A little Snow

 We are in a pretty bad drought right now... so this was great to see:

Hiking in Colorado

 No better way to enjoy the day - than to get out in it!

Linking to:

Through My Lens

Dogs in the field

 Back before it was snowing I was invited to head out to the country and watch a friend of mine work his hunting dogs..... and it was a blast.

And of course, today - with snow on the ground, and the grass turned to brown.... this photo really appeals to me. It has beautiful greens... and a sweet Dog.

Aren't they just beautiful!  This are working so hard, and I love it when they see what they are looking for

Gratitude Project : People

 Gratitude Project : People

These are my People.  Since all of my people are in different parts of the country right now - I had to go back to when were all able to get together for my photo choice today.

When the world shut down, I got lucky and they all migrated to my house. Which to me... was perfect.... I had them all under my roof!!  And I LOVED it!!! 

Gratitude Project Day 15: Something someone did or made for you

 Gratitude Project Day 15: Something someone did or made for you:

Over my Years of working with Veterans - I have been given some amazing Coins - and I really love them. They each tell a story, and remind me of them - but I didn't have a great way to store them.

My family did this for me:

And I love it - I love the way I can display each one

Gratitude Project Day 13: Useful

 Gratitude Project Day 13 : useful

This one is kinda fun for me, just about everything in my life is useful in some way... Whether its work, play or just my viewing pleasure....

But for this prompt  I picked this... as my Useful..

What you see is a Truck and Trailer hauling hay... very useful - keeps my horses and cows fed. But! What you don't see... is the man in the truck... My husband. I think he might be the most useful of this whole set up ;-)   He willingly gets our hay, unloads it and sets it up so I can feed easily... Don't tell him... but I sorta like him ;-)

Gratitude Project Day 12 : Solitude

 Gratitude Project Day 12: Solitude

My favorite way to sneak away from it all is to head up to the High Country... find some snow  - and do a little hiking or snowshoeing. Then while I am there I try to pretend I am a famous photographer ( can you guess who? 😁 ) and see the landscape through Black and White.

Sometimes it works... other times.. Not so much, but either way I have gotten outside and gotten fresh air!

Gratitude Project Day 11

 Gratitude Project Day 11: 

One of the things I have always been grateful for is the ability to provide Veterans touched by War with a tangible hug, in the form of a Quilt. Specifically - A Quilt of Valor ( qovf.org) . I love that we can offer a thank you, a hug, and something to keep them warm.

We were able to honor this particular WWII Veteran this week - and I truly believe that smile says it all. And of course - that makes my month!

Day 10: What keeps you Healthy

 Gratitude Project Day 10: Masks or Something that keeps you Healthy:

I interpreted this in the heart healthy way....💖

DARK CHOCOLATE .... well .... really any kind of chocolate - right??

Day 9: A favorite way to recharge

Day 9: Favorite way to recharge.

Today I was going to show you the sunset from my deck - but.. it started snowing , and there is no sunset....I am cheating a little bit, and going back to a pre-snow day - to show you the sunset from my deck. 

It is one of my favorite ways to recharge, that along with hiking, brings me peace.

Although the snow is pretty too, it just doesn't have as many colors as this one...

Gratitude Project day 7 and day 8

 its a two fer today!! ha ha!! 

We will start with Day 8:  Animals in your life

Well this little one is quite the character - and we all love him. He came from the pound. We adopted him when my boys were pretty young and we were told he would never be a fun family dog. They couldn't have been more wrong. He is the best family dog, he is loyal and protective ( even for his small size) and! He even loves to cuddle!!

This is him - making sure all the cows are in the right spot, and the horses are behaving....

Day 7:   Something that reminds you of a friend

This was pretty appropriate timing! I got a little bag in the mail, from my friend - who sorta started me down the road called *quilting*   She was a avid seamstress, and fell in love with quilting, and one day she suggested I make a quilt - and BAM!! Look at me now!!

Anyways - this was what was in the bag - and I will make a Quilt of Valor for a Veteran touched by war with them!

linking to:

Through my Lens

Gratitude Project Day 6: Books that I am reading

 

Day 6 : Books and where you read them

Recently I have been reading Fact based Fiction about women Pilots - this one is about the Women air Service Patrol during WWII - and I love it!!

They were just so brave and amazing women!!

Gratitude Project Day 5: Trees

 Gratitude Project Day 5 : Trees

Well the prompt also called for Green, but since fall has hit here... Green is hard to find.

