Favorite photo of the week

One of the things I'm thinking about doing, starting with this post is to put up, what I think, is the best photo that I posted to Dogz on Walkz this past week.  There are quite a few that I have really liked, but I just like the look of this beagle called Obi.

I could get used to this

Last month, I posted about Jaxson, who ended up being my third photo at Flickr to make In Explore.  As of this writing, he has over 1,000 views on Flickr and 33 faves.  Not bad numbers in reality, that is until today.

I came home from work and started processing photos for my next two shots on Dogz on Walkz.  Once I was done, I uploaded them to Flickr and discovered that my photo of Colt, the Belgian Malinois that I posted to Flickr last night had in invitation to join In Explore.  Not only that, he has over 3,000 views and 69 faves as of this writing.  Not bad for an iPhone shot I took as I was leaving a burger place down in Irvine.  

I'm still not sure why some of my shots seem to do so well and others don't.  If push came to shove, I'd say I have at least half a dozen shots that I think are technically better than this one.  Still, I could get used to it.  It's fun seeing your photo in that "best liked" gallery.

Attracting crowds

Sometimes, all it takes is a dog to attract a crowd.

Side effects

Whenever you take a new medicine, you usually have to worry about possible side effects.  This is also pretty much true when you try something new.  Running?  You're feet and legs are going to ache for awhile until you build up some stamina.  Ice skating?  You're going to fall until you become decent and then you'll still fall.  Yoga?  Yeah, I'm just not flexible enough to even attempt that one, but I'm sure others can tell you about some of the side effects there.

So why am I writing about side effects?  Well, I've encountered my own side effect from going out and deliberately talking to dogs and taking their photos.  Dog slobber.  Who knew that many different kinds of dogs could slobber so much?  I knew some dogs slobber, case in point, this bulldog I captured a couple of years ago.  

Today, I ended up walking along the Thompson Creek Trail, mainly because the foothill trails had been closed down by the city due to the winds and possible fire danger.  So I walked the bike trail and got lots of dog photos. And I also got lots of dog slobber too.  But it's the best kind of slobber, so I guess this is just a inconvenient side effect.

Explore

Every now and then, I'll post an image and not really think anything of it, that is until I get home the next day and I've seen all the faves the photo generates.  I regularly post to Flickr and they have a category called Explore.  Basically, it's the best photos that people post over there and it's by invitation only.  

The invitations are sent out to photographers after a photograph has reached either a certain threshold of faves, or comments or some such, as there seems to be no way of really knowing how many you really need, as I suspect they probably think that you might "stuff" the ballot boxes if you knew.  They also block you from getting back into Explore for a certain period of time afterward so that others can be seen without you becoming a dominant factor.

Up until today, I've two other photos in Explore.  My Death Valley photo, that I took in the spring of 2015 was the first.  I even blogged about that experience here.  That photo has almost 8000 views and 98 faves.  Interestingly, it used to have 99, but I guess someone decided they didn't like it quite as much as they previously thought.  The second photo that made it to Explore was a photo I took this summer in Yellowstone National Park of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

And now I have a third.  Jaxson, the Weimaraner is now in Explore.  If you click this link and hurry, you might see Jaxson near the top, but as new photos get added, he'll move further down and out of site, but even if you don't find him, check out some of the spectacular photos there.  You won't be disappointed.

Dogz and horses on walkz

Every now and then when you're out geocaching, you see some pretty interesting sites.  The nice thing about where I live is it's only a 30 minute drive to get to the desert, or the beach.  For this shot, it was obviously, the desert.  And the nice thing about the desert is the wide open spaces.  Once you get out of any town, you have some pretty scenic vistas.

Several years ago, I was out taking some shots of the mountains with Joshua Trees in the foreground, when I heard these two guys conversing on horseback.  One of their dogs came up to greet me, giving my hand a lick. We exchanged pleasantries and then they rode off and I took some photos of them as they rode away from me.

It literally wasn't until I looked at the shot on my computer screen that I realized the guy on the right was packing.  The way this scene played out, I just felt this one needed a slight sepia treatment to it to give it an "Old West" feel to it.  And the only thing that really gives this away is the guy on the left is wearing sneakers.  Otherwise, it could be something form the 1800s.

Comments would be appreciated.  Thanks for stopping by.

