I have been holding onto a few random photos that I have taken and saved over the past few weeks. I love each of the shots, but there doesn't seem to be enough to talk about individually to make a full post out of any of them.
This was what the sunset looked like one day last week. I shot this photo as I stood on our back deck, amazed as I watched the colors intensify and change as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. This photo is straight out of the camera ... not altered in any way ... not even sharpened ... okay, I reduced the size, but that's absolutely ALL I did to it.
I love the view out the windows from the back of our house. This is what it looks like when I'm standing at the kitchen peninsula looking out the dining room window.
The stained glass that's hanging in the window is one of five identical windows that I bought on eBay a few years ago. It is the source of the MacIntosh rose image that I use as my Hartwood Roses logo, on the header here and on all of my nursery materials.
While I was looking out the window yesterday morning, this hawk caught my eye. I think it's a Cooper's Hawk, which are seasonal visitors around here. Seeing him sitting on the fence made me wish that I had a mouse that I could give him for breakfast. (The rose behind him is 'Silver Moon'.)
Speaking of birds ... one afternoon a couple of months ago I was working on the greenhouse and I noticed a group of Turkey Vultures soaring over the vineyard at Hartwood Winery next door. A couple of the 'vultures' looked a little bit different than the others. A closer look revealed that the two odd-ball vultures were, in fact, two mature bald eagles. It's not unusual for us to see a bald eagle here from time to time, but TWO of them is quite a sight ... and the fact that I was able to get both of them in the same frame using my point-and-shoot camera is a miracle.
You have to look closely, but there are definitely two eagles in this photo of what appears at first to be empty blue sky.
I have mentioned before that the most emotional part of our annual 'Take a Bite Out of Canine Cancer' event for me is Sunday morning's Blessing of the Hounds. Our officiant is a cancer survivor (and the minister who married our daughter last summer) and I always cry as she addresses the gathering with a group blessing. She then blesses every dog individually, asking their owners if they have any particular things they want her to pray for. For Daniel and me, we needed peace ... since our Emma had died a short 4 weeks earlier. (I showed you the photo a friend took of Daniel and me in THIS post ... and I now use it as my FB profile photo.) What I didn't show you was this photo of TJ, our Greyhounds Rock poster boy and 19-month osteosarcoma survivor, with his owners Andy and Kim.
Finally, please consider this your morning reminder to click the link below to vote for our grandson Caleb in the Parents Magazine cutest baby contest. He is now #112, up from yesterday's #260, which means that we still have lots more voting to do to get him to the top. Between you and me, he is WAY cuter than the little girl that's in first place right now. Run over and cast your vote (you can vote once a day), share the link on FB and/or your blog, and let's do what we can to put Caleb in the lead.
Click HERE to vote:
