Thursday, September 30, 2010

Appalachian Mountan Preacher

In the last part of the year in 1952, my Dad and Mother, brother and I moved from Savannah, Georgia to Clear Creek, KY for daddy to attend Clear Creek Mountain Bible School.  We lived in the shadow of Pine Mountain and drove long winding, switchback roads to Pineville, Ky for shopping.

Above is my dad in 1959 as he looked as pastor of Sloans Valley Baptist Church, Sloans Valley Ky. Daddy graduated in 1957 from the Bible school and we left DeWitt Baptist Church that he had pastored while attending school and went to Sloans Valley.

Last week by blog friends George and Betsy were visitng Pine Mountain State Park and they took the time to go find my childhood home and email me photos.

ALL PHOTOS TODAY were taken by  Besty, Just for ME!

Thank you Betsy the photos that have are the pilot light of my memories of a wonderful childhood in the Applachian Mountains of Kentucky.


The name of the school is now changed. In the early 50's  it was called Preachers School. The school gave preachers called to the ministry and had not finished  high school and could not attend seminary's, the chance to get their high school diploma while they worked on their seminary classes. Daddy, born 1913, quit school in 8th grade due to his father having a stroke and his mother had 7 children and a man in a wheel chair to care for. He became the man of the house in 1927.



The odd thing is, all the buildings look exactly like they did more than 50 years ago. I recieved my first kiss in the above building. At that time it was a reccreation hall. I was 13 so it was not that much of a kiss, but I still remember it.


As I looked through all the photos Betsy sent to me, the tears of joyful memories poured down my face. This is Kelly Hall and where they attended classes and we build snow forts on that lawn




The above photo is the way my brother and I looked as we walked over this bridge. (oops! make that the way we looked when HE walked accross this bridge, I went the long way round)


More happy memories waited on me when I found this song on Blind Pig and The Acorn blog post about Shape Note singing and  memories of my dad baptizing people in the river in Kentucky in the 50"s flooded my soul. I found the video on YouTube and it's perfect. I learned Shape Note Singing in Kentucky and did not even know what it was until now.
These photos taken by a friend truly prove the saying.

"photos are the pilot light of memories"

Thank you to my blog friends for all these sweet memories.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Koi Talk

Koi Pond, Selby Gardens Sarasota Florida


"Hey, lady with the clicking box, ya got a little something for me?"


"Can't Ya See? we are starving here, toss us a little fish food, why don't cha?" Geez, Lady, it's only a QUARTER for fist full of food for fish". Drop your quarter in that glass box and PU LEESE give us some fish food."





Koi  literally "brocaded carp"), are ornamental domesticated varieties of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens.



AMAZING!  Koi, they can live as long as 200 years!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

"Fall" in Florida

Not to be outdone by all you Autumn Color Chasers, I found these Fall Colors in my Backyard






this banana leaf did cooperate and give me a little "color"

Hubby came home yesterday and said find "Open Arms" on YouTube, I want you to hear it. I did and  I said how did you hear this on the radio, its from the 80's and NOT Country Music. His answer:
"country station had bucs game on it, I hit seek and stopped on  rock station because this song was playing".

How we both lived this long and never heard the song or of Journey, we have no clue.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Florida Autumn Colors

Sunday morning at 5 after 7 AM, Jake and I stepped out into our back yard to wait on daybreak with enough light to chase tennis balls . I watch the sun come up each morning through a tiny space in our trees that surround the yard. My breathe caught in my throat and I thought run Sandra run.....


I slammed the sliding glass door back and almost knocked Hubby down as I raced inside, grabbed the camera off the kitchen table, raced down the hall and grabbed pants and shirt ( I was still in night attire and do not own a robe since we live in Florida, yes we do have privacy fence). I almost missed it trying to get my OLD legs into the pants at 90 MPH.
 
This is what greeted me from the double yellow line directly in front of our house. In order to SEE the sunrise I must Stand in the middle of our street.
see below for view of yellow lines I stood on as I backed down the street to catch my neighbors palm in the shot


These two are the same photo, see the Stop Sign and the Light Pole by our driveway  above photo

I removed the sign and post in above photo.
******
by noon on Sunday this is what we had for temps and the reason we have no autumn colors

The End (for now) 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Day of Rest


No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 corinthians 2:9
***

Lord, bid war's trumpet cease;
Fold the whole earth in peace.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes




the video is 4 minutes long, one of my favorites. the fiddle music at the end is worth the wait. In a hurry and want to hear the fiddle, drag it to 3:16


Saturday, September 25, 2010

Blast From The Past

Click on link below for Blast from the past.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Another View

I found this twisted red hibiscus flower, crinkled on the edges, it never fully developed. I took another view of it and it looked totally different. see below.

If you have 2 minutes view my post from last year

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Steering Wheel Tri-Pod

On my long bi-weekly trip to the library (3 miles) I sat the Coolpix on my steering wheel and clicked away. Notice how far back I stayed from the cars and  not many cars coming at me.


Oops! are you feeling dizzy and like the building is sliding off the globe? the camera moved when I went around the corner, imagine that. For some reason this Tallest Building In Bradenton, fascinates me when the clouds reflect in it. We have no sky scrapers, this one is about 10 floors and can be seen from anywhere in town.

Just merrily clicking from the steering wheel, check out that sky!



I talk to myself about how wonderful the sky is. the church steeple, the lamp post.

