Category Archives: photo challenge

Tree Top Home

Mourning doves make pitiful looking nests. To my eye they are no more than a few beakfulls of sticks in a haphazard pile but I am no mourning dove.

Last year a pair of doves nested and raised two babies just outside one of our second story windows. I marveled at those those few sticks that made up the nest as they persistently clung to the branches all through the winter, and now, the doves are back. They have added what looks to my eyes to be another scant pinch of twigs to spruce up their old tree top home and are settled down to the business of raising a family. The top of an old tree on a tiny bed of sticks look like a perilous position to me.

But I am no mourning dove.

I’m participating in the April Squares challenge with  The Life of B!

Stump Top Dog

When you take your guard duties seriously it’s important to have the high ground.

Willingness to leap to the top of a five foot high stump is imperative if you are to truly do your duty as a watch dog. As is the tenacity to bark at the neighbor no matter how many times you’ve been told not to. And most importantly never, ever, smile no matter what the tourists do for a picture.

I’m participating in the April Squares challenge over at The Life of B come check it out!

Top o’ the Morning to Ya!

It’s Sunday morning, we have, of course, no where to go. I’m pretending to sleep in when Jane shows up to “snuggle” (i.e. asks three thousand questions and demands one million items). After a long three minutes of such talk I caved and threw my phone at her in self defense so that she could check out every filter on all the platforms my phone can offer.

The end result was this picture.

I quite like it and I’m saving it because I think it will come in handy for handling the current most common questions I get.

“How’re things going?” – see above picture.

“How’s that homeschooling thing?” – note how I can no longer smile a real smile.

“How are the kids handling it?” – check out that kids face and then you tell me.

“What’s it like with the kids home all the time?” – please note how I no longer even have enough personal space for my entire face.

Top o’ the morning to ya! I hope you and yours are safe and healthy and that in the process of staying that way you still have enough elbow room of your own to see out of both eyes!

I’m participating in the April Squares challenge over at The Life of B come check it out!

Window Box Topping

Thanks to online ordering and curbside pick up at our favorite local garden store I was able to dress up our window box. Now I can just see the pansies peeking through the window from inside.

Voila!

We supported a local business and added instant spring cheer to the place!

How are you finding spring cheer? Have you been able to support your local businesses?

I’m participating in the April Squares challenge over at The Life of B!

Top o’ the Maples

There are many signs of spring but when I look to the top of the maple trees and see that they are in bloom I feel secure that it’s really on it’s way.

The feeling probably stems from the relief of knowing that my bees (which did make it through the winter this year!) finally have a food source they can go out and forage.

If the bees can find food, it must really be spring.

I’m participating in the April Squares challenge over at The Life of B!

Weekly Photo Challenge: All Time Favorite

It’s the end of an era, this is the last week of The Weekly Photo Challenge.

While looking for my all time favorite post for this week’s photo challenge, I looked back through all my weekly photo challenge posts, six years worth. I watched the kids get younger and the seasons change in reverse, our house got knocked down again, flowers bloomed and the sun set and rose more than once.

It was hard to pick a favorite, but this post with it’s three little things I wanted to remember from the day reminded me why I started blogging. Why I’m glad I have this blog with random bits of life that I had indeed forgotten. Why I need to make sure to carve time out of busy weeks to continue blogging.

Follow the link for a glimpse of my life in 2013:

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

And if you want to watch six years fly in reverse, follow this link to see all the weekly photo challenges I participated in:

Weekly Photo Challenges

Thanks again to The Daily Post for the years of inspiration!

The Pruning Challenge

We’ve been pruning our apple trees.

I like the challenge of deciding what to do with each tree. But not so much the challenge of standing on the top of a ladder.

What branches need to go? Which should stay for the long haul? And what branches should only stay for now?

Each tree grows with a different personality.

They have twisty branches or willowy branches. They grow with limbs that want to grow out forever and others that want to reach up forever. The ones that grow up forever are John’s job. 

Pruning the trees is a constant exercise in studying the details. Watching for rot and fungus while looking at angles that limbs grow out of the main truck. Checking to see how a branch responded to what was done to it last year to know what to try this year. And double checking to see if your ladder is stable. 

And then, at the same time, trying to hold a picture of the whole tree in your mind, not just today’s tree, but what today’s tree should look like in three years. This is better than holding a picture in your mind about how far off the ground you are, that’s ill advised.

It’s a challenge, and I like it. Well, other than that whole “heights” thing.

Except that today, a week in to the process and so close to done, my brain broke. I couldn’t figure out what to do with another wonky branch or just how many waterspouts to cut and how many to leave.  I left John plugging away at it and stumbled out of the orchard in search of a Diet Coke and dinner. Also shortly before this I may not have triple checked the stability of my ladder and while I’m sure I didn’t actually almost fall two whole feet to the ground and die – it felt completely possible at the time. 

Pruning is a challenge.

I always like a challenge, I’ll be back out there again tomorrow. Unless the last trees are really tall and then it’s all John.

All John. 

Picture taken for The Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge: Macro