#MiddleEarthMarch 2018 Results

I didn't participate in every single prompt for #MiddleEarthMarch on Instagram, but I did the vast majority of them.  It was really fun!  I've loved photography since I was about seven, and got my first point-and-shoot camera when I was eight.  So I am totally loving Instagram and the ways it lets me get creative with my photography.

I made this collage of my #MiddleEarthMarch photos, and I hope you like it!

Do you like any of these shots particularly well?  I've got several favorites.  You can see them all much better individually on my Instagram feed, @RachelKovaciny :-)

In Which I Take a Flying Leap Into the World of Instagram

Once in a while, I just jump off a cliff into a lake.  Metaphorically.  Usually I consider decisions for quite a while before making them, but once in a while, I do just decide to do something on a whim.  Three days ago, I joined Instagram.  It wasn't exactly a whim, as I've been curious about #bookstagram for a while, but when I read this post from Musings of Jamie, it really encouraged me to try Instagram out.  I considered it for about ten minutes and then went ahead and joined it!  Most of those ten minutes was spent figuring out if I should join under my own name or under Hamlette, and in the end, I decided it might be a good and fun way to interact with readers of my books, so I'm there under my real name.  You can find and follow me there @RachelKovaciny :-)

No sooner had I joined than I discovered an Instagram challenge revolving around J. R. R. Tolkien's stories.  #MiddleEarthMarch looks like it's going to be a ton of fun, and I've already done a post based on the first prompt today!  Here's a list of all the prompts:

I might not actually post something for each of those, we'll see.  But there's probably going to be a lot of Tolkien-related stuff from me this month, just so you know.  On a whole, though, I will probably end up posting about the same sorts of things I blog about:  books, my writing, movies, flowers, baking, etc.  I'm not very good at limiting myself to one or two subjects for things like this just because I have so many interests!

Anyway, if you're on Instagram and want to follow me, now you can :-)

Container Garden Update

Just a quick update to show off how my container garden is coming along.  Actually, these photos are from almost 2 weeks ago -- just didn't have a chance to take them off my camera until now.  Click here to see what it looked like in May, if you want to compare.

Everything came up except the pansies, although only a few straggly chives came up, but oh well.  I replaced the pansies with a flower I'd never seen before called purslane.  I picked the purslane up at Walmart on a whim, and it's a short-but-rangy plant with very bright flowers.

The leaves and stems are almost rubbery, so I'm guessing it comes from arid places and handles heat and drought well.  Considering the heat index here is supposed to be over 100 today and for the next 4 days, I'm glad to have something that will survive!

Here's how big my lavender is getting:

And look at my lemon basil!  I used some of it for the first time the other night, with some fish I baked for supper.

Here's that center pot with lantana and calibrachoas.  This is before it got hot last week -- I'm so glad I took pictures when I did, because this may well have been the most glorious the calibrachoas will get.  They've gotten pretty bedraggled the last few days, and I'm sure the continual heat will not improve them.  But the lantana is going strong still!

My dad unexpectedly gave me a really nice camera last month, and I tried out some of the fun features on it for the first time the other day.  Like this one, which lets you turn everything black-and-white except for one color:

Not sure how it happened, it being a new camera and all, but my picture size got switched to square for a while, until I noticed and switched it back.  That's why a bunch of these are square, not rectangular.  I named my new camera Diego because I was reading The Mark of Zorro when my dad gave the camera to me.  It's black, Zorro wears a lot of black, and I really love the name Diego, so it fit nicely.  But don't worry, I'm not abandoning Francis!  I still love my pocket-sized red camera too, and use it more still, to tell the truth.  Diego gets used when I have time to play and experiment a little, or want to take super-good photos.  But Francis is perfect to grab and take along to a museum or playground, or just snap a quick shot of the kids being cute.

Anyway, one more shot of the whole container garden from a different angle:

Some of the nasturtiums have started flowering since I took these, and I just saw my first marigold opening yesterday, all of which add more color and variety.

And, because I was playing with Diego's zoom lens (okay, that sounded wrong), here's a shot I took of one of our little bunny visitors:

We see these almost every day throughout the spring and summer.  This is one of the adults, but on Sunday we saw a teensy baby hop out from under our deck and nibble some clover oh-so-close to our house.  It was so small I could have held it in one hand -- just adorable!  I've read that bunnies like to roll in lavender, so if I can get mine going really well, I'll find somewhere in the yard to plant it so I can share it with them.  And then we'll have lavender-scented wild rabbits!  What's not to love?

