It is time to pay the piper...only that sounds almost negative and I don't feel that way at all. I have been tagged at different times for different things and have yet to respond. As my husband is watching Battlestar Galactica and I am not a big fan of it, I decided now was a good time to work on this.
Back in December,
Mary at Faith, Fabric, and Photos tagged me to do this meme:
List the Five Greatest Joys I find in nature. I have thought and thought at different times, and then proceeded to forget how I have wanted to word this. I feel like I am just saying in different words part of what Mary had to say, and that is one of the reasons I have been so slow to respond to this one. But here goes...
1. I think anyone who knows me hardly at all knows that I love the changing skies....with all the varieties of clouds and the sunsets and sunrises. I never tire of trying to capture all the different views. I would say that I probably have as many pictures of the sky (sunsets, sunrises, clouds, rainbows) as I do anything else. Except maybe barns. And I would actually have to count to see.
2. I love the colors of nature. I love the brilliant colors of the flowers and the foliage in the fall, the butterflies and the birds, again the brilliant colors that come and go in the sky, oh, just all of it.
3. I love the wings of nature...especially the butterflies and the birds. I always think God must have had a lot of fun making the winged creatures...I think He outdid himself when he made the birds and the butterflies.
4. I LOVE the sounds of nature. Be it a thunderstorm in the spring, or even the howling wind in the winter, or the sound of a babbling stream--I enjoy them all. I have always loved storms, actually been afraid in only one that I remember. Other than that, I have always loved them. I always loved picking apples in the rain--there was just a kind of hush--a peacefulness that is hard to describe. And the other place I love to be when it rains, is in the barn! I guess it is the sound of the rain on the tin roof that I love...gee, how I love that sound! And I to hear a
wren sing or the sound of a
hawk calling or the geese honking from high above--they give me such joy. I always pause what I am doing just to listen and maybe try to spot them. There are just too many sounds to name them all...so I just named a few of my favorite ones.
5. And for the 5th favorite thing, I love the seasons! I get tired of cold weather and I get tired of real hot weather, but I would not want to be where there was no variety. I like having a change to look forward to, and even though I think fall might have the edge in being my favorite, I am never real positive of that. I seem to have something that I love about each season...love the way things wake up in the spring and begin to bloom, love the lazy days of summer when I can sit in the swing on my porch or go wading and fishing in the creeks, love the colors of fall and just the general feel of it...and I love winter in that it so makes me appreciate having a warm bed to sleep in. But I also love it when snow comes and makes the world look new in a different way.
I am not tagging anyone at this time to do this...
Then
Tricia over at Bluff Area Daily blog gave me this Butterfly Award...I want to publicly thank her. I really enjoy the awards--they give me joy to think someone thinks enough of me or my blog to give me one. I am trying to think of who I want to receive it....and I just can't decide. Some that I would like to give it to do not like to mess with awards....and others I have hit recently with another award so I don't want to make a pest of myself. Just know that if I have taken time to post multiple comments on your blog, that I really, really enjoy it.
And my brother
Neal tagged me to go the fifth folder and pick the fifth photo and post and describe the picture. If he only knew how hard that was...fifth from what point. Since I had to reformat the old computer...that got things slightly out of order...then I had to move them all to this new one...and they are even more out of order. I tried going to the fifth folder both from the beginning forwards and forwards going back and with digital pictures, and neither of these folders had a fifth picture. So I went to the fifth folder, which contains some scans of photos, and some photos that have been re-sized.
The fifth one in this is this barn--it is the same barn that is my header photo just a different season. In this instance it is a cropped version that I had as my header photo at another time. I have several photos of this barn...it is a neighboring barn to our old home place. It is a place I remember from childhood on. We raised the tobacco that went with the place so I have worked in that barn. I also remember mom going up there to get dirt to go in the ground of some of her flowers...it was old, old manure. I think she said from sheep....I wonder if either of my brothers ever remember sheep being raised up there. I am just sure that is what she said, but I don't ever remember anyone else mentioning that sheep had ever been a part of that place. At one time it belonged to our Grandpa.
In previous posts I have talked about how the wind blows here...and I know it probably blows as hard and harder other places. I tried to capture scenes that show the snow moving...forming its own little mini whirlwind as above,
or just the sideways blow...the kind that you don't know if it is actually snowing or just blowing the snow around that is already there....
and this one going down the road showing how hard the wind can blow.
These cows were cold. They were all laying there huddled together till we stopped and I got out of the car. They jumped up, on the alert. I am not sure if they were afraid or if they thought I might be bringing them something good to eat.
These starlings along with some doves were eating at one of the feeders. Someone had thrown grain on the roof of the feeder. I assumed on purpose.
