Scattered Thoughts . . .

Every year we expand and improve our landscaping and gardens and this Spring was no exception. Each year, things are a little bit different in our yard with different plants and slightly different gardens and we seem to add a little more each year as well.   I'm not at all into having little figures and figurines in our gardens and backyard, in general,  but we do have our frog, Dawn, perched on our front step to greet all visitors. This frog is named after Sheila's lifelong friend, Dawn. If you were fortunate enough to know Dawn, you'll understand why our frog is named Dawn... We added cedar planters and window boxes this year and hope to add more to more windows in the future... As always, our stone walls, stone paving, and timbers tend to expand and artistically spread as well. This stone walkway to our backyard and back door , lined by wildflowers and stones,  is one of my favorite features (and required a lot of back-breaking work for someone with extensive

I've had a few good days recently and managed to get a few things accomplished around the house but that never lasts long.  My health is often in a constant see-saw motion... sometimes a roller coaster motion... and lately, I've been struggling with a few days on the low end of these fun rides. During those few good days, I built a few new planters for our front deck and two new window boxes for the front of the house. I was on a roll and I was optimistic that some good health would continue so I could get more accomplished on the house. It was a nice thought but what the hell was I thinking?  My health was rather poor yesterday with weakness, dizziness, lightheadedness, and simply feeling rather poor. I even spent some time in the bathroom sick as a dog. It wasn't until later in the day that I realized that what was really bothering me the most was bone pain.  This bone pain is brutal. It is pain all through my body. Everything hurts but especially my long bones. The

I had already written about Sheila's little birthday celebration here at the house the other night... we had a very nice dinner together... but I hadn't shot any photos of the gifts that Liza and the grandkids had given Sheila that night for her birthday so I thought I should shoot a couple of photos and share them here...   Plus, shooting these photos gave me something to do so I can say I accomplished something today!

I've spent almost all of the past eight or nine days split between the couch and the bathroom due to multiple health issues. This morning, however, I felt halfway decent... I was still overwhelmingly exhausted but I felt halfway decent. I was itching to accomplish something... anything... It just so happens that this morning was warm and sunny. Combine this type of weather with feeling halfway decent for the first time in well over a week and it is safe to say that I was going to wander outdoors.  I still didn't feel well enough to work on the yard or house so I decided to attempt some photography in the backyard. I grabbed my camera and decided to test out my newly acquired Canon FD 135mm f2.0 all-manual lens (no auto-focus, no auto-exposure). I mounted this hefty lens on my camera and headed outdoors. This lens is more appropriate as a portrait lens and I was immediately reminded of this fact when I tried to shoot a photo of some dried up autumn flowers... I couldn'

I'm taking it easy again today after another rather miserable night of poor health last night so I'm looking for things to do which won't worsen my health.  As I was looking at the photography gear on the shelves, I remembered that I wanted to try to use some extension tubes the next time I head outside with my camera... so, I evaluated the situation... I no longer felt miserable... the weather is nice although still slightly too warm for me for extended periods... and the camera gear was just sitting there doing nothing too. It was a good time to attempt to do some photography.  I grabbed a Sony camera body... a 70-200mm lens which wasn't long enough without the use of extension tubes the last time I attempted to shoot flowers with this lens... and I grabbed my extension tubes.  Every lens has a minimum distance you need to be from your subject in order for your lens to focus. If you get too close, it won't focus on your subject. I think the minimum distance