Yesss...come into my web, little one, and see for yourseNOMNOMNOM!!!
The girls left around 0800 for school on their bikes. The skies were a lovely shade of blue, despite being as humid as Houston. By 0820, the skies were quickly consumed. It is currently 0834 and the rain is pouring as the wind howls and makes funny whistling noises through the trees.
Had I grown up anywhere other than this state, I’d be looking for wicked witches on brooms…
I’m not quite sure what I caught them doing, but they both look overly innocent in this shot. I don’t know how to feel about that… O.o
Ok, so it doesn’t exactly work, but hey, our nectarines are all abuzz this year! There are new growths all over the place and I’ve little idea where to begin as a gardener or a photographer.
While cutting back some of the upper portions of plants from last year, I noticed something pretty crazy, even for Central Texas…my first official pepper of the season! While I have been insanely jealous of all the folks who are fortunate enough to receive snow, I could not be more thrilled that I can honestly say I have harvested my garden…in February!
Breaking down the 210-gallon aquarium over the weekend proved to be quite a task. We enlisted ourselves and as many kids as we had around at the time to help. Today we finished pulling it out of the house, placing it into the garage until we either sell it or the new place begins construction so that we can incorporate it into the design. Place your bets now.
While hanging out with Michiyo as she played in the back of Betty, making sure the furniture dolly and the aquarium stayed in place, rather than rolling down our unbelievably steep driveway, I took the opportunity to snap a shot or 156. There were just so many things to see, and I wanted to make sure I could keep the images forever.
Will be adding more pictures as I feel the need: Hill Country Fun Photos!
Sagan and Michiyo really enjoyed the romp around this particular piece of land. It was a gorgeous day to be out, and now that I’m back home…I’m threatening myself with returning there just to watch the sunset. =)
This was Michiyo’s first real experience, aside from the pot on the patio, at digging a hole. I had been out back, while Danny was grilling, taking that gorgeous picture of the Moon and Jupiter I put up yesterday, and I tilted the camera down to the rose garden to see what she was doing. This, mind you, was before Kyala decided it was playtime and the two romped around until both were panting and exhausted.
The spot was where a tree once stood; it had been broken by her big brother, Sagan, a year or so before and was beyond saving. We had plans to replace it last year, but never could figure out which sort of tree we wanted, so it just didn’t happen. This year, though, it’ll happen. It has to. I still don’t know what tree will go there…but it’ll be the happiest darned tree ever. Or I’ll sic Sagan on it, too. *nods*
Next week, we start lessons on tilling up the tomato beds… Stay tuned!
I still need to tweak this shot, but wanted to share it with friends and family. This is the Moon and Jupiter.
Danny had been out back, grilling dinner (ah, Winter in Central Texas) while the dogs were running around, so I set up the ol’ tripod, put on my ‘neighbor-spying’ lens, and snapped a few frames.
Enjoy. =)
Something happens to Michiyo during bath time; her inner demons come bungee jumping out by the time she shakes off her towel. I had to apologize to the world as I gently placed her on the ground, knowing I had just unleashed a terrible force…
Note to self: Quit leaving newspaper around the ankle destroyer’s habitat.
Ah, my little gardener. Such an eager helper, to get a jump start on the spring planting! I wonder how difficult it will be to train her to till up the actual planting areas this year..?
Michiyo has no fear or utter hatred of bath time…despite what this picture states without words. I promise.
Dear Week,
You were here, hanging out like we were great friends, catching up on old times while sharing a beer and a cigar on the back patio of life. It was fun…so fun, in fact, that I hardly noticed when you got up from your chair, went to your car, and drove off into the sunset. You left me.
Sure, I know you’ll return after you do your thing and I have my sordid affair with the weekend; this routine is aging at a rapid pace. We’ll act like nothing happened and go on telling stories of this or that, laughing it up like you were never gone…until you’ve abandoned me again. It’s a vicious cycle.
To you, my beloved on again-off again five days of frivolity, I stick out the tongue of my dog.
Love, Me
When you want to look your very best, stop, take a look in the mirror, and remember: The only thing you really need to add is a smile.
There are moments in life when things come full circle and you are fortunate enough to bear witness. Try to not miss it.
