Snow bonnet bear

While everyone else was at the mall yesterday, we sallied forth through the snow to Michigan to check out the Box Factory for the Arts in downtown St. Joseph. It's an old factory refurbished for galleries and working studios, well worth the trip if you're in the area.

This fellow greeted us by the door, wearing his brand new hat of snow. I couldn't resist snapping a photo or two.

I envy artists. It would be such a delight to be able to spend the day in a studio, creating beautiful objects all day. Of course, that would require some kind of talent, and I haven't seen any evidence of that in myself yet. But I'm still looking for it.

Snow, beautiful snow

Just sharing some shots of the first snowfall of the year, which arrived late Thanksgiving Day. It came as something of a surprise, ushering in the Christmas season with perfect timing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dinner in progress at our house. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Monopoly

Here's something sneaky to check out before the family pulls out the board games this holiday season: How to Win at Monopoly.

I ran into it over at the blog Look at This. It's a strategy guide based on probability studies, for people who really, really need to win.

In my experience, whoever gets Boardwalk and Park Place has the game in the bag. Period.

When I was a kid, Monopoly was one of those things that always seemed like a good idea at the beginning. I think it was the cute little playing pieces. We had a really old set with metal markers. There was a car, a top hat, a shoe ... and all those tiny little houses were fun, too. We'd roll the dice and set off from GO with all the optimism of a Donald Trump. Once somebody grabbed the good properties, though, it devolved into hours and hours of increasing hostility, ending in hard feelings and vows to never play with this thing again.

Eventually we'd run across the box in the bottom of the closet, by which time we'd have forgotten how awful it was the last time, and there we'd be once more: Some of us gloating, and some of us glaring at gloaters.

Maybe it's the money that makes it mean. Nobody ever got so worked up over Mousetrap.

Round Robins: Steeplechase

For this week's event, we are to suggest three photo challenges for the future and then to choose one of them to do now. It's the brain child of Steven who blogs at (sometimes) photo blog, and I, for one, can't wait to see what this creative crew dreams up.

Here's what leaked out from under my own battered, tattered thinking cap:

Steeplechase. We have amazingly beautiful old churches around here, and I bet you do, too. I've been meaning to photograph them for ages, so this is what I chose to do for this week.

This church is called Saint Joseph's, a European-style confection in brick and stone. When it's dark and the lights are on inside, the stained glass windows make the whole thing glow like a Tiffany lamp. AND, it has real bells. If I were a deity, I'd want to live there.


For the future, how about these:

Morning, Noon and Night. Kinda simple, really ... photograph the same thing at different times of the day. It's an experiment in using natural light.

Roots. Everyone does gnarled branches, twisty trunks, and pretty flowers, but roots have a lot of character too.

Extra Credit:
Before and After. Anything "before" and, well, "after." You pick what.

Click here to see what the other Robins have done -- and next time join in, OK?

The view

I don't have a lot to say today, but I do have this pretty picture to share, so here ya go. It's the view from my home office window, in the direction of the neighbors who still have trees. Isn't it something?

They say that fall colors are becoming less vibrant, or disappearing altogether in many places. It may be due to global warming; it takes colder nights than we get now to juice up the intensity of the hues. But for here and now, at least, the show goes on.

Coolest. Table. Ever.

Got a few extra guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner? Too bad you don't have one of these. One quick turn, and voila: room for several more.

You're not likely to see these anywhere any time soon, unless you hang with a richer crowd than I do. (If you have to ask, you can't afford one.) Still. A girl can dream.

November holidays

November and December don't need a lot of help, holiday-wise, so herewith are just a few extras for this month.

November is International Drum Month, so go ahead and indulge your urge to bang on something. It's good for you. It is also National Apple Month. Those are good for you too. So good, in fact, that they actually may keep the doctor away. Not that he's coming anywhere near you with all that drum banging you're doing.

World Kindness Week is November 12-18, and boy howdy could we use some more of that.

November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. We don't do that one in the U.S., but we should. I'm not entirely sure what it's all about, but we are definitely missing a great opportunity for bonfires and fireworks.

National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day is November 7. I'm on it.

Veterans' Day is November 11. Hug 'em if you have 'em -- and say Thanks, while you're at it.

