Family Photographers on a Field Trip

 I enjoy photographing the beauty that surrounds me, especially plants and landscapes.

My youngest sister, is a very good photographer and her focus is usually people.

And then there is my nephew, Kenny, (son of my other sister), who likes to photograph both nature and people.

So what do you do with three family photographers?  Go on a field trip to our local riparian preserve. 

Even in winter, it is a beautiful place to visit...

In addition to my sister and nephew, my son Kai and my other nephew, Josh came along.

Of course, they soon set off to explore on their own...

Now, the rest of us got our cameras out and started taking pictures.

My focus was trying to capture photos of the many hummingbirds who make their home in the riparian preserve year round.

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

What fascinates me about hummingbird photos, is that although the photos above are of the same hummingbird; you can only see the bright color when the sun is shining directly on the feathers of their throat.


While I was taking pictures of hummingbirds, my sister wanted to practice taking pictures, so she was taking pictures of me, taking pictures.

I must admit that I feel a bit uncomfortable posing for pictures.  But it wasn't too bad because I didn't have to pose.


My nephew has a very good eye for both landscape and people shots.

Sunlight and Purple Prickly Pear Spines

Great White Heron

My nephew also caught me in the midst of taking pictures of three mallard ducks.

I know that mallard ducks are quite common, but I have always liked them and their beautiful colors.  I even used to have a pet mallard duck when I was young.

A curious goose was hoping we had some bread crumbs to share.

Another photo from my nephew, highlights the babbling brook that winds its way through the preserve.


Across one of the lakes, we spotted the boys who were visiting some of the ducks...

Soon, the sun was beginning to set and I had to get home to make dinner.


So we started making our way back to the parking lot.

On our way, I spotted some Canadian geese flying back for the night to one of the lakes.

Kai had a little help over the muddy spots on the path...

As we neared the entrance, my sister asked me to pose for a picture - did I mention that I really don't like posing for pictures?  I feel so self-conscious and am worried that I have lipstick on my teeth or that I will look so 'fake' in the photo.

My nephew took this photo and I must confess that I cropped out the bottom part because he didn't push "the skinny button" on his camera.
Okay, I realize cameras don't have "skinny" buttons, but I certainly wish they did, don't you?

We had a wonderful time.

I hope you did too :-)

Double S Farms Chickens and a Giveaway

Effie

I have never raised chickens before and to be honest, never thought of them as all that interesting.

That is until my sister, started raising chickens a few years ago.

 

 

A couple of days old.

I must admit that I was shocked that they arrived in the mail.

They were so cute and fluffy.

Every week, when went over for dinner, we would watch and see how quickly they grew.

Before we knew it, they were almost full-grown.

Sometimes they got a bit dirty and needed a bath....

But we always enjoyed their fresh eggs.

 Now my sister is raising a new batch of chickens.  They are growing quickly and get along well with the older chickens.

All of my sister's chickens are free range chickens and have the run of the backyard.

Which leads me to the following giveaway:

There is a wonderful, new book out about Free Range Chicken Gardens.

To celebrate the new book, the publisher, Timber Press, is having a giveaway with a chicken-related prize.

Check out their contest page:

Free Range Chicken Garden Giveaway Contest 

My Sister's Shattered Circus Dreams...

My youngest sister is quite cool.  She sometimes likes to do things that I would call "outside of the box".  I am more of the "stay inside the box" type.  Because of that, I love to live through some of her experiences, vicariously.

A couple of weeks ago, she underwent a truly unique experience that she shared in her blog and she kindly gave me permission to share it with all of you.

I think it's gutsy and hilarious at the same time and I'm so proud of her....

Do you all remember when my husband gave me a certificate for trapeze lessons for my birthday? Well six months later, I finally got up the courage to do it. I was scared out of my mind.

Once we arrived at Trapeze U, they got my belt on and gave me a quick rundown of what I was expected to do. Hook my knees over the bar and let go? I was the monkey bar queen in elementary school. I had this.

I got to the top and stood on what seemed like the world's tiniest platform where they clipped me in and gave me another quick rundown of what to do. (Look how high I am!).

Ready, set, go! (or "hep" as they say in trapeze speak). The following picture is terrible but I think the hilarious expression on my face says it all. Black Swan I am not.

