Dragon Lady's Palace

Pictures from Montauk State Park

2011-06-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

We were camping over Memorial Day Weekend at Montauk State Park in Dent County, Missouri. I've got lots of photos of the Current River. Here are just a few.

Montauk State Park is one of the premier trout fishing spots in the Midwest.

Hawk in neighbors tree!

2011-06-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

Larry called me out to the backyard because he had spotted a hawk feeding in the neighbors tree. I managed to get a picture!

Spring Is Here

2010-04-03T22:30:00.001-05:00

Spring Is Here!

Our Forsythia is in bloom.

Our Lilac's are budding out.

The Peony has a good start.

Along with the Iris's

We've had a couple of beautiful 80 degree days (in April??) although today it was a bit chillier (relatively) at 70 degrees, which is to say it was more April like weather.

Hummingbird photos

2009-08-15T13:55:00.001-05:00

I played Nature Photographer the other day... set up the camera on a tripod got a chair and waited and waited and waited ... SUCCESS

San Xavier Mission

2009-05-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

San Xavier Mission ... the mission is being rehabed ... the inside is finished and they are now working on the outside. Very beautiful. I especially love the courtyard.

More wildlife at the Desert Museum

2009-05-30T21:17:00.001-05:00

It was a sucessful photography day at the Desert Museum with only two exceptions. The big horn sheep were all taking it easy in the shade. Of course, after we had left their site they apparently decided to get up and pose for the cameras. The other disappointment was that the cougers were nowhere to be seen in their incloser.

Wild life at the Desert Museum

2009-05-26T23:02:00.000-05:00

Some shots of the wild life at the Desert Museum ... too tired to write more!

Saguaro National Park

2009-05-25T16:34:00.000-05:00

We are at Saguaro National Park in Tucson Arizona. The Saguaro Cactus were in bloom. We had a beautiful day ... I was lucky enough to be able to get a close up of a saguaro flower. Then while we were enjoying our picnic we had a small guest come to the table ... again, I was lucky as I managed to get several shots of the little fellow.

Our Lilac's are blooming

2009-04-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

Our lilac's are blooming and the perfume is heavenly. The cold snap we had a few days ago didn't hurt them, thank goodness. Today is overcast and we are having rain showers off and on. Basically a pretty yucky day.

One of the Peony's is lush and full of buds.... ummm, don't know if you can tell or not.

And I have no clue what kind of bush this is ... my husband stuck a limb from a neighbor's bush in the ground and this is what we now have blooming in the yard. My husband does fairly well with this type of gardening. He says it's all in the attitude ... he looks at the plant and tells it "If you live I'll water and feed you ... if you die you go on the compost pile" They tend to live which is why we do not have a "curb appeal" type lawn. ::sigh::

More Snow Pics

2009-01-28T14:36:00.004-06:00

A very large flock of Geese wintering in Frontier Park

View of the Missouri River from Frontier Park

It was a gorgous morning to be out taking photo's although I do need to invest in a pair of boots! You would think that after a few years walking around in the snow while shooting pictures I'd already have some decent boots. Unfortunately, I only think of that AFTER I'm out sloging around in the muck.

First snow 2009

2009-01-28T14:31:00.000-06:00

Taking advantage of a day off from school to go sledding in Bum's Hollow

A view of Frontier Park

Sea Gull take off

2008-11-15T14:33:00.001-06:00

Not quite as in focus as I would like, but not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. Thought I had missed him altogether.

Evening on the beach

2008-11-15T14:28:00.001-06:00

The view from our hotel balcony

Feeding the Gulls ... She was actually baiting the gulls so her husband could take pictures. I took advantage and started snapping shots as well.

Flowers

2008-11-06T01:04:00.001-06:00

I've downloaded the new beta Picasa 3 ... and I've been playing! This was my first try at a collage.

Hummingbird --- aka Greedy

2008-09-06T01:32:00.000-05:00

First shot through a screen, second shot through clear glass.

On stake out, protecting her territory. It's amazing she finds time to eat she's so busy running everyone else off.

This is what she is protecting ... she is up there but hard to see at this distance.

Not my usual backyard birds ... more from the zoo

2008-08-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

At the St. Louis Zoo

2008-08-09T15:30:00.001-05:00

Rajah ... The first baby elephant born at the St. Louis Zoo. He will be 16 in December
The polar bear was putting on quite a show for us ...
This lioness looked up from her nap long enough for me to get this shot .....

