O'Kelly Chapel Christian Church

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I took this shot when Donnie and I drove around in the Jordan Lake area last Tuesday.  We went around the corner on Hwy. 751, and I saw the pretty church and asked Donnie to turn around so I could take a picture.  I processed 3 different sets of bracketed shots standing in various spots in front of the church, and we liked how this one turned out best because of the rusty roof and trees.  The church is rich with history as the historical marker above indicates.

We also stopped on Hwy. 751 to take a picture of this house?

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I don't have any more details on this setting.  It just caught our eye because of the cannon, stone wall, and picturesque setting.  There was a satellite dish off to the side and a car in the driveway, so it did seem like a residence.

One last shot from our Jordan Lake trip that I'd like to share.  It reminds me of the marina shots of Dan and Patti who I miss from our daily community family.

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I did make it into Wal-Mart and Kohl's for a few Black Friday deals.  Donnie was content to stroll through those stores with me mid-afternoon when the crowds had died down.  We saw a few guys in the parking lots waiting for their girls one of which was playing solitaire on his cell phone:-)  I thought of trying to capture some pictures of the day like that but was shy.

The Making of a Thanksgiving Meal

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I did enjoy my Thanksgiving thanks to Donnie and the boys.  I really wanted to cook my 20lb. turkey like usual although Donnie offered to take me and the  boys out.  It's a big laugh each year that I make such a big bird for so few people.  I guess I figure it's no more bother to make a big bird than a little bird, the photo op is nicer, and maybe some year some special guests will show up and actually help it all get eaten on the first day.  As it is, we have lots of nice leftovers and light cooking duties the rest of the weekend.

I enjoyed the boys in the kitchen helping out.  They had so looked forward to us cooking together.  Joey often talks about wanting to be a chef when he grows up with Johnny and Madi helping to run the restaurant with him.  It was good food not only for our tummies but also for my soul.  Carrot skins ended up on the floor and other spills here and there but somehow it just didn't matter.  They were trying so hard.

The meal came out as hoped with sausage stuffing, broccoli rice casserole, carrots cooked under the bird in the juices, Crescent Rolls, Bob Evans mashed potatoes, and fizzy soda (sparkling apple cider).  For dessert we enjoyed Libby canned recipe pumpkin pie and a Mrs. Smith's apple pie.  After the big meal around 2PM, we barely ate anything the rest of the day.

Rather than have to pick one photo, I share the best of the day in this collage as my daily.

Here's just the bird:

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I also have a collage of some of the Christmas decorating that we did while the turkey was cooking.  We have the elves out and watching over the kids now reporting back to Santa each night.  I love how Joey believes with such enthusiasm at 9.  We also got out our nutcracker collection which is newly displayed this year in a curio cabinet that came from my grandmother's house (mother's side).  Our little green sparkle tree is up.  I know we can't do as many decorations this year as usual, but we do quite a bit and enjoy them.

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I bypassed Black Friday shopping this year for the first time in my adult life.  I am about as gunho about it as a person can be most years.  The boys left for their father's house this morning, and I just didn't want to shorten our time together to do something as silly as go shop.  Money is tighter and the crazy midnight or 3AM hours just took some of the allure out of it for me.  I may go out for a bit later today.

Thankful for Donnie

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I took this portrait of Donnie on a walk at the NC Museum of Art Park yesterday.  We went to the museum to see the Rembrandt in America exhibit showcasing the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings ever assembled in America.  (The paintings are on display until January 22, 2012.)

After thoroughly enjoying the show and other artwork in the main building, we ate a lunch in their cafe and then took a walk in the Museum Park.  The temps were dropping from the mid 70s to the lower 60s, and the winds were gusting up to 35mph, but it was a beautiful day with an energetic sky, and the air was still warm enough to thoroughly enjoy the walk.  We came across this bridge going over a creek on the trail, and I asked Donnie to stop and pose for me, and of course he obliged with the big smile of his.

I've had some difficult things happen to me this year including the death of my father in June and my diagnosis of breast cancer in October.  My kids have kept sunshine in my life through this, and although I've received much appreciated support from many friends which I am very thankful for, Donnie is the backbone of my support network, and I want him to know that  I am ever so thankful for his enduring love and assistance.  Even though I often tell him how much I appreciate him, on this day of thanks, I wanted to take a few minutes to thank him again.  In the past two weeks, he's driven me everywhere I've gone including doctor's appointments, the boys to/from school, and parks and other fun places for photo ops and overall stress relief. He's cooked breakfast for me and the boys, walked our energetic dog Buddy, taken out the trash, vacuumed, and entertained the boys with wrestling and other 'guy' activities in the evenings.  When I've been sad, he's made me laugh or helped me get out and take pictures to pick up my mood.  When I've cried, he's given me a hug and wiped the tears from my eyes.  When I've been frustrated with the world, he's listened and offered kind words.  And when I've been cold he's even given me his jacket and/or blocked the wind.  He's just that kindof a guy.  I know I'm very lucky to have him, and I hope he knows how much I appreciate all the things he's done for me with a smile on his face and warmth in his heart.  It takes a special person to do all he's done.

