don't be corny.....

actually, be as corny as you want to be. make others laugh. make yourself laugh. be here. don't be back there or too far ahead, just be here. love deeply. love like there won't be a tomorrow. be thankful when you wake up. the past is the past, leave it there. eat broccoli. play in the leaves. don't keep your feelings inside. eat cream cheese frosting, by itself. call your parents. be gentle with your words, they have the ability to be cut without your knowledge. quiche can be eaten three times a day. fall back this weekend. take more photos, of anything. take more photos of yourself. walk. walk a lot. make eye contact with strangers and watch them smile. don't scowl. be honest. hold hands. make out. eat the halloween candy you bought. buy more candy. don't wear clothes that make you feel ugly. drink more water. be gentle, all the time. grow together. don't let one of you get ahead or stay behind. talk it out. don't assume. learn something new. do something new. figure out what makes you happy and do it. if it takes a while to figure it out, don't beat yourself up. say no. oh, for the love of God, say no. and last but not least, let me repeat, BE HERE. be present.

the quotes above are from tumblr and most likely found on my pinterest page.

with wings.....

i'm not really sure what purpose a grasshopper has, but when it stays still long enough for me  to photograph her and she actually convinces me that she's looking right at me, i think maybe that's it. maybe they're only here to be photographed...and to fly up against our shins when we walk through the long grass causing us to be grossed out just a little.

we found an abandoned vineyard in the grassy bottoms of a wonderful little park where we walk and i have to tell you, i melted just a bit. melted, as in fell in love with these luscious wild grapes. there were rows and rows of twisted vines and old thick posts and as we walked through them, between them and around them, snapping photo after photo, i thought someday i'll have a row of grape carrying vines in my own yard...next to my llamas. 

a girl can dream.

this reminds me, we need apples.

~~

happy weekend everyone. i hope it's a beautiful one for you.

wakey wakey.....

of all the photos i've taken this fall, this one is my favorite.

the blushing of the berries, the texture on the leaves and the depth of autumn all rolled into {what i call} one delicious picture. the only editing done, was toning down the berries, as the sun had completely illuminated them, making them even too bright for my eyes.

it's the little things that wake me up and make me smile.

me. me. me.

nope.

ewe. ewe. ewe.

sorry. 

yes, it's another fungi.

~~

this scene always makes me laugh and if you don't try and talk like them after watching this clip, at least for a little bit, well then there's something seriously wrong with you.

have you seen these? my hubby and i are a bit hooked and now my father-in-law is, too. in a few days, my sister-in-law will be on our team, as hers is in the mail. oh, technology you get me every time.

this half-time show was amazing. it's a long one, but so worth it and if you're here reading my blog, chances are you're reading other blogs and just playing around on your computer, so i'm guessing you'll have time. snort.

if this "love a stranger" story doesn't make your day, i don't know what will. it makes me proud to be a photographer.

and last not but least, grab a tissue and watch this story about second chances.

he's home with donuts.....

it's not fall without a trip to the apple orchard, but the funny thing is...we never buy any apples when we're there. instead, i take photos and we always indulge in their fresh warm apple cider donuts. call us weird.

lately, my thoughts are filled with nothing but wanting to write {actually i feel a "need" to write} but i'm not getting anything down on paper or even here on my blog. i blame it on the weather.

when winter arrives here in wisconsin, i hibernate. i don't ski or snow shoe or ice skate. oh sure, you might get me outside to build a snowman or make a snow angel or throw a few snowballs, but that's it. so i find winter a perfect time to get everything done that i didn't do the rest of the year and that includes writing. lots of writing.

i hope my hubby is enjoying his retirement as much as i am. i love having him home with me. you see, now that he's retired, technically...i am, too, but nobody ever really notices when a stay at home mom retires. instead everyone looks at me and says, "so, is he driving you crazy, yet?" well the answer is always a profound, "NO!"

