Everybody is a Taurus

 Both my husband and I are Tauruses. Then we have two friends who are also Tauruses. So we tend to plan a party somewhere in the middle of all those April/May birthdays. That's usually around the time for my birthday. This year we all had lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.

The birthday couple. 

Some of the guests

The rest of the guests.

Eating some yummy birthday cake with Dahl

I plan to start posting the flowers next week. 

Day 126

The 126th day of the year was Saturday May 6th, yesterday. I received this inspirational quote from my niece on that day.   

This is a good jumping on point to restart, yet again, this blog, starting with spring flowers.

Happy Indictment Day

 

Ash Wednesday

 

Happy Mardi Gras 2023

From KNOE 8 News Monroe LA

 For links to some of my older Mardi Gras postings click here.

Legendary Ladies

One of my neighbors church has an annual tea the weekend before Valentines Day. They feature some historical character as a presentation for us. Frequent presenters are the "Legendary Ladies," a group that focuses on the lost history of women in Colorado. I've attached the program for this year's presentation below. 

I've also included the group's brochure and their contact information if you are in the area and interested in hosting them. 

Happy Valentines Day

Hi, Happy Valentines day to you all. I've created an ecard for you to enjoy.

Maus & the banned book club

 

We've started a banned book club in our neighborhood. The First meeting is in a couple of weeks and Maus will be our first book. 

Celebration 2022: Johnson Family Reunion

The family had a reunion back in Ohio this past July. I got to have some one-on-one time with my 98 year old mother. 

 Got to eat some yummy mid-western barbeque. 

All of this was thanks to my cousin Dwight who did all the work. 

Celebrations 2022: Choir

 The end of August was our church choirs first post-COVID performance. It was great to get back to singing in person again. 

Since then I haven't been singing regularly with the choir, but have continued my lessons to rebuilding my voice. 

Celebrations 2022:Anniversary

This year we celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary.  

With COVID restrictions lifted we wanted to have a party with our friends. So we met at an exceptional Italian restaurant called Parma in a nearby town.

The Year 2022 in Review: Celebrations

 The next series of blog entries will showcase our celebrations from 2022. We start at the end of the year, with Christmas, and then work back to the summer.

Despite multiple health complications this fall I wanted to have a tree this year. So we got one of the neighbor kids to help us and got it up at the last minute. 

Christmas day dinner is traditionally prime rib and this year was no exception.

We invited other friends and family to the dinner, but it ended up being more intimate with just the two of us. Hoping you had a happy holiday too! 

Happy New Years 2023

 We would like to wish everyone best wishes for a Happy New Year. Despite my visual challenges I'm looking forward to getting out and exploring new horizons in the coming year.

Low Vision Photography (LVP)

I'm starting a new storyline on my other blog. Here is a sample of what it is going to cover. If you want to continue following my low vision journey, here is the address to the other blog. 

Those of you who have followed my illness know where I've been. The rest of you can read about it here. For the last few months I've been thinking about what I want to do with my photography. A recent article by Chris Gampat about low vision photography inspired me to give it a try. 

People often wonder how one can do photography while blind. So first let's define what what we mean by low vision photography. Low vision isn't exactly blind. Many of us learned photography while we still had some vision. This is why the phrase low vision is more accurate than blind. Chris learned photography after he had lost much of his vision. I've only recently lost significant vision, but I've been doing photography all of my adult life. 

 

To illustrate this, here are two images (one above & one below) of the same subjects and scene. The first one, the blurred one, is somehow more compelling than the second, which is technically more correct. 

Here are two more images. They are abstract because of the lighting and the exposure. They both have some interesting elements in common, such as strong back lighting, and some that are not, such as motion blur.

Which one do you prefer? And why? 

Goodbye Andy

We lost our canine companion to cancer this summer. His name was Andy. He was half a year short of 15. It has been a couple of months now since he passed, and we are ready for another dog. So I found a wonderful pup at a local rescue that collects strays from nearby reservations. Unfortunately we weren't chosen, but here is the photo they wanted as part of the adoption application to prove we had a sufficient yard. Once again I made use of the panorama feature.  

 

Lake Waneka awaits winter

 The other day we headed over to our local open space park to capture the reduced water levels in Lake Waneka, but recent rains had partially refilled it. I decided to play with the panorama feature on my phone and was very happy with the result. 

Our local park suspended all water based activities this summer because of the ongoing water shortage resulting from the drought. This summer started very dry, but around August the monsoon pattern started up and we were getting significant dumps about every ten days. Now we have just enough water for our migrating Canada geese as they migrate through.  

   

Sunflower

 Here is an image of one of the many volunteer sunflowers in our garden this year. Birds have transplanted sunflower seeds from a neighbor's yard into ours and given us this gift. I love the transparent glow that comes from the side lighting of the flower. 

Sights along the Ohio River

Gallipolis Lock & Dam

 After the end of the family reunion we took a detour east to the Ohio river. We started in a little town of Gallipolis and drove along the river for a few hundred miles. Shortly outside of Gallipolis was this structure built for flood control. It is now named after the West Virginia senator Robert Byrd. 

Further down the we passed a number of suspension bridges, no two exactly alike. This is a small one I was taken with. 

Serpent Mound, Ohio

 Back in a remote corner of the eastern hill country of Ohio is a the Serpent Mound. The earth works represent a giant serpent with an egg in its mouth.  The mounds are less than eye height, so the scale is completely different than what I was expecting. We were told by the ranger that the mounds had been reconstructed. 

St. Louis Arch from across the river

 Across the Mississippi river from the St. Louis arch is the Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park. Getting there is a tad harrowing. It requires navigating through a post apocalyptic landscape of burned out cars and gutted buildings.  At the edge of the park is an elevated platform that allows an unobstructed view of the arch from the east side of the river. What is nice from this side of the river is that you have a clear view of downtown St. Louis. Unfortunately there is a powerline obstructing the view, but it isn't too noticeable.