By the Lake
Used a made up theme. A walk down by Lake Monroe. Weather is crazy, tomorrow it's supposed to hit 85.

95 Favorite Things

I've always like these type of fences. See them alot on the Civil War battlefields and more common when I was growing up. Which was not during the Civil War.

160 Intersection
Took a little driving tour of the Bentonville Civil War Battlefield in North Carolina last month while there babysitting our "grand dogs".

275 Sense of Motion
Our neighborhood hawk was hunting lizards in the neighbor's yard. Did not seem at all bothered by me watching. Actually he sat in a tree about 10 yards away for about a half an hour watching me as I cleaned out my pond last spring.

243 Public Art
The fronts of several shops in downtown Sanford have been decorated with may items shoved into concrete; there are baseball cards, glasses, bottle caps and many other items.

153 How About This Weather?
A lovely morning with a breeze and some cloud cover.

210 One Dozen
A dozen fresh eggs from the Farmer's Market. Fond of the Easter Egger chickens that lay such pretty colored eggs.

236 Playground

161 It's Saturday Morning
Early Saturday morning along the River Walk. A solitary sailor out on the lake. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze and early before the usual heat & humidity.

250 Rainbow
Yippee, getting back into the groove again. Parents are doing well, husband has recovered from his surgery, I've done everything I can to prepare for the renovation to the house so I can spend a little me time behind the camera and playing with PSE. There was one day out in Arizona where it rained, caught this with my little P&S before heading to the hospital. One of the topics of conversation when I got to the hospital was the rainbow.

139 Hands
I have flown out of town as both of my parents managed to wind up in the hospital earlier this week. Yesterday my Dad was able to get in his wheelchair and go down the hall to visit with my Mom. It was excellent medicine.
And I would just like to whine one minute and say I hate dealing with a 3 time zone change!

293 Solitary
A Blue Heron had staked out the small area of land by some cypress trees. I no longer have my fish pond; in reality it was a heron feeder so I don't have one visiting my backyard anymore. I do miss him.

313 Swim
Since the lovely creature takes a swim in Lake Monroe along with quite a few of his relatives it is not considered a real safe place for us mere mortals to swim.

340 Turkey or Fowl
Seeing this turkey buzzard sitting in this park grill struck me funny. Not that I would really want to eat this turkey.

123 Go Fish!
Managed to get one shot of the osprey in flight. He was out of view when he got his fish.

269 Sculpture
This eagle sculpture is atop a plain granite column with the names of servicemen and women that are from Sanford. This is at Sanford's Veteran's Memorial Park.

209 On The Water
I don't think this boat has moved in a couple of weeks. There are some sailboats out on the lake that are creating problems as they are under the water. Played around with this one, added one of my textures.

196 Navigational Aids
They have one of these compass style areas on either end of the Sanford River Walk.

72 Curvy
The curvy neck of the American Anhinga aka the snake bird. Sitting, drying his wings by the side of pond. Often see them with the winds spread wide. They are a southeastern bird. They dive into the water for their food.

49 Chores
My least favorite yard work chore. Next year I think this one will be sold and I will invest in a battery operated. Getting tired of the cord, but I do love how easy it starts.

87 Exercise
Taking Jessica Sprague's Frame Ups and Special Effects Class. I don't usually do a lot of processing on the photos for this challenge but this was an exercise in some different techniques. I started with Jeff Perry's faux HDR, then added a frame and texture from House of 3.com (courtesy J. Sprague) and a texture from Skeletal Mess. Messed around with blend modes.

29 Bodies of Water

Lake Monroe along the Sanford River Walk. We are planning to drive up there on Sunday to do the "morning walk" along the lake for a change of pace..

8 Adolescence (Morning Walk)
We've been watching this group of young ibis make their way around the neighborhood. They have always had an adult (all white) with them until this morning when we saw them without their chaperone.

296 Song Lyrics
"Ooo, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time "
1967 classic co-written by Otis Redding & Steve Cropper, recorded by Otis shortly before he died in a plane crash. One of my all time favorites.

227 Past It's Prime
Exposure to the elements over a few years has reduced this work bench top to mush.

6 Abstract
A close up of gladiolus that I applied a couple of filters and blend modes.

127 Grass, Turf, Lawn
I like the red and purple fountain grasses. Just cut them back in late winter and it's not long before they are waving again.

