A beautiful day

Today was an absolutely beautiful Spring day. So after work, I headed out to Meijer Gardens. I wanted to get more pictures of the butterflies. There were quite a few people there when I arrived but they started thinning out after about a half hour. It was getting close to closing time and dinner time. I got some pictures but not sure if they are good or not. I'll look later.

On the way home, I stopped at a camera store and bought a new tripod and head. I've been looking at this one tripod for about a year. Every time I got to a different camera store to look at them, this is the one that they recommend. I can't find a good picture of the head but it has a pistol-like grip. Hopefully I can try it out tomorrow. I also rented a macro lens that I'm going to try out tomorrow. It will be a return trip to photograph the butterflies and some of the flowers.

Meijer Gardens

The butterflies are in bloom at the gardens.  I've been out there once to take some pictures.  Tried to go out again on Saturday but it was jam-packed.  I may go again Good Friday.  I have the day off.

This was my evening project tonight.

 

I sure wish I had thought and got an email or something for this guy.  I love the picture.  The little girl is holding their ticket into the gardens.  I shot this through a tree from quite a distance away.  Telephotos are great.

Where is March going?

It seems like it was just Mar 1 and now suddenly it is the 22nd. Time sure flies when you are having fun. That is the saying so I must be having fun. Actually I am.

This month I've managed to get a day when I could go and play with Pat (my girlfriend from highschool). We spend the whole day making cards and such. We had a ball using her Cricut Expression and my Cuttlebug. I've also spent a day at Meijer Gardens taking pictures of the butterflies and some of the sculptures and the waterfalls. Yes, one of these days, I'll post a few. I also spent an afternoon/evening with my 13 year old nephew. We saw Inkheart and then went to Logans. I highly recommend the movie. And who doesn't love Logans bread. Steaks are good too.

Now March Madness is in full swing. At the end of 2 rounds, I have missed 15 but I do have 13 of the Sweet 16 teams. I hear the President has 14. There have been some great games -- really close ones.

"Night Sky"

Tonight as I was coming home from dinner and a movie with "the girls", the moon and Venus really got my attention. When I got home, I got the camera out, brushed up on how to take a timed exposure and headed out to the back yard. I'm about half-way happy with the picture. Unfortunately I can't seem to make this photo enlarge when it is clicked on. Bummer. If you could enlarge it, you would see many colored lights which I think are stars that just happen to catch the reflected lights just right. But then, that is my uneducated guess.

Online Games Revisited

I have a new favorite online game -- Upwords. Then look for Upwords. I have a friend in NJ that loves to play also and so we manage to get a few games in during the week. A great way to spend an evening with a friend who lives a long way away.

Online Games

I love playing games, especially word games.  I usually get beat but what the heck.  Anyway on FaceBook there are several word games that I like to play with some of my friends.  A couple of my favorites are Word Twist and Scramble.  But my favorite now is Scrabble.  I played four times over the last week.  First time was really good.  The other times were fun.  One of the things I really like about the Scrabble game is that it is real-time.  Now if they can just get Upwords as an online real-time game.

A Step Back In Time

Today I went over to my folks and two of my cousins (Rose and Ivan) were there with pictures that Rose had scanned into her computer from old slides and photos. What fun it was looking at pictures of our dads when they were kids, our grandparents before they had kids, our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. There were also some of the farm where our dads great up. It was the farm where my grandmother was born and lived her whole life except for the last 2 or 3 years. There were pictures of my dad and mom before they were married and some after. There were even a couple of me when I was a little over a year. One was one of my favorite pictures of me -- sitting on my haunches with my dad's work cap on "helping" him do some carpentry work. He was knelt down with a saw in his hand and a piece of lumber in the other. We asked him today what project he was working on but he couldn't remember. It was a fun afternoon. Dad told us all kinds of stories, most of which I had never heard.

It's the first time my two cousins and I had ever sat down and spent an afternoon just talking and reminising. We should do it more often. Their other brother and sister and my two brothers really missed out on a fun afternoon. A memory was made today.