Reflections at the Pond

March 29, 2016March 30, 2016 | Allison

I took these pictures on a gorgeous clear spring morning. I was getting milk from the dairy, and the pond was too beautiful to resist! The water was glassy and calm, and the reflections in the water were almost perfect! The reflection of a Canada goose swimming about looked especially neat. (We have a pair of geese nesting at our pond. Yay!)

First, a couple of flowers from around the pond: (Click to enlarge.)

Henbit

Pepperweed?

Next, the stunningly beautiful barbed wire fence. XD Just kidding!

-Allison(pond, geese) 008 (1280x960) — Bokeh!

Now some pond scenery:

-Allison(pond, geese) 011 (1280x245) — This panorama really bent the pond. Now it looks like a boomerang!

And now for the geese! The mother goose was sitting still as a statue on her nest by the pond. She looks rather wary.

And here’s the father, keeping guard. 😀 Isn’t his reflection neat?

-Allison(pond, geese) 021 (1280x960) — Cow in the background. 😉

And more reflections…

-Allison(pond, geese) 022 (1280x960) — An underwater tree? 😀 I really like this picture.

WAIT! Did any of you notice something wrong with those pictures? You should have! All of that last chunk of photos except for the first three were upside down reflections! Some of the reflections were so smooth that you could hardly notice, but some of them just didn’t look right (like the last one). Heh heh. Did you notice that or not?

See ya’ later! ♥

***Allison***

Bird Jamboree

March 24, 2016March 24, 2016 | Allison

Ta-daa! The birdies post, as promised. 🙂

Spring is on the way here! You can hear birds twittering and singing around you which feels ever so much springier. (The first three pictures were taken at my grandparents house.)

DSCN1771 (1280x960) — Cute lil’ chickadee

-Allison(pond, geese) 014 — This is a sneak peek from a future post. 😉

Allison-(fog sunset, cloth) 043 — I saw this duck pair at a park.

Allison-(fog sunset, cloth) 045 — Lift off!

Okay. None of these last pictures are beautiful pictures, but I took them so that you can see how good my camera’s zoom is. The first picture was taken all the way zoomed out, and the last was zoomed in really far (but not quite as far as it can go) and then cropped. Both images were taken from the same exact place. You can’t even see the morning dove at all in the top picture! The second picture shows where the mourning dove is. (At least I’m pretty sure that’s what that miniscule, bird-shaped speck was when I zoomed it up on PicMonkey!) And the third (super blurry because I cropped it so much) picture shows you again.

Isn’t that simply AMAZING? I can hardly believe it myself, even though I took the picture!

Which picture was your favorite? Have a springy day!

***Allison***

Rabbits and Mud Fights

February 28, 2016February 28, 2016 | Allison

It was gorgeous this afternoon! Even though it’s February, it’s 63 degrees Fahrenheit out there, and boy it feels nice! Isn’t it so funny how 60 degrees feels steaming in winter and freezing in summer? 😀 Anyway, my cousin, my siblings, and I took the bunnies down to our creek (more of a trickle, really) to play with them… and also the mud. My brother Jefferson wheeled some of the bunnies down in a wheelbarrow. XD

-Allison(at the creek with bunnies, clay table) 006 (1280x960) — Willow wants a ride!

It was wondrous to lay in the grass and soak up the sun with a couple of warm fluffy bunnies beside you. Ahhhhh! When the bunnies started to get adventurous, we made a little “house” for them from umbrellas and a big bucket. It was so cute to watch them poke their little noses out from under the umbrellas, and hop around in the grass. 🙂

My sister Megan was trying to keep up with her bunny, Clementine. Clemmy sure had a lot of energy, and she wasn’t going to let a puny ol’ leash stop her from exploring! Doesn’t Clemmy look hilariously smug in the first picture? XD XD XD

-Allison(at the creek with bunnies, clay table) 007 (1280x960)

-Allison(at the creek with bunnies, clay table) 013 (1280x960)

We dipped Olaf in the creek to cool him off, and he looked so funny when he shook the water off! (Well, at least in a stop-motion picture.)

Lily is still her fat, squishable self. 😀

-Allison(at the creek with bunnies, clay table) 012 (1280x960) — A Lily sniff captured. While her nose is really blurry, her dewlap is very clear! 😀

But we didn’t only play with the bunnies – it would be an awful waste if we didn’t play with any of that good mud beside the creek. XD (Sorry, but I only have videos of us playing – no pictures. 😦 ) The mud play ranged from building a waterfall/dam in the creek to having a mud fight. Well, it wasn’t actually a mud fight, it was more like an orderly mud throw. We stood in a pentagon and threw carefully crafted mudballs in unison in a clockwise direction. Orderly, right? Orderly, but not tidy. I am sitting here in rather mud-splattered clothing. XD Not to mention the mud I already washed off…

So yeah, it was fun. But I think a few showers might be in order… 😀

***Allison***

P. S. My mom just said “Those dog treats are really good, Megan! I keep eating them for a snack.” XD XD XD Don’t worry; it’s not as bad as it sounds. My sister Megan made dog treats from a recipe K. A. gave her (it’s basically flour, peanut butter, and water), and they taste like nice crunchy crackers. So we’re eating dog treats at our house. XD XD XD

Quote Edits

February 20, 2016February 22, 2016 | Allison

I’ve been using this great photo-editing site (PicMonkey) to make quote edits recently. It is SO much fun! PicMonkey has some great fonts, but my sister told me about another website (1,001 Free Fonts), that has gazillions more free fonts, so I also used some of those.

