Whats In Your Garden?

Its been a long time coming, this little radish, the first from our garden.  Our weather has been so crazy, 70+ days for a week then down to freezing, the up in the 70+ days again and back.   Its like weather ping pong.  At least I planted some radish between my onions and they seem to have made the transition from seed to edible just fine.

My favorite haunt, the Hagerman Wildlife refuge is like the Sahara because we are in a severe drought.  Last weekend I headed out only to find hardly any wildlife, birds or food for my camera.  It really caused alarm and saddened me.   I hope my vegie garden will provide me with some fun photos besides some good food.

We are growing all organic with out
GMO's     Should be a challange!
Cheers

The Messenger ~ Common Barn Owl

‘Willie’ -  Common Barn Owl

Willie was found on the ground in the spring of 2002 in Dallas.  The person who found her thought she needed help and took her home to raise her.  Unfortunately, she was fed cat food as she developed which caused a lack of calcium in her diet, her bones became brittle and fractures occurred in her right wing. This made her only partially flighted.  Additionally, she became ‘imprinted’ on humans and now relies on them for her care.

She was an ambassador on Super Saturday at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge and posed for some incredible photography shots. 

House Finch, A Word of Advice

This little couple have given so many fun hours of amusement over the last months.  They play, they bicker and carry on like an old married couple.  I am pretty sure they have raised about 20 babies as the birdbath is often pretty busy.  Maybe she is telling Mr she has a head ache tonight!

I have been taking a bit of photography break with the Olympics on but I need to begin to sort through some of my images.   I have a photo contest I plan to enter offered from Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, using photos taken from the Refuge.  It will be their 3rd one and there are at least 3 categories that I can participate in.   Problem is I can not make a decision.   What will the judges be looking for!

The Old Chicken Ranch

Last week I spied this great old chicken ranch along side the road and was able to get a shot between traffic.  It sure was not much as a stand alone image but with the textures it now seems to have evolved into something rather magical in all its decay.  My recipe is:
*Duplicate background
*Adjust levels
*Hue Sat - de-saturate
*Kristen Frank texture Fantasy Leaves I used on the upper half only with overlay 62%
*Kristen Frank texture Handwriting Linear burn 62%
*Skeletalmess Vintage Bokah overlay 100% with mask for center part of image
*Kristen Frank Texture Moon hard light 100% , masking out foreground and barn
*another levels adjustment
*New layer for the frame effect
*signature
Enjoy ~
This can be seen better over at Flicker:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11605172@N05/6938875451/in/photostream

Meadow Lark

This lovely big Meadow Lark was a look out in the pasture last summer.  Boy I am going to miss that pasture, it had quite a bit of life in it.  Anyway, this big boy just sat up on his branch and sang and sang...


Texture by Kim Klassen Worn and Weathered and another texture by Distressed Jewel called Painted Days Ahead, and a little brush effects for the sky, a bit of burn to the edge of the layers.

Ghost Shell

The last day of the year we went on a motorcycle ride and picnic with friends at Lake Texhoma Durant, OK.  Our friends took us along the shore line and I found amazing fossils from the cretaceous, and at the waters edge my attention was drawn to a quick flash of light in the tide as it came in.  This little shell was so rich in color and newly opened.  The bit of bubbles and froth around the shell just made it enchanted somehow.  It even has a couple bubbles in the shell making it like ghost pearls.   Enjoy!

The Face of Boswell, Oklahoma

Yep, Black Angus Cattle seem to dominate the landscape!