Another bird picture.... Sparrow

2008-07-29T00:29:00.001-05:00

I finally got a little sparrow facing me! I must admit I was surprised at how well the picture turned out.

Success.... a hummingbird

2008-07-23T11:52:00.002-05:00

Well, this picture may never win any prizes, but I'm a happy camper! My first successful shot of a humming bird that's fairly clear. The only other shot I even came close to getting was really, really blurry! Okay, there are a lot of large bees also buzzing aroung the flowers and while I respect them they don't really scare me. However, shortly after I took this shot and she had taken off to parts unknown, or so I thought, I was trying to get a shot of one of the blooms. I was focused on the flower when all of a sudden there is this loud, and I do mean loud, buzzing near my ear. I had visions of this huge, really huge, bee right by my ear! Scared the living daylights out of me ... until I realised what I was hearing was the humming bird getting up close and personal for a few minuets! I never did see her ... but I bet if I had turned my head instead of ducking down we would have been eye to eye!

Let's not forget our veggie's

2008-07-16T14:33:00.005-05:00

Back to summer ... my husband is growing gourds in a pot. I was sceptical ... but it seems to be working...so far. Now it's starting to head out on my clothesline which will be interesting. There are about 5 or 6 baby gourds so far. Are gourds a veggie or a fruit? Hmmmm....

and don't forget the tomatoes. Now there are only two of us living in this household, so why do we need 17 tomatoe plants? They are sure looking gorgeous right now. Of course, the squirrls haven't bothered them yet either.

Never satisfied

2008-07-16T14:00:00.005-05:00

Okay, today we are sitting in the air conditioned house complaining about the heat outside since it's supposed to hit 96 degrees this afternoon. Yet back in March we were complaining because:

The view out my back door. I want to move somewhere the weather is nice and balmy all year long!

Hardy Hibiscus

2008-07-16T13:51:00.002-05:00

Well, after a frustrating battle, I finally got something to post from my Picasa program.

More Flowers

2008-07-15T00:14:00.001-05:00

The Hardy Pink Hibiscus is blooming...

as well as the Petunia's

and the Rose of Sharon

Birds in the backyard

2008-07-03T16:04:00.001-05:00

Caught this sparrow on the roof... Any other time I've tried for one of the sparrows they are never facing the right direction! I'm always catching their backs!

The male goldfinch came by today! And I had the camera with me!!!

Dusk at Pere Marquette Lodge

2008-07-02T01:45:00.001-05:00

The back of Pere Marquette Lodge. A patio stretches across almost the whole of the backside. There are tables and chairs which make for a relaxing view of the Mississippi.

These were my first shots of trying to get a sunset. I don't know if I succeeded in what I was trying for, but I ended up feeling pretty good about the shots as a whole.

I do photograph flowers besides roses...

2008-06-29T13:23:00.003-05:00

Gorgeous Lily...unfortunately, I don't know the name of this particular Lilly. We got this Lilly in a mixed bag package sold by my grandson as a school fund raiser. It's the prettiest one of the five bulbs that were in the bag.

We had a bumper crop of lilacs this year

What's left of the wild flower's that my husband sowed several years ago. Now if they would just spread completely around the base of the dogwood tree...

After the rain.... you may need to click on the picture to enlarge to get a better view of the water droplets on the Lilly.

Shorty redux

2008-06-28T01:42:00.001-05:00

I've been playing in photoshop again...very basic stuff though. Here's shorty again using first soft focus and then b&w focus. I'm fairly pleased with the result.

Shorty ... Our resident baby rabbit

2008-06-27T00:49:00.003-05:00

The minute I got the camera out this baby rabbit sunk to the ground and did a "I'm not here, you can't see me" routine.

Here are better shots of Shorty after he settled down and got used to me sitting and taking pictures. I love the zoom on this camera!

Don Juan

2008-06-27T00:43:00.001-05:00

A new climbing rose in our garden...Don Juan

Another rose

2008-06-27T00:41:00.001-05:00

I used the filtered b&w on this photo

Flowers

2008-06-27T00:36:00.001-05:00

Playing in picasa photoshop

The Lodge at Pere Marquette State Park

2008-06-27T00:30:00.001-05:00

The signs no one was paying attention to as they walked down to the waters edge to take pictures.

