Foto finish-Photographers choice

This is Cary.  aka Cary-cat and Scaredy Cary.

Isnt he beautiful?  I love this picture of him.

He was found as a tiny kitten by my sister's neighbors almost two years ago.

  His name is Cary because the neighbors backyard cat (they have a front yard one too) used to carry Cary around . 

 He came to live at my mom and dad's and became one of my dad's babies.

  He also became the bain of their other cat Jasmine's (Jazzy-girl) life. 

 After all she is the queen. 

Cary was coming into his own. 

 He had even recently beat up the neighbors cat instead of being beat up himself.  He was no longer quite so Scaredy Cary.  He even started to pose like Jasmine.

Well some one ran over Cary Friday and killed him. 

He was so sweet, going through those terrible wild twos and chasing squirrels every where.  I think the worse thing is that the person did not even stop and call my parents to tell them.  Just hit him and left.  My parents live in a nice neighborhood and this happened a couple houses down.  How could someone do that?  Thanks for letting me share Cary with you.  Im tearing up as I write this.  I want to leave you with a cute little video of Cary-kitty.

New Cary kitty meeting the family.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

My own kitty angel-Opus whose grave Cary was buried near.



Foto Finish-old

Schloss Blutenburg is a castle outside Munich, Germany.  I spent a month living in Munich the summer of 2009 for a Library Science study abroad.  Every weekday we would ride 2 buses and walk to get here .  It was the 14th century hunting lodge of the Duke of Bavaria.  The oldest part is an 8th century chapel.  It was the coolest place ever to work !  From the coble stone court yard, to the 3 foot thick walls, and the arrow sight windows.  It is representative of the really old buildings all over Europe.  Believe it or not after a month of touring around and working in this place I got very tired of 'old buildings' .  I think the weight of the history of civilization was over whelming.

To see more or participate in Foto Finish-old visit Cat Patches blog.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

At the NC School Library Media Conference yesterday we got to experience Melville Dewey.

 He created this rap and video as a class project in library school. 

He now has a cd and does shows all over.  He is awesome!

Foto Finish - Feet

Oh oh!  I have the perfect picture!  Probably the only feet picture I have actually now that I think of it.

A lazy afternoon on Gull Lake, Ontario, Canada.  Everyone else was napping i the house.  I took my Coleman chair down to the back of the boat at the dock.  A 7&7, my book, and the beautiful day.

BTW a few minutes after I took the feet picture I saw something swimming toward me from the right.  It swam with in feet of the back of the boat.  Can you tell what they are?

A family of three otters!

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Looking down the dock to where the Sylvia Jane is docked.

Foto Finish-Look up

I love to look up and see the way the light shines through leaves.  These were taken from the porch of the cabin we stayed in on Gull Lake in Ontario, Canada.  I was looking up into the trees.

keep dreaming...Colleen

Drama queen catches the big one this summer. 

Foto finish-favorite places

Gull Lake, Ontario Canada.  My favorite place on earth.  This is the morning we left after spending our vacation there just two weeks ago.  It is my place of fun, my place of renewal, my place of wildness, my place of memories, my place of peace. And yes this is where when I die I want my ashes spread. 

 Check out the other foto finishes this week and add your own!

 Keep dreaming...Colleen

My favorite activity on Gull Lake is kayaking the back creeks and bays.

Foto Finish-Things in the city

Underground train stations

Two summers ago I was in Munich Germany for a month on a study abroad.  Trains were wonderful!  You could go anywhere and you were able to walk within blocks of a stop. 

Here is the train arriving.

Here is the escalator up to the ground level.  So tall and notice how everyone is to the side.  If you ride you stay to the side as many will walk up and they dont tolerate you taking the whole space.

They even have some colorful and cool grafiti.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Book marks and retractable badge holders to sell at Flaunt!



Foto Finish-Things that are slow

Two weeks agoin Ontario, Canada just off Big Gull Lake I kayaked up Deer Creek on the way to Deer Lake. Sitting on a log was this turtle.  I looked at him and he looked at me and posed nicely for a few photos.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Kayaking up Deer Creek I always have to cross the beaver dam.

Kayaks are nice and slow.



Foto Finish-Patriotic

American flag, The Lump milepost 264.4 Blue Ridge Parkway, NC April 5, 2007

When I saw this I was sooo excited!  The fourth of July is a huge day in our family!  Lots of flags, family and friends, fireworks, food, and patriotic expressions everywhere.  But the first picture that came to mind was the one of the above flag.  I love to drive and hike the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC.  One of my favorite short hikes is called the Lump. 

 

Its is a round hill you hike straight up through a field and you get a 360 degree view of the mountains.  This was my first trip back to the parkway after having cancer.  About a year and a half later on April 5, a cold day-about 32F day .  I did a day trip driving from Fancy Gap entrance in Va to Boone in NC.  The air was crisp, cold, windy, and clear.  The water running down the rock faces was frozen.  When I got to the lump I bundled up, grabbed my day pack and camera and started up.  I felt rejuvenated after years of illness and recovery, I felt as if I had come home.  I walked between the high dead grass toward the low rocks I liked to sit on.  It was there I saw them. 

Two small flags stuck in the ground and blowing crisply in the wind.  It was so poignant a moment.  I took many pictures and even framed one.  Ive been back a few times since and every time I pack a small flag and leave it  stuck in the ground.  A tribute to our great country that makes such beautiful, natural places possible.

