Miz Donna's Photo Challenge. Layering Textures.

I had a reminder about Miz Donna's Photo Challenge: Layering Textures so I took several deep breaths and decided that this might be a good way to slowly get back into the blogging mode.

So, here goes. I hope my attempts are ok.  I chose to use two photos that I took a week ago.

original photo

Autumn leaves using a cracked texture in Perfect Effects 3.

 

Original photo

Autumn Thistle after using the Earth texture effect from Perfect Effects 3.

I always enjoy these photo challenges and wish to say thank you to Miz Donna for hosting them.

It's time for another of Miz Donna's Photo Challenges.  There will be a bunch of great links to great shots of FLOWERS over at her place so be sure to click over and take a look.

Bitterweed

 

 

 

 

 “A weed is but an unloved flower.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Primrose

 

“The earth laughs in flowers.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you for giving us these chances to use our cameras Miz Donna!

Photo Challenge: What I Love About Spring!

Did everyone have fun with this challenge? It's been Spring-like here most of the time but there have been a few days that's made me wonder if Winter has been harder to shake this year. It's not too late to join us, just sign in and post your link over at the Photo Challenge Blog.  We love to see what others shoot!

I love the smell of the fields after a Spring rain and the growing crops peeking up out of the soil. The photo below is corn.

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
― Virgil Kraft

It's amazing to watch the winter wheat fill it's heads with grain to be harvested in a few weeks.

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

 

 

How awesome it is to see the blooms open up once again as the days grow warmer and longer.

“She turned to the sunlight
    And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
    "Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young

“I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.”
― Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

Don't forget to click over to our Challenge Blog and click the blue links to see all the other wonderful shots for this challenge!

Simplicity: A Personal Photo Challenge

It's time for Miz Donna's Simplicity Photo Challenge!  I had some shots that I was certain would be for my post until this morning woke up with a foggy haze so I had to use a couple of shots to show off our simple countryside.

Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple.

 

 

Simplicity can be used to imply beauty, purity, or clarity.

It can refer to a simple living lifestyle.

 

 

It was a most enjoyable Challenge Miz Donna and I'll be looking forward to the one in May. Please remember to visit the Challenge Link to view more Simplicity photos.

Photo Challenge: Still Life (2nd try)

I hate it when I've worked so hard on a post and find that this blogger is a fruitcake and posted her challenge photos on the Challenge Blog rather than where she was supposed to!

I hope everyone was able to visit all of our talented challengers by visiting our Photo Challenge Blog and clicking their links.  My photos are also posted there because I'm so ditzy.

Photo Challenge: Words

Here I go again, giving it another try with another challenge because I so love to see the photos that my blog buds come up with for each one.  Leave a comment if you'd like and be sure to click the blue links on our Photo Challenge Page so you can view all of the wonderful shots that our other challengers have taken.

Words on a sign to tell a little of the history of the near-by town of Helena, AR.

My e-reader has nicks and smudges but it's becoming more and more full of words for me to read.

Another sign with words telling us some more of the history of Helena, AR.

Don't forget to check out all the  other great "shooters"!

A Personal Photo Challenge: Black and White Photography

I didn't realize my friend had also chosen today for her Black and White Photography Challenge until after I'd also chosen that day to do one but I still wanted to do both so figured out this way to do it.  Hopefully it will be ok.  Be sure to click on her link to enjoy her awesome talent with a camera as well as all of the others who are participating. Thank you Miz Donna for allowing me to join your challenge too.

Sunflowers on Presidents Island, Memphis, TN.

 

Bird Chatter

 

Spring trying to raise her head.

Thanks you again Miz Donna! It was fun!!

Happy Birthday James

From the left, James, Danny, and Rod and their Mother, Wilma.

 

Caught a catfish.

Working in his garden

You  would have been 61 today and I miss you so much.

Exhausted Frustration

Mercy but I've been having some trying times these past many months.  Many days I've wished I didn't even have to face another same ol' day.  Most of those days I've forgotten what day of the week it is but that problem is getting better now that Zach's martial arts classes have resumed on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Anyway, I've posted a new photo challenge over on our Photo Challenge Blog if y'all are still interested.  I've been a sorry hostess lately so please accept my apologies. Please don't give up on me!!

 I have been snapping a few photos now and again.  I haven't gotten out very much over the Winter months but I sure hope to as it gets warmer.  On Tuesday I went to a talent show at our local school.

Jillians best friend and Jillian singing "Zippety Doo Dah" at the talent show on Tuesday night.

Alexis and her friend, Falon, singing "Anything You can Do" at the talent show.

