Guess that color...

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is a color challenge.  It should be pretty easy to guess that color:)

Crowd Work

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is, "...pics with more than 5 people or animals or even birds".  There are at least six turtles and a frog in this picture - a small crowd at the beach.  Can you find them all?

And a whole brigade of zombies....

Whew!

First, a couple of pictures for Sunday Stills, which is back up and running, thanks Ed.  The challenge was the color yellow, which I had to look hard to find around here. 

Yellow fence insulator...

and a yellow(ish) frisbee:)

It was a rare, priceless Spring day.  The kind that we see so few of and are treasured.  Fifty degrees, calm, still and glorious.  

After taking Tanner for a nice hike, I did some spring cleaning, pulling all the old straw insulation out and away from the barn.  I moved it all to the garden to use for mulch later.  You can't tell in the photo, but there is an 8 inch deep impression where the old plastic tool box sat all winter.  I put it there to help keep the frost out of the ground where the water line is.  The ground all around is still heaved up from frost.  I wonder how long it will take for it to go out of the ground this year, it has loooong way to go.  I think that toolbox is what kept my water line from freezing solid.  That slab of ice to the right is ten inches deep.

What barn could ever be without lime....

I spent a couple of hours battling an old enemy.  This is from just one hundred foot section of stone wall.  Only about a thousand feet more to go.  I hate, HATE this stuff.

Took an hour out to sit on above-mentioned-tool-box for some serious donkey time.

Two hands + two donkeys = half as much scratching as each wants.

Then it was time for a donkey walk followed by a short ride with Tessa.

Whew, no wonder I'm tired.  It was a good day though:  useful labor, gentle sunshine, good company, exercise, riding, roast chicken for dinner....I need a thousand more just like it.  Now I am headed for a bit of quality time with the couch and a book to finish it off.

PS - have I mentioned how glad I am it's Spring? 

Birthday Girl

This week's Sunday Still's challenge was to take any photo and do something with it in Photoshop or similar software.  Since it was Emma's third birthday today she had to be the subject.  I decided to make her a birthday card.

This was the original photo, which I liked OK, but was disappointed in as the lighting just isn't right.

I fumbled around with the effects in Picassa and came up with these, I'm not sure which I like better.

It is hard to believe that Emma is just now turning three, she often seems ageless to me.  A visual contradiction with her greying coat and her young eyes.  It goes beyond that though to who she is.  Perhaps it is a donkey thing, perhaps because she is already a mother, probably a bit of both, but she is both old as the hills and young as a butterfly.  I love her dearly.

Happy Birthday my sweet Emma-Girl.

Sunday Stills - W (with a little help from my friends)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is the letter 'W'.   My ever vigilant, Watchful and Wooly donkeys helped out.

"What are those Wackos in the White truck doing with those Wires???"

"We're Wide-eyed and Wondering what you're going to do about the Weird intruder Ma?"

"Don't they know that messing with Wires is a bad idea?"

"The stress is enough to drive a donkey to drink.  Too bad it's only Water."

 
"Much better to stick with Wildflowers...

with White, fluffy clouds...

and what Will be Wild blueberries.

Better yet, from a donkey's point of view, are the White, Wild apples that survived the Wintery temperatures.  Yum.

Just be sure not to step on anything Wiley and Wiggly when Wandering about!"

Sunday Stills - Circles

I am having some camera trouble, weather trouble, timing trouble....all the usual troubles, but I didn't want to skip Sunday Stills again so I hit up the archive for this one.  There are circles to be found in all of them.

Sunday Stills - Big Sky

The world has been singularly grey and dark here the last sew weeks, making picture taking nearly impossible.  Then yesterday, when I was ready to once again give up on Sunday Stills, the sky put on quite a show.

I tried to get one of those artsy, dramatic silhouette shots too, but my subject had a most terrible need for a hug instead.  Who am I, to argue with that?  

Sunday Stills - A Single Tree

This challenge was a little harder then it first appears because around here, it is hard to find a shot of a single tree all by itself.  The extreme greyness of the weather lately hasn't helped.  What I came up with is one of my little pine trees seen from above...

and for some reason, this single downed tree amongst its fellows struck me somehow.  Kinda sums up winter for me.

It wasn't as grey a day as it may seem though because Riding Buddy came up and we did this...

 Lord, but it was nice to get out for a bit. 

If anyone would like to join in on Sunday stills just go to www.sundaystills.wordpress.com, check out the next challenge, take some pictures, put 'em in a blog post and post a link to your post in the comments sections of Sunday Stills.  It's easy, no pressure and it has helped me look at photography in a different way.