Dogz on Walkz

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't posted much on here.  In fact, I haven't posted anything since late June of last year.  Life has happened, repeatedly in a variety of ways.  But I've had many adventures since June and I could have written a lot, but I just haven't.

And so I'm starting fresh again.  My daughter suggested something to me last week that grabbed ahold of me and sort of kindled a spark in me.  We talked and laughed about it, but then I started thinking and realized that I could really get into this.  And so, Dogz on Walkz was born.

I decided that if I was going to do this up right I wanted to get a good Instagram feed going, so I went through all of my past photos and found as many Dogz on Walkz photos that I could find.  Then I created the Facebook page and the Instagram page and now I'm trying to post a new photo every day of a dog I encounter on my hikes and walks.  After all, the title of this blog is a Photo a day, so why not get back into it.  I even decided to re-join 365 Project as Dogz on Walkz.  And so it goes.

I also practiced first.  I decided that on my walk/hike on Saturday of last weekend, I'd just greet every dog that walked by just to get a feel for it.  I didn't bring my camera, although I had my phone with me, so I could have taken shots with that if need be, but I just wanted to practice that day.  Sunday would be different.

On Sunday, I literally picked up my camera for the first time this year.  I can't even remember the last time I used it, maybe this summer when I was on vacation?  It's become so easy just to pull the phone out and take a photo on that, that I'd forgotten how I used to enjoy taking photos.  One of the first things I noticed was how heavy the camera is.  That will take some getting used to again, but it didn't take long for me to get back into photographer mode.

The first dog I met on the trail that day was Annie, pictured her.  She's only 7 months old and according to her people friend, she's a Pit Bull/Boxer mix and was a rescue dog.  Annie was so thrilled for pets from me that when I sat down to take photos, she jumped into my lap and schmooosed the front of my camera, a fact that I didn't even noticed until after I left her and her people friend.  Then I noticed all the dog drool on the front of my lens.  Nothing like dog slobber to really get a lens nice and clean right?

So this is my attempt at really doing a photo a day for this blog.  Sometimes, it might just be the daily dog photo, but I'm going to try this again.  Wish me luck.

As always, any comments, words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.  Please like our page on Facebook.  Also, please follow us in Instagram.  Tell all of your dog loving friends to follow us in Instagram as well.

Life’s turning point

Today's prompt for the 20 days of Chill Writing is Life's Turning Point.  I didn't really have to think too long about this, because for me, anyway, it was that point in my life when I finally realized I was an adult.  And surprisingly, it wasn't at the birth of my daughter.  No, the moment came a year later.

For the most part, I know most people are clueless until they have their first child.  Some might even be clueless afterwards, but that's an entirely different story that I won't go into deeply at all.  I've heard many people say that when their first child was born, then knew that they were adults.  I didn't think that way at all.  I already had a job, was married, owned a house, but I really didn't feel "grown-up" even after my girl was born.

On her first birthday, all that changed.  At the risk of embarrassing her, I'll tell the story, but I'm sure she's heard it before.  On her first birthday, we were celebrating much like other couples do, including giving her some new foods to try for the first time.  Something definitely didn't agree with her and she started projectile vomiting. (We later found out she'd caught a virus, because we all ended up getting sick).  So my wife grabbed her and rushed her to the bathroom to try and contain everything.

In the meantime, I'm out in the living room, trying to entertain my daughter's godfather and keep the dog at bay.  I walked down the hallway and noticed barf on the carpet, barf on the walls, barf on the ceiling.  At that moment, I realized I was an adult, because I didn't see anyone else around who was going to clean all of that up.  That was my life's turning point.

Life wouldn’t be the same

This will probably be the most difficult post I've ever had to write on this particular blog.  When I looked over the list of prompts for P.J.'s 20 days of Chill writing challenge, I thought this post might be tough to write about.  The events of the last week make this post very difficult to write about, but not like you might think.  And actually, this post will be very therapeutic for me.

He came into our lives in mid February, 2005.  We had been dog-less for about 6 months after our dog Rocky had passed away at the age of 17.  I was kind of getting used to the idea of not having a dog under foot and when my wife called me up and said that I needed to go look at a dog, I decided to humor her.

She had called me up because she knew I'd look at the dog and say no and that would be the end of it.  She knew herself too well to be able to be rational about things like that.  So I went down to the dog grooming place where this two month old puppy was.  They put him on the counter, he looked up into my eyes and then put his paws up on my chest and that was it.  I brought him home, put him on my daughter's bed, which woke her up and said "Happy 16th birthday."

