Summertime 2014 Photography Scavenger Hunt #18

Hello, hello!
Listening to the rain pattering on the roof of our motorhome on this first day of the long Labor Day weekend. We've finally gotten a chance to get away for a little holiday/vacation, just the two of us (and Tip, the dog). Spending a relaxing five days at the Echo Island Ranch just outside Coalville with Clare's sister, brother, and sister-in-law. And because the campground is located on the Weber River, I thought that of course there would be a waterfall to fulfill #18 in Rinda's Photography Scavenger Hunt. And so there is!

It actually is a man-made falls but it takes water and re-circulates it from the river and looks quite natural. The flora all around is what grows naturally along the river too as you can see in this picture of yours truly.

That's the Weber River in the background. 

We're having a lovely time even though at the moment it is raining. No worries. We are snug and dry in our home on wheels!

Ta for now!

Sunday Zoom In Zoom Out

Sunday Hello!

I thought I'd join in with Helena's meme, Zoom In Zoom Out, for Week 34, after seeing what I saw (and photographed) this afternoon. I was sitting out in the sunshine finishing up the book Pearl by Mary Gordon when I glanced up and saw this swallowtail on the butterfly bush (appropriate):

I went into the house and grabbed my proper camera (as opposed to my IPhone) and snapped away. Above is the zoom out and below are a couple zoom in's!

You will notice that this very beautiful creature is sporting an imperfection; that is, a tear in its wing, which of course I didn't notice until I zoomed in. It didn't seem to impede its flight from bloom to bloom. I found this to be a wonderfully delightful way to spend 20 minutes or so. Thanks, Helena, for providing a platform for sharing photographic wonders!

Laters and have a wonderful week!

Additions to 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

Summer is still upon us and a HOT one it's been! Today when I got back in the car after spending a couple hours at the office, the temp read 105 degrees! Of course, I realize (as my sweet husband pointed out) that the car had been sitting in the sun but, yikes! Anyhow, I hurried home to the AC and a tall, cool glass of water . . .

I've managed to get three more photos for the Scavenger Hunt and this evening plan on getting at least one more, maybe two when we go to the first-of-the-season Tooele High School football game. In the meantime, here are three photos of #19 on the list, a public garden:

As you can see, this is the Master Garden; it is in front of the Tooele Health and Utah State University Extension Service building on Main Street. Local Master gardeners planned and planted it and although it's just one short sidewalk worth, it is quite lovely.

New day - Saturday, 16 August. Right as I added the above photos last night, my laptop decided to shut down and update! Gotta' love Microsoft! Anyhoo . . . by the time we got back from the game, I was more in the mood to get in my jammies and settle down with a wee bowl of ice cream and my latest read. 

The football game was really just a sort of practice, show-the-community-what-we've-got deal. It's an informal game called the Purple and White (Tooele High School colors) and pits all four grades (Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Varsity Seniors) against each other. Half were dressed in their white uniforms and the other half in purple and/or black. Our grandson is a Junior this year playing on the Junior and Varsity team; hence our attendance. Not only did I want to go to see my grandson (what self-respecting grandparent would not! :) ) but I thought perhaps I could get a picture of the mascot (white buffalo) and even the band "parading" on the field at half-time to fulfill #'s 12 and 14 for the Photo Scavenger Hunt. Well, firstly, as noted above, it was not really an official game so there were no cheerleaders or mascot running around and secondly, there was no half-time so no band, no parade, no dancing girls . . .! My granddaughter tried to foist this picture of she and her brother taken the 23rd of March on me for the mascot but I cannot cheat! (I am showing it here though because it is pretty darn cute!)

Ty is such a good brother; he dressed in the Tooele Buff costume so McKenna could use this photo as part of her campaign for Student Body Officer (which she won). Here are a couple photos I took last night at the football field just so you know I made an attempt!

Okay, so on to the other photos taken for the Hunt. 

#6 - An urban street scene. Taken Wednesday, the 13th, in Sugarhouse, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

#6-02 - An urban street scene. Taken same day looking south down State Street, Salt Lake City.

#20 - A bus with a picture painted on the sides. This photo is of a Utah Transit Authority (UTA) bus in downtown Salt Lake City. The quite obvious signage is advertising a gambling hotspot 100 miles southwest on the Nevada State border.

You will notice that all three of these photos also feature #17 on the list, a lamp post! So did the public garden photos above, but I am not going to split hairs.

So, with five weeks and two days left until the Autumn Equinox, I have four photos left to find: #12, a mascot; #14, a parade; #15, a juggler; and, #18, a waterfall. Since I am pretty certain that I'll never find a juggler (although one never knows!), I spotted this today: Alternative B, a bird house!

Clever, no?!

