Yes, it has been 4 years: Hope for Spring.

Hi folks, I know it's been a while. A long while. Everything has been fine on the home front, but a lot has changed. Andrew has been working as an RN for a year now and is still in EMS. Molly passed away in late 2016 after outliving everyone's expectations with a large cell cancer diagnosis. We have our first dog Tutu, who I will introduce later although you might have seen her on her instagram account tutu_on_the_move. I'll admit I got bored with the 'gram pretty quickly and I am unsure if I will return to blogging. Other changes include (again many of you already know this) I work at Bexley Public Library now and I have been here nearly two years. It's taken a while to settle down and settle in and I find myself slowly returning to old and beloved hobbies. I'm not sure where this will take me but for now here are some pictures from last spring, or maybe the spring before??? Enjoy the baby bunnies and the kildeer. The kildeer periodically nest in the lavender.

You will notice with the one above the classic "broken wing distraction" as I was getting close to photographing her eggs. I didn't stay long.

California Pictures 2019

I've taken pictures from California trips before, but always with the good canon camera. I didn't pack it this time, and these were the best phone pictures. We went up to Santa Barbara for a few days and I love the garden center in Los Olivos, I think it's J Woeste...and all their beautiful containers featuring succulents.

In Los Angeles we went to Abalone Cove, a must stop and quite a hike both down and up. These rocks are beautiful but it gets old walking on them, which you have to do a lot to get too and from the tide pools. All the rocks are lovely and it boggles my mind how many combinations a photographer can make.

I'm always fascinated by water, rocks (or other objects in the sand) and how light, depth and shadow are constantly changing. On our first trip to Lake Michigan in (2007 (!)) I easily took 200 photos. I was desperate to capture all the lovely sensory images around me. Andrew reminded me I was actually missing out on the experience. He was right, but I do treasure the pictures I took. It was cold when we were in LA, it never got over 60 degrees and there was very little in the was of ocean life. So I had to content myself with more inanimate subjects.

And view from the top, before the descent to Abalone Cove.

There were some real highlights from this trip. Notably our first stat at an Airbnb in Santa Barbara, and staying at a good, good friends house. Their lemon tree in the backyard had fresh ripe lemons I snipped right off the tree and made lemonade. I was also giddy about the 5 foot tall rosemary growing along their fence.

Autumn 2018

All of these pictures were taken with my phone. There may be more camera and and special lens photography in the future. I was really pleased that in this one you can see the dozens of birds in the sky.

I really think September is the most beautiful month in Ohio.

The picture above reminds me of the good parts of having a house on a hill that faces west. Fabulous sunsets. Of course it's easy to forget after a weekend of 50 to 60 mph hour winds as we had this weekend. Thankfully nothing blew off the house so no repairs are needed. This photo reminds me of the virtues of using a nice camera rather than a phone. This picture was much better in person. If you look to the lower left of the moon, that tiny speck of light I think was a planet, but I can't remember which one.

Another late September photo. I marvel every year at the multiple machines in the field, and the wonderful green or red against the drying fields. The photo does not reflect the huge amount of dust that's kicked up during harvest. Beautiful and allergy aggravating. This was nearly five months ago and in another five months we will be on the other side of 4th of July, the lavender will be cut and I'll be getting a delicious red black diamond watermelon once a week from Pa's Produce.

But for now it's still base layers and gloves, propane tank refills and electric water-ers for the chickens. One day I will be gleefully unplugging the electric waterer...and wondering when I'm going to mow/weed/water.