He was named Jack for no other reason than we all liked the name. It was far better than my wife's suggestion of Quentin.  Jack has been a member of our family ever since.  He'd greet my wife's dad at the door, because he knew Grandpa always brought treats for him.  He liked my lap the best sitting in it for hours while we watched a movie or a sporting event on TV, but he liked the foot of my wife's side of the bed at night.  He'd look at you and then sit, as if to say, "Look, I'm being a good boy.  Will you give me a treat?"  And he was a very good dog.

Last week, age and illness caught up with him.  He got sick just about the time Christmas break rolled around and a couple of days after Christmas we had to take him into the vet because he just wasn't rebounding like he'd done in the past when he was ill.  After a night in the hospital, it was clear we had to make the toughest decision anyone who has ever loved a furry friend will ever had to make.  

Jack was surrounded by love as he crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on December 30th last week.  He is missed by all who knew him.

Life wouldn't be the same without dogs.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2015): Spring

Here is is, the end of the month already and P.J.'s monthly challenge is upon us.  This month, the theme is spring.  I will be the first to admit that I didn't use my camera very much this month, nor did I even use the cell phone camera, but I did take enough shots that I think I can come up with five shots that pretty much epitomize springtime.  That being said, here are my entries into this month's challenge.

1.  Fiesta

Every Mother's Day weekend, our church has its annual fiesta.  This fiesta is likely the second or third largest event in the city of Claremont every year, so a lot of people attend and there were good crowds even though there was a large threat of rain in the air most of Friday night when this shot was taken.  For the past couple of years, I've usually set up my camera on a tripod somewhere around here and get some light streak shots.  This year, I walked down to the fiesta, only to turn my camera on and find out I had a dead battery.  I knew it was low, but wasn't aware it was that low and so I was totally unprepared for this circumstance.

However, this year, because I'm now part of the 21st century and I have my own smartphone now, I used the camera in the phone for some shots.  Not quite the same thing, but since I have several shots for the past couple of years with light streaks, this is a little different from my normal shots at this time.  It worked out well, mainly because the sight angles this year for the various rides weren't the greatest in the world and the best angles were right in the middle of high pedestrian traffic, which is not good for a long exposure with a camera on a tripod, so it probably worked out better that I did have a dead battery.  Still, that's just a rookie mistake, one that will not be repeated again.

2.  New hobbies?

For whatever reason, it seems like springtime is the time when new hobbies can be explored, that is unless you have a hobby that involves winter gear.  Most hobbies tend to be warm weather hobbies however and so I've got anew interest, one that might not come to fruition for a couple of years, but there's a large spark of interest here.  

One of many photo projects that I've participated in over the last couple of years is the 100 Strangers project.  I haven't taken a stranger photo in over a year, but when I saw Stephen here piloting a drone over the fiesta, I figured I wanted to know more about the drone, how it worked, etc.  Push came to shove and I walked over and starting talking with him about the drone.  Eventually, Stephen said the magic words, "Would you like to fly it?"

Oh man, that was very cool.  I got to hover, I got it to go straight up over the fiesta and just about the time I was ready to really start watching what the drone was seeing, the app lost contact with it.  Oops.  Fortunately, it didn't just plummet to the ground and Stephen was able to guide it in to a safe landing, but at least I can say that I've now piloted a drone.  Oh, yeah.  I plan on doing that again, sometime I hope in the near future.  Perhaps my children can pool their money together and get their old man a drone for Christmas.  That would be pretty cool.  At least here in California, I wouldn't necessarily have to wait until springtime to try it out.

3.  Walt Disney Family Museum

Springtime usually means the beginning of the traveling season, at least for me.  Early in the season, during my spring break, I went camping in Death Valley, the first time I'd been there in about 20 years.  But I digress, since these photos for this challenge have to be taken in the month of May.

Usually in May, I go visit my older two children over Memorial Day weekend.  This year I traveled up to the Bay Area to visit with my daughter and her fiancé.  My older son drove over from Merced for the weekend and we had a very enjoyable time.  Most of Saturday was spent dealing with little wedding details, mostly finding the right suit for the two dads.  I remember several years ago, when one of my good geocaching friend's daughter got married and he bought a suit for the occasion. If I remember correctly, he hadn't worn a suit in a very long time and probably won't ever after.  My daughter commented that she couldn't really remember ever seeing me in a suit either.  Well, I now own a suit, but once again, I'm digressing a little bit since that story doesn't deal with the photo.