November 16 is Button Day. I love buttons. I have baskets, boxes and jars of the things. There's this store in San Francisco called Britex, where the third floor is jammed with buttons and trims. If you sew, you gotta go. But I digress.

Thanksgiving is the 22nd, but you knew that. Did you know, though, that it is also Start Your Own Country Day? Imagine the possibilities.

The 23rd is Black Friday, for shopping 'til you drop, and also Sinkie Day, for the unceremonious scarfing of the remaining turkey and/or trimmings.

From there it's one long, heavily lubed slide to Christmas, and you won't remember much of the intervening time anyway, so let's just leave it at that.

Photo shoot: settings

The Round Robin Challenge this time is from Becky of the blog Where Life Takes You:

Many of us fall into the category of "enthusiast" or "skilled amateur" when it comes to snapping pictures. We tend to rely on the automatic settings on our camera.

How about we stretch our photographic muscles and try some of those "other" settings on the camera? Ones we've never used before, particularly. It would be interesting to see what people come up with.

So when Gatsby Cat appeared on my desk this morning for his daily scatter-the-mail event, I snapped a few shots in different modes. I learned a few things in the process. First of all, "Copy" is black and white! As Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Plus, all the ones taken with the flash off turned out blurry (they're not included here.) I nearly always turn off the flash because I don't like the harshness, and I have an awful time getting clear, in-focus shots. Seems the two things are related. Duh.

My camera is an older point-and-shoot, a Nikon Coolpix 2500, but it has quite a few preset options and a few manual adjustments you can make, I suppose, if you know how. One of these days, I'm going to explore resetting the white balance. Maybe fix some of those orange shots I get indoors.

Anyway, here's what happened:

This is Copy mode, for taking pictures of documents. (As in James Bond, I suppose.)

Auto, for comparison.


Museum. This one was supposed to turn off the flash automatically, but it didn't. Hmm.


Night Portrait. Note all the color changes in the white door and walls behind so far.



Party Indoor. This is the warmest of the bunch and my favorite. Too bad GC was so distracted by the kid in the hallway, but what're ya gonna do.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Robins' experiments to see what everyone else found.

All Saints Day

I am not a Catholic, but I like the idea of saints.

My first real awareness of them came shortly after we moved to this area. Catholic neighbors trying to sell their houses bury little statues of Saint Joseph in their yards, facing away from the house. When the house is sold, they dig him up and take him with them to the new home. They swear he gets the job done.

It would be nice to think that some kindly spirit or other was out there to talk to, and maybe to lend a hand. Somebody who was once one of us, and who understands that life on earth ain't easy. (Yes, yes, I know. Jesus. But as the incarnation of Yahweh, he was never exactly one of the boys, was he.)

I wouldn't mind having a pleasant, holy-ish spirit friend; a minor deity of sorts, one who wouldn't afflict me with boils or plagues or anything.

A quick Internet search brought me to Catholic Online - Saints & Angels, where I discovered there are hundreds and hundreds of 'em. Wow. Who knew? There is even a list of Popular Saints, presumably the "cool kids' table" of the spirit world. I imagine they're pretty busy. And I doubt they'd be caught dead consorting with a backslid Presbyterian.

No, what I need is a small, thoughtful saint who might welcome a little attention. One with some extra time on his or her hands. Back to the Internet for a search on "obscure saints":

Topping the results list is Michael Kelly's Page of Misery: Saints, which is funny as hell but not to be clicked upon if you are easily offended. (Consider yourself warned. Do not email me.)

An entry or two down in Google is the delightful, quirky Saints in Paper Maché. The artist is Canadian Kate Hodgson. Of her collection she says, "Holy folk, who excelled in life or overcame great obstacles are heroes. I think they deserve a little more shelf space in our everyday lives." I can agree with that.

Among her subjects is Saint Zita, reputed to be a kind and generous soul who, refreshingly enough, was not too horribly abused in life and did not end up being tortured to death. She's a patron saint of homemakers, among other things. Hm. Zita might do. I'll let you know.

*Update, November 2: Indeterminacy says, "I wonder why a patron saint of the Internet hasn't been named yet, but I'm sure it will be done soon." which made me wonder, too. Well, the wait is over. Looks like the Vatican assigned the job to Saint Isidore of Seville. Now there's a useful saint.