Here are some more....LOL....just can't help myself!

I haven't snapped this many shots in a long, long time but I've been reading a photography book and it inspired me to go outside and give the camera a lesson or two...not that it or I learned a dang thing but I did get some shots to post.

This shot is of the wagon that sits in front of my privacy fence and then the hanging basket below this shot is hanging from the top of the fence.  I have 5 baskets with these million bells but only a couple of them are doing this good.  They don't get quite enough sunlight to get them to bloom as well as they should.  But, I love the fiesta color of them. 

and then this is a shot of the wagon at the front step with the red petunias.  I won't be planting red ones next year...they fade too much in the sun....will stick to the red geraniums and bacopia.

Speaking of bacopia....it has done absolutely awesome this year! I've got it planted in the front big planter box and then in my hanging baskets off the porch and in the bicycle. It has bloomed non-stop all summer, only requiring daily watering....it wilts real fast when it gets dry!  I did have three of these baskets hanging off the porch but the wind took one of them down and I didn't put it back up....just tore the plants up too much to savage. 

And then....just had to show you the difference in our flower seasons....just a week or two behind you but it fascinates me when you send a shot of a flower in bloom and I don't have any yet....always have to go outside to check it out...LOL  So...here is a shot of my mums....

Ok...last shot, I promise!  Hope I haven't bored you to death!   LOL....took this while walking this afternoon....have always loved the thistle when it's in bloom....a sticky weed with a lovely colored bloom.  God does plant a beautiful garden.

Just a few shots from today...

....I've never grown this type of begonia but had lost one early in the season and wanted one that could handle sun during the late afternoon and the nursery said this was the best landscape begonia in the breed. I about lost it right off the bat....was fertilizing with Miracle Grow and just sprayed it on the leaves...learned the hard way that you can't do that to a begonia...lol...turned the leaves brown but all I did was pick off the brown ones and a month later, it now looks like this. I plan on getting another one for this pot next year.

This is one of my beautiful fall dahlia's.  I grew these last year but they haven't put on the show that they did then.  They have grown ok...lost a couple but then that's not unusual for me, but they haven't put out the blooms like they did last year.  I'm hoping its just a bit too early and they will come around when it cools down more. Last year I grew yellow with red tips and solid reds.  This year I thought that was what I bought but I ended up with the solid reds but the yellow ones are more orange/yellow mix and not nearly as pretty of a bloom. 

And then there was this hungry fellow....couldn't get him to pose for me...just kept his butt in my face.

And this is just a shot of the vase full of the sunflowers....they looked good this morning but are drooping this afternoon.  They just don't like the water, I guess...

That's all for today....maybe a few more tomorrow.


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The first sign of Fall....

...for me that is.  I think of Fall when these beauties start gracing our roadways.  Everything is turning bright yellow except for the brown grass...LOL...the only green I'm seeing much of if in my front yard and the sprinkles have been running for a week now.  I have grass up about 1/2 an inch but its not very thick yet.

I picked these on the way home from Chillicothe yesterday morning but they don't really like being in a vase of water...guess they prefer the dry soil conditions.

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Post 500

This is Post 500 for me.
 Snapped this outside my backdoor today.  Can't believe my Mumm's are blooming at the right time of year for me.

Shadow Play

Hope you are having a great weekend...we are off to help Jerri Ann and Randy put rafters on a barn....


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Zinnia poster

I really liked how this looked with the poster filter added to it but wish I'd shot it without the yellow moss flower.  If I have time later this week, I might give it another try.  I need to remember to buy lots more of these beauties...love the pink color and they are so easy to grow and don't seem to mind my forgetfulness in watering them daily.
Life is getting strange at work...my hours are changing to 9:30 in the morning so its really late getting off.  I'm not sure I'll make it till Dec. 23...ugh....

Early Christmas Gift from the Grands

The kids gave me an early Christmas gift.  Kristen and Greg made this flower holder and a dragon fly out of nuts and bolts and an old thread spool.  I'll get a shot of the fly later, not enough time this morning.  I hung this right beside the back door to remind me to add flowers to it as the seasons moves on.  I really like the idea behind this and think it would make easy, great gifts. 

The kids and I had a blast...but I'm worn completely out.  I washed clothes and linens all afternoon and cleaned house.  Now, its back to work. 

