07/10/12 - The Statue and the Flowers My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/statue-and-flowers.html The cold front arrived yesterday bringing an inch and a half of rain to my house along with cooler temps:-) While the break in the heat is great, it was raining when Donnie and did our errands yesterday, and I didn't get to take Jennifer over to Yates Mill like I had hoped. That and stopping by to see Sir Walter Raleigh were the two other things I would like to have done during her stay. Maybe some other time. I took my daily shot at a quick stop we made between the raindrops. I loved the backdrop of flowers. I did do some shots with Jennifer and my dragonfly lights. I didn't like how they turned out enough to post as a daily:-( SmugMug Link HAGD, Maryann

Thanks for stopping by to view my daily photo! I will post a new photo each day to this gallery. Typically, I will post early morning, and the photo will have been taken the day before. Sometimes the photo may be from sometime earlier in the week, but all the pictures posted will be relatively new. I hope you see something that makes you smile. Feel free to leave professionally appropriate comments.

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07/15/12 - Giant Swallowtail

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/giant-swallowtail.html

My daily is a Giant Swallowtail taken in the Magic Wings Butterfly House Carolina Pavilion at The Museum of Life and Science in Durham.

Here's what this butterfly looks like from the back.

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Johnny alerted me to these caterpillars.  Wow!  Left and lower right is the caterpillar of a Black Swallowtail. Upper and center right is the caterpillar of a Polyphemus Moth.

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Although cropped severely, you can actually see the mouth of the caterpillar eating in this shot!

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There is a new Into the Mist area at the museum.  What a great thing to do on an extra warm summer's day. Definitely a big hit with my boys who spent over 40 minutes running through the various sections.

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A Coopers Hawk as identified to me by Ranger Ro.

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Johnny was extra cute and in an extra good mood yesterday.  That's a prickly stick (close to walking stick) in his hand right middle.  Yes, he's touching a ball python bottom second from left.  A ladybug is on the microscope screen top second from left.

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Me and the boys, very hot, on the train.

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Out of steam to edit out the Exit sign from this optical illusion shot of Joey, but I thought it was cool and wanted to share.

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This beautiful long haired cat is hanging out in my yard eating some of the scraps I put out.  Won't come to me.

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Thanks for all your comments on my coneflower swallowtail pic from yesterday...

HAGD,
Maryann

07/14/12 - Butterfly Paradise

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/butterfly-paradise.html

I went to Wilkerson Farms yesterday to buy more grass fed local beef. Yum! One of the owners, Carrie, has a lovely garden of coneflowers and zinnias in front of her house. I was so delighted to see the yellow Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly fluttering from flower to flower as well as a Buckeye, American Lady, Silver Spotted Skipper, Sulphur of some sort, and several other Skippers and smaller butterflies that I'm not sure of the ID of. It was seriously a butterfly paradise, and I snapped away both before and after making the transaction that I'd come to do. Carrie even had sunflowers! Wow!

I did a lot of pp on this one to remove the background.  There was a lot of dead, brown flower in it.

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These two sulphurs floated together with one being kindof still and feeding and the other never slowing down. They carried on this way the entire time I was there.

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Love the probiscus on this Silver Spotted Skipper!  Wish he was farther left on the flower though.

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What a cute tiny Skipper!

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No clue about this tiny guy but yet another variety of butterfly in the garden.

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A larger view of the garden.  Like I said...a butterfly paradise!

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Thanks for your comments on Bob:-)

HAGD,
Maryann

07/13/12 - Bob

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/bob.html

Johnny and I rode our bikes to Porter Farms and Nursery yesterday, about a mile, and bought fresh green beans for dinner.  Donnie has me considering biking places instead of just hopping in my van for short trips.  I can manage to ride my bike with the Canon SX40 HS around my neck.  I'm sure you'll understand that being able to take my camera with me is of course the deciding factor in my transportation choices;-)  At any point, the girls up there were having some fun with vegetable creations.  I thought Bob was rather crafty!

Speaking of veggies.  I embarked on a new cooking adventure Wednesday, making chicken stock, and I ended up making a great chicken soup for lunch yesterday too.  It was quite possibly the best chicken soup I've ever made or had.

Below is a picture of the soup, and here are the details.  They say there are a lot of healthy benefits to making the stock this way, so consider giving it a try.

