IT'S AUTUMN!

Well summer is over and I haven't blogged since noon.... typical. I DID recently post on my photography blog about my first two wedding gigs http://portraitsonlocation.blogspot.com/

Emily, Katie and I went to the pumpkin patch the weekend before last and Emily went to her friend Idun's Halloween Costume Party last Friday.


Bill has been working on storm duty since the end of September. First in Louisiana, now in Texas. He will be coming home on November 5th and will have been gone just over 6 weeks! I really miss him.

HERE'S WHAT'S BLOOMING IN MY GARDEN RIGHT NOW:

Daisies - lots of them, wish I had room to plant a whole field of them. They are so cute!
This photo (above) was an experiment with an extremely shallow depth of field f 1.8.
I like the way it turned out actually.

Honeysuckle vine on the trellis. My favorite this about this plant/vine is that it attracts hummingbirds. I've seen them a few times this year already,
but haven't been able to get a photo yet.... there is still time!

Poppies! I planted these from seed that a flickr friend sent to me. He owns a seed company in Colorado ~ Botanical Interests. This is just one variety of two types of poppies that I planted. This one is Flander's Poppy.

Cornflower - this is a perennial looks kinda like a thistle or a bachelor button!

Look what I spotted on the cornflower yesterday when I came home from work!!! A beautiful swallowtail butterfly. I was able to get a couple of shots of it before big ole moose scared it off!

And of course I can't forget the pond - it seems to be blooming frogs right now. I've counted a total of 6 so far. They are pretty small though. I wonder how big they will get?

I am so glad it is officially summer finally. It's my favorite season, it always has been. I love being able to go out without a coat! Just slip on a pair of shoes and walk outside and enjoy my yard and gardens. I like going for walks with Bill and the dogs. I love taking trips to the beach and local parks. We sometimes have a campfire in the back yard, it's so relaxing just to sit and watch the fire. When I am old and retired, I want to live somewhere where the summers are long and there is preferably no long cold winters!

THE GREAT BEE SWARM OF 2008!

On Thursday evening, Emily and I noticed a swarm of bees in our magnolia tree. At first the sight of it scared me. I have had some slightly allergic reaction to stings in the past and I worry that with each additional sting, it could get worse. My first instinct was "Call an Exterminator!". Friday at work, I did some research on the Internet about bee swarms and learned a lot. The bees are not normally aggressive when they swarm. It is a natural part of their life cycle. I also learned that I should call a bee keeper rather than an exterminator. So I did some more research and found one in our area.

The beekeeper couldn't make it out on Friday, but said that since it was cloudy, rainy, stormy weather, that the bees would not go anywhere. He said he would be by early on Saturday morning. (like 5:30 am early). Well, I was up between 5:00 and 6:30 and he didn't show up, so I went back to bed. My cell phone rang around 7:45 am and he said he had come by and tried to remove the swarm, but had slipped on his step ladder while holding the branch and had sent the bees flying. He said he would come back in the afternoon after they had a chance to settle down. Around 1:00 pm, I went out to look and most of the swarm had settled back on a branch in the tree. I went inside to get my camera, but once I went out, they were flying around again and had left the tree. Bill and I stood in the back yard and watched for a while to see where they were all headed. They ended up settling on the squirrel feeder on the side of the big tree in our back yard.

The bee keeper finally came back and began the process of collecting the swarm. This time he came prepared with a smoker and a veil. I learned that the bees are very "scent driven" the use pheromones. The smoke is used to mask their alarm pheromone, so they don't all panic and get aggressive. After smoking, he began to gently scrape the bees into a plastic container with his gloved hands.

He then asked if he could pry the squirrel feeder off of the tree. We didn't mind, since we don't use it anyway. At one point, he spotted the queen, quickly removed his glove and grabbed her with his bare hand. He took her to his truck and put her in a pill bottle. He borrowed some Windex to spray the spot where they had gathered around the feeder. This was to remove the pheromones that they left there. It work and they didn't settle back down on the spot, but went into the bucket with the other bees instead.
He managed to get almost the entire swarm (estimated to be around 4,000 bees) into the bucket. He was taking them to his home were he would use them to start a new hive. He said he has about 30 or so.

