Tuesdays of Texture | Week 25 of 2017

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We went out with friends to the Elks Club on Saturday night for a Shrimp Fest dinner. We had a wonderful dinner at a poolside table.  Just off of the pool deck was this raised platform with a picnic table in the middle. The railing around the table was a very thick rope that looked like a huge boa constrictor snake. I love the texture differences between the wood, the rope, the plants, the brick and the old rusted chain.

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Anyone can join the fun by following this link to the blog ‘De Monte Y Mar‘ hosted by Narami.

Oh, My Father

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Oh, my father
Wish you were here
Ready to listen
Now so much is clear.

You led by example
Without ever knowing
The impact you made
While we were still growing.

You never let on
The turmoil inside
The anguish you felt
Always fighting the tide.

Life never was easy
You worked ever so hard
Without recognition
With little reward.

So much I have learned
In the years since you died
All life’s little lessons
That you bottled inside.

You got up every morning
With one thing in mind
To provide for your family
Despite hardships you’d find.

You never let on
How life ground you down
You just carried on
With a smile, not a frown.

I wish I could tell you
How much you are loved
But maybe you know it
From so far above.

The image of this 1940 Buick is almost identical to the car my father used to teach me how to drive. The image is from www.hemmings.com. You can follow the link to find out more information about the picture.

Thursday Doors – June 15, 2017

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Today I have a brief tale of dealing with the front door on our home.

Two weeks ago i did my biennial (once every two years) job of sanding and treating the outside surface of our front door. This keeps the door in tip-top shape, especially since the door does not receive much direct sunlight.

While treating the doors, i rediscovered that the flush bolt on the stationary panel was missing a part, so the latch at the bottom of the door would not raise the bolt out of the door sill. This meant that I had to use a screwdriver to slowly pry up the bolt out of the sill so that I could open the non-active panel for treatment.

Well, ignoring the problem for another year was just plain lazy, so I called our home builder to see about replacing the flush bolt. He passed me on to his door agent, who passed me on to DSA Doors in Raleigh, NC where the original door was purchased. When I contacted the service department at DSA doors, they wanted me to text them pictures of the entire door and of the flush bolt so that they could order the correct parts.

So, I decide that this episode would make a decent reintroduction to my usual Thursday Doors posts. The featured image is of the flush bolt extending down into the sill, and the second picture is of my reconditioned front door.

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We have since replaced the worn out welcome mat in front of the door and I am still awaiting the arrival of the new flush bolt. Then Donny Mills, our home builder, will send over someone to help me take down the very heavy door panel and install the new part.

Stop over the Norm Frampton’s blog called ‘Norm 2.0’ and see his entry The One-Room Chapels of Ile D’Orleans, Québec.

 

First Hole-in-One

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I have been golfing for years, but not seriously until after I retired 3+ years ago. Today I shot my first hole-in-one. It was on hole number 16 at Iron Play in Summerfield, NC with an 8 iron from 130 yards.

When I hit the ball and looked at the flight, I said “That’s all over the hole”. The ball landed on the green and disappeared down a small valley, but I knew it was close. As my partner and I approached the green, we could not see the ball, so we knew it went in.

Happy Day!

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Unusual

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Imagine something ‘Unusual’ with a name like ‘Old Faithful’. How unusual is it to have a natural geyser that blows at such a regular interval.

In this picture, it almost appears that Old Faithful is creating the beautiful clouds in the background sky.

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Here is another example of the geyser at its peak:

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Frank Jansen runs this wonderful weekly challenge at ‘Dutch goes the Photo!‘. You should consider joining the fun and contributing your thoughts and photos.

 

Tuesdays of Texture | Week 24 of 2017

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Do you sometimes take a picture and not get the result you expect? Here is one of those cases. My camera’s auto-focus chose the background pine straw instead of the small blue spruce tree. I think that the result makes a perfect Tuesdays of Texture example.

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Come join this weekly challenge hosted by Narami at the blog ‘De Monte Y Mar‘.

Sunday Trees – 291

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I have been away from blogging for a few weeks with an overly busy schedule. I really have a fondness for the Sunday Trees challenge from Becca Givens on her blog ‘On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea‘, so this is an appropriate way to get back into my blogging.

I am going to be photographing a wedding in two weeks and I needed to test out my backup digital camera (the original Canon EOS Digital Rebel from 2003). So I charged up my batteries (I always have two batteries for every camera) and then went outside to see if the camera still functioned. The result is this picture of a Japanese Red Maple in my front yard.

The camera body is heavy compared to my Rebel T3i, and the shutter on the camera sounds sluggish in comparison, but the results came out just fine.

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We purchased and planted this tree about seven years ago, and it has really flourished in the front of our house. I had to prune like crazy this year so that you could see the trunk and main branches through the heavy foliage. Now I just have to keep the tree trimmed back so it doesn’t take over the front sidewalk.