Happy Father's Day!

"When I was a girl of fourteen,

my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand

to have the old man around.  But when I got to

be twenty-one, I was astonished at how

much he had learned in seven years."  

~ Author unknown

I am so grateful to still have both my parents here.

My dad has always been there for me, in good times and in bad. He has bailed me out with a helping hand when trouble hits and has celebrated my successes when few others seemed to care. I am the oldest of four siblings and like with most kids, it wasn't always smooth sailing. As time goes on though, our father/daughter differences have become less, as our bond grows ever stronger. Thank you so much for all the love and support you've showered on me over the past half+ century, dad! I love and respect you dear father, mentor and friend ~ with all my heart!

Here are some recent photos of my dad, 'Big Al' Sandy.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO MY DAD!!

And to All Dads Everywhere!!

X ♥  O

 

Boardwalk Empire Facade on the Atlantic City Boardwalk

Here's a few snaps from yesterday, of the 'Boardwalk Empire' facade on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

Check it out.

 It's pretty neat!

"The 180-foot long display is in front of the West Hall of Boardwalk Hall, near the intersection of the Boardwalk and Florida Avenue. It is a re-creation of some of the sets for the HBO television series, which is itself a translation of Atlantic County Superior Court Judge, Nelson C. Johnson’s history of Atlantic City." ~ PressofAtlanticCity.com

Another Road Trip! Atlantic City, NJ

Yesterday, my Nikon buddy, Nano, took a ride up to North Jersey with me. O.M.G. !  I came home with a beautiful new setup. With this new, popular, lighter weight body and zoom lens, I'll be doing some serious shooting. I'm anxious to get it all sorted out and set-up. 

Today I got up early and headed down to Atlantic City Boardwalk with college classmate, friend and photography mentor, Nancy Louie, aka; Nano. Because I haven't even had it out of the box yet, and because my main goal was to assist my friend, I didn't take my new baby. I took my little point and shoot Cannon PowerShot A590 instead. Here's a few of the untouched snap shots I got.

The morning shadows added to the atmosphere.

It was a beautiful morning. The early risers included bikers, walkers, families and seniors.

Although the background remained constant, the flow of people was ever changing. 

 The guys with the push carts were waiting in line. 

When the cart by the casino door got a passenger, the next guy in line would move up to the door.

Any time of the night or day, the Atlantic City Boardwalk is an interesting and unusual place. It's got a unique mix of the old and new with a "Down the Shore,  Jersey Style " gambling town character all of it's own. A great place to people-watch for sure!

We've done a lot of things to get across the message that the city center is not just a place to buy things. It's not just a commercial place. It's a place where you come in and sit on the boardwalk, have a cup of coffee and look around you.

~ John Fitzgerald

Devon Horse Show 25 Year Reunion

 I have not attended the yearly Devon Horse Show and Country Fair in over twenty years. I stopped going when I switched from Hunters to Dressage. After that, I attended Dressage At Devon every year for over a decade. I had to stop going when I started doing a lot of art shows which always fell at the same time in the fall. Yesterday was a beautiful day and I decided to venture out to the fair. I left at the wrong time of the day and an hour and fifteen minute trip took me nearly two and a half. When I got there, the first thing I spotted as I neared the grounds was the ferriswheel.

 They were on dinner break, so I walked around the fairgrounds and watched some of the riders warm up for the $20,000 Gambler's Choice Jumper Class.

This lovely grey warmblood really caught my eye. I was fascinated by this unusual dee-ring snaffle bit and hackamore combination.

The setting at Devon is one of traditional elegance.

Here this gorgeous horse shows perfect form over the jump. I got so caught up in things I forgot to get a program, so I am clueless as to the identity of this pair. If anyone out there knows, please give me a shout. I did recognize some names from the past like Chapot and Ward, but this time it was the kids of these famous equestrians that were in the spotlight.

In the Gambler's Choice Class, each jump has different points and the rider picks the course. Anything goes and the horse with the most points and fastest time wins the cash. I had a perfect view of the Devon jump, but but only one rider jumped it because it was only 30 points. I only stayed for two classes, after which I was Devoned-out. I've got more photos to share next time. See more shots of Devon 2011 on Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor's blog.

My Baby Turns Twenty Today! :-(

It was twenty years ago today. . . 

While visiting my friend in VA, I witnessed the birth of Oldenburg Stallion, San Diego's first foal on Memorial Day 1991. It was an incredible experience! The filly was born in the indoor arena and I got her first steps on video. She was so beautiful! I was in love and definitely in horse-heaven. Little did I know at the time that she would be my Santa Margarita. Since I have no human children, she's the closest I'll ever get to having a baby of my own. It was apparent right from the start that the foal had a very high opinion of herself and a strong willed "mind of her own". After an hour of getting her land legs, she wasn't finished checking out the indoor arena, the footing, cavaletti, ground poles or cats and dog. She had to be pushed by three of us to follow her screaming mother back to the stall. She resisted by rearing and bucking. . . at less than an hour old.

She loved to be brushed, hand fed and fussed over.

Here's a picture of me and Santa Margarita when she was about two months old. My friend used this photo in her stallion advertising campaign. She said people often commented about the cute photo of the foal and the "little girl". : -)

(Shhh, A little secret - I was 37 at the time.)

She was a firey filly and very tall and strong.

