Praying Mantis

I know that I have featured this foothill critter before, but I had to share the photos I took last night. These mantis joined us during cocktail hour last night! They are such odd looking creatures! I would like to suggest that you click on the photos to isolate it, then click again so that you can see the creatures full size and really get the amazing details…Shall we take a look?

I had wandered over to the gallardia to pinch some dead heads and discovered this little gal hanging and swaying with the plant as it moved in the slight breeze!

I found you!

What is eerie about these creatures is the way the pupil (that little black dot) follows you even when you are behind it!

I am looking at you!

We then spotted one looking at us from the railing of the deck. She looks like she is ready to pounce!

On guard!

This one was a bit of a ham and posed for me!

How is this pose? Do I look good?

Getting closer to this gal, tell me if she does not look like she is saying something!

I am talking to you!

Remember that thing with the eyes? Check this one out!

So, you think I have eyes in the back of my head?

After a while, I think she got bored with me!

I am walking away now…

I hope that you enjoyed these photos and that you at least looked at one close up photo! Now go out and have a great Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

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Carefree – A WordPress Photo Challenge!

The WordPress Photo Challenge this week: Carefree. What are they looking for? Here is what they have to say…

“Summer memories make everything feel magical to me — carefree and untroubled.

Even on the trips where everything went wrong, I look back and smile at the narrow escapes, or the long walks on a beach while I sorted out and righted the world.

Whether a good memory was made in years past, yesterday, or only moments ago, I love letting the nostalgia wrap me up — like a borrowed sweater on a cold summer night. Even more, I love making new memories: a carefree summer at the lake, a stroll through the park, dancing in the rain… then all I need to do is remember, and the same carefree feeling washes over me.”

With that, here is what carefree is to me!

The thrill of white water rafting!

Going under!

The excitement of catching and reeling in a fish!

Bringing in a fish

Seeing the breathtaking view of Half Dome in Yosemite…

Heading to the lookout

Hiking through a beautiful forest.

The path through Big Trees Forest

Coming upon ruins and wondering what life was like for those who lived there all those many years ago.

The ruins of Kinishba

Walking barefoot in the sand with the wind blowing in my face!

The seaside at Puerto Vallarta

Awestruck by the grandeur of the Grand Tetons!

The calm after the storm

I hope that you enjoyed these carefree moments with me and that you had one while reading and viewing this post!

Be sure to check out some of the other posts…You can find them by clicking here!

Now have a great Friday, and thank you for giving me another carefree moment! 🙂

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Favorite Food Fotos!

I have been thinking about food lately and the fact that I have not done a food post of late. So I got to thinking about past posts and decided that today I would share some of my favorite food shots with links to recipes in case you would like to see how to make something.

Let’s start with my Oven Fried Pork Chops. This recipe is one that has made many, many boards on Pinterest.

Oven Fried Pork Chops

Oven Fried Pork Chops

I love prawns and just wish I could get my husband to eat them. Here are some yummy Tequila Prawns!

Tequila Lime Prawns

Break Out the Tequila!

I love Pizza and we have it quite often. Here is a different kind of pizza, one with carne asada and salsa!

Carne Asada Pizza

Carne Asada Pizza

How about a pasta dish that is to die for? I got this recipe from Gregg in Hawaii…

Italian Chicken with Orzo

Gregg’s Italian Chicken with Orzo!

In case you missed the burger challenge, here is a cheeseburger that will get your juices flowing!

One cheesy bacon burger!

Burger Challenge – One Man’s Meat

I hope that you have enjoyed this visit to the past with recipes and food photos! Enjoy your Wednesday, and thanks for visiting today!

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Flowers of Summer

Every year there is an amazing array of flowers that surround us in our daily lives. There is a wide range of color out there to please our eyes and warm our hearts! Today I share with you some of what surrounds me in my neck of the woods…

I love the color blue and these flowers are brilliant!

Singing the blues

The winery has a garden that has numerous rose bushes and this one called out to me to come and take a closer look. Can you see the other visitor to this lovely flower?

Everything is rosy

Looking for more color to add to my deck I discovered double ruffle million bells.

In the pink

Guara is a favorite summer flower with sprays of blossoms that gently bounce in the wind. To me these flowers dance!

Give me guara!

Then there are the sunny faces of rudbeckia. Isn’t this one lovely?

Burnished sunshine

Finally I find a gaillardia, with its pretty red and golds and a rose that is a perfect compliment!

