The Whopper

Our chickens have been laying really well lately.

Today they did especially well, considering the snowy weather. We got 16 regular eggs and one whoopper!

I don't have a clue why one of our hens laid this huge egg.

It stands head and shoulders above the other eggs, which are nothing to sneeze at themselves.

A typical day's egg crop includes eggs that range in size from really small to fairly large, but today's big one is unusual. I think it must have had a difficult entrance into the world!

Here's today's smallest, the largest of the regular eggs, and the whopper.

It was fun to weigh them. The littlest one weighed 1.5 ounces.

The brown one weighed 2.5 ounces.

The giant one tipped the scales at 4.0 ounces!!

I've written about eggs before, and I still enjoy them. They're one of the farm's gifts that are both beautiful and useful. And we get new ones every day! Speaking of which, anyone need some eggs?

Just Us Girls

It's just us girls at home today. Leah is "in a bad way" and can't go to the farm with the boys for another week. The puppies were fun, and I'm so glad we had them, but no more for a while, please.

Leah is surprisingly patient with the whole thing. Mostly she sleeps. She gets restless sometimes and barks a little. Maybe her tummy hurts. For the most part, though, she just waits it out.

This morning, after our walk, we played ball in the sunshine. Leah loves to play ball and will play endlessly if she has a willing partner.

Cheyenne loves to play, too. She is better at the fetching part than Leah and brings the ball right back to me for another throw.

Leah brings it within about three feet, then snaps at it until I walk over and throw or kick it again.

But Leah really gets into nabbing the ball. She shakes it so hard it's a wonder she doesn't hurt herself! And she'll do it over and over again as long as I'm willing to play. The following photos took place within about two seconds...or less!

I'm thinking there are some lessons for me here. This 50-something season of life I'm in has me bewildered. Some days I think it will just about to do me in. And it's doubling frustrating that I don't get any choice about going through it and there's not a whole lot I can do to change it. Kind of like Leah in her season. Maybe I need to follow her example:

Get plenty of exercise,

get plenty of rest,

 use plenty of patience,

and approach life with gusto!

And remember that this, too, shall pass.

Shadow Play Photo Challenge

After delving into my archives to find photos for last month's challenge, I had the best of intentions for this month. You know: intending to look for great shots on purpose. And then it was time to post already! I can offer the holidays and a death in the family in the way of excuses for not working at this assignment, but I still could have done better. Oh, well, there's always next month!

Despite my lack of effort, I do have two shots to offer. Recently I posted several photos of a simple white pitcher, some of which are all the better for the shadows they contain:

A few days ago I was photographing a neighbor's sheep and llamas and got this interesting shadow shot, totally by accident. I didn't notice the shadow of the llama's head until I looked at the photos on the computer. Pretty cool!

There you have it - my humble offering for the Shadow Play challenge. Many thanks to Donna for organizing the Personal Photo Challenge each month. You can see more great photos by clicking on the links at this site:

A Personal Photo Challenge

Let There Be Light - Photo Challenge

I found out early on that light is everything in photography. After all, the word itself means drawing (graph) with light (photo)! Since the poor results on my first attempt at food photography, I've learned a lot about light, mostly by trial and error. The header photo for this blog is a good example. I was able to capture the beautiful red trillium in the early evening, with the sun behind it, which made for the pretty colors and shadows. Since shadows are the opposite of light, they are interesting, too. My last post showcased black & white photos of a pure white pitcher, where shadows were front and center.

For this challenge, I'm delving into my archives for photos where light is part of the composition and well as the exposure.

I love holiday lights and nativity scenes. In this shot, the only sources of light are the Christmas tree lights and two electric candles in the windows, to the right of the nativity figurines. I'm just learning to use Pic Monkey and did a little editing there to make this final shot.

Aperture Priority mode, shutter speed: 1, aperture 3.5,  ISO 80.

This was the sunrise the day before last weekend's ice storm. I stood, shivering I might add, on my front porch to get this one, probably around 7:00 a.m. The camera was on the  auto-without-flash setting:

shutter speed 1/100, aperture 5.6, ISO 400. 

This is another auto-without-flash photo of a sunset a month or two ago. You just can't beat the good Lord's lighting, so no editing here. It's straight out of the camera. Shutter speed: 1/30, aperture 8.0, ISO 100.

Finally, I can't do a post about light without candles. I used a tripod to get this one last summer, while I was reveling in my blue mason jar haul. You know, I'm still finding blue jars here and there in the outside sheds!

Shutter speed 1/4, aperture 5.6. ISO 3200.

Many thanks to Donna for hosting the Personal Photo Challenge every month. Stop by and take a look at all the lovely photos as we shutterbugs learn together. Merry Christmas everyone!

Pitcher Study

This morning I was trying to begin decorating for Christmas, but as so often happens these days, I got distracted. Several years ago I found this pretty white pitcher buried deep in a cabinet at the farmhouse and it's become one of my favorite things. So pure and creamy, so lovely and graceful. And not a chip or crack to be found, despite its age of several decades, at least. After I took the fall flowers out of it and dusted my pretty oak table, the pitcher and the shadows it cast caught my photographer's eye.

Despite the rich color of the table, I decided to shoot in black and white. Thirty minutes and several dozen shots later, I ended up with some nice photos. These are the best, straight out of the camera with no editing.

Who knew a simple white pitcher could be such a beautiful thing?