Photography

Let’s Talk Turkey

/ Janna Hill / 9 Comments

I was taking a walk with Whiskey (the eight month old German Shepherd I inherited) and came upon a flock of these feathered non-smack talking birds and just wondered…

Does anyone say ‘jive turkey’ anymore?

Why is a ‘turkey’ considered dumb? Have you ever hunted turkey?  Most game hunters will tell you those dull [seemingly dim witted] birds are really quite clever.

If a turkey is a dummy and a jive turkey is someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about why do people say “let’s talk turkey” when they want a serious discussion?

Hmmm. All of this turkey talk has made me hungry. Enjoy the pictures, I’m going to make myself a sandwich.

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour

/ Janna Hill / 18 Comments

On the Road at Sunrise is for this weeks photo challenge The Golden Hour. I know I skipped last weeks challenge, sorry.

Breaking Dawn South Texas

Here are a few beautiful sunsets on the water taken for last months challenge Fleeting.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Companionable

/ Janna Hill / 9 Comments

Companionable

That is an odd sounding word, isn’t it? It is also the theme for this week’s photo challenge. Michelle was pretty clever with that wasn’t she?

So why squirrels and a tomatoes you ask? Because of the companionability!

Believe it or not squirrels and I are quite chummy. We have many likes in common and get along very well. Well, until they get greedy with the tomatoes and then we have dumplings in common.

Farewell to The Mean Green Traveling Machine

/ Janna Hill / 16 Comments

The Mean Green Traveling Machine

If vehicles were books…

If words were miles…

If cracked leather upholstery could speak…

If frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their ass every time they hopped. 😉

The Mean Green Traveling Machine aka Nana’s Hooptie
Seal your grill and never tell
Farewell my good and faithful servant

I snapped a few shots as they readied her to travel yesterday and said goodbye to the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer but I wasn’t prepared for such nostalgia!

Seventeen years ago I was totally in love with that piece of machinery but it hasn’t been driven in over six months and it was taking up space. It was old and out of style, it had become temperamental and needed repairs and maybe it reminded me too much of something else. The melancholy definitely goes much deeper than a defective starter, a dented bumper or Kool-Aid stains in the rear compartment and I was just thinking…

She has seen her fair share of asphalt, dirt roads and white rock. From daily commutes to long trips, from mountain tops to sandy beaches…

Our oldest son vacationed in it when his first child was just an infant. They traveled to San Antonio. That infant is a sophomore in high school now. The oldest daughter borrowed it from time to time when she needed reliable transportation — when her babies were literally babies. Our youngest two children learned to drive behind the wheel of the hunter green hooptie and I’m sure they entrusted more than a few secrets to her, I know I did.

If The Mean Green Traveling Machine were a novel she would be epic. The odometer read 220,771 miles. Actually it was 220,771.4 when the man winched her onto the trailer.

Here’s praying the donation makes a positive difference in someone’s life and hoping the hooptie doesn’t gossip.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves

/ Janna Hill / 17 Comments

Photo challenge + Family + Father’s Day = gobs (yes gobs) of fun!

 

Don’t expect to see the #1 son and the husband. They hid in the shadows drinking Dos Equis because they are the most interesting men in the world. No really! I had a few of those lovely green bottles and I must admit it was pretty exciting. 😉

Where the dirt road curves …
Lightening Meadow
Straight shooting curves.
All sorts of curving going on in this scene.
Tired watermelon faces
Dry curves….

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

/ Janna Hill / 17 Comments

Fleeting

We went fishing Saturday and my oh my how the time flew by.

Okay the truth is the guys fished while we (my granddaughter and moi) took pictures. We of course caught a lot more of what we were after. As a matter of fact the two of us snagged nearly two hundred shots yet three men with six tackle boxes and four rods couldn’t catch a single fish! Not even a catfish! In a lake as large as Tawakoni that takes some real lack of skill. 😉

My husband says I shouldn’t poke fun being as I have a serious case of lack-a-jerk. True, the fish are usually too fast for me but a desperate fisherman resorting to the ritual of the frog dive, that I can catch.

 

Assume the frog position
Leap lamely from the bow
Call “fishy, fishy, fishy”
See fish laugh

The dive left the fish laughing so hard they couldn’t bite. Have you ever tried to laugh and eat at the same time? It is hard to do. It is hard being a fish, I understand these things. It’s also illegal to be on the water at night without the proper lights (which we had left in the truck) so we turned starboard heading to shore and watched the sun set on another beautiful day… another fleeting moment in time.

Starboard turn
Into the setting sun
Another day ending Lake Tawakoni
Another fleeting moment

See how time flies…

How time flies

How time flies

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

/ Janna Hill / 18 Comments

I have no photo of my head in the sand, which would be appropriate while admitting I do not want to deal with my current reality. My mother is ill… critically ill and I am a “mama’s girl” which I admit without shame.

She is/has always been my touchstone, my constant reminder to move forward despite obstacles, my assurance that ‘this too shall pass’… Tonight she lays in an Intensive care unit fighting for her life  and I long for a quiet place in a green meadow beneath a sunrise to remind me how marvelous nature is even as life takes its course . Pleading to the heavens not now… not now. Let me sit on the green meadow and meditate on the rising sun of hope. Let me find the courage to endure whatever the future holds. I can hear her gentle whisper,”Keep your obligations. Move on and do not look back except for a glimpse and a smile.”

Escape

Longing for serenity

I am trying  mother. And here is my submission for this weeks photo challenge : Escape.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

/ Janna Hill / 25 Comments

Sara Rosso posted a beautiful example for this weeks photo challenge.

This weeks theme is Pattern. I have been doing a little sewing (a little is all I know how to do) but that is not the pattern Sara had in mind. Shucks! I had just relearned how to load the bobbin.

Oh well, look at this cool Polyphemus I found last week.

Polyphemus Mammoth Moth in Summer

And this is what he/she looked like in November. Not the same pattern but lovely still. Polyphemus caterpillar in Fall

Alas I ate a portion so you could see the pattern here. Yum Hmm, the sacrifices I make. 😉 Mothers Day Strawberry