Friday, August 31, 2007

PHOTO HUNTERS #13 --DIRTY


PHOTO HUNTERS HOME
The PHOTO HUNTERS theme this week is dirty and I knew where I would find my “dirty” photos. hehehehehe

I was teaching at a preschool/daycare for awhile and these kids loved to play in the mud and of course I encouraged it. It did not have to be a hot summer day to play with mud. . . on those days, I turned the hose on and each child brought a container of some kind and somethng to stir with. After they got some water from me, they “went to it.”

Those arent’t the photos I will be showing today since I was usually manning the hose, I couldn’t take photo too. Those particular memories are embedded in my heart instead!

Today, I offer winter mud play for the “dirty” theme. Ü The boys loved playing in the mud as much as the girls. Did they get dirty? YUP! That’s a part of growing up. They said they were glad I was their teacher because I let them play in the mud whenever we were out in the play yard. I am glad they liked it too since mud is a part of my "rock" unit!



Thursday, August 30, 2007

View from the bus window

I have decided that you can't really take good photos through a dirty window while a bus is moving on a highway but here are some of the ones I tried to capture because the beauty was there. These are from my recent trip up the Gorge to Skamania County. This is one time I wish I drove so I could stop and take photos wherever I went.








Wednesday, August 29, 2007

"Will I Get a Photo Of That Squirrel Before it Runs Away?" Quick, get your camera out!

I told myself, “Quick get a shot off before it runs away.” I needn’t have worried as it decided to put on a show for me that morning.

Tail got cut off because I was in too much of a hurry thinking MR SQUIRREL was going to run away. . .

”Maybe if I don’t make eye contact with that lady, she will take her camera and go away. . . I’m having a bad photo day.”

”OK, if she isn’t going to leave, I will stand very still and maybe she will think I am a statue and go away after all. I mean, how many photos of a statue would one want?”

”It didn’t work. OK, giving her the BACK treatement!”


”Darn! She’s still there. Is she nuts or something? I would like some nuts for a snack about now. . . maybe I should go elsewhere -- it’s obvious she doesn’t have any nuts for me. It’s even more obvious that she isn’t about to stop taking photos of me. OK I'm outta here!”

Battleship Ron made my photo sequence into an animated gif :

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

What Held My Interest While At the Skamania Fair

The natural beauty of the water and mountains surrounding the Skamania Fair was awesome, even on an overcast day. These are some of the photos I captured while at the fair I wrote about in a previous post:


















Monday, August 27, 2007

Friday movies at the park. . .

Our town has free movies at the park every Friday night during the summer. I had never been able to go before because I don't drive and most of the people I know my age aren't adventuresome and want the comforts of home while watching a movie. Now that I like uptown, I can walk downtown to the park where they are shown. Usually, they are shown at Esther Short park but this week, they were having a wine festival in the park so we had the movie at the Fort vancovuer national Reserve parade grounds. If you just bring a blanket, you get to sit in the front rows while the sand chairs go behind you and the lawn chairs behind them. I like to be in the front so I bring a blanket.

This is what the screen looked like before the movie:


This is what the moon looked like that night. . .


It is finally time for the movie: GREASE:


It was a cool night after a very warm day and lying around on my blanket, I felt very comfortable watching a re-run of an oldie but goodie movie and eating Kettle Corn! When it was over, I walked uptown to my new apartment and felt like it was worth it. I can hardly wait to go next Friday -- the last one for this summer. It will be at Esther Short park so will be a little shorter walk home afterwards.

Friday, August 24, 2007

PHOTO HUNTERS #12 HAPPY


PHOTO HUNTERS HOME




I subbed for a teacher friend who got this HAPPY hat from her principal after winter break. I couldn't talk her into giving it to me! (I collect snowmen memorabilia.)


My second HAPPY photo is a picture of two of my former Kindergarten students digging into the rice table for the first time. Now don't you think they look happy?

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Skamania County Fair

"The Gorge" is what is referred to as the scenic Columbia River Valley stretching east and west from Idaho across the borders that separate eastern Washington and eastern Oregon on either side of the Columbia River. It is one beautiful piece of country!

Skamania County, where the fair was located, is a portion of the Gorge on the Washington side. They have a "real" country fair in August -- this year was their 99th one! No big commercial booths to take away from the flair of a small town atmosphere. There was free admission and also, a free bus to Skamania that cames to Vancouver to pick up people for the fair and of course, return us back home! The only thing it cost me was time and lunch money. I had both. I only had 2 and half hours at the fair tho but it was enough to get a taste of this small town celebration.

Traveling to the fair, I just sat back and enjoyed the beauty that God provided in the Gorge --I decided I would try to take some photos through the bus window on the way back home. The bus dropped us off at the gate to the fair and continued it's travels to the end of the route.


This is the first scene I saw as I stepped off the bus:

The first area I came to had a children's petting and feeding animals section. The donkey was sure cute

but the poor tortoise was trying to escape constantly -- I think it was too hot for it and wanted some water! It tried to fit through the bars but was too big of course; then it tried to dig a tunnel to go underneath but was also unsuccessful. I felt so sorry for it.

There was the usual kid's art entries and a section for adults also but this was my favorite one. The lady who painted the leaves was there and actually answered my query as to how she did it. She said she gathered some colorful leaves and then tossed them in the air a few times until she got the arrangement she wanted to paint! I loved it! I voted for her entry for the People's Choice Award.

There were numerous quilts but I only photographed a couple. . .the one with the jars of canned veggies and fruit was unique to me. . . I understand you can buy the printed jar material and then you just piece it together. I saw one recently at the Farmers' Market.

The baby quilt was precious and as you can see it won a ribbon. It was so delicate and pretty and I am sure it was a lot of work!

I don't remember who the entertainers were but they were local people who got together for the event. They did mention that some of the musicians also played with other bands. It was a nice variety and I hadn't seen an accordian in awhile.

I did go look at the small animal barn before my time was up. The funniest thing I saw there was two turkeys that the same child was raising. One was called "Thanksgiving" and the other. . . you guessed it. . . "Christmas!" Proof in the signs. . . the turkeys were hiding and who could blame them, knowing they would both be dinner soon.


Most were in cages and it was hard to get good photos of them but here are a few of the animals from this barn:
These were two white turkeys:

These are other birds and one rabbit I saw in the small animal barn:





Winchester, the bunny was being elusive but I sneaked around the other side of the cage and got his picture anyway!


I guess I wasn't there at the right time to see or participate in any of the Timber Carnival events. . . looked interesting tho.

In another blog, I will show some photos for the reason WHY I didn't get to the big animal barn before it was time for the bus to leave the fair. . .I had to make a choice and I think I chose well.

Of course I had to buy some food at the fair and besides Kettle Corn, I had a snow cone and teriyaki steak on a stick. not in that order!