Why I Do What I Do

I wake in the wee hours of the morning on most days.  For the past two days that time has been 4 a.m.   There is so much that I need and want to do.  There never seems to be enough time to do all the things that swirl through my mind.  I have been this way as long as I can remember.  Had I been born in this time I would probably have been put on medication.  My aunt told me that the first time she met me was when I was 3 years old.  She said I was the most "active" kid she had ever seen.  I have not outgrown it.  I think I drive my husband crazy (he is the most laid back person I know) in that I can not just sit.  I find it hard to even sit and read.  I must be doing something with my hands and mind.  I guess that is why I have this blog, why I write stuff, why I take so many pictures....why I do all the things I do. It isn't that I am trying to impress anyone or sell anything.  It is just a way of keeping the dark clouds away from my world.  I recently watched a documentary about the Roosevelts and it told of how Teddy was always doing something.  It was his way of fighting off depression.  Perhaps, all of the things I do are my way of fighting it off.  When I sit, I start to feel the darkness of it creep upon me.  I am in no way a person with the talents of Teddy Roosevelt but the story did touch a place in me and help me to understand why I do what I do.

Crater Lake National Park Oregon is an amazingly beautiful place.  This is the sight which took my breath away as we stopped at the first pullover overlooking the lake.  I had never seen such blue water before.  I'm no professional, I do not claim to even be a good amateur photographer but I love taking pictures and sharing them with others.  I took so many pictures and have barely had time to sort through the first couple of days.  I hope to have many more to share soon.

 

Looking out at Wizard Island

 

Crater Lake view from the north rim

 

Clark's nutcracker nestled among the pine branches

 

The bright green moss grows on the rocks and trees 

around the lake.  One man ask "did you ever see anything so green?"

 

This formation is called Pumice Castle. It is the only formation of its kind at Crater Lake.

This is what the information sign at the turnout has to say about Pumice Castle:
Mount Mazama, the great volcano that preceded Crater Lake, was built up by successive eruptions of lava over many thousands of years. Some lavas oozed or poured from the volcano’s top or sides. Some erupted as red-hot rocks that flooded down the slopes. Others exploded into the air and fell as cinders or globs.

You can see the variety of Mt. Mazama’s lavas on the steep caldera wall. Pumice Castle, with its pinkish-brown “turrets,” is the most eye-catching feature. It’s made of layers of pumice and other rocks coughed up by Mt. Mazama – some so hot they welded welded together. These air fall deposits were buried and compacted by other lavas, then exposed when Mt. Mazama collapsed. A firm foundation of andesite lava has kept Pumice Castle intact, while surrounding pumice deposits have eroded away.
Mt. Mazama is classified as a composite volcano, a cone built up by lava flows interspersed with air fall deposits. Pumice Castle is made of air fall pumice that was laid down while Mt. Mazama was still growing. http://www.nationalparksblog.com/pumice-castle-crater-lake-national-park/

 

These dead trees stripped of all life make interesting

natural sculptures throughout Crater Lake Park

Monarch Butterfly

I tried to capture this beautiful Monarch with its wings spread 

but was never able to accomplish that task.

Sunsets At The Farm

I love going to the farm and watching the sunsets

every evening.  You can watch the sky change so quickly from

bright yellows and oranges.....

to the most awesome cloud formations....

to beautiful calm pinks, blues and yellows .....

it is one of my favorite places to watch the sunset.

"I believe that if one always

 looked at the skies, 

one would end up with wings."  

Gustave Flaubert

Rusty Old Car

The charging ram hood ornament on the 1949 Dodge speaks of power and freedom that once carried a family down the open road to visit grandma.  She now sits slowly sinking into the world around her.  I wonder what color she was in her prime for there is not a speck of paint anywhere to be found. All that is left of the seat cushions are rusty springs.  Trees now hold the trunk tightly closed.  The chrome handles and key covers are all that have not given way to the elements....it must have been really good chrome back then.

Every time I see this rusty old car at the farm, the flat tire scene from “A Christmas Story” pops into my mind.  In the backseat are three, not two, boys whose ages are all less than six years apart.  They are spitting at each other, pinching and giving the knuckle punch to the bicep area.  Dad is in the front seat saying a few choice words about their behavior and telling them if it doesn’t stop “your going to get it when we get home”.  Mom is sitting there with the smile of Ralphie’s mom thinking “my little darlings, oh how cute you are”.

