70/365 Rule breaking - spring storms

I'm bending the rules just a bit for this post. But since I only have to answer to myself, I'm letting it slide. I'm doing it because these photos are worth it.

Here's the story:

On Saturday, I was on top of things, and I got my photo of the day processed and ready to post fairly early in the day.

Later that evening, close to sunset (which is now after 9:00 p.m.), storms rolled in. And in front of that rocky weather, beautiful and dramatic clouds arrived, complete with climbing thunderheads.
If you know me at all, you know that I can't pass up good meteorological photo opportunities. Just browse through the tags on the right, specifically those posts tagged with weather and storms. It will keep you busy for a while.

So these photos were technically shot on Saturday evening. But in my defense, they're of a completely different subject matter and were done after the earlier post of the day.

I know, I know, that's one demerit against me. I promise to get back to playing by the rules very soon. (But I can't promise that it won't happen again!)

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/250s, f/6.3 at ISO 100 at about 8:15 p.m. looking southeast and west

69/365 Homemade Orange Julius

This has got to be one of my favorite mid-day snacks to enjoy in the warm-weather months.

A homemade Orange Julius. Refreshing, smooth, tangy and sweet. And very low-guilt. Oh my.

What could be better?

It's so good, I'd be a horrible person if I made your mouth water then didn't share the recipe. But I don't like to be horrible.

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Homemade Orange Julius

1 can (6 oz) frozen orange juice concentrate, UNthawed
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
1/3 cup Splenda (or 1/2 cup sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups ice (adjust accordingly for the consistency you like)

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Servings: 4 cups (which, depending on the size of your glass, could be 2-4 servings)

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I recommend sipping it through a straw in your favorite outdoor chair, with your feet up and a good book in your lap.

Go ahead. Try it. Then report back and tell me how you like it.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 100 in Southern window light at about 4:30 p.m.

68/365 Constant vigilance

The backyard is Buster's beloved territory.

He's on constant alert for intruders, changes, and breaches of the perimeter, whether they pose serious danger (like a cotton-tailed rabbit or crafty squirrel) or merely test his senses (like a rather large blowing leaf).

Not much gets by him.

He systematically investigates all regions of the territory, using his keen sense of hearing and finely tuned sense of smell as his primary guides. And he conducts his surveillance multiple times per day, during the week and on week ends.

This tireless worker never takes a day off. He takes his job very seriously, but will gladly welcome a token of appreciation or simple scratch behind the ears.

I feel safer knowing Buster is near.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/250s, f/4 at ISO 200 and 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 160 under cloudy skies at about 8:00 p.m.

67/365 Positive press conference attendance

I attended my first press conference today for work. BioStorage Technologies, a company in Indianapolis, is expanding its headquarters here and will be adding 125 new jobs (more than doubling its current size).

Mitch Roob, Indiana's Secretary of Commerce, was on hand for the event (speaking in the photo above), as well as Indianapolis' mayor Greg Ballard (below).

This is certainly good news for Indianapolis and the rest of the state, and I'm sure both the state and local government offices were glad to be on hand to share positive news for a change.

All four Indianapolis TV stations were on hand, though only one (WRTV 6) sent a reporter to do a live shot.

I don't know if all press conferences are like this, having never attended one before, but one of the first things that struck me was how incredibly quiet it was in the room. It almost reminded me of a funeral, even though everyone was there to hear and share good news.

Perhaps the silence was just a result of the formality of the event. Regardless, it was definitely an interesting way to start the day.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 indoors under fluorescent lighting

66/365 Wishing for more wheat fields

I don't hold anything against fields of corn and soybeans, but I do wish that more farmers in central Indiana grew wheat. It's beautiful in both its alive-and-growing and ready-to-harvest forms.

Right now, fields like this one are awash with waving, healthy greens.

It's attractive up close, too.

Then when the crop matures and is ready to harvest, these same fields evolve into a warm, golden sea. I caught that stage in time to photograph last year, and it's one of my top ten favorites from the first year of Project 365.