A couple days ago, I holed up in my messy craft area and produced a scrapbook layout using a photo taken back in May. I've been quite inspired of late by a couple You Tubers who do fabulous scrapbook process videos - like I don't have anything else to do! Anyhow, one of them, Gretchen at Stamping Rooster, uses lots of fun mixed media and her general style appeals to me. I was not real brave but I did use a paint dabber over a 'stencil' which was the negative space of flowers I fussy cut from this Studio Calico paper. I also did some layering which is more new-to-me and dotted around sequins and enamel dots. Here is the result:

There's a little black pennant missing in the upper right hand corner; it appears to have fallen off when I was wrangling the page about to photograph! It's on there now though, nice and stuck down. This was fun to do and I've got a couple other pages in the works.

Time for gathering up the laundry and putting together a fruit salad for tonight's meal. 

Ta!

Month of July in Numbers

I'm joining in with Julie Kirk again this month (last official MinN was April's! Argh!) for Month in Numbers. This month was looong (31 days!) and HOT and full of plenty of activities and happenings.

# of IPhone photos taken and added to Collect calendar = 59. Some of the days there were as many as five to record and only two days with zero.

We celebrated Independence Day, the 4th, quietly with a picnicky sort of meal and watching the fireworks at the high school football field (four blocks east of us here on Vine) from our backyard. Didn't go to the parade in the morning - this would've been a great opportunity to fulfill #14 on the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt - because it was already 95 degrees at 9:00 a.m. when it started and we were just plain too lazy!

This is not a terribly good picture of the fireworks but you kind of get the idea . . .

# of books read in July = 3 plus reading Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother. This is on my IPad Kindle and so I pick it up only occasionally. An aside here - I really don't like reading from the screen but when I can't find a book I really want to read at the city library, I resort to Kindle books. About this book: I don't like Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott, very much but that dislike surely comes from a 21st century prejudice.

# of photos found for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt = 14 of 21. (Today, the 1st of August, I added another!) See posts here, here, and here. 

# of postcards sent for Sian's Pile of Postcards Swap = 6 - 4 to the UK, one to Canada, and one to New York State. 

# of postcards received for said Swap = 8; 5 from the UK (Helena sent a return card - thank you so much!), one from France, and 2 from Tennessee (an extra one from Barbara!). Absolutely loved doing this and now have new (and very talented!) friends from all over.

This is the postcard I received from Alexa just yesterday, the 31st.

Doing this swap reminds me of when I was young and had "penpals" that I found through comic books, particularly Katy Keene. . . and that's a story for another day :).

# of family birthdays celebrated = 5. Granddaughter-in-law DaviJo's 27th on the 13th; Daughter-in-law Crystal's 42nd on the 18th; Great-granddaughter Aubrey's 8th on the 21st; Granddaughter Jessica's 21st on the 22nd; and, my sister Delta's 61st on the 24th! Girls ruled this month! I called my sister in Silverado, California on her birthday and we had a lovely 45+ minute chat. Just don't get to gab like that often enough!

# of days triple digit temperatures = 5 according to the weather service but it sure seems like more! 

# of miles driven to Panguitch (Utah) for the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo at the Triple C Arena = 228 in 4 hours.

This is a picture of our truck and three-horse trailer driven by our two grandsons (one driving, one entertaining no doubt!) on the road south to Panguitch. My husband and I and our dog are behind them in the motor home. . . well, until we got to the turnoff after losing sight of them on Interstate 15! Grampa got a tad irritated and had me text them that "even though the speed limit was 80 mph on the freeway, doesn't mean you go that fast . . . you are hauling horses, not hauling ass!" Oh dear! 

We arrived safely Tuesday, the 15th, and spent the next three full days rodeoing. Actually, me and Grampa [is that right? or should it be "Grampa and I?"] provided food and bed and the grandboys did the rodeoing!

# of performances/slack attended at said rodeo = 5. Grandson Ty did 3 events (tie-down, steer wrestling, and team roping) and Grandson Tee did 2 events (steer wrestling and team roping). They are team roping partners - Ty heads and Tee heels. In order to qualify for Friday's "short go" or top 10 in each event, each had to catch/get a time in two of the previous two days rodeos. I won't bore you with the details but will cut to the chase and tell you that Tee placed 2nd in the short go steer wrestling and earned a nice, shiny buckle and Ty ended up 3rd in the short go tie down and All-Around Cowboy for the whole rodeo! Woohoo! Here he is with his 3rd place buckle and very large All-Around buckle:

And here are my favorite three cowboys after all was said and done:

On that note, I just wanted to add # of times I've weeded the flower beds = INFINITE! With recent summer rainstorms I've got more of a Garden of Weed'n than flower garden! Wish I could let the 11 steers loose and instruct them in what to eat and what not to eat. But of course, there's the problem of . . . well, you know! And, they might wander down the street and get into traffic . . . 

'Nuf said.