"You almost had your hooks in me, didn't you dear, You nearly had me roped and tied..."

So...

Here is the past week or so presented in my adventure and observation photos.  I've been shooting strictly with my 40mm Pancake Lens.  I'm trying to take it a little easier on my right hand.  Chuck ends up weighing something like 4lbs when he has on the 18-135mm.

Enjoy.

So...I've been pretending (fooling myself) that I am still making art.  Well, this first one is - stickweaving (chopsticks) mounted on driftwood - but Legos might be pushing it a little.  I guess it's better than the pot holders.

Then there's this one...it took me a few minutes to remember WHY I took this but then I saw the little glowing dandelion puffs in the grass.  Talk about details...

And then we have what happens when I am sitting in the line of the drive-thru at Starbucks for 25 minutes.  Baby...I wasn't leaving for ANYTHING.  I got my free venti "Happy Birthday" Cinnamon Dolce Latte.  I deserved it...

(I found a bunch of Lightroom presets I forgot I downloaded...I like the "post-apocalyptic" one...holy crap.  We'll be seeing much more of that one...)

This one makes Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" run incessantly through my head...

The Devil's Minions...I'm telling ya.

Pappy's pretty flowers...Giant Allium (kinda wimpy)...

And right down the throat of his Bearded Iris...

On the drive home...

And cruising around Covington our way to the Duveneck Art Show...

Wings...

Tiny Raspberry Lime bubbles...

Nobody puts Pappy in the corner!!  He's convinced that there is a conspiracy at the Frisch's in Highland Heights.  They sit him (us) waaay back in the corner by ourselves....Every. Time.

And we have the Barbie Rockettes...except I think the Rockettes have a little stricter dress code...

Finishing up with:  What could be more pathetic than balloons stuck on the electric lines...

I wish I knew then, What I know now, Wouldn't dive in, Wouldn't bow down...

So...

Today we experienced some "Momma Drama".  Mara had all of her glorious long locks shorn.

Off!!

Okay, okay...she looks gorgeous but that wasn't the point (it's all about ME).  She last had it cut a month before her 18th birthday so I guess she is entitled...and the fact that she is a legal adult has nothing to do with it.  Why torture her mother?  At least Emily got that whole "Let's cut ALL of my hair off - myself - when she was 2 years old.  (I cried for days.)  That episode made anything else she did follicly, smooth sailing.  But Mara...oh well...no use crying over spilled milk, right?

No, really...she looks so much better with it shorter.  More mature (god forbid).

Here we go...

My friend Josh gave her the new cut...I highly recommend everyone visit him at Mi Salon in Florence, KY.  But....as he's always so busy traveling and teaching it's necessary to make an appointment 6 months ahead!!  (We were really lucky...he had a cancellation.)

This is where it started...

Again with the Mother Teresa...

Josh!!

(oh god...)

Okay...I love it...

Holy Crap...she looks exactly like Emily in this photo...

See?? Geez!!  It's like they're sisters or something...

Hollywood.

Mara is donating her hair - again.  It can be put to excellent use for cancer patients.

Emerson...

'Nough Said...

So...

"If I could save time in a bottle..."

So...

I can tell by reviewing my photographs from the past week that warmer weather has finally arrived.  More green stuff.  I get so tired of looking at brown and dead that I tend to stop taking photos by the end of winter.  I also seem to be outdoors a whole lot more - hence, better subject matter.

It seems like I am trying to explore more of the "bigger picture", too.  I wonder what that means.  Oh...there are still plenty of elemental photos but I am also taking a big step back and embracing the whole enchilada - so to speak.

We'll see where this goes this summer.

I have been trying to fill the long (boring) nights with at least a little bit of art.  You know, pot holders, Legos, Zentangle, weaving and chopping the heads off plastics animals.  There is only so much binge watching you can do before your head explodes.  (By the way...freaking Game of Thrones!!!  Why didn't I watch this from the beginning??  43 episodes in 9 days...yeah baby.)  Here are some of this week's offerings to the gods of Art...

Then...there is the early morning sun.  The "Golden Hour" of gorgeous light.  (I'm shooting everything lately with Chuck's LED display set on B&W and some of the sunrise photos were cool looking so I converted them.  Sorry.)  In the first photo I was trying to show how even though the sun was coming up in front of me, the opposite side of my car was illuminated, also, by the reflection in the windows of the building behind me.  You can see it - somewhat.

And now I can take some great photos in my favorite-ist places - cemeteries.

Mara had a follow-up appointment at the hospital for her surgery and these are from the parking garage.  Sometimes I feel like my heart is going to pound out of my chest and my head will explode if I am not able to capture what I see.  Especially any type of light and shadow contrast.

And then we have my "just every day general observances".

And a banana peel - free range.  Warhol would be proud.