A new camera and a walk in the cemetery...

Greetings to you all this fine November evening,

Can you believe it's November all ready? I don't know about where you are but here the weather has been gorgeous these past few days. Nice enough to not have to wear a coat and that is very unusual for this time of year. I am loving it. I got out my sweaters and long sleeved items and can wear them and am comfortable, even in the wind. I hate wearing a coat. How about you?
So what have I been up to....

I bought a new camera, or I should say We bought a new camera. He reminded me it's his too. LOL! It's a Canon Powershot XS10 and I love it. I haven't begun to use all of it's features yet. On November 1st the weather was so nice after I took my granddaughter home from her sleep over with us I took the camera and headed to the cemetery to take a walk. We have 2 here in town, The Highland Cemetery and St. Mary's cemetery. There are several country cemeteries I wish to visit with camera in hand next. Here are a few of the shots I got:

I liked the carving on the stone above and the message on the one below.

I counted 5 of these Unknown markers and I didn't even walk the whole cemetery. They made me feel sad. I stopped and spoke to them. Do you ever do that?? Speak to the dead when you don't even know who they were? Thinking about it now I guess it was a bit strange but at the time if felt right. "Hi there, just passing by. Put in a good word for me up there ok." Then wipe away the leaves. "Bye now." Ok so I'm strange, who cares!! :)

I love the eery shadow of a long faded carving on this one. I thought it would make a great background for a piece of art. The date was 1887 and 1889. There was another but I couldn't read it.
I love this statue. It is in the St. Mary's cemetery and there are stone benches near her for sitting and praying or reflecting. I met a lady there and she said she likes to sit and reflect on her day each morning during her walk. I liked that.
I also stopped and took a few pictures near Homer's Pond. I put a few of the pictures on Imagekind. Including the one above and below. I love how the one below turned out. The sky was so blue and this is a tree with these things (pods) on them. So does anyone know what the name of this tree is?

I plan on taking another walk this weekend with my new camera and I've told Bobbie it's about time we have a photo shoot. So many of my blogging friends prayed for her and I told her some of you still ask about how she is. I want to show you how she is. She is doing really well and has more good days than bad. And that thick hair of hers sure has grown back. :)

So, what have you been up to?

Happy Day,

Tess

Beautiful October Days

It's so hard to believe we are in the middle of October already. Days are blending together, so much to do...too much to do. Sometimes in order to take a deep breath and slow down we have to force it upon ourselves. I did just that over this past weekend. I picked up my granddaughter and kept her overnight. We had dinner together with grandpa and she played a while with Frankie, the new kitten. She was so pleased to see Frankie was doing ok. Then we read her homework assignment. A book entirely beyond her reading level but she did pretty good sounding out the words. A nice, quiet relaxing evening.

Sunday afternoon we went through McDonald's drive-thru and then took our lunch to a picnic bench at Homer's Pond. The sun was shining and the temp was in the 70's but it was windy. The wind made for an interesting lunch to say the least. We had to keep a hand or elbow on everything. The camera I brought along with a photo shoot in mind came in handy to hold down the napkins. It was very funny and I do love seeing and hearing her laughter. After lunch we went walking on the walking trail around the pond. She had so much fun finding odd places for me to photograph her. My little 9 year old granddaughter is not afraid of dirt or climbing at all, not one bit. She's not all tomboy mind you, but not all froo-froo either.

She found this boulder and had to climb it:

Then she hid behind a tree and peeked out at me:

This log was meant for sitting on:

"Don't worry grandma, I won't fall in."

This looked like a good place to rest and give grandma another big smile:


These were growing all over and she wanted to pick one. I convinced her not to but she insisted I had to take a picture, so I took two. I plan to print them for her so she can remember how beautiful Homer's Pond is during the cold winter months that are ahead of us.

If you haven't taken a nature walk with a child yet this fall do try to. It was amazing the things she seen that I had never noticed before. Our leaves aren't changing color as nicely as I would have liked yet, but I do enjoy the green!