From the deepest darkness places in the sea the serpent hides waiting for its prey to come to the water edge.  The beauty of sunsets and sunrises always  entice  unaware souls to come for a closer look..

As the sun light sinks over the horizon creating a beauty that will draw many,

the serpent creeps out of the waters depths.

This hideous creature  lurks the shores looking for weak souls to devour. 

While one  stands unsuspecting gazing at the beauty of the sunrise

the serpent crawls closer.

Mindless that something so dark and evil could possible be out there,

they continue to see only the golden glow that lights up the sky.

Suddenly in that moment when all seemed perfect the serpent strikes

filling the soul with visions of horrors. 

An emptiness takes over  the soul

while  being sucked into the dark depths of the underworld. 

The soul may be drawn to the waters edge through beauty,

but without love in their hearts they are unable to resist the serpent.

As the light looses it glorious color

the serpent returns to the sea

to await another soul in search of the beauty that  will

lure them to the waters edge….

Hope you enjoyed my little dark story and photos in celebration of Halloween. 

On a personal note I have been taking some time off from the computer.  I spend way to much time here trying to keep up with everyone and what’s new.  I realize my lifestyle just doesn’t allow it.  I am getting way out of shape and having weight problems I never had before getting hooked up to the internet.  I also was getting overwhelmed with trying to post something and visit everyone.  I know this is suppose to be a fun place but it lost its fun and started to feel like a job.   So I will be cutting back to stay sane and get back in shape.  I will visit when time allows and post.  So many of you continue to be in my prayers and thoughts with love always….

So Wishing Everyone a

Happy Safe Halloween

and a

Good Morning……..     Good Afternoon……..      Good Night………

Whatever it is to you

Photos & Words

by

Here I Am/Carrie

In a world where things are forgotten like turning a sprinkler off at –10c (about 15F), produces wonders as beautiful as any Autumn color, well not really, but I work with what I have and since I have so little Autumn color here at the ranch I will share instead Autumn Ice Sculptures.

A little Autumn a lot of Ice..

As the sun peaked over the ridge the light show began.

With sprinkler still going the sparkles were flying.

Caught between the colors of fall and the icy world of winter

Wildflowers were frozen in time..

But their beauty continues to shine in a new dimension.

Baubles formed by blades of grass
like diamonds scattered on the lawn.

From every plant a new sculpture grew..

Reaching for the heavens like a bean stock

till the warmth of the sun ended its growth.

But not before a perennial garden of ice sculptures were formed.

Beauty so fleeting as Autumn color

will be here one day and gone the next.

Whatever season it is for you, find whatever beauty you can.

To those celebrating Thanksgiving

To everyone else

Good Morning…..     Good Afternoon……     Good Night…….

Whatever it is to you…

Photo & Words

by

Here I Am/Carrie

My new camera gives me a new view of nature.   I didn't go out and buy a bigger camera as I know a lot of people would like to see me use.  I take photos as a hobby to add something creative in my life and keep it simple.  If I had better equitement I would feel the need to push myself to new horizons in photography that I just don’t have the time for in my life right now.  The simplicity of what I have brings me so much joy just to share what I see or how I view what I see.  Someday I might get serious about it, but right now I have other things that keep me very busy not allowing the time and dedication I would required of myself to take it to another level.  Right now everything is baby steps….

So lets start with the specs on my new baby.  Nothing to fancy but offers much more then my old one.

Introducing my New Baby to the left.  That’s the old girl on the right.  I'd had nothing yet picked out.  Just was in a store and saw the new one picked it up and it felt right and it was on sale for 139.00.  Same story when I purchased my old one, also same price 4 years ago.  Picked them both up and they felt right.  Just like that.  So the old girl had taken most the photos you have seen up to this point except the last couple posts and some I have yet to post. 

The new one has many more abilities and manual setting I can use.   With poor eye sight I love the bigger screen on the new one, but don't like the visuals on the buttons and the small dial I am finding a pain to turn also the on/off button isn’t so quick to find and hit.  My old one was just an ease to change settings with the dials and buttons.  Easy to read and manoeuvre.  

I can still use my xD picture cards from the old camera also.  The old girl was built solid.  The new girl is very petite  and slim.   She fits in my pockets and her battery lasts a long time.  She can go into sleep mode while I am walking from place to place.  My favourite thing is I can get really close now with the macro and actually stay focused on my subject.  Also with the image stabilization my zooms are a bit better as well as the close ups.  I can spot focus.  Love that..