Still life

I hope that you enjoyed these flowers of summer! Now go out and have a tremendous Tuesday, and thank you for stopping by!

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One Shot Two Ways – A WordPress Photo Challenge

This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is “One Shot Two Ways.” This has to do with finding the best orientation for a photo, which is something all photographers do. Take one this way, then that and see what work’s best. Here are some shots of what I took doing this with my camera…

Remember that lovely stone wall? The one that is now on my banner above? I found it in Murphys, CA. Here was my first shot…

Portrait of a lovely stone wall

But when I moved the camera to take a close up, and went from portrait to landscape I saw a whole different world in this stone wall…What do you think of the shots?

Landscape of a lovely stone wall

Last year after picking all the green tomatoes before the rains hit so that I could make tomato pickles, I took this shot first.

Last year’s tomatoes first shot

Changing the view above to this one makes a huge difference…

Getting closer to the tomatoes

In the small town of Columbia, CA, I took this shot. I loved the bucket by the bench. But it is too hard to see…

A long shot in Columbia CA

Looking at this just a bit differently gives me this shot…what do you think? Better?

A close up of the bucket

While visiting a nursery, I came across this lovely scene.

Chair from one way

Taking a few steps in a different direction gives me this shot…What do you think? Which do you like better?

The chair seen a second way

Did I meet this challenge? You tell me!

Be sure to check out some of the other posts out there! Here are a couple that I really like:

This, That and the Other Thing

Beats of Pieces

And you can check out more by clicking here!

Thanks for visiting and have a great Saturday!

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Metallic Patterns

Something always catches my eye that makes me want to grab my camera and start snapping photos. Such was the case yesterday as I was roaming around the winery on a break. So, for today, I am featuring photos taken of patterns found in metal around the winery!

We have an old, dead tractor that sits at the opening in the fence that leads out to the vineyards. What first caught my eye was the grill on this thing.

The grill

This got me all wound up, and so did this!

All wound up

When I rounded the corner to where the seat was, the panel with dials caught my eye!

Old gauges

I even found a face staring back at me…

A face

Then I spied this:

Links

Looking around further, these items caught my attention…

Squares

Stacked

It is amazing to me what one can find just wandering around…

My apologies for there not being a post yesterday! I overslept, which is something I have not done in years! Well, I hope that you have enjoyed this post today, and I look forward to your comments! Thank you for taking the time to stop and visit today!

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Views From the Top

When M and I took the road trip the other day to areas up here that she has not been to before, I just had to make the stop at Big Hill. This is at the top of a mountain, one of the smaller ones in the Sierra Nevada range, that is at an elevation of 6108. What makes this place special are the views!

Back in the early 1930’s the lookout on Big Hill was erected by the California Conservation Corp. The purpose of this lookout was used to detect wildfires in the mountains and the foothills. It was also used during World War II to detect balloons carrying fire bombs. The original structure stood until a wildfire in 1992, called the “Cleveland” fire, destroyed the tower and 24,000 acres of the surrounding forest. The tower was rebuilt in 1994 and completed in 1995. Rather than the framing being made of wood, the rebuilt structure was made of steel.

The watch tower at Big Hill

So let’s take a look around the area shall we? From the top we can see Union Valley Reservoir. This shot is only about one half of the lake. This is a great place to go camping, boating and fishing!

Union Valley Reservoir

Here is another lake, which I believe is Wrights Lake.

One of the many lakes seen from the top

This next photo was stitched and there is a variation in the color where the seams meet, but I still wanted to share with you the view of the Sierra Nevada Range.

Panoramic View from the top

Looking around the area we found a number of beautiful wildflowers. Here is a shot of one that resembles St. John’s Wort. I was unable to identify this…

Resembles St. Johns Wort

I love this native, which is a wild penstemon. This has a lovely color, don’t you think?

A native penstemon

All around us were the lovely little clusters of Foothills Gilia.

Foothills Gilia

Also surrounding the top of the hill was this lovely plant that has an edible nut.

Chinquapin nut

And we found a shrub that was loaded with little red berries. I discovered that this is called a bush honeysuckle!

Bush honeysuckle

Well, I hope that you have enjoyed today’s visit to Big Hill! Have a great Monday and thanks for stopping by!

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Barn Swallow

Yesterday, M & I took a trip through the foothills. We stopped in Georgetown for a bite to eat at the Mexican restaurant located in the Georgetown Hotel.

