Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- My Favorite Place to Visit

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ My Favorite Place to Visit

Chosen by Mac.


What a great theme!  I thought about my trip to Paris, but no--that was just one time, and even though it could have been my favorite place to visit, I don't know that I would want to go back again and again.  So I thought--where do I go, again and again, with anticipation and eagerness?  Besides Lake Bonaparte, I think hands down it's my vegetable gardens.  So those are featured today--and a good thing, too, as the snow melts and I hope for spring!

Here's a picture of my back yard raised garden beds, taken from the deck of our pool.  This is my header image, uncropped.


One reason it's my favorite place to go is that I never know what I'm going to find.  Take this giant heirloom tomato:


One pound, taking up both of Jacob's hands!


In the spring, I keep going out to check on the strawberries--are they red yet?  Can I pick them?  The first batch usually ends up in my mouth, and I make strawberry shortcakes with the second batch.


The Giant Marconi sweet peppers are prolific, as are the spicy jalapeƱos:


I love to watch the garlic scapes ripen and burst with little garlic seeds, to plant for next year's harvest:


There's always a bright, yellow squash blossom to be on the watch for:


And, in my front yard flower garden, I check on the herbs; here is the oregano growing like a weed!


The French sorrel is a delight, as a new addition last year:


Below, the English thyme was also a new addition; I love running my hand through its stems and sniffing the aroma!


The sage plant, below, was a garden staple until it mysteriously died last summer.  I did get one harvest out of it, and I sauteed the leaves to top my ravioli.  It was heavenly!  I think I'll plant some sage again this year.


My veggie gardens are a treasure, and of all my favorite places, it's the one place I "travel" to most frequently.  I can't wait to sit down and plan this year's garden now!!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- Recent Photos

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Recent Photos

Chosen by The Headbangers.


With the absence of our friend and fellow photographer Craver, we have an open theme slot from time to time.  This week is the first open slot, and everyone agreed on Photos Taken in the Last Month.  This is a perfect theme for my Midwest photographer's heart because spring is coming!!!!  There are signs everywhere, and I was out this week and last taking pictures.  Here is the image I used for my header, full of lovely green color and the promise of spring:

Moss in my front porch garden.

I took the above photo at ground level, with my 100mm macro lens.  I set the aperture to f/7.1 to get a bit of depth, but since the camera was on the ground, it's still a very dreamy image full of bokeh.  Shutter speed was 1/80 second; another reason for balancing the camera on the ground--sharp focus.

I continued to wander around my front and back yards to see if there were other signs that spring is on its way.  Here are a few more signs!

Daylilies popping up in my back yard patio garden.

Oregano peeping through in my front yard brick garden.

Buds on one of the maple trees in my front yard.

Here are a few images I took last week, on the first beautiful spring day of the year.  Fernando and I dropped Thomas off at Universal Technical Institute, then headed down the road to visit the Morton Arboretum together.  Not only did we visit, we purchased a two-year membership!  This beautiful preservation is filled with collections of trees and plant life, and the foundation offers educational classes, a library, a photography society (I want to join!!), and lots of other programs.  It's a beautiful place to wander, bird watch, and take pictures, of course!  Since it's not even a mile from Thomas' school, we will have plenty of opportunities to visit, explore, and relax.

Bench and Meadow Lake.

I think this is going to be my favorite tree in the Arboretum!


One last picture, at Lake Marmo in the Arboretum, with the melting snow and rushing water.


Ah, Spring, how I love thee!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- White

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ White

Chosen by Tom.


For this week's theme, I stuck to using images from this year alone.  First, here's the image I chose to use for my header:


Now, when compared to the image below of Fernando snowblowing the driveway, this header image doesn't look as white.  But, I'm so tired of snow, and so ready and happy to have temperatures in the 50s moving into our area this week, that I didn't really want to feature another image of snow and cold.  So I chose my homemade cinnamon roll to share with you.  It was delicious, by the way.


Here are a few more pictures of white things:

A beautiful wedding dress:


Whipped topping (yes, there is ice cream underneath!):


My dishes have a beautiful design in them, and here is the teacup and saucer, waiting on some hot chocolate.


That's it for this week's post--short and sweet!  Have a beautiful spring-y day!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- Repeating Pattern

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Repeating Pattern

Chosen by Kathy.


One of the great themes in photography is featured this week, by Kathy of our little Headbangers group.  Each week we change out our header, according to the theme chosen by one of our little group.  I don't know that I got this week's theme entirely correct, but I'll share what I've chosen nonetheless.  Here's my header image:

Whole wheat spaghetti.

There's a straight and a circular pattern in the ways it's arranged in the bowl, awaiting the boiling water to be turned into a yummy dinner.  Here are the rest of my repeated patterns.

Stairs at the Naperville Riverwalk, the day before a huge blizzard.

Red sidewalk brick at the Riverwalk.

A long row of bicycle wheels.

This last one is humorous...

I gave Danny a back scratch one day while we were sitting in front of the fire on a cold winter day.  After I saw what I had done to his shirt, of course I had to take a picture.  He really enjoyed the back scratch, so he didn't mind me taking a picture of his messed up shirt.


Now, I think it's time to hope for a repeating pattern of warmer days!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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