Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadowing Chocolate Sunflowers ¹⁰

Gratitude, photography • Tags: postaday, postaweek, Sunflowers, Weekly Photo Challenge

When ‘Sunny Smile’ Sunflowers started to branch, I planted seeds from Elves Blend by Botanical Interests.

Little did I know that the flowers I planted were not all yellow or destined to be the promised sixteen to twenty-four inch height. Although the above picture should have been a clue since I took it a mere two weeks after I planted them. The picture foreshadowed this:

One Elf and Two Chocolate Sunflowers.

But, I am not complaining especially after seeing how pretty the Chocolate Sunflowers are when the sun’s rays hit them.

Awoke to find this on Saturday.

Then this on Sunday.

The Elf isn’t too shabby either.

I’m grateful to whomever accidentally put two Chocolate Sunflower seeds in the Elves Blend seed packet and to Krista Stevens for providing this week’s photo challenge and giving me the perfect opportunity to share my sunflowers with you. So what has foreshadowed an event in your life lately?

July 31

Dear Mother Earth, Like the Eagles Song “I Wish You Peace” ⁴

Bloggers For Peace, Famous Quotes, Gratitude • Tags: B4Peace, Eagles, IWishYouPeace, Jimi Hendrix

…But not just “when the cold winds blow” or “when times are hard.” I wish you peace always. I hope and pray the human race wakes up from our apathy towards you and works together to bring you perfect health and peace. I wish you clean air, clean water, healthy soil, happy and healthy children, strong and healthy animals, plentiful fish in your oceans, streams and lakes. I wish for clear streams and lakes where anyone can drink without fear.

I wish you a world filled with more singing birds and less traffic noise, industrial noise or sounds of war. I wish for you to have more places where the sky is clear and the stars shine bright. I wish you a world filled with caring, laughter, and joy. I wish you a world filled with the pure light of love.

With much love and gratitude for all that you give to us,

Sue

When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power the World Will Know Peace. —JIMI HENDRIX

For those who wonder what this post is all about. Go to Everyday Gurus’ monthly peace challenge post to find out. Please consider writing your own letter even if it is no longer July where you live. Let me know if you do and I’ll stop by.

July 19

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh ¹²

Gratitude, photography • Tags: Gardening, PHOTO CHALLENGE, postaday, postaweek, Weekly Photo Challenge

From the Garden

As fresh as you can get.

Freshly Picked.

Looking forward to fresh corn.

Today’s photo challenge is to share a picture that means fresh and I cannot imagine anything fresher than fresh from my garden. I’m grateful it is doing well.

Can’t wait to find out what’s fresh in your life? You can click on the link to see what is fresh in other bloggers’ lives.

July 13

Weekly Photo: The Golden Hour ⁸

Gratitude, photography, Snapshot Saturday • Tags: Java Sparrow, Mother Nature, PHOTO CHALLENGE, postaday, postaweek, Red-crested Cardinal, Zen Garden

Creating a calm environment for sunrise.

Brings a smile to my face.

Just after a morning rain.

This week’s photo challenge by Cheri Lucas Rowlands asks that we share photos of the golden hour just after sunrise and just before sunset. I took the first three pictures during the golden hour.

However, the gallery photos are examples of playing with my manual camera settings utilizing the most recent advice offered by Wenjie Zhang for Photography 101 this week along with advice offered by Ming Thein in his two prior posts. These are not exactly during the golden hour, but with the cloudy afternoon the lighting was similar.

Mahalo to Wenjie and Ming for helping me to explore the manual settings on my camera. I even tried the live-view setting to help me with lighting. This made it easier to delete some of my bad photos before I loaded them on my computer.

I still have a long way to go before I perfect my settings, but at least I am no longer afraid to try experimenting with lighting.