Sunday, we drove up to San Francisco into the Presidio.  Our goal was to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum.  If you are a Disney aficionado, or have next to no knowledge of Walt Disney, you will enjoy yourself at this place.  The entire museum is obviously dedicated to Walt Disney, set up by his daughters and it contains all sorts of memorabilia of the man.  The museum is very interactive and pays attention to all sorts of small details.

At one point we were walking down a hall that had a grand vista view of the Golden Gate Bridge and my daughter commented that she felt that all of a sudden she was in a ride at Disneyland.  Not coincidentally, we turned the corner of the hallway and were in a room that featured everything Disneyland, including a scale model replica of the park.  Having worked at the park for five years in the 80s, this was just fabulous and I could have stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, but there were other things to see.

The photo that I've decided to show here doesn't have anything to do with Disneyland, but with the early pioneering that Disney did with sound cartoons.  This shot shows 348 frame enlargements form the film Steamboat Willie, the first talking cartoon, and the first that featured Mickey Mouse.  The 348 shots represents less than 15 seconds of animation time of the film.  And these were all hand drawn at the time as well, no computers to help them out.  Talk about labor intensive work.  It's no wonder that a feature length film, such as Peter Pan, was only released once every three years or so.

4. Street photography

As most of you know, I enjoy taking street shots of total strangers.  Outside of the Disney Museum, the green between some of the buildings was hosting a massive street fair.  Food booths surrounded all sides of the green and all of us took advantage of the massive amounts of good food.  If any of us went hungry, that was our own fault. 

Springtime in San Francisco is dicey at best.  There's always a good chance that Carl can show up at anytime.  Who's Carl?  Believe it or not, Carl is the fog that shows up in San Francisco.  He even has his own Twitter account.  The day we were at the Presidio, Carl was still off shore, but was threatening to come in at any time.  Still, people came to the street fair prepared for the weather and most everyone was enjoying each other's company, which is why I find this shot so amusing.  All sorts of things are happening all around and this guy was totally absorbed in his phone, probably checking his email or something similar.  Maybe he was checking out the latest tweet from Carl.

5.  Kanka

While we were eating lunch on the green, my daughter told me to turn around and look at this massive Great Dane that was walking around with his owner on the other side of the green.  This dog was the size of a small pony.  After we'd finished eating and they had found a place to park themselves, I walked over and asked if I could take some photos of the dog.  After getting permission, I took several shots before the dog got bored and didn't want to have anything more to do with me.  This shot turned out the best of the bunch. He has a better expression in another shot, but I cut off his ear with some poor composition, so I'm going with this one.

His owner said the dog's name was Kanka, which apparently means best friend in Turkish.  Nothing better than going for a walk with your best friend on a beautiful spring weekend up in the Presidio.

Well, there you have it.  Five shots of spring.  Please stop by P.J.'s post to see his offerings on the theme.  There's also links at the bottom of that page where you can view other blogger's springtime offerings as well.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2014): Fun

Well, once again, it's time for the monthly photo blogging challenge set up by P.J.  This month's challenge appeared to be fairly easy, with the theme being "Fun," but for a variety of reasons, I didn't get my camera out as much this month and so it was a little more difficult.  I did, however, come up with five shots that I think convey the theme of fun, although they might not be fun for everyone.

So, without further ado, here's my list of "fun" shots.

1.  Farmer's market
We have a farmer's market that is in downtown Claremont every Sunday morning until around 1 in the afternoon.  Lots of fruits, vegetables are offered for sale. The crowds make for some nice people shots and some very colorful fruits and vegetable shots.  I've been coming down about once a month to get some new photos.  It's a fun excursion just to people watch.

2.  Games of chance

Our church has an annual fiesta every Mother's Day weekend.  It's the big money maker for the church and there is a lot of activity going on on all three days of the fiesta.  There are lots of games of chance that, obviously, is rigged in favor of the game establishment in order to make money for the establishment as well as the church.

I watched these carny workers use all kinds of lines to get people to try their luck at these games.  I think the older people understand that the payment you give to them is for the fun of the competition, much like gambling in Lost Wages, Nevada.  It's fun and if you win, that's a bonus, but if you expect to go in there and win, you will be sadly separated from your money.