Those exciting moments when you just snag your camera and start snapping without looking because you’d rather watch the event live than through a viewfinder or digital screen…are the best and worst.
You just know you hit a button or three when you snatched the camera off the coffee table behind you, but you don’t do anything about it because the moment is right there and you must capture it. Days later, as you empty your memory card onto your computer, you have that all-too-familiar feeling of dread as you say, “Aww, maaaaaaan…” Blah.
Kyala and Michiyo have a daily routine of romping through the back yard and all through the house, but I didn’t know it when I took the shots. I figured it was a fluke, because surely a close to a decade old Rhodesian Ridgeback with joint pain wouldn’t have enough energy to do this again, so I didn’t want to miss it. ”I can always fix it in post…” Well, not if you screw it up THAT bad. Meh-feh.
On the bright side, it seems I do have the opportunity to catch similar scenes again…only this time, I won’t forget to adjust my settings.
Crying, whining, impatiently pacing back and forth through all the lower level rooms of the house, Michiyo frantically wanted her human mommy to stop this increasingly maddening dance-fight with the otherworldly mechanical beast she called “The Steamer”. She had mistakenly thought all was well after the hallway was abandoned and Mom was at the sink, which was the thing from where only good things, like fresh bowls of water, come.
Then there came a clicking noise from the office area… Michiyo peered around the corner just in time to see that same beast come roaring back to life! Startled beyond belief, she tried to run away as fast as she could, but the tile seemed to move beneath her little furry feet, as though it was working with The Steamer to sacrifice her to its brush-like rotating jaws. Finally gaining traction, she managed to find herself a safe perch on the arm of the sofa in the living room, where she continued her whining until that evil thing was quiet once more.
Upon realizing where Michiyo was hiding, her human mommy picked up the squirming and suddenly excited puppy full of kisses and tail wags, who had just completely forgotten everything which had occurred, and carried her into the office as she sat down at her desk to blog and hang out on facebook before hopping into another amount of lost time with World of Warcraft. The little fluffball was fast asleep in her lap within moments, waking only when her “bed” had to adjust in her seat.
The mind of youth and innocence, where everything is fascinating and terrifying at the same time, is an amazing thing. Michiyo has finally decided my lap is far too warm for her and is in her bed beside the desk, dreaming away of fields full of new things to explore…or so I like to think.
There are days when I cannot resist the cuteness of something which stares back at me from beyond my computer monitors. Most of the time, Danny can shoot down my wants with that silly thing called “reasoning”, or he’ll ask me again if I want it and I’ll rationalize my way out of it before he does.
Yesterday, we were both knocked for a loop. When you see a face so adorably pitiful that you just cannot say ‘no’, you know you’re in for a world of trouble.
Michiyo was born in Austin on the 27th of September. I have serious doubts that she was ever really let out of the crate in which she and her siblings were held, because scrubbing newspaper ink out of her white fur is going to take more than just the bath she had today. There’s also the issue of her not wanting to walk far while inside…but outside, she romps around and hops through the grass like a bunny with its butt on fire.
Anyway, she is the latest addition to the Compound. She is absolutely lovely and terribly rotten…and she’s been here less than 24 hours. Right on schedule.
I often wonder if my neighbors feel violated when I walk out into the yard with a lens attached to my camera that’s the size of Sagan…
…then a photo like this happens, and I forget my thoughts:
It should be noted that this photo (and the one below) is untouched, besides tossing up the good ol’ watermark. The sun shines through the dancing clouds in brief appearances, making another angle show more interesting colorings:
We had been planning our summer road trip for almost a full year before the journey; much how we are doing now with next year’s trip to Ireland. Yellowstone was at the top of the list for “local” vacations, so nearly 4000 miles later, you can understand exactly why my butt and I had to part ways. We visited New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Tiffani, that’s only seven states… Yes, I know; number eight would be Texas, because we drove for HOURS UPON HOURS through it.
I’ve uploaded some of my favorite shots from Yellowstone and the surrounding areas to the facebook page I created to share photography with the masses. Of course, it would help if I actually told people about it, but hey, I’m correcting that right now. GO HERE OR ELSE!!! I’ll make sure to go through and post the locations sometime this week, but for now I hope you enjoy the sights as much as we did.
I guess I can add in a teaser shot, too:
One last thing: I love you. =D
