Focus On LIfe Week 13

Have Faith

There have been times when I've lost my faith.  
Then there are times when I've had my faith.
Right now I'm in a place where faith is very important to me. 
In one way or another...

Rather than take the religious route I've chosen to do something else.  This is even after I took a road trip Sunday to take pictures of a lovely old country church.  I went even further out into a remote area and walked my dogs then proceeded to get my truck stuck in a large snowbank.  Mind you, this is a very remote area, no houses, no people, just wilderness.  Which I enjoy being out in, on most occassions anyway.  

It was 5:30 pm when this happened. I was miles away from a well traveled road and it was going to be dark in 75 minutes.  There was no cell phone service.  I assessed my situation and decided the best course was for me and the dogs to start booking it as fast as we could to the closest road that might have some traffic and would also be the closest route to any place where there might be people to help me.  I was dressed in winter hiking gear so that was good.  But the weather changed from the time I left home; it was cloudy, quite windy and misting. The wind was at my back so that helped a lot. 

My 2 dogs are used to going with me but the one is just a little 11 pound Bichon.  The other is an older English Setter.  I wasn't concerned about him as much as I was about the little one, Rosie.  She was going to get tired.  And I was going to have to carry her.  The added weight was going to slow me down and time was of the essence.  I knew of a warming ski cabin that the county has at a trail head and I headed that way hoping there were some stragglers still out cross country skiing.  After that, if no one was there my next place to head for was a local ski hill, about 6 miles from where I was stuck.   

We jogged and walked off and on, trying to go as fast as we could on the icy road.  I kept checking my watch to see how much daylight I had left.  Temps were forecast for 19* that night.  I wasn't looking forward to that at all and figured if it came to that we'd hole up in the warming cabin til daybreak.  At least we'd be warm.

Someone was watching over me that day because lo and behold a truck came along with 2 guys that were headed out to go rabbit hunting.  They had just picked up their 2 boys who'd been skiing.  They told me there was no one at the ski cabin, I was less than a 1/2 mile from reaching it when they stopped.  I told them what happend and they gave me and the dogs a lift back to my truck.  They had a chain and got me out.    

I was grateful and thankful.  

Do I have faith?
Yes.

It's a 26 mile drive back to my house and I met 1 other vehicle all that way.  It was almost dark when I got home.  I was very very lucky.  

I digress...sorry.

My pic for this week.  Something I took in my yard before I left that day.

I have faith that my Clematis will bloom again.  But with this variety, I have to wait until August. 

And I seriously have faith that someone was wathcing over me last Sunday, maybe even sitting on my shoulder.  :)

 

Please click the pic (it's really quite beautiful), I am unable to enlarge it this week.

 

Go blogger...

   

Focus On Life Week 12~ Observe the Curve

I had more fun with this weeks challenge.  I was going through an old desk I have in my sunroom and I found, much to my delight, a box filled with old doorknobs.  Doorknobs evoke many feelings, but these were just begging to be photographed in a unique unusual manner. 

So I did.

The first knob I photogrpahed just the way it was.  It is full of curves and faceting that refract light.

I took over 40 photo's of this doorknob and another similar one.  This next one shows details inside.

 

 

Then I got the bright idea to add some color...

oh my it was WILD!!

 

 

And I couldn't stop snapping and changing things out,

trying to get different patterns and curves full of color and details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Life can and does throw us a curve occasionally.

  But I wanted to photograph it in a positive light.

 

Click the pics to see a bigger view and all that cool curvaceous color! 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by this week!

Focus On Life - Week 11

 

The Possibilities are Endless

 

I'm late to the party, I know.  My bad...just another day in my life as a single beadmaker.  I work 7 days a week.  Most of the time.  Which brings me to this weeks topic.  

 

I make glass beads for a living.  It's called lampwork.  I use glass that comes from Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, China and the US.  I love my job, it's my life.  And because of this, the possibilities are endless.

I have an endless array of glass colors to choose from when I work.  I can go wild and crazy or make subtle designs.  But usually my work is quite "out there".  I also have a large selection of specialized tools to use.  Some are made specifically for making beads, others are things I find here and there.  In my line of work the possibilities truely are endless.

 

My workbench, where the magic happens.

 

 

If you've never seen my beads, here are a couple pics:

 

 





 

As you can see, the possibilities are endless...

Thanks for visiting!

 

To see other participants of this weekly project, please click HERE

Wrappings & Trappings- Week 10

All Wrapped Up - our prompt for this week.  I was really trying to think outside the box for this challenge and actually found exactly what I was looking for.  A house about 2 blocks from me is "all wrapped up" in Tyvek* but, alas, I didn't have a spare minute this week to go take a pic.

Thinking outside my box once again led me to go through some of my older photographs.  This first one was taken in Homer, Alaska while walking in the Homer small boat harbor.  I thought it was pretty cool how whatever type of shellfish/clams attached themselves to the piling and completly wrapped it up.  I also love the color of the sea water.

 

This next photo was also taken in the Homer small boat harbor.  I was totally fascinated with the ice that coated everything, including this fishing boat.

 

 

My last photo is a place near and dear to my heart.  Whenever I go back to Alaska I have to stop and visit this Russian Orthodox church in Nikiski.  I've stopped many times during different seasons and each time I love it more.  Located on a bluff that overlooks the Cook Inlet it's a place that is beautiful beyond words and photographs.  I believe I read somewhere it was built in 1900.  My photo shows how the grounds are wrapped or blanketed in fresh snow.

 

It's a WRAP!  :)

One Door Opens ~ Another Door Closes

I'm not sure if I believe that old theory or not but I do love doors.  Especailly old doors.  And I'm lucky enough to live in a lovely old bungalow that has some nice old doors.

Doors...this weeks chosen photography topic. 

There are many times I wish I lived in a place where there were lovely old neighborhoods with stately old homes, architectural marvels and windows to gaze longingly at.  Manicured lawns, spring flowers bobbing in a gentle warm breeze.  You get the idea.

Ironically, the town I live in was a lumber town in it's heyday.  The Knapp Stout Lumber Company were pioneers in this area.  Their name is closely woven with the early history of Barron County.  Huge forests once surrounded cities and lakes of this region, carrying an industry that was the inevitable forerunner of the present dairying and agricultural businesses.  And now sand mining for the fracking industry.  A rape of the earth in my opionion.

But I digress....

Last Sunday I drove around this small farming town to see if there were any doors worthy of my photographic lens.

There was one.  And it does not represent that era of which I spoke at all.  And I haven't had time to go back to take a picture of it, maybe later this morning when I run to the post office.

So I wandered around my own home, which was built by the Knapp/Stout people, as are a couple around here, and took my pictures right here.

I've always loved french doors and I have a wonderful pair that are inset with beveld glass panes.  They open to an unheated sunroom that I basically use for storage and I have a piece of exercise equipment out there.  It's too hot to use during the summer and too cold during the winter.

 

I laid on the floor looking up to take this, lol. 

The next photo shows the door from the sunroom looking in towards the living room.  And guess who has to see what was going on...(puppers gazing through the window panes).

 

 

And once again, like last week, I am only able to enlarge the first photo...sigh.

 

Even the door going from my kitchen to the basement and outside back door is beautiful.

 

 

Lastly, my front door.  I need to replace the screen door so the beautiful solid wood door behind it can bee seen.

 

Last week I had fun going around to everyone's blogs and will do so again this week.  Don't forgot to pop in at Sally's blog where you can click through and see what everyone else is doing.  Ciao...