Younger people don't seem to understand that and are constantly at these games with the hope of winning something.  I know, when I was younger, I had the same kinds of feelings.  I had this one game figured out.  Shuffleboard bowling.  Knock over 6 pins with three metal pucks.  Easy, just get the puck in between two pins three times in a row and you're a winner.  Guess what?  I never won.  But it was still fun.

3.  Jack
This is our dog Jack.  Jack will be ten at the beginning of December.  He's been featured on this blog many times in the past.  I think Jack is very photogenic under the right conditions and light. I really wanted to post this in B&W, because I think his gray hair looks really good with some nice contrast going on, but it just didn't work very well for this shot.

Jack came into our life in February 2005, just before my daughter turned 15.  I went down to a dog groomer's place because my wife said there was a dog there that we might like.  We'd lost our two dogs the succeeding year in a span of just over 3 months.  They had been 13 and 17, so we knew they didn't have much, but to have both of them go in a matter of months was tough.  I didn't want another dog and my wife knew this so she sent me down to reject the dog.  Yeah, right.  Jack stood on the counter, put his paws on my chest and he already knew I was done.  My wife was surprised, but thrilled and immediately fell in love with this small ball of fur the minute he walked over and settled into her lap on the floor of the kitchen.

Jack has been a fun addition to our household and it won't be quite the same when he crosses over the Rainbow Bridge.  Let's hope that doesn't happen for a long time.

4. Boomerang
The end of the year trip for our 8th graders involves a trip to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.  Knott's started out as a small "ghost town" complete with shops and Cordelia Knott's chicken dinner restaurant.  


Eventually, if they were going to compete and be relevant in Southern California, they had to expand to include something a little bit wilder than the Calico Mine Train.  They added a log flume ride.  The first corkscrew roller coaster was built here.  They still don't get nearly as many people as nearby Disneyland does, but they pull in their share of money.

These roller coasters are the really fun part of the park.  They have several that are really good.  Ghostrider is one of the best wooden roller coasters I've ever been on.  Xcelerator shoots you out of the station until you hit a top speed of 82 mph in 2.3 seconds.  205 feet straight up, then up and over and 205 feet straight down.  Then there's Silver Bullet.  Six inversions, while dangling underneath the track.  Boomerang takes you up an incline, then lets you go where you run through two Cobra rolls, then a large loop.  You then get to do them again, backwards.

As I've aged I've noticed, that my body doesn't like what these rides do to it.  It's not nearly as fun as it used to be.  I used to love wooden roller coasters, but about four years ago, Ghostrider banged me around so much that I felt like I'd been in a prize fight after riding it.  This month, I rode Silver Bullet.  I've always enjoyed that ride because it was so smooth.  This time, however, I felt like I'd been squeezed too tightly and I just had to sit down afterwards.  Took about an hour and a half before I felt normal again.  I think I shall leave this type of fun to the younger set from now on and just enjoy the photo opportunities the rides give me.


5.  Take me out to the ballgame.
This past weekend, I went and visited my daughter up in the San José area in Northern California.  Saturday, we decided to watch the San Francisco Giants play ball against the Minnesota Twins. 

Baseball is one of the few games that I think is much better to attend live than to watch on television.  I don't think TV does justice to the American Pastime and I'd much rather go to a game, no matter the weather, than sit at home and watch the same game.  It's so much better live.

AT&T Park is the 7th major league stadium I've been at to see a major league game.  The obvious two are Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium since I grew up in Southern California following both teams, although truth be told, I'm an Angel fan before I'm a Dodger fan.  I've also attended games at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, plus Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.  The Giants play at AT&T now and Jack Murphy Stadium is only used for football games as it's home to the Chargers.  The other two stadiums I've been to don't even exist anymore:  Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia and the Kingdome in Seattle.

Anyway, this game was a close 2-1 affair, with the home team winning.  My middle son was also up visiting, so he also came to the game.  3/5ths of the family was there to enjoy some baseball fun.

That's another month of photo blogging.  I hope you enjoyed this month's installment.  As always, please feel free to comment as I won't bite.  Please stop by P.J.'s to see how other bloggers interpreted Fun.