So good bye to the old girl who's had here  body slammed to the ground a couple of times, but always got up ready to shoot again.   The photo below was her 1st injury.  3 days after I bought it  I got out of the car for a quick photo and was fumbling and dropped it on the pavement.  A little nicked but was still in good working order. My lesson that day was always put the strap around my wrist as soon as the camera is in my hands.  The size of the camera made that easy to do.   So for 4 more years aside from some bumps or small drops on soft ground she had any easy life till one day last November.    The photo on the left  was damage on the lens cause by a true body slam.   I was squatting take photos  and was try to get further back when my heal caught the edge of some paver bricks.  Well my 1st instinct was to throw my hand back to stop my fall.  Of course attached to my hand was my camera with the wrist strap I always used out of habit.  It flew back attached with the strap to my hand and hit the paver bricks with such an impact on the lens which was out at the time and bent it.  I almost started to cry thinking I must have killed my camera.  It would not pull the lens back in when I shut it off, it was so bent.  So I grab hold of the lens and tried to straighten it till when I hit the off button the lenses pulled in again.  Then turned it back on and it came back out.   Next took a couple more photos and downloaded to the computer and believe it or not only the photo I was taking when it happened was lost, otherwise all was working still.   That's one old camera that could take a booting and  keep on shooting.   I am still using her in the garden and documenting my garden work.  Also handy when my battery goes on the new one, haven’t bought a second battery for it yet. 

So I hope with my new camera I will be able to take you closer and more clearly into how I view the world.

From the little details in life…

                              To the budding beauty in spring…..

Trying something new

Bird Watching

I have been seeing so many photos out there of birds.   I had to give it a serious effort.   So I set my tripod at my window with this view to the bird feeders.  It is about 10 feet away.   Set my new camera for looking thru glass and began swinging the camera around and zooming in.    Well with some serious trials I finally got the hang of it and manage to catch a few.

Lets see what we have here at the feeders during this shoot.

        Evening Grosbeak           Western Tanager              Stellar Jay

    I think a Skylark             Pine Siskin (Finch)        Brown Headed Cow Bird

  The challenge is on, with time can I improve catching this shot.  Or was this just luck with my little camera.

Rufous Hummingbird

 I have geese nesting just below our deck.  The nest here is just in the center of the photo, sitting on top of a beaver house.

Not much of a good zoom but        

         Here’s the male near by                   Here’s the female on the nest

 I am going to try and get closer to her for better photos.  I also discovered another goose on a nest near our beaver pond.   This is the 1st year we have ever seen geese nesting near our house or vicinity.   We have look forward to this for many years. 

So I hope everyone is enjoying what ever season is upon them.  

  To Everyone I wish you a Blessed

Good Morning        Good  Afternoon       Good Night

Whatever it is to you

Photos and Words

by

Here I Am/Carrie

From the low desert surrounding the Salton Sea in California to the higher desert near Congress Arizona.  You will see stark hillsides where vegetation struggles to survive to lush deserts in the higher elevations.  

Many photos are from past years as we have been busy with work on our lot doing landscaping instead of exploring the area or taking new photos.  I love doing the landscaping as it allows me to be creative in another way with rocks, plants and colours that use little water and can survive the harsh summer climate here.  Also my body absorbs many hours of happiness while working in the sunshine.   Where ever we are we are always working hard.  Our recreation has just been enjoying the beautiful views from our property and watching the birds, rabbits, quails, roadrunners and other small wildlife during our leisurely meal times.   I have been trying to get more wild life photos here but without a tripod everything comes out blurred and when I try to get close they run or fly away and a breeze seems to always be blowing when I try to take close ups of flowers.

So for now I share with you scenes of a very still desert.

We start high above the Salton Sea where the landscape looks barren dead.

Vegetation has to struggle to survive but even with expose roots this ocotillo lives to become part of the beauty of the setting sun. 

Many see only stark barren hills here, but I see colours, textures, rocks, interesting formations, plants and most of all small canyons calling out for me to explore, I am always excited about what I will find around the corner or when climbing out to the top knowing some beautiful view await to be seen.

Here lies the balance, a desert flower in bloom.  God gives beauty and colour even in what seems to be a barren area when viewed at a distance.

Still higher yet above the Salton Sea in the Anza Borrego State park the landscape will comes alive with colour when all the right conditions of rain at the right times take place.

