Were you able to identify the subject of the mysterious photo from the last post? Guesses have included flowers or bugs. The object did come from the outdoors, but it didn’t come into our house in the condition you saw in the photo…
Photography
“Photography” — I became a bit of a shutterbug in 2015, especially after participating in a Wordpress photography class a couple of times. Nature and macro photography are my favorite images to capture. I hope you enjoy seeing the results of my efforts!
Yellow Spring Surprise
Blogging and photography have been pushed far, far down on my to-do-list the last few months. I miss them both, so today I am making the time to publish a “Macro Mystery” post. If it’s been so long that you don’t remember what this is, or if you’re new here at the Merry Hearts Medicine blog, I’ll explain…
Macro photography is so fun for me that I created a blog game with it. It’s probably something thousands of other people have done — I post an extreme close-up of an object to see if you can guess what the object is. If you have an idea as to what it might be, please leave a comment below! In a few days (hopefully), I’ll reveal the answer in another post.
You may figure this one out easily, even though the photo quality is not as great this time. (Sorry about that. I’m adjusting to a new camera.)
Do you enjoy trying to identify mysterious photos like this? If so, test your eagle eye with more Macro Mysteries posts.
So, give me your best guess! What is this spring thing?
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{After your answer has fully grown in your mind, click over to this post to see if you’re right!}
What a Beautiful Way to Start the Day
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
~Genesis 9:12-13
Moments of Joy: August 2016
In last month’s post, I remembered the past and glimpsed the future with the help of a sweet, cuddly baby. Today, I’ll fill you in on a new and unusual forestry fashion trend!
While my daughter drives me and my camera through the countryside, I find much of the typical rural Arkansas fare: trees, birds, weeds, flowers, cows, and winding gravel roads. One thing I do not expect to see as we approach a sharp bend in the road is a tree wearing clothing!
“Whoa, stop!”
Gravel grinds under the tires as my alarmed daughter stomps the break and looks around in bewilderment. “What is it?”
“Look at that tree,” I answer, pointing out the window past my daughter’s shoulder. “There are clothes on that tree! Why would someone dress up a tree? I need a photo of this!”
Hopping out of the car, I snap several photos of the fashionable shade tree and then cross the road and squat down to try a few macro shots of the field grass and fencing. A truck appears out of nowhere and slowly approaches the curve. I check to make sure I’m well off the road before refocusing my attention on a particular strand of barbed-wire.
Suddenly, I realize the truck has pulled off the road near our car, rather than continuing around the curve. I glance over my shoulder, but can’t see the driver from my position.
Hair prickles on the back of my neck as I hear crunching footsteps on the gravel road behind me. “Ok, relax,” I think to myself, “It’s not likely the person is going to attack me!” My car makes a distinctive “click” as my daughter hits the door lock button — there will be no help from her today!
Turning on my heel, I stand up to see the tan, time-worn face of a gray-haired gentleman approaching. “What are you doing here?” he asks in a firm voice.
With as welcoming of a smile as I can muster, I respond with “We’re out taking pictures with my camera.”
“What?” he calls out loudly. “I can’t hear you!”
Raising the camera in front of me, I repeat my answer more slowly and with greater volume.
“What?! I can’t hear you without my hearing aids!” he bellows back while reaching into his jeans pocket.
“Taking pictures!” I shout, waving the camera in the air between us.
He pokes a tiny hearing aid into one ear as he again shouts, “What?! I can’t hear you without my hearing aids!”
Ok, this scene is getting a bit comical! This time I hold up the camera and point at it while smiling and nodding until he places the second hearing aid into the other ear.
Both our voices drop down to a normal decibel level as we begin a friendly conversation about photography and fashion-plate forestry. The tree wearing worker’s safety gear and the fence behind it covered in orange cones and reflective tape are his handiwork. He explains that his fence has been destroyed by vehicles three times in the past year by what he assumes to be drunk drivers.
I’m surprised that could happen so many times, even on such a sharp curve, since the fence is close to thirty feet off the road. Before we go our separate ways, he shares a couple of funny stories that do seem to implicate the work of a drunkard. Oh, the tales his cows could tell!
Photogenic Duck Duo
Here’s the friendly ducks I mentioned from our recent photography field trip. I’ll start with the photo of them frantically flying up the bank toward us, hoping for a handout:
“Food?! FOOD!”
“Hey, do you see the food? I don’t think they even have any! Why are they here, then?”
“We don’t have to put up with this. We’re outta’ here!
“Oh! Is that food down there?!”
I’ll insert some random scenery here while the ducks waddle down to the water…the lake was very pretty!
I liked the dragonfly who appeared in the corner of this photo. It was boiling hot outside, but a multitude of bugs were buzzing around sampling the wildflowers.
Now, back to the duck duo…
“Yes! There’s definitely food here! Hurry up!”
“Who needs handouts? This is great!”
Just as a side-note — ducks make very strange sounds when they talk with their heads under water! ha ha
These two hungry characters were an adorable addition to our pleasant morning. The lake was small but lovely, and full of all kinds of flowers and wildlife. We may have to go back there for a picnic some day, and bring treats for the ducks!
