297/365 With Stripes

"Good for the Sole"

My funky striped hand-knit socks are the first things that come to my mind when I think about stripes.   I don't have much of a personal style except for my socks. They are like a smile on my feet.  How can you not be happy when you are wearing brightly colored hand-knit socks?   I am always surprised by the fact that my students notice my socks and ask about them.  Over the years, I have even made a pair of socks for a couple of them.  

It was kind of cool seeing them all together like this.  It is much more impressive than looking at them balled up in my sock basket.

The two socks in the middle are a public confession of sorts.  They are both for Weber and I have not managed to knit their mates (in two years) ….yet.  I have two months until Christmas.  He will be so surprised to find two pairs of socks amongst his Christmas gifts:-)

296/365 Mysterious

"The Hand"

This is not at all the picture I had in mind for today.  I snapped several random shots this evening hoping for something that was even remotely on the mysterious side.  When I saw this image, the Emerson quote came to mind.  There is nothing really mysterious about this.  Truthfully, there was nothing mysterious about any of the photos I took tonight.   I had to abandon the daily prompt and go with the muse.  Emerson is right up there next to Thoreau on my list of my all-time heroes.

295/365 Dark

"Weber's Black Hat"

The hat definitely looks best atop Weber's head but he gets stuck so many days being the subject of the daily photo that I felt like I needed to accomplish this one all by myself.  This almost looks like a silhouette, but it is just the hat hanging on one of our black dining room chairs.  The image was taken in very low light to further address the "dark" prompt.

All that said, below is probably my all-time favorite photo of Weber in his hat.  I took this one back in January.

294/365 Blades and Bokeh

"Blade of Grass"

I had a hard time with today's prompt.  The idea was to get those dancing bokeh circles atop blades of grass.  That really needs to be photographed first thing in the morning when there is dew on the grass and beautiful morning light.  That was not happening around here today.

Let me tell you about our morning.  First of all, the alarm went off way too early.  All I could think of when it started beeping at 6am was, "You have got to be kidding!"  It wasn't kidding.  We had to get up.  Every now and then we can hit the snooze and get an extra 10 maybe even 20 minutes of rest, but not today; we had to deliver ten dozen cupcakes this morning before school so we had to get up with  the first alarm.  The good news is that the cupcakes were going to school with Weber.  His principal ordered them from Brooke to distribute as a "gift" to all the teachers. Rather than make Weber totally responsible for getting them to school and in by himself, I went with him, helped carry them in and then Weber took me to school.  That all required being a little more together in the morning than I usually am.  We did get it done with no glitches.  Maybe I could become a morning person.  On second thought, why would I want to do that?

All that to say that I did not attempt my picture until late this afternoon.  By that time, there was no sun, only gray skies and no dew.  Without good light, bokeh was going to be difficult.   I shot a few pictures of grass and then turned my attention to the tree out front.  

Today's POTD was a surprise that I discovered when I looked at the day's photos on the computer.  Im not sure what I was thinking when I took it and I'm not sure where that single drop of water came from.   It doesn't really matter.  I love the simplicity and the bit of abstractness in this photo.  The quote helps to bring the image alive for me.

I did manage a little bokeh when shooting acorns in the tree.

"Colors and Shapes of Fall"

I know our neighbors must think that I'm a little crazy - taking pictures of debris in the gutters along the street, plain old grass and leaves on the tree.  Oh well, I proudly admit that I do indeed do those things.  While I was taking pictures of the leaves, our next door neighbor came out with her dog.  We chatted for a bit and then the dog wanted some attention.  I gave him a scratch behind the ear and then turned my camera toward him.  He wasn't too sure about the clicks of the shutter at first, but then he became fascinated.  This gave me an opportunity for a few good shots.  I love photographing pets.

"Lunden"

How can you not want to photograph that cute little face?

I didn't ask his mom before I started taking pictures, though she didn't object.  Still, I decided that I would print a couple photos this evening and take them over to her.  I may have to watch for this four-legged model outside again!

Oh, and despite the fact that Weber's principal ordered the cupcakes for all of the faculty and staff, Weber didn't get one.  Not sure why.  This is sad…and funny.  Last night while Brooke was working on them, she offered one to Weber.  He declined saying that he would get one at school today.  Wrong!

293/365 Begins With "P"

"Playing With Mrs. Pota….Pumpkin Head"

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

- Henry David Thoreau -

I love this man!  How can you not when he speaks such wisdom?  I guess this means that he would not have been interested in sharing that 10x10 cabin in the woods with me.  

292/365 Golden

'A Golden Day at the Fair"

It was a beautiful fall day (finally!) and we went to the state fair.  I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked and very few of the ones I did take had anything golden in them.  The truth is, most of the things at the State Fair of Texas that come anywhere near being golden are that way as the result of being deep fried.  I am happy to say that we consumed no deep fried, or any other, food at the fair.  If we had, today's photo may well have been of a funnel cake!

I did spot this one tree that had bought into the notion that it really is fall.  The building with the golden cap was a nice bonus.  I didn't notice the Texas flag when I was shooting tho photos, but I like it in the frame because, well, we were at the Texas state fair.

I took a few more pictures that may be worth posting, but we went to a party tonight as well and I haven't had time to even look at all of the day's photos.

291/365 Patience

"Technical Patience"

I have patience with a lot of things, but technology is not one of them.  I want my phone, the technology at school and my computer at home to work how I want it all how I want it to work and when I need it to work.  When technology does not perform as I expect it should, I become frustrated very quickly.  Weber is just the opposite.  He will spend hours trying to find out exactly what is wrong and what to do to fix it.

Lately my computer at home is either suffering from severe emotional trauma, probably because of the expectations I have placed upon it, or it is just plain possessed.  Before we tried an exorcism, Weber ran some diagnostics and repairs to see if he could get it to behave properly.  I am happy to say that so far, after thirty minutes or so of use tonight, there ain't no misbehaving'.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!

I am so thankful for Weber's patience with this kind of stuff!