Many cactus may not have blooms on them, but their beauty lies in there unique shape which is always more beautiful silhouetted against the fading light of a sunset.

In the desert where little water is the ocotillo survives where little else can.   In some areas near springs or creeks  lush wild groves of palm trees can be found.  The contrast and beauty in both help bring a balance to the desert. 

Here near Congress Arizona you will find a more traditional looking desert as more rain falls here.  Here in the spring rains can turn everything green as a mountain forest. 

The landscape of this desert with its rocks, cactus and views would needs no changes.  This is natural landscaping at its best.

Below the prickly untouchable cactus lie the soft petals of spring flowers.

In this scene I look up and see the beauty God gave the desert all in one place.  The rock formations, shrubs, cactus and flowers all set below a vibrant blue sky with those big puffy white clouds.

Our journey ends as the moon rises over Joshua trees in the higher desert.

I hope you enjoyed the desert scenes that are in complete contrast to my world I normally view up in British Columbia, my mountains, valleys, creeks and lush green forest.   I am blessed with the life to experience both of these worlds. 

As many of you know I don't have Internet access down here at the Salton Sea so have not been able to keep on up my visits or respond to invites or messages.  I tried to visit as many people as I could last time I posted while visiting my parents using their Internet but had to keep it short as I was there to visit my family not space friends.  I apologized to many of you I missed visiting who I normally visit regularly but time ran out.  I am not even going to try visiting any more while down here.  When I do get a chance to upload my new blogs I have time for little else.  So I will try and catch up with everyone in May after I have had a chance to settle back in up North.  I also apologize to anyone who has sent messages or invites I am not ignoring you, but have been unable to even view them and will also respond in May.

So to everyone

Good Morning.........Good Afternoon..........Good Night........

Whatever it is to you

Photos by

Here I Am/Carrie

Take a glimpse of a world mirrored with my thoughts.  Journey with me as I search the depths of my minds reflections.  Ok now I am already making myself laugh at such heady words coming from me...

In the Blue of the Day...

I see reflections of a world fill with

Hope   Peace   Beauty   

and

Love

In our real world that is not always

what we see or feel....

So we stare into the deep pools

Looking for answers that already exist... 

We must learn to be filled with

a joy to Live a Life

Our

Creator so gave us....  

To feel Love

Even in the darkness  moments 

The World is what we make of it...

What you see is merely a reflection of

who we are......

We are the Keepers of

Our Bodies and Our Planet....

Disrespect for either is disrespect for our Creator

Care for your Earth and she will care for you......

Care for your Body and your Body

will give you strength to Care for Others

Care for Others and God will Smile

When God smiles our Spirits will Soar.......

Care to Care

***************

To All My Friends

Good Morning      Good Afternoon       Good Night

Whatever it is to you

Words & Photos

by

Here I Am/Carrie

Who says there are no flowers or buds to be found in the dead of winter.  The blooms of winter can suddenly appear one morning, often to only disappear by the afternoon.   Come with me for a walk thru my winter gardens.  View the elusive  winter blooms and buds of new growth.

 Loaded with the growth of new  white petals and leafs.....

 Water plants also sprout during the winter with delicate growth....

 So loaded with the heaviness of winters blossoms and leafs

 Ever so delicate as the 1st cherry blossoms in the spring.....

 From a wild profusion to a delicate tiny blossom.....

 Like the new spring ferns that come up in the forests floors.....

 Sprouting through the fences with the glory of winters growth....

 A single rose in the summer has its beauty....

But none compare to the beauty of this chrystal blooming stock......

 Here there everywhere the fields where blooming with wild winter blossoms..

 Like a bulb that sprouts in the spring this ice flower grew overnight....

 Blooms  of every kind sprouted through out the area.....

  When sun glistens thru these blooms of chrystals no summer flower can match it beauty....

 Enjoying the beauty of a single plant or the profusion of many...

 Chrystal Buds Of Winter

 The warms rays of the sun are slowing melting the elusive winter bloom....

Lilly blooms of the winter.. ..There delicate petals afloat on a ice field of blue...

So you see the flowers and buds are not only in summer but also in winter.  But they are elusive and require just the right weather to bloom.  Just like the desert flowers which require all the rights conditions to bloom. 

Hope you enjoyed your walk thru my winter garden of blooms and buds.....

So to all my friends

Good morning......Good afternoon......Good night......

Whatever it is to you...

