If I had bird feet...

White egret feet

5 things I'd do if I had bird feet...

1) I would fly up to a random red winged black bird and claw it in the head.  Sorry.  A red wing did that to me once.

2) I would swoop down and pick up a fish.  But I wouldn't eat it.  I would fly over someone I dislike and drop it on them.  Hopefully it would go down their shirt.  Then I'd laugh.  Unless all I could do was chirp and ca caw.

3) I would paint my claws rainbow colors.  No reason. 

4)  I would place my bird feet in different colors of paint and then walk back and forth over a canvas. I bet I would finally become rich selling my art.  

5) I would swoop down and pick up one of my cats.  It would scare the whiskers off them!  

Random 5 Friday

The Loser Files...

I have an uninterrupted losing streak over at Joan's blog  She has a monthly photo contest.  But at least my photos are winners to me!  Because they are my photo memories.  Especially my cat Akua.  He's my baby after all.  The theme was cats and dogs.  

 A leaf for a Fall theme.

Cows grazing for a food theme.  They are food (gulp) plus they are eating.  Poor cows. 

 White flowers for a White theme.

A Green parrot for a Green theme.

 A snowman for a Christmas theme. 

 This is one of my favorite travel photos.  We are sitting at the top of a Mayan ruin at Tikal in Guatamala. Do you see the other pyramids peeking over the jungle in the background?  Seeing Tikal was an amazing experience.  Calgon take me away right now!  I wish I was on a new adventure as we speak. Oh, and this was for a shoes theme!

A weathered and worn mailbox for a mailbox theme.  There were only 3 entries so I thought I might have a chance.  But no winner was selected!  My bad.

Beautiful Spring trees for a tree theme.  Loser.

But you might be a winner.  Have you read my toemail post below?  O.K.  I know these blog awards are kind of silly.  But I played along and forwarded the good, the bad and the lovely.  Are you feeling lovely...Punk?

For more winning photos visit Sunday Best!  

  

Toemail!

Dean's toes.  My toes.

If you haven't checked out Toemail it is a fun place to dip your virtual toes. I recently received the one lovely blog award from the awesome Toemail blog.  Now I'm passing on the love.  But first here are 7 facts about me.

1) I recently had a Snow White moment.  A little mouse came running up to me.  I was enchanted until I realized he was blind.  Basically Owl food.  He also only had 1/2 a tail.  Ever since I've had the tune 3 blind mice running through my head. True story.

2) I fired a huge shot gun over the weekend for the first time. I was scared s&%$less.  But managed to hit an empty 24 pack of beer.  And no we weren't drinking.  Shame on you for thinking that.  

3) I sometimes act like I don't see the cat puke on the floor.  Just hoping my husband will clean it up first.  Busted!

4) Any minute now I will have 2 published books out there!  

5) My favorite place is Dominical, Costa Rica.

6) I wish I could go back in time and run my fingers through Robert Plant's hair.

7) One of my favorite quotes is from Game of Thrones, "A Dothraki Wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair"

Now along with Toemail (link above)  I'm passing the award on to 7 other bloggers.  I'm sorry to say this is a very incomplete list. I love all my blogging friends.  But I'd like to keep it at a lucky 7. It's just easier and luckier that way.

www.penspaperstudio.blogspot.com

www.patricktillett.blogspot.com

www.tweedles-georgie.blogspot.com

www.lindahensley.blogspot.com

blog.lepak.com

www.djanstewart.blogspot.com

www.narelleserline.blogspot.com

    

Are you feeling lovely...punk?

The Red Cedar Trail

I think I can honestly say that I have returned to my college town more than anyone else in history.  Except for those who might actually live in their college town.   At the top of this photo you can see the U.W. Stout bell tower in Menomonie peeking over the tree line.  But it is the Red Cedar River and all of the other natural resources that keep bringing me back.  Thank goodness it is not the bars! 

 But happy memories of the drinking establishments the Log Jam and the Buck remain.  Sigh.  And they are still up and running after all of these years.  Not telling how many! The Spot where my Rugby playing college boyfriend liked to hang is now called Ba Da Bings.  My now husband and I laugh at that name change every time we drive by.  The Flame where I danced to Meatloaf and drank Mind Express is a new and smoldering Sport's Bar.  And the dance club Off Broadway where Vanilla Ice would blast from the rafters is now called The Pickle.  But most importantly Ted's Pizza is still cranking them out.

Now we enjoy life's simple pleasures.  Like a nice hike on the Red Cedar Trail.  Instead of sleeping till noon and awaking with an all day hangover, we rise out of bed by 7:00am.  The morning Sun warms our backs as we walk quietly.  We spot frogs sitting silently. We hear birds singing a million songs.  And after all that one sense remains.  The scent of humidity and wild flowers fills the air.  

