Friday, August 31, 2012

THE PROBLEM WITH CAMERAS


The way I see it, the problem with digital cameras is that for the most part it makes you take way too many insignificant snaps, and when you do find one you like, trying to figure out what to do with it!  So I decided to get some of these pictures out of my camera and inflict them on you.

The top picture is, of course, a dragon fly.  We don't see those much any more.  I think I saw a lot of them as a kid but certainly not now.  And while I think of it, I don't ever believe I saw an orange one like this one.  But sure enough, it lit on my hummingbird feeder and stayed long enough for me to catch it in the act.  It's pretty nifty, don't you think?

 
 

The photo above is of the graffitied shed that sits up on a hillside near our house.  The road going up the hill is so workers can access the huge water tanks that  provide water for this part of the county.  I assume box-like thing is a storage facility of some kind.  It really is far far from us - and until I took this picture I couldn't even make out what the graffiti looked like.  After living here for 7 years, someone decided to "decorate" this shed about a month ago.  As we have a good graffiti abatement program in our new little city of Jurupa Valley, Jerry reported the vandalism and within a week the crew was out covering it up. 
 
Were we surprised to find it redecorated again this week?  Well, yes and no.  The second design was identical to the first; that was the "yes."  I would have thought that they could have been a little more creative.  That the graffiti happened again, that was the "no, we were not at all surprised."  Are we going to call the graffiti abatement people again?  Of course.  Perhaps this time we will get a Shephard Fairey design and then it will be art, not graffiti. 
 

 
 
 

 
These last two pictures are of a couple of things I've recently knitted.  I had wanted to make a scarf with a lace pattern in it.  It took me too many tries to find what I thought I wanted to do, so I temporarily gave it up.  I should just break down and go to a knit shop to have a smart person tell me how to accomplish the pattern.  I'm sure my blogger and knitter friend Olga would help me if she didn't live in New England.  But I took the easy way out and did one with a bunch of dropped stitches instead.  It turned out nicely.  The yarn was very nubby and needed a nice, loose pattern, so this one fit the bill.  I'm pleased with it.

 
 
And finally here's a cute little hat I knit for this next winter.  I provide scarves and hats for homeless men, women and children locally and give them to the Riverside City Mission to distribute when the cold weather comes (all 2 days of it, sometimes!)  As you know, we don't have much of a winter here in Southern California.   My daughter provided me with a huge birthday bag full of assorted yarn, and it's fun to look at each ball or skein and figure out what it wants to turn into. It's nice for me to have something productive to do with my hands in the evenings.  
 



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the pictures, always love your blog. I saw a "weird" bug today but did not have my camera!

I don't know how I learned this but those that do the graffiti have tags and a network of the "artists" know the others tag and know who did the "mess" - mess being my word!

Olga said...

your scarf is lovely. I also like to knit hats and donate them. Some times I tackle mittens too.