I Love Surprises!

I love a surprise rain shower, especially when Texas is in a severe drought.  I also love the surprise guests that show up in the yard and allow me to take photographs of them.

Sometimes it's the simple things that surprise us the most.

Rain drops on the nandina bushes.  You can see the reflection of the green shutters in one of the drops.

I have a new treehouse guest in the backyard.

This little dickens would barely stay long enough to take his portrait.

Dreaming of Serenity

Here's my second attempt at layering texture over one of my photos.  I used Kim Klassen's dream texture.  And no, I couldn't stop at three buddhas.  I couldn't pass this one up.  I found it at a garage sale for 50 cents.

I used the poscard texture from Muddy Boot Dreams to layer over the photo of the ranch.

Texture

Here's my very first attempt at adding texture to a photo.  It took me a while, and I still have a lot to learn, but I think my first textured photo came out pretty good.  I used GIMP.  It's a free software you can download from the internet.  

Special thanks go to Kim Klassen Cafe for informing me of this software, Muddy Boot Dreams for the free textures, and the YouTube GIMP Tutorials to get me started with the basics.

The Ranch

A few snapshots of my Mom and Dad's ranch which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Dallas.

 Beautiful clouds

 Sunshine through the split in the tree

  
Beef master cattle
 

Buck helps out on the ranch and his dog Foley is close behind.

Foley

Horse apples

Mama and her calf

Sunset at the Ranch

Mama cat

The Ranch

Bloomin' Tuesday

Rose

Mexican Petunia

Vitex

Antique Rose