2 Things Challenge: Ghost/Art

The 2 Things Challenge this week is Ghost/Art.  

The early morning fog on Lay Lake made the crow on the dock look like a ghost (Yeah, he's really there, click on the photo and maybe you'll get a bigger image).  And since light generally enters my camera for one of two reasons, to create photographic documentation of some thing or event (who was at the party, how badly was the car damaged, I was here at the beach, she was here too, what did that person look like on their birthday, etc.) or to create art (maybe not fine art, but art anyway), this also qualifies as art.  It's got to be art; nobody cares to document that a crow was on the dock in the fog.

Up At the Crack of Dawn

Phyllis called me just after she left Tuesday morning to go babysit two grandchildren and said there was a thick fog out and I might could get a good photo for the Ghost/Art 2 Things Challenge.  I jumped in the truck and headed for Beeswax Creek Park on Lay Lake.  I've taken many photos there and I got one I decided to use for the challenge (it will be up Friday night) but as the sun slowly rose I set up on a little point and waited, with the croaking bullfrogs, the jumping bass, and the turtles sticking their snouts out of the water.  I'd hoped for a blazing orange sunrise, but it never lit up like some I've seen, but it was still nice out there, without another soul around, not even a fisherman.

After the Rain

It rained hard on Sunday night and beat a lot of the flowers up, or should I say down, all the way to the ground.

But it left some nice water drops on the roses

and the balloon flowers.

2 Things Challenge: Saturday/Hard

The 2 Things Challenge this week is Saturday/Hard.  Monday through Friday can really be tough, but sometimes Saturday is just plain hard.

I bought this "to do" list pad for Phyllis a while back while we were on vacation in Florida.  My thought was she could use it to keep up with the things she needs "to do."  Well it all depends on your definition of Phyllis'.  She thinks a more appropriate use is to keep up with the list of things she wants me "to do."

Moth Attack

We accidentally left the light by the garage door on all night the other night, and this is what greeted us the next morning after the sun came up.

 I've never seen such a variety of moths gathered in one place, including the rare Luna, and several I've never seen before.  There were only one or two of each one, something else I've never seen.  These were all quick shots, hand held, without a flash, so most aren't as sharp as I would have liked.  The Luna was too high to get a decent closeup.

(The one above might not be a moth.)

2 Things Challenge: Song/Sweet

The 2 Things Challenge this week is Song/Sweet.

Yesterday we went to pick fresh strawberries at Sunshine/Durbin Farms outside Clanton, Alabama.  The song is Strawberry Fields Forever by Lennon and McCartney, and the sweet are those very sweet strawberries.

Magnolia Blossom

The stately magnolia produces these large white blossoms, and I love the way the petals catch and hold the little parts (stamens I think) that fall off the middle of the blossom.

Pretty Poplar

I think the blossom of the Tulip Poplar tree is one of the most attractive flowers around.  Too bad they don't hang around very long and often they are fifty feet up in the air.

Yellow Sea

I have no idea what the yellow stuff is, but many of the pastures around here were covered in it a few weeks ago.  I used to think it was some kind of weed, but it covered the pastures so uniformly, I think maybe it was planted.  Makes for a colorful field, either way.

2 Things Challenge: Round/Sharp

The 2 Things Challenge this week is Round/Sharp.

It turns out to be fairly easy to find things around the house that are round and sharp.

There's my old hunting knife, bought decades ago when I started camping and never used to gut an animal or skin out a deer.  The end of the blade is round, but it is still sharp, despite a few rust spots from all those years of laying in the toolbox in the garage.  And the point can still stab into wood and the surface can reflect a round note, in this case a D, that is also sharp.

But I also like the round grip, made from stacked pieces of leather.  Don't know why.  I just do.

And finally, even in the kitchen, round sharp things abound, especially from Pampered Chef.  There's the pizza cutter, the apple corer/sectioner, and perhaps my favorite, the pineapple peeler/corer/sectioner.  All are so sharp they need plastic covers, but that pineapple thing on the right will take your finger off if you aren't careful.  We've had to rinse the blood off a couple of pineapples.  But it works GREAT!