Category: Photography

Monday, March 31, 2025 Sitting on The Garden Bench

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

When you have a summery day in March
You sit on your garden bench,
Even though dry stalks and faded glories
Are the only things left in it.

A distant train whistle sings,
The faithful owl keeps watch
(I am amazed that no one stole it
Over the long winter – hooray!)

The spring-warm sun greets my face
Bringing on fit of sneezing (does that happen to others?).
Once – twice – thrice…I think I’m done.
I wish those killdeer that I hear would come visit.

I brought four books out to read,
Which seems like an absurdly optimistic pile.
Instead I sit, watch, listen,
And hope there are wisps of poems in the breeze.

This morning I was chased and harassed
By a goblin named Anxiety
Until finally I knelt by my bedside
To hash it out with the Lord.

Be anxious for nothing…
Let your requests be made known to God.
I told Him everything – really, I did!
The goblin stood by to remind me what I was anxious about.

It was a revolving door there for awhile:
Anxiety out, peace in; peace out, anxiety in.
But I just kept taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ
Until that old goblin slunk away in disgrace.

Hours later, I’m out under a fresh blue sky
In this Hallelujah Garden
Where God’s greening up the earth
And banishing the goblins of the morning.

I’ve been reading a book of poetry by Billy Collins and thought I’d take a stab at his style of conversational poems.

I’ll probably banish this hob-bloggin in the morning.

Thursday, March 27, 2025 Sharpen

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

A post from almost exactly 7 years ago:

March 28, 2018 Sharpen

There’s no getting around it – when you sharpen a pencil, some of the good stuff has to go. It seems wasteful, but it’s part of the cost of getting a sharp point with which to draw and color (notice how I avoided leaving a dangling preposition there, and do likewise). It’s interesting how so many things have to be sharpened to be at their best: knives, arrows, scissors, people… Yes, I did that – I added people to the mix. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another, said the Preacher. Being sharpened usually doesn’t feel good, but it equips us to be better tools for God’s service. Put me up against that whetstone; sharpen me like a pencil. The stuff that grinds off or peels away isn’t essential and I’m better off without it. Give me a nice, sharp point and set me loose.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

Monday, March 24, 2025 I Will Awaken The Dawn

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

I’m having a bit of trouble with my arm this week, so instead of writing new posts, I’m going to re-post the first five posts I wrote when I started this blog back in March of 2018, seven years ago. Here’s the first one in which by complete happenstance, I signed off with what would become my signature sign-off: some version of “I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

March 27, 2018 I Will Awaken the Dawn
This seems unnecessarily complicated.

I’m switching to WordPress from Blogger to get access to the photos on my iPad (my blog there was called “Further Up and Further In,” a nod to C.S. Lewis). https://fari-blog.blogspot.com/

Now that it comes to it, I don’t have much to say about this photo, one of the first I took on my new Nikon D3400 camera with the nifty 70-300 lens that came with it. I was in my bathrobe and slippers outside on a frosty cold morning when I took this, hoping to see birds in yonder tree, but had to be content with yonder tree against the dawn sky. The Psalmist said, “I will awaken the dawn.” Something tells me that I would have had to be awake before dawn to be able to use that quote accurately.

I’ll probably delete this blog entry later when I get this all figured out (this is somewhat akin to the Dread Pirate Roberts telling Westley everyday “I’ll probably kill you in the morning.”).

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Plunk

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

It’s getting late, so I’ll just plunk a couple photos on here and call it a day. The theme is: Endings

Farewell, poinsettia!
Beautify the yard with your brave and bold leaves.

Sunset through the front door.

From the rising of the sun
to the setting of the same
the name of the Lord
is to be praised.
Psalm 113:3

I’m plunking this one in the morning.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025 Phooling with Photos, Using LI, Oranges of Power

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

That title might be the best part of this post, by the way, but forge on just in case.

I took a few photos from my digital album today and subjected them to some upgrades (or not) through the use of photo editing programs.

What name would you give this fine specimen of a squirrel?

Somehow a haiku appeared on this photo, though not the product of AI, but LI (Lynniebee Intelligence).

Adding a green-ish background to these oranges just made the orange color pop a bit more. The oranges played an important part in the cake, by the way. Oh, haven’t I mentioned the cake yet? Read on!

And last, but not least, we ate cake, due to the celebration of my husband’s birthday. I won’t tell his age, but will give you the hint that yes, I still need him and feed him.

