Saturday, October 16, 2010

Railroad Trestle, Cool and Shady ~ An End of Summer Tribute

Summer ends late in SW Florida. For a very short time of the year it is the most gorgeous weather you could imagine. Then, it gets cold. I know some of you can't imagine Florida as cold, but we do have frosts that kill some of the plants once in a while. I guess my blood has gotten thin in 20 years, but when we get weather in the 30s and 40s, it is a very damp cold, too. Bone chilling. . .

Okay, enough complaining. It's really been beautiful lately.

I was wandering around in my mind trying to think of some nice picture to post. I can't think of anything that is "fallish" to represent the present season, but I though I would share a few picture from an adventure that I took with my young neighbor.

Last summer on an extremely hot day, he and I (he has adopted me as his grandma) took off for a short hike down the nearby railroad track. It was fun to discover an old, low trestle. I took quite a few pictures and some of them turned out pretty good. I'll share them now as an end of summer tribute. 

The trestle



See the cypress knees?

 
Looking down through the tracks

 
 Colorful Lubber Grasshopper




The trestle was a cool, shady, mysterious place with a sandy floor underneath and dripping water. There was a lot of green and mats of tiny flowers. Brown cypress knees poked up, and tiny fish swam in the stream of water. A garden spider sat in the middle of a perfect orb. The dark creosoted wood made a nice contrast with the green ferns and cool water. It was a pleasant oasis on a hot summer afternoon.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

CQ TeaCup Challenge

My last blog was about 2 months ago! Where does the time go? Well, into the past I guess. That's the only place it can go! I decided to make a post today because I want to keep this going. I don't want it to become one of my projects that slowly fades off in the sunset.

Where have I been? Well, just busy to say the least. Having "issues" at work. Trusting God to work it out. It must be another exercise in faith. Honestly my time is so consumed between work and college that I am feeling that I've lost a lot of my connectivity to nature and my creative self. Praying on how to remedy all this.

I was able to complete a CQ block over the summer and I'll post some pictures of it here. It was a CQ challenge and contest presented by Nickilee on the HGTV boards. The kit we received contained the teacup, two charms, two pieces of fabric, and a beautiful piece of lace. The challenge was to use them all in the block in any way we chose. My theme was A Cup of Tea in an Oriental Garden. This was my first completed CQ project and I was pleased with it. I say "completed," but there are a few things I would still like to eventually add to it. It will be a wallhanging when completed. Not sure how to re-order the pictures. They're not in the order I wanted. Can anyone tell me how?







Well, I can't put off the homework for my college classes any longer. I have two huge assignments due soon, so off I go!