{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual."A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember." via Soulemama. 

October Clouds

This morning, at day break, I looked out to the east and saw this glorious sunrise...

Also this...

 

and this...

and this...

I couldn't stop staring at the beautiful heavens.


But the Painter of Skies was not finished crafting wispy, gold, lilac and azure beauty.

The evening brought this autumn surprise...

 and this...

 and this...

and for the finale, in the west, He painted this...

Quite the day of amazing clouds.

 The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
 

 Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
 

 They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
 

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
 

It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
   like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
 

 It rises at one end of the heavens
   and makes its circuit to the other;
   nothing is deprived of its warmth.

(Psalm 19:1-6)

Keeping a Travel sketchbook

I made a small travel sketch book from an old calendar to journal and sketch about our recent trip to NYC

 Here are the first pages...
1) A cartoon map doodled on the plane tracking our flight.
2)The adjoining page was used as a pallette, then to record our first sights in NYC from the taxi.
3) Elphaba from the Broadway musical, WICKED, which was fabulous!  Sketched from memory and fantasy.  We checked in to our hotel, headed to Times Square, then Broadway to find the Gershwin theater; stood in line 2+ hours and luckily got 3 amazing seats from a cancelation.  Whoop!
4) Snapped a quick shot of the Empire State Building on our taxi ride into Manhattan, sketched this from the camera screen afterward.  We spent 2 days at the ESB where we were checking out a College with our son, this was the reason for the trip.  But we turned it into a mini vacation as well. 

More pages coming soon, if anyone is interested.  :)  This is my first 'travel journal'.  The pages are smaller than 4" x 6" and were sewn on top of the calendar pages.  Rough, but it works!

Awww shucks, but still honored!

dart, originally uploaded by Az~Kate.

The Arizona Touism & Travel group  sponsors a monthly photo contest to flickr members who submit  photographs that feature the beauty and attractions of the state of Arizona to its Flickr group 'Arizona Passages' HERE  . A couple weeks ago I was notified that my photo, above, of this hummingbird taken at the Desert Botanical Gardens in April, was one of 5 photos chosen for May's contest. Wowza! And what is more 'wowza' is that I actually came in second place! ;o)

I sure do wish I would have won... I would have had my photograph featured in their next newsletter and received a cool backpack camera bag...that I may have loaned to Jesse for his upcoming trip to Oregon to shoot a wedding. Oh well, you can be sure I will keep trying to get some lovely photos of our beautiful state to enter into their monthly contests!

You have to belong to their facebook group to vote. So if you'd like to be in on this fun in the future... be a facebooker and 'like' the group titled 'Arizona The Official Grand Canyon State' HERE 

Here's the very beautiful and deserving winning shot...

artichokes are beautiful

artichokes are beautiful, originally uploaded by Az~Kate.

Another picture from my visit to the Botanical Gardens last week. This was in the herb garden...the artichokes are blooming, isn't this beautiful? I guess an artichoke is just a giant thistle. :) Now that I've discovered this flickr 'blog this' link, maybe I'll have more posts with my photos.

Have a good day!

April gone, May well on her way!

So, here it is already the second half of May.  And, no, I haven't posted for a month..tsk tsk.  The past few weeks have been super busy.  I went to CA for 4 days to visit mom and go to my sister's baby's first birthday (live in VA, so haven't seen each other in a L O N G time).  Then the past couple of weeks we had out of state visitors over 12 days (5 people altogether) to take part in various activities.  Jesse starred as the Cat in the Hat for his highschool production of Seussical the Musical, then came Mother's Day, and then our 30th anniversary.  We flew Jared and his girlfriend, Joi, in to be with us... so amazing to have all our boys together at the same time!  After cramming so much activity into a short week, stressed and tired I got pretty sick with a viral attack that I'm still recovering from.  Here are some pictures from late April and May...

I have been trying to get to the Botanical Gardens more regularly... that one was from April when the wildflowers were AMAZING!  In the past weeks I've gone again with Ron, then we went with our friends the Brackman's, next I took daughter-in-love and the grand-darling to see the butterflies, that was magical! (if I were allowed to post pictures of the most wonderful grandchild on earth, they'd be here, but I'm not)  Then I went again last week with my Dad and Judy.  Here are a few pictures from those various visits...

Flowers, the butterfly pavilion, dad and me, nest in saguaro with a couple dove fledglings & the last is of a mama round-tailed squirrel and baby (there were 5 babies, so cute!). 

Jesse as the Cat in the Hat... he was hilarious.  His director allowed him to ad-lib and improv quite a bit, so he took full advantage of it. The last shot is from Mother's Day when I was surrounded by all my boys and other family ...it's been a very long time since this has happened. 

Sorry this is such a boring post... maybe I'll get back later and 'spice' it up! 

Clearing Storm Jackson Lake Wyoming

Clearing Storm Jackson Lake Wyoming, originally uploaded by Chip Phillips.

A taste of heaven on earth. Photos of the most beautiful landscapes on earth speak to the souls of men... a transcendent beauty that seems to haunt our hearts is captured or felt for a moment. Even better is seeing such vistas in person, but still they are fleeting minutes of exquisite yet bittersweet peace. We can't will the beautiful scene and moment to engulf us... but this is what I believe is meant by the words of scripture, 'He sets eternity in our hearts'. Here is part of the passage, in context...

Ecclesiastes 3: 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

Ecclesiastes 3 is a beautiful, bittersweet passage... read it and see.  Do you think the writer of Ecclesiastes is right?  Is this all there is?  Do you long for more... what awaits us in eternity?  The Bible has much more to say.  ;o)