Nature's Jewelry

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On my way back to the car from taking the spider web shot, I saw the morning dew sparkling in the grass.  The glitter caught my eye.

We're off to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham today for the yearly 'Star Wars' day (official name Heroes and Villains).  Should be fun with lots of photo ops!  I sure hope we get to see R2-D2 again.

Huge Spider Web

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As I was driving down the road this morning after dropping the kids off at school, I spotted this huge, nearly 2' diameter spider web.  I turned around, parked, and got out to take some pics. The following are my favorites.

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Avocado Tuna Melt

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I made avocado tuna melts for lunch for me and Donnie on Wednesday.  I really liked the presentation, and it tasted pretty good too!

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Kitty continues to be Joey's reading buddy:-)

Johnny's baseball team, the Lugnuts, won their first game.  They stranded 3 runners on base early on and failed to score until their last up at bat.  In Johnny's league, you can only score a max of 5 runs per inning, and they did just that.  .

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

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The sky opened up yesterday afternoon on the middle East Coast. I am sure we had 3 inches of rain in an hour in the Raleigh area.  It was intense!  Along with that, we had tornado warnings and watches.  The kids were sent into the hallway at school and told to put their head between their knees twice.  The carpool line at school was delayed for 20-30 minutes.  Not a good scene with parents stuck in the parking lot.  I didn't feel the need to run into the school for cover but could have I guess if Id felt the need.  When the kids finally got into the car, they were all hyped up with their stories of the storm.  And when we got home, we had to get Blaze out of her hiding spot behind the TV and console her.

Later on in the evening, I was in Fuquay getting Johnny's Little League pictures taken, and Donnie ran into Raleigh to run an errand for us.  Clearing started, and on our rides home, we were treated to a vibrant sunset and a rainbow.  My daily is a picture Donnie stopped to take.  He was both teasing me that he got the rainbow shot and that I didn't and making sure he had the shot to share with me...thinking of me...doing what he knew I would have done if I'd been there...capturing the moment.   Donnie did great stopping to get the shot for his girl!  I fussed a bit about his very tiny iPod Touch picture but you have to use what you have available.

I took his picture and ran it through several filters in Color Efex Pro, cloned out the light pole in the leftmost lower tree clump, darkened the shadows, cropped to 8X10 size, and ran the Noiseware filter on it.  That way I felt I could post it as a daily;-)  Maybe I should have ran it through OnOne's Perfect Resize to make it bigger.  I still can if I want to print it.

Here's the original.

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This is the best sunset shot I got.

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Juv-E Card

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This young cardinal was peeping very loudly, and dad was close-by.  I got to watch the father put one seed in the baby's mouth but missed that shot:-(  The young ones are so demanding even when they look old enough to feed themselves.

I had a parent teacher conference with Joey's teacher after school yesterday, so Donnie picked up the kids.  They like riding in the xB instead of the Odyssey for a change not to mention the change or drivers.  I came home to find them playing Whoville-opoly.  Joey is on a big Monopoly kick, and we'd picked up this version of the game at our favorite thrift store last year.  (Yes, those are pictures on my kitchen cabinets:-)

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We had yummy chicken soup for dinner.

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Posing for the Camera

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I thought I'd spend one more day focusing on pics taken at Yates Mill on Saturday.  This black swallowtail was taken up near the visitor center just before we left.

Imagine what this view of the mill will look like in 4, 6. and 8 weeks as fall settles in and the autumn color appears.  I hope to be back often to take more pics.

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A really cool mushroom on the trail contrasting in size to Donnie's fingers removing a pine needle that was in the way.

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This mushroom was pretty cool too.

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Although the light wasn't just right, I did manage to get this one shot of the miller and the water wheel just starting to turn.  It's only really pretty and noticeable right when he starts it up.  The initial rush of water is always a thrill.

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We had roast chicken for our Sunday dinner.  Johnny said it was as good as Thanksgiving because there were so many delicious sides (broccoli and cheese, cauliflower mash, and carrots plus a salad).  It warmed my heart when the boys came home today to hear them laughing and wrestling and playing with Donnie.  It's "Hi Mom." and then race to find where Donnie is:-)  They all sat around with notepads drawing up inventions, and after dinner I got presentations from each of them.  All of Donnie's were aimed at helping me out (with the boys).  Johnny's were very tech oriented.  Joey's seemed to focus on food and chores being done automatically.

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Egret on Yates Mill Pond

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Donnie offered to take me to Yates Mill yesterday:-)  Yippee!  We enjoyed a very nice walk around the mill pond and of course I took a lot of pics.  This egret delighted us as we came onto the boardwalk and then later on as we walked around the pond.  He/she stayed in one spot for a long time providing lots of opportunity for pictures.  Donnie didn't like the mud color of the water, and I wanted more highlights on the feathers, so I processed the shot with Color Efex Pro.

Here's the original.

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I also processed this shot.  I liked how the leg silhouette came through the wings.

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This shot of tall dandelions came out pretty cool too.  It is unprocessed.

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I darkened the center with Color Efex Pro on this one.  What a difference from the original.

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Donnie took a few pics of me.  I am trying to tolerate my post chemo curly hair.  Ugh!  OK, OK, being thankful that I have hair.  Wishing it would grow longer ASAP!

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Here's my handsome Donnie:-)  Always has such a nice smile for me...

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Fall color is here!

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