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    DailyPhotos > Shelly  > Other > Shelly's Photo Blog 2008
    This gallery is a melange of my photographic styles as well as a look into my daily life. I try to capture something new every day or else to find something that fits the day. It's a great excuse to carry my camera with me more often than not, and it allows me to stop and take those pictures that need to be taken.

    To see what 2007 looked like, click on this link: http://spccreative.smugmug.com/gallery/2958746_n6VBs#238075802
    Gallery pages:  <  1  2  3  4  5  6  >  >>
    < Prev 46 of 255 Next >
    Shelly > October 6, 208 Sunflowers The sunflowers we grew pooped out a long time ago. Thank goodness for grocery store florists. "For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else." Sir Winston Churchill
    Shelly > October 4, 2008 Some Sort of Kalanchoe I love to share plants out of my garden, and this is one of the most fun to share. If you break off a leaf and lay it on the ground or in a pot, each little bud that's around the rim of the leaf sprouts new roots and grows into a whole new plant. It goes by lots of different names but my two favorite are "Donkey Ears" and "Fertility Plant." It gets the Fertility Plant name because it is such a prolific reproducer. And yes -- it does seem to work. I've given starters to several friends who were trying unsuccessfully to have babies -- and every one of them ended up pregnant within about two more months. Certainly there's nothing to it, but it is a strange and fun co-ink-y-dink. The Donkey Ears name is the one I like to use when I share the plant with kids who show an interest in gardening. They're almost certain to be successful with this one because it grows so easily. They will have nice tall plants that look like donkey ears to share with their own friends in a very short time.
    Shelly > October 1, 2008 Rubber Band Ball My grandparents used to have one of these in their kitchen. I suppose they frugally saved and reused every rubber band that held the Austin American Statesman together since the day rubber bands were first invented. Anyway, I loved to play with that funny little ball. If you bounced it, there was no telling which way it would go. Sometimes a band or two would fly off and land on the ground. We made up silly little games with that ball, and it could keep us entertained for a long time. I think all of my brothers and cousins have fond memories of it as well. I've made several of my own over the years, but none had the same magic that Meemaw and Papa's had. This one surfaced from the bottom of a junk drawer as we were moving things back into the kitchen this weekend, and it's been rolling around on the island ever since. The newspaper doesn't come with rubber bands anymore, but it does arrive in a plastic bag that's perfect for poop scooping whenever we walk the dog. Plastic bag balls just don't have the same appeal, but we try to reuse them just the same. "Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful." A. R. Ammons
    Shelly > September 30, 2008 This is a senior picture that I took last spring. She's got gorgeous eyes hasn't she? Today I spent a little time doing PP work and putting some of my favorites into a new "Seniors and Teens" sample gallery. I think I'm going to re-visit this high-key process again. I rather like the effect. Oh . . . and here's a link to the gallery. Let me know what you think. Did I leave in too many images? http://spccreative.smugmug.com/gallery/6107358_2grw7#383844098_rHxoB
    Shelly > September 26, 2008 Sousaphones! My husband and I were both band geeks in high school. He even carried the tradition on into college. Stands to reason that all of our kids would be in band too. (Today's band kids aren't so geeky anymore. They're pretty fine, good looking, smart, funny, and self-confident.) I LOVE marching season. This shot reminds me of one of my favorite old-tyme stadium cheers. It went something like this . . . (in a very deep low voice) Toooo Ba . . . .Toooo Ba . . . Tooooo Ba! Okay, I guess I'm still a band geek, and proud to be one too.
    Shelly > September 25, 2008 Get Him Mustangs! One of my favorite action shots from last Saturday's game.
    Shelly > September 23, 2008 My First Hummer Nothing spectacular, but it gives me a starting place. For several weeks I have promised myself that I'd go sit down in the back yard and try my hand at photographing hummingbirds. When I finally did, there was absolutely NOTHING moving. Finally, this little guy must have gotten hungry because he came out briefly. It was kind of spooky because usually there had been between two and five fighting for a place at the feeder almost all the time. Finally some blue jays arrived and started fussing. When I followed their commotion I could barely see a big huge owl in the top of a tree. Of course, he was too obscured by the branches for me to get a decent image of him, and he stayed there for a long long time. As it started getting dark, he started talking, and when there was hardly any light left at all, he flew out and was gone.