Francis, Daffodils, and The Garden

So... I've named my new camera Francis.  After Bruce Willis' character in Red.  Yeah.  Hee.

Anyway, I got it earlier this week, and have been having a blast trying out all the new settings!  I'm so happy that my daffodils bloomed later than everyone else's, because they're still lovely and I got to take all kinds of pictures of them.  They're my first daffodils of my very own, which is so exciting to me because they're my favorite flower.  So here are a few of the photos I've taken of them this week, using some of Francis' settings:

See the nifty effects I get to play with?  That one with the shadows in the corners is called "toy camera," and so far it's my favorite.  This last photo shows where the daffodils are in relation to the front of the house.  This fall, I plan to plant more so they totally encircle that tree instead of just being around the front half.

Here's what else we've been doing outside:  building a garden!

We decided to try a Square Foot Garden this year, since it uses all new dirt.  Last year, our  garden failed abysmally.  Cowboy planted a peach tree in the middle of our old garden, and clover all around it:

There you can see how the tree and garden are up on the hill behind our house.  We planted clover around the peach tree because the two are supposed to grow well together, and because bunnies like clover and we have bunnies.  They and the deer are why we have the fence around our garden.  Cowboy just finished putting up the fence today, and I'll be planting peas later this week.  He built our box a couple weeks ago, and filled it with dirt earlier this month.  Doesn't it look like it'll be fun to plant in?

So anyway, I have lots more photos of flowers on our property, but I'll post them some other time.  For now, I'll just say that so far, there's only one thing Francis isn't very good at taking clear pictures of:  little boys riding big-wheels :-D

I got another new camera :-D This could become an addiction. Who am I kidding -- it's already an addiction. Anyway, this one is a Canon Powershot SD1000. My very first digital camera! If you don't count the DVD camera we got on vacation, but I haven't taken still photos with that, just movies.

Anyway, this camera is a gift from DKoren so I can keep her supplied with pics of Gumdrop once he arrives. I'm sure his grandparents will appreciate that as well :-)

I haven't actually gotten to play with my new camera yet, because I'm really tired these days -- I tend to nap or sleep in before I go to work, and then when I get home in the mornings I'm so wiped I just lie on the couch until Cowboy has supper finished (yes, he is the bestest husband ever!). But I'm off work tonight and tomorrow, so I plan to spend some significant time playing with the camera now.

I haven't actually named it yet -- I can't decide between 'Elrond,' 'Haldir,' and 'Glorfindel.' You see, this camera is a Digital ELPH, and those are my three favorite elves from The Lord of the Rings. Elrond is by far the coolest elf ever (IMHO), but I'm really fond of Haldir in the movies. Glorfindel is highly awesome in the books and I wish he hadn't been cut out of the movies. So I can't decide -- anyone have any thoughts or advice?

Oh, and I haven't named the dvd camera yet either, though I'm kind of thinking about 'Yakima,' after Yakima Canutt, who was a dear friend of John Wayne, an innovative stunt man, and assistant director/second unit director of some of my favorite movies ever (Ben-Hur, The Swiss Family Robinson, Where Eagles Dare, etc).

So yeah, now I have two 35mm SLRs, one 35mm point-and-shoot, one DVD camera, and one digital point-and-shoot. Holy camera collection, Batman, huh? :-D

"Another wet day, another wet town." --Kirby, in some random episode of Combat! (possibly "The Little Jewel" or "The Party"?).

This morning, instead of being greeted by friendly snow, I was treated to a dribbly rain. October is confusing.

Today my Dad sent me this message, which beautifully puts into words what I have been trying to explain to my husband about cameras:

> I am extremely saddened to hear about your camera.
> Being a camera man
> myself, I know how important a camera is.
> Pictures are irreplaceable and
> so are the moments they catch. Few people realize
> this, but those of us
> who do must stick together, lest we be tempted to
> not take pictures.

I have this great urge to preserve things. This is why I journal and blog: to preserve the memories of what my life has been. This is also why I take photos. I know that my mental memories fade, but when I look at a photo of some occasion, the memories revive and I can remember my past better. The same happens when I read back over some of my old journals. I remember how I'd been feeling, what I'd been thinking, what little trials and joys I was experiencing at the time. And then one day I can pass all that down to future generations. Because I love learning about the past, I feel I must preserve the present.

Maybe this can somehow help explain why I'm so upset about my darling camera Gabriel being sick. I'm not just some fluffy, airheaded moron who is sad because she has a broken toy, you know.