All of these edits were made by me, from pictures taken and edited by me. The quotes are either verses from the Bible, quotes from Pinterest, or part of the lyrics songs or hymns.

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#1. This is one of my favorites of the edits I made. When the world is storm-tossed all around you, cling to the Rock that stands strong above the storm.

#2. Stop and smell the roses – take time to enjoy the little pleasures around you. (Picture from this photoshoot.)

#3. I love this verse, and the ones that go with it. Why should we worry when God holds all of creation in his hand? The third and fourth edit are consecutive verses, so they go together.

#4. (Picture from this post.)

#5. Always look on the bright side. Find the blessings in disguise.

#6. Kind words are as pleasing as honey. Or more so! (This picture was from my “Bee Tree” post.)

#7. From the Doxology…

#8. Great things can come from small deeds.

#9. From the song “Waterfall,” by Chris Tomlin.

#10. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made the whole wide world.

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I hope you enjoyed reading those quotes – I enjoyed making them! Which was your favorite?

A lot of those pictures came from a big Western trip my family made in 2013 – some more of those pictures may show up in a “Photos from of Old” post. 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. The first WordCrafters story is finally finished! (At almost 10,000 words o.O :D) You can read it here. It’s a wonderful story – thank you SO much everyone, for participating!!

P. P. S. I know I haven’t been posting much about Farm Life, but the fact is, not many post-worthy farm things happen in winter. I suppose you’ll have to make do with photoshoots and stories and tutorials until spring. 🙂 There’s a clay tutorial coming up soon!

Crystal Pond, and Treasures Found There

November 13, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

Somewhere on a farm, hidden away in its own little secret world of trees and brush, there is a pond whose shores are littered with millions of sparkling quartz crystals… Well, OK, Crystal Pond isn’t quite as romantic and fairy-tale-like as all that, but it is still one of my favorite places on our farm.

Don’t get confused by the name – the water in the pond isn’t crystal clear, but rather the land around the pond has pretty quartz crystals scattered on it. Sometimes there are a bunch of crystals, sometimes… not so much, especially when the pond is high. The bad thing is, the pond is kind of surrounded by a defense wall of thorns, prickly evergreens, and brush. Yeah, it’s just a tad hard to get to. But once you get inside, it’s nice and quiet and peaceful. There is always some treasure waiting to be found along the shores or in the scrubby woods beside the pond. Crystal Pond has several of my favorite things around it: water, moss, rocks, and mushrooms!

Here are, um… a LOT of photos.

Moss:

A beautiful quartz crystal!

This rock looks like it has a heart in it.

And… lots of mushrooms!

Aren’t these such cute little mushrooms? They look like they are made of playdough or something.

And some close-ups:

I also found a strange, lonely, frilly mushroom with no identity tag. Does anyone know what it is?

And some other things:

A pill bug going busily about his day (I edited this picture),

An interesting plant (I think maybe a Chinese lantern?),

Some bright red berries,

An ivy vine with berries,

And a beautiful pine tree.

And that’s it! Are you still awake? 😛 If so, what was one of your favorite pictures from this post?

Bye ’til later!

***Allison***

Fall Hiking: Part 2

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 | Allison

Next up! A hike in the mountains. This is a spider we saw at the very beginning of the hike, but he was scared of my camera so he ran away and hid under his favorite leaf. 🙂

Below is a rock that looked like someone cut a heart on it, but I’m pretty sure it was natural.

Does anyone know what this weird red clump-of-berries-on-a-stem is called?↓

Here’s a strange fuzzy-looking fungus – isn’t he so cute? 😛

Now for some gorgeous fall trees!

There was an overlook at the top of the trail where you could crane your neck (and camera) to see a small but very steep falls. I edited this picture because it wasn’t very good to begin with.

For some reason there were also a lot of ladybugs at the overlook. I took a few close-ups of this pretty lil’ gal resting on my jeans.

And that’s it! I hoped you enjoyed the virtual hike – and trust me, you got off easy – that trail was TIRING!

***Allison***

Fall Hiking: Part 1

October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 | Allison

I went on two beautiful hikes recently, and took lots of pictures (is that surprising or what? ☺). So many pictures, in fact that they won’t fit into one post. So… I’ll do two fall hike posts, starting with this one! (Except the first two pictures kind of look like spring. ☺)

Ahhhh… isn’t fall gorgeous? Which picture was your favorite?

***Allison***

Creation Series: Day 7

October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 | Allison

After all that he had done, God rested. Not that he needed the rest – he NEVER needs rest – but to set an example for us, to show us how we should set aside a day of rest, a day to worship him.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Here’s a nice little (uh… big) collage of most of the pictures. In fact, I think I got all the pictures that I used on there except for two. If you’re up for a challenge, which two pictures from the series didn’t I include in this collage?

I had a lot of fun making this series and I hope you had a lot of fun reading it. Thanks for following along!

***Allison***

Creation Series: Day 2

October 19, 2015October 18, 2015 | Allison

(See the first post here.)

⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.