And since this week I am trying to find things around my place to fit the prompts - I thought of our Apple Trees, that sometimes produce, and sometimes are there just to look pretty!

This angle allows the sky to really create a dramatic backdrop, and it can make me dream of Apple Pie....

Gratitude Project Day Four

 Gratitude Project Day Four: Movement : what makes your cheeks Rosy?

This was a harder prompt for me... I do not want a photo of me trying to exercise - ha ha!! But! this one here - makes my cheeks rosy, we go riding in the morning and its still nice a cool.!

Gratitude Project Day 3:

 Something at home that is cozy:

This is cozy to me.... watching the sun rise. I like that I can do chores, and not have to be in the dark, and that I get to see mornings like this....

gratitude Project Day Two

 Gratitude Project Day 2 : Seasonal Shoes

After a day of prepping the horses feet for fall 😁  -now they have their seasonal shoes on... I can tell you I am very grateful for my Horse Shoer!  

Gratitude Project Day 1 : Obvious

 Gratitude Project Day 1 :Obvious

While my family should really be the obvious choice to photograph, my horse wins today. I am grateful to live where we can ride, have wide open spaces, and enjoy life.... so naturally - one of my favorite horses wins todays choice 

Linking to:

Thru my Lens

Our World Tuesday

Ranch Raised Dinner

Turns out ... you can live off the land.... haha

a Ranch Raised dinner - sure cuts down on the trips to the grocery store!

Happy Cows

Every evening I feed my steers a little treat....

They have gotten used to it, and when they hear me in the barn

This is what I see....

Deck Views

Sometimes watching the weather change the look of the mountains is very very Mesmerizing..

Longs Peak , Colorado

The light just changes things a tad....

Early in the Morning

Mornings are one of the most beautiful time of the day...

I love watching that sun rise.....

Time Lapses

Time Lapses are always fun to me - I see people get these amazing shots of the Milky Way and the Stars - and I am jealous.  But not jealous enough to get up early or try to do it myself....

So when we learned a little in camera trick to simulate them... I was on it!!

But then! I had learned some artsy stuff too - so I tries that as well.

And while nothing is in focus here - I love the how the colors run together. This is not a great photo by any means - but I had fun trying to combine some art ideas with a time lapse....

Panorama photos

The day we took this photo - it was still under the Stay at Home orders

AND

it was day 3 of snow storms - and we had about a foot or more of snow out in the pastures

My son and I were entertaining ourselves and trying to be creative

We forgot that we should have picked up the house first, and we also forgot all the stuff that he had moved home from college, that hadn't found a spot yet.....  oh well

Perfection is just not my thing

But we had fun creating this photo.

Lines Lines Lines

I love learning about the elements of art - and one of them is Lines...

we were tasked with Finding Lines to photograph - again staying in our area.

My whole goal with this class was to make sure I got a few more photos of the place on which we live.... so I headed out to the back side.....

These may not be the lines that most people think of right away.... But I thought of fence lines.

and since we always seem to have some fencing project around here... it seemed appropriate ;-)


Linking up with:
Through my Lens
My Corner of the World

In Phone editing - and the times of Covid

Our lesson this week was on in phone editing. I thought I knew what you could do in the phone, as I have a love for pushing buttons and experimenting, but I learned a few more things about my phone - so that was great.

We were supposed to use these new skills and create a photo with the *in times of Covid* theme.

First - we live on the edge of nowhere, so what people see in town and in communities - we only see on the news.

Second - our biggest change has been everyone coming back home as colleges moved to online learning.

Third - we love to get outdoors - so most of my photos of *in times of covid* are out door photos...

So here is my submission for this challenge:

Linking to:
Our World Tuesday

In the Kitchen

This photo challenge sent us into our Kitchens!

Remember we are trying to honor the *stay at home * rules.

And we were to work on Lighting and Photo lock

My kitchen was boring - I took photos of our food, of our utensils, of the counters and nothing spoke to me. Then when My husband was doing dishes ( yay) I saw my candles on the counter - so I lit them and then turned the lights off.

note to self - wait until husband is DONE with dishes before giving him an excuse to quit!

I took quite a few from different angles and close up - but for some reason - this is the one that I like the best - Maybe because of all the black space around it?

Anyways - that was my submission for this challenge!

Linking to:
My Corner of the World

In the Garden

Our next assignment was a fun one about perspective and lighting and more.
Ricky - knowing we are all on Lockdown ( my word not the governments) wanted us to explore in our gardens.....

