A-Z Begins and "A" poem

I'm so happy it's April. It gives me an excuse to blog regularly, and I LOVED A-Z last year. I made so many new friends and found some awesome blogs. I'll be continuing the writing theme this year. Though I may insert some photography this year too. Which I hope is fun for you all and will spare a bit of reading for those who are trying to get through a lot of blogs this month. I might keep my posts shorter this year, but we will see what happens. I guess it depends on the letter. A, for example, is going to be short and not-so-sweet.

I guess I should have started by giving some sort of introduction for those who are new to my blog, but I think that you all will get to know me by the end anyway. So, my name is Marjorie and this is my post for "A".

Anger
A moment in time clothed in red,
A heated face and narrowed eyes,
Stomach clenched and bared teeth,
A sinking heart and underneath,
The grasping claws and pain of hatred!

An Afternoon in the Mountains Plus Artist's Perspective

I often post pictures of the mountains from down here in the valley. The truth is I rarely get to go up into them. It is worth it when I do get to go up, because it is absolutely amazing up there. There are more trees and it is considerably cooler. There is even a teeny tiny town situated at the top. There is a gift shop up there that sells the best fudge ever!

The downside is that it takes SO long to get even to the foothills. Once in the foothills there are the previously mentioned giant houses you have to get past before you can really enjoy the view. Overall, I love it when I get to go, and this past weekend I got my chance.

It was the plan all week. When Saturday came I was let down by the heavy haze covering the city. It made the distant view of the mountains unclear, and I was actually fretting that it would mess with my ability to get the kind of photos I wanted. I decided that I would just have to deal with the conditions as they were. It was my only day to get up there.

As I got into the mountains I had hoped that the haze would just be above the city and that it wouldn't permeate the mountain atmosphere. I was wrong. Nevertheless, I was determined to get some good photos. Maybe I would have gotten better photographs if not for the haze, BUT there really is no use thinking about that when what I did get was pretty awesome.

This, for example, is my favorite!



I also like this one a lot.



Those types of photos are nice, and I was happy with them, but my true purpose in going was to have a new and interesting environment for experimentation. I wanted to play around with mood, perspective and movement. In order to illustrate how I did this I will first post a photo in which you can tell exactly what is going on. The next will be the experiment in mood and movement.

This first two are really the only ones where both are experiments, but keep in mind I was in the same location for both. The first it is easy to tell what is going on. The second is only an impression. I think they both work, but that's just me, the artist, speaking.







These next two I did while chasing the sun on its way down.






These two I think are the last I will show you of this trip.







NOTE: I have sometimes used photos from the internet in the past and also may in the future. That being said, all photos I have taken myself are, in fact, my property and may not be used without my express permission.

Creepy houses, Dumb dogs, Cute babies

I figured I should just go ahead and post even though I really don't have many events going on right now. So I just picked three random events that happened lately and that is what I am blogging about today.

Creepy Houses and Dumb Dogs

So I went for a walk the other day because I hadn't been out of the house in forever and the kids were driving me to distraction. I thought it might be a good idea to bring the dog. It wasn't. I brought my camera thinking that if I saw anything I found interesting I could take a picture.

At the very first step out the door my dog decided that today was not his day to behave on the leash. He tried to drag me down the street. The more I tried to get him to behave the more he decided that he was not going to behave. He wanted to visit every single dog that lived on the street despite the fact that about half of them would have eaten him for dinner if there hadn't been fences in the way. Once I did get him under control enough to be able to take photos I was so flustered that I wondered why I thought that taking him would make for a relaxing walk.



On the up side (if I can call it that) I got this photo of a house that I thought was really creepy in an Amityville Horror Type of way. Don't ask me why, but the photo (I don't think)displays just how eerie the atmosphere was around the yard. Even though the house is clearly lived in.



Cute Babies

The A few days ago my second daughter had a birthday. We had her baby cousin over who also has a birthday in March. She really enjoyed the cupcake.



Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of my two year old because two cute babies are better than one.

What can the rich afford?

I was up on the very far Northern side of town the other day. Since that is the part of town nearest the mountains I brought my camera. The intent was to take some pictures of the mountains up close. That's exactly what I did despite this sign.



Really? I'm not allowed to stop, park or stand in that spot on that road. And the street had those signs down both sides of the road every several feet. Seriously.

I must now add that this particular area is known to all as where the VERY rich live. Now I'm happy for the people who are fortunate enough to be rich or to have gotten rich. But do they really need a million signs on their street trying to keep the common rabble (like me) from even stopping or standing on their very privileged street? I'm sure they can afford decent security systems so a person standing doesn't seem like much of a threat to this castle-like structure.



Or these giant houses.



Which brings me to the next thing the very rich can afford. To employ these



So they can ruin these



for the not so rich.