Photos by

Here I Am/Carrie

In looking closely at my woodland even in the winter I find beauty in the little things. 

Many people have said how they would love to live where I live.  There is beauty to be found even in your own back yard.. I have traveled and lived all across the United States and traveled across Canada.  I know that the beauty of nature is everywhere,  one just needs to open their eyes to it. 

There are special places everywhere, they may not be out your back door,  but you don't have to travel far to find it.  Explore where you live with open eyes and you will see God has given everyone something special near them to help look at nature more closely.  When he created nature it was for you....Just like a painting or a movie he wants you to stand back and go WOW that is beautiful, amazing and sometimes terrifying.  But it all stimulates your senses to feel.  When you learn to feel for nature, you learn to respect and care about it.

When you learn to care about it , you realize you may be doing things in life that contributes to destroying something God gave you.

So my message for the New Year

try and do your part to help preserve what

God has created for us 

and learn to love unconditionally

The course of nature is    the  art of God.

                                                     - Edward Young

As the pine stays green

thru out the year

May you also preserve

Gods creations

Be Green also thru

the year....

- Here I Am/Carrie 

The world does not have to change.... The only thing that has to change is our attitude.

- Gerald Jampolsky

We never touch but at points.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.

- Tuli Kupferberg     

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature's mighty law is change.

- Robert Burns

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

So wishing everyone a

New Year full of Hope for the Future

Photos by

Here I Am/Carrie

Come sit with me on my deck with a nice hot spiced wine and enjoy the skies nature painted for me in the months of November and the 1st week of December here in my valley.  Some of my photos I enhanced with a little saturation and contrast, but no other colours or enhancements were added.  Normally I never get to see such beautiful skies here.  I think the more then normal cloudy days and mists help contribute to the extra colour this year.

So bundle up as its getting a little chilly on the deck and just imagine that hot spiced wine.......

 The sky always carry's my spirit away to far away places..... 

 Into the golden glow the light surrounds you....

 A warm feeling always comes within yourself......

 You want to fly onto rooftops for a better view......

     Ever changing making each time you look into the sky an new experience....

 Sometime the patterns help you to see something new in your spirit....

 Other times it just brings a peace that only natures beauty and God can bring to us......

  When the mist rises to the the skies.....You are drawn to look deeper.....

 In looking deeper nature brings you closer to God.........

 When you are close to God you reflect back the beauty that lies within all of us.....

Well friends my hot spiced wine is empty...

and it is really getting cold out.

Guess it is time to say good bye for now..

photos and narration

by

Here I Am/Carrie

 Nature creates it own tapestries of art.   With water as its paint and cold air as its brush,  nature produces paintings frozen in time with the help of my camera.

"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey,
and enjoy every idle hour. "
-   John Boswell

 Natures frozen canvas is filled with the every changing movement in her.....

Her frosty hand lays colours of white and blue to the warm tones of her body.....

 Her designs all reflect the natural beauty which is only hers to create.

With her whites and blues there is even hints of pinks while mixing shades with her body......

 The texture in her painting bring out the depth in her brushes......

"Lo!  now the direful monster, whose skin clings to his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:  He withers all in silence, and his hand unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life."
-   William Blake, Poetical Sketches -Winter, 1783 

 Clinging like feathers to the green of life only to disappear with the warmth of the sun...

      She is not only a painter.......... But also a sculptor...

 The Yin and Yang in her.....

 Life beneath her frozen mirror....                   

"Ice on the earth, bitter black frost, and a winding sheet of snow
upon her withered breast, and deep within me, dread and ice."
-   Jessica MacBeth, Winter Poems

"Someone painted pictures on my Windowpane last night --
Willow trees with trailing boughs And flowers, frosty white,
And lovely crystal butterflies; But when the morning sun
Touched them with its golden beams, They vanished one by one."
-   Helen Bayley Davis, Jack Frost

 Hope you enjoyed Mother Natures journey thru her paintings and sculptors...

Photos by

   Here I Am/Carrie

In wondering the woodlands of my valley, a secret world presents its self..    Natures beauty in its tiny wondrous ways,  gives you a glimpse into the details of Gods creations...

 The stars in heaven are also found on

the forest floors...

The stars come in many colours and shapes...

Each a world of its own........      

Separate yet all interwoven in the tapestry of nature..... 

 Interlocking they all exist....

 One often supporting the other....

 A simple rotting stump sprouts an alien growth...

A breeze to spread the seeds of life...

