A Walk in the Park

We walked in the park one day last week with our camera, and these are the only good shots I got.

Beppe

We didn't take many photos of our trip to Minneapolis to see our son and daughter-in-law, but I did take this one of their cat, Beppe. Sorry I didn't move the cords out of the way before I snapped the shot.

Season's Greetings

To all my readers - happy holidays! Click on photo to enlarge it (especially if you want to see the fish in its mouth).

BTW, DH took the photo, I cropped it and added the greetings in Photoshop Elements.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

We saw this lighthouse today, and yes, we climbed to the top - 214 steps. This one is interesting because it is one of the few unpainted lighthouses.

We also visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial today where we learned all about the first controlled powered flight on December 17, 1903, and a lot of what led up to that flight. It was really very interesting.

And finally we hiked a bit at The Nature Conservancy at Nags Head Woods.

Elizabethan Gardens

Today, we visited the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island. I LOVE gardens - it gives me a chance to take flower pictures, which is one of my favorite kind of pictures to take:





I don't think I've ever seen green flowers before, but here they are:



I also couldn't resist taking pictures of these cool statues:





And then, there was this gazebo:



All in all, it was a pretty fun time.

Lighthouses of the Outer Banks

In case you couldn't tell from my last post, I have a thing for lighthouses. Because of that, I've wanted to see the Outer Banks for several years. We saw three lighthouses yesterday, and a fourth one today.

My favorite was Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Maybe because it was the only one we were allowed to climb to the top; maybe because it's the most famous lighthouse in America. But it was beautiful.



We also saw Ocracoke Island Lighthouse - we weren't allowed inside it.



And we saw Bodie Island Lighthouse - we weren't allowed inside it either.



And then we saw Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse - we went inside, but weren't allowed to climb to the top.



Tomorrow, we're going to see Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

Appalachian Trail

My son and daughter-in-law starting their hike on the Appalachian Trail. They plan to hike north from Harper's Ferry WV for about 6 weeks or so, hoping to make it to New York State.

We took them to Harper's Ferry and hiked about a mile with them this morning (May 21, 2008). Then they went on while we went back (to the car). We are now in Kill Devil Hills, NC, which is on the Outer Banks.

Hope

The friends we visit in Tennessee have the sweetest cat. Her name is Hope, and she loves brown paper bags. I took this picture of her last week.

A Few More Skating Pics - Senior Dance and Senior Pairs

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto - dance gold medalists -



Meryl Davis and Charlie White - dance silver medalists -



Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker - pairs gold medalists -



Rena Inoue and John Baldwin - pairs silver medalists -

A Few Skating Pics - Senior Ladies and Senior Men

Mirai Nagasu - ladies gold medalist -



Rachael Flatt - ladies silver medalist -



Evan Lysacek - mens gold medalist -



Johnny Weir - mens silver medalist -

It's All About Me

My latest photo assignment was to create a photographic self portrait, consisting of 8 photos. We weren't allowed to take pictures of husbands or children or other loved ones (pets). If we wanted to include our relationships with them, we had to find creative ways of expressing them.

So, here are my photographs:



I took this one in the mirror (my husband held up the quilt behind me, which I made), then flipped it horizontally in Photoshop.



Not the most creative way to show my cat, but it was all I could think of.



DH and me on our morning walk.



Breakfast of Champions (ha ha).



Emroidery for a quilt project I'm working on.




A small part of my bear collection.




When I'm not sewing or embroidering, I'm usually computing.




Adding the binding to a quilt (the last step).

The Essence of Place

I took some pictures for my photography project, and I didn't like how they turned out. So yesterday I started over. Our topic was "The Essence of Place." I had started out thinking I would take pictures around my house, but that didn't work. So I decided to take pictures of the Oklahoma State University campus instead. Here is what I wrote about the pictures:

"The first time I was on the Oklahoma State University campus (over 30 years ago now), I was struck by its beauty. I had been attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which was a small campus in a big city that was trying to expand but didn't have the room. OSU, on the other hand, was a large campus in a small college town, and had lots of space. All the buildings have been built in the same or similar style, and there are gardens and green space all over the campus. I have tried to convey that feeling with these pictures."

And here are the pictures:

Hand Works

I'm taking 2 classes at the same time (probably not a good idea, but I'm doing it anyway). I've already mentioned the Montage class, but I'm also taking one called Cre8tive Photography. It's my third photo class from the same teacher (Jessica Wesolek, who is really good, or I wouldn't keep taking them). This one is more about what to take pictures of than how to take them. Each week, we're given an assignment (a theme) and we're to take 6-12 photos.

This week's theme was hands. We choose how to interpret the theme. I decided to take pictures of my own hands doing some of the things I do throughout my days. Here are the photos I took.

I was a little surprised at how compimentary Jessica was.