365…085

Today was one of those weird kinds of days. It started out pretty awesome with the sun shining bright. I brought the garbage and compost bins to the road for pick-up, took my time coming back, enjoying the fresh air and singing birds, then filled up the bird feeders and started my work day.

I had a smoothie and store-bought baked beans for lunch. It was a late lunch as I was caught up in what I was doing. IT called me to fix my Phoenix issue…downloading my T4 slip. I kept getting an error there was a problem with Acrobat Reader. They managed to fix it. Yay!

After work came time for making dinner. On the menu tonight was Pasta Primavera RAW style. It involves a lot of cutting, chopping and peeling, and I was doing two recipes at the same time…Pad Thai for lunch.

After an hour of that, we were ready to eat. I set up the TV to finish watching the Avengers movie we started the night before. As I was standing in front of the blinds, lowering them, not paying attention, the blind hit the bowl of food in my hand and sent it flying. Tomato sauce and zucchini noodles were everywhere, wall, floor, back of couch, my pants, my foot… What a mess!

Mom helped me clean it up…she did a much better job than me. I got the carpet cleaner out thinking it might help but it didn’t. Sigh!

Thankfully there was enough food left over for me. I added a little of the rad pad thai so I would have enough.

After the movie, I was sitting there, feeling blah and really tired. The screen saver on the TV came on and I watched framed photos from our Mediterranean trip float by. One in particular caught my eye. I studied it quickly as it didn’t stay on the screen for long. An orangish sky, so a sunset photo, with layer upon layer of mountains, and ocean in the foreground and a tiny bird flying by. I decided to paint it.

But as I sat in front of the blank page, I knew I needed to see it again. I flipped through my Flickr albums, found the photo in the Corfu album and started painting. From a distance, in my darkened bedroom, I just glanced at the painting and it looks similar to the photo. In day light, or under regular lighting…not so much. But it’s a start!

Now, here’s the funny part. Well, not really funny but…

I was about to take a photo of my painting to upload to Instagram when I thought I should pick the photo of the day and send both up at the same time. I went through my phone…no photo. I went through my camera…no photo. I didn’t take any photos today. Damn. Had I realized that, I would have taken a photo of the sunset. Now what? I asked my cats if they would pose and be photo of the day. Both blinked at me. I took that as an “Ok, but only if we get more food”. Because normally they would look away or walk away when I would ask to take their picture. Well…it’s an option but I’d prefer something better. Mom asked if there was a moon out, I could take a pic of. I stepped out onto the veranda. It was a nice night. Clear sky. Cool, but manageable. But no moon.

I stepped back into the house, looked at the cats patiently waiting for their food and decided…I didn’t want their photo. I was willing to wait outside for a long exposure. I grabbed my tripod, set up my camera, turned all the lights off in and out and headed out.

Well, I had so much fun and really enjoyed it. So much so, I didn’t want to come in. But I knew it was getting late and I had wanted to get an early night so I would be rested for tomorrow…5:30 am comes early!

But, oh, soooo much fun!

And the weather…so nice. So clear. Not freezing cold. Wowzers.

I took a few shots of Cassiopeia, then turned the camera to the crooked pine tree. I took a photo of it, with a star or two around it and the neighbours lights streaming through. I set up the next shot, accidentally left my flash light on and thought…cool. I’ll try light painting the tree. I thought I was too far from the tree for it to work but I was surprised and delighted to see it worked! I tried another shot and then decided to call it a night. Otherwise I could be out there all night playing with the settings and having so much fun!

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