I did a quick post yesterday where i mentioned that a misty rain had fallen Saturday night/early Sunday morning.
Around 11:00 AM on Sunday, I left my house, camera in hand, headed over to Sibby’s to take some food pictures for their Web site. I told the owner I’d do it as a favor. I was going to pop in, shoot some food, then come home and be domestic (more to-dos to get done).
When I am out and about with my camera, however, I never know what is going to catch my eye.
I hadn’t even gone 10 feet down the driveway when I noticed the evergreens in our neighbors’ yard covered with masses of water droplets.
Evergreen
Water drops on plants fascinate me. I think they make for some really interesting images. So I snapped a shot or two and off I went.
My timing sucks and I found Sibby’s closed. So I headed back toward home. I popped into the bakery for some goodies, then thought home was my next stop. That’s when I saw the “butterflower” from yesterday’s post. After capturing that, I started looking at and shooting other stuff.
It was probably 45 minutes later that I finally got home. But I’m glad I made that detour. I think I captured some cool stuff. My favorites are posted below. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Remember, if you click on the image, you’ll get a larger view.
Blushing Rose
Peony
Barberry
Hot Pink Rose
Hot Pink Roses
Rose Leaves
Rose Leaves
Barberry
Of all these images, I believe the last one, shared below, is my favorite. The color is so rich and deep. The water drops lend that rose a little extra bit of interestingness whereas it’s the water drops themselves that really make some of these shots, like the one immediately above.
Blood-red Rose
I hope you enjoyed the results of my detour, too.
Enjoy your week.
UPDATE: A big THANKS to Trobairitz for setting me straight on the BARBERRY. I knew “bayberry” wasn’t right but could not think of what it was.
I take a lot of photos. And I have a thing about saving far too many. Even the odd ones.
Today, I decided to share a few…
We’ll start with a GOOD one.
Capitol Reef National Park (Utah)
Those of you who haven’t seen Utah… add it to your bucket list now. Make sure all of the national parks are on the itinerary, too. Especially Capitol Reef National Park. As the web site says…
Located in south-central Utah in the heart of red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles.
That image is one of my favorites there, captured during a visit in September 2011. It’s amazing, as is much of Utah.
As far as BAD shots go…
I have lots of them, too. One has to take lots of pictures to capture that one great shot. In doing so, sometimes you get images like this one.
Waiting for the “Cheese”
This is a horrible picture. But I love it. Just about everyone has a weird expression on their face as they wait for me to get the self-timer set.
Captured during a May 2006 trip to Chesapeake, Virginia, to celebrate my brother’s retirement from the US Navy.
This image always makes me smile. Speaking of smiles…
This is where the WEIRD comes in.
I take pics of some odd stuff. But I like capturing things that make me smile. Like this image, captured in a gift shop in Ocean City, Maryland during an October 2012 visit there with my daughter, Amy.
Disturbing
I ran across that image the other day and sent it to Amy because I knew it would make her laugh. It did.
She said something to the effect of, “I thought that would end up in your blog header or something.”
I thought the blog header would be a bit much for that lovely image, so I decided to share it here instead.
I often see stuff like this, which is almost ALWAYS made in China, and can’t help but wonder what the Chinese people really think of us Americans.
One of these days, I’ll have to do a collage of all the weird stuff I have captured. That would certainly be entertaining.
Now ends this for-entertainment-only post (aka otherwise pointless).
I just realized there’s an app for my phone that will let me do blog posts. No idea what it’ll look like — this is a test — but I have a feeling y’all may hear lots more from me.
You’ll get to see more pics, too. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
I am tweaking the look and set-up of my blog. I hope to finish tonight, but may not. And I’ll be experimenting with different looks, too. So, things may feel a bit weird for the next day or so.
Please be patient. At times, what you see will look absolutely hideous. I’m working on it. Promise.
After losing Mom unexpectedly, I was really torn about leaving Dad alone for an extended period AND going on vacation.
Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right to vacation at a time like this. But, we’d spent a fortune on airplane tickets and hotel reservations, which we would lose. Also, if we canceled, we’d be abandoning Annelies and Yves. And we had all been planning this vacation for a long time.
So, we’re in Italy.
San Bernardino Pass in Switzerland
The motorcycle riding portion of the trip was amazing. The mountains in Switzerland (Alps) and Northern Italy (Dolomites) are absolutely gorgeous.
We rode into Switzerland on Day 1.
Splugen Pass in Switzerland
I was delighted to see cows at the very top of the second pass we traversed. Y’all know how much I like cows, right?
We spent the next four days riding through the Dolomites in Northern Italy.
I’ll have more pics to share when we get home.
A Very Full Car
We returned our bikes to the rental agency in Milan on Friday. (Note to Fuzzy… Diego was just as awesome as you said he was.)
Annelies and Yves picked us up in Milan. We spent the night with them in their rented apartment in the hills overlooking Lago d’Iseo (Lake Iseo).
Then on Saturday morning, the guys crammed all of our luggage into their car, which is quite big by European standards, and we drove east to our rental house about an hour outside of Venice.
