Aww Mondays

The same day and in the same location as the model train show that I recently posted, there was a horse show. For some reason I felt like I needed to get on with my day and I did not give in to the urge to stop and photo the competition going on inside the arena. This pony was tied to his trailer, taking a break from the activities in the show ring. Next time I will stop and smell the roses…or something like that.

Spring Sports!

Basketball season is over and that can only mean one thing, time for spring sports. We no longer have any grandchildren playing sports at the high school level, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped enjoying photographing high school sports. I do have a friend whose daughter is playing softball for one of the area high schools, so I drove out to one of their recent games to capture a few images.

Soccer and track are just getting started so there will be more to come, there just won’t be the personal attachment to the players that I used to have. Have a blessed week.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

The honorary co-hostess/conductor/dj for this month is Marie at XmasDollie. This week the theme is old rock and roll songs. No problem. I am as old as rock and roll itself, so let’s see if I can find some tunes that have been gathering dust for far too long. Time to drag them out of the closet and put them back on the turntable.

While Elvis may be recognized as the King of Rock ‘n Roll, it was artists like Little Richard that had been playing this music for several years in dives, juke joints and honky tonks who introduced rock ‘n roll to the world. They were the influences that Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis drew inspiration from and covered their songs.

Perhaps the ultimate showman/guitar player of the 50’s was Chuck Berry. Chuck had an influnce on artists like Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and the Beatles. 60’s artist Johnny Rivers covered several of Chuck Berry’s songs and made them hits of his own.

One artists whose music seems to have fallen through the cracks of oldies radio is Del Shannon.

A classic duo that blended country with rock ‘n roll was the Everly Brothers. While most of us may think of Linda Ronstadt when we hear this song, but it was written by Phil Everly and recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1960. It asks the age old question, “When Will I Be Loved”.

Let’s face it, I could do this all day long. I think I will bring this playlist to a close, but I will definitely return to early rock ‘n roll in the near future. This was really fun.

February saw winter come to Arkansas and much of the country with a vengeance. Locally, the temperatures plunged into sub-zero territory for the first time in a decade and night wind chill reached -20 one night. Believe me, we are not prepared for that kind of weather. Our house and our daughter’s family were fine, but there were a lot of frozen pipes and power outages for several days. My back yard bird feeders were kept busy as you have seen from previous posts, but one evening we had a new visitor to the neighborhood.

Late one afternoon I looked out the back window and saw this critter on the neighbors fence. From a distance, he kind of looked like a cat. As soon as I figured out it was a possum, I grabbed my camera and headed out the door. “Opus” let me get very close to him for the portrait shoot. He watched my every move, but made no attempt to escape and there was no hissing involved. I captured the images posted here and went back in the house. A short time later Opus was gone and I haven’t seen him since.

As you can see, Opus is colored more like a raccoon or cat than what you normally think of a possum. He was really very cooperative and I think I actually got a little smile out of him.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

This week our assignment at 4M is to build a playlist of Johnny Mathis songs. Johnny Mathis was a favorite of my mother. Mom liked Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Andy Williams as well, but she was not a fan of Frank Sinatra nor Tony Bennett. So on with the Johnny Mathis picks. First up is a recording that became the signature song of The Carpenters. Yes, “Close To You” was the title cut of a1970 album which is the same year The Carpenters had a mega hit with the same song.

A good cup of coffee and a short meeting with the Creator to start the day.

Just a reminder that we do have a choice.

Baby it’s cold outside!!! Last week has been cold and this week is going to be brutal. We are supposed to get several inches of snow and temperatures in single digits with wind chill well into sub-zero. The bluebirds are not happy and the robins are just dazed and confused. We have winter in Arkansas, just not sub-freezing temperatures for two weeks. The good news is that spring is just around the corner.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

Since today is President’s Day and we just changed administrations, the theme at 4M is leadership. Leaders come in all shapes, sizes, personalities, and agendas. Some leaders are methodical, deliberate, seem to take a very long time to come to a decision.. That is certainly an appropriate methodology, but there are times when a quick analysis and decision is required. It might be said that the leader shoots from the hip. Well, some days you just need a “Gunslinger”.

When it comes to leadership and who we should follow, there is only one answer. Precious Lord Take My Hand.