I tried with every ounce of strength I could muster but I couldn't get my legs up and get my knees hooked over the bar. After hoofin' it up that ladder three more times and still not getting it, I was feeling super spent and super defeated.

My dear friends Laura and Jill were planning to show up and give me support (you gals rule!) but I quickly texted them both and told them to stay home. There is absolutely no way I'd want anyone to witness my lack of trapeze talent. I mean seriously - look at what a mess I was.

At this point, I was ready to quit and quietly watch the other flyers.

Coach Dylan wasn't having that. He gave me a much needed pep talk and pointed out that I was making a simple mistake. I was trying to lift my legs at the wrong moment and the momentum wasn't working to my advantage. 

So...I decided to give it one last shot.

And I did it!

Taking Dylan's advice made the knee hook (or whatever the heck it's called) so much easier. There was a small crowd at the class and I could literally hear the ladies on the side breathe an audible sigh of relief followed by cheers when I got my knees hooked. I was pretty pathetic and I'm sure they felt sorry for me. 

I did it a couple more times and each time I was able to get my knees up. I can't say that I did it with any style or grace but I was just stoked to finally be doing it! Towards the end of the class, they thought that I would be able to attempt another trick. (A little ambitious of them, maybe?). They explained that I would be doing the whole knee hook thing again but when I let go with my hands, I'd swing over to the other instructor and he would catch me. Seriously!?! If I can barely hook my knees how on earth am I going to pull this off?

So I climbed up to the top of the world's teeniest platform for the 10th time (I was wiped) and went for it.

I DID IT!!! I seriously did it.  Such an incredible, amazing feeling. I had to sit down and take it all in. 

While I'm pretty sure I'm not going to run off with the circus anytime soon, I would take more classes through Trapeze U in a heartbeat and am looking forward to signing up again soon. Dylan and the rest of the staff were amazing - they could clearly sense my fear and self defeatist attitude and gave me the encouragement and tools I needed to accomplish something I never thought I'd be able to do. 

Trapeze U 

888.872.7101

 

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You can follow my sister's blog at 

FinleyandOliver

The Gift of a Vegetable Garden: Part 2

In my last post, I undoubtedly left you hanging, wondering how the second part of our project ended (just kidding).

What project is that?  Well, my siblings and I along with our families surprised my mother for her 70th birthday by building her a raised vegetable garden to go along with her existing one.

I posted the first part of our project, which ended up with a lot of muddy shoes as we dug out the grass.  You can catch up on the first part here.


Now we all gathered again the next Saturday and were excited to finish the project.

We worked on building up the remaining sides.  It helped that my brother-in-law had a portable table saw, (if you don't have one you can always have the store do it for you).

My 1-year old nephew Danny, (one of my brother's twin boys), is just fascinated about how things work and he was wondering how much older he would have to be to use his dad's cordless drill ;-)

Almost finished with the sides!

My mother put out a blanket for the twins to play on and then the other grandkids came to play with them too.

Once we got all the sides up, we lined the bottom with newspaper, which helps to supress weeds and will break down.

My sister takes the twins, Danny and Dean for a walk around the backyard.

Here I am with my two sisters.

Okay, enough with all the family photos, let's get back to finishing the garden.

I don't think that there is anything quite as wonderful to a gardener then a trailer full of compost, do you?

Here is an action shot...

One of the clients that I write for wants gardening 'action' shots, so I try to get them whenever I can.

I love the fragrance of compost or as I like to call it "black gold".

My niece Sofie (left), and my kids Ruthie and Kai had fun spreading the compost inside.  They kept getting higher and higher up as the garden filled up with compost.

We finished the project by connecting the garden to drip irrigation and also put up support for the shade structure.

Some of you have asked me how we did this and you can see how it was done with the first vegetable garden...

The supports are made out of rebar.  Two pieces form each support and they were bent by hand and fastened in the middle using wire.  The support is used for shade cloth in summer, frost cloth in winter and bird netting all year to keep the chickens out of the garden.

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My mother was so excited about her new garden and she fed us all a fabulous lunch that day.

Later, we celebrated her 70th birthday with two cakes....

A few of her grandsons were more then happy to help her blow out her candles :-)