Photo Friday and a Purple Star!

Well, here we are at Photo Friday, and I can't believe I'm three weeks behind in posting pictures.  (Actually I can believe I'm three weeks behind; that's totally how I operate!)

In any case, you get "treated" (lucky you!) to four (count 'em, four!) photos from Project 52 tonight.

The first is something many of us are dying to escape from right about now:
The Bars of Winter (above)

The other three share the same subject (a little nest in the tree outside my den window), but are taken at different times.

Nobody Home

(This is my favorite)

My Little Chickadees

This one is toooo small

In other news, I'm very proud and excited to have earned my fifth Purple Star on Squidoo this week! And it's on my new Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz lens! As he would say, that new lens is a real Purple-Starinator! I hope you'll check it out! Have a great weekend!

Festival of Light

I found a fun blog called A Canadian Family that's about genealogy, family history, and vintage postcards.  The blog regularly hosts "carnivals" where they request blog posts on a certain topic, and bring all the submitted posts together to form a sort of online magazine.  The subject of their current blog carnival, with submissions ending today, happens to be "A Festival of Postcards, Series 7, Light."

I have a pitiful collection of vintage postcards (three, to be exact), but my collection happens to include one that fits the "Light" theme beautifully:  Electric Fountain, Olcott Park, Virginia, Minn. (above).  This postcard also fits in nicely with A Canadian Family's genealogy theme.  I bought it because of my interest in the Virginia area on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota, because that's where the paternal branch of my family hails from.  My husband and I own a cabin on the Iron Range that once belonged to my grandmother, and we are familiar with many of my distant cousins since we spend as much time as we can there in the summer.

I've written a Squidoo lens on things to do in Northern Minnesota, and Olcott Park, a 40-acre public park in Virginia, is on the must-see list.  When my kids we younger, we would often picnic at the fountain, where they'd try to catch the frogs that swam there!

The fountain in Olcott Park is no longer lit at night (due to financial constraints), but in the mid-20th century it was a major tourist attraction for the area. It was built as part of the government's back-to-work efforts as The Great Depression was ending.  It's in a beautiful sunken garden with stone walls and stairs.

As the website IronRange.org explains:

The park also became famous for its illuminated fountain. Constructed by General Electric Company, the fountain was one of only a few built in the United States. When it opened in 1937, policemen were posted at the site to control the traffic. Its fascinating combination of colored floodlights and sprays was created by a seven-projector device with 360 variations per hour. The operation was controlled in the base of the fountain by an electric motor with rotary switches which ran from 8:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night.

Interestingly, Olcott Park is also home to the Museum of the Historical Society of Virginia, which has a vast collection of... historical vintage postcards!  See how it all comes together for this one blog post, which I submit to the Festival of Postcards, Series 7, Light!

Photo Friday: Hawk Alights

Project 52 continues with this week's pic:  A marsh hawk that flew up into the grand pine tree across the street while I was sitting at my desk!  Took this through the den window, with my camera that (luckily) was sitting right there.  (I do love where I live!)

Was completely poised and focused to snap a shot as he flew away, and just as he did, I pushed the button... and the batteries died.

Ah, well.  Not too bad for week six of fifty-two.

This week's kind-of-pitiful runner-up:  Morning Frost.  (Which was taken on my iPhone and can only been seen at the incredibly small size you see here).

Announcing Project 52

Inspired by all the bloggers who have attempted and/or completed a Project 365 (taking and posting a photograph a day, and becoming an amazing photographer along the way), I have decided to start my own photography blog project. But not wanting to bite off more than I can chew, I've dubbed it "Project 52". I figure I can come up with one awesome photo a week! Sure I can! Who couldn't do that? I can do that! I can, right?

Anyway, I want to smoosh the whole project into 2010. So I'm already 4 weeks behind. Or 5 if you want to count that first Friday. Which I do. Soooooooo...

Here are the first 5 photos of Project 52, Photo Friday! Ready, set, go....

Oh wait! Rules! Rules, rules, rules. First, if my photos suck, I can and will PhotoShop them. This is as much to hone my PhotoShopping skills as my photography skills. Second, if I get behind, I can smoosh multiple photos into one Friday (like today). OK, I think those are all the rules.

Oh and also, I'd like to say that my inspiration (high praise indeed after this flawlessly crafted introductory post.... Sorry, Dani!) is DaniGirl of the FABULOUS blog Postcards from the Mothership. Her photos throughout the last year have been SUCH great fun to look at, and now she's found that she can't stop at 365, and has gone on to re-name her project "Project 1000". She just keeps going and going. Which is what this introduction is doing. Now, on to the photos!

Wait! I have to say "also inspired by"... ALVN, the amazing Amy from WhisperWood Cottage and Junkologie blogs. (And also a contributor on JunkMARKET Style!) Amy is a person who has that "eye" for photography, and SHOULD BE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER.

OK. It's like I'm at the Academy Awards and the orchestra starts playing because my speech is running over....

So now... the photos!

Wild Turkeys in the Lane, Winter

I took this out my car window on my iPhone.  It was somewhat blurry, and had the frame of the car window in it.  But when I cropped it and put the Fresco effect on... I thought it was somewhat impressionistic!  (Just call me Renoir!)

 Crabapple tree in hoarfrost

Same deal - blurry iPhone pic with PhotoShopped effect - Manet, n'est-ce pas?

Hip-hop birdie

Sweet little birdie tracks by our front door one morning....

Happiness and high-fives

Tyler is thrilled with the birthday present Lauren gave him.  Any shot with them not fighting is golden...!

Corgi with snowflakes

Our Coco girl loves the snow!

And there you have it - Project 52, up and running!