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Oh how we say time flies, but then there are those days that just seem to stay frozen in time. It was just about two years ago that I had to put my good friend down. I still feel a little lost without him. I miss his fierce protection of all under my roof. I miss his smell. Probably only true dog folks can follow that, but every dog I have owned had their own distinctive smell along with their own pedigree of personality:

Samantha (the sweetest), Pork Chop (the happiest), Midnight (a troubled black lab I could never quite follow), Clovis (the only dog we ever paid for, unconditionally the smartest and who was so tight with his pack) and then comes Grace (our blue-eyed deaf rescue found abandoned at a West Texas railroad station and who is now my only four-legged shadow).

I have loved each of them greatly and differently. Each one has brought me their lifetime of joy and buckets of tears upon leaving. Clovis was my poser dog. Whenever I got out my Nikon, he was quick to notice and quicker to upstage anyone and anything.

Since I lost Clovis, I have not, with any degree of seriousness, picked up a camera. He just took that out of me. I have tried to shoot at some images, but every time I pick up a camera I hear his tags a jingle, a bump on the leg wanting to know where he should pose. My heart goes adrift and the camera back in the backpack.

I am a sentimental old coot and damn but I miss them all and can pull up many a tearful memory. I have to ask, how can a dog steal my vision? Hey, if they can steal your heart, vision is pretty much a simple task.

Get busy living or get busy dying!…”Red”…aka S. King

Peace Out,   jasL

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Red Rover Red Rover, let Butterfly come over. Year, I know pretty cheesy. Everyone around here gets kind of excited over this red clover that blooms for a short two weeks or so. I got to admit, it is a pretty plant with a real draw to the flying insects.

Enjoy the eye feast…...RESIST HATE……en theos †††……..jasL

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Growing up in West Texas I would be more inclined to find a Horned Toad (“Horny Toad”) playing the part of a road pancake. The road killed Horny Toad would always pull at my heart. I don’t so much find that feeling with the amphibians here in Northeast TX. Perhaps it is my age or the sheer quantity of them that breeds my indifference. Whereas my dog Grace loves to find and nose around the toads that sit under our backyard lights. Grace will take the time to actually search them out. Where the horny toads were avoided by dogs, the horned toad was an unavoidable attraction for little boys.

I found this frog/toad shortly after a recent rain. After being flattened several times by passing autos, the sun then worked on drying him out and into his fossil appearing state.

Peace out….monos en theos ††† jasL

 

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I was glad we took the dogs out for a long walk out at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge yesterday evening. Tonight we have a heavy overcast with showers about.

Had a nice sunset with the leftovers of a struggling Sunflower plant and the sky alive with Cranes and Geese.All that and a nice sunset to cap it off.

Manos en theos ††† jasL

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Rainy days are made for:

A. Read a book

B. Movies

C. Naps

D. Play with old images in Photoshop

As the weather cools and our rainy season is upon us, my body is healing and now I wish I had some flowers to photograph. So, the second best thing is to pull up a summer made image and play around in Photoshop. Rainy day friend and all that.

Peace out.††† jas L

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #907 – The Peace of Wild Things

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The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
It is always a draw to me as to where we find peace in our story. May you find some today!
 
monos en theos † jas L

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #891 – A Restful Glow

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It is most alway fruitful when I decide to take a mindful stroll around my small grounds. On a casual glance, I will not see. When I don my macro kit and keep my eyes open it almost always becomes a seek and you shall find proposition.

With the oppressive heat, it is not until around 8:00 pm before the temp drops to a tolerable level. I spied this wonder about a foot higher than eye level. It became obvious that he was at rest for the night. He sat in the same place waiting imperturbably while I found something to elevate myself to his level. I was able to hold one of my lights back behind him to send light through his wings. It gave the heavenly glow to the photo that I felt in my heart.

monos en theos ††† james

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #890 – Magenta Daisy

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“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.” ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

A lovely store-bought magenta daisy. I try to buy my wife a bouquet of flowers every Monday. It warms her heart, makes me feel like a man and it gives me a photo subject that always poses nicely in the cool of our home.

I applied an oil paint effect to this image. It is such fun to play in PS and pretend I can draw or paint. I can’t even draw a straight line, but who in the hell would want to anyway!

monos en theos †††† james L

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #889 – Trying to find ways to work in the Heat

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The East Texas heat has been, well it has been oppressive to say the least. Nonetheless, it can drive one to feeling a lesser man when I pass road construction crews on the way to starbucks for an iced coffee, and I try not to complain of the repetious hammering of roofing crews disrupting the beat in my earphones. So I really busted my arse to do some photo work with some fresh flowers (in a vase, in the air conditioned house) to produce (play) with an image in photoshop. It was fun but my pleather recliner did make me sweat a tad, but at least I found a way to work in the heat. Maybe I should wear a tool belt for all my photoshop tools, they are so hard to find and carry about. Can a hard hat be far behind. One needs to be cautious of those stray falling petals. Life can be so hard…….monos en theos †† james