A black eye and a strapless dress

I had a wild and crazy week.

My grandpa thought I'd been a blogger missing-in-action because I'd been busy gardening. Not so much. We've had something like five inches of rain in the last week. I now officially have a swamp. Maybe I should look into growing rice.

It was Vacation Bible School week at our church. I was put in charge of crafts by a dear friend who has an unwavering faith in the impossible, and obviously believes I have the ability to successfully multitask.

There is just nothing like showing a group of children how to assemble a "bopper popper" (which consists of two cardboard tubes, two rubber bands, a string and a ball), and attempting to explain how it relates to their lesson for the day... while balancing a way-beyond-naptime year-old babe on my hip, her blankie over my shoulder, and doing my best to keep from being knocked completely over by a hysterical five-year-old with a black eye.

Yes, the black eye was a direct result of a game the first day of VBS.


Church events are an awful lot of fun, just look a that face! You know he had a great time.

I felt a teensy bit guilty for escaping VBS half-way through the week.

But I had to load up a few bags and my kiddos, and hit the road. You see, my cousin was getting married. Outside. On a pasture that was so authentic it was best to pay close attention to where you stepped.


Beyond the cow poop which may or may not have been attached to the bottom of my sandals, I also quickly learned to pay very close attention to something else.

I sat down. And so did the top of my strapless dress.

Apparently I don't have much to hold it up.

Not to worry!

It was fifty-five degrees out and windy. Naturally, since it was still hours before the wedding, I had a sweatshirt over my dress. Classy, I know, but darn lucky too.

I was saved by my sweats.

And the way it turned out, it didn't matter what anyone (except the wedding party) had chosen to wear. In the last hour before the ceremony began, a light mist turned to rain, and the wind continued to blow. Guests were wearing whatever jackets, sweatshirts, hats and blankets we could scrounge up from our vehicles.

We wiped off our wet seats, shivered, and laughed while we got soaked and witnessed a wedding to remember.

As the ceremony began, the groomsmen handed their jackets over to the shivering bridesmaids, who in turn gave the men their flowers to hold. We listened to a guitar held under umbrellas. I watched the photographers do magic with cold fingers while trying to keep their Canon 5D Mark II cameras dry.

The bride and groom laughed.

It was completely insane.

It was awesome and uniquely their day.

A snake day

We had a snake day, our first one this year.

It was a glorious, beautiful, awesome snake day.

Why, yes... snakes are one of our very favorite things! How did you ever guess?


Boy, oh boy, was it ever fun! There was laughing and grabbing and pushing and giggling, there was close inspection and something that resembled a snake carnival ride. I never knew they could, but when we finally let that exhausted snake go, it breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Editing to link up with Macro Monday for my first time, and also In A Yellow House - Summer photo Challenge.

To plant an apple tree

I had this quote (which I thought was from Martin Luther) spinning through my head, "If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree". I looked it up, just to be sure.

(Sigh)

What I found made me dizzy was a slightly different version.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

Depending on which website you trust, it is attributed to either Martin Luther or Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ummm... no. Try again. And I prefer the wording that was going through my brain better. Let's just pretend I didn't look it up.

Exhibit A: my apple tree, which I did plant


The tree finally arrived this week, after I called the company I had ordered it from and said, "Hey, where's my tree?".

And the rest of my order that they screwed up? Sold out. I'm thrilled about it.

Thrilled.

But I've got my oh-crap-we'll-expedite-that-out-to-you-right-away apple tree planted.


Exhibit B: two more apple trees, which my boys did plant in our front yard


Even if those boys (sometimes) make me wish the world would end tomorrow, right now I think they're pretty darn creative and resourceful.

Depth of field

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time, surely then you know that I am a narrow depth of field lunatic.


What does depth of field mean?

Pay attention, I'll make it so obvious that it hurts.


That shot makes me want to watch Dead Poets Society. I'm thinking that I might have forgotten to take my medication this morning.

Don't worry, I'll be fine.

Look at this perfect, creamy smooth background. I want to lick it.


I can force your attention to the pathetic drowned earthworm that had such a great afternoon with us. At least it's not in five pieces like the other one was.


This next photo, I love it so much. I love the lines, the tack sharp focus on the vertical brace, the angle I grabbed it at... and did I mention how yummy that background is?

Have I totally lost it?


Can you even tell what it is?

The blurred lines and colors really fascinate me in this last shot. It looks like a magical forest just waiting to be explored.

Nope. It's only a tree row where I buried my dead cat, but that could have been my secret.


