Fall.

Sunday afternoon during the half time of the Patriots game Dale and I went out into the yard and threw a football around. This might be standard half time behavior for lots of people but it was a first for me – - – not only had I never thrown a football but I’d never caught on, either. Don’t mock me, I only started liking football last year.

Anyway, I had the camera with me and suggested that Dale pose for a photo or two. He was wearing his Patriots jersey and I thought it would be fun to take some “action” shots of him with the football. I didn’t have to ask him twice – - – this man loves to play to the camera.

First he just stood there with the ball.

And then he pointed at me and held the ball as if he was about to throw it.

He spent some time throwing the ball up in the air and catching it. I tried to capture the action of him actually catching it but that was tough. I do like how you can see his hair moving in this one.

Finally, he posed as if he was hiking the ball. Yes, that’s a sneer on his face.

Have I ever mentioned that my husband is a ham?

A week or so ago I noticed a beautiful field of sunflowers on the way home from work. Last Wednesday I finally remembered to bring my camera with me and I asked Dale to stop so I could take some photos of these yellow beauties. I had to traipse my way through corn and weeds and other growing things but I think it was worth it.

I will say, though, that I was disappointed in my ability to capture the entire field. I brought my wide angle lens and wanted a shot of the rows of sunflowers but I couldn’t get close enough to get the depth of field I wanted. I am not entirely satisfied with this one but it’s the closest I got to the picture in my mind.

I am infinitely happier with the close ups, however. The clear blue sky is the perfect contrast to the flowers and I could have stayed there shooting for a good long time.

I read up a bit on sunflowers in order to write this post and I learned that even though we think of the sunflower as one huge flower, it is actually made up of hundreds of tiny flowers called florets.

The yellow petals are not petals at all but are protective leaves that cover the center of the head while it is growing and the brown center of the sunflower is a mass of hundreds of flowers, all growing individually, and from where each sunflower seed will originate. Pretty cool, I think.

I’m sure you’ve all seen sunflowers before but I think it’s hard to judge just how big they are unless you’ve stood in a field of them. These guys were taller than me by about a foot and their stems are big and sturdy.

I  love that sunflowers are just as pretty from behind as they are from the front. I think there’s just something so beautiful about the sharp points on those green edges and the way they curl around to protect the flower petals.

Even the sunflower buds are beautiful.

I love finding opportunities to photograph the things around me, especially when it’s as simple as pulling the car over on the way home from work.

The Thursday Challenge for this week is Yellow. I just so happen to have some yellow summer squash.

We’ve been getting lots of awesome vegetables in our CSA share each week. We’ve had sweet corn and lettuce, beets and peas, green beans and zucchini, potatoes, blueberries, summer squash and much much more. Picking up these vegetables each week makes meal planning fast and easy – I just add some sort of meat or fish cooked on the grill and we are good to go.

Fresh vegetables from our CSA is just another reason why I love summer.

I think it’s awesome that Macro May happens just when all the flowers are blooming because I love me some macro flower shots. I take one almost every day, in fact.

I take them of columbine.

And peony heads.

I take them of tulips.

And geranium blossoms.

And I take them of lilacs.

Lots and lots of lilacs.

I can’t bring them inside due to allergies so I have to enjoy them this way.

How are you celebrating Macro May?

It’s Project Spectrum time again, thanks to Lolly, and the color for the month of May is red. I may have mentioned a time or two that I love red. It’s my favorite color, in fact, so I couldn’t be happier about starting Project Spectrum in this way.

I’m participating by knitting red socks.

The yarn is Kim’s, the color is Scarlet Devil, and the pattern – don’t fall over now – is Cable Rib Socks. That’s right, I’m knitting a patterned sock.

Okay, it’s a pretty simple pattern but I do love the cable running down the sides of the leg.

It’s also, thanks to Maryse, Macro May. I’m participating by taking macro shots with lots of red.

Like this one of my crab apple tree blossoms.

And this one of my wee sock stitch marker.

Hooray for Project Spectrum! Hooray for Macro May!

I have a pair of finished socks to photograph.

I have a finished shawl to photograph.

The weather, however, has not been conducive to photographing anything. It has been rainy or it has been windy or it has been rainy and windy at the same time. In other words, the light has been crap and I haven’t taken photos of the socks or the shawl. I truly  hope to set up the photo shoots for these projects over the weekend.

In the meantime, I think this photo of a vine curling around my deck railing is appropriate for Photo Theme Thursday since the topic is soft.

In this case, soft focus.

This week’s Photo Theme for Thursday is many.

We have many pieces of wood piled on our deck.

I’ll be happy when the wood is gone and we have many drinks on our deck instead.

Just sayin.

Sometimes when Thursday rolls around I have a newly finished hand knit to show you.

Sometimes when Thursday rolls around I have 3 things to tell you.

And sometimes when Thursday rolls around I have nothing.

Well, nothing except this photograph, which I think perfectly represents this week’s Thursday Challenge of texture.

There’s the texture of the bark on the trees. And the texture of Baby’s fur. There’s even texture to all that snow.

So that’s what I have this Thursday. Texture.

The Thursday Challenge photo theme for this week is RED. I love red. In fact, red is my favorite color.

So I went right on over to Mosaic Maker and made a mosaic of my favorite red photos.

I can’t stop looking at it! It’s vibrant and beautiful and captures so much of my life.

I love it!