I took a few other interesting pictures in the museum and on the park trail yesterday.  I was totally fascinated with the light fixtures in the museum! Here in the lobby:

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These are in the cafeteria:

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The leaves were really flying, and upper left Donnie is having fun throwing leaves up and watching them fly away.  Lower right, Donnie is playing cowboys and Indians on a rubber tire and wood structure called The Conversationalist.  Lower left, Donnie is pretending to kick the 'bottom' of a piece of artwork called Collapse I which obviously looks like a man lying down on his side with no clothes on:-)  Overall, we walked about 2 miles of the trail.

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I thought you'd enjoy seeing all the downed leaves and this landscape employee working to move sheets of leaves off the trail.

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I also thought the bokeh in this shot and colors were very pretty.  Darn that line through the leaf!

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Thanks for spending a few minutes on your Thanksgiving to check out what I was up to yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Eat lots of turkey and too much pie and most of all enjoy the family and friends that you are sharing the day with.

Beyond the Tree

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Donnie and I were out and about this morning after we dropped off the boys at school.  There's a small pond near Cary Crossroads shopping center where I get my frappe at Coffee & Crepes, and I asked Donnie to take me over to it.  It was a foggy morning, and the light around the pond wasn't the best. However, I got really excited when I saw off in the distance what I was pretty sure was a pair of hooded mergansers.   With encouragement from Donnie that we had time and that it was safe to walk around the pond to get a better shot, I started to move closer hoping that the ducks wouldn't take off before I got a decent shot.  I ended up being able to get pretty close, and after adjusting the contrast on the shot and cropping, you can get a pretty good look at the ducks.

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Maybe they will stay on the pond for a few weeks and we can go back on a sunny day to try for an even better shot.  Still, I've gone all winter hoping to even see hooded mergansers in our area and struck out, so this is great for a November sighting and shot.  These guys migrate here right about now and will leave again in the spring.

My daily is a shot of the pond from the side closest to the road looking back to the other end where the ducks were.  Donnie and I were amazed at how the oak still had so many leaves on it when so many of the other trees have quickly lost their leaves this week.

I'm going to save a shot I took of a church near Jordan Lake later in the day to possibly share tomorrow.  But, I have a few other shots I'll include in my post today.

I thought the textures and colors of this shot taken near Jordan Lake were pretty neat.

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And I liked the dazzling sun in this shot.  I couldn't tell if it was a man and wife or father and teenage daughter but the fact that they had the dog out on the boat (Lake Wheeler) with them was really sweet.

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The boys both drew turkeys in art class this week.  Joey had to do a special writing project for his class, and he chose putting together his Thanksgiving menu.  All his work except of course for mom printing out those pictures circa 2010 and 2009.  I was really impressed with Johnny staying in the lines on his coloring too.

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We ended up at Chick-Fil-A last night, and here the boys are using an app on Donnie's iPod Touch to dress pictures of the boys up as cow characters.  Too cute!

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The Great Blue Heron and Lake Crabtree and I need to have a talk about how he's going to pose for me without flying off!  This is twice I've had him in a perfect spot, apparently his usual spot, only to have him fly off.  Frustrating!

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It's amazing to me as I look in my daily gallery over the past month just how much the pictures have taken on an orangish and brown tone.  As we move towards Christmas, the lights and colors of that season will start to appear.  I look forward to it.

A special thanks to Donnie for taking me all over the place yesterday to pick up my spirits and find photo ops for me...

Sky Portal

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I didn't get to take too many pictures yesterday.  It ended up being a day to get some chores done and run a few errands.  My daily shot came from the creek in Donnie's front yard.  I was hoping to get a glimpse of the deer that come through sometimes, but I didn't see them yesterday.  Instead I got this neat sky reflection picture down in the creek with a hint of the pretty ferns that are on the banks and some cool leaves floating in the water.  I sort of see the sky as some sort of portal or dream scene.  Not one of my best, but I hope you enjoy anyway.

We tried to get a cool sunset shot here:

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But I didn't think is had enough umph to it even after HDR.  I played around in picnik too.  Neat but not quite working and too far removed from the original.

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It's foggy out there this morning. Maybe I can make use of that in my daily for tomorrow.