    Shelly > September 22, 2008 Remember the Plumeria that blew into the pool earlier this summer? It survived.
    Shelly > September 21, 2008 Red Beans & Rice for 100 And cornbread and salad and mac&cheese for the kids. Our church has become a Red Cross Shelter, and we're housing about 85 evacuees from Hurricane Ike. Today our small group for blended families got to provide and serve lunch. It was such a blessing to serve in this capacity, and I think I'll just have to get back down there to get another dose of hugs from my newfound friends (especially the three year old twins along with their very helpful big brother and sister) Here are a few of us . . . Billy, Me, Mike, Stephanie and Brian, Shelli and Will. Notice the very fashionable and oh-so-hot plastic gloves. Stephanie's son, Collin, took the picture for us. He did a pretty good job, didn't he? Here's a link to my hurricane Ike gallery. I'll add a few more pics from todays lunch soon. http://spccreative.smugmug.com/gallery/6015346_28cvz
    Shelly > September 20, 2008 Halftime Planet Things are starting to get back to normal in our part of the world. There were only a few high school football games played in our area this weekend, so we got lots of media attention along ith a victory for our Mustangs. The kids (athletes and band) have been practicing most of the week, and they get to finally go back to school on Monday after missing 6 days of classes. Look at that beautiful blue sky! Weather this week has been gorgeous, and thankfully a little bit cool. It's supposed to start warming back up this week, and if this afternoon was any indication -- it could get really hot. A good portion of the community has gotten their power back and should really appreciate the wonders of AC. Please keep those communities that were hardest hit by Ike in your thoughts and prayers. Their recovery will take some time., and some things will never be the same.
    Shelly > September 15, 2008 Warm up the Garbage Disposer After today's ham sandwich incident at lunchtime, I decided not to take any more chances with the other potentially perishable items in the fridge. Our two combined power outages must have been more than the deli drawer could handle. All better now, though. We managed to get things back to some semblance of normal inside today. There's still no school tomorrow, and most businesses are closed until further notice so tomorrow is set for putting patio furniture, potplants, etc. back in place, then we may try to make a trip into town to get some supplies to our son, Patrick. He is working long hours and having a hard time finding available food.
    Shelly > September 14, 2008 We were so thankful when the power came on Saturday night, and we were exhausted so we slept really well as the AC churned to cool us back off. . . until about 6:00 am when it started raining HARD both outside and inside. About 6:20 the power went back off again. I was afraid that the power company may have already checked us off their list and that we'd have to wait for them to get through everyone else before they came back to us again. I went to church by myself -- wearing shorts no less. That was a first. Mike stayed home shuttling buckets and tarps in the living room, laundry room, game room, and Dustin's bathroom. The buckets were filling fast. Later that afternoon three men from church came over and helped us secure tarps over the roof. One of the holes is above the chimney. The water poured in there and started coming in through the wall where you see people coming in and out the window . .. and then it found a weak spot along the gabled roof, so we had a water line dripping all the way across our main living area. That's my son, Ian up top. It's a long way up there, and was very hard for me as a mom to watch. Mike's holding a ladder. The other three are our angels with skin on. You can't imagine the relief we felt just knowing that the tarps would assuage any future rainstorms until we can get our necessary repairs. We'll probably have to wait a while. Cannot begin to thank these guys enough . . . or the power line guys either. Everyone on the block started hooping, hollering and cheering when we got our lights back on again. Pretty funny. We are very thankful for the safety and support we have received.
