Blossoms - Does that mean it is SPRING? :)

Hi All :)

Hope you all had a Lovely Weekend :)

Last Sunday I took a few Photographs of the gorgeous Blossom Trees that are in full bloom right now here in P.Town and I wanted to share them with you here on my blog :)

( For those of you who kindly follow my Facebook page you many have seen some of these already but definitely worth  another 
look :)

(Esp. as the weather has turned cold and rainy and windy again :(

It was the perfect day :)

The Blossoms were full :)

The sun radiating and lighting up the petals :)

Fun shots playing around with background shadows and light :)

Such pretty flowers :)

And a blue sky :)

A hint of blue sky thru the mass of white beauty :)

So abundant :)

The white contrasting against the blue sky :)

What a pretty driveway :)

This is one of my favs. of the weekend, top one is SOOC and the one below is cropped and I took away the heaviness of the branch :)

Which do you prefer???

Also, With Spring comes my half yearly sale (sound like Nordies don't I, lol :) in my Etsy Shop; Just in time for Mother's Day in the U.S.A. and with over 100 Photos of Lovely Flowers at 40% off; Give your Mom the Gift of Beautiful Flower Photos that will last 

forever :)

(and with more than 300 photos in my ETSY SHOP, there are some cool ones for Dad's too :)

Have a lovely day :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Happy Friday :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are all well and are experiencing some Sunshine; we have had 3 days of sun here in the P.Town around and are giddy, we are breaking out the shorts and sun screen, LOL! :)

Beautiful Flowers on the grounds of our hotel in San Diego :)

Well, I was on vaca in San Diego for my B.Day last week and had lots of wonderful sunshine and swimming in the outdoor pool; Oh, a dream for this P.N. Westerner, esp. as it snowed and poured with rain in Portland while we were away.

My Hubby literally had to drag me on to the plane to get me to leave, LOL! :)

But, sadly all good things have to come to an end and then I came home to a diagnosis of Glaucoma, which on top of everything else I am dealing with healthwise was not what I needed to hear esp. after having such a wonderful week last week and finally recovered from my last CFS/Fibro relapse :(

So, have been trying to process that all week. :(

But today is my Son's B.Day and so I am going to take him and my Daughter out for lunch, hang out in the sunshine and have a few drinks! :)

So, Cheers to everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful Weekend!

Take Care, my Friends! :)

I will post some of the lovely photos I took in San Diego next week :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

My Year in Photos :)

Good Morning Everyone! :)

I hope you are all well :)

In 2011, I took over 12,000 photos with my Nikon D90 camera! I uploaded them and then didn't have time to go thru and look at all of them. Over the past few weeks I have been looking at them and found so many that I wanted to share with you. Last year I shared 2 previously unpublished photos for each month of the year on my blog and I thought it would be fun to do that again this year! :)  It was really hard to keep it to just 2 photos for every month of the year, but here is my 2011 year in photos.

I hope you enjoy them :)

JANUARY

Click on photos to see larger images :)

Sunset over Willamette Falls New Year's Day 2011 (SOOC)

Sunset ove the Willamette River New Year's Day 2011 (I love how the light just catches parts of the railway tracks) (SOOC)

FEBRUARY

Coastal Range approx. 100 miles away (shot taken thru the window in my Dining Rm.) (SOOC)

The glow of a Wintry Southern Evening Sky shot thru my office window (SOOC)

MARCH

Magnolia's at the Crystal Springs "Rhoddie Gardens" Portland Oregon. (SOOC)

Goose on a Mission (SOOC)

APRIL

Magnolia in my Garden :)

Easter Bonnets in the window of John Helmer Haberdasher, Portland Oregon.

MAY

Red Tulips in my Garden

Beautiful Rose, taken as I was driving around a neighbourhood

JUNE

Lovely Peach Iris in my garden :)

One of my "Babies" I really am crazy in love with my Poppies :) (SOOC)

JULY

Stars and Stripes on the 4th of July to honour at a local Cemetery.