The Fridge is Packed with Essentials
This house is gorgeous. It sits on a hill and has a large garden with olive trees and grape vines. It’s very Italian.
Our House
Only the left half of the house is ours. The owner lives in either the other half of the house, or the other house that sits to the left of and behind the building we are in. It’s lovely.
I’ll tell y’all more later. For now, I have more vacationing to do. Hope all is well with you!
Our recent visit with Shannon was short, but awesome. We left for California on Wednesday afternoon and only stayed until Sunday. During that time, we squeezed in as much exploring as we could stand, visiting many of Shannon’s favorite haunts, meeting some of her friends, eating at her favorite places, and discovering new restaurants, too.
State of California
It felt like we moved around a lot, but the furthest point to which we traveled from Shannon’s neighborhood was about 15 miles.
But, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
I thought those of you who are geographically challenged would like a map to show exactly where San Diego is located within the huge state of California.
It’s pretty far south. In fact, it’s the southernmost, well-known major city in California. Tijuana, Mexico is less than 20 miles from Shannon’s house.
We did NOT go to Mexico. We did eat some Mexican food, though. Surprised? That’s our favorite ethnic fare.
Thursday morning, the first things on our itinerary were eating breakfast and being introduced to Shannon’s neighborhood.
We wisely combined the two by walking through the neighborhood to Lucky’s Restaurant for breakfast.
I posted this next picture yesterday, but am posting it again because it is what I saw when we left Shannon’s cottage…
Yes, the sky really was that blue!
Her cottage is within the neighborhood of North Park in San Diego.
Shannon's Neighborhood is North Park
I thought y’all might like to see a map. I had no idea where her house was located. I mean, I have her address, I’d just never looked it up on a map. It may not look like it on that map, but North Park is within San Diego. The city comprises a number of very diverse regions and neighborhoods.
Shannon's Neighborhood
I love that there is a neighborhood sign.
I actually have quite a few pics to share. If I comment about every one, this post will take me forever. I’ll just add a caption if I think it’s important.
The biggest aloe plant I've ever seen. (3.5' tall x 5' wide)
Lucky's Breakfast Restaurant
Shannon had never eaten at Lucky’s before, but had heard (from friends or Yelp!) that it was good. It’s basically a tiny diner, operated by one man, that only serves breakfast and is only open until noon.
Yep, one guy — Lucky, I presume — greets, cooks, cleans, buses, serves, runs cash register, etc. It was clean and the food was cheap and good. Service was a little slow, but we could see the man working. So we knew he wasn’t just hanging around smoking, chatting, and/or texting all of his friends. We didn’t mind the wait because, for a change, we were in NO HURRY.
Ah, vacation…
North Park, like most of San Diego, is a colorful place.
When I took that last picture, I said to myself, “I wish the parking lot was empty.” Then, later, when I saw the shot, I realized the cars and mural were color-coordinated. So all was cool.
Spotted In a Store Window
The cat made me smile. Hubby and Shannon both thought it was stupid.
Good thing they weren’t taking the pictures or you would have missed out on that masterpiece.
That is actually Shannon’s dry cleaner. We stopped on the way back to her house to grab her freshly-laundered clothes.
Hubby helped her carry the stuff back. Not because she asked, but because he’s gentlemanly like that.
Yep, he’s a keeper.
Large flower outside of a neighboring cottage. I only noticed it after I stepped on one enormous (like a foot long) flower petal.
Oh, and I also JUST noticed (as in while writing this post) that there appear to be bananas or something similar growing above that flower. Shannon, run out and check that later, ‘kay?
The next shot was taken later in the day. See the moon?
After we dropped Shannon’s clothes at the house, we went to the beach. I have lots more pics from Day 1, but little time in which to post them.
So those images will just have to wait.
Before I sign off…
Shannon left a comment (she’s one of most frequent commenters) on my last post saying, “Obviously I like San Diego and I love my neighborhood, but I’m interested to hear why you think SD is the perfect place for me. No sarcasm here at all, really wondering.”
Well, I’ll tell you. Dad contributed, by the way.
– Reason 1: ‘Cause you’re a hipster and we’re not. (We tried in vain to get Shannon to teach us some hipster-speak, but she wouldn’t. I think she was afraid we’d use it inappropriately, or maybe even appropriately, and embarrass her.)
– Reason 2: San Diego in general and your neighborhood in particular are just about as eclectic as you.
– Reason 3: It finally taught you how to drive like an East Coaster. (Fast. And maybe a little crazy. Definitely impatient.)
– Reason 4: Lots of good food and many different dining options. (Everyone who knows her knows she likes eating different stuff.)
– Reason 5: Small-town feel in a big city. (She promised to find us a Warrenton, SoCal version.)
– Reason 6: Multiple yoga studios within walking distance of your house. And bars. Restaurants, too. Plus other funky little stores.
– Reason 7: You seem happy there. (Of course, that’s the most important reason of all!)
More pics to come tomorrow, folks. So stay tuned!
Yep, another repeat. But I really like this picture.
