Birds of Summer 2012

This is my Five on Friday post.....on Saturday! I started getting this ready yesterday, and my husband came home and presented me with a very cool Kindle Fire HD for my birthday. Can you say distraction? So this post didn't get finished til this morning but I had fun playing with my new toy!
As I was doing some more keywording of my photos this week, I noticed how often I take bird pictures. I love the variety of birds (like I enjoy the variety in mushrooms)! They are so unique and interesting.
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I am sure there will be lots of treasures there to see!

Mushroom Fun

I am fascinated by mushrooms! They come in so many colors, shapes and sizes and textures. I also like the fact that the more you watch for them, the more you see. It is like a treasure hunt on the forest floor. I began noticing mushrooms while hiking with my husband. When I get tired while on one of our adventures, I find something to stop and take a picture of! One day, I was having trouble finding something to use as an excuse to stop, when I started seeing all kinds of different fungi poking up. The more I looked, the more I found! I think my husband began to wonder if we would ever finish that hike! Since then, I have made a point to look for new and interesting varieties. I also learned that they pop out of the ground like crazy in the fall right after the rains begin. I now have a pretty large collection of pictures. My dad knows about my obsession, so when the ones above appeared in his yard last week, he called me to come and bring my camera.

My 5 on Friday

One of my current projects has been to finally organize and keyword my thousands of photos on my hard drive. I am using Lightroom and find the process enjoyable as long as I spend a limited amount of time each session working on it. I have loved looking back through pictures taken several years ago and remembering how much I enjoyed each month. When I wanted to participate in Kim Klassen's 5 on Friday, I knew just the plan for me! I would choose my favorite five photos that I found in my archives during the previous week and make a quick scrapbook layout of them. The hard part, of course was limiting myself to just five!
These pictures are from 2006 when our oldest granddaughter was turning one year old. She lived on the other side of the continent from us at the time, so I remember how much I treasured the pictures during the times when we didn't see her very often. She has since moved within a few miles of our house and I am fortunate to see her several times each week, but the memories of these early days, is still very special.
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Ten Years

Ten years ago this week, Jon and Krissy met for the first time. Since then, Krissy has become a treasured part of our family life. This picture was one taken with her camera at a family wedding this summer. Since she is often the one family member who consistently remembers to bring her camera and actually take pictures at various events, we often don't get as many pictures of her as of others, but I love this one and couldn't resist congratulating them on this important milestone!
The colors in this picture and card also worked well for the Play Date Cafe color challenge for this week.