Now that I'm out of school again, hopefully, I'll pick this back up and not post just monthly updates.  My calendar is pretty booked with all kinds of stuff, but I still should have time to do some blogging over the next couple of months.

Until then.  Happy Trails.

Prime

My wife's "personal shopper" bought her husband a very nice gift for Christmas this year.  In case you haven't been following along for most of these posts, my wife hates to shop.  With the exception of grocery shopping which she won't cede over to me, I do the shopping.  Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, etc., all become my domain.  It works for us.  

Every Christmas and my birthday, we go through the routine.  She asks me what her personal shopper is going to get her husband for Christmas, or his birthday.  Anyway, you get the drift.  I don't mind, as I don't like surprises and it makes it easier in the long run than having her go out and find something that she's not sure whether I'll like or not.

For years, I've been using the kit lens that came with my Sony Alpha.  It's a 28-200 zoom with a 3.8 to 5.6 ƒ-stop.  For those of you who know lens, you can tell it's not a very fast lens, in other words, it doesn't work very well under low light conditions.  The lens I got is a fixed focal lens of 50mm, with a 1.4 ƒ-stop.  It's fast.

After I came home with it, I put it on my camera and I've been testing it out.  It's going to take some time to get used to, that's for sure.  A couple of times, I've pulled the camera up to my face and immediately attempted to zoom in or out.  Nope, can't do that with this lens.  And it's been awhile since I've had a fixed lens on my camera, probably since I was in high school and I had an old Vivitar SLR with a Pentax screw mount lens.  

Zoom lenses make things easier for the average photographer.  You don't have to really think about composition that much, so you just adjust your lens.  With a fixed prime lens, you have to think about things like this, moving yourself within the environment to get the shot you want.  It's a learning curve, not steep, but I figure I'll end up being a better photographer in the process.

So far, I like the lens.  As noted above, it's fast, not just in low light, but it's also very fast with it's response to focus. I was taking shots of a train traveling by and firing off shots as fast as I could.  With the old lens, about 1 in three would be blurry and out of focus because the lens wouldn't respond.  None of the shots I took this week were blurry.

The lens is primarily used as a portrait type of lens.  I haven't used it for that yet unless you count a shot I took of our dog Jack today.  With just some side lighting from a couple of lamps I was able to get a good shot of him as he lay on the couch.  I'll not bore you with the technical stuff, but at least know I shot in ISO 100 with the camera set at ƒ1.4, the widest the lens would be to let the maximum amount of light into the camera.  Very little grain and a nice looking shot over all.

Maybe this will pave the way for me to get more stranger shots.  I've been avoiding those over the past couple of months mainly because I haven't been really pleased with the results I've been getting with my old lens.  Well, I don't have any excuses now.  Wish me luck.

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2013): Festive

Happy New Year.  This being the last day of the year and I have insomnia, it works out well I can put this post out before everyone is up.  We will have our annual New Year's Eve party this evening and I have a hike planned for tomorrow morning.  By the end of the day tomorrow I will probably be exhausted, so I want to make sure this posts for the December Challenge that P.J. put out for this month.  

Festive was the challenge and I had some fun this month taking photos, both with my regular camera as well as my iPad, which I use for my Instagram shots.  The quality isn't quite up to par with my iPad, but I wanted to test it out thoroughly this month.  You'll be able to tell the difference of the two since the Instagram format is square, whereas my regular camera will be more rectangular.  Anyway, here's my five shots for the month of December.

1.   Christmas wreath

When I first started with Instagram, I posted quite a few shots from it on Flicker.  As noted above, I don't think the quality is nearly as good as my regular camera, although there are a couple of images that I've really liked, this one being one of them.  I found this wreath hanging on a gate of a neighbor's house.  It was one of the first signs of Christmas I'd seen, so I wanted to include it here.

I don't really like the way the wreath's bow blends together into a red blob, but I guess that's part of the appeal of Instagram.  Perhaps appeal isn't the right word to use, but it's the best I can come up with for the time being.  The filter I used however, Lo-fi, did a nice job of bringing out the details and textures of the fence the wreath was hanging on so I'll give props for that.

2.  The Spirit of Christmas Present

My parents have an entire Victorian village they put up under their Christmas tree every. Usually one of my nephews who live close to them help put it all together.  Each of the bisque porcelain houses has lights inside them to give it a nighttime glow to it and the set even has the characters from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.  