Here we are when she was four months old. Look how fast she was growing! What a handful. I felt sorry for her mom. I'm putting a slideshow together to commemorate this day and the past twenty years with my big girl. I'll post it here soon.

And here we are today.

Still Together After All These Years!

Happy 20th Birthday Today To My Lovely Rita!

Three Cats In The Yard

I decided that the pictures I posted of Jerry's tomato plants didn't really do them justice and show their size, so today I'm including these two shots.




When I was shooting the plants, the cats came out and wanted their picture taken too. This is Leah. Short for Ugly-a. She's a feral feline that we had fixed and take care of. At first I thought she was ugly, but now I see her beauty.

"A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather." ~ Judith Merkle Riley


And Ziggy (our orange house cat, Tigger's brother). He's also a feral we had neutered. He's nothing like his laid back brother. He's afraid of us and like Leah, always stays a safe distance away. He and Leah are real pals and are almost always together.

"The cat has too much spirit to have no heart." ~ Ernest Manual

"Women, poets, and especially artists, like cats; delicate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous systems." ~ Helen M. Winslow

And last but not least, this is Princess. She is my studio cat, waiting at the studio door to be let in. She was here first and thinks all the others should definitely go!

"I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days." ~ Bill Dana

Deer Trouble and Jerry's Giant Tomato Plants

We've had to put our hanging plants up on the side deck because we've got a juvenile delinquent problem. A brazen, ravenous, young doe started eating my flowers! I gave up years ago trying to have flower beds out here, but have gotten away with hanging baskets right up next to the back of our house. The deer have always stayed away . . . 'til now. We bought some spray, but I'm thinking it's easier just to move them around everyday. I scared the curious culprit away in the middle of the day yesterday! Any suggestions (besides hunting of course) will be considered. Here are a few shots taken early this morning with my little Cannon Power Shot.


Before I got off on that tangent, I wanted to show you these hu-mung-ous tomato plants that Jerry picked up! I've never seen a potted tomato plant get so huge. I hope the little deer doesn't decide to go up on the deck and give them a nibble.

Be Careful What You Wish For! :-D

A New Jersey Winter Wonderland



We got dumped on last Friday into Sunday. What with all the shoveling, extra work with the animals and Christmas stuff, I haven't gotten a chance to post here since then. I didn't dare take my big Nikon camera out in the mess, but I did get quite a few shots with my trusty little Canon point and shoot tucked into my pocket.




Rudy, my soon to be 30 year old Paint, loves the snow. I call him my big Nordic Pony. He was out in the storm every chance he got and was happy as a clam just trucking around his paddock, plowing through the snow like he was a four wheel drive Snow Cat.


Rita, on the other hand, is just like a cat. She doesn't want to touch the stuff, let alone walk in it.


I had to shovel a loop for her just to get her out of her stall. (A potentially dangerous venture to be caught in the trenches with nowhere to go when she decided to bolt. Once I did end up in a snow pile with just my hand with my camera sticking out.) Later that day she got brave and ventured off on her own. She has a nice sense of design, don't you think?


Compare her trail to Rudy's well worn network of pathways here.

You can see my entire "After The Storm" slide show here.

Telephoto Lenses and Flies

Nano and I headed down to the Forsythe Wildlife Refuge yesterday afternoon to check out the telephoto lenses I rented for the week. What we did not anticipate however, is that there were massive numbers of biting flies! They swarmed our car like a pack of angry bees. Needless to say, we were not able to get out and try out the lenses. Afterwards we headed down the road to Atlantic City and took a few shots from a casino parking garage. Here is my favorite shot of Absecon Lighthouse looking eastward out towards the ocean.

Worth A Thousand Words

White Tigers, Oh My!

One of the highlights of my trip to Great Adventure was seeing the white tigers. They have quite a few of them, but this guy was the biggest. He was so cute, you just wanted to cuddle and play with him! His facial expressions and actions reminded me so much of my own orange tabby tiger, Tigger.


Look at him play with his toy!


That is ONE BIG KITTY!


With focus and determination.

In a very proud moment, he displays his prize.

Camera: Cannon A590 point 'n shoot - through dirty glass. :-D

I can't believe this is the last day of June already! I've been meaning to post more snapshots of my Great Adventure trip for the past two weeks and seem to always be running out of time. I've got an intensive project going on right now. I'm photographing and post processing my artwork for online venues. Between the photography, blogging and the sketching everyday, the days are quickly turning into nights.

Magic Mushrooms In Weird New Jersey

I live in weird New Jersey. It's home to the Jersey Devil and other strange stuff. People from New Jersey get used to it. As you local people know, we've had a tremendous amount of rain the past month here. The woods are wet and there's a lot of mushrooms, moss and fungus growing everywhere. Thursday morning I spent some time going out into our woods with my camera and my close up Macro lens. Here's a few of my unprocessed shots, straight from the camera. I hope you enjoy!




Local friend, Lou Bergdoll wrote in after my sketchingeveryday post yesterday; "Little Louie and I were bicycling in the pines off Atsion Rd. on Three Bridges Rd. going toward the Mulica River this evening and we found the greatest clump of red fungus! I wish you could have seen them. It was absolutely magical in the waning rays of the dying sun. Thanks for sharing! Lou"
Thank you Lou.... wish I could have seen that!