She's a Natural Beauty

Last summer a toad set up house in our garage. She was welcome to all the mosquitoes, flies and spiders she could eat. I thought she was amusing.

Toads need an outside source of moisture for their skin. Many mornings I would find her in Kitty's water bowl. It was just the right size for her and she could rest comfortably on the bottom of the bowl with her nose and eyes just above the surface of the water.

Kitty was not amused. He knew from experience that toads secrete a toxin that makes them taste very bad! Sure that his water was made to taste the same way, I changed it daily.

"Outdoor toads" spend the hot summer days in holes where they can stay cool and moist. When the sun came up in the mornings our garage toad would hop under furniture stored in our garage to hide and rest until night.

Toads also hibernate in the ground in winter. As fall approached and the days grew shorter I became concerned about Garage Toad. The area underneath the furniture was not sufficient for the long winter and she sure wasn't going to be digging a hole in the cement floor.

So each day I moved Kitty's water bowl closer to the garage door. And each morning I left the garage door cracked a few inches for her.

Eventually her instincts took over and she hopped off to find her winter home.

If you look closely at this toad's picture you can see the sand on her face. I took her picture just a few minutes after she hopped out of her hole that is just next to our home's foundation. I like to think this is Garage Toad.

I Have to Get in There Right Now!

Little Kitty is athletic and agile. She loves cheese, milk, and yogurt. She is very feminine and keeps her fur impeccably clean.

Little Kitty is also so shy we can't get our hands on her.

So why is it that whenever we use the guest bath she has to come in too?

The Moo

This is my daughter's dog, Moonie. Don't ask me why she named him that, I have never asked her.

Moonie is one of those once in a lifetime dogs. It is hard to put your finger on what it is about him. Maybe it is simplest just to quote one of my friends, "Everybody loves Moonie!"

We live on ten acres in a rural area. We are used to seeing Moonie in this context. Moonie is a BIG Labrador Retriever. He measures 52 inches from nose to tail. For comparison, my dining room table is only 59 inches long.

My daughter recently moved to an apartment in the city and Moo went with her. He is very happy and goes for long walks with her in the local park.

One day when I visited them I volunteered to take Moo outside for a bathroom break. All of a sudden the beautiful landscape around the apartment looked terribly small. As my daughter said, "A large area," and she held her hands with her arms wide open, "suddenly looks this big when Moo shows up!" And she held her hands so close together they almost touched.

From Zero to Sixty to 1865

Have you ever just been sitting around the house chilling and then, in the blink of an eye, everything changes?

One Sunday in March I poured my little cup of coffee and sprawled out on the recliner with the laptop to check the news.

Lo and behold, there was a civil war reenactment going on!

I jumped in the shower (mustn't show up smelly for such a social event) printed out a map, grabbed my camera, arranged a dog sitter, and took off at 60 mph to the year 1865.

In spite of all my efforts I was late. The battle had started without me. I had to boogie down to the battlefield but boy was it worth it. The bright colors, the noise, the horses, the excitement.......

I have been told, I'm not sure if it is entirely true, that here in the south they have trouble getting enough Yankees to come to the battle.

The old farm house that served as a hospital for both Yanks and Rebs is said to be haunted. Since the reenactment was on the same day of the year as the battle was actually fought I wondered if the ghosts would be especially stirred up by the rifle and cannon fire. After all, I believe in ghosts, don't you?

This waterfall was one among many in a noisy mountain stream. I was so engrossed in photography that I was unaware of activities going on behind me on the bank.

When I was done I looked behind me and was greeted by a dream come true. Men in crisp white shirts and carefully pressed black pants were setting up tables with white table cloths. They were opening a bar!

A young couple had planned their wedding there on the rocks of this happy little brook.

I was told that the bride's parents had chosen not to show up. So when I passed her I made sure to tell her that she had chosen a beautiful spot to get married and that she looked lovely (she did.)

We Have Purple Bear

So I learned one thing for sure. It is not as easy to make a ransom note as it looks. I guess this is how they made them in the Lindbergh era. Before CSI.

I had little letters and pieces of newspaper all over my kitchen. It was sort of like when you take out the Christmas tree...... and for weeks you are finding pine needles in places you cleaned up already.

I had cut up newspaper pages in my trash. With just the right letters missing from each of those pages.

Each letter was glued to the piece of 8.5 x 11 paper I had pulled from my printer. That means each letter had my fingerprints preserved in the aforementioned glue.

Of course Ialso had dried glue on my fingertips.

I was an FBI agent's dream come true.

Kidnapped!

As photographers we are always looking for the perfect photo.

The perfect landscape, the perfect waterfall, or the perfect portrait.

Maybe sometimes we should just have fun.

At one time our dog's favorite toy was Purple Bear. I don't know

why, but one day I decided to kidnap Purple Bear! Of course I needed

a photo with the daily paper as "proof of life."

And I needed a ransom note.

One Hundred and Fifty Five

In the Smoky Mountains there is a waterfall that one has to climb 155 steps to see. Not easy if you are too proud to stop and catch your breath!

After elbowing my way in among many others to photograph the waterfall my pictures were nothing to brag about. Just another waterfall. Disappointed, I left the viewing area and noticed another photographer working in the creek below. When I looked at the LCD on the back of his camera I said, "Oh look! A cat!"

He had been so busy photographing the scene he had not noticed that the rocks and the water formed a cat's face and whiskers.

As soon as he was done I set up my tripod and took my own photo.

Some people see an old man or a baby in the area below the cat's nose. What do you see?