Feline Friday

It's that time of the week, and D.K. has consented to a close-up of her gorgeous little face.... Mr. DeMille... She's Ready!

Want to play along?? Put up a picture of the feline of your choice and then pop over to Steven's place, find the entry with the kitty and leave your link!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Horses!

This weeks photo shoot from John over at By the Way is this:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Horses are nice. Show us a horse picture you've taken. It can be new, or one from your files. It just needs to have a horse in it. Donkeys, mules, ponies, zebras, and quagga are also acceptable, and I'll be impressed if you have a picture of a quagga in your files, being that they've been extinct for 125 years and all.

HA! This one at least is an easy one! The hard part for me is picking just one picture.... So I didn't. First pic here is of Boo playing 'Hide and Seek' in the trees. I've been playing with getting pictures of him and his pasture mate under the trees. The shadow play makes for interesting compositions.

The second picture I chose just because I liked the expression on his face.

Both of these pictures were taken on Sunday afternoon, before I even knew about this weeks subject. I also took pictures of the other 5 horses I have here. Why? Because I gave them all baths and I wanted photographic evidence of them being clean. See, with horses, if you want a picture of them all sparkling clean you have to be fast because at the very first opportunity they are going to roll in the sand and not be clean anymore! {LOL}

Why not play along? I'm sure you have an equine picture someplace! Pop it up and then leave a link HERE so we can all take a look!

Feline Friday

Today is Friday.... And today we have D.K. resting from last weeks workout! Actually, are we starting to see a pattern here? D.K. feels that sleeping should be an Olympic Sport... at least for Cats!

As always, if you want to play along... Post a kitty pic and drop your link over at (sometimes)Photoblog!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Color Opposites

John over at By The Way came up with a little different Photo Shoot Challenge for this week:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Color Opposites

This week's photo shoot will be a study in opposites:
Your Monday Photo Shoot: Post a picture that focuses on the contrast between two opposing colors. What colors are opposites? Green and red are opposites, as are blue and yellow, and orange and purple. So a picture that has something purple in front of something orange would work, or a picture that features blue and yellow in alternating stripes. The subject of the pictures could be anything you like -- but there have to be opposing colors in there.

I spent the first 3 days of the week trying to figure out what to use. I finally decided on Black & White. My original concept was a shot of my horse, Boo, and his pasture mate (who happens to be white)... unfortunately I got NO co-operation from the pair of them. LOL! So, instead you get a picture from my archives.

I just love carousel animals and will spend quite a bit of time anytime I find a carousel getting pics of the different figures. This little BLACK & WHITE zebra is one of many exotic animals featured on a local carousel. The hardest part of taking carousel pics?? Finding shots without children in them! Apparently I'm not the only one who likes carousels.

Air Morgie

Morgan hasn't been too happy lately that I've done -2- Feline Fridays with pictures of DK and not a Corgi picture to be found. To make up for that, today I give you Air Morgie!

 

This is something new that Morgan has just learned to do. She's been fetching since she was a little girl, but always the we throw/she chases/she picks up/she brings back scenario.... She's VERY proud of herself that she can now catch stuff midair.

I'll leave you to guess at how many pictures I took to get a few good pictures of her in mid-air.... Lets just say that 1. She doesn't catch it every time as she just learned to do this. and 2. Her Daddy doesn't always throw said squeakie so it crosses in front of where I was set up to take the picture <g>

And, just for good measure, we leave you with an Air Morgie Montage!

Viva la VIVI

Well, it looks like we are having the VIVI's again this year thanks to Jackie over at Hope Floats! She has set up a special Journal, 2006 VIVI AWARDS, and is getting everything organized for what will surely be a fun time. This year the awards are being dedicated to Pam, who holds a special place in this community and in many of our hearts!

The VIVI's are a community project and, besides giving some recognition to some outstanding journals, is a whole lot of fun. Last year I found soooo many new Journals to read. This is a semi-problem as I already spend waaaaay too much time reading and not enough time posting <LOL> Right now they are looking for people to submit links from their favorite journals so people can get a chance to look at them. So, get over there, submit some links and find some amazing new people to read.....

Oh, and just a suggestion.... If you don't already use something like Bloglines, or MyAOL, or some other feed aggregator..... you might want to get one, your reading list is about to go thru the roof <eg>

Feline Friday

Today is Friday, and I offer up D.K. doing.... This....

I don't even know what to say other than at least I didn't put bacon on her! <g>

If you want to play along, put up a picture in your blog and drop the url here!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Profiles

This week over at By the Way John offers up the following challenge:

For this week's photo shoot I thought we might try something striking yet simple:
Your Monday Photo Shoot: Get a picture of someone in profile. Could be you, a family member, a friend, a pet -- just as long as we see their face, from the side.

I had several nice 'profiles', but ultimately decided on this little guy...

He is a Great Horned Owl.... for some more info on Great Horned Owls, click here... or go over to National Geographic and check out the great pic they have over there.

Want to play along?? Find a picture, load it up and get over to Scalzi's place and post the link in the comments section.

Weekend Assign#128: 9/11 -- Five Years Later

I wasn't sure that I wanted to do this weeks assignment from John over at By The Way. But, here I am.....

Weekend Assignment #128: Share your thoughts about 9/11. You can remember back on what you were doing on the day or give some thought to how we think about it today. Thoughts personal, political or philosophical are all up for consideration. Tell us all what you think about when you think about September 11, 2001.
No extra credit this week; thinking about 9/11 should be enough to keep us all occupied. Write it up in your Journal or Blog, and then come back here and leave a link, so we can all share our thoughts together.