Sunny Summer Drive in the Country
My daughter drove me around on a fun photo shoot one sunny summer morning this week, and I thought you might enjoy coming along with us…
Near this farmhouse, we spotted a tree wearing clothes. Yes, you read that right. Soon I hope to share the story of this tree and the farmer who stopped to talk to me while I was photographing it.
A few hills were so steep, I wondered if our poor car would make it to the top.
I climbed up a ditch bank to take this photo (and the one below). When I returned to the car, my daughter informed me that three deer leaped across the gravel road not far past me. Ooo, missed opportunity! I never even knew they were there!
This tree is the reason we went on this journey. We saw it on a previous drive and wanted to come back when the lighting was better. If you’re seeing spots, it’s not your imagination — the air was thick with dragonflies!
I couldn’t decide which angle was best on the last two photos. Which do you prefer, the ground-eye view or shooting from regular height?
It was so pleasant to ride around, documenting our Creator’s beautiful works. We also stopped at a small lake and met two very photogenic ducks, but I’ll save those photos for another time. Thanks for reading this post; I hope it brightened your day!
This photo is from my garden. If you like images with bible verses, please check out the “SCRIPTURE” page which is full of photos you can use and share.
Uninspired (A Summer Photo Gallery)
This seems to be my central theme this summer — uninspired. For the first time in several years, I have had a slow summer where I’ve had time to relax. Rather than use that time wisely, I seem to have fallen into a lazy, selfish slump with an “I don’t care” attitude. How very unusual for me!
My husband claims I am having my midlife crisis. Lol I think that claim is merely retribution because I accused him of the same thing last fall when he planned an expensive spur-of-the-moment vacation. 😉
Regardless of the cause, my blog has been a bit neglected as a result. I simply could not think of a single thing that seemed worth sharing here over the last month.
After looking through my WordPress reader this morning and seeing the blogs listed below, I decided to whip out my old Canon camera and search for inspiration. If you are interested in great photography, encouraging thoughts, and/or interesting info (about photography, nature, famous landmarks, etc.), check out these blogs:
- A Quiet and Peaceable Life by peggyjoan42
- The View from my Window by Laura
- Leanne Cole Photography by Leanne Cole
- Nature Has No Boss by Mike Bizeau
- Reymon de Real Photography by Reymon de Real
- W.H. Sim Photography by W.H. Sim
Dusting off my camera and playing for far too long on PicMonkey.com has enabled me to present you with a summertime photo gallery. I hope you enjoy!
We’ve been blessed with several pop-up showers this summer. Today the clouds passed us by, and it was too hot for the joggers and the “Pokemon Go” players to fill up the park.
“Legion of Honor” marigolds are supposedly a dwarf plant, but they are still over knee high!
Bumblebees and honeybees were buzzing all around my garden, but I only managed to capture one in a photo.
There were no monarchs in my neighborhood this year, so I let the milkweed bugs take over the plants. The nymphs of these bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) love to cuddle in groups on the seed pods of the milkweed plants.
“Suyo Long” cucumbers are wonderful and easy to grow. The cucumbers are burpless, never have bitter skins, and grow to 18 inches long. You can buy seeds for these from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Treasures are hidden among the greenery! To me, eating melons (and sugar snap peas) is the best part of gardening! One of my favorite melons is a honeydew type called “Boule d’Or (Golden Perfection);” seeds for it can also be purchased from rareseeds.com in the link above.
Our poor chickens are about to melt in the triple-digit temperatures this summer. Can you see the optical illusion of the long-legged hen on the left? It’s actually two chickens! Let me show you…
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- The bantam Silkie/Cochin mix hen likes to perch on the water bucket.
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- A large Wyandotte/Easter Egger mix hen provided the long legs for the first photo.
This Leghorn mix got a unique “hairstyle” because of her stubbornness. In 2014, she refused to get out of the older hens’ favorite nest box and got her scalp peeled back by a dominant hen. With a little super glue, raw honey, and several weeks of care, we had her patched up. Unfortunately, the super glue didn’t work long to seal the wound. The skin on her head regrew, complete with new feathers. Strangely, the flap of skin lived as well, forming a unique pom-pom on her head.
I researched this cheerful vine-like weed that grows in the shade around our property. It’s called a dayflower, or Commelina plant.
Here’s another dayflower from the side. The chicken pen has never looked lovelier! ha ha
Here’s an ant’s-eye view under a bush in the yard. I often find that beautiful things are “hiding” all around me, if I look closely enough.
The dragonflies are thick this year! I finally managed to snap a photo of one that paused on a bush.
As you can see, I experimented with framing the photos today. Do you think the frames enhance or take away from the photos? Are certain ones better than others? If you wish, you can compare these photos to a spring gallery I did last year without frames. You can also compare them to an early spring gallery of garden seedlings, which is presented in a tiled format. Which do you prefer? Please let me know in the comments below!
