Sunday, July 21, 2013

A Little Bit of Fun

We've been looking after my sister's family's dog Micah for the last few weeks.  She is such an easy dog to look after.  Even Jack liked her - and he doesn't like anyone.  :)


She went home today and seeing as I had some time to kill this afternoon I thought I'd play around a bit in Photoshop and convert some of my favourite images to black and white.


I really don't know what I'm doing in Photoshop and everything seems to take forever, but I realize I'm never going to get better if all I do is the same things over and over again.


These four images (which have nothing amazing done to them) took me a few hours.  LOL.  I flounder A LOT.  I'm quite enjoying the second and last ones though.


I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Old Adage

When it comes to blogging, I try to keep in mind the old adage - "When you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I haven't been miserable this past month, but let's just say, I haven't been happy.  I've been working.  A LOT.  I've had no time for Marlin, the dogs, friends, family, housework, paperwork and anything else that has been silently screaming my name.  I think (and pray) that I am starting to see a tiny pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel.  I actually took almost the entire day off yesterday - which was the first time since some time in May!  I went in early to work to get some weeding done before the heat hit but then I just stayed home in air conditioned bliss. I read a great book, I snuggled with the dogs, I watched some taped TV shows and I just relaxed.  It was wonderful.

Today I don't need to be at work until noon and it is supposed to be incredibly hot, so I took the dogs out early.  I've been looking for a canola field to take pictures in. I took some a few years ago and have been dying to try again. This year though, most of the fields seem to be way too tall. This one isn't nearly as bad as the one I tried the other day but it was still too tall for what I wanted.  In the field the other day, I couldn't see Coulee at all - the only way I could tell where she was, was by the rustling of the plants.  It was pretty funny to watch the plants moving around but it wasn't going to make a decent picture.


But I found a spot today that the canola wasn't doing so great (the main part of the field was, but I think this area may have stayed damp for too long) and it was perfect.  I was recently assured by a farmer that canola is a very hardy plant that a dog isn't going to damage it, so I didn't feel too guilty letting Coulee run around for a minute.  Although I still felt rushed and worried as we are trespassing.  It definitely wasn't a place where I felt I could just hang out and wait for the right moment so I threw the toy a few times, snapped a few pictures and got out of there and headed to the lake.




I didn't bring the camera to the lake but Coulee had a great time and swam for about 45 minutes straight.  Lacey and I were bored to tears as it is only a good swimming place, not a good walking place , so we just stood around waiting for her.  I threw little sticks for Lacey but the moment it required swimming, she gave up.  :)  She prefers to splash, not swim.  The iPhone photo makes the stick look like it is miles out there, but it isn't more than a few feet!  Sticks aren't really in big supply in the prairies so it didn't take long to exhaust our small supply.  ;)


If I had been sure there weren't leeches in the lake, I would have waded in there with them today.  It was only 8:30 a.m. but it was already hot and muggy and the lake looked so calm and peaceful.  I really wished I had one of those inflatable chairs to lounge on.

Saw this little guy on the way home and for some reason, the tiny bird on the giant bale struck me as amusing.  I can just imagine her thinking that she's found the motherlode of all nest supplies.  :)