For starters, I bought a chicken directly from a farmer.  My first and not last!  It was cleaned up and ready to cook but fresh and healthy and free of any injected crap and a whopping 6lbs.  I roasted it in the oven about like you'd expect putting carrots and onions underneath it and not using any chicken bouillon like I would have in the past. I browned it nice by rubbing olive oil and spices on it.  We had it for dinner with sugar snap peas and a salad, and it was yummy!  Afterward, Donnie wanted me to try making real chicken stock from bones, so I got out my pasta pot, put the bones in the colander part, added enough water to cover, and proceeded to create the stock.  Here's the recipe that I used.  I see no reason to wait to add the veggies and spices, and I let mine cook for more like 5 hours.  It was so easy to lift up the colander to remove the bones from the broth, but what about the veggies?  We decided to carefully remove the bones and add the veggies back.  We figured there was a small risk for bones left in but worth the risk.  I had hoped that the stock would have a great flavor, but it was kindof so so without any salt or real spices.  But I guess that's the way it was supposed to be.  We put it in the fridge to cool overnight.

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I used this recipe to turn the stock into soup.  I take liberties with just about every recipe I use, but you get the gist.  I used olive oil to saute an orange bell pepper, an onion, and minced garlic.  I added in the 4 cups of stock.  I did not add additional celery as the stock had some in it.  I didn't have the spinach to add at the end either.  I ended up adding 2 teaspoons of salt, a generous amount of Texas Pete, the soy sauce, a bit of basil, and pepper.  I put in a pinch of tarragon and sprinkled in some poultry seasoning (rosemary) too.  I kept finessing the flavor trying to bring out the best in the stock and I think it worked.  Then I added in some leftover link style chicken and spinach sausage and a bunch of the leftover chicken which Donnie had deboned for me along with the carrots that I had roasted under the chicken the night before.  Wow!  Donnie and the boys and I ate it up for lunch big time!  Thankfully, there are two bowls of soup left and enough chicken stock to make soup again real soon.

Thanks for your comments on my sunset in the windows shot from yesterday...

HAGD,
Maryann

07/12/12 - Views of the Setting Sun

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/views-of-setting-sun.html

I couldn't help but notice the reflections in the windows of an office building out in center field during the Durham Bills Game last week.  I was too busy talking about the fireworks and Wool E. Bull to mention this photo then, and I didn't take anything yesterday worth sharing, so here it is today.  It looks like some combination between sun and water to me.

Here's an earlier picture showing the building that later had the reflection.

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HAGD,
Maryann

07/11/12 - It's Raining It's Pouring

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/its-raining-its-pouring.html

It poured yesterday afternoon and more rain is expected over the next 3 days.  Woo hoo except that it cuts down on the light and therefore my outside photo ops.

I was standing in the garage watching Donnie and Johnny working on Teen's flat bicycle tire when I took the daily of my birdbath splashing in a heavy downpour.  (The boys are home from their trip with their dad now.)  Donnie's very skilled at fixing things, and he's patched several bike tires already this year.  We read an article or saw a news show recently that talked about how today's kids aren't learning to fix anything.  Many cars are too hard to work on these days; I think car repair used to be a great how to use tools opportunity.  The world is so fast paced that we're all in must do mode instead of taking time to show and do with kids.  It was nice to see Johnny who is interested in all sorts of tech stuff interested enough to pay attention and Donnie patient enough to slow down and explain a few things to him.  I just love the reflection of their work showing up in both vehicles.

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Here's a wider view up the driveway.  You can just barely see the blue birdbath on the right.

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Joey asked Donnie to teach him cards today.  As in playing cards.  Hard to believe, but the boys had not played Go Fish, and that's the game Donnie chose.  What fun!  Madi showed up for a while too!  She was glad to see 'her' boys.  It did my heart good to hear all the laughter and see all the smiles at the table.  Sometimes it's life's simple pleasures.

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Thank you for the comments on my statue and flowers...

HAGD,
Maryann

07/10/12 - The Statue and the Flowers

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/statue-and-flowers.html

The cold front arrived yesterday bringing an inch and a half of rain to my house along with cooler temps:-) While the break in the heat is great, it was raining when Donnie and did our errands yesterday, and I didn't get to take Jennifer over to Yates Mill like I had hoped. That and stopping by to see Sir Walter Raleigh were the two other things I would like to have done during her stay. Maybe some other time.

I took my daily shot at a quick stop we made between the raindrops.  I loved the backdrop of flowers.

I did do some shots with Jennifer and my dragonfly lights.  I didn't like how they turned out enough to post as a daily:-(

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HAGD,
Maryann

07/09/12 - Jennifer in the Hot July Heat

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/jennifer-in-hot-july-heat.html

All vacations need a down day, right?  Well that's what yesterday ended up being for Jennifer.  It was 101 at the house again, and Donnie and I stayed inside most of the day.  I gave Jennifer a great view for watching DVR'ed Nascar and Wimbledon and the movie Timeless.  I have this large window upstairs in the garage bonus room where the good TV is.  There's a half circle (moon) glass on top and then for the regular window I have a curtain with sun/moon fabric.  I thought it made a nice back-drop for today's daily.  I used to be really, really into celstrial stuff in my decor.  Remnants remain, but I don't add to the collection too much anymore. 