Depth of field? The nearest to farthest area of a photograph that has an acceptably sharp focus. I prefer narrow. It allows for such an artsy interpretation of what I see through my lens.

You Capture - "Depth of Field"

By the way, that was a corral gate. Did you guess correctly?

The difference

Chicks, like all babies, grow up fast. These photos were taken four days ago, and already they look different.

They have tiny feathers growing out of the fuzz on their wings.


I could sit in the coop for hours (except that I can't because I must keep my own children alive) and watch the interaction between the hen and chicks. This is so different from brooding orphan chicks in a cardboard box with a heat lamp.

It fascinates me to no end.

They make the happiest little trilling sound when they are falling asleep underneath their mom. I never heard this noise from our other chicks.

Despite being totally new at this, Momma Hen has turned out to be a really great mom. The transition from sitting to mothering was just seamless.

I was worried that she wasn't eating enough, so I brought her a bowl full of pieces of moist bread. (I did this often while she was sitting on the eggs.) She tasted it, then she called the babies out from beneath her and gave them every last piece. They ate it too.


Our orphan chicks would run like crazy when they got a snack. It was a game of keep-away with absolutely no rules. But these chicks, when they get a snack, are so calm and just step aside to eat.

It's almost like they know mom will give them more.


Chickens scratch.

It's what they do.

All the time.

Momma Hen thinks she needs to teach her babies to scratch. This has been our one problem. She scratches their bedding into mountains that cover their feeder and waterer.

I take bedding out. She manages to do it again. I take more bedding out.

Those birds have almost no bedding left.

But they're all happy and healthy, and it gives me another excuse to check on them, so I think we're doing okay.

Saying goodbye

I came out here three weeks ago, with a shovel and a box.


I discovered rather quickly that the spot I chose was criss-crossed with tree roots. But then, probably every square foot in here is, and I'd already made up my mind.

There wasn't much green at the time, and nothing was flowering yet.

I wished I had brought a different shovel.


I smashed through the tree roots in my way, and dug down until I hit soggy clay. It stuck to my shovel like the grief in my heart, and I couldn't shake it off. I tried to scrape it away with a stick, but the stick was decaying and it broke.

The hole wasn't as deep as I wanted.

I gently lowered in my friend of fifteen years. My beautiful blue-eyed white kitty, my companion through boyfriends, fights with my mom, dilemmas about college, the future and the unknown... this was the cat who travelled round-trip across the country with me, twice, and apparently forgave me for it. She was by my side while my husband was in the military, through the first five years of our marriage when we were apart more than we were together. She was the determined missile that would launch herself from the floor, landing on my shoulder whenever she felt like enjoying the view. She was the thief of baked goods which were unfortunate enough to be left on the counter. If she didn't appear when I cracked a raw egg, it meant she was surely locked in a closet.

I threw my soaked tissues in the hole and began to fill it in, then wished I had kept one as I wiped my face on my sleeve.


When I stomped the dirt down to secure the top of her grave, I realized I was wearing my good shoes. They were now caked with wet clay and bits of dead grass.

Too late.

I found the mightiest fallen tree that I had the strength to move, dragged it over and placed it on top. I'm not sure why.


Goodbye Priss.

And I walked away with a heart that felt as heavy as my clay-caked good shoes.

Yellow

Beth's You Capture photo challenge this week is "yellow".

This road, one that has caused the locals to grab their pitchforks, light their torches, and gather in angry masses, does have some yellow. Some. I searched long and hard to find a stretch of yellow that extended this far.


To be completely honest, there were other stretches of yellow paint, but I would have been more likely to be flattened. Some of you know the luck I tend to have. Like having eggs smash in my pocket, or getting human brain DNA all over my face (which might, actually, explain a lot of things), or having to walk over areas of washed out road (yes, that one) on planks when I'm in labor.

Right.

It's always nice to have a road there when you need it.

What was the theme this week? Distracting skies?


Oh, sorry.

Yellow.


If you read my Mother's Day post, then you know that I've been holding out on you.

Yes, we have babies.

Four of them, two of which just happen to be yellow.

I will get better shots of the chicks than this one.


It's the best I could do shooting through chicken wire, in a dark coop, while tipping a cardboard lid up with my foot, leaning over and wielding a three pound lens (don't hate me) while working with a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second and manual focus because the light was that dim. Not a word about the white balance, okay!?

Now click here to visit Beth!

You Capture - "Yellow"

Next week's assignment is a technical one, shallow depth of field. My absolute favorite! YAY! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.