I Didn't Mean To Exclude the Gentlemen

Males like Christmas, too....

Ladies, Start Your Engines!!!

What does this photo have to do with that title - nothing...I just love the photo..I took it years ago, while driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was a forest fire (very large, frightening fire...lots of wildlife running out into the roads)...and there was a haze over the mountins...I shot this, but when I scanned it the other day, I played a bit. I don't have photoshop, and if I did, I wouldn't know how to use it...this was a "happy accident".....

As to the "Start your engines"...today marked the day after Thanksgiving...this is when I wake up from my groggy naps (been ill), and hit the stores; sneaking in all kinds of holiday goodies...When my husband sees another length of garland on the mantle, he will say, "is that new?", and I will say, "no, we've had it for years" (tried that with a sofa once, didn't work)...

So, tomorrow morning, out it all comes..in all it's glory..my holiday "stuff"...can't wait...Have my camera ready, and, hopefully, barring a terrible relapse (I've had a few)...I'm off and running...

Just finished the leftovers from yesterday's dinner, and back on the diet/wagon again...sigh...

Hope you Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving

Had a bit of a relapse...am hoping this is the end of the three-month saga of the unknown virus....Meantime, I am back to wish ya'll a blessed, happy, safe, loving, yummy Thanksgiving.

Better!!!!

I woke up this morning, and for the first time in nearly two months, nothing hurt! Okay, I had a little, teeny-tiny sore throat and headache, along with the remains of months of muscle pain, but for the most part...I AM BETTER!!! I am so grateful that I am finally (hopefully) over the worst of a terrible virus....I thought about my wonderful friend, Ginna, who didn't get well...I think of her so often. I lost my friend to cancer (please don't smoke) six years ago. I gave her this photograph (framed), that I took and hand-colored to hang by her bed while she was sick. After she passed, I don't know who ended up with it, but I have this, and the memory of a wonderful, funny, woman, who graced my life for many years....Anyway, this is for Ginna.
I entitled this "Ginna's Hat".....so, my chain-smoking, Diet Pepsi guzzling, wize-cracking friend, I hope you are looking down from wherever and saying, "that's enough, Jessica, move on".... I am feeling "romantic", and thought that since I haven't had the energy to photograph much about me these past months, I'd put some of my "Romantic America" photography series I did several years ago. Those were the days, when you shot actual film, in black-and-white, then you sepia-toned it....today, with my wonderful, new digital camera, I can push a button, and "viola", sepia..or black-and-white....never will replace the hand-colored, though...(yes, I know about Photoshop, thankyou)..

"Once I had a farm in Africa"...nope, that was Karen Blixen/Iasic Dennison, I once had a farm in Wisconsin - now, we live in Texas. I had a lovely, 4,000 square-foot garden, which I tended with love. Lot's of flowers, and an apple tree, where I loved to lie under (when I wasn't weeding), reading books, and enjoying a summer that wasn't 107 degrees for months on end. If you double-click on the photo, you will see there is an ant on the apple..for some reason, that delighted me (it doesn't take much, does it)?

I wish I still had this basket...I used to haul around a family of kittens, born in our barn...we had five, and are down to two, fourteen-year old babies...that's how I date this photo...

And then, just like "The Wizard of Oz", it springs to life in "Technicolor"....The quilt is in tatters now (I photographed many babies on it, which meant many washings), and the farm is a distant memory...I've moved on...

And now, it's autumn in Texas (this corn was on the door to my gallery in Wisconsin), and I don't mind the cooler weather a bit. In fact, I might even take a walk today! Happy Fall!!!