    Shelly > September 13, 2008 After the Storm We didn't sleep much last night. Breezes started kicking in around sunset and built steadily through the night. It got pretty hairy from about 2:00 am until 6:00 as the west wall of the eye passed over our home. Around 2:00 we went outside to secure a trellis that was trying to pull away from the house, and then walked around the back of the house. Stinky -- a big black and red snake who has been lurking lately met us on the pool deck, so we decided it was time to go back in. Bumps and thumps in the night. We didn't know what was bouncing off roof. Turned out that it must have been the rows of shingles getting ripped away. This is just one of the trees on the street behind us. One of our neighbors had a theory that a small tornado may have come through and been responsible for the holes in our roof. It made good sense when he pointed to a line of tree damage right in line with our house. I would have liked to venture more into town so that I could get more dramatic photos, but out of respect for the people who are truly hurting, I just couldn't bring myself to go through with it. I would have had to put down the camera and start hauling debris instead. The Houston Chronicle www.chron.com has an amazing collection of photos. Look for those with bylines from Smiley Pool and Sharon Steinman. Those two people deserve awards for their work this week.
    Shelly > September 12, 2008 Red Sky at Night -- Waiting for Ike We made it through Ike just fine . . . had some pretty severe roof damage and rain in several rooms of the house, but it was very minor compared to what others are facing, I'm going to back in a couple of days worth of dailies and will create an "Ike in My Backyard" gallery when I can get it up. Still lots of cleanup to do for ourselves and others too, so it may take a while. This is the sunset from my front yard on Friday, Sept. 12. We decided to stick pretty close to home. The Friday night football game that got moved to Thursday afternoon got completely cancelled. Kids are irritated because this was supposed to be homecoming week. They'll most likely get their celebration, but will have to wait for it. We're far enough inland that we don't need to evacuate. There's an air of anticipation and an unusual tension, almost like people are forcing themselves to be calm. Lines at the few stations that still have gas are incredible. People are stocking up on water and storm food, but it seems like the stores are prepared this time. It's been a long time since a hurricane actually came through here, and our community is new enough that most of us have never been through one. We don't know what's in store. In a way, it's exciting, but the dread of reality hovers. We sort of wish Ike would just come on in, do his thing, and get it over with.
    Shelly > September 12, 2008 We DIS-Like Ike Hurricane preparations. We've done the drill before, but it looks like we could get smacked pretty hard this time. We're not in any flood plains or storm surge areas though, so we're staying put. Don't worry, that's not all our batteries or candles. Just a few for a quick pic. Yesterday we put up all the potted plants in the yard and cleaned up anything that weighed less than a mobile home. (I just read Karina's post from last night and see that she did the same thing -- photographers who love plants shouldn't live in hurricane zones, except that everything grows so well here) The hummingbirds are very angry that their feeders are down. They keep coming to the window and talking to us. I told them service would resume when it would be safe for them to come back. Today we have time to finish some indoor preparations like filing water containers, gathering batteries, important papers, putting mattresses near the "tornado bathroom" etc. The plastic containers? I'm filling them with water and stuffing them into the freezer to make ice blocks to keep things cold in case we lose power. We all have our quirky little things that we do to prepare. For those who have been following our kitchen saga, note that we now have countertops and backsplash. We're actually nearly finished. Just hope we don't get to start over next week.
    October 6, 208

    Sunflowers

    The sunflowers we grew pooped out a long time ago. Thank goodness for grocery store florists.

    "For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else."
    Sir Winston Churchill
    Shelly > October 6, 208 Sunflowers The sunflowers we grew pooped out a long time ago. Thank goodness for grocery store florists. "For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else." Sir Winston Churchill
    October 6, 208

    Sunflowers

    The sunflowers we grew pooped out a long time ago. Thank goodness for grocery store florists.

    "For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else."
    Sir Winston Churchill
    Camera: Canon (Canon Eos 40d) |
    more details: exif |
    original size: 3888px x 2592px |
    Current: 600px x 400px |
    Other sizes: S • Medium • L |
    Share photo: links, forums, blogs |
    Keywords: yellow flower gold sunflower blossom bloom autumn
    Gallery pages:  <  1  2  3  4  5  6  >  >>
    < Prev 46 of 255 Next >

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