111 - From Ground Level

First shot from the Fort Worth Stock Show!  Head on (or tail on, how do you tell?) shot of the Ferris wheel.  I filled 3 memory cards, but no hubby shots.  (He's more camera shy than I am!)

I'll do several themes on the stock show, and make some up if I have to!  I got some I like OK, and a few I really like (including two horse ones--well, more than two, of course, but two in particular).  I'll post some on here, some on my website (in case anyone's interested in them).

I see I should have cloned out the electrical wire, but I was too tired to even notice it until just now!  This is almost SOOC, just added signature.

94 - Fasteners

This is on one of the gates out at my barn.  It keeps my resident horsedinis where they're supposed to be!

Wednesday morning it was iced over.  I thought it was an interesting shot.  Didn't go through that gate for a while, though!

98 - Fences

This was one of my cross-fences yesterday morning (with the border fence behind it--which badly needs straightening--amazing the things you don't notice until you photograph them!).  Encased in crystal.

Best viewed full size!

18 - Baby It's Cold Outside!

Well, winter again!  Coldest night of the year so far, last night, at 19º.  Not much for northerners, I know, but in central Texas, we just don't get down into the teens that often.  

We got 1/2" of freezing rain, followed by 1/2" of sleet.  Made the trip to the barn a bit risky, but uneventful (thankfully!).  I got bold enough to go back for my camera once the horses were fed and watered.  This is off the corner of the barn.

55 - Closely Cropped

This is a two-parter again.  (Notice how I get as many photos of my cats & horses in as possible?  I think they're all so beautiful.  No bias here!)  One is the original photo of Dragonfly/Dragonfire--he gets called both for some reason--(he's the kitten in my avatar photo), and the other is closely cropped, along with a little eye enhancement.  This one's more recent (taken last week).  He's 16 months old now (he was 4 months old in the avatar shot), and still photogenic--when I can get him to be still long enough to snap a shot!

123 - Go Fish!

Featuring once again, our intrepid feathery friend who braved the noisy, large backhoe to hunt, unconcerned, for his breakfast.  Got one!

107 - Footwear

Our local Tractor Supply store has these interesting mudboots.  I think they're pretty, and I like the blue checks, but I think they're a little steep for my pocketbook ($32.95 as opposed to $14.95 for the plain black--which also keep your feet dry).  Since I can't convince myself that the horses would like these better than the others, I guess this photo is as close as I'll get to blue houndstooth checked mudboots!  (And I'm sure I'll live, anyway!)

144 - Hats

My husband's western hats wait patiently on his hat rack by the front door.  Summer straw on top, winter felt on bottom.  We're going to the Ft. Worth Stock Show next weekend (hopefully), and he'll wear that winter felt for the first time since his stroke in August  2008.  I look forward to seeing it--another sign of returning to normalcy.  (Besides, I think he's quite handsome in it, but after 35 years of marriage, I'd hate for it to go to his head--then he couldn't wear the hat!)

108 - For Sale

I've passed by this old boat out in someone's front yard every day for two months.  He's not having much luck selling it, but I like the picture it presented, so . . .

232 - Photograph

One of the few I framed and hung of my own photos.  Something about these little guys (7 and under Western Showmanship class) out there in the show ring with their Miniature horses, trying to look so professional--and mostly succeeding--just tickled my fancy (it's still giggling)!  The photograph was taken the summer of 2006 in Glen Rose, Texas at an AMHR horse show (that's minis and Shetland Ponies).

I didn't realize until I posted it how dirty the glass is!  Oh, well!

39 - Candlelight

This is one of a pair of sleeping kitten candleholders I have.  Seemed like it would be a good spot for it in the challenge, so here it is!

269 - Sculpture

This little furricane adorns a small shelf in my bathroom.  I played with filters a little, just for fun, and he came out glowing.  

I've had this happen to my toilet tissue before in real life, so the bathroom is now off limits to anyone feline!  He was so cute, I had to bring him home.  (At least I don't have to clean up after him!)

295 - Something Missing

Something missing - like most of the handle.  This old shovel has seen its better days.  Don't know where it came from.  It just showed up in the front yard one day, sans handle.  So it's my lawn ornament.  (Hey, it beats a tire planter!)

359 - (Training) Wheels

The neighbors' little girl's bicycle was just standing there, waiting for its picture to be taken.  (I hope they weren't watching their weird next door neighbor photographing their little bike!  They already think I'm strange.)  sigh

43 - Celestial Bodies

I took this a few days before the full moon (about 2:00 pm).  Darkened the color, then played with the lens flare filter.  Final touch was the DreamSuite plug-in's Dreamy Effects to soften the lens flares.  Maybe a brighter blue than I wanted, but I kind of like the lens flare filter.  Never used it before.  I think I'll play with it a bit more now.

50 - Circles

These are round bale holders on sale at our local Tractor Supply.  Must have been fun setting them up in that display--those things are heavy!  I liked the effect, though, and couldn't pass up a shot.

59 - Colored Glass(es)

Peeking inside my kitchen cabinets . . .  

I love cobalt blue glass, can you tell?  My dishes, glasses, serving bowls, even ovenware, pretty much everything is cobalt blue.

12 - Antique

Well, probably not really an antique.  More likely a Replicar (but it looks antique!).  For once, I had my camera with me, on me, and ready to shoot, when I saw something I wanted a picture of!  (Miracles do happen, after all!)  This cool car went past as I was walking to my own vehicle at the Allen, TX public park.  I had to take a shot (and then clone the massive electrical pylon out of the photo).  B&W and warm filter, and there she is.  What a beauty!

