Do you ever see faces in rocks? The alphabet in landscapes? Spaces that look like they could be portals into another dimension? Me too. Merry Xmas! Happy Holidays! Be Happy! I'm happily linking up with ABC Wednesday. Please click here to check out the other participants and/or to join in.  Thank you, ABCW Team !

  This is the last photo I took of the ever vibrant Mama gazing directly at me. This was back in March when the Asian pear tree behind her was beginning to bloom. I discovered the photo this morning when I was looking for something to share at  Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills. The photo fulfills the prompts for this week: 1) Starts with V  2) Week's Favorite  3) Thankful I'm thankful that I have a photo of the oh-so-vital Mama. A couple weeks after this photo was taken, her body, as her doctor put it, finally hit the wall. It no longer was able to compensate after her 94 years of living. There's much for me to be thankful when it comes to the Mama. Most of all, I am thankful that the Mama was my mama.   Click here to visit Eden Hills and the other participants of this week's Friday's Hunt.  

Yesterday afternoon, the Husband and I safely exited the highway onto a road that led us briefly through a magical eucalyptus forest. We zigged and zagged up hill and down dale along vaguely familiar roads to a small town where an artisan's holiday fair was happening. Shall we turn left or right? One way or the other we'd find our destination. We could've taken the direct route. But, where's the fun in that? We wouldn't have come across two young deer quietly and delicately making their way up a hillside. It was almost like they were holding their breath as they walked. Were they afraid we would see them? The Husband stopped the car and opened his window so I could quickly take a photo of the young deer. It wasn't until I was fiddling with this photo that I noticed a creature in the brush above him. At first I thought it was a bobcat or a coyote. Would the deer have gone so slowly if it was either creature?  It turned out it was another deer. I'

Nature is uplifting. Full of grace. Unconditional love. This photo (my favorite this week) is my contribution to Friday's Hunt hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills.  Her weekly meme asks participants to share photos to three prompts.  The prompts this week are:  1) Starts with U  2) Week's Favorite  3) Nature To join in (it's open until Sunday evening) and/or to check out other participants, click here .

Bones Approaching DOOM The Husband suggested that title for the photo. It has a nice ring, don't you think? Back to the picture. Imagine that the bones are wearing cowboy spurs. Imagine, now, that the bones are walking towards the ribbon of red. Jhing. Jhing. Jhing.  Doesn't it seem that the bones might also be wearing a poncho similar to the one Clint Eastwood's character wore in the Italian western movies once upon a time? That photo above is my edited version of the photo below that I took yesterday at the Day of the Dead procession in our county. I took a lot of photos. As always. My thought was to clean some up in Photoshop and share them at my other blog. Well, I didn't get pass this photo. I blame it on the skeleton (on the left) for holding up its arm in such a way that I thought it would be fun to contrast the bones with the feathers on the headdresses. You know how that goes. The creative brain cell kicked in and dismissed the practical sense of

The clouds last Saturday were simply amazing. I saw various shapes floating through the sky. This spectacular cloud reminded me of an animal. I just can't figure what kind.  See its little ears sticking up, its eye, and its snout. What do you think? This photo (my favorite this week) is my contribution to Friday's Hunt hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills.  Her weekly meme asks participants to share photos to three prompts.  The prompts this week are:  1) Starts with S  2) Week's Favorite  3) Amazing To check out what others are sharing and/or to join in the fun, please here .   

The cues: 1) Starts with R   2) Week's favorite   3) Black and/or orange Raindrops grace a bare rose plant in the front yard. Leaves turn color on it, too.  Click. That's my favorite shot to share in this week's Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills. Click here to see what other participants have posted. 

Late Friday night, we had our first rain. I don't think it rained too long, but it was enough to give us that shiny wetness the next morning. As I'm writing, I hear the plunkity-plunk of the rain on some part of the roof,  the swissshhhh! of water as cars drive by, and the general gentle fall of the rain.  This is our first rainfall since May. Hurrah! I'm linking up today with All Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by blogger friend Jeanette. Click here to check out her post and the link that leads other participants in the meme. You have until Wednesday, if you'd like to join in.

This week's prompts are:  1) Starts with P   2) Week's favorite   3) Whole My knees have been a hindrance this week, which means I haven't taken any photos. So I've chosen a photo I took a few weeks ago when the Husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Our present to each other was a soaring adventure! We each experienced a whole ride to ourselves in the glider plane.  It was a spectacular ride lasting about 35 or so minutes. In case it's not clear, P is for plane — the towing plane (the one at the bottom in the photo) and glider plane.  Heading into the sky is the Husband. It was a whole lot of fun!  Wheeeeeeeeeee! Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . Click here to check out other participants. Or, to join the fun.

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with O  2) Week's Favorite  3) Eyes Don't you think this tree's "eyes" look owlish? Ha-ha! O for owlish. O is also for opposite. On the opposite side of this tree is young growth. Very cool, which is why this photo is my week's favorite. Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here .

