Committed to memory

[“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.”  Job 19:25.  I trust you have experienced and will continue to experience the joy of Easter.]

The sounds of laughter have receded into the family annals and all is quiet around here again. Our last visitors returned home this past week to face the beginnings of spring (which seem more like the final gasps of a winter that won't let go easily). We're left to wonder where the time went.

Many memories were captured and embedded in silicon, but I think they were surpassed by those embedded in our own memories. The 5D performed remarkably well despite the operator's lack of mastery of its many features.

And amidst the busyness of vacation hosting and capturing memories, there was even time to grab a frame or two of other subjects:

But you'll have to agree with me that my primary focus over the past couple of weeks would have been directed towards Hailey and Lilly (oh, and assorted other family members, of course):

I plan to visit many of you this week, and look forward to 'meeting' my new followers.

Summertime fun

[click on this link for some music to put you in the mood ... while you spend a moment or two here]



It's been a couple of busy weeks since I was last here - time spent making memories with our children and grandchildren. The camera got a good workout capturing just a fraction of the many moments we had together. The best moments, though, can't be displayed here - they're burned into our collective memories.

a hike through the forest (under the pretext of 'taking the dogs for a walk')

cooling one's toes on a hot summer day

a quick time out for a pose ("are we done yet ?")

anticipating a big splash at the water park

visiting a pioneer village to get a glimpse of life in the 1860's

seeing how water was used to provide power to the mill

but the highlight was a visit to the one-room schoolhouse (where I was 'reacquainted' with the strap ... much to the delight of our granddaughters !)

and where they saw how students dressed for school 150 years ago (note the absence of cell phones and iPads)

in between the visits to parks and playgrounds and beaches there was still plenty of time to catch frogs in our pond (here's Hailey, ably assisted by Sasha - both were equally obsessed)

and the end of each day was capped by a glorious sunset

I hope your summer has been equally blessed.

Farewell

No, this is not my farewell to blogging - just a [temporary, I hope] farewell to the Sunshine State. Before you go further, click on this link to enjoy a little farewell music while you have a look at the rest of my post:



We shall soon be heading back north where we learned that spring still awaits us, despite a couple of false starts. If all goes as planned, Sasha will enjoy temperatures much more to her liking - 7C/45F instead of 31C/88F - in a few days. Our woolies will be within reach as we near home. Brrrr !

[I will have limited internet access over the next few days. However, our extremely poor wireless internet service back home will be swapped out for a new satellite-based service which is being touted as far superior. Being a half-glass-full person I am cautiously optimistic that I will be able to resume posting and visiting early next week. Hope springs eternal !]


Here are a few more memories from our stay.

Ain't it the truth

"If I would have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun I would have had them first !" (Bill Laurin)

"Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old." (Mary H. Waldrip)

Advice to parents: "Have children while your parents are still young enough to take care of them." (Rita Rudner)

"Grandparents are there to help their grandchildren get into mischief they haven't thought of yet." (Gene Perret)

"Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild." (Welsh Proverb)

"The idea that no one is perfect is a view most commonly held by people with no grandchildren." (Doug Larson)

And here are our three (so far ...):

Hailey (7)

Lilly (4 AND a half)

Graydon (almost 2)

Phriday Phling Phinale

It's not often I post twice on the same day, but I got to it rather late last night (or early this morning, depending on whether you're a night owl or early bird) and again this evening. Of course I had to make a lot of photos over the past 10 days or so and many of these captured memories of phun times with our granddaughters. Since it's also Phun Phriday you'll have to bear with me as I post a few more.

This first shot is of a colourful wind catcher near a playground, spinning its wheels in the breeze, as I was out for a walk with Hailey - she had hoped to play there but unfortunately the entrances were locked.

The next shot is of Hailey at the fish and turtle pond after she'd finished feeding them, and just before she got to go go-karting. Again !

The last shot is of her younger sister Lilly who turns 4 in a few weeks - obviously she's headed for a modelling career.

We certainly had a phun-philled 10 days, and tomorrow night we start another week with our other 2 daughters. We're seeing more of our family being 2,500 km/1,500 mi from home than when we lived much closer by. You don't suppose the Florida weather has anything to do with it, do you ? Nah, I thought so !

(18-55mm  f22  1/60 sec  ISO200)

(70-200mm  f5.6  1/800 sec  ISO200)



(18-55mm  f14  1/160 sec  ISO200)

Phun all week

It's been a phun-filled week with our granddaughters (and their parents). We've been busy building memories, and of course I've now added a number of photos of our time together to my archives. Blogging and visiting your blogs has had to take a back seat. A couple of days ago we went to the go-kart race track where they had 2-seater karts - I wanted to pass on a bit of the speed thrill. Much to my dismay, I drew the slow car while my son-in-law got the fast one (karma ?). At least I didn't have to brake for the hairpin turns ! But we only got our turn behind the wheel after my granddaughters had had their turn in their own go-karts !

(18-55mm  f8.0  1/320 sec  ISO200)

Double delight

I drew the babysitting assignment this evening (that's probably a misnomer - child sitter would be more appropriate I think), whilst the others went shopping (you might recall from earlier posts where shopping fits into my priorities). So I had a few minutes to review the shots I made today and show you our wonderful granddaughters who are staying/playing with us for the next 10 days. Oh yes, their parents are too.

I will have to use moments like this, when there's a lull, to post, respond to comments, and visit you - so I expect that to be sporadic over the next 10 days. (In the meantime I will sneak over here occasionally and have a peek at your comments ... shhh).

(both shots made with a 60mm lens at f5.6, ISO100 and shutter speeds of 1/125 and 1/800 secs)

Hailey - 6-1/2 going on 18

Lilly - turning 4 in April

(Day 158 - II) Heart string pullers

I've always had some problems in life following rules (my wife, if she weren't sleeping, would be nodding vehemently in agreement) - but I only don't follow rules that don't seem to make sense to me. Obviously there are many rules that I do follow - because they make sense, like 'look both ways before crossing the street, do unto others as you'd like them to do unto you', etc.

So if there's a project 365 rule that says to only post 1 photo per day, then I've broken it. And if there's also a rule that says only 1 post per day, I've broken it too. Well, that was a lot of verbiage to say that I'm going to do another post for today - depending on where you are, that's either Monday or Tuesday (although in Australia it might already be Wednesday or Thursday - they always seem to be into another day already, let alone another time zone!).

Why am I doing this ? Well, I made some photos of my grandson tonight, and I also had made some (well, many then) of my granddaughters when they were here 2 weeks ago, and I thought I'd share them with you. You'll see why they pull at my heart strings.

(all photos made with my Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens)

In order of age:

Hailey (5)

Lilly (3)

Graydon (5 months)

(Day 129) Equal exposure

Recently I shared a photo of our grandson Graydon. Well it was only fair that I provide equal 'exposure' for our 2 granddaughters Hailey (5) and Lilly (3). They live about a 4-hour drive from us and we were able to visit them this Mothers' Day weekend (along with their parents and our other 2 daughters, of course!).

(50mm  f1.4  1/3200 sec  ISO800)

Hailey

(50mm  f1.4  1/400 sec  ISO800)

Lilly

Sunset Sunday
Perhaps you aren't aware of Scott's photo blog at Finding Another View. He has a little fun thing every Sunday where he invites people to post a Sunday Sunset. Well, as we were nearing home tonight I saw what looked to be a nice sunset getting ready. I made it home, got the fire started in the wood stove (the house was cold since outside it had dropped to 3C/37F), and snuck outside for a couple of quick shots. Here's my contribution for Sunday:

(18-55mm  f5.6  1/60 sec  ISO200)