Day 44 of 365, Country Drive

Day 44 of 365, I think Terry felt bad because he didn't take me to St. Francisville yesterday. So, he got ready and said, 'Come on. I'm in the truck.' Huh? I was minding my business (playing on flickr) when he said that. I didn't know we were going anywhere. Well, it didn't take me long. I rounded up my camera gear. Terry says, "you try to bring the World!" That means I haul all kinds of junk in, and then have to haul all that junk out of the vehicle when we get home. He puts up with it though. I realize that he humors me and lets me carry 'My World' of stuff around cuz he loves me. Anyway, we start driving and he starts complaining. He complains because he's hungry, he complains because he's burning gas, he complains because he's not doing what he wants to do, he complains because he is running out of copenhagen...that's the real problem! So, I told him to turn around and bring me home because he is making me miserable. Instead, we drive and drive. We pulled into taco bell and he got a gordita. He complained because there were too many people at Taco Bell at 2 pm. According to him,they should have eaten already. duh,... hello! Terry, you are at Taco Bell too! Goodness, gracious that man is so insufferable sometimes! Finally & Thankfully, after he got a couple tacos, he cooled his jets a bit.

We drove and drove until we ended up in Maurepas. I was able to take some shots of the river and the camps. Then, we went to the Waterfront at the Diversion Canal. I didn't get a taco earlier. So, I was starting to get hungry. I asked him if we could stop at Kevin's Seafood Restaurant. Of course, I didn't have to twist him arm. We did go to Kevin's. I can hardly talk about the good meal that we had because I am still stuffed. We enjoyed the fried bowtie pasta with spinach & artichoke dip. He also ordered crawfish boudin balls as an appetizer. Truthfully, we could have stopped there. Those two appetizers were delish! I was kinda chilly because it was an overcast dampish kind of day. So, I chose to order the seafood gumbo. He got what they called the cajun platter. Oh, I think I hurt myself. To top it off, Terry ordered strawberry cheesecake and 2 coffees. Too Indulgent, but Too Good to pass up! I am going to get on the treadmill after I finish this posting. Roll me Out!!!

So, on our way home, I told him I wanted to try to capture a derelict barn or abandoned house. My reasoning was that I wanted to try to use some textures to create a ghostly or haunted image. I had just gotten some new textures to play with. Besides that, just this morning the girls made me tell Trevor about the paranormal activity that happened around here. Indeed, I do have a ghost story to tell. But, I will fill you in on that one a little later when I think you can handle the spooooky truth......! I'm not kidding. Here are a few images that I tinkered around with. My fave is the old dirt road. About old dirt road, one of my flickr friends, ...Shirley CR said:
"That looks like a scene from a horror book, great photo!"
and my other good buddy, Jack Andreasen says:
"It looks like a spooky walk home late at night! Awesome!"

Yay! their comments were flattering. No, I am not going to the dark side. I am just experimenting to see what I can achieve.

abandoned in the country

andoned in the country, originally uploaded by michelle*sibley

barn and fence

barn and fence, originally uploaded by michelle*sibley.

This is certainly not a derelict barn. I used this one because every time I saw a barn or something that I would like to capture, Terry zoomed on past. There is no turn around gear on his truck if you know what I mean! So, finally I got this picture and put some rough texture on it. I have a long way to go to become proficent in photoshop. I am having fun playing around with it for now.

p.s. I am complaining about Terry's complaining but I really had a good time. I actually love to hang out with him. We just enjoy getting on each other's nerves!

old dirt road

Day 43 of 365, 2004 DERBY CHAMPION

Day 43 of 365, I went to Mom and Dad's house. I had wanted to go to St. Francisville today because there was an event going on that I was interested in. Terry told me we could go. First, he wanted to watch something on tv. Well, by 4 or 5 pm, we still had not left the house. I picked up my keys and phone and told him I was going to find something to take a picture of. I need a blog post for goodness sakes!

