitting on the laptop, "helping" type, watching the cursor move, but also a little nibble to check it out for tastiness. I had to encourage her to come check out the other fun aspects of the computer after I took this shot.

Bird Nest

I sat on the porch and watched this bird go get something, then fly back over and cautiously approach the birdhouse, looked around, finally go in, then come out and repeat multiple times this morning. He wasn't fond of me coming up close to take his picture in this process, but finally I stood still long enough for him to come back up to the birdhouse with me watching from the deck.

Chalk!

I babysit my nephews this morning, thankfully it was early enough we were able to spend some time playing outside. We started with sidewalk chalk and got both of their names and the whole alphabet written out. We also drew some beautiful pictures and found out the eraser actually works pretty well. Then, we collected almonds from the yard and watered the tomato plant and apple and pecan trees. There was some running around of course and some dirty feet and wet clothes for all our fun. This shot was before we got all dirty playing :)

Sunrise Reflections

Today I got up at 5:30 to go catch sunrise at the Lake. Even the animals were still asleep around 6:00, but by the second lap around, I had seen a hummingbird moth (I think), about 5 varieties of birds, a few turtle heads, a "Jesus" frog (he jumped off the bank and then bounced off the water once before ending in the water), 3 ducks, 7 ducklings (though nearly full grown) and this heron. I got some good pictures of "my" duck family but I didn't get as many great shots as I had hoped for overall. This shot however, is my favorite and I really think it has the clarity, the lighting, and the reflection just how I wanted.

Filing

Here's another "this is my life" picture...
Despite it now officially being summer break for me, I haven't had or made enough opportunities for photography yet. This is not even a good picture, but it is Sophie "helping" me go through the many files I brought home from my classroom. You can imagine the fun we had...by the way, I did get 2 boxes condensed into one today.

Bars?

The ducklings I visit each week are growing so fast! Today, they look almost as big as their parents, but not quite. This little lineup shows the bit of difference between one of the ducklings, the biggest duckling, and momma duck. It was another hot walk day but worth it to visit the cute family.

Homerun!

To celebrate the first day of summer, I went to a Frisco Rough Riders baseball game with some friends. It was an absolutely gorgeous night with a nice breeze and cooler temperatures than we've had lately. Add to all of that, free all you can eat food and drinks, free hats and also fireworks both during and after the game. Butler hit a home run as part of a 5-1 win for the night. The outfielder climbed the left field wall trying to catch it but to no avail. I actually jumped a bit when the homerun fireworks went off since I was so busy trying to get a picture, I didn't notice they were coming. All in all, it was a great night and much needed. Happy summer!

My life

After just 20 more work hours I will have time again to get out and really focus on taking photos, but until then...this is my life. Here's a shot, clearly not great on a photography scale, but it isa  great shot because it makes me laugh. Alex got his head stuck (for a short time) in a chair today. This is what can happen at the end of the school year after finals are finished...

A walk in the park

It's summer here, although we're not out of school yet, the temperatures are hitting near 100, so the photo walks are getting earlier and earlier out of necessity. This morning, I went out at 7:30. I was hoping to catch some of the early morning sun and I was quite happy with the lighting I got.  In fact, it was better than I had expected, evening light is usually very full and colorful but this morning light had some clarity that I enjoyed, though the heat is not exactly enjoyable. I caught a few shots of this bird as he flew across one of the lakes. The focus is not as crisp as I would like but I was able to focus and click quick enough to catch this image as the light shines through his wings as he was landing. The reflection in the water ripples is also a fun aspect of the shot.

Spidey

I really need to get "out" again and get some new subjects and places for my photography but the time is just not available right now. So, I stepped out front to see what I could see and I found this little guy. I like the web with the design in the middle and his black and white lines.

Daylily

Daylily at dusk.

Trumpeting

This flower seemed the perfect match to my life right now. It's from the trumpet vine, which is an invasive plant that sends out runners and has thousands of seeds each season to drive me crazy, but it also has very pretty flowers that attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollen seekers. I was out picking up almonds and didn't have my good camera and saw the coolest flying bug, very large body in a yellowish color with a black stripe down the center horizontally. I got a picture with the small camera but it doesn't do it justice so this is the only decent picture I've got for the day...figures, the way today has gone, best to just go with it!