Rose hip “spider”

I guess I haven’t had a lot to say lately. Not much to take photos of either at this time of year. Although this quote out of my photography class book does hit home:

“Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform them by photographing them.”

That obviously takes a bit more work! Work that I am sometimes uninspired to find. You either have to be in the mood to take good photographs, or you’re not.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday. The weather was perfection and very much like remembered Thanksgivings of my childhood: sunny, a little brisk.

The turkey was phenomenal! This year I splurged and instead of getting our “free” turkey after earning points at our Shop Rite I placed an order for a fresh turkey from Pennings Farm Stand in Warwick, NY. I got the idea when we had lunch there a few weeks back and people kept coming up to the counter to put in their turkey order.

When I went to pick up the turkey on Tuesday there was a white duck wandering around their parking lot. This wasn’t too strange since they have a “petting zoo” on the premises with chickens, goats and etc. I walked in and said “Did you know you have someone loose in your parking lot?” One of the women behind the counter looked up at me and said “Does it say AFLAC?” (Note: those of you who don’t live in the States will not get this reference to a commercial on TV for insurance that uses a white duck. The insurance company name is Aflac and the duck is constantly shouting the word.) She went on to tell me that someone just dumped the duck at their store and they have no idea where he came from. They can’t put him in with their chickens because they tear each other apart. She’s said but he’s the friendliest duck. He just hangs out and greets people.

My “Thanksgiving” cacti are going all out this year. Fuchsia, white, red and salmon colors decorate the sun room. The cactus shown below is only one of the four that I have. Beautiful, no?

The turkeys came to visit us on Turkey Day. Brave souls! Not the most attractive birds up close but they are so ugly that I find them cute.

This tom had his tail feathers spread until I grabbed the camera. You can see the sacs on his neck are still inflated.

Up close their feathers are prismatic and quite lovely.

I think they are getting ready to breed. This morning I had a flock of 13 in the front yard and the toms were chasing the hens around. It won’t be the first time we’ve witnessed turkey sex in the front yard! Ah, country life.

Rick has a bad cold that he is trying to shake so our plans for taking Mia out today (it’s supposed to warm and beautiful) will have to be changed to taking it easy and watching movies. Let’s hope they are better than the one we chose to watch last night called “The Grey.” If you like movies where no one makes it out alive, I can recommend it. We recorded “The Poseidon Adventure” yesterday and at least some of them make it out in the end.

I really am quite boring lately and for that I apologize! I just can’t wrap my head around Christmas in a month. Where does the time go?

Sorry Rick’s not feeling well.  He should have taken some of the Airborne I offered!  You can always watch ‘Galaxy Quest’ again!  Glad I ‘found’ your blog.  One bad thing about a new computer is I have to reset all my bookmarks!!!

Wow, your cactuses look amazing! And those turkey photos are great, but my god, really, they are the homeliest birds. It’s hard to imagine Ben Franklin ever wanted to make them the national symbol.

I understand the photo malaise. Maybe you need a change of scenery. Take your camera to the nearest downtown or even into the city and see what you find, maybe?

Steve, thanks! The turkeys are pretty ugly but at least they are humble. Our national symbol, the bald eagle, is not really a very nice bird. It lets other birds do its hunting for it and then steals it away from them. They are actually beautiful, but very lazy creatures. Hmm…what does that say about us as a nation??

I do need a change of scenery but there are no downtowns that are interesting in any kind of close proximity to me. Maybe Warwick. I am not a city driver and am actually afraid to drive into NYC myself. Chicken me!