Rag Rug

New rag rug for our kitchen. See how well it matches the tile? Thanks, Linda!

Beautiful!

And about as close as I dare get, with all the bees, wasps and hornets flying around.

Late Summer Bees

The bees are all over everything in my garden.

See how this one is balancing on one leg?

I read in the paper last week how important late flowering plants are to the bees.

How they use the honey they're gathering now to sustain them through the winter.

I'm glad to know I'm doing my part to help the bees.

Heaven knows, they've provided me with hours of entertainment this summer.

Photoshop

I got Photoshop Elements for my birthday. That was over 4 months ago. I still don't know how to do even the simplest of adjustments to my photos. Since I had some time to kill tonight, I decided to see if I could "fix" this photo.

I like the composition of the shot, but I hate the way the sky is completely blown out and I don't like the way the mountains look. Everything seems a little washed out to me.

I actually tried to use layers at first. The idea is to layer a better sky over the blown out one. But what I needed was a plain sky picture (with no clouds) to really make that work, and I didn't have any. Every time I tried, using some of my skies with clouds, it made the sky look totally fake and obviously Photoshopped in. So two hours (and much frustration) later, this is the result. Mostly I used the PSE Auto functions to fix the color and then brightened the sky.

I do like it better. I like the colors better and the fact that you can see the mountains in the distance. But was it worth 2 hours?? Or would the time have been better spent standing in this spot and adjusting the settings on my camera until I took a better picture? I'm thinking the latter.

Fifty-six percent

The moon, just over half full.

And this shot is sort of a cheat. It's from a couple of nights ago.

It's August, people...

August. Summer.

The weatherman is predicting temperatures in the 90's for the next couple of days.

Not September. Not Fall. Not "leaves turning red" time of the year.

Not.

Not!

NOT! NOT! NOT!

Not yet!

Blooming Chives

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

Hyssop

Penstemon

Keys of Heaven

Wooden Boats

We went to the Wooden Boat Show today.

The weather was gorgeous. So were the boats.

This qualifies. [grin] It was on a wooden kayak.

My backyard

8-22-09

Fountain Angel

I like the bright sunlight & dark shadow.

Prey

Red garden spider with hornet.

Black garden spider with moth.

Pink Sky at Night

Sailor's delight

Outside & Inside

And abstract all over.

Dahlia

And a strawberry pie made with strawberries from the garden. Yum!

Another Day in the Garden

Hyssop. It's so pretty, and smells like Sprite.

Coneflowers, Blackeyed Susans, and a Gargoyle, of course.

Cosmos. (I sense a pink theme....)

Bee on Butterfly Bush. Well, that's not exactly true, is it?? It's not ON the bush. Not yet.

And finally, Blazing Stars.

I'm really going to miss all this when winter comes.

Another Rainy Night

We spent the afternoon, after the shop closed, window shopping in Sandpoint. Luckily, this held off, for the most part, until we got home. There were a few sprinkles in Sandpoint. I got drenched taking this (one) picture.

Growing in the gravel

Look at all the rogue flowers growing in and around my gravel driveway!

I don't even have any petunias this color this year.

This has to be a leftover from last year, too.

This is in front of the gargoyle planter.

This is in back.

And this alyssum is growing in the middle of my patio.

Peace, Love, and Happiness

Angry Sky