You can bet I'll be revisiting this field with my camera in the coming months.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 5:45 p.m.

65/365 Purple petunias

I'm a fan of flower names for girls, but Petunia isn't one of them (no offense to this lovely flower).

Why? Say the word "petunia" out loud a few times. Notice how your face feels when you say it and the sound of the word. You can easily scrunch your nose up and say "eeww" (as in "yuck" or "gross") in the middle of the word.

And that seems like a recipe for playground nickname disaster.

Plus, the name Petunia reminds me of Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter series, and that's not a pleasant association.

I have no trouble with the flower itself, though. They're perfectly lovely and acceptable annuals, and I like seeing them grace my parents' flower pots each year.

I just wouldn't name a daughter after a petunia. Lily, sure. Rose, Violet, Iris, Poppy, Begonia, Azalea, Rhododendron...

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 100 at about 8:15 p.m.

64/365 Perfect peonies

I think if I were to pick "my" flower, a flower that made me happy and represented me (if a flower can really do that), it would be a pink peony.

No roses, no Gerbera daisies, no calla lilies, no tulips, which are all incredibly common wedding flowers and popular in bouquets. I'd choose a peony because of its symbolism of late spring and tie to my birth.

Peonies are always blooming on and around my birthday in early June, so that alone is a natural coexistence. Beyond that, I think of my mom and her best friend, Mickey, because Mom always remembers that Mickey brought her a bouquet of fresh peonies when I was born.

This lovely pink peony is growing on a bush in my aunt's yard, and I could smell its beautiful fragrance from several feet away. I felt completely happy sitting next to it with my camera.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/250, f/2.8 at ISO 125 at about 5:30 p.m.

63/365 Utterly blue

It's amazing how much a fresh coat of paint can transform something, isn't it?

A house's exterior facade, an interior room, an old piece of furniture... spread a new layer of bright paint on it, and it immediately looks better.

I'm in wall-painting mode now, and I got to spread some of this lovely blue on beige walls over the weekend. The blue dried in a darker shade than it appears here, a shade aptly named "Utterly Blue." Beautiful!

I hope the color helps it to be a calm, peaceful room that lives up to its pretty name.

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 320

62/365 Picnicking with friends

My favorite times spent with friends always focus on quality time.

Kristin is in town from NYC for the holiday weekend, so we put together a casual picnic at Butler, where we could just hang out and catch up. We talked, shared food, played games, and just enjoyed being together.

Not only is Memorial Day weekend a classic time for cookouts and picnics, it marks the unofficial start of summer.

Friends, good weather, extended weekends, and holiday celebrations. What could be better?

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 500 and 250 at about 7:30 p.m.

61/365 Congratulations, Chase!

As evidence that time has flown by, my little (relative term) brother has officially completed his college education.

He's now an alumnus of Indiana University in Bloomington, holds a degree, and is ready to for his trek into the real world.

Can he -- and I -- really be that old?

It seems like just yesterday that I was helping him scour through the IU course catalog, searching for a major that didn't involve Calculus and did involve spending time outside. We found one that suited him perfectly, he stuck with it for four full years (an accomplishment in itself), and he's done!

I'm incredibly proud of him. I loved seeing him enjoy school and enjoy going to classes that taught information he was truly interested in. I thought I would fall out of my chair one day when he mentioned the idea of one day going to grad school for more education.

Can this really be the same Chase I've known and loved for 22+ years?

We honored him with an open house (which, of course, had a cake with red and white icing) on Saturday and stamped an official end to his college career.

Now, what's next?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 500 lit by window light at about 7:30 p.m.

60/365 Construction season

It's construction season in Indiana.

It happens every spring/summer. It feels as though you can't drive anywhere without running into construction of some kind. We Hoosiers have become very familiar with those orange and white barrels.

This photo shows some construction in Brownsburg, but the worst right now has to be the west side of Indianapolis on I-465.