Yeaa! the signal is RED. Lean far out the window, Quick the light will be green and you will miss The Shot. Look, the clouds are in the windows.
Here is it, The Shot out my drivers side window.

do I know how to have fun or not? do you shoot from the window of your car/truck? have you ever used your steering wheel as a tripod?
Get out there and LOOK UP

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Popping Pills POP....or NOT

Did you Know if you accidentally publish your post and want to bring it back, just open the post in edit and click on save now and it will put it back in draft and Voila, its removed from your blog
. Don't even ask why I am telling you this.
As we age our fingers start to lose their dexterity.

 I staggered to the kitchen at 4 AM for the first cup of java, low light situation, remove the lid, turn it to the side to roll one tablet into my hand and DROP THE BOTTLE, it hits on its edge, and sprays what seems to be 4000 (I know it's only 500 because it is still half full) tiny tablets all over the kitchen, it looks like a saccharin  AK47 has sprayed them. I sweep, gather, hand vac and still find them for days after.


Two days later: I count out the 3 prescription and half dozen supplements I take each morning, and as I place the last one in this blue cap (remember I recycle and this is a small jar cap) my finger nail catches on the edge of the cap as I place the last pill and guess what?
it tips over they roll all over the kitchen joining what is left of the saccarhine tablets.

The saga continues. Hubby takes 1 baby aspirin per day (yes, I know you know he is not a baby and it is for his heart).

I buy three bottles in a stack pack because they are cheap and so am I. Cheap I mean. It's cheaper that way. Because of the afore mentioned dexterity with fingers of age, I place them in a bottle with a screw cap because I have no children in the house to open the child proof bottle for me.

the point of all this is, see all the lids in the photo above? 3 are snap on that only a child can open and one is screw type. I spent 5 minutes trying to screw the snap on onto the screw type bottle before I realized what i was doing. Muttering and mumbling about the caps when all the time it was
A SENIOR MOMENT (did I mention eyes start to fade along with the dropping things?)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Weed and The Dragonfly


This lovely WEED is in Hubby's Bucket Garden, as I admired the shape and color of the leaves while contemplating pulling it OUT of the bucket, I noticed a tiny, little, itty, bitty dragonfly.

This is the same photo cropped to show the baby dragonfly (who knew they came so tiny?)
to view this delicate 1/4 inch critter you will need to use the zoom tool at bottom left of your screen, 200 % should give you
The View. to see what this little guy will look like when he grows up got to SquirrelQueens header
**
So do not be afraid;  you are more valuable than many sparrows (dragonflies). Matthew 10:31

Monday, September 20, 2010

Not Jack N the Bean Stalk

Last summer, Hubby went across the street to our neighbors house and picked a handful of brown seed pods from a bush about 5 feet high.
We now have 3 Dwarf Poinciana trees in five gallon buckets and one we gave to a friend.

The flowers come in a large pod, 2 or more open each day until it is full. The next 3 photos show how big each pod gets. at this time we have 4 pods on one tree. This tree is about 6 feet tall.




As the flowers fall off, each one creates a green pod, like the one  below.


After a few days, the pods turn brown as in the photo below


From ugly brown pod to beautiful flowers and back to ugly brown pod, this amazing dwarf tree (so named because it only grows to about 20 feet tall unlike its sister tree that grows to 60 feet tall).

It's Amazing out there! grab your camera and check it out and report back to us! that is your mission for today.

MORE PHOTOS of Dwarf Poinciana Label on sidebar


Sunday, September 19, 2010

From the horses Mouth

"The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry." Psalm 34:15



For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;


for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;
and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Audrey Hepburn

CAT LOVERS, DON'T MISS OREO STORY ON PICTURE IMPERFECT TODAY
 
In trying to get our own way, we should remember that kisses are sweeter than whine. ~Author Unknown

"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good." Proverbs 15:3
1 peter 3: 8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10For,



"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."[a]

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Phun Tutorial....or NOT

Several people requested a tutorial on Phun Phriday flower swirl.
I am just learning Photoshop and I played with below flower for about and hour and came up with the twirl.

  1. Open your favorite flower photo in photoshop

  2. Duplicate layer and cut flower out (I used lasso, you can cut with pen or mask brush)

  3. When you see marching ants Ctrl C to copy and Ctrl V to paste, you will see a layer with just the flower. name your layers by clicking and typing

4. click the flower layer to highlight, see above example.
5. double click on the picture of the flower with white around it in highlighted layer, box opens, click on bevel and emboss, contour, and outer glow. if you click a second time on the emboss level it opens another place to play. I used Inner bevel and played with the slides to make it like i wanted it. you just have to play with this like i did,
6. click on background layer and  go to Filters/Distort/Twirl (PLAY)
7 on that same layer go to Filter/blur/Gaussian blur (PLAY)
8. I made the first one by dragging the flower around to get it the size i wanted using Move tool. I saved a copy with one flower and decided I wanted two.
9 To get two flowers, click on the cut out flower layer and add another layer, now play with both flowers.


I really don't think i could do the exact flower again, I don't know how to save what i did to use again. if anyone can give me easy instructions on how too make a set that keeps what i did to use again on another photos i would appreciate the info.
mostly i just played with it until I liked it. the glow in the photo was from the sunshine, if you use a flower with out sun it will be different. with photoshop JUST PLAY is my motto

Kitty Karrier Extraordinaire !

While visiting my friend at Heritage Park Nursing Facility, I found this wondrous contraption. It contains not one, but three beautiful cats.
The netting you see is very soft and made from what looks like silk thread. These pampered pets come to visit there mommy, and then visit up and down the halls. they loved to be petted through the net and the Morris tabby cat, rubbed his head all over my hands when I petted him.

I had never seen one of these before, and the owner said the cats have even gone to the bottom and back of the Grand Canyon in this Way Cool Carrier.
have you ever seen one? do you have one?

Second post today on my other blog, fourpawsetc