Of the Prairie

I've always wanted to take a picture of that "lone tree in the middle of nowhere". If I had a photography "bucket list", it would be on it. It's hard to find such subjects, even along the flat prairie, but last Saturday, while driving east in unfamiliar territory, I spotted one.

We were headed to my daughter's soccer tournament, and on the way there, I only had access to my iPhone. I was better prepared on the return trip to capture my "Lone Tree".



I guess it's not really alone - the county road runs by it.


Of course, we passed by several barns during our trip. This one caught my eye because of the flag mural on the side.


So one "bucket list" item done, a thousand more to find.

Linked to This or That Thursday and Rural Thursday

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Pink and White

I think pink and white flowers epitomize spring. We are lucky to have such an amazing show this season.


Textured using Kim Klassen's Be Still Texture.


Textured using Shadow House Creation's Oil Painting Texture.

And the originals for your comparison:




I think I like the textured versions better. Flowers particularly are good candidates for adding texture, so if you have never tried to add a texture, it is a great place to start.

Linked to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

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Start of Soccer Season

Saturday marked the official start of the soccer season for Erica and her high school team. I've learned that high school sports are quite intense - two hour practices each day after school and on Saturdays. She even had practice each day during Spring Break. [Imagine if students spent a minimum of two hours every day on homework - they would complain incessantly, but somehow it's OK with sports? While I do recognize the importance of physical fitness and the benefits of playing on a team, I wish this country would emphasize science and technology as much as they emphasize sports. But I digress]

In middle school, she played locally with the Park District and the games were always local. But in high school, many of the match ups are far away - we drove an hour to the inaugural JV tournament, through miles of prairie, to a town I had never been to before. I expect we'll broaden our horizons over the next several months.

The girls played three games, all back to back. By the third game, even I was feeling exhausted just by watching. They were clearly tired by that game.

A small smattering of photos I took:








Out of the three games, they tied one, won one and lost one (they lost the third game to a team with twice as many players and fresh legs). We think it was a successful day!

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P365+1 Week 12 - Spring Break At Home

It was Spring Break week and while we stayed at home, it felt like we were visiting Florida with unseasonably warm weather. You couldn't ask for a nicer week, even though I had to work. The kids got to enjoy the warm weather, although I'm not sure if they really took advantage of it. Oh, to be a teenager again....

Here's the weekly summary:
Saturday: Today's fashion statement - shorts, leg brace and freshly painted nails. I'm not able to go get a "proper" pedicure at the nail salon, but I am perfectly capable of painting my nails - I chose a deep purple for the first color of the season.

Picture taken at the horse stable, where the girls enjoyed a riding lesson outside. I learned the hard way not to touch the wires around the tops of the arena fencing - yup, I got shocked. Weird feeling, for sure (and maybe that electric current through my body was good for my knee....)

Sunday: Perfect Sunday Afternoon. Who needs to go away for Spring Break with gorgeous weather right here at home? Relaxing, reading and catching some rays - perfect! I am reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. If I can't run, I may as well read about running.


Monday: Cruising With the Top Down. We took the convertible out to the ice cream place after dinner. It was perfect top down weather and my first ride in the convertible this season.


Tuesday: Retail therapy. Erica wanted me to take her shopping, and since it's Spring Break and the first day of spring, I agreed. I mentioned the shopping trip to my Physical therapist and my comment was "the shopping is going to be painful". His response - "make sure you ice your knee when you get home". I clarified by saying "oh, my knee will be fine, but my wallet is going to feel a lot of pain". And it indeed did.

I managed to score some great outfits, so I really can't complain....

Wednesday: Work Dinner at Silvercreek. Our site is hosting an Operations meeting this week, so there's a big dinner party for Scott and I to attend. In the past, we switched off who would attend, but since the kids are older, we both get to go. It was a perfect night for dinner out.

Bonus picture - the lights in the Greenhouse where our party was held. Magical....