This Instagram shot, shows Ebeneezer Scrooge encountering the Spirit of Christmas Present who will show him things that are including how life is like in the Cratchett household, who celebrate Christmas the best they can even on the meager salary Scrooge pays his employee Bob Cratchett.

The story reminds us all that what's past is past and no matter how much we'd like to, we can't go back and change things.  We can only move forward and if we have regrets, or things that we'd like to change, we can only do so by changing what we do and say in the future so things will turn out differently.  

My parent's village is always displayed differently every year and it's always a festive addition to their holiday decor, so I've included it here.

3.  The Santa Claus bank


This is a bank that originally sat under my grandparent's Christmas tree in Indiana. My dad was the baby of the family and inherited the bank sometime before his mother passed away in 1961 when I was three years old.

It then became a fixture under our family tree while we were growing up. About 10 years ago, my parents gift wrapped it and gave it to me and it now sits under our tree every year. Some time in the future, one of my three children will inherit it and the cycle will continue.  The bank is probably close to 70 years old.

I've always liked this bank and it gives me a connection to my grandmother, who I never really got to know.  It's a connection to my past, or more importantly, my father's past, one that I am familiar with, but have no memories of, so this gives me some consolation.  The bank also keeps the festiveness going beyond the actual day of Christmas, because it reminds me that even Santa Claus needs to take a day off now and then.

4.  Are you going to give that to me anytime soon?

This is Jack, our dog.  Jack turned 9 years old early in the month, which roughly translates to 63 in people years if you subscribe to the 7 dog years theory.  If this theory holds any water, then Jack is very spry for his age and all I can say about it is I hope I have as much energy as he has when I'm 63.  Of course, Jack also sleeps many hours of the day.  When he's tired, he takes a nap, which I think we should all subscribe to as a regular part of our daily regimen.  I think the world would be a better place if everyone took a nap every single day.  Unfortunately, we can't, but I think it's still a good regimen to follow.

Jack went to the groomers about three days before Christmas and it's our groomers policy to put a bandana on the neck of each of her clients that represents the time of year.  We have bandanas for Jack from every time of year and this particular bandana had a very festive look to it, both in color and style, so it's included here.  He'll wear the bandana for another week or so until it becomes too dirty and then it will have to be removed.  We keep all of the bandanas as keepsakes, so I could probably find another one that's been washed to replace this one after the season is over.

5.  Happy birthday

Christmas Eve is my dad's birthday.  This year, the family celebrated it on the 28th, because it was convenient plus it made it a little easier on everyone since it was also one of those milestone birthdays.  My dad turned 80 a week ago.

We gathered at my sister's house last Saturday to celebrate his life and wish him well.  He was very appreciative of the time we spent with him, both on that day and on all days when we've been able to get together as family, either as a small unit, or a much larger unit as was the case this past weekend.

My sister cooked a couple of pineapple upside down cakes as his birthday cakes for this year.  Both of my sisters and I noted at the time that none of us had ever attempted this type of cake in the past.  It turned out rather well and if dinner hadn't been so good, I might have been tempted to eat a second piece, but I refrained and my waist thanked me for that decision later on.

My uncle (Dad's oldest surviving brother), turned 90 two days before Dad did, so there's some longevity in the family.  My uncle came out here in July for a visit and both of them noted at that time that having a birthday around Christmas isn't a bad thing at all, especially if it's before Christmas.  As my dad said and uncle agreed with, "Everybody's in the giving mood."  I will never get tired of him saying that.

Well, there you have it, another challenge accepted and delivered.  Please comment below and also please check out P.J.'s photos and the link at the bottom of his blog to see other's interpretations of the theme festive.

That's it for this year.  75 posts, which fell a little short of the 100 that I thought I could write when I started this blog two years ago, but still well over the 28 I posted in 2012, so I would call this a success for this year.  I hope to continue with this on a regular basis next year.  Here's hoping you all have a very prosperous and happy 2014.  Thank you all for reading this and for all of your comments.  They are truly appreciated.

Flashback Friday

Photo taken March 28, 2012.  I posted this one for the theme at 365 that week, which was "Creatures."  This is our dog Jack, and although I've taken better photos of him, I really liked his eyes in this one.  These are some of the quotes I found on-line to accompany his photo that day.


"Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe, we are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made."
-Roger Caras

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."
- Unknown

"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear."
-Dave Barry

"The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog."
-George Graham