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with M  2) Week's Favorite  3) Work M is for marriage . The Husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage on Friday by taking a glider ride.  M is also for more than a mile up into the sky, which is how high up we went.  The Husband and I each soared individually with Pilot Bill. The Husband flew to the west, while I flew to the east. I took lots and lots of photos. One of my favorite photos is the one of the little plane hard at work towing us in the sailplane towards the mountain ridge. When we got just above the ridge, Pilot Bill pressed a button to release the rope. Voila! We were sailing on the air at the greatest of ease. I loved it! Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here .

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with J   2) Week's Favorite   3) Surprise J is for jaunt, which is what the Husband and I took last Saturday. We went over hills and down dales, around curves and straightways, and along creeks and through forests. Our goal was to purchase tomatoes at the u-pick-your-own organic farm in Santa Cruz County. It took longer to get there than to pick the nearly 50 pounds of tomatoes, of which most are now in the freezer waiting their turn to be part of some delicious recipe in the winter and spring. I simply wash the tomatoes, let them dry, pack them in bags, and freeze them. When it's time to use them, I put them straight in the pot to melt into the other ingredients. No fuss, no muss. That said, you would think my favorite photo this week would be of the tomatoes, the tomato fields, or the Husband frolicking through the fields picking tomatoes. Nope. I was to busy plucking the juicy fruit myself to think of clicking away. My favorit

The cues for Friday's Hunt this week are: 1. Starts with I   2. Week's favorite   3. Pink So, here's my week's favorite picture: The pink-faced Husband quickly inserting himself into the photo I was taking of the apples and lemons that I harvested from our trees.  I love that silly guy. Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills. To check out the other participants, please click here .

I had a few G thoughts to write about for ABC Wednesday this week. Alas, the day comes, and those ideas are lifeless. So, for today, I give you a photo of construction guys. They're working merely feet from the highway. Their job is one that requires a lot of guts. To check out this week's ABCW participants, please click here .  

This week's clues for Teresa's Friday's Hunt at Eden Hills are: 1) Starts with H  2) Week's Favorite  3) Single. My favorite photo this week shows hands as in the Mama's hand and the drummer's hand.  As for single, the Mama's single focus at that particular moment was feeding her baby a delicious treat. To check out other Friday's Hunt participants, please click here .

The cues for this week's Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills , are: 1) Starts with F  2) Week's Favorite  3) Shiny It's been a busy week—high school class reunion stuff (45 years! Tonight is our dinner-dance.)—so I'm doing a stretch with my entry by using a photo I've posted last year. This morning I was looking at the print of it on our kitchen wall and thinking this is one of my favorite photos. Light bulb! I have my week's favorite photo. Some of you are familiar with the Husband, and maybe even this photo. There you go: Familiar . Shiny —the sunlight reflecting on the creek. To check out other entries for Friday's Hunt , click here .  Gotta run. See ya.

  Snort. Hahahahaha. I doubt that I'll ever not laugh when I look at this photo. Two years ago, the Husband and I were doing a self-guided greenhouse tour. I'd barely parked the car and turned off the engine when the Husband jumped out, saying, "Take a photo of me." "Be sure to get the sign," he said.  Hahahahahahaha.   The Husband let me enter the photo in the humor photo category at our county fair that year.  My caption was: "Deranged— U pon arriving at yet another tour, the husband became deranged."  Yup. I won a blue ribbon for it. My first ever.  I love the Husband! Time to hook up with  ABC Wednesday . Today is all about the letter D. Click here to join in and/or to read what other bloggers from around the world are posting today. 

Today's topics are 1) Starts with E   2) Week's Favorite  3) Bounce I like coming up with a photo that covers all three topics, because, I admit it, I'm lazy. This afternoon I didn't think I could come up with something even for the letter E. Maybe I'd simply flake out this week.  While getting a photo ready for my other blog, I thought how much I liked the way it turned out, so maybe I'd also use it as my week's favorite for Friday's Hunt. Boom. Pow. Light bulb. Oh, yeah. The photo was of eucalyptus trees. Ha! I bounced back. The photo covers all three topics. Okay, I may have stretched the bounce part. But, I'm sticking with it.  Okey-dokey.  Now, head on over to Teresa's blog, Eden Hills , to check out what other participants have posted for today's Friday's Hunt .

This week's topics for Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills are: 1.  Starts with D  2. Week's Favorite  3. Summer or Winter My favorite photo captures the other two topics, too. It shows the dense fog coming over the ridge, which happens on many late summer afternoons. It's a good thing. Otherwise, we'd be burning up. I can't stand hot temperatures. The photo also shows the denseness of commute traffic in my neck of the woods. Yes, yes. it's not really thick compared to what goes on in cities. Believe me, in my rural area, people go crazy when the line of traffic is this long at the signal light for which we're stopping. Please click here to check out the other participants in Friday's Hunt. The meme is open until Sunday evening, if you'd like to join in.

I love it when I can share a photo that captures all three items in Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . This week the items are 1) starts with C, 2) week's favorite, and 3) unique perspective. The best part about this photo is that it came together all of a sudden this morning when I decided to de-pit a bunch of tart cherries with my nifty cherry de-pitter tool. No doubt there is a proper name for the tool, but I don't feel like doing a Google search for it. I don't know what I'll do with the de-pitted cherries. Any suggestions? To participate in the photo hunt and/or to see other participants' finds, please click here .