76 - Dirt

There's a place that raises and starts running Quarter Horses.  I pass it every day to and from work, and I've been wishing for a photo of their two-horse starting gate.  The Challenge finally got me off my rear and out of my truck to get a few shots.  This one I centered on the open gate to see the quarter-mile straightaway.  I guess you could say it's a horse's eye view.

87 - Exercise

This is Firefly, one of my rescue kitties, doing her morning exercises, suspended between the entertainment center and the bookcase.  Trying to keep her svelte figure (with limited results-her other exercise is eating)!

This is not part of the challenge.  I've posted some photos of a couple of my minis as part of the challenge, but for those who said they've not seen miniatures, here's a picture of Buffi as a 2-year-old with the lady from whom I bought her.  She was 29 3/4" tall at the time.  She's matured to a whopping 30 1/4"!  (Those bigger ones in the background are Shetland ponies.)

See how close he was?  (I just had to post this with the other one.  I just cropped it a bit.)

96 - Feathered or Feathers

At the same pond where the backhoe was digging, about 30 feet away, was this fellow, fishing for his lunch.  He kept an eye on the backhoe, but seemed totally unconcerned about the noisy yellow beast not so very far away.  

Obviously, fish for lunch was OH so much more important!

150 - Holes

I saw a backhoe digging a hole at the edge of a city park pond, and intended a shot of that for this theme, but then I saw these laying off to one side--they are why the hole is being dug, to add drainage--and they just called to me.  Couldn't pass it up.  So these 10 foot long pieces of culvert, lined up side by side, is my photo for "Holes".

97 - Feline Friends

This is Shadowolf, my Oriental Shorthair cat.  I've included 2 photos here, just so you can see what he looks like NOT so close, as well as the closeup shot.  He's probably the smartest cat I've ever known, even to the point of using cherry tomatoes I had ripening in a bowl to bomb the cats that came to the water bowl below where he sat (by the tomato bowl).  I had to move the tomatoes so the other cats could get a drink in peace!

5 - Abandoned

This old truck in a neighbor's backyard has become a trash dump.  It's missing part of it's bed, but the paint shines like new!  Seemed like the perfect Abandoned theme photo.  

136 - Hair

This is a photo I took of Stone Pony Farm's Buffi (my favorite subject!) a couple of days ago.  She's au naturel in the winter, except for an occasion trim of her bridle path.  If I don't do that, her halter doesn't fit, because she has SOOOOO much mane.  (It comes down below her knees when it's brushed out!)  

I had a hard time deciding between "Hair" and "Looking Down".  I finally decided I just had to settle on "Hair", for obvious reasons!

292 - Snow or Ice

This is another of the shots I got yesterday afternoon, of an evergreen branch.  I played with the hue/saturation a bit to brighten it up, as it was coming dusk when I took it.  With all the rainclouds out there, there wasn't that much light to begin with!  

They forecast 30º for last night, so I thought I'd get to go out and photograph more ice this morning.  Not to be:  it was 37º when I got up this morning.  Very drippy, no icicles!  (sigh)  Oh, well.

153 - How About This Weather?

Day before yesterday, it was 80º.  Yesterday, it was 40º.  Today it's supposedly 34º, but there's ice on everything (except the road, thankfully).  If I remember correctly, water doesn't freeze above 32º!  What's with that!

I had to get my camera out briefly (it's COLD out!) to get a few photos of the ice coating everything.  There's some old Johnson grass stalks still standing (even survived the weed-eater this summer), and I managed to get a shot or two before the rain started back up.  Mmmm, this hot chocolate's good!

I know most of the photos I'm using for the 2009 Challenge are boring right now, but I'm having fun anyway, and I'm NOT a cold weather person!  We're getting one day that's 80º, followed by the 30s for several days.  Then it warms to the 50s (which is still cold for me), and finally up to another 75 or 80.  Weird weather!  Once it gets to the 80s on a regular basis, THEN I'll go out and about for pictures.  Until then, I'm staying close to a cup of hot chocolate and the fireplace!  So, boring pictures it is for a bit.  Sorry (but warm)!

190 - Multiples

These bricks are destined to be a walkway between the gate and the barn.  One gets tired of slogging through the tarry Texas blackland mud (especially if one is pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with feed, hay, shavings . . . well, you get the idea!  This is about a pallet and a half of bricks that I got on Freecycle.org.  Cost:  nada.  The young man was even nice enough to deliver them and help me stack them.  Can't beat that!

Even if there aren't enough to do the entire job, at least it's a great start, and the whole thing will cost a lot less than it otherwise would have.  (Amazing what you can find on Freecycle.org!  I'm addicted.)

282 - Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

This is one of the most important signs I know when I'm hauling any of my little horses.  Interestingly enough, it really does keep the majority of people farther back than they normally would drive!  I find that amazing, because I never forget when I'm hauling, that I have living creatures in the trailer that can't grab hold if I take a turn too quickly, or stop or start too suddenly. (Which is to say, I drive very carefully; read:  slowly.)  It keeps them calmer and more comfortable if they're not being thrown around in the trailer.  Which makes me much more comfortable, too!

115 - Furry

Can't get much furrier than my little guys in the winter.  To body clip one in the spring gives me a whole wheelbarrow full of hair that I have no idea what to do with.  Some goes in the composter, some in the trash.  By the 3rd horse, it's going in huge plastic bags in the trash.

This is Mustang, waiting for breakfast.  Everyone's in need of a haircut (bridlepath and chin, NOT a bodyclip--until March!)  Believe it or not, he's a pretty sharp driving horse, and he cleans up nice, too!

129 - Green

Happy New Year!  

Here's the first one!  Taken this morning in my little pasture, just as the sun was coming up.  Off to a good start!