Wildflower Portraits

As I mentioned in a recent post

I wanted to take some portraits of

a child in the beautiful wildflowers

that line our walking path.

The flowers would be about waist-high

on a five-year-old.

My daughter Lindsay was home

for Father's Day weekend.

I begged her to get little again,

but she wouldn't.

"Then, PLEASE let me at least practice with you,"

I pleaded.

"Mom, my hair is pulled back and I'm

not wearing makeup," she groaned.

She finally relented,

but wouldn't smile.

"If I smile, you'll put it on FaceBook."

I finally got the photo, and didn't put it

on FB...but I HAD to put it in here!

Desperate to photograph a lovely little child

surrounded by flowers...

I borrowed one from my

friend Lisa.

Her niece Katy is five years old.

PERFECT!

Lisa said Katy is full of energy

and loves to pose.

I prefer non-posed photos.

I loved when Katy sort of forgot the

camera and just acted like Katy.

But even when she posed,

she was precious.

The weirdest thing...

Katy looks exactly like ME

when I was that age!

It was startling to see myself

through that camera lens.

As we were leaving, I had a sudden

brain flash to photograph Katy with her dad

who was along for the ride.

SOOOO glad we did!

After all that practice,

I felt prepared to photograph

Alexandra.

My cousin Jim flew in from California

this week

to stay with us and brought along

his almost-five-year-old.

She was so adorable...

ALL children...playing in wildflowers

are precious...

And, daddies with their little girls

are precious beyond words...

Land of the Midnight Sun

Back in the mid-90s, my mother

was writing her first historical romance novel.

The story began in Sweden which is

where her grandmother grew up.

She wanted to visit Sweden to get

the feel and do some research,

so guess who got to tag along???

We stayed with my cousin Jim who

was living there at the time.

After 36 hours of travel, Mom and

I were exhausted as we sat

chatting with Jim in the evening.

The sun was shining brightly, but

I was SOOOOOO tired.  I thought it

was about 7pm,  but when

I looked at the clock...it was

MIDNIGHT!

I was fascinated with the

LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

The sun was truly up

ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

After a week in Sweden...

since we were so close, we

took a train to Norway.

The scenery was

MAGNIFICENT!

I pulled some photos

from my scrapbook.

We stayed at this hotel

tucked among the Norwegian Fjords.

We happened to be staying there on

JUNE 21st...the longest day of the year.

This is the stunning view from our

hotel room.

On this very day in 1996, I decided to

drag myself out of bed every hour

to photograph that view

and show that the sun never sets!

I was a bit droopy the next day,

but it was worth the hourly wake-ups.

What really woke me up was

THE SWISS ALPS...

yep, we took another side trip

because my mother's dream was to one

day visit Switzerland.

That's me at the highest point

reachable by man

in the Swiss Alps.

I love experiencing

SPLENDOR!

But I'm glad we don't have total darkness here

in the winter.

Wildflowers

As I showed you a

few blog posts ago,

dandelions choked out the grass

 along our municipal walking path

last month

creating an ocean of yellow

that transformed into fluffy white.

Well, the puff balls blew away,

planting even MORE dandelions for next spring.

They are now replaced with stunning

WILDFLOWERS!

I think I get more exercise from running home

to grab my camera than I ever get

just walking that path.

I was truly enchanted by the

splotches of random color stretching

on and on...

While standing knee deep in weeds

and wildflowers

snapping photos...

This little bird landed on a tall weed.

He fluttered from stalk to stalk

 precariously plopping on plants.

Whenever I'm shooting in such

splendid nature...

I feel that sense of magic.

Just me and my goosebumps...

experiencing it

through my camera lens.

I stood frozen,

my camera by my face,

as he fluttered closer and closer...

Plop...

SNAP!

Magic!

Speaking of closer...

I spotted this monster!

I'm scared to death of these big, fat, hairy

bumblebees.

When I was a kid, I went to sit on a log by a

campfire.

Three big, fat, hairy, angry bumblebees

flew from the log

to attack the screaming me

and in unison globbed onto my

flailing index finger and jabbed their

stingers into my child flesh.

Ever since....they are my enemy!

I even had my husband remove the

pretty bushes by our front door

because they attracted bumblebees.

Yah!

These pics were taken with

a telephoto lens,

and I was poised to flee

if he turned on me.

A happier sight

was this thick patch of

daisies by a fence.

I think daisies are a happy flower.

So simple...

And smiley...

They remind me of sunshine.

I picture some pictures

of a five year old child

playing in the

WILDFLOWERS.

My friend Lisa

said I can borrow her five-year-old niece.

Plus, my cousin Jim

is visiting in a week

with his almost-five-year-old!!

So, I'll be back with the

wildflowers...

and, the magic...

So, don't go away!