There were maybe 50 left flying around. The moved on after an hour.
This turned out to bee a really cool learning experience! :-)

PROM PICS

Katie went to Prom with her friend Alec who is a Junior, last weekend. I of course had fun taking photos of them. She looked beautiful as always. She borrowed the dress. Amanda's friend Christy wore it to prom last year. We had it altered to fit Katie. Katie already had some shoes that she had worn to previous dances, so basically all I had to pay for was alterations and his flower. Amanda did Katie's hair for her.

Emily's First Play ~ The Ammonite

Emily starred in her first play with the Trinity Players at her dad's church Trinity Lutheran. She played Vera Owens in The Ammonite. She did a fantastic job. They had three total performances. Here are some photos I took at the dress rehearsal:

I hope she will stick with acting, she has a natural talent.

My Web Site is up!

I am happy to report that my website for my portrait business is now live.

www.stephaniewallacephotography.com

I now need to get my business cards printed and maybe some flyers. Hopefully jobs will follow.

I'm enjoying the Spring color. Here are some recent photos taken of the magnolia tree in full bloom:

SPRING COLOR AT OUR HOUSE!

Hooray - Spring has finally arrived. We have blooms and weather that doesn't always require coats! I'm so happy the winter is finally over.

Bill was gone Tuesday - Friday last week. He was in Cleveland for his Unit Meeting. He came home Friday afternoon, and then left again Saturday afternoon. He is now in Texas handling hail claims. Seems like he has been gone more than home lately.

I've been busy at work and tired at home. I'm glad Phil is back from his two weeks in Alabama with the reserves. He has been taking Emily to all of her play practices which is now 3 times a week.

I have my website up, but the music is not working. I need to call godaddy.com support to find out what's up. Just haven't done it yet. Today after work, Amanda and I took the dogs for a walk, then I took Katie and Amanda out to eat. Bought Katie a new pair of shoes and a purse at payless, then we went grocery shopping.

I am ready for bed now. I'm exhausted!

FINALLY GOT OUTSIDE WITH MY CAMERA!

The sun finally came out yesterday afternoon (even though it was still cold), so I got outside with my camera and took some photos of things blooming in the yard. We had snow flurries, but the snow didn't stick, so I am still hopeful that my magnolia tree will be full of blooms by the end of this week! :-)





I got a couple of photos of Moose too - he is really getting big, but still a puppy! It looks like he is posing nice, but he was actually laying down in the neighbors yard because he did not want to come back in the house. He loves being outside. We are looking into getting an invisible fence installed for the dogs.


I'm posting this at work, so I really should get back to typing up the minutes from this morning's College of Business Faculty meeting.

PIMP MY PIXELS

Well I haven't been taking many photos lately, but I have been playing around with editing photos in photoshop a lot. I discovered this group on flickr called "Pimp My Pixels" http://www.flickr.com/groups/pimpmypixels/
anyway people submit photos that they would like the group member to digitally edit or "pimp". It's a lot of fun. There are some really talented people in the group. I'm not all that great, but here are a few before and after of shots that I have "Pimped":

BEFORE

AFTER

(this member indicated that his little girl loves Hello Kitty)

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

(Itried something a little different for these teens)

BEFORE

AFTER

(lightening up the shadow on the face was pretty difficult)

It rained all day today and was pretty cold out too, so I didn't get outside with my camera. Katie and I cleaned the livingroom and shampooed the carpet! It was pretty nasty (Darn Moose!)

Not sure what tomorrow will be like? I do plan to shampoo the carpet in the upstairs hallway though. Bill should be home in time to go to bowling. We only have a couple more weeks of our league. I'm glad because I'm getting tired of bowling twice a week!