The parents are smoking away – Dad has his pipe and Mom her cigarettes.  The air is so thick with smoke that the boys have rolled the windows completely down even though it is winter and the freezing air makes them shiver even though they are wearing their plaid wool coats and leather bombers hats with the earmuffs turned down over their ears.  Perhaps, that is why none of them ever smoked.

There were no seatbelts, no automatic or childproof door locks, no DVD players, and no video games to entertain the restless energy of three young boys.  There was only teasing, taunting, and road games.  We used to play all kinds of games to pass the time like -- who could spot the first black cow or John Deere tractor.  When we played those games we looked out the window and we observed the world around us. When our parents had enough of our acting up, we learned to sit quietly and just entertain ourselves by counting fence posts or making faces at each other. We saw how other people lived. We watched people at work and at play.  We saw poverty and prosperity.  We saw all the seasons change.  We saw nature at its best and worst.  We saw life as we traveled over the miles.  We went to visit relatives, the State Fair, to sell eggs in town, to church, to funerals and shopping the weekend before Christmas.  Shopping then was for necessity not for entertainment for most people.

Kids today miss so much with all their gadgets that parents buy to keep them quiet.  They miss life.  They miss family connection.  The teasing, the being picked on and the conversations of a road trip are what I remember now.  I guess what they will have to remember will be the high score of some game or a song from some movie playing on the player built into the back seat….. if you have more than one kid,  you get each a player so each can watch what they want with earbuds pushed into their heads so they can isolate themselves and not have to be tolerant of others or share anything.

So I wonder, with all our technology are we just creating generations of “me” people who will only know what is important to them?  Will they learn about life by observing it or will they only live in their world of getting what they want all the time?  I will take my childhood in an old car without seatbelts, DVD players and gadgets any day over the way things are now.  I hope society doesn’t wake up some day and say….. “Oops we really messed up”.

 ...........

"The trouble with so many of us is that we underestimate the power of simplicity.

We have a tendency it seems to over complicate our lives and forget 

what's important and what's not.  We tend to mistake movement for achievement.

We tend to focus on activites instead of results.

And as the pace of life continues to race along in the outside world,

we forget that we have the power to control our lives

regardless of what's going on outside."

Unknown, posted of Positively Positive's Facebook page

Sunrise Matagorda, Texas

"There are only two ways

to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though 

everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

Playing With Camera

I decided to do a little scientific test today.  Well, maybe just a little experiment with cameras.  I have been having a discussion with my husband about the camera he bought me two years ago for Christmas.  I kept saying a camera that cost what he paid -- even after I told him I didn't want it -- should take better close-up pictures without me having to crop out what I want.  He said I must be doing something wrong.

 I have talked to customer service people who were very nice and helpful, but I was still very disappointed in what I was able to do.  Then my brother showed me his little pocket camera.  He showed me how it zoomed in and I was sold.  When I got home I went on Amazon and did some shopping.  I did find one very interesting thing.  A black camera in the model I wanted cost almost a hundred dollars less than an emerald green one.  They were both exactly the same except for color.  I would use an orange one if it cost less.  So if you are shopping on Amazon check out the prices for different colors; you might be as shocked as I was.  I also have my brother to thank of that piece of information so I thought I would pass it on.

Anyway, back to my experiment. I set up the tripod so every picture would be taken from the same spot.  Then I sat this little frog out on the wall.  This first picture was taken with a Kodak Z980.  25X zoom.  I bought this camera about five years ago. It was an ok camera but uses 4 AA batteries and the images in the viewfinder are not as crisp as what the actual picture is, but I have taken some great pictures with it.

 This photo was taken with a Canon Rebel at 

300mm zoom on automatic.  It is a great camera and 

I have taken thousands of pictures with it. 

Almost all the pictures I have posted

here and on Facebook were taken with it.

The battery is expensive but holds a charge for a long time.

It is an inconvenience to have to carry a bag

 around with the telephoto lens....

This photo was taken with my new Canon Powershot SX260HS

 It is listed as 20X Optical Zoom but combined zoom is 80X. 

 This is full zoom (80X) on Easy setting  

which it says is good for even beginners.....

 I have been blown away with what

 this little pocket camera can do.

I have only taken a few pictures but

I can see that this camera 

will be the one that goes with me everywhere.

I used this little fish also to do the test.

My grandson who is now a senior 

in high school gave it to me when he was three.

It is beautiful swimming in the sea of grass.

"It seems to me we can never give up longing

and wishing while we are thoroughly alive.

there are certain things we feel to be

beautiful and good, and we

hunger after them."

George Eliot