This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Earlier this month, I welcomed my second newest rose, ' Twilight Zone ' from Weeks Roses , into my garden. This rose is a stunner! Of course I've taken oodles and oodles of photos in between enjoying its delightful scent, this is my first 'purple' rose, but unfortunately, my camera's show it more or less as being a dark pink color. So, without further a due, introducing TZ: The purple color and 'ruffled' bloom caught my attention. The scent sealed the deal. Traditional yet lighter with a hint of lemon. (But not a barely scented rose by any means). It made my heart sing! Very unique. (To me anyhow). The blooms remind me of 'old fashioned' garden roses. Some are less purple and more pink, but that's perfectly fine with me - y'all know how I love pink. Regardless of color, so far each bloom has been the size of my hand! Also a good cut rose for the mantle vase. Twilight Zone is a grandiflora* rose which ...

Yesterday I welcomed " The Sunny Knockout® Rose " (Rosa 'RADsunny'), a Star® Roses and Plants rose, into my garden. As I do with all new additions, I spent much of the day entranced with & fawning over this beautiful yellow rose! And believe it or not, this is my first ever solid yellow rose! So, without further a due, introducing Sunny: Yellow always was, and still is, a very favorite color of mine. Since I was a little girl. It's an extremely comforting color to me (although I don't have a clue why). As y'all know, I've been heartbroken over losing more than half of my roses these last few years (including four after this most recent Winter) and I have been on the look-out for this particular rose for some time now. But I wasn't expecting to see roses or find this one at the time I did. This was the only yellow Knockout amid a sea of (very pretty) pink & red yesterday morning and it stood out to me like ...

I love the variety and character of the homes in our community! Here are some from my recent walk.

These are some of the photos I took locally, post Hurricane Sandy, last October and November.  I have so many more, but, despite a year having passed, I'm not at the point where I want to go back through the disc I downloaded them to. And maybe I never will be. I am so, so, so very thankful (every day) we and our families made it through okay. Most of our friends did too, but there were some who weren't as lucky. Love, hugs and prayers to all of us who were in her path, especially those who suffered her terrifying destruction first hand.

These are some of the photos I took locally, post Hurricane Sandy, last October and November.  I have so many more, but, despite a year having passed, I'm not at the point where I want to go back through the disc I downloaded them to. And maybe I never will be. I am so, so, so very thankful (every day) we and our families made it through okay. Most of our friends did too, but there were some who weren't as lucky. Love, hugs and prayers to all of us who were in her path, especially those who suffered her terrifying destruction first hand.

(One of my favorites from this batch - more in slideshow below!) More on my favorite shots from this batch coming soon to The Portable Homestead !

Testing out my new Polaroid camera and doing some comparison shots with my old Nikon.! To view my photo experiments and to hear how I happened upon my new camera for an incredible bargain price, click here !

Since 2009, aside from my smartphone cameras (Palm Centro then BlackBerry), I have been using a Nikon Coolpix L100, which I *adored* until this last year.  More often than not, it started freezing up, not capturing images and refusing to focus when using the zoom, no matter the setting or conditions.  I've been making do until we could afford for me to upgrade to a new camera.  (Which means I haven't been using the Nikon much at all, just my BlackBerry and that hasn't been cutting it creatively for me recently).  I expected my new camera to be a Nikon as well. But, yesterday, I happened upon a great sale, plus I had a coupon for an extra 15% off and a $10 balance leftover on a gift card.  A $300 camera for half price (before tax). A $300 camera for half price?!  With the specs I was looking for.  (Meaning it was an improvement on the Nikon I have).  Hhhhmmm...  I was a little nervous, but, for that price (which ended up being $100 less than w...

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