By Golden Pond . . .

Aside from the many rainy days, we have had a colorful autumn this year. I know that the vibrant yellows, oranges and reds will soon give way to dull browns, so I have endeavored to capture these happy shades to reflect back on when winter arrives and drags on for what seems an eternity. As I travel on my routine trips to and from town I have found myself making mental notes of places to go back and photograph, such as the house with the bright yellow tree in the bend. Fortunately, one of my mental notes was to go out by the pond and photograph the trees and their reflections. Mental Notes!....pretty good since I am a stone's throw from tying strings around my fingers to remember anything else.

Black|White . . .

The theme for this week's photo challenge is back & white. My first thought was of our two b/w cats: Mary Jo & Binx. Two cats with the same coloring, but very different personalities. Mary Jo could best be described as assertive, aggressive, evil. But when she is chilling - she chills belly up. I couldn't resist taking a picture of her giving me the look over her shoulder the other day. Hard to believe that she showed up on our door step a few years back almost starved to death. (hasn't missed a meal since!)

What now . . .

Kids: There's nothing to snack around here!
Mom: Sure there is - there are apples
Kids: yuck
Mom: There's grapes, raisins, bananas
Kids: We're tired of those
Mom: How about some crackers or a granola bar
Kids: They are gone - anyway, we want something different
Mom: Such as ?..?..?
Kids: .....[crickets]....

Consequently I was compelled to pick up a pomegranate at the grocery store. Pomegranates are in everything anymore and in an effort to move my family to healthier eating with more variety I thought I would pick one up and try it. Honestly - I have never had pomegranates before except in juices/drinks; but I assumed it was just another fruit condensed into juice - hense, eatable at some stage. Surprise Surprise!

There should be a warning lable 'cut over a bowl' because this baby is all about the juice. Allyson looked at the innerds of the fruit then looked up at me and said - "uh, no thanks! I'll have an apple. Good luck with that!"

Feeling a bit guilty for buying food I had no idea what to do with, I proceeded to the internet and came across the following:

"When life hands you broken pomegranates, make jelly"

...or you can toss them in salads, sprinkle on soups, use to embellish dishes (haha - like that happens in my house) or float in drinks. Float in drinks it is! With 2 teenagers, our grocery bills just keep going up because it is like they graze and before the next grocery run - we go through this routine all over again...

"mom, there's nothing to eat around here!

Simple challenges . . .

Color Challenge: red

Photo Challenge: DOF

I am also being challenged with
re-learning how to upload photos from the MAC versus PC,
and photo editing from PSE versus CS format.
Life's simple challenges.

little by little . . .

Autumn is creeping in. There are parts of the state that are radiant with colors; however, our neck of the woods is only sprinkled with touches of red and oranges - settling mostly on yellows and browns.

Fading . . .

Signs of summer fading into Fall/Winter (forecast of snow this weekend! ugh!!!)

tiny BUBBLES . . .

It felt so good to go outside today - no rain, no freaky 80 degrees - just cool sunny autumn. I played around with some bubbles to see what I could get in terms of reflections - but since they were not stacking bubbles, I mainly got just psychedelic colors and a touch of trees.

Reflection . . .

I am definitely ready to move on past last week. A week heavy with sorrow; a week embroiled with controversy over whether the school system should do more to prevent any wide-spread epidemic of the flu virus; a week of paranoia of whether or not my son's stuffy head and on/off cough is anything more than seasonal allergies. I'm ready to move on. I am ready to see some sunshine. I am ready to do something productive around the house. I am so ready to move on, so what do we have for this week's photo challenge theme but "reflection"! I suspect we will be reflecting back on this past week for a very long time. As for this week - I look forward to taking more photos and experimenting with reflections.

Musical aspirations . . .

a few from NYC for the photo challenge 'play that FunKy music...".

The OTHER child . . .

Looking back over my posts I feel guilty that there is an imbalance, a greater tendency to share pictures and stories of one over the other. As a child, I accused my mom of having a preference. Her response was that when I had children I would better understand that a loving mom does not prefer one child over the other, but champions to each of their individual strengths and weaknesses (for the record, she never denied loving my younger brother the best!). I do not love or prefer one child over the other, it is just that one child is head strong and seldom wavers from what she is doing and has 'teenager' down to a science. She will do as asked - but only WHEN she is ready to do it - and generally with a bit of negotiation. The boy is still in the 'testing the waters' of 'teenager', consequently is more willing to do as asked and caves MUCH easier when the topic of photos comes up. In defense of my daughter - she does have a boat-load of school work and when not doing that - she prefers to watch the news, Glenn Beck, and draw at her computer. Every now and then she graces me with help on photoshop and shares one of her drawings. So - after all this jabber.....I thought today I would share a sampling of art by Allyson - hand drawn on her computer.

Evening stroll . . .

I took a stroll last evening with my son to enjoy the comfortable Fall weather, but to also talk about the death of a fellow student from swine flu. As a parent we are supposed to know the answers, but on this one I am as lost and concerned as my children. As a parent, I can only drill the importance of precaution and be there to console their fears. As a parent, I count my blessings of getting to take walks with my son on such a beautiful evening.

Play that funky music . . .

Seriously - this week's photo theme is 'play that funky music white boy' - so I will obligingly submit some photos of the effort (from the torrential down-pour show).

[for the love of Pete - it was as if the guy in green was trying to step in my way each shot!]

finally!

but only in time for them to go out into this ....

[shot taken with p&s while tilting umbrella in one hand,
and while some of the grain is from camera -
most of that is RAIN!]

Idle Time . . .

I LOVE Fall and today was a superb sampling of it. I love the crispness of the air with a subtle hint of cold that begs for the windows to be opened to air out the house before the cold is no longer subtle. I love the fragrance of McIntosh Apple or Pumpkin Spice candle melts inside the house that confirm summer is over.

After having a house of boys over night, by noon everyone had scattered to either a football game or to the Pumpkin Festival, leaving me to do what I live to do - decorate! Each year I tell myself I'll just put out a couple of pumpkins, or just one tree with a few Christmas bulbs, or maybe just an Easter Bunny or two.....and then I find myself with a little idle time and boxes of holiday decorations calling my name. I just can't help myself!

[a small portion of our tombstone collection
& just the tip of the iceberg of our Halloween decorations
...maybe there is a 12 step program for this?!]

Kids! . . .

Despite their best efforts to avoid the camera - I still managed to capture a few shots from TaeKwonDo - but only a few. Kids can be so elusive!