A mushroom being dried by a squirrel for winter food...

The secrets of life and death are hidden in the

forest floors.... 

    Sometime for new life to exist....

another life must die.....

 As moss clings to a rock to survive

providing a habitat for for more plants to grow..

We are all connected...

We are all interlinked.....

Support for one is support for all....

 God made the beauty of nature

so that you might look deep into it seeing his secrets...

By learning the secrets of nature....

You  learn how to be one with all...

photos and words

by

Here I Am/Carrie

Saying Farewell to Fall colours and Buster my dog...

I have not been visiting for a few days and will not be for a few more days as I am dealing with my ageing dog Buster  who will no longer be with us by the end of the week..   He has lived a long and healthy life till about 5 weeks ago when a lump started growing rapidly on his back hip....We chose no treatment as he is an old man already and has slowed down a great deal. 

Farewell Buster Brown

Farewell to all the beautiful fall colours.

Here I Am

Happy Halloween...

"The harvest moon hangs round and high
It dodges clouds high in the sky,
The stars wink down their love and mirth
The Autumn season is giving birth.
Oh, it must be October
The leaves of red bright gold and brown,
To Mother Earth come tumbling down,
The breezy nights the ghostly sights,
The eerie spooky far off sounds
Are signs that it's October.
The pumpkins yellow,. big and round
Are carried by costumed clumsy clowns
It's Halloween - let's celebrate."
-   Pearl N. Sorrels, It Must be October 

 The Hollow Man

by T.S. Eliot

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

 
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

That was a little gloom and doom from me...

To you....

Because in life not everything is green and lush.....

Flowers and Sunshine

Happiness and Love

There is a balance to everything...

The Scales of Life..

So Remember Everything and Everyone

Adds to the Balance of Life

Here I Am

Photos by Here I Am/Carrie

 Inspired by my photo friends who are always helping us all to look at life from different speeds, lights, angles, subjects and colours.....

My rushing waters taken with my little point and shoot and no tripod, all my shots are always hand held.  A little light adjustment that my camera has,  allows me to slow down the speed a little...

Let the Rivers Flow

I came where the river ran over stones;
My ears knew an early joy.
And all the waters of all the streams
Sang in my veins that summer day.
-  Theodore Roethke, The Waking, 1948

Our bodies are molded rivers.
-   Novalis

For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we
think little about it beyond this point of contact.  We have lost
a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings
of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports.
-   Sandra Postel, Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity

When time comes for us to again rejoin the infinite stream of water
flowing to and from the great timeless ocean, our little droplet of
soulful water will once again flow with the endless stream.
-   William E. Marks, The Holy Order Of Water

A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, 
living part of the very earth itself.
-   Laura Gilpin

 Like swift water, an active mind never stagnates.

Life is Water when it Dies so do you 

Save Your Water

Save Your Life

-Here I Am Carrie-

Go With The Flow

Here I Am

Nothing is more beautiful then to witness the drops of water left behind after a rain.   To seek out the diamonds left behind to enrich your lives.  They shine with the delicate balance of the many facets of nature.

The good rain, like the bad preacher,

does not know when to leave off.

-  Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Joy all creatures drink
At nature's bosoms...
~Friedrich von Schiller, "Ode to Joy," 1785, translated from German

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water;
she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.
-   St. Francis of Assisi

Drinking nature is an unquenchable thirst.  ~Berri Clove

I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains. 
One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge,
but one misses a world of loveliness.
-  Adeline Knapp

Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
-   John Milton

 Raindrops are like fairy whispers.  ~Author Unknown

Water is the driver of Nature.
-   Leonardo da Vinci  

By means of water, we give life to everything.
-   Koran,  21:30

Everywhere water is a thing of beauty gleaming in the dewdrop,
singing in the summer rain.
-  John Ballantine Gough

Another late night trying to get something out after visiting everyone and being inspired by what they have to share.

So again

Good night.....Good morning...... Good Day

Whatever it is for you

Here I Am

Photos by Carrie

  A Glimpse of the last of summers beauty and to some of you what is yet to come.  To add to my pictures I have finally discovered some quotes and poems.  Remember this Internet is all new to me.  Da!!! Google Google....  There she be just what I needed.  My discovery had led me to a treasure of quotes and poems just suited for my topics and photos. Reading all this poetry actually inspired me to write the first and last poem in this little gallery of flowers.  Hope you enjoy the last of my summer of colour.   For those that summer will soon be coming hope this inspires you to really stop and look at the beauty in a flower. 

