Fixxer Upper

Perfect for that young couple wanting to start a family: fixer upper in a charming neighborhood with mature trees, community garden, local park. Bring your furnishings, move right in.

Recommendations

I recently enjoyed two books and a movie enough to share them with you.

First, A Discovery of Witches.  I once stumbled into Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and loved it.  This reminded me of that but with a totally different premise.  I was totally transported. 

Next, the Informationist.  Think Jack Reacher, only in female form. 

And finally, the movie.  I pick all sorts of random movies to watch and many times they're nothing special.  But this was.  It was based on a real story of a man who threw his funeral party before he died and attended it.  Of course, where else could this happen but  in the South?  Robert Duvall.  Sissy Spacek.  Bill Murray.  Need I say more?

If you read or watch these, let me know what you think.

Springtime on Piedmont

Along Piedmont, in front of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens the road is lined with fruit trees.  I assume they're cherries.  At any rate, for at least 3 weeks I drive to work watching the buds swell, then open, then seeing the trees leaf out in that improbably bright green of new growth. 

One day, on the way home, I couldn't resist a sunroof snapshot - or a drive by shooting as I like to call it.

Family Portrait

My nephew, me, my mom. 3.12.2011

Tim's Yard

Indoor/Outdoor

Good Morning

Talking to me?

This Dog

I love this dog.  She's a warm snuggle. 

Stack

Before my guests arrived last week, I gathered up all the catalogs I had saved to look at "when I had a minute".  Because it only takes a minute to scan them, right?

Anyway, here you have it.  I think this is a month's worth.  Hard to tell because time has been flying by so quickly.

There's a blog, Simple Mom, that is encouraging living more simply.  Go see it.  The first week was to clean out your closet.  So I'm two weeks behind, but plan to get that closet project done this weekend.  I'm the original "as soon as I give that away, I'll need it".  The fact is, I don't wear half of what I have.  Time to purge.

Faithful

Playground

Sunshine

Blue Sky

Around the Neighborhood

The Best Camera

I've heard some interesting things this week...first, current camera phones shoot at resolutions that outperform the first very expensive digital cameras.  Second, scrapbookers are starting to use images from their camera phones in lieu of carrying about a big dslr or a compact camera - it's what they have with them and therefore it's handy. 

That made me take a look at the iPhone photos I've uploaded to Lightroom over the past year.  And sure enough, there are several that I like very much - so I'm sharing them with you. 

I think my favorite is Church Lady (blue patterned dress and blue hat). The Heart Sunset, Red Rock and the glass bottles at Anthropologie are pretty close behind.

Do you use your camera phone to capture moments or feelings?

Paine's Prairie Preserve 2

Walking out to the end of the platform, I saw one water fowl. He's in the photo below.  Can you see him?

Maybe this close up will help.  Some.  He's pretty well color coordinated with his habitat.

We got to the end of the platform and gazed around.  The only wildlife aside from the water fowl was this somnolent snake.  He was waiting on something.  Can you pick him out?

Here's a close up of him lurking on the surface.

The last wildlife I saw was this guy and he was so high up that I had no idea what he was.

Then there was the triumvirate - they were really the welcome party, but I forgot to snap them until I was on the way out...

And with that we left the Preserve.  And my curiosity about why there was a pier in the apparent middle of nowhere on the side of the road was satisfied.  [Grammar monitors give me a break on that sentence, please]

Paines Prairie Preserve

On the side of the road on the way to Gainesville is an observation deck at the end of a long wooden pier.  All I could see was a lot of this brown sedge like stuff, then some green I couldn't make out and a pond in the distance with a lot of bird activity. 

Osprey or Ahinga nested on platforms mounted on the light poles lining the highway. 

About 8 people were clustered in one area on the other side of the highway clutching their binoculars.  No idea what they could see.

When we stopped at the viewing platform, I saw this sign and made this picture.  There's something about the image that I like but I can't put my finger on it.  Perhaps it mimics something I saw that I liked very much.

This is the viewing platform.  B&W captures my sense that everything was the same color until the last little bit of growth before the horizon.

Tomorrow:  the wildlife we saw from the platform.

Old Barn

Good company, good times, good food...I had a wonderful weekend.  The icing on the cake? It included the chance to get some shots like this one.