The view from our room. A window that actually opened and had a screen on it! The downside...air conditioning units right outside the window.

The entrance to Pere Marquette Lodge

a view of hummingbirds right outside the Lodge restuarant. It would have been a better picture if they would wash the windows occasionally.

Flood waters

2008-06-26T23:52:00.002-05:00

June 14th People are walking down to the rivers edge of the swollen Mississippi...

A closer shot of the Pavilion that is under water at Pere Marquette State Park

Same pavilion the next morning ... the water is closer to the highway than it was last night.

Barges were still navigating the river.

The Birds and the Bees

2008-06-26T23:08:00.002-05:00

I must have taken 10 shots trying to get a good picture of the bee in the center of this rose. He was always under a petal and barely visible or only half of him was showing as he clambered about between the petals.

Climbing out to make a get away.

This year we have Goldfinches!!!! AND I have a camera that does a fairly decent job with the zoom lens!

Missed picture opportunity

2008-01-09T13:49:00.000-06:00

Well, the beautiful snow came and went in December and I snoozed through it. Yep, couldn't get up early enough to get out with the camera before going to work. It was a good snowfall and very beautiful. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as if we are going to have another snowfall any time soon. Of course, they are saying something about flurries this weekend and you never know if flurries really means flurries or if it will be several inches. Note to self: IF it does snow go to bed early after work so you can get up early! Promise to self: get some snow pictures this time!

It Worked!

2007-12-18T01:25:00.000-06:00

Yippie! I finally did it ... I got the shelfari widget to work. So my shelfari bookshelf is now up and running on this blog. Unfortunately, I can't take any credit for this since the guys at shelfari made this so simple anyone can do it. I think the problems I encountered in the past had more to do with being on dial up rather than high speed. Anyway, it's up and looks sharp even if I do say so myself!
I've got to admit that I'm addicted to shelfari. I love adding books to my shelf and adding friends. I recommend it highly to anyone who like to read and also meeting other people who enjoy reading as well.

Fall Colors

2007-11-01T23:28:00.001-05:00

The fall colors have arrived. These photo's were taken today about 4:30 pm at Creve Coure Park. All shots were good, but some were so much better than the others I just had to share. Looking at so many beautiful trees you just didn't know where to point the camera next. This was my first outing looking for fall foliage with the camera. So thanks to my friend Marie, who has done this many times, we were out at just the right moment to get some great shots.

The orbs don't show well

2007-10-26T01:27:00.000-05:00

It's disappointing but unfortunately the "orbs" do not show well on the blog. The pictures are way too blurry. I can find the "orbs", but that is because I know where to look. These are very clear pictures which makes me wonder what I did wrong when I uploaded them.

Rats! I haven't had any luck computerwise the last two times I've tried to do anything on this blog! ::grumble, grumble, grumble::

Orbs?

2007-10-26T00:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know if they can be seen here on the blog or not. These were the first and only shots I have ever gotten of possible "orbs." In the first picture the "orb" is about 1/4 of the way down from the top in the dark tunnel, the next picture shows it further in the room pretty much across from my husbands back. Is it a ghost, as some claim or just a speck of dust, I don't pretend to know. All I can say is these are the only pictures I have ever gotten with an "orb" in them. They do show up very well on the printed pictures which is something I find very fascinating.

A pox on computers

2007-10-18T23:59:00.001-05:00

Right now you can picture me pulling out my hair. Talk about frustrated! I've been trying to add a shelfari book shelf to my blog for the better part of the last two hours. Something that seems so simple, and yet, as of right now that seems to be a task that is beyond me. Phooey on everything computer tonight! I'm closing down and finding a good book to read!!! {{grumble, grumble, grumble}}

It's been a while

2007-08-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

Whew.... it's been a while. Blogging can be a time consuming project, then you add playing with photo's. ::sigh:: time just gets away from you.

I just finished Dick Francis's last novel Under Orders. Great Book! I recomend it highly. I'm very glad that he is back to writing again.

A ray of sunshine

2007-06-10T00:21:00.000-05:00

2007-06-09T14:35:00.000-05:00

This is up on a wall at the Metro Salon downtown St. Charles. If you want to feel pampered and special this is the place to go.

