Beautiful Day!

The funeral was lovely.  Merm looked amazing.  The bag piper, Ron Wallace, was fabulous.  The music started my tears flowing.  The funeral was followed by a lovely lunch that the Relief Society provided.  A Welsh/Scottish dance lesson followed the lunch.  The day was perfect.  I think Merm would have enjoyed it.

I am blessed

I love this woman.  Yes, I love my mother-in-law.  I married well that way.  I love my in-laws.  All of them.  Last night my sweet mother-in-law passed away.  She struggled with dementia the past few years and this last year was a tough one.  I am glad to know that she is no longer suffering.  I am glad she is at peace.  I can't wait to see her again. 

She was