A Few From The Holidays...and Miscellaneous!

Here are a few shots from the past holiday and some miscellaneous photos from the past few months!

A few random shots since life got a little busy!

It's been a little while, huh?

Things got a little hectic - especially at work, which left me precious little time to do one of the things that I love most....taking photos and then blogging about them! Well, if you guessed that I missed it too much - you'd be right :-)

So, I've decided to make time for the simple pleasure of snapping life again...this is a relatively new decision, therefore I don't have many photos to share, but here are a few that I've managed over the past couple of months...Here's to having more to post in the future (raises glass)!

Hearty Hibiscus...A Treat For The Eyes

I love the gardens around our home. Like many other gardeners, there are always things that I feel could be improved upon, and others that I feel have been done just right. Fortunately, our Hearty Hibiscus garden fall into the latter category. Planted about five years ago, these amazingly gorgeous tree-like plants grow to heights of over 8 ft tall, with blooms that are as large around as both of my spread-out hands put together! With deep green foliage and striking color, they have become one of our neighborhood's favorite attractions, and it is not uncommon to look out and see folks stopped at the end of our driveway enjoying their beauty. This makes us very happy, as that is what botany is supposed to do...show case nature's beauty for all to see. Here are my "top nine" hibiscus shots from this season. Enjoy!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

Last weekend this amateur photographer experienced quite a highlight - I had the opportunity to shoot a benefit softball tournament which was organized  to assist three officers whose homes were either lost or damaged in  recent fire.

My husband has served in the Central District for many years now, and while there were other districts playing on some of the other diamonds, most of the photos taken were of the Central District team on which he played. What a great time we had! Lots of laughter, ribbing and some seriously talented softball players - here are my top twenty-one shots from the event. Enjoy!

Sweet Madelyn!

Soooo....who doesn't have a soft spot for cute little babies? Especially little girls with big brown eyes the size of saucers? Well, not I, for one!

Meet Madelyn: my newest little (ahem) great niece. Her parents are very proud of both her and her older sister, Kathryn...and they should be. They have a very beautiful little family going :-) We visited with Maddie and her Mom during a recent trip to Virginia, and this little angel gifted me some of the most precious shots. She is energetic, curious and lifts her cute little head to survey her surroundings all by herself. What absolute, total cuteness! Here are my favorite eleven shots from our visit - see for yourself!

A beautiful Sunday Afternoon with "Pappy"!

My husband grew up in a quaint little white house in a quiet valley in the farm town of Westminster, Carroll County, MD.  While many of the farms have made way for the "reverse progress" of shopping malls and cookie cutter housing developments, the little valley where he was raised stubbornly refuses to change...and looks much the same as it did when "Pappy" built the family home there  and settled with his late wife, Catherine and the six month-old baby boy whom I would one day marry. On  Sunday we spent the afternoon, as we often do, visiting with Pap and enjoying the refreshingly cool summer breezes under the tall, old trees that shade the house.

What fun I had photographing one of my absolute favorite places to be on a beautiful summer's day! I snapped shots of some of Paps flowers, his gardens, the beautiful landscape and one nearly three hundred year old tree that Pap told me I just couldn't miss capturing!

There were beans being prepped and canned for the winter, veggies to be pulled from the garden (Randy picked the veggies for our Sunday dinner while I documented our afternoon) and a quite a few laughs to go around. But more importantly, there was the joy of experiencing the unmistakable peace and calm that comes from sharing time with a much loved parent, who has given so much to his family, and who now can sit back and enjoy the true fruits of his labor...
And now, a few memories!