A Perfect Day for Lake Johnson

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Our weather is just too good to pass up right now.  We hit 73 yesterday, and after a cloudy start, it was just as sunny as could be.  Joey had a real interest in going out in a pedal boat after seeing the ones at Pullen Park yesterday, and I thought Lake Johnson would be a good place to go to try to get him out on the water.  Donnie was game, important since I can't pedal right now, so around lunchtime we headed over.  Unfortunately, it was very windy, and they weren't letting rentals out on the lake.  The boys were pretty frustrated about that.  Johnny was looking forward to steering along with Joey's enthusiasm for getting out on the water.  Although I was eager to get on the trail to start the walk around the lake, the boys were not.  However, after listening to their 'concerns', we started out on the trail anyway.  It's just gorgeous underneath the trees this time of year with the light filtering through the amber colored leaves.  How could anyone not like a walk around the lake;-)  Johnny got into leaf collecting, and Joey seemed to enjoy blazing the trail out front.  We followed a sign to a scenic overlook, and before we knew it, we were on a forest trail leading down to the edge of the lake.  I should note that it's 3 miles around the lake on the asphalt trail and that there are 1.9 miles of non paved trails at Lake Johnson too.  We ended up back on the main trail about an hour later and kept heading around the main loop towards the boathouse/finish line.  By the time we completed the 3 miles, the trail was very crowded with runners, bikers, and folks walking their dogs.  This park is right beside NC State, so there are always many college kids in the park.  The reward at the end of the hike was Sponge Bob popsicles for the boys.

My daily is an HDR taken on the forest trail looking out onto the lake.  It was hard to pick a daily; I enjoyed several shots that I took at Lake Johnson.  Here are a few more showing the fun we had yesterday.

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This is my favorite people shot of the day.  I was calling them my 3 bumps on a log as I was taking the shot.

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This is my favorite leaf shot.  I thought the pretty orange on blue with the pine tree in the background adding some green was nice.

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This is a beech tree shot that has a 3D effect after processing it with Photomatix HDR.  This tree was tall and in the deep part of the woods on our walk near the lake's edge.

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I kept studying the leaves wherever they covered the water trying to scope out a worthwhile shot.  This is also processed with Photomatix.  I feel like the shot achieved a dreamy feel.  What do you see when you look into the water?

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Our nice weather continues this week although the boys have 3 days of school before they got out for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I'll be out of work at least one more week.  Donnie has been great about getting me out of the house to keep up my spirits and support my photography as well as me getting some light exercise.  I'm so appreciative.  The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this weekend.

Pullen Park - Open Again!

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I happened to glance at the front page of the newspaper yesterday and noticed that the long awaited reopening of Pullen Park was happening.  The park was closed back in December of 2009 for renovations, and the work took longer than expected. We were sad when it closed because we often visited the park to ride the miniature train, carousel, and kiddie boats, and we eagerly anticipated the park's reopening.  Since we didn't have any other big plans, we headed over later in the day.  I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find a place to park, but thankfully the city provided offsite shuttle parking which made our visit a lot easier.

According to Wikipedia:
Pullen Park was founded on March 22, 1887 when Richard Stanhope Pullen donated farmland to the City of Raleigh expressly to be used as a space for recreational enjoyment of citizens and visitors to Raleigh, NC. This land became Pullen Park, the first public park in North Carolina.

According to the census of the National Amusement Park Historical Association, Pullen Park is the 14th oldest amusement park in the world.

A miniature train, added to the park in 1950, goes through a tunnel and around the park. The tunnel and a second train were added in 1971. The C.P. Huntington Train is a one-third sized operational miniature train has thrilled children of all ages since it was added to the park in the 1950s. The engine is a near exact replica of a locomotive that was built in 1863 at the Danforth-Cook Locomotive works in Paterson, New Jersey.

The Pullen Park Carousel was made circa 1900 by master carver Salvatore Cernigliaro of the Dentzel Carousel Company of Germantown, Pennsylvania. It contains 52 hand-carved basswood animals, 2 chariots (or sleighs), 18 large gilded mirrors and 18 canvas panels and a Wurlitzer 125 organ made in 1924 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York. The Dentzel Carousel Company was the first American carousel company and while thousands of carousels were made in the U.S., there are only approximately 200 antique carousels left today and fewer than 25 of those are Dentzel carousels and only 14 of those remain in operation.

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My daily shot is a picture of a climbing structure on the playground.  Johnny was able to get to the top 3 times and was very proud of himself.  As you can see, the new structure was a big hit with all the kids.

Upon entering the park, we were greeted to beautiful autumn colors, an enthusiastic crowd, and all new buildings done in green including an overhead park sign.

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We didn't ride the carousel because of the crowd, but I did take a peek inside at the new temperature controlled setting.  This is much brighter.  The carousel is rich in history, and I'm sure this new building will help keep it around for generations to come.

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Here Johnny runs up some new steps to greet the train as it passes by.  There are many more train crossings and gates in the park now than there used to be.  Fun!

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I enjoyed these shots of my guys too:

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And last but not least was the gorgeous view around Lake Howell.  During the improvements, they really improved the path that goes around the lake.  Lots of room for families to walk and to sit and have a picnic lunch.  It's very picturesque.

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Joey wanted to go out on the pedal boats.  Hopefully we'll be back again soon so he can do that.

In other news, Joey is ready to cook for Thanksgiving:

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I can't wait to cook with my boys and enjoy a meal with them and Donnie.  I won't be lifting the heavy bird this year, but I should be able to do most of the other meal prep.  Joey is excited to help.