Contemplative Monday

The following quote/lesson is from 'Heart Advice, Weekly Quotes By Pema Chodron'.

INVOLUNTARY ESCAPES

"Many of our escapes are involuntary: addiction and

dissociating from painful feelings are two examples.

Anyone who has worked with a strong addiction-----

compulsive eating, compulsive sex, abuse of substances,

explosive anger, or any other behavior that's out of control-----

knows that when the urge comes on it's irresistible.

The seduction is too strong.

So we train again and again in less highly charged situations

in which the urge is present but not so overwhelming.

By training with everyday irritations, we develop the knack of refraining

when the going gets rough.

It takes patience and an understanding of how we're hurting ourselves

not to continue taking the same old escape route of speaking or acting out."

Eclectic Tastes

For all you 'Disco fans' out there!
Yes YOU!
Here's a 90's version of the 1970 hit
by Gordon Lightfoot.

To get you moving on this Easter weekend,
have a great day!

Saturday Morning Post

Spring everywhere this week!

Arriving at the beach last Saturday morning.

Studying the surf before going in.

One of my favourite views along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia......

at Lawrencetown Beach.

Sophie resting with her fav, Pinky.

It's own little 'world'......lichen colony.

Ron at the beach zeroing in on the Snowy Owl last weekend.

Yes, it IS spring!

Time to go.

'Surfer dog' waiting patiently.

This guy kept waving to me! So I took his picture!

Maybe this time they won't see me.....

All my dad's want to do is take photos! So I'll dig for a while.

Railway sign

When I think of Easter, I think of colour.

Up close to Hummingbird ornament in garden.

Being Invisible

Do you think they will notice me if I stand really still?

Sophie in the Heather at the park.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

I took over 100 photos yesterday at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax.

Of these this particular one I found most intriguing.

Just a huge rock with a 'nursing log' in front of it.

The log looks like an animal...maybe a wolf.

And of course I had to 'play' with it a little......

just because.

Critters Everywhere

There was something at every turn at the park yesterday:

Could hear this fella before we saw him. I think it's a Hairy Woodpecker

because its bill is larger than the almost identical Downy Woodpecker.

Sophie met up with Steve and his 'pack' of 10 dogs (he's a dog-walker).

She loves seeing him because he calls out her name and gives her special attention.

This little fella is called the 'Woolly Bear Caterpillar' which will very soon

turn into an 'Isabella Tiger Moth'. Click on the link below if you wish to learn more:

Woolly Bear Caterpillar

And last but not least we found these very soft 'feline-type toes'........

Pussy Willows.

Using My New Macro Gadget

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a' macro gadget' from Amazon.ca

It arrived a few days ago and yesterday I tried it out in the garden.

Crocus. 

It is an extension tube made by a company called Fotodiox.

 Eranthus.

The tube is made up of two mounts and three extension rings

which can be used separately or together,

depending on how close you want to get to subject.

 Croci.

These 'rings' are not lenses. You attach your regular lens to these rings

which are mounted on your camera.

 Crocus.

It took a few minutes to adjust to this system 

and set my camera in 'manual mode' and shutter speed setting

and away I went!

Macro photography is an art in itself.

 It will take time to feel comfortable doing close-ups.

I can also see the advantage to using a tripod

 (a very small tripod)....when one is so close

to the subject it is surprising how much one shakes

which can affect the sharpness of the focus.

 Snowdrop (single).

So this new gadget worked better than I had anticipated.

I wasn't sure how it would be

and because it was much cheaper than a macro lens, $15,

I was very willing to chance it.

 Moss.

We have a good macro lens and I plan to compare the 'finished products'

over the next few days.

Now there won't be a rush to get the macro lens 

to capture all the new blooms this season.....

this new gadget does a pretty good job.