The Glorious Orange Marmalade Cake

And day turned to night, the sky became dark, rain will turn into snow, and we are glad to be indoors.

This post will turn into empty seed bristles in the morning.

Monday, March 3, 2025 Back At It

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

The older I get, the less capacity I have to fit multiple things in the mental space that is my brain. Hence the two-week break from posting on this blog. Other things were occupying the Space Formerly Known as Blog Posting.

But it’s a new week, one in which space has opened up again. It’s time to share some random photos from February and finish up with a list of Daily Benefits.

The Scepter of the Fairy Queen
Playing peek-a-boo with a squirrel.
“Please kind lady, could you give me a peanut?”
“Much obliged. Thank you. Now leave me to eat in peace.”
A visitor to our yard.
Our latest granddaughter! Adorable!!! ❤️

Note: Even though my readership is small, this is a public blog, so I don’t use the proper names of our grandchildren on here. For that reason, I ask those of you who know the names not to mention them in your comments. Thank you!

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits:

Grandchildren!

The miracle of babies.

Black bean soup…yum

Body parts that still work.

Warm days in early March.

Letters in the mail.

Neighbors who will text you when you have an eagle in your front yard.

Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

All righty then! I think it’s time for my usual sign off: I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 30, 2018 Scepter

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

You never know what enchanting things are lurking down in the ankle region unless you are looking down and willing to lower yourself. I love these watchamacallits! They’re like tiny green scepters. I’ve seen them before and when they are backlit with sunshine, it’s as if they have gobbled up the light and are aglow with it. I don’t know their proper name, but beg you to allow me the Adamic privilege of naming them “Glowing Scepters.” (I feel certain that Anne of Green Gables would have come up with something far more fanciful and interesting.)

When a ruler wields his scepter, his subjects must bow in humble submission. It seems only fitting, then, that I had to bow low before these scepters in the grass. The God who made them wields them in the wilderness and I am happy to be one of His grateful subjects.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 21, 2018 Do It Again

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

The 23-hour drive was nearly over, but like labor pains, our stops were becoming more frequent as my husband attempted to overcome lower back pain with stretching and walking. Meanwhile, I was also on the injured list and not driving at all because of a flare-up of tendinitis. We were limping our way to the finish line, but generally in good spirits. At the last stop about an hour north of our destination, I took a hurried photo, seeking to capture and tame this wild tulip with my magic box. I know that the world does not lack for photos of tulips. One tulip is probably pretty much like another. But all the same, I cannot, I simply cannot, feel ho-hum about this one. I am reminded of GK Chesterton’s thoughts about what we might call “monotony.”

Perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

Oh, may He never grow tired of making tulips. This one is a dandy. Do it again!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 4, 2018 Nest

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

Just a little something...“Just a little something I picked up for the new house – I know just where I want it to go!”

“I’ve got this eerie feeling I’m being watched?”

“Uh oh – I’ve been spotted. Stay still…stay very still.”

First of all, can you tell that these photos were taken through a window screen? I tried standing outside on the balcony to get an unobstructed view, but Mrs. Robin demurred to make an appearance with me right in plain sight. I just happened to see her yesterday when she was first checking out the place above the lamp as potential nest real estate. She hopped around up there, her little birdie feet slipping down every time she tried to get a purchase. It all looked rather precarious to me, but others of her kind have nested there before and perhaps the word had spread, even though we had removed last year’s model home when the occupants were done with it. Here’s an interesting thought: what if she was raised here last year? If so, she had to be rather puzzled about the disappearance of the old homestead.

At any rate, I’m impressed with her craftsmanship and look forward to watching her accomplish in about 8 weeks what took me 20+ years. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 2, 2018 Zoom

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

I’m not sure yet what I want to say about this photo. I like it immensely. The idea of having a 70-300 mm lens never appealed to me in the past. I wasn’t sure what real benefit could be derived by being able to zoom further – big deal! When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child… I didn’t realize what lovely things happen to the background when you use a zoom lens. This humble bit of wrought iron is on our front porch, but what really makes this beautiful to me is that the ugly pre-spring patchy lawn behind it has been transformed into a mellow greenish hue of undetermined detail. The bright blurred background allows the wrought iron piece to stand out in proud relief and strut its stuff. The lens allows me to see this is a way that I couldn’t with my eyes alone. It occurs to me that this is a gracious way to view a friend, or even an enemy – let all ugly background stuff become blurry and focus on the best parts.

Zoom, baby!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.