the good, the bad, and the kitty

Last weekend, my family had a get-together at my grandparents’ house in Davenport. Attendees included myself, Ryan, my sister Jenn and her husband Eric, my parents, my grandparents, and my aunt Judy and her partner, Steph. Judy brought her Rottweilers, Scooter and Cooper, and Cooper was nice enough to pose for some portraits.

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As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I have been slacking on my Exposure project and posting blogs in general. This is because I’ve decided to scrap the one-photo-a-day project and just post whenever I am inspired. A lot of the photos I took weren’t spectacular, but some of them I really liked. So, I am being true to my slacker nature by changing things up and doing something new.

Today Ryan and I went to the Iowa City Salvage Barn and ogled old windows and doors that might work for an upcoming gardening project. I want to build a box and plant things in it, and top it with an old window. This will let sunlight in and trap heat – sort of a homemade hot house. Until it’s warm enough to grow vegetables in the open air, we thought the box would be a good idea. We didn’t get anything today, but found lots of cool items.

We came home, and Ryan began construction on a wood floor for his van.

Ryan’s inspiration inspired me, so i got to work planting the cat grass I bought at Paul’s Discount last week. I didn’t take any photos of this. It’s hard to take photos with your hands in the dirt.

I got a bird feeder the same day I got the cat grass seeds, and put it in the tree just outside the living room windows. Several little birds have visited to partake, and I’ve taken to leaving my bird field guide out by the window so I can identify our visitors. I snapped these photos today out the window, and am quite happy with them.

Finally, Clementine was basking in the sun by the open door, and looked adorable (as always). She started gnawing on the wrist cord of my camera, and managed to look quite fierce. For those of you who have met Clementine, you know that “fierce” is not a word that would normally to use to describe her.

Hopefully changing up the content and format of my blog will inspire me to post more often, and not be intimidated and pressured by a regimented daily photo/weekly post format. I’ve never done well with restrictions, anyway. I should have known better!