Life-Changing!

 How in the world I neglected to mention some life-changing news in my last post is beyond me. What was I thinking? It is high time to rectify that shortcoming.

Ever since Bruce bought me my first Panasonic digital camera some 17 years ago, I have been a big fan of that brand of camera. I used them almost exclusively for years but for some reason that I don't recall, I bought an Olympus and that had been my camera of choice for the last say, nine years or so. The two brands are quite similar and even have lenses that fit both brands, so there was that. Perhaps you recall that I bought a new longer lens for my birdies and a new camera body to support said lens. It was a used Panasonic from Colonial Photo and Hobby, say a year or so ago? Except all of this time I have hated it because of a feature that I have become accustomed to using was not working as I wanted. Well, I won't bore you with the whole story, but suffice it to say, while searching YouTube for an answer, one poster mentioned resetting the camera. Well duh? Why didn't I think of that? 

That solved my problem instantly and now I am in fine shape, well, make that fantastic shape. The camera is living up, and even exceeding, my expectations now. The photos are gorgeous! 

Or at least I think so! Notice anything in this shot aside from our resident Northern Cardinal? That was obviously a super sunny day. This one was not so much. Also another tree as there are plenty to choose from here.

Buds my friends. Buds.

While having grown accustomed to my close up photos of the goldfinch on the feeders, every now and again I can get them in the trees.

Although we just took a fantastic field trip that I look forward to telling you about, I had been going through some months of photos in order to make an album to send to my publisher. Not that they are selling much these days, but it never hurts to send in new images. We will probably never have the good fortune that we once had when Hobby Lobby bought $100K worth of images and then continued reordering them, but mailbox money still trickles in, albeit at a much, much slower rate. I wrote about that wonderful day in this post from 2014 which if you have the time you might enjoy the story. I know it brought me to tears again!

My point was that I came across lots of things I had yet to post, so here goes some photos from places we've been and things I have seen that have brought me joy. Some days on my walk through the park I see almost nothing, and then there are days all sorts of things are captured with my cameras.

A close up of the old railroad bridge, the closure of which changed Murphy a lot. 

Because up to this point I have had very little exposure to forest mushrooms, it seems to me, from my limited exposure, that finding this big bunch in the winter is pretty unusual. Then again, it might not be unusual at all!

Something that really stood out to me while looking through photographs from December and January, is how much fog, from either the river, 

or the ground there was. I'm not seeing it as much for the last few weeks but there is at the very least six weeks of winter to go.

Beats me where I took this one below, but let's just put it in the blog and get it off of my desktop which, btw, after writing about it I took the plunge and got rid of all those languishing photos on the desktop.

What a hoot, I know exactly where I took this one!! And so do you. When they are small, I have no clue! 

One day while walking the sky turned an amazing color and had one of those "sundogs" present.

Here's something I found not far from the back door amongst the wet leaves during the rainy weather. 

One thing that has been really nice is the color of those leaves when wet. Not only do they look great on the ground, but on the trees where, according to John, they remain until pushed off by the new leaves. When they are dry, they shrivel and are more brown, but when wet, oh my that rust color is the best!

Still no sign of the bluebirds, but other birds are having no problem checking it out. Who will be the victor pray tell? Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, or perhaps even the White Breasted Nuthatch?

Say it ain't so! We want bluebirds! Remember these two?

I never finished up with our Asheville story and probably I won't go back in time aside from these images that I took in the car museum at the Grove Park Inn. I wish it did not have all the ceiling lights reflecting on it, but the facts are interesting, what you can read of them. One very telling sentence is the declaration that one can rarely sleep without a blanket AND there are no mosquitos, music to a Floridian's ears!

Finest Resort hotel in the World! Our next visit we must go check it out inside. I will say that they had some fantastic grass for December!

For those who love Asheville it might interest you to learn when they began their huge growth spurt. No charts on how things went following the stock market crash!

On our way home we stopped in Sylva for lunch which was delightful. More and more towns we visit have murals touting their assets.

During a quick stop in an antique store, I could not resist the lighting!

Aren't they just amazing glasses? Now you understand why I had to write a post to include random findings! Like the one below that we came across as we made our way back to the car after a fabulous lunch at Lulus. Fortunately Laura gave us the idea when I got in touch. It did not disappoint.

Western Carolina University is nearby and my research tells me that some of you may be familiar with one of their most famous alumni. If you guessed David Sedaris, you guessed right! Oh how we love his books! I have also had the pleasure of reading novels written by Ron Rash who teaches there and has just been named to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Previous winners include Thomas Wolfe and Lee Smith, who if you have never read a fantastic Southern novel written by a woman, I suggest you rectify that situation sooner rather than later!

Finally, as this post was meant to be short, I came across this, first in the park and more recently in my photo library.

Does that really even mean anything? Who else would you be???

your friend,

Gail