Learned something new tonight

2007-06-08T01:42:00.000-05:00

I have always felt I knew a little bit about copyright law. Working in a photo lab does tend to give you some clue. However, as a photography hobbiest you don't always think in terms of the subject that you are photographing being copyrighted. I had pictures that I had taken of the "Cow Parade" cows in New Town up here on the blog. Tonight I came across an article talking about copyrights of art work such as the cows. It was one of those D'oh moments. So the pictures I had posted here had to come down. ::sigh:: and I was so proud of them too....

Pictures of New Town

2007-06-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Some of the beautiful house in New Town. Okay, when I win the lottery I'll give some serious thought to moving out here!
A view of some of the rowhouses in New Town
More row houses. Picture taken from across the green space in front of these homes.

Pictures taken at the gold fish pond in New Town

2007-06-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

The Waterfall

This turned out much better than I expected. It's not like you can say "Hold still I want to take your picture" ....

Daylillies

2007-06-04T01:13:00.000-05:00

After an early luncheon at the Boathouse in Forest Park, which I can highly recomend as a place to eat if you are in St. Louis, I took the afternoon and played with the new camera. There would have been pictures of the Boathouse, the lake and the ducks as well as the friends I was with if my old camera, which I took because it is small, hadn't decided to shoot craps. Oh well, then next time the new camera goes with me!

Gloating

2007-05-25T15:29:00.000-05:00

Here is portion of the gift baskets given as prizes in individual drawings. Always lots of neat stuff. After signing up for quite a few I realized that it could be a problem getting some of them home on the airplane. Some of these baskets were huge! So I not only quit signing up, but began to hope that I didn't win. That worked ... I didn't win anything this year. This just goes to show that Kathryn's discussion on the secrets of the Secret about positive thinking and bringing things to you also works in the opposite manner. ON THE OTHER HAND Jenny, as usual, won a basket. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the author who had put the basket out. But, Jenny has managed to win something every year that we have gone to RT! ::grumble, grumble, grumble::

2007-05-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

I did this straight from Picasa and it sure worked a lot faster. I'm learning ... slowly but surely! Here are 4 of my room mates from RT in Houston. Left to right ... Tanya, Jenny, Zo and Cindy. A great looking group of women! They did costumining and I did picture taking! More on RT later.

I should stay off ebay!

2007-05-24T21:56:00.000-05:00

I had planned to order an ebook reader tonight. NOT going to happen for at least a month, providing I stay off ebay! I just won two tea cups and saucers ... so, no more on the credit card till that gets paid! Gorgous tea cups and saucers though!

I've been looking at the ebookwise reader and was planning to get it untill I got hung up with the cup and saucer bit on ebay. ::sigh:: NEVER should have gone looking there! If I had just stuck to checking out ebook readers I'd have been okay. I must say that the "savings" on the readers at ebay are not substantal enough to get me to buy there. I think I would prefer buying through ebookwise.com But I don't know whether to go ahead and get one with a memory card or wait and see if I can get a memory card cheaper later. They only show cards up to 128mb. I wonder if you can use higher mb cards?

I've been trying to get some pictures of RT up on the blog, but so far I've not had a lot of luck. Tomorrow I think Sherry and I will go to the Coffee House and I'll take the laptop and try again with high speed internet. Of course, they are calling for storms which usually means I can't get on the internet even at the coffee house. So, we'll see ...

Geese part 2

2007-05-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

You should have seen me getting that shot of these geese and several others. I kept inching closer and closer all the while listening to Larry saying "you had better watch it" and "geese are NOT friendly" along with several "be careful's" But I got a few good shots. The river is bank full and I think we are still under a flood watch until tomorrow night. Today was simply gorgeous! Unfortunately, I was not out with a camera.

Actually, I was really surprised when I got that picture up in the blog. It took a good twenty minuets if not longer to load. This has all led to a "I've GOT to have high speed NOW" syndrome. I've got two editing programs on here. One is simple and FREE (Picasa) and the other is adobe photoshop (which I will need classes on!) The photography has taken over everything I do online these days. I think I'm also going to try and get a larger monitor to work with the photo's on. Of course, that's along with getting another longer lens, and a few other little accessories for the camera. Adding TiVO to the television, getting new glasses and working on getting the basement set up so I can move the computer down there and get high speed internet so I can work on photo's as well as work on scrapbooking projects .... lots of ideas, less time and even less money!

2007-05-19T17:56:00.000-05:00