Thursday: Cleared for Activity! I had my 5 week post ACL reconstruction surgery appointment with Dr. Li today - he's very pleased with my progress and cleared me to start "light running". He prefers I use the elliptical to start, so I immediately headed to the Y and gave it a whirl. First good sweat in a long time.


Friday: Out for an Evening Walk. Beautiful, clear weather followed the thunderstorms that rolled through our area this afternoon - perfect for an evening walk. Bonus - I don't need my leg brace anymore. I watched the sunset over the lake at the park.

Here's that sunset:


A Lovely End to the week.... And I hope yours was a great one too.

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Spring Flowers

The last several days have been busy, busy, busy, so no time to play....

Until tonight, when I finally installed my Lightroom 4 Upgrade which arrived Monday. The upgrade was a cinch - my previous Lightroom Catalog was transferred and I was up and running. There are some differences in the Develop Module (Exposure) which took getting used to, but so far so good.







Enjoy your Thursday evening!

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Collages and Mosaics with the iPhone

The warm weather has sent the trees, plants and flowers into a frenzy. What was bare just a week ago is now in full bloom. Since it has been so warm, these blooms won't last very long, and Friday afternoon I went out with my SLR and my iPhone to capture these fleeting moments.

But today I only have photos taken from my iPhone. Seriously, it is hard to beat the ease of taking the photos, editing them, making a collage / mosaic and sharing these photos with this phone.

For the photos, I used the Olloclip Macro lens. I've posted about this lens attachment before and I love the clarity and bokeh of the resultant photos. Here is a picture of the olloclip in the package:

Once I had a nice collection of photos, I brought them into the Photogene2 app. I can adjust the photos there if I want. I used a tiny bit of Clarity on these photos to make them pop.

For the collage, I have two apps I normally use - Diptic and Montager. But I remembered that Photogene2 has a basic collage function too! It was easier to use the Photogene2 collage option and here are the two mosaics I created:

Magnolias in different stages of bloom:


Weeping Willow:


Once I created the collages, I shared to my flickr and Instagram feeds. All from the phone - no computer, no card reader and no wires. And while I don't think my camera phone will ever replace my big camera, the camera phone certainly wins from an ease of use standpoint.

Now to hook up my DSLR and get those other photos downloaded......

Linked to Mary and Mosaic Monday

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P365+1 Week 11 - Is It Summer?

I know the calendar say mid March, but it feels like early summer as we wind into Spring Break Time.

Saturday - I went and picked up my marathon training T-shirt


Sunday - a Beautiful afternoon with the Girl and her horse.


Monday - our area set a new high temperature record - 81 degF. We celebrated by going out for ice cream.

And then we went to the Old Navy to buy the kids new shorts because they have outgrown last year's.

Tuesday - It's cool in the morning, resulting in some fog:

That fog burned right off for another 80 degF day. I hope I don't have to turn on the A/C....

Wednesday, 3/14, which means it is Pi day!

You know, 3.14 is Pi, the constant used to calculate all sorts of stats on circles. Math classes celebrate with pies (I'm sure they calculated out the diameter and area of the pies before eating them).

Thursday - Good weather means road work and in this case, tree trimming work - I spotted this crew on the way to physical therapy.

The kids had a half day of school and officially commenced Spring Break. Many of our neighbors are going away, but this year, we are staying put. Probably a good thing given my knee situation. But who needs to go down South when we've got southern weather right here?
But a slight downside to the warm weather - swarming bugs! Little black gnats were everywhere and because I had the windows opened during the evening, they got inside the house (screens don't keep them out). This freaked out the kids, especially Erica. Normally on non-school nights, she stays up very late (at least midnight), but tonight she went to bed at 10pm because she couldn't stand the bugs on the computer or TV or anything illuminated. She's calling this the Plague of the gnats.

Friday - it's still 80 degrees outside, so Scott and Brian brought the grill out and I used it immediately.

So it still feels like summer. And yes, the A/C is on.

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