Photo 365 #92: Solitude

November 7, 20142 Comments

solitary Living in the country can be a lonely thing, which is why I was initially worried about living out in the middle of nowhere again (okay, I had other concerns, too, but isolation was a biggie). This fence post (and the barbed wire wrapped around it) marks the end of our yard and the beginning of the field next door.

It’s a solitary place, our little farm, but I find it relaxing, and peaceful. Sometimes a little solitude is all you really need to soothe your inner demons and gain perspective on things.

Photo 365 #91: Bliss

November 6, 2014November 7, 20143 Comments

Happy farm boy is happy. 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Seymour as happy as he was when we moved to our farm in the spring. He’s been looking for an acreage since we got married and now, five years later, he’s finally got one.

I was less interested in moving to the country than he was, but it’s been a lot different than my last experience of country life. I feel much more relaxed than I did in town, even though things like getting the kids to piano lessons were much easier when we lived in town.

Still, he gave town a try for me, so now I’m giving the country a try for him. Because that’s what you do. And no matter where you go or what you do, it’s who is beside you that counts. 🙂

Photo 365 #90: Water

November 5, 20142 Comments

Water. It’s everywhere, both around us and within us, in one form or another. For today’s Photography 101 challenge, I’m once again relying on older pictures, but they’re two of my favorites, and they’ve been in my mind quite a bit lately.

Both photos are from one of our many camping trips last summer. We haven’t been able to go camping this year at all, aside from the kids camping out in the yard a time or two when it was still warm. We did, however, find some adorable camping-themed picture frames this summer on our trip up north, so Seymour asked me to get a couple of our camping pictures printed off to put in them. Perfectly enough for this challenge, one frame was horizontal and one frame was vertical.

Lovely horizontal picture, featuring a pretty smile from Miss Tadpole. 🙂

Last summer we camped at Pine Lake several times and on our first trip…

Photo 365 #89: Street

November 4, 2014November 4, 201423 Comments

A few months ago, I hosted a Pampered Chef party (I wanted an apple peeler/corer/slicer and figured this was a smart way to get one for a reasonable price). When the orders arrived, I was able to deliver most of them in one stop, but one of the orders required a drive to Holland (a nearby town, not the country). Because it was the middle of road construction season and the road into town was closed for bridge repair, I had to go north of town, then west, and come in from the northwest corner.

The sun was setting as I made my delivery and it was so beautiful that I pulled over to catch it before it was gone. When I shoot the sunset, I love to get it alone, with just the horizon or maybe a tree or two for company. I love the wild places where humanity’s fingerprint on the land is a light one. But I got the road with it in this shot, and the power lines running into town, and the more I look at this picture, the more I like it.

What do you like in a landscape shot?

Photo 365 #87

November 2, 2014October 29, 20144 Comments

I love lazy Sundays. And since I’m feeling a bit lazy today, I don’t know what to write here other than I can’t believe it’s November already.

Another beautiful start to another gorgeous day.

Today was the kind of day that makes one glad to be alive.

I love Iowa. That is all.

That tree is on fire…

I could have watched this sunset forever.

Enjoy the pretty, pretty pictures! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more to say. 🙂

Photo 365 #82

October 28, 2014October 27, 20144 Comments

The photo ops on Saturday lasted into the evening with a beautiful sunset (for a pretty morning shot, check out my Instagram feed). I was getting supper ready when I noticed that the trees on the western edge of our yard looked almost like they were on fire, so I headed out with my trusty phone camera and snapped some pictures.

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Surprisingly, the boys behaved while I was outside capturing the sunset. As a matter of fact, the only bad thing that happened was that I ended up with some puncture marks on my tummy, thanks to Miss Opal. Apparently, she thought I was the perfect cat tree because she climbed me more than once and my thin T-shirt was no match for her tiny kitty claws.

Oh, well – she’s too cute to stay mad at for long. 🙂

Photo 365 #81

October 27, 2014Leave a comment

Saturday was an absolutely glorious day, and I just couldn’t resist spending time in my yard taking pictures. The sky was bluer than blue, the sun was shining bright, and my trees finally figured out that they owed me a little color before Winter claims their remaining leaves.

These are two of my favorite leafy shots, though there were several others. I hope your weekend was just as beautiful as mine!

Photo 365 #77

October 23, 2014October 22, 20149 Comments

There was another beautiful sunrise yesterday morning:

fallsunrise

Normally I’m not up early enough to see things like this, but when the sun doesn’t come up till after 7:00 a.m., which is roughly when I have to be out of bed if I have any hope of making it to work on time, that makes it a little easier. And with colors this beautiful, I should perhaps try to make it a habit to rise a bit earlier so I can catch more of them. 🙂

What’s your favorite part of rising early?

Photo 365 #76

October 22, 20144 Comments

The trees at Pine Lake looked so beautiful Monday on my way home from work that I just had to stop and take their picture:

pltrees

A friend of mine is lucky to commute through this beautiful area every day. I think if I had to drive through there every day, I’d be late getting to work and late getting home, and my camera would have even more pictures of pretty trees than it already does. 🙂