Rainy Monday

Rain, rain, and more rain -- yesterday, today, and tomorrow before it clears out.  Texas has been in and out of droughts the last several years - surely all the rain we've received this winter will give us a boost for the summer.  And if nothing else it's great for spring wildflowers (can't wait!! planning on a few day trips just to photograph them).

The weekend was busy, as many of ours tend to be.  A visit to the Houston Symphony is always a great time, but this performance was one of their family series and was held in the latter part of the morning.  We've never attended this type of performance, but will definitely do it again.  Yes there were really small kids there, but it was a really fun and informative experience (and we were in downtown during the day - when we could see things).  I truly believe everyone should see their local symphony perform at least once in their lifetime -- a family type performance might be a great introduction.  Although the music will most likely be familiar (ours was music from the Star Wars music - the actual score/music written by John Williams), to see it played - to watch the string players play (we're a band family - so strings are fascinating to us); the overall experience can be very moving. A bit of trivia we learned from the conductor -- The Battle of the Heroes is the most difficult viola piece John Williams has written.  The viola section was projected onto big screens so we could watch closely -- those musicians had their heads down and fingers flying!!

 Following are a few pictures from the event - taken with my phone, so not as high quality, but not bad either.

Storm troopers infiltrated the orchestra/stage -- they pretended to play the instruments, put rabbit ears behind the musicians (who tried not to laugh), and generally were all over (they were sometimes standing guard in the audience too).

Darth Vader -  yes he made an appearance too -- light saber duel with the conductor who was dressed as Obi-Wan.  The ticket prices were the same for all seats within the hall and we were lucky to get 4 seats in the front row!!  We've decided those are good & bad seats -- good because we (obviously) got a really up close view of action, but bad because we weren't able to see all of the orchestra and maybe get the entire balanced sound of them (but glad we tried it out).

Since it was daytime, we checked out a large sculpture behind Jones Hall.  I admit I am not knowledgeable in art, but this really reminded me of the old Rolie Polie Olie cartoon my kids watched years ago.  (Don't tell the artist Miro!) 

We were finally able to get the extended family together for my birthday supper - a week late.  I'm pretty sure these cupcakes aren't on my diet - but darn they were good.  Thank goodness there was only enough for each of us to have one.

Photography e-course assignment:  explore editing images. Although I added minimal effects/editing I do like the way the image turned out.

Last image details:
102mm macro lens (Nikkor)
macro setting - flash
edited using Photoshop Elements
minor cropping, dark vignette around edges to tone down the brightness and focus attention to the central bright flower bud.  No, brightness, or added saturation.  This is a lemon tree flower bud.  We've had a lot of rain, but for lemon trees - the more rain the juicier the fruit, so an appropriate image for our last several days.

Focus 52 (week 31) - Water (with a few toads)

Wow - been a while since I was able to contribute to this weekly prompt - I love participating, but lately I haven't been able to take many photographs, much less ones that even slightly resembled the prompt (I know I could post anything - but I like the challenge). 

Now that we've had a bit of a summer storm today (great timing), I was able to take a few shots of water & to my surprise - a few toads decided to pop out & see what was going on -- their home was flooding. 

These are Gulf Coast Toads - very common around here.  We didn't see as many last year when we were in the exceptional drought, so we are enjoying watching them this summer.  The crack in the sidewalk was a great place to get down into the cool dirt during the hot day - except when the crack fills with "flood" waters. 

Participating in Jan's Focus 52 this week.  To see other images of water - click here.

Sidenote:
To those who attempted to comment on my blog in the past & were frustrated with word verification (I know I get frustrated) - I apologize - I think I've fixed it where commenting should be effortless (if not - please let me know). 

Weekend Rewind (3-12-12)

We had a relatively low-key weekend because of the rain - so much rain.  I've blogged about the drought in this area and posted pictures of its effects, but Mother Nature -- it really wasn't necessary for us to receive our entire month's worth of rain in 3 days.  I borrowed this image from the Weather Channel online (love that site), this is not the final total for the month - they still have to add in rainfall totals since midnight Monday, so I expect us to be over our average (and further down the drought classification - we are definitely making progress).

graphic from www.weather.com

Saturday we stopped at an art walk in a nearby community - it was their first one and the weather definitely affected visitor attendance and vendors/artist participation.  However with the smaller crowd we were able to talk with the artists and watch a few work without being bumped into (my family doesn't care for crowds).  Those who braved the threatening weather presented some very interesting pieces - beautiful wood carvings, decoratively painted palm fronds, kitchen utensils hand-carved from reclaimed food-safe wood. 

hand carved serving spoons - reclaimed/salvaged woods

The painted palm fronds were mostly fish themed, but my daughter managed to find and purchase one that had been painted and slighted cut (for mouth) into a horse (no surprise there).  This was her first art purchase - hope she keeps it for a long time and remembers how her & her brother initially tried to complain about making this quick sidetrip - only to really find all the booths (and the artists) very interesting. (side story:  my daughter didn't bring any money with her - her brother just happened to have some spare cash on him - so he offered it up - they even hugged each other in public without me prompting them & she said thank-you!!  I've done something right!!)   Some of the artists hadn't quit their "day jobs" yet - they were local and somewhat getting their start.

brightly painted palm fronds become fish - a lot of salt water varieties

The rain - Sunday brought even heavier rains - and the one catastrophe from it all -- my wax myrtle tree.  Although I know the drought had a hand in weakening it; all the rain made it's feet soggy -it just couldn't hold on.  Hurricane Ike really started the tree's decline - it was never the same after losing one of the major branches.

at least it fell AWAY from the house & roof

When it dries up a bit, we'll dig out what is left and replace it - probably with a crepe myrtle - they do well in this area and will add some color with the blooms (and won't take out the house in case of a bad storm/hurricane).  I was a bit surprised the wax myrtle didn't make it - it is a native tree and thought it would have been tougher/adjusted to changing conditions better - guess the drought was too much even for our natives. 

Image details:  50mm lens, SOOC, other than minimal cropping (I know I've used that 50mm a lot lately - it is just what has been on the camera body & it doesn't weigh a ton).


Hope everyone had better weather than we did & able to get outside to do something really fun.  Ironically - many of my past postings have involved our barn/horse activities - the weather was too bad to go to the barn this weekend -- so a horse-free post.  I'd like to hear what you did, so I can be jealous!!  Have a great week everyone!!

Weather Changes

Wow - we actually received measurable rain yesterday - officially 0.90 inches (UPDATE:  official total ended up at 1.26 inches) - which brings our August total to: (drumroll)....... 0.97 (UPDATE:  1.33 inches)... not much of a dent in our drought (UPDATE:  at least we did get 1/3rd of our average rainfall for this month).  But I walked around outside just to see if the rain had any affect on the outside world.  The most obvious & first change was the remaining green grass grew at least an inch overnight and the burned, dying grass is at least a little softer.  A hummingbird was flying around and there were a couple (2 exactly) new flowers blooming - both pink (wonder if that means anything).  The native passion flower is still struggling to survive much less bloom, but the lizards are still out & about.  I also noticed a few more flying insects (wasps, grasshoppers) venturing out.  Further out in the yard, where it isn't as protected, the wide cracks are no where near closing up (left my slipper in the picture for perspective). 

Here are a few quick pictures I took a minute ago - it is hard to spend much time in 99 degree heat (w/heat index of 104)... I'm really hoping fall will be better - if not at least wetter.

pink pentas finally bloom

dwarf humminbird bush hanging in there

native passionflower still struggling

sensitive brier - wildflower

lizard or anole - love his hands

crack in yard