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Shades of White

Just something I've had in my mind for awhile.  I wanted a taller church but this is the only one I have.  I'm visualizing this with some Queen Anne's Lace but keep forgetting to stop and pick any on my way home from work.  Suppose to rain today....we need some!  But, I'm not holding my breath.  It was suppose to rain yesterday and all it did was sprinkle.

The grands will all be here tomorrow and stay till a week from Sunday.  Amanda is so excited, she emails me every day to let me know how many days left...LOL...love her to pieces!  I'm going to love having them, even though it will wear me completely out and I didn't take 2 weeks vacation this year....only the week they are here.  I will be regretting this decision come Monday after they go home.


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Mother Nature's part in my garden's

 

Just some snaps of Mother's Nature's handiwork.  The single petunia and vine are growing out of the cracks in my foundation.  The big bunch of petunia's are growing in my front flower bed. Last year, I had a pot of petunia's sitting on this spot and I'm guessing a piece or two broke off and rooted themselves.  Early this Spring, when I was weeding beds, I noticed the start of a petunia plant, so I left it to grow.  The vinca vine has been growing out of this crack for the past 3 years.


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Snaps around the yard

A few snaps around the yard for July. In the first one you can see that Brent used what he had on hand for his bean poles...LOL
I love my Hibiscus just wish it would come back next year but I guess I'll just have to buy another one.

White Coneflower

Just revisiting some images I snapped when the flowers were in their prime.  I miss them.........



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My Cozy Corner

Just a shot of my new little table and chairs and the Diamond frost.  Love this new furniture. 
I'm having trouble with my laptop when I use my Photoshop.....can't use the numeral pad or my little b...the captial B works but not the little b.  Might be cause my laptop is so full there isn't any room left for the PS to run....need to do some major housecleaning.  I think I'll buy a new huge external drive and move all my pictures to it.

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The Pale Pink Hibiscus

Just thought I would post the pale pink hibiscus bush.  It's not nearly as big or as pretty as the hot pink one and I don't like it nearly as well but it was given to me so it gets to continue growing... 
BTW...I finally figured out a way to take shots early in the morning without my lens fogging over.  Or, should I say, some guys on the Alpha group gave me some suggestions...LOL....I warm my camera up a bit with my hair dryer and then wrap it in a warm towel before I carry it outside.  Worked like a charm...no condensation. It took about a minute to warm the towel up in the dryer and a minute to warm the camera up with the hair dryer. I was getting frustrated because I would see something I wanted to get a shot up but when I'd bring my camera outside, it would fog over and I couldn't use it for at least 30 minutes until it warmed up. 

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Paula Deen Zucchini Bread Recipe

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.  In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. (Believe it or not, I forgot to add the lemon juice but I couldn't tell that!).  Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in.  Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out cleans.  Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes. My mini loaf pan is the size of a cookie sheet with 8 mini loaves and it filled them all to the brim with a bit left over in the bowl.  I baked for 45 minutes and they were perfect.

This is not for the fat-free, calorie conscience.....LOL..

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Pretty in Pink

Just a couple snaps of my perennial Hibiscus.  This one was given to me by a lady on my route and I love the deep, deep  pink color. I have had to pour the water to it this year since its fairly new to my yard but next year it will be able to handle the weather on its own.  Or, so I hope...LOL....the plant is about 5 foot tall and 3 foot around and it has tons of buds on it but only a few have bloomed out so far.  They only last a couple days but are replaced by a new bloom each time.  I also have a smaller plant with paler pink blooms but I don't like it as well.  It doesn't get enough sunlight where it is planted and I need to dig it up and transplant it but I keep forgetting until its too late to dig. 

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Zucchini bread

Since the weather was so hot and dry this weekend, we didn't have to mow.  I did do a ton of watering but we were finally blessed with an inch of rain early this morning.  The flowers loved it!  So....we spent most of the weekend in the house and I cooked and baked.  Stewed a chicken and made homemade noodles and then made 8 on these mini zucchini loaves today...used a Paula Deen recipe and it is yummy!

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Couple Shots from the weekend...

Remember when

Brent and I went to a car show this afternoon and this was on one of the cars.

I remember when it was a special treat to go to a drive-in restaurant to eat. 

Visit to the Farmers Market

Blennerhassett Hotel Parkersburg, WV

I love fresh fruits and vegtables so we went to the farmers market this morning to stock up on some goodies. The green beans and cucumbers are just about ready in our garden. We have been eating summer squash for a couple of weeks now and the tomatoes are starting to turn (can't wait). Since I could eat nothing but vegtables for a meal it will be good eating for the rest of the summer.