Five years ago I was in my second year of my first tour with the circus. Those of us on the pre-set up crew had pulled in the day before and set up all of the animal areas. Some of my animals traveled over the road with me instead of on the train, so I had already gotten them tucked in to their tent the night before. For some reason the load-in had been a long one, and we were all tired that night when we headed off to the hotels to get a little sleep before the arrival of the train the next day with the rest of the animals and all of the other people.

The animal walk had been scheduled as an early morning walk on the 11th and the plan was to stick as close to our time frame as possible since we were to take a detour up thru downtown Memphis stopping at a park for a little PR that had been set up. For some reason G and I did not turn on the TV that morning before heading over to the parking lot of the Pyramid. Normally we would have had the TV on for noise and a quick check of the weather. Maybe it was because we had been really tired the night before, but we got up just a few minutes before we needed to walk out the door.

Arriving at the lot, I didn't notice anything unusual, and as G went off to check and make sure the train was still on schedule, I wandered over to the tent where I already had my zebras and Freisians installed. Opening up the flap I was greeted with the normal sounds of an early morning barn anywhere..... Animals asking to be fed.. NOW!

Quickly handing out breakfast rations, I wondered at G not returning to tell me if the train was on time or late.... Late was often the norm, and I was considering a trip to a nearby McD or other facsimile thereof for breakfast for myself...

How quickly a normal routine can be completely disrupted... entering the elephant tent I was greeted with the news of the first plane hitting the towers.... we were still digesting this and considering how the pilot could have made such a tragic error when the supervisor, whose trailer was on the lot, came back out the door and told us of the second plane.... and that it was now being considered an attack.

We stood around wondering what to do.... and possibly a little selfishly... how it would affect us and getting our animals off of the train and into their more normal accomodations. The rest of the day is a little of a blur.

 The animal walk went from a triumphant entry and parade thru the streets with children in a park laughing and clapping to a quick walk the shortest way we could find to get to the lot. The people running the pyramid where worried because, as you can see from the photo here, this building would be easily recognizable from the air. We were told that we could not load in the rest of our show that day as planned, and they weren't sure if we would be allowed to do the shows at all.... there was talk of breaking down tents and moving them farther away from the building... and whether we would be a good (read high profile) target for a terrorist group ourselves. No one knew for sure what was happening and there was fear of other attacks....

After getting all of the animals settled in, we found ourselves without the normal load-in we were expecting.... and slowly we all trickled back to the train and TV sets where we all tuned in to local channels and watched the crash over and over again. Phone calls made to be sure people we knew on other shows were o.k.... One person had left that morning to fly out to FL, but thankfully, her flight was cancelled before she got on it and she returned to the lot, shaken but at least not stranded somewhere! I phoned my brother (who's in the Navy) and we talked about if he could be called up for this...Some people gathered outside the train with TVs brought outside and connected to sattelite TV set ups that people had (DISH, DirectTV?? I don't remember) so we could watch CNN and other news channels. Ultimately it just seemed surrealistic. Everyone just seemed stunned by the whole thing. Many of the people with us weren't U.S. citizens, and some time was spent explaining to them and trying to translate news.

But, life did go on... They allowed us in the building early the next day and we were able to get inside and with a lot of hard work have the show ready for the first scheduled show of the stand.... But, nothing would ever be the same.

So, that's where I was the day we were attacked..... and, I'm sure I'll never forget how sad, angry, upset, confused and lost I felt that day. I remember my mother's generation always knowing exactly what they were doing the day JFK was shot, my grandmother's was Pearl Harbor... this will be one of those moments for our generation.

note: I wrote this in one sitting... just typing. when I went back and reread it,  I realized that it is a little jumbled... but that is how I remember that day.. Jumbled and confused. I thought about going back and clarifying and cleaning it up, but then it wouldn't be as I remember, would it?

What?!?

I was over snapping pictures of something totally different when I glanced up and snapped this pic of Boo. He had been eating his hay, but when I turned towards him he looked up as if to say, "Whaaa? You got a problem? I'm eating here!" Yep, we have a theme going here... all of my animals are tired of Mom snapping pictures of them all of the time. The shot isn't good because of the shadows at that time of day, but I liked his expression.... Oh, and the shot I was actually after... Nope, didn't get it {LOL}

Feline Friday

For some reason since my return to the 'cyberworld' I haven't been able to figure out what to write about here. It's funny but during my forced absence from J-land and Blogger, I kept thinking of things I would like to blog about and what I would say if I was able to get online... but, once I again had the ability, I've been drawing a blank. It's not that I don't have anything in my "Possible Blog Entries" folder... I think maybe that I have too many things and just don't know where to start... or maybe I'm just out of the habit. Sooooo..... I decided I should just start doing some of the weekly 'assignment' type things out there. Maybe if I start getting back into the habit of posting I'll again find my Muse :P

So, with that in mind, I offer up the following picture of my cat D.K. for the Feline Friday entries over at (sometimes)photoblog. If you want to play along, just put up a kitty picture and drop over there and leave your link! Easy, Huh?

 Discovering D.K. all stretched out and asleep in the middle of the bed, I grabbed my camera to get a picture.... She woke up and seems to be asking, "Can I help you?"