Spring Blooms - 2013

Last year I photographed some of the blooms at my parents house. When I was home recently, spring was delayed by about a week compared to my home in PA. It was fascinating to drive just an hour north and see the difference in trees' leaves, daffodils and tulips that were still waiting to open, and the flowering trees that hadn't yet lost their blossoms.

I snapped these pictures moments before I was leaving home.... I love my visits there!

Winner!

I never win anything. Raffles. Contests. Radio call-ins for tickets or cash. But I keep trying.

A few weeks ago, I saw a contest hosted by thinkTank, so I went on and entered. I tried to remember to enter every few days, but since I never win, I think I only entered 3 times total, and gave up.

Today, I am shocked to find an email with the subject "WINNER!"

I knew that the winners got a prize package valued at $550 from thinkTank, but then each round another vendor/company provides an additional item for the winner. Some of the prizes from the previous rounds included a Lensbaby kit, a RODE microphone, external hard drive from ioSafe, gear to help when you're shooting tethered, and a bunch of other fabulous prizes. But I didn't know what Round Ten's vendor was until I went on the blog and checked.

I won.........a tripod from 3 Legged Thing, based out of Britain.

And what I love about finding out about 3LT is that they name their tripods after rock legends. The one that I am supposed to get is called 'Brian', named for Brian May (the guitarist of Queen).

I can't tell you how excited I am to win. I have been thinking about the purchase of a tripod for quite some time, but it's on the 'wish' (not 'need') list. Unfortunately, Brian isn't available, so now I may get Adrian, Eric, Jack, Keith, Tim, Eddie, Dave, Frank, or Tony. Props to you if you know who each of the rock legends are that these tripods are named after.

Thanks to thinkTank Photo and to Three Legged Thing. Thanks to Simon for all your help with helping me select one and for being enthusiastic with me about my win!!

Here's the screen grab from the thinkTank page today....I'm excited to be the first female to win too!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This past weekend I went to NJ to see my family. My three nephews each had a game on Saturday. First it was t-ball with Gavin at 9am, then soccer for Dean at 11am, and the day wrapped up with a baseball game with Grant at 3:45pm.

As you'll see below, the varying expressions made by the boys are what make some of these photos. We got a good laugh out of some of them. It was a beautiful day to be outside, as the temperature was near 70.

Just call him Twinkletoes

He spotted me

mouth agape

Mouth open....see the ball?

And eyes closed....not sure that's too smart :-)

SAFE!!!!

Chicken Talk

As I previously mentioned, the G's have chickens. Not only do we have 3 full-grown ones, but they acquired 4 chicks a number of weeks ago. The kids loooooove to check on both; the chicks are downstairs and the full-grown hens are outside in a coop. They check to see if there are eggs, and are constantly asking if they can hold the chicks. A few weeks ago, their wish came true.

By the way, I was trying to come up with a clever title for this post....and Googled "sayings about owning chickens." This clever site came up with all sorts of chicken talk. I'll give you one cheesy one:

"What the hen said when she saw the scrambled eggs......my children are all mixed up!"

And this is what ensued....