My great-niece, Mikah (in purple) and her friend singing "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

Our little country school sure does have a load of talented students and Mrs. Palmer, the 5th grade teacher, did an excellent job getting everyone together to let all of us see and hear that talent.

A New Year

 Dear James,

I think about you all the time, And I still don't know
how to act, what to say, or how I'm supposed to feel,,
I take it day by day and just try to deal
With the unanswered questions and all the raw emotions.


I still wait for you to come home,,, or perhaps I'm just waiting

for the time that I'll see you again.

Photo Challenge: Autumn in All Her Glory!

Time to show off our latest challenge shots. I just love toting my camera here and there so that I can stop and snap when something lovely catches my eye and I love sharing what I see. Click to make the photos larger for the best view.

I love the colors of Autumn but I don't like that it leads to longer nights and Winter.

Another shot of the old Shubach barn. Every year it looks more and more weary.

Bales of hay are a common sight here in the delta but there are fewer this year due to the drought.

The setting sun seemed to make that same old barn behind our house glow like a newly minted gold coin.

I have great respect for the farmer who will plow and plant around one lone tree in his field. I wonder every time I pass if maybe that tree hold irreplaceable memories that he wants to hold near.

 Please go to our Photo Challenge Blog and click on the blue links at the bottom so you can see all of the other participates to this challenge.  You won't be disappointed, I promise!

Selling Bibles

 Selling Bibles 
 

(If this doesn't make you laugh, just go ahead and close
  your casket!)

A pastor concluded that his church was getting into very
  serious financial troubles. While checking the church storeroom, he discovered
  several cartons of new Bibles that had never been opened and
  distributed.

So at his Sunday sermon, he asked for three volunteers
  from the congregation who would be willing to sell the Bibles door-to-door for
  $10 each to raise the desperately needed money for the church.

Jack,
  Paul and Louie all raised their hands to volunteer for the task.

The
  minister knew that Jack and Paul earned their living as salesmen and were
  likely capable of selling some
  Bibles.
  But he had serious doubts about Louie who was a local farmer, who had always
  kept to himself because he was embarrassed by his speech impediment.
 

Poor Louie stuttered badly. But, NOT WANTING TO discourage Louie, the
  minister decided to let him try anyway.

He sent the three of them away
  with the back seat of their cars stacked with Bibles. He asked them to meet
  with him and report the results of their door-to-door selling efforts the
  following Sunday.

Anxious to find out how successful they were, the
  minister immediately asked Jack, "Well, Jack, how did you make out selling our
  Bibles last week?"

Proudly handing the reverend an envelope, Jack replied, "Using my
  sales prowess, I was able to sell 20 Bibles, and here's the $200 I collected on behalf of the
  church."

"Fine job, Jack!" The minister said, vigorously shaking his
  hand..."You are indeed a fine salesman and the church is indebted to
  you."

Turning to Paul, "And Paul, how many Bibles did you sell for the
  church last week?"

Paul, smiling and sticking out
  his chest, confidently replied, 'I am a professional salesman. I sold 28
  Bibles
  on behalf of the church, and here's $280 I collected.'

The minister
  responded, "That's absolutely splendid, Paul. You are truly a professional
  salesman and the church is indebted to you."

Apprehensively,
  the minister turned to Louie and said, "And Louie, did you manage to sell any
  Bibles last week?" Louie silently offered the minister a large
  envelope.

The minister opened it and counted the contents. "What is
  this?" the minister exclaimed. "Louie, there's $3200 in here! Are you
  suggesting that you sold 320 Bibles for the church, door to door, in just one
  week?"

Louie just nodded.
 

"That's impossible!" both Jack and Paul said in unison.
  "We are professional salesmen, yet you claim to have sold 10 times as many
  Bibles as we could."

"Yes, this does seem unlikely," the minister
  agreed. "I think you'd better explain how you managed to accomplish this,
  Louie."

Louie shrugged.. "I-I-I re-re-really do-do-don't kn-kn-know
  f-f-f-for sh-sh-sh-sure," he stammered.

Impatiently, Peter interrupted.
  "For crying out loud, Louie, just tell us what you said to them when they
  answered the door!"

"A-a-a-all I-I-I s-s-said wa-wa-was," Louis
  replied, "W-w-w-w-would y-y-y-you l-l-l-l-l-like t-t-to b-b-b-buy
  th-th-th-this B-B-B-B-Bible f-f-for t-t-ten b-b-b-bucks---o-o-o-or---
  wo-wo-would yo-you j-j-j-just l-like m-m-me t-t-to st-st-stand h-h-here and
  r-r-r-r-r-read it t-to y-y-you?"