It isn't everyday you see Vultures on the roof of a suburban neighbours house, well, not the feathered variety anyway (He! He!) (SOOC)

AUGUST

Flowers in pots in my front garden :)

Surfers on the Oregon Coast, the one and only day I went to the Oregon coast last year, but it was a great time, I went with my son before he went back to college and we sat and watched these guys for nearly 2 hours :) (SOOC)

SEPTEMBER

Rows of Grape Vines in Napa Valley, in the California Sunshine :) (SOOC)

Grapes on the Vines in Napa Valley, great reminder of our lovely vacation :) (SOOC)

OCTOBER

Then the leaves start to change colours, so prettily :)

Fall Leaves, Lake Oswego, Oregon :)

NOVEMBER

Fall Leaves, Portland Oregon

Fall Leaves West Linn, Oregon

DECEMBER

This sign was originally "the White Stag" sign, then the "Made in Oregon" sign and now it is proudly displaying the University of Oregon colours as they have a campus in that building. It is a huge part of the Portland historical landscape and every year over the Holiday Season the Stag's nose is lit in RED :) (SOOC)

Light display in a restaurant we went to over the holidays to celebrate with our whole family together :)

I tried to do more SOOC (straight out of camera) shots this year and it is an interesting challenge when you are taking the photo to know that you are not going to be colour enhancing or adding bits or taking away anything. It is a fun aspect to photography for me. After spending 2010 learning how to alter photos, it felt more like using a film camera, what you take is what you get kind of thing.

I really am enjoying my photographic journey and I truly appreciate you coming along for the ride, cheers, T. :)

 Don't forget to enter my Blog Giveaway to win this lovely

11 x 14 Photo of The Golden Gate Bridge :)

Hope you all have a wonderful Day! :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Is it Summer Yet?!?!?!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I know most of North America is sweltering but here in the Pacific Northwest we are still waiting for the Summer to start, we were teased with some unusually nice weather over the 4th July Holiday Weekend and then it has been very gloomy ever since. :(

Anyway before you ask, No, I haven't been in the witness protection programme or travelling the world taking stunning photos (in my dreams :)

What I have been doing is going on a little vaca, where, believe it or not, My Hubby and I ended up having a rather heated argument with some really rude, noisy, inconsiderate neighbouring guests and then the equally rude inconsiderate B. & B. owners and having to move from where we had been staying and looking for somewhere else to stay at Midnight, Oh Joy! Actually, once we had calmed down, it was a much nicer location! Whew! Disaster averted! And no lives were lost, YAY!

As with most Summers, the population of our home rises and falls with the tides. One Son was leaving as the other was returning from college and interim visits from their sister to celebrate B.Day etc., has kept me busy with the very exciting chores of lots of laundry, cleaning and cooking :)

Although, everyone helped with the cooking, so some great family meals with lots of conversations, fun and consumption of wonderful wines made for lovely memories. :)

People refer to us as "Empty Nesters" but I do not see anything empty about this nest, yet! (He! He!)

Anyway, in amongst the fun and games of teaching my Son to cook before he returns to college, of course he has the basics down, like picking up the phone to order pizza or chinese food, making mac and cheese, mash potatoes and walk across the street to the 24 hours Taco Bell (He! He!) I have actually managed to take a few photos, so before I forget and go back into the witness protection programme, I thought you might like to see some of them :)

Click on the photos to see larger images :)

Mauve Rose from my Garden :)

Fuchsias (hanging basket in my garden) SOOC

Birds on a Wire, I have been wanting to take a shot like this for a long time :)

Poppies (SOOC)

Lovely Rose, in my garden (SOOC)

Snowball Bush in my garden :)

Wishes

Fireworks

Swinging At The Fair :)

Snowball Bush, with a little colour change :)

Wisteria in my garden (SOOC)

Aster in my garden (SOOC)

Poppies in Southern Oregon (SOOC)

Peony in my Garden :)

More Birds on Wires as the Sunsets :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful Summer and staying cool :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.