Dean's feet.  

My feet.  

The Red Cedar Trail is like a lot of River trails that are actually an old Rail line.  Flat, scenic and great for biking. You'll regularly see eagles in the trees.  But not today.  And there is an area of Limestone rock formations where water drips down all Summer long.  But the best thing is that we've left one stone unturned.  We haven't canoed along this river yet.  Thankgoodness.  Another weekend getaway is in order.

P.S.  For more great blogs and beautiful photos visit the blog hop Sunday Best!

Pillow Talk

I have the perfect art for www.illustrationfriday.com today.  The theme is faded.  Do you know why these are perfect?  They are footprints in the sand.  And my first thought was how they are only there momentarily.  Then the ocean slowly washes them away.  

I created these for the ripple sketches blog when it was raising money for the gulf oil spill.  I actually used outlines of me and my husband's real footprints in the sand.  Can you tell whose is whose?  Well, mine is the top.  Here's hoping that humanity will soon leave a lighter footprint on our precious resources. 

P.S.  If you have a chance between now and this Sunday please go to www.facebook.com/berninausa  My recycled coffee bean sack pillow is entered in the We all Sew Challenge.  Please vote and read the pillow's story.  

Timber Twister

OH MY GOD! If you are ever in Duluth you have to go to Spirit Mountain and take a ride on the Timber Twister. I took this photo AFTER the ride was over and we were being pulled back up the hillside. It is a blast riding down. I was laughing the whole time. But you know how these places always take a photo of you that you can purchase. Well, I looked like I was sitting on a pine cone made of glass shards. Horrible.

Photo Contest Loser

Clouds

Shadows
Red

Lakes

Barns

Texture

Circles

Bridges

Reflections

Birds

The letter "A" (Arenal Volcano)

Every month Joan over at www.myretirementchronicles.blogspot.com hosts a photo contest. These are all of my entries to date. Not a winner in the bunch. There are several honorable mentions every month as well. I've only had one mention. Geez. I think that the judges are some of my sorority sisters from college that thought I was a big fat loser. Or maybe the judges are some old high school classmates that thought I took the short bus. Or maybe the judge is secretly Simon Cowell. Although I haven't received any nasty comments. I bet that if Simon really visited blogs we would have a lot of comment moderation going on. Delete! And I'm convinced that one of the judges is Heidi Klum. She probably takes one look at my latest photo and declares," You're out!" So I've decided to pack up my knives because I will clearly never be Top Chef...I mean Top Photographer. I'm joking of course. I'll keep playing until Tyra Banks tells me to immediately pack up my camera and go home. Shoot.

Zed-Leppelin

Well, first of all let me apologize for my lame coverage of Stillwater's Lumberjack days. We arrived at 6 pm for a Zed-Leppelin concert. But the concert didn't start till 8. And instead there was a kids jazz band till 7. It was a little hard on the ears to put it mildly. So you'd think we had plenty of time for photos. But even my photo of dinner (Olive's pizza) is a bad shot. It was really delicious though.

The boats were lined up for the fireworks. One dog jumped off a boat to chase a goose and had to be rescued after he started swimming in circles. Happy ending.

But the happiest part of the evening was the Led Zeppelin tribute band Zed-Leppelin. They do such a great job of recapturing one of the greatest bands of all time. I had a couple movies with sound but blogger wouldn't let me upload them. But they will be playing again at the Lake Harriet band shell on August 21. See you there!

I even tried to get a foot shot to send to http://toemail.wordpress.com/ with the band in the background. But I couldn't really get a great shot here either. I didn't want to stick my yucky feet that close to the people in front of me. I overheard the people behind me say,"What is she doing???" You know you are doing something weird when you are at a Zed-Leppelin concert and people think you are strange!

It was such an awesome night. The exhilarating sounds of Zed-Leppelin and the smell of all the food venders, like those smoky grilled pork chops. The sight of millions of bugs swarming the light poles (and not us) and a lively fireworks display. Ahhh, Summer.

Beat feet

Beat feet down to view my happy feet...

This just might be one of my favorite posts to date. I'd forgotten just how many feet photos I've taken over the years. It was fun to browse the forgotten feet files. Here's a list from top to bottom of the locations my happy feet have wandered...

1) St. Croix, MN

2) Lover's Key, FLA

3) Ho'okipa Beach, Maui

4) Key West, FLA

5) Door County, WI

6)Naples, FLA

7)Lover's Key, FLA

8) Clam Pass, FLA

9) Grand Cayman

10) Punalu'u Beach, Big Island

11) Hopkins, Belize

12) Dominical, Costa Rica

P.S. Did you see the sea turtle in the Black Sand? My favorite photo is the first one. Me and my friend Loren having a little fun in (and out) of the canoe. What's your favorite?