The red glow to the fabric in the daily is from the Picasa neon filter.

Here's a pink tinted version of the daily.

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And the real fabric.

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I took a couple of pics of the grandfather clock (from my father's house) with  the curtain and light creating neat reflections.

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The shot below is the weights (is that the right word?) with the curtain reflecting on them through a glass panel.

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Donnie and I  have errands to run late afternoon, so I hope to get a few parting shots of Jennifer around town and then send her off to her next destination tomorrow.  We're starting a cool down today which kicks into earnest tomorrow and is also scheduled to bring several inches of rain.  We really need the cool down and the ability to go outdoors without instantly sweating again.  Yesterday for exercise we resorted to using the xBox Kinnect Adventures game inside with AC! 

Thanks for stopping by to comment and read about Jennifer's journey.

HAGD,
MAryann

7/7/12 - A Walk in the Ferns

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/walk-in-ferns.html

It was too stinkin' hot to do much of anything in Raleigh yesterday.  At 102, you go from house to air conditioned car to store and back and that's about it.  Donnie and I took a trip into town to run a few errands including going to Guardian Angel Thrift.  Arguably, it's my favorite store in town:-)  This charity has raised over 1 million towards Alzheimers Research and is still going strong.  Jennifer helped me pick out several new shirts, and us girls had a good time browsing everything in the store.  Thanks to Donnie for snapping the shot of me and Jennifer in the parking lot.

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Also at Guardian Angel, Jennifer and I picked up a quick gift for her next host, Linda G. Linda has a collection of tiny shoes, and Jennifer thought it would be nice to add another one to the group.

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Jennifer and I did take a short walk to Madi's driveway to snap this quick shot with the pink chair.  Go pink!

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And of course at night, Jennifer took some time to enjoy the mood lights.  We watched Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also.

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Jennifer thinks we are eating pretty well!  Homemade fajitas!

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Thanks for stopping by to check out Jennifer's Road Trip and for your comments.

HAGD,
Maryann

07/07/12 - Jennifer's Road Trip and NC Bling (Pink Cadillac)

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/jennifers-road-trip.html

I am very excited to host Jennifer over the next few days. She's not your ordinary girl; she's a class act! Read more about Jennifer and her road trip at The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bras. I know most of you are already aware that I'm a breast cancer survivor having been diagnosed in October 2011, having surgery, and then chemo. But, I'm doing great these days, my hair is growing back, and my life is moving forward. It's easy to understand why participating in Jennifer's Road Trip takes on a very special meaning for me.

I was out and about in my yard and around my house with her yesterday, and a I captured Jennifer in patriotic and romantic moods. She's so fun!  I hope to have more photo shoots with Jennifer and pictures to share over the next few days too. Enjoy her trip with me!

My daily is showing off the pink Cadillac pin that I added as part of the bling or memento that Jennifer will be picking up at each of her stops.  I've always had a thing for Cadillacs and better yet pink ones;-)

Here's a collage showing the other pics I took of Jennifer yesterday and linking you back to the gallery I'll be updating daily during her visit.

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All you flamingo lovers out there, take note!  Here's Jennifer posing with a very special flag from SmugMug friend Carole.  The girls, Ms. Flamingo and Jennifer, were quick friends!

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Jennifer also got to view these beautiful lilies in my front yard.

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Best stop typing and get busy hosting!

HAGD,
Maryann

07/10/12 - The Statue and the Flowers

My Blog: http://maryanng.blogspot.com/2012/07/statue-and-flowers.html

The cold front arrived yesterday bringing an inch and a half of rain to my house along with cooler temps:-) While the break in the heat is great, it was raining when Donnie and did our errands yesterday, and I didn't get to take Jennifer over to Yates Mill like I had hoped. That and stopping by to see Sir Walter Raleigh were the two other things I would like to have done during her stay. Maybe some other time.

I took my daily shot at a quick stop we made between the raindrops. I loved the backdrop of flowers.

I did do some shots with Jennifer and my dragonfly lights. I didn't like how they turned out enough to post as a daily:-(

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HAGD,
Maryann

Sir Walter Raleigh were the two other things I would like to have done during her stay. Maybe some other time. I took my daily shot at a quick stop we made between the raindrops. I loved the backdrop of flowers. I did do some shots with Jennifer and my dragonfly lights. I didn't like how they turned out enough to post as a daily:-( SmugMug Link HAGD, Maryann" href="javascript:openLB(1956668968,'',XLarge,'',576,768);">