40 Candy
Ok, this is a little stretch. This is my Peppermint crepe myrtle. After all our traveling we are staying far away from any candy, of course DH is diabetic so it is doubly verboten in our house.

246 Purple
A porterweed flower that the butterflies and bumblebees love. Another tough plant, freezes back but comes back and does reseed alot!

91 Fairs or Amusement Parks
Part of a model railroad display. Love all the detail they do in these displays.

57 Clown
I am not a clown person, I'm afraid I find them very creepy. These clowns have a friendlier appearance than most.

103 Flowers
African Iris, a favorite in my garden. It is a tough plant, doesn't freeze or melt in our summer saunas.

169 Leaves
I love magnolia leaves. The glossy green with the copper backs. And of course the creamy white flowers with their glorious fragrance.

101 Flags and Banners
I hope you have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day. And for our friends who reside elsewhere I hope you have a safe and enjoyable July 4th!

203 Numbers (Morning Walk)
On the electrical power poles.

349 Vine (Morning walk)
I was afraid that the freezes might have killed the morning glory vines that grow in some of the trees along our walk. But they have started blooming again.

69 Crossroads
I just really like the fonts on this sign.

175 Logs
Not too bad a shot considering I really couldn't look at what I was shooting. Just aimed through the windshield. I think this was the last shot I took before DH started doing the out the window pictures.

337 Travels
We were very lucky in our travels this spring. This was really the only road construction hold up we experienced. This was in Pennsyslvania, took 40 minutes to go about 8 miles. And it was only the second day that I had to drive in the rain.

133 Grumpy
I fear there are some days when I feel exactly the same way. Nose art on a aircraft on display in Mobile, AL where the USS Alabama is permanently docked.

265 Rural

Out in the boonies, signs of habitation were few and far between.

266 Rusted
Another sculpture from the Cary Visual Art 2008 Sculpture Competition. This is Memory Ball by Adam Walls. They hold various functions in the building in the background. It looked like they were setting up for a wedding the day we were there.

334 Toys
When we go to visit our DD and her two dogs we take a few new toys for the dogs. Samia is playing with her lobster, she's very funny when she plays with them while on her back.

326 Things with Wings

This wasp has interesting markings. Never know what you will find when you look closely or zoom in from a safe distance.

294 Something Borrowed
This is Pilot, one of my daughter's dogs. I like to "borrow" her dogs as they are so much fun. Pilot is very exuberant and a very sweet dog.

353 Water
There is a lovely garden at Cary's administration buildings area. At the Village Forum this week's Creative Challenge had a HDR tutorial using Elements. Figured this would make a good two-fer.

261 Risky (Morning Walk)
Yesterday morning, this little armadillo came strolling across the street close to us. All the cars slowed down but I'm afraid I see most of them as roadkill. We do have one who comes by our yard once a year. Digs a big hole under our fence and the shed in the back. Doesn't do too much other digging in our yard and then disappears.

36 Broken (Morning Walk)
This is the fence the heron was perched on that I had posted a couple of photos ago. Sometime while we were gone it fell over. I looked at the post and it looked like it had rotted. A little project for the city to fix.

32 Boy
A young boy riding his bike. It was a beautiful day in Pennsylvania.

192 Musical Instrument
This is "Air Guitar", it is a sculpture in Cary, NC where I was visiting with my daughter. It was done by Mike Roig. They had a contest and there were some wonderful pieces. Most of them were for sale but were out of my price range. Rachel and I got up early one morning to run around taking photos. Had a lovely time.
After spending a few days with her (& my laptop crashed again) DH and I went up to Rhode Island to see his brothers and then to Pennsylvania to see my sister. After we got back I spent another two hours with the Dell tech to get up and running. Still have a couple of issues to get fixed but they are minor. And I was promised that this would fix the problem. So now we are trying to get caught up and all the service and doctor's appointments done. I have to get all my photos loaded back onto the computer. A little overwhelmed with all the stuff that needs to be done. We have only been home three weeks total out of the last ten. Will be playing catch up. Think we are home for at least a couple of months.