so what exactly did i retire from you might ask? well, anyone married to an executive whose climb includes moving twelve times from state to state will know exactly what i'm not doing anymore. i'm not having babies and moving to a new state when they're only 6 weeks or 9 months old. i'm not coordinating movers on both ends of a full household move or shutting off utilities in an old location and hoping i have the start date correct in a new one. i'm not unpacking boxes only to have them packed back up 6 or 9 or 24 months later to be moved yet again. i'm not finding new doctors or dentists in a new state. i'm not taking kids out of their schools and away from their friends and moving them to a new one while praying they'll be okay. i'm not saying good-bye {with tears streaming down my cheeks} to friends and neighbors. i'm not acting as a single mom while my hubby travels internationally. i'm not finding new teams for our kids to play on. i'm not finding a new person to handle our hair, our insurance, our yard needs, our snow issues, a vet, a groomer, groups to become involved in...and holy crap, the list goes on forever.

could i go on and on and on?  i could, but i won't. you get the picture...and to be honest, because it's all we really knew, we loved moving to new places. we were always telling people that we had "gypsy" in our blood and that we were always one step ahead of the law when they asked,  "why so many times?"

could we move again? of course. will we? well, isn't that the million dollar question of the day. snort.

and now i  raise my glass to everyone who has retired, no matter what they did, or how long they did it... because a job, no matter what, is a job is a job is a job.

i hope you're falling for fall the way we have been. walking and playing in "her" colors and warmth {while swatting the %$&* bees away} have been everyday activities for us and when it ends, well let's just say, there might be tears on my screen.

seriously, it did.....

i'd marry him.....

 i'm totally in love with this fungi

and 

his extended family. 

WHAT? i can't help it...i love a "fun guy." 

i hope you find it.....

i've been going through my photos and wishing i was better organized.

wishing i had a file where all the photos i've used here on my blog lived. {as these may be repeats, who knows}
wishing the photos i edit and the photos that just live on my computer {without an obvious or instantaneous love or hate fest from deep within me, but where i feel that maybe they should be kept, "just in case"} didn't take up so much room.

obviously "photo organization" {including hard drive back-ups, timeline backups and disc making} will be what fills my days when winter arrives {and takes me prisoner while practicing its famous choke hold and butt kicking moves on me} but for now...ta-da, the vineyard in all its splendor.

this vineyard/winery is our newest love...and it's only 20 minutes from our house. we spent an afternoon there earlier this summer, when i took these photos, and then again just last week.

last week we actually "planned" our trip and took a picnic lunch with us. someone said, "oh, you must be regulars." we laughed...and i thought, well not quite yet, but close.

fall is here. full out fall and the green in these photos is fading...

but the reds and oranges and yellows and browns are plentiful and we love it. i mean really, who doesn't? seriously, who doesn't love {and i mean LOVE} fall?

i'm loving this song and this song and really wishing for so many reasons that i played the guitar and could speak spanish fluently. just saying.

have an amazing "fall" weekend with your loved ones, or all alone reading a great book and dancing to your favorite music.

whatever you do, wherever you go, i hope it's perfect...and beautiful.

bee butts.....and the first of october

"the bees are so bad this year" seems to be part of every conversation this fall. well, they are bad. really bad. my sister-in-law got stung when she was visiting from seattle a few weeks ago and my little sister's dog eats them.

guess what, the stink bugs are really bad this year, too.

i don't know what it is about pumpkin patches that i love, but oh, they get me every year. lucky for me, my sister and her hubby have a "patch" filled with pumpkins and gourds and this year we even found chinese lantern plants growing...and she didn't even know they were there.

see...the surprises, love and magic of fall.
 

i have to tell you that i love when all the new shows start up in the fall and so far, i am loving "blacklist" with james spader. he's just creepy enough to make it work and the show often makes me think of "silence of the lambs" for some reason. have you seen it?

did anyone watch "betrayal" on sunday night? is that one going to make it? at first i wasn't loving the main characters, but by the end, they had grown on me.

sydney, the bee eating dog

~

i hope wherever you are that fall is embracing you, or that you're embracing fall and that your  relationship continues long into the month of october.