Garden

"My beloved responded and said to me,

'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along.

'For behold, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

'The flowers have already appeared in the land;

The time has arrived for pruning the vines,

And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

'The fig tree has ripened its figs,

And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along!'"

--Song of Solomon 2: 10-13

Spring fruit yumminess!

Yummy! All I want now is a chair on the beach, a fun beach umbrella, 90°+ sunny weather, some great beach music, a good book, and some fun drinks in the cooler. Yep, that sounds good right now.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge, Week 21 - “Yellow”

I love mountains and wildflowers, and my husband. When you combine all three . . . *sigh*. This is one of my favorite pictures from our Smoky Mountains vacation in 2007. The crazy thing about this picture is that my husband (who is 6'3") is standing straight up, and I'm standing on the trail that is actually a bit higher than where he's standing. These crazy wildflowers were taller than him! So fun!

Wedding Celebration

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

—"Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare

My brother is now married—MARRIED! It just doesn't seem possible, but he is! Yep, I'm old now. It's true. I snapped this shot while we were waiting for the ceremony to begin. The old country church at Tannehill (built in 1905) was decorated beautifully with white hydrangeas. Oh, it was gorgeous—so charming and fresh! There were these beautiful vases lining the altar in the front, and I had to capture it with the sunlight filtering in from one of the side windows. Can't you just feel the freshness of Spring wafting over you?

Camera bag review coming soon!

I'm so excited! I was recently contacted by CSN stores, and asked to review one of their products. Since this is a photography blog, I thought it might be appropriate to give you a look at some of their camera accessories, and I plan on posting a review about one of their numerous camera cases/bags. So, stay posted to see which bag I plan to review, and what I have to say about its functionality, and the ease of using CSN to purchase camera accessories. I plan to give you all the ins and outs, and pros and cons. Coming soon!

I may review this one:

or this one:

or this one:

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find almost anything you need whether it be a sofa or a suitcase, a crib or a cookie sheet!

And . . . there may be a little giveaway of one of my photos to boot! Who knows?

Tulip Tree

I love when the tulip trees bloom. They're the most stunning trees! It's almost like the blooms were painted on. They epitomize Spring. I snapped this shot at the Lexington Cemetery on Easter Sunday, this year.

"I Heart Faces" Week 20 Photo Challenge - "Faces & Flowers"

Once again, I'm participating in this week's photo challenge from "I Heart Faces." I really like the ones that incorporate nature, since I'm, well . . .  a nature photographer. :o)

I snapped this precious shot of my daughter when we were at my parents' place for my brother's wedding. My poor girl was quite sleep deprived those first few days, but she still had energy to stop and smell the flowers. My mom has quite the green thumb (it apparently skipped my generation), and my girl had a ton of fun running around and smelling all the different flowers—at least, before she got cranky and crashed from exhaustion. :o) I love this pic, though! I think this picture captures her sweet, sweet spirit, and I'm just in love!

Redbud in full bloom

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

A Prayer in Spring 

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

To which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends he will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Non-crabby Crabapple

Crabapple (Malus yunnanensis)

We had some beautiful crabapple trees in bloom outside our apartment a few weeks ago. They were gorgeous! They were so bright and pink—very Spring-like. I was able to get really close to the blossoms, so I had a lot of fun snapping these. Although, there was a pesky wasp hovering around at times, so I was also doing my fare share of ducking and panicking. :o)

It's a Social Parade Wednesday LinkUp! Join in!

This is my first time participating in the "It's a Social Parade Wednesday LinkUp," hosted by Smart Trendy Moms. Howdy!

They created this link-up for socializing and to help mom-bloggers gain new followers, fans, subscribers, readers without feeling overwhelmed. Every week will be a new link-up that will focus on one of the ways you connect with people through your blog! They will rotate through gaining followers, fans, Networked blogs and more.  Link-up and focus on one thing at a time. Its about fun—one follower, fan, and reader at a time!

So go on over and join the parade!

I Heart Faces, Photo Challenge Week 19 - “Celebrating Mom”

This past weekend was my brother's wedding! It was a whirlwind, but so special. I wasn't too worried about taking a ton of pictures, because I wanted to just enjoy what was happening. Besides, there was a professional there to shoot the special shots. But, I did take some pictures pre- and post-ceremony. I was so stoked to catch this moment! The woman on the left is my mom, and the woman on the right is my grandma (my mom's mom). This is just a bit before the ceremony started, and my mom was a very excited mother-of-the-groom. This is her baby's wedding day! And I just love that my grandma got to pin the corsage on my mom. The church is an old country church at Tannehill State Park, and made for a beautiful setting for the wedding. It was a very special day.

Easter Blooms

Happy Mother's Day! This is my second Mother's Day, and right now, I'm on the road with my little family, traveling home from my brother's wedding. I thought that flowers would be appropriate to post today. So, this one's for all you moms out there . . . enjoy!

Easter weekend in the Lexington area was absolutely beautiful—everything it should be. The weather was mild (not too hot, and not too cold), and the sun was shining brightly. We visited the Lexington Cemetery on Easter Sunday to take some family pictures, but I also took the opportunity to get some flowery shots in. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!

Narcissus (daffodils)

Red tulips

Sunflower

Nothing says Spring like watching plants grow. On Easter Sunday at church, my daughter was given a soil pot with sunflower seeds planted in it. We're not super successful people at growing things, so we were leery about whether or not we could keep it alive. It felt like coming home with goldfish, you know?

Well, much to our surprise . . . they sprouted, and are growing!

In fact, they're growing much quicker than we ever imagined they would! My husband just planted them in the ground, so we'll see how they survive in "the wild."

Don't forget to vote for my designs!

I recently submitted a couple of designs to Kroger's reusable bag design contest. The bags display my photography, so don't forget to vote for me! You can come back and vote once EVERY day, too!

Here's my first design:

And here's the second one:

Thanks for your support!

Thistle

I took this picture just before Spring hit. I haven't wanted to post it lately, because it's not Winter anymore, but then I thought, what the heck?! Seeing this makes me thankful it's Spring!

Our ducky friends

We were extremely surprised to look out our sliding patio door last week and see mallard ducks under our bird feeder! We live near some little water ways, but don't ever have ducks up near our apartment. They must have heard that we put out the good stuff. *smile* It was an overcast/rainy day, and I promise I didn't adjust the color of these pictures. The grass really looked that green. I actually had to burn the edges on a couple of these to tone it down.

It was all-too-sweet, because the male kept watch while the female ate. He was taking care of her! He was making sure she got them meal she needed to take care of their little ones. Not once did he eat. He just kept a watchful eye.

At one point, something caught both their attentions, and they stopped to check it out. I liked how their heads were cocked in the same direction. Aren't they pretty?

Can you see the rain droplets on his feathers?