Remember when the funniest jokes were
  the clean ones?
They still are!

Photo Challenge: My America

In My part of America, Friday night football is still a passion.  Sometimes during Fall football games you see neighbors and friends that you haven't seen the rest of the year.  We cheer, we catch up, we have spirit!

In My America, kids can still enjoy some sports during their days of learning.  I believe sportsmanship and teamwork will take our kids as far in this world as history and literature, I really do.

In My part of America, most people still work hard for a living.  With their hands, and their sweat. Many, many of them work,

live,

and die,

Summer is Fading

The Ag planes are spraying cotton defoliant this time of the year and that is some really nasty smelling stuff. I suppose it's necessary though to open some of those stubborn bolls and make the leaves drop for a cleaner harvest.

Boll of cotton, ready for picking.

The sunsets come earlier and while they remain so beautiful, the early ones mean the longer nights that I dread so much are coming also.

These little beauties will last until a frost puts them down. I wonder if we'll have a frost before Thanksgiving this year.

Have y'all noticed how much fun I'm having using the hdr technique on some of my photos?  I love how it enhances them just right.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Cause Houston Said We Would

Ok Houston, let's get back to posting on our blogs.  I haven't paid nearly enough attention to being here lately, even with intentions to do just that.  I've been so sad, angry, disappointed, stressed, disgusted, and confused, that I have avoided most things that take much thought.

So,,,,here I am again, not fixed, but working on it, not happy, but trying, never perfect, but still the same me inside here somewhere, and I'm working on getting out.

Arkansas August

We have seen several of these fellas in the yard this year but so far no harmful ones. Maybe the bad ones are searching for a cool wet spot which are few and far between around here this summer.

This critter (shiver,,,) wasn't very big but in macro mode he looks horribly gigantic, doesn't he?

This young fella was really doing some singing the other evening.  I'm sure he had a young lady friend that he was trying to impress somewhere within his sight.  Or maybe he was just happy enough to sing.


I can't remember the last time we've had such a drought. The few rain drops that we've gotten this Summer have done little or nothing to quench the thirst of the gardens and crops.  Luckily most of the farmers have ways of irrigating but it sure takes a lot of their budget to do that.

I hope things are cooler and not so dry where you are!

Later gators.

Photo Challenge: B & W Self-portraits

This is probably not the most favorable time in my life to be taking pictures of myself but it seemed like a good idea for a challenge so I went with it.  I hope everyone who decided to do the challenge this time had a good time doing and and learning from it. There is still time until mid-night Saturday night (Aug. 11th), so if you haven't signed up, go on over to our Challenge Blog  and feel free to. We would love it!

This is me. This is something I love to do. I never go anywhere without a camera, I might miss THE shot!

This is how I'm working very hard to be.  I want to feel happy.

I am missing part of me,,,,,

I feel as though the best part of me is gone.

Photo Challenge: Childhood Memories

It's Challenge time! I don't have much to offer for this challenge cause everything left over from my childhood was lost in the fire we had a decade ago, but I was able to think up a few things so that I could do a post. I can't wait to see how everyone interpreted this challenge.  Be sure to hop over to our Photo Challenge Blog and scroll down to the links at the bottom of the entry and check out everyone's photos!

Lto R, Terri, Paula, Me, 1965

My sisters and I were fortunate enough to live across the dirt lane from our grandparents for a lot of our growing up years.  We didn't have many toys but we sure knew how to have fun wandering around out in the country. We built log huts in the woods, waded Hog Tusk Creek, and knew which grape and muscadine vines were safe for swinging on (even though sometimes they weren't!).  In the summer  I used to ride my bike the mile to the tiny town of Moro to meet the Bookmobile every two weeks and spent a lot of my time high up in an old Oak tree down the lane reading the day away. 

Anyway, the challenge!  I decided to take photos of some of the ways I entertained myself when I was a kid.

Do you remember McCall's Magazine? How about Betsy McCall, the paper doll that appeared in the magazine every month with her clothes and a story for little girls?  My grandma subscribed to McCalls and I would wait impatiently for her to finish reading it so I could tear out the page to play with Betsy.

I spent some of my play time drawing so my colored pencils were a favorite treasure.

I even spent some of my drawing time doing a little designing, like this.  I think my 11 year old hands did a much better job than they do today though.

It didn't take a lot to keep us entertained when we were kids.  We had a whole lot of imagination and a lot of room to roam.  What could be better?

I hope y'all had fun!!