From out of the black she comes   

A flower as bright as a star

Her colours bold and brilliant

She radiates her love afar

- Author Here I Am Carrie

What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! 
It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome.
Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our starts
the flowers of the heaven.
-   A.J. Balfour 

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
- William Carlos Williams

The Earth Laughs in Flowers
-  Ralph Waldo Emerson  

Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacred
flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages.
Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved
women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to
take the souls of women to the Elysian fields.
-   Hana No Monogatari 

Each flower a soul opening out to nature.

-   Gerald De Nerval

Where flowers bloom so does hope. 

Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower
could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply
wasn't room for any other thought....
-   Sophie Scholl

                 In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.

My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.

The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.
-   Abram L. Urban

Flowers are love's truest language.
-   Park Benjamin

If you pass by the colour purple in a field and
don't notice it, God gets real pissed off.
-   Alice Walker

Lone and erect, beneath light's primal flood,
A lily!  and pure as any one of you.
-   Mallarme

Little flower, but if I could understand, what you are,

root and all in all, I should know what God and man is.
-  Tennyson

From the dark she came and into the light she went

Stretching, stretching towards the sun...

she reaches for the heavens above

But grounded to the earth

she always stays.....

-author I Am Here Carrie

Ok I need a mind break after all that..

So to everyone

Good Night ..........Good Morning....... Good Day

Hope yours is a Good One.

HERE I AM

Photos by Carrie

Since mostly what you have seen from me are my photos and I need to practice this writing business, I thought I would give you my photo credentials. 

I have none.....  Never took a class never read a book. Just see, focus, adjust a little and shoot.

My husband gave me a fancy Pentax with a wide angle when I was 23.  I played with it a bit but mostly just used it for general picture taking.   Too costly on film and developing to play around with.  A couple photos in my mushroom collection are from that camera.   Gave my Pentax away to a new aspiring photographer when I bought my digital.  I had used that camera for 20 years.

In 2004 halfway thru our east coast trip I bought my first digital camera.   We were staying the night in the Walmart parking lot in our motor home (cheap way to travel) so I had lots of time to really check the cameras out.  I had read a few consumer guide blurbs so kind of new what to look for but not expensive.

I purchased an Olympus CAMEDIA  D-535  3.2 megapixel with 3X Optical zoom, Seamless 12X with Optical and Digital.  I am just reading off the lenses AF Zoom 5.8-17.4mm.  Also has 2 macro setting for getting up close.  I do a lot of that.  Paid on sale about $150.00 .  Back then it was not the newest but I wanted some descent optical zoom and had to have the macro.   It is small and fits in the palm of my hand.  All my photos so far except for a couple of mushrooms were taken with this camera.

Spent all night reading and re-reading the instructions.  I always read instructions.  Nothing bugs me more then people who get fancy electronics and don't know how to use them or use the special features available. 

So I way hooked.  Wow!!!  I could now take tons of photos.  Delete the bad ones.  Yes we all have bad ones.  Now had to do something with all the pictures.  I only had an older laptop that had been given to me.  It was already outdated from  the previous owner.  Try as I may, working with just one photo, my computer would always crash.  One day I spent 3 hours trying to get one photo printed on a card for someone.   So it was always back to Walmart to get a photo CD made and print what I wanted.  Still couldn't share.

Finally June 2007 I made my first purchase of a new computer.   Always had free used ones. Went from Dos to Windows 95 to Vista.  Having come from Windows 95 Vista is amazing to me.  And of course I read all the computer magazine consumer stuff so I knew what to look for.  Wow a computer I could work with all my photos and a printer so I could print them.  

Right away I started learning how to use the new photo program I got free with the printer.  Again nothing fancy.  But when I learned how to layer pictures to produce collages I started having fun.  Putting peoples faces in flowers and sending personal cards.  I call them Blooming Heads.  I will share another time.

Yes I am ready for a much better camera, but the prices have to drop a bit more.  Would love to get a digital that did what my old Pentax did.   I am still very limited with what I have.  I need something that takes a big zoom.  I see so much Wildlife but when I zoom in with my little camera it becomes blurred. 

Well enough practising writing back to Photos

My biggest project was last year I made a Calendar, Collage of Pictures from throughout the year.  Check out my 2008 calendar at my blog photos.  A true glimpse into my life.   This is me.

Here I Am