Wagon Wheel

Just a shot of my flower wagon wheel.  Like the contrast between the dark wheel and the brick.

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Mr Frog # 2

I followed a tutorial on the coffee shop blog to process this image again. She has an action that you can download but today she had a tutorial on each step in the action and how to do it.

I really like the vintage look that it gave to this image.

Bright Pink Zinnia

One of my bright, pink Zinnia's down by the road.  Used a texture I found in my stash but don't know where I got it.  The frame and mat is a action by Mark but I don't know how to use it as good as he does. 


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Mr Frog

Took this shot Saturday and was going to post yesterday but was a little under the weather so didn't do much but lay around. Feeling some better today.
This frog has been sitting  out back by the pond for years. He's almost the same color as the rocks.

The Shasta Daisy Clumps

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The clumps of Shasta Daisy and Coneflower.  I've tried for years to get the Shasta Daisy to grow like this and its finally paying off.  These clumps have now been growing on their own for the past 3 years.  Love them!


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Flower box 2011

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The front of the house where I used to have the old windows.  Jerri Ann bought this scroll for me for Christmas, or my birthday, or mothers' day....can't remember...LOL.  Anyway, I still need something to go along with it cause its a bit lost on the big wall but can't find what I need or want, so its there as is. These flowers are doing so good in this location.  My geraniums in other spots aren't doing as well.  I need a bit more height in the middle and probably should have planted some spikes or something else like that. I hope I'm not boring you with all these flower images but its the best I can do right now.  It takes 30 minutes for my camera to 'defog' once I take it outside and then I've forgotten what I wanted to take a shot of. LOL..

Off to the sweat box!

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Sunshine Yellow

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I'm not real sure what this flower is....I'm thinking its flowering moss. It's only open for a few hours during the day so I only get to see it during the weekends and the little blooms were a bit ragged when I decided to get a shot of them.  Found this little pitcher at a flee market and had to have it.  The vendor was impressed with my huge purchase...$2.00. I need to find me a better texture....I'm wearing this one out and its a bit too bold for this dainty image.

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The Red Door

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I'm not sure what is happening to me....I've never been a red color person and look at my house!  I have to admit it through....I really like it!  It really shows up great from the road and the red flower accents it beautifully.  I know this image is crooked....I had to use the lens correction to get the door to 'stand' up and wasn't sure how to straighten it after that.  So....just tilt your head and view it...rotfl..
I've had two people stop by and tell me my house looks like it should be posted in a magazine.  I won't go that far but it does look nicer than I've ever seen it.

Off to bed!  More shots to post tomorrow, I hope.

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Missouri Humidity

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Waking up in good ole humid Missouri.  If you tell me that WV has NO humidity, I'm moving your way! 


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I.....

Last post for today.....

A view of my house from the road.  I've got another image of the mailbox flower bed but don't have the time to work it up this am....will do it this weekend.  The Shasta Daisy and the Coneflowers are just beautiful down by the road.  I need to plant more of the coneflower as I really love it.

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Please resize for me...LOL...

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Two more Shots of the LaceCap

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Took a couple more shots of the LaceCap but this will probably be the last for this year.  It's started it's decline and putting out only a few blooms now and they are pretty small.  I wasn't sure which one of these images I liked the best so posted both of them.  I tried a texture behind the top image but it didn't look good so just left it as is.

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Blue Beauty

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Just another shot of the Lacecap with a texture added.  More rain today but maybe it will bring some relief from this oppressive heat and humidity.  Even the plants are struggling with the weather.

Ok...I give up!  I've sized this dang image three different ways and still can't get it to fill the block like you do.  I even checked your dimensions and sized it like yours and it is either too small or it hangs over the type on the right.  



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Beauty in Nature

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Just a shot I got on the 4th.  My hydrangea in the back yard has got several blooms on it but the one in the front only has a couple.  It's the bigger bush but its out in the hot sun too long and its always wilted down when I get home at night.  I keep babying it till my tree gets big enough to cast some shade on it.

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After the rain

Took this one after the rain today. Added a texture from Kim Klassen.
I think I'm done playing around for the day.

Lazy...Hazy 4th of July

Hope your 4th has been better than ours. Nothing going on, kids out of town or working. It's been a rainy gloomy day. Walked out back a few minutes ago and snapped this.

Making Hay

Stopped to snap this on the way home from Marietta today.