Pasta. Pizza. Provolone. Prosciutto. Portobello. Pottery. Pinot Noir. Passion. Patience. Polenta. Palapa. Prayer. Peace. Painting. Parmesan. Projects. Persevere.
Photoblog.
May 23, 2011
May 22, 2011
Back in Austin. And it’s nice to be home. We went to the lake today and everyone jumped in. The baby ducklings are growing up fast. This one seemed very comfortable hanging out with the humans by himself.
May 21, 2011
This is the Ha Tu Ba Di memorial totem pole, carved by Makah Nation artist Frank Smith. It honors a man who worked to conserve tribal artifacts.
It’s located on the waterfront in Port Orchard. In the background is south end of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
May 20, 2011
This is a picture of a bloom on a cyclamen plant — a very unique and pretty flower.
May 19, 2011
I was able to catch Francine’s soccer game tonight. This is a shot of Mount Rainier that I snapped as I was driving to the game. I can’t look away when the mountain is out.
May 18, 2011
Many years ago, a friend of mine came home with me for christmas holidays, and looking out the window as the airplane approached for landing at SeaTac declared this place to be “the land of giant christmas trees.” It’s true. Forget about 5 or 10 or 40 foot tall evergreens. These trees are more like 100′ feet tall.
Amazing, awesome and humbling all at the same time.
Ok. Now for something a little different. I am experimenting with a photographic processing technique called the orton effect. I’ve never done this before, and am not exactly sure if I’m doing it right, but i’ll give it a shot. I used Gimp to manipulate the image. I think it’s a tad on the overexposed side, but here goes….
May 17, 2011
I’ve been told that me and my siblings bear a strong family resemblance. But one thing I don’t share with them is a love for jelly beans.
I’m not a fan of jelly beans. Never have been. Every Easter (year after year), when all of us kids would make our way to the easter baskets, they were loaded with jelly beans. But, I always left them in the basket along with that plastic grass.
This week, a friend of my mom’s brought this box of gourmet Jelly Belly jelly beans up to her hospital room. And with the steady stream of visitors, they have been slowly disappearing. Some flavors quicker than the others. Good thing there’s a legend on the box top.
I have to admit that I did break down and try a buttered popcorn flavored jelly bean (2nd row from the bottom, 4th from the right), and it tasted EXACTLY like movie popcorn. Amazing. That ought to do me for a while.
May 16, 2011
The rhododendrons are blooming everywhere. These are in the front yard.
I like the splash of animal print these are wearing 🙂
May 15, 2011
I got a chance to visit with my cousin, Steve, who lives back east but was in the area for a business trip. He and his nephew, Patrick, stopped by the hospital to see mom and then a bunch of us went out to lunch to catch up.
Things are looking good to mom being discharged, maybe Monday or Tuesday, to home instead of to a rehab center. Since I’m staying here at her house, I can help her get around and be here if she needs anything.
This is a shot of the lovely orchid that Steve brought mom.
May 14, 2011
I’m officially ready to get a DSLR, or big-girl camera, as I like to think of it. I went for a drive around Seabeck this morning and saw lots of birds on the tide flats foraging.
This is my very first picture ever of a bald eagle. I don’t think I’ve even seen many this close.
Along the roadway there were lots of photographers gathered with tripods and lenses as long as my arm. I sidled right up beside them with my little point and shoot.
This shot is maxed out on my D10’s 12x digital zoom, so it’s grainy. I can only imagine how nice some of these shots could have been with a different camera.
May 13, 2011
Mom is doing really well. They are still not letting her eat/drink anything other than clear liquids – going on 72 hours now (!)
I had a full calendar of meetings today but went up after work, eastern time, and visited with her. Just as I got up there the nurses came in to change the location of her IV. After 2 attempts by the student nurse (grr) and 1 attempt by the real nurse (Grr), they gave up and said they’d need to call someone else in. After 3 hours of waiting (GRRR) someone came in and inserted the IV and plugged her back into her saline, antibiotic meds and pain medicine pump-thingie. She didn’t seem bothered by it, but I sure was.
I’ve extended my stay through next week. Tonight I’m going to stay at Noreen’s house. I caught some nice glimpses of the Olympics in the usual places on my drive to Seabeck.
May 12, 2011
A long day of meetings. I spent time at the hospital later in the afternoon. Then Noreen and I drove around and checked out several of the local rehab / acute care facilities… probably the next step after mom gets discharged from the hospital.
Good night!
May 11, 2011
The literal translation of the Irish drinking toast Sláinte is “health.”
Mom’s surgery went well. Now she has to focus on getting better.
Sláinte!
May 10, 2011
Flowers bloom everywhere up here. These are blue bells growing in my mom’s front yard.
Sheila365 