did you know?

the other day we were planting stuff in our garden
when duke took off like a bat outta h-e-double-hockey-sticks into the woods
and barked his fool head off
and wouldn't stop
sean was finally able to get him to stop and come back where we could keep an eye on him
when later sean noticed (remember i'm so not observant) a blob in the tree
upon further investigation
we determined it was

wait for it...
a porcupine
and most likely duke barked it up the tree
as for his mad dashing and crazy barking
who knew they could climb trees???
i sure didn't!

b&w class - the sky is the limit

YEA! messages is over
and now we're on to nature
now we're talking!
the first prompt was all about the sky
i wouldn't believe what depth the b&w gave to the clouds
i wasn't sure how the sky would convert so i played around with a bunch of different pictures
these are all pictures i've taken quite some time ago
i'm still deciding which i want to submit for class
enjoy!

b&w class - messages

i've really struggled with these prompts lately
they're all about messages
if you're any kind of friend you just understand...
i'm not observant
and i'm just not deep
and we hardly leave camp
so to find messages out in the world to me
was virtually impossible
so don't expect anything deep or profound, but here goes...

well said

no words necessary

handwritten

they do exist!

it's been super rainy and cold here lately
so much so that we just work all day and then sit inside and do nothing
but the rain didn't stop us from getting a new toy

duke's ridden it up to the mailbox a few times
and he will just curl up and lay in my lap
we're still looking for just the right thing for him to go with us on a trail
with all this rain we've been having we haven't really gotten to go out and enjoy our new toy
but that doesn't stop our friends from riding
so we went - and miraculously it didn't rain

we got all decked out in warm clothes and rain boots and we were ready to ride
sean let me drive first, while he rode on the back
i was scared at first, learning how it handles
and then we came to a sand pit, and i started to have some fun
and a little more brave
so i decided to head up this little embankment
you have to understand, i've never driven an atv before - other than up to the mailbox and back
i asked for the remedial class from the salesman - like where's the gas pedal...
we headed up the embankment...and...

i popped a wheelie!!!!!

FOR REAL!!!  at the top of the embankment
sean said he felt the hitch drag
it was AWESOME!!!
and scary all at the same time
sorry for the blurry phone pictures - i wanted my "real" camera so bad
there were so many amazing things to take pictures of

and if that wasn't enough...
as we continued down the road - with sean driving now - i looked ahead of us
and what do i see???

it's a moose - running along the trail in front of us
he was all gangly and young - the 'experts' with us were thinking about a year old

being young doesn't stop them from still being pretty good size
and that wasn't the only one we saw - there were 2 others seen (of which i only saw part of one of those)
you may remember our trip a few years ago to try to see one - which we pretty much failed at
people joke that moose are just a ploy to get tourists to maine
and i was starting to believe it
but believe it no more...they really do exist!
or maybe they've finally accepted me as one of their own - a MAINER.....

b&w class - watered down

as you can guess this prompt was all about water
and the textures it creates
being we live on the lake i had lots of water to shoot
plus it's been raining so much lately
so here ya go!

b&w class - cracked open

this prompt was all about cracks
and after giving it a lot of thought
and some inappropriate funny suggestions from sean
(which someone actually posted in the gallery for the class)
i knew i wanted to shoot our patio
but i needed the sun to finally shine
and then, on a trip to get more tea, i saw it
little speckles of sunlight on the patio peeking through the trees
so i ran to get my camera, as sean looked at me like i was a crazy person
and these are the shots i got - converted to b&w of course!

b&w class - textures

we've now moved from light to textures on the black and white class
smooth things over

rough and tumble

the texture of textiles