Blue Ridge blog

Look Ma!

Yep, the company bought a Nikon D70 and it is my job to read the manual and instruct reporters in the use of the tool. For practice, I showed my youngest daughter the camera and let her play with it. The shot above is hers. She put the camera in the 'night time' mode and shot this pleasant sunset . The camera was supported by a tripod. She easily learned how to operate both the camera and tripod. I fear that the reporters will be much harder to teach than my daughter--especially the sports dudes. I have not put the camera through the Marie test yet. So far, it seems to have everything I like yet doesn't feel sturdy like my D1. The tough jury is out....more later I am sure.

Mister Man Update

Other than a gaping wound on his side, Mister Man seems to be fairing well. He is on anitbiotics and is getting alot of bed rest. I take him outside daily and set him in the grass just so his mind stays active and so that the birds remember that he is around. His wound is disgusting to look at and the the girls and I gag everytime he licks it, but we know that this is a natural part of the healing process. He is eating and drinking quite abit and I have complete confidence that he will make a 100 percent recovery. We visit the vet on Thursday.

Green Land

Whoopie! The last exam has been taken and today marks the beginning of summer for the Freeman family. I don't care what the calendar says about summer, unless the youngins are out of school, it doesn't matter. No homework, no getting up too early to rustle children out of bed, no making lunches for school, no dealing with moronic teachers, no having to think too much--ouch it hurts sometimes. I just want to have several days to walk in the woods with Harley and take mindless photos of leaves...such as the one above ( a bright red cardinal would be nice addition to this photo don't ya think?). In any case, I call this time my debriefing.

For the last couple of hours I have been perusing info about the state of Texas. Yep! We're gonna be cowboys/girls for about 10 days. Our itinerary includes: The Mesquite Rodeo, a Rangers vs Cardinals game, an expensive trip to the Dallas Galleria, the Alamo, South Padre Island, the Dr. Pepper Museum, a visit to see the Branch Davidians ( a request from my youngest child, heavy sigh), and whatever else suits our fancy. Eldest daughter and husband desire to ride horses somewhere. I'm content with a big steak and big drink for an evening. Our main quest is to find the best PIE in Texas. I'm open to suggestions.

Can't wait to see you Bro!

Meeting new friends

My blog has been woefully slack in connecting to links. This is mostly because I have been basically lazy. If you ever want to get acquainted with great blogs, please see my Blog Buddies. These are the folks that I visit often and that I recommend without hesitation. I have them listed in the order that I have bumped into them in blogdom. You will see a natural progression of my blog life since Sept 2003. I love 'em all.

Tonight I commit to introducing the willing to some new places to visit:
My first favorite is Sketch Blog of the Day. I am completely jealous of this chick's ability to sketch on a daily basis and post her feelings online. I have seen nothing like her on the web so far. She is a true artist.

Next, I ran into a communal blog called Begging to Differ . This is a blog published by a bunch of Dukies. It contains some political comments, some great barn photos by Greg and some good laughs. These NC folks don't know I even exist, but ya gotta read "the night I stopped playing games" cause the story hit way too close to home.

Please go visit Tish. She is the best kind of soul and everything in my being wants her to believe that she is. Go visit her and send her your positive Karma.
P.S. She sends me the best postcards to my PO Box. I love 'em.

ELECTRIC IVY Wookie often has intelligent insights on current events as well as an ecletic offering of links and photos that should be on the main street media radar--but is not. Wookie is hip. Wookie is Wookie. I can't do without my Wookie.

Beside Dry Creek is a new one to me. But anyone who loves M&M's can't be bad. 'Nuff said.

Yellowstone Wolf's Journal is a site dedicated to awesome PHOTOS! You should visit soon and often.

Happily ever after....

Last month I challenged my friend Fred to take a photo of his pup Tsunga chasing butterflies. He was successful.
Today, my dog Harley brought me his tennis ball to play. These deck days are the time for which Harley and I live. I left for a few minutes to change out the laundry and when I returned, Harley was not at all pleased because a foreign object had landed on her ball. I think she was a bit imtimidated by it. I reached over to cause the butterfly to go away and Harley was happy again.

All Creatures Great and Small

We noticed that last Thursday our cat, Mister Man, didn't come home for dinner. Now Mr. Man is a 'rounder' but he likes his evening munchie of Meow Mix too much to miss dinner. Despite calling him, he failed to show up that evening. He didn't show up the next morning nor the following evening. In fact, he was gone all weekend.
The girls and I combed the woods for him. We called his name endlessly and employed Harley to sniff him out. We put out missing cat signs in the neighborhood and by Monday evening, I was fearing the absolute worse.
On Tuesday morning, my husband caught me staring out the window and thought I was just daydreaming. I told him that I was just wondering where in the world Mister Man could be. He replied, "Yep, it's 'bout time he came back."
Tuesday afternoon my youngest daughter came home from school and while she was eating her graham crackers w/peanut butter, asked me if I would run with her sometime. This is a question that struck me as completely out of character for this child but I agreed out of sheer curiosity. I was going to follow her lead.We put on our running shoes. She decided that we should not run at Valle Crucis Park, but instead run on our mountain drive. I agreed. On our way back up the mountain she suddenly stopped and pointed to an area and said that we should look for kitty boy down over there, pointing in the direction of a shed that we had previously searched. I followed her.

Playing Possum

Visiting Price Lake today I was on the boardwalk that crosses a boggy area. I was looking ahead for snake and land creatures when I heard rustling from above. I looked up and saw this way cute baby possum fumbling around. I was able to get several shots of it before I started worrying about Mama Possum and rabies.

This is a busy week, but I have some surprises in store for you later on....