Georgetown Hotel

The food was good! The saloon was loaded with memorabilia!

Inside the saloon

We decided to park ourselves on the bench outside for a bit when a bird flying in caught our eyes! Looking up to where she went we found ourselves looking up at a mud nest! Looking closely, we discovered we were looking a baby barn swallows!

Two babies!

We were glued to watching the mother feed the babies! She was in and out so quickly that it was hard to catch a good shot of her. This is the only photo I was able to capture with the mother bird!

Mom is in and out quickly

This bird makes its home here in North America over the summer for breeding and then returns to, from what I was able to discover, Central and South America over the winter. How fortunate are we to get to experience this bird! Check out these other baby photos…

I see you!

What is that over there?

Just hanging out!

Nap time!

Aren’t they cute?

Have a great Sunday! And, thank you for stopping by!

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Foreshadowing a Harvest – A WordPress Photo Challenge

Yesterday was a busy day and I was out and about gathering photos for a future blog post…And this morning I checked the WordPress Photo Challenge and discovered that the subject this week is “Foreshadow.” Here is what they are asking for:

“This challenge offers some fun opportunities to play — not only with the subject of your photo, but with light, color, and contrast to evoke foreshadow. Perhaps foreshadow is an open bottle of red wine and two wine glasses. Maybe it’s a diamond ring in small velvet box. Maybe it’s a flower bud about to burst into bloom, or the first leaf that turns color on your oak tree. What does foreshadow mean to you? Looking forward to seeing the creative ways in which you portray foreshadow in your posts.”

My topic for this challenge is veraison, which was a promised post. What is veraison? In viticulture it means the onset of ripening, or the changing of the color of grapes. And it foreshadows the upcoming harvest! Here is a photo of grapes in veraison.

Veraison

I wanted to share with you today various photos of grapes in different stages of veraison. With the assistant vineyard manager at the winery, we took a walk through the vineyards to see the various stages of veraison on the grapes. Let’s go and check out what we found!

The first area of the vineyard we visited was the area where the Zinfandel grows. We discovered that the zinfandel has almost completed the transition, and for the most part the grapes have turned. Here is a photo of one lovely bunch of Zin grapes with a few still in transition.

Zinfandel

We find a cluster that still has a mix of colors, and here is a shot of the grapes close up.

Up close to Zinfandel

Let’s take a look at some of the other grapes in the vineyard. Here are some Chardonnay grapes.

Chardonnay

It is very hard to see the change on these grapes but taking a grape and squeezing it reveals the seeds which show that these grapes are in transition. In this next photo check out the different colors that are found in the seeds.

Darkening seeds

Here are some of the other grapes in the winery’s vineyard in the various stages of veraison!

Merlot

Sauvignon Blanc

Cabernet Franc

Lovely aren’t they? And they sure do have some amazing colors during this transition!

Please check out some of the other submissions to this weeks WordPress Photo Challenge by clicking here!

Thank you for stopping by today! Stay tuned for photos of the upcoming harvest and crush of 2013! Harvest is anticipated to begin in two weeks, which is the earliest ever for the winery!

Now go out and have a splendid Saturday!

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Random Views in the Foothills

As I wander around with my camera, I stumble upon solitary items. They capture my eye, and I need to take a closer look. Today, let’s take a short trip with some of these random views of Life in the Foothills!

Every summer I see a lovely blue flower. This is one of those that naps in the afternoon to save energy. I finally stopped to see what it might be, only to discover that we have wild chicory growing here in the foothills. It sure does have a lovely flower, and one that attracts bees.

Wild Chicory

After inspecting that lovely flower, I turned to see the other chicory behind me only to discover a solitary thistle plant with a lovely purple blossom.

The beauty of thistle

Nearby are the remains of a plant who has some fairies still hanging on. Dry and crispy, these have their own beauty in their decay.

Done for the season

On the road that I drive to work daily, I never noticed this tribute to a miner from days gone by!

Memorial to a miner

Woodpeckers abound here in the foothills. One of the things that I have learned is that a single woodpecker will pick a tree and return to this tree to “bury” acorns. Here is one fully loaded tree!

One holey tree!

Driving around the neighborhood I come across a barn that has been overtaken by wild grape vines.

Overtaking the barn

A rustle in the bushes captures my attention, and I find myself looking into the eyes of a young buck. A doe is nearby.

One fine buck

Every day I wonder to myself, “What will I find next?” I cannot wait to find out!

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for visiting today!

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