243 Friends

I just had a conversation the other day about NOT feeling the need to make this a "Dear Diary" blog. At the risk of contradicting myself: Old or new, friends are a gift to be treasured. This was a gift from my friend Robin Tatom in 1983. I'm happy to have hung onto or rediscovered old friends, including Robin, through the years. And I'm happy to have the friends, old and new, to celebrate with on evenings like tonight.

Day 242 Fun

Who says you can't have fun at work? Today I enjoyed a day at the beach with my co-workers celebrating our accomplishments and planning how to do things better. Beth left before we took a vote on the picture of the day, but "a panel of experts" agreed this shot represented us well. The laughter was the best part of the day.

Day 241 Dinner

Day 240 Palm at Night

That's a tall tree!

Day 239 Shooting

Today was shooting day with Phyllis. I had a great time and, as always, learned a lot watching her work.

Day 238 Harp

Day 237 Home

I didn't make it home in time for the sunset tonight, but I stopped by the beach anyway, just to take a look.

Day 236 The Mississippi

Day 235 Mill City

This was a hard choice. I got a great tour at the Mill City Museum tonight and saw the ruins of what was the world's largest flour mill. The light was really nice and I got a "classic" shot of the Gold Medal Flour sign, but for some reason, I kept coming back to the window shots. As usual. I'll share more from the trip on my Flickr page later in the week.

Day 234 Marine on St. Croix

I toured the St. Croix Scenic Byway today, including Marine on St. Croix, population 600.

Day 233 City Reflection

Just an example of how much you can miss if you don't take time to look up every now and then. -- Yes, that's a reflection of another building on the side of that building. It was brilliant.

Day 232 Close Up

There are some very pretty flowers blooming at the waterfront park. The wind makes them a challenge (for me) to shoot closeup, though.

Day 231 Sunrise

This is the picture I went hoping to find this morning. It was a great time to be at the beach. My problem with taking pictures early in the morning is that I want to keep taking pictures all day, which doesn't usually coordinate too well with my day job.

Day 230 Morning

Day 229 Wide Open

Day 228 Apples and Oranges

Some days making the choice for the picture of the day is a very weird process. Most often those are the days when I don't have any great ideas and nothing in particular inspires me. I end up wandering around the house or the yard or the neighborhood. Then I end up trying to pick either the best picture or the most interesting subject among totally unrelated things. Today the choice was between a cat and a wheelbarrow. Neither mine, they were just in my path as I wandered. The wheelbarrow won. (Imagine how boring the cat pic must have been!)

Day 227 Good Advice

Whew! I almost didn't get a picture today. I think this was an appropriate last minute find. It might become my new fallback subject.

Day 226 Rave

Day 225 Green House

Day 224 Pick A Pepper

Day 223 Sea Oat Studio

I visited Sea Oat Studio today, where they were tweaking their display for upcoming art shows.

Day 222 Someone's Watching

Do you ever feel like someone is watching you? I was wandering around in my neighbor's backyard looking for a picture for today and look who I found looking over my shoulder. I guess that will teach me to stay in my own yard!

Day 221 For Sale

Day 220 Red, Right, Return

I got to Perdido Pass in time to see the boys aboard the Bad Habit returning home this evening.

Day 219 Lizard

Day 218 Another Look

This is the shot I wanted to get yesterday before I found that surprise in the other window. I wasn't able to stop thinking about it, so I went back today to get it.

Day 217 In the Window

I've noticed several times when driving through Gulf State Park that there's this cool little old building at the entrance. I finally stopped to shoot some pictures of it. It obviously hasn't been used for a long while and there weren't any signs of recent activity there. Imagine my surprise when I took a closer look into one of the windows. Cool, huh?

Day 216 Friendly Advice

Morgan offered some great advice about what to taste at Red or White in Fairhope.

Day 215 Sea Oats

Day 214 Morning Reflection

I really should get up early more often. This is what I saw this morning in Gulf State Park.

Day 213 Goodies

Thanks to my friend Lola, since returning from my trip to the Shoals I have some homemade goodies to enjoy!