I live in Northern Colorado ... Its cold here - we don't start gardens until May.

So I told my husband - I am supposed to explore our garden... Thanks Ricky!! that got him thinking and motivated! He decided the he should probably till it up before the next snow to get moisture in it...

Which led him to burning the weeds -

Which Led to - My submission for this lesson!

I knew this class would be good for me! ( ha ha)


Linking to:
Through My Lens at Mersad Donko
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World

Framing - a new photo class

I so love learning all about photography! There are days I think - Wow! Nailed it, and other I think... i could learn more about this ..... and so....

Since we are all staying in our own spaces lately - I decided to take another Photo Class from Ricky Timms all about Smart phone Photography.

There are times I find myself without my favorite DSLR - but! I have my cell phone with me - so why not try to get better at it!!

The lesson this week was all about purposeful framing, and reducing distractions.

This is my Submission:

I am excited to learn new things and take a moment to really study my phone photography options. How often do you use your phone for your photos?

Linking to:
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World

Elk in the Rocky Mountains

We took a little visit up to the Mountains to do a little snowshoeing...

it was a great day!

Isn't he pretty?

Or maybe he should be called Handsome!

We had a great day - it was cold, and a little snowy in spots - but it was a great day to get outside and see what we could see!.

WWII Memorial in DC

One of my favorite places to go when we Visit in Washington DC is the WWII memorial.

When we visited my Son this last summer, I really wanted to see the Memorials at night. I just thought it would be such a different effect than during the day... and I was right.  It was so neat!

 I think this view ( above) is from the Colorado Pillar

and below - looking at the Lincoln Memorial from the WWII memorial

My Great Uncle was in the Navy at Pearl Harbor when this happened....

Thanks for Visiting!

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday

Out the back window

Sometimes the view from your back door is just what you need:

Colorado is not too bad to look at.


Linking to:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World

Back to the Beach

Last fall we took a little trip to the beach - for us, that is 4 states away (or more... who counts right?)

we spent a lot of time on the docks and at the shoreline - we met the sailor of this boat, and he was preparing to head to a regatta in southern California, and travel down the coast to Mexico.

He was really cool to talk to. He told us all about his preparations, and the supplies that he had to take. You probably can't see this, as neither did I -  but in that cabin  - he has a complete kitchen, with  a refrigerator and stove! 

(above) is another view of his boat and the Rock!

I love the clouds in the sky and the drama that they add to the view!

This was a fun trip - and it was warm where we were - sadly we left the kids behind .... and they had to do chores in the snow ... I shouldn't laugh -  but, well I did!


Linking to:
Our world Tuesday
Thru My Lens
My Corner of the World

Estin and the 86'd

My Husband and I got to go on a REAL date!! ha ha - one the didn't have a kids sporting event! and it was a lot of fun!!

In Greeley Colorado - there is the Moxi Theatre in Downtown Greeley - and

  Estin and the 86'd 

was playing. They were opening for Josh Ward.... but we went to see Estin.  The bass player is a friend of ours and we wanted to see if he was any good!  ( Just kidding... we knew he was)

I decided to take my camera to see what shooting in a dark environment might be like - and you know what? It as hard!

But I had fun, and I think I got a few shots that I liked. 

This is the whole band - and I learned that I am not as tall as I thought I was!!

Estin :

The Bass Player - Colton

This one would be my  most favorite,

Thanks for Visiting!!

If you want to check out Estin and the 86d Youtube

or Facebook 

Linking to:
My Corner of the World
Our world Tuesday
Through My Lens

Marine Corp Base Quantico - Marine Museum

Have you ever been to the Marine Museum at Marine Corp Base Quantico?
If you haven't - that is truly a destination to head over to.


We were going to go for a few hours, and ended up staying the WHOLE day!
It was amazing!

Just in case you didn't believe I was really there (haha!)

This is the center Rotunda

The aircraft on Display are astounding!!

There is a section of the Museum dedicated to each war that the Marines were called in to - and I do not have a favorite - but the Iwo Jima area was amazing!

This is the flag.... It still gives me the chills to see it again

The whole story is there on the walls for all to see.

If you ever get a chance to go to this museum - I highly Recommend it
( and may have another post all about it soon)

you can read more about it here:
https://www.usmcmuseum.com/


Linking to:
Through my Lens
The good, the random and the fun
Travel Photos
Our World Tuesday
Tuesdays Treasures