Dubbed "Accelerate 465" (fancy phrase to make us all feel better about the headache), every interchange along the busiest interstate in the area is being redone. The project will span over many years, and I know it will be nice when it's complete, but boy oh boy is it a pain now.

Navigating the project will be especially interesting this weekend when hundreds of thousands of people come to Indy for the 500.

I'm glad I'm staying home!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 5:45 p.m.

59/365 Climbing for the sky

I like plants that aren't vertically challenged.

Climbing plants, unusually tall ones, etc. I like the way they've adapted to their environments and have made the most of their situations.

Ivy comes to mind. Give it a wall and it will climb. This clematis fits in that category, too. It's climbing its way to the sky by way of a fence post.

I'm learning more and more about green-designed buildings, and one tactic some people are using to achieve the "green" status is using climbing plants to create living walls.

I think it's a really cool idea. Not only does the plant clean the air, but it helps with temperature control in the building.

Plus, it looks really cool.

Who knows, if this trend continues, we may be taking cues from the Hobbits and digging homes into the sides of hills.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/250s, f/4 at ISO 100 in direct sunlight at about 8:00 p.m.

58/365 Along the iris spectrum

You get double the iris fun today. I couldn't narrow my selections down to just one for this post.

I like that these have an energy on different ends of the spectrum. This first iris's dark, dramatic colors are immediately eye catching. The petals sparkled in the sunshine and looked like rich velvet.

Then at the other end of that energy spectrum, you have this gentle lavender iris. I like the ethereal quality of this photo and the way the petal cascades downward in smooth ripples.

I used fill flash with the second photo, but the first was perfectly spotlighted in the late sunshine. I'll be sorry to see these irises fade away into the summertime. They make great subjects.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens at about 8:00 p.m.
First photo: 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 200
Second photo: 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 250 with fill flash

57/365 Alternative therapies

With each passing year, I'm becoming a more convinced believer in alternative medicines.

Well, really, at least part of it boils down to the fact that I'm a fan of anything that doesn't involve getting a shot. I'll take just about any remedy I can get before I'll go there. (But that opens up an entirely different can of stories.)

I'm dealing with an odd injury. I don't know how I did it, but I injured the joint at the base of my big toe at the beginning of the year. I've been treating it as a sprain (yep, you can sprain your toe), but while that helped it improve for a little while, it plateaued.

I'm at the end of my home-remedy rope. If I saw my family doctor, I expected he'd say, "Sorry, can't help ya, unless you'd like a cortisone shot in your toe?" Eek! That thought alone gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Then Mom had a great revelation: it's a joint problem, so why not see if our chiropractor deals with that? Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

Here's the seemingly most far-fetched part: part of my treatment (after adjusting the joint) now involves low-level laser, or "cold laser," therapy. It's hard to wrap my mind around, because you sit with this laser pointed at the injury for a few minutes, and you can't feel a thing.

Okay.....?

But then I went to the old trusty Google, and it turns out this therapy has a lot of support and is recognized by the FDA. It's being used to treat everything from rheumatoid arthritis to cancer, and is especially recognized as beneficial in healing wounds.

I could immediately feel a difference after this first treatment on Monday. I'm just crossing my fingers that it works!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 indoors in fluorescent office lighting

56/365 Spot spackling

It may look like Mom is spreading pink icing on the wall, but alas, it's not that outrageous. It's actually just spackle that goes on pink and dries into its final white form.

We're fixing up my grandmother's old house, and before we can paint (which we're looking forward to as a fun project), we had to actually fix the small holes in the wall.

Sigh. Isn't it hard to take your time to fix something and do it right before you can move on to the fun stuff?

Oh, but it will be worth it in the end.

We're looking forward to the painting process not because it will be an easy job (it won't), but because the addition of color in a house full of blah creams and beiges will be completely transformative.

And you can tell by the abundant number of floral photos on this blog that I love color!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1000, lit by a window at about 2:00 p.m.