Here I go, driving my car. No direction. No idea where to go. I really wished that Terry was with me. So, I was driving along. hohum....dumdedummmm...I didn't want to go far from home. I ended up turning down my parent's street and went to visit with them for a bit. It was getting late so I asked Mama if she had any ideas for my blog. We thought a few seconds. I noticed some cool figurines. I had seen them a million times before, but I thought..hey, photograph her collection! yes! I was onto something. The only problem I had was lack of lighting. I went ahead and put my camera on the tripod and we lined up her Musical Melodies collection that she has had for about 6 years. While we were working with that, daddy came along said, "You can take a picture of my award!" He was holding his trophy belt buckle so proudly. I told him that I would like to take a picture of it when we were finished. After we put away the Musical Melodies, I asked Dad to hold the buckle so that I could take a picture. I am so glad that I did get this picture. It means alot to him, therefore, it means alot to me too. When I got home, I realized just as I suspected, I needed more light on the figurines. I talked to Mom and we are going to work on getting some really sharp pictures at a later date. So, that will be a blog post to come... As for this post, I have a subject....My Daddy's Derby Champion Buckle!

Daddy is a hunter from way back. All my life, I have heard this phrase, "I am headed to the woods." Then, we see a rolling plume of dust behind his truck tires after he throws it in drive and punches the gas. Off he goes! At one time, he was owner of a 500 acre hunting camp. He always referred to the camp as 'The Fox Pen'. This is where men would bring their Fox Hounds and turn them loose at night to run the fox. Those hunters love to listen to the dogs barking and bawling as they follow the scent of the fox. Hunters can identify their dogs by the sound of their bark. It is pretty amazing. I remember one bumper sticker that said, "When the tailgate drops, the BS stops." That is funny huh? But, that just about sums it up. Those guys get together and yack it up about how their dog is the greatest of all time. But, when they drop their truck tailgates, the dogs are off and running and the best dog wins the race!

My dad entered his Walker Fox Hound dog named Cricket in a Fox Hunt Field Trial in Enon, LA. A field trial is a judged event by standers (men keeping score) on the trails. They score the dogs by watching where the fox crosses and whichever dog is leading on the fox trail, gets high score. The numerous scorekeepers come together when the field trial fox hunt is considered over so they can tally their high scores. On this particular hunt, Daddy's Cricket took 1st place and became the 2004 DERBY CHAMPION of the Southeastern Louisiana Hunter's Association. They presented him with a very valuable silver trophy belt buckle as 1st place award to the champion.

Day 42 of 365, Roses are Red

Day 42 of 365, Self Portrait, I took the two pictures below of my climbing rose bush. It is full of little leaves now because it is getting ready to bud soon. That rose bush is very prolific with roses throughout the year and is super hardy. It was started from a cutting from my brother-in-law's dad's rose garden.

This will be a rose one day soon.
Does this remind you of the the song "Every rose has it's thorns"? Those prickly little devils look like shark teeth to me. And, I have been stuck many times.

Day 41 of 365, Stave off Winter Colds

Day 41 of 365, I went to the produce stand. Here I am picking Tangelos. I set my camera in the pears and pressed the self timer to get this. I was not going to keep propping my camera up on all the fruit to try to get a descent pic. So, this is it. I have not been feeling well for the last couple weeks. That is why I have not been motivated to take pics of myself. ugh! My ear hurts every morning probably from a sinus infection. I really need to just go to the doctor and get it over with or try to pump up with Vitamin C!

Today's daily photo challenge Subject: Something from your Medicine Cabinet. I chose to photograph Ester-C. My mom and dad have been eating tons of the citrus fruit that is grown locally. I am referring to what are called satsumas, a small orange. They are super sweet and extremely easy to peel. One day, she said that she thought the reason they have not caught a cold was because they ate so many satsumas. If we can't eat tons of satsumas, we can at least take Ester-C to help stave off those winter colds.

My PawPaw John swears by garlic's medicinal properties. Garlic has long been considered an herbal "wonder drug", with a reputation in folklore for preventing everything from the common cold to the Plague! It is also said to be an effective mosquito repellant. Go figure!