Keep Dreaming...Colleen



View from the top looking down on the parking.  See my jeep?



Foto Finish-Something old

What to pick, what to pick?  I am surrounded by old things that I collect and I find and I love.  It is something I do.  Finally I decided to share this.

This is a log chain.  My dad has used it for years.  He got it from my grandfather who used it for years.  My grandfather got it from his Uncle Lee, his mother's brother, who used it for years.  Supposedly it belong to their father, my great great grandfather Adam, who used it for years. 

Adam who was reported to not be a nice man to his family.  His children all ran away or were helped to run away when they were very young.  I think my great grandmother ran away when she was around 12.  Uncle Lee was born with a deformed back and this chain was reported to have been used to beat him once so severely he almost died. 

Why do I have a picture of it?  I was working on a genealogy project for a class during my Master's program.  Stories I never knew were told and incorporated into the project.  Frank stories I never knew as a child but ones that filled in the missing pieces of my families life.  This picture became part of it. 

I think this is a beautiful picture.  I see the wall and the pink phlox of one of my parents gardens that I helped to create.  I see the chain that represents to me not pain but the continuity of a family and a family work ethic.  This is a tool members of my family have used for more than 4 generations.  That is a cool thing!

keep dreaming...Colleen

On my patio fence-an old furnace cover from PA with a Moravian star on it. 
A galvanized pail for collecting weeds.

I'm a little addicted to old cookware too.

Foto finish-My Garden

I took this picture this afternoon.  This is My garden but it is in my parent's back yard.  There is not a lot of color at the moment as most of the perennial plants have not yet bloomed.  I say it is My garden because it was reborn during the time I lived with my parents while I was recovering from cancer surgery and going through chemo.  Mom and Dad had wanted to restructure this as it had just been a raised terraced bed in a hill with plants all mixed by size.  So mom dug out all the plants and dad killed all the chickweed that was left.  They asked me what they should do so I drew up a plan.  Sometimes I wonder if this garden was a way to direct our energies in a positive way during a very hard time.

   Anyway my design really looked like the picture above, with the path down the middle.  Because I was going through chemo my sister nurse forbade me from touching dirt and plants.  So I supervised. My parents mixed in compost and turned it over, covered it with landscape fabric and brought in a load of stone and mulch to create little beds to surround the plants with. 

See the stool in the top picture-a large rock on end with a wood top set in on a rod in a concrete base.  Dad made that for me to sit on. 

When recovering from surgery I would make slow walks around the yard and down to the dock.  Mom and Dad's one cat Friski at the time, would walk with me. 



Friski in her favorite position.

We would rest at the stool and Friski would roll around upside down for me to pet her belly.  Then we would continue to the dock where we would sit by the lake and feed the piranhas (voracious sunfish).  I was like clockwork that the fish would feel the vibrations of my feet on the dock and start swimming frantically looking for bread.  Then after a while we would walk up through the middle of the yard resting on the bench by the pond.  Friski and I would look at the gold fish.  It was my secret garden.  I love it and still walk that way when I go to the lake though Friski is gone and now Jazzy-Girl walks with me.  I still always have to sit on my stool. 

See more Foto Finish-Garden pictures here.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

One of three stepping stones I made from left over concrete
 and a bucket when we created the garden.  I painted my name and nails and added colored rocks.

Foto finish-What is it?

Foto Finish-What is it? 

I couldn't pick just one.  These shots popped into my head.

#1



#2

#3

Now the wide shots.

#1- Moss on a log at Stone Mountain State Park, NC

#2 Funus on a rotton log.  This stuff fascinates me.

#3 Grass through the diamond pane in the front door at Mom and Dad's.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



My friend Pat, wife, sister, and aunt, passed away Thursday from ALS at the age of 59.  Way too young.



Foto finish-Wildlife

Foto Finish-Wildlife

So I went on a little kayak trip today on Mom and Dad's lake.  I met this guy when I trapped him with my crab net.  As you can see he was not so happy with me.  The following pictures were taken with my iphone 3gs and are better then I thought they would be.

Bottom of the turtle. 

Funny thing is on the way home I had to stop and move a box turtle from the middle of the road.  But I forgot to take a picture.

This is a video of me releasing said wildlife and explaining why the lake is so low.

My usual feet (very muddy) and kayak bow shot.

One of the exposed stumps. worn smooth by the water.

This tree is usually floating just under the water.

This stump is just off the ladder from our dock,  It is fun to stand on when its in about 4.5 feet of water

This is Princess Jasmine or Jazzy Girl as I like to call her.  My Dad's baby who I freed from the basement to frolic with me down by the lake.  There was a lot of wildlife to see off of the dock

small water turtles

large snapping turtles

blue heron

sand pipers

ducks

Canada geese

bass

minis

giant carp

And here is the trash I collected. 

I could only speculate on the axe head laying in the remains of a formerly submerged stump.  Was it once stuck in the tree?

And here is me with my (muddy)feet up, in the sun, with a strong breeze, reading my book, with Jazzy Girl purring at my side.

And one last picture of wildlife

a ladybug on the dock.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Some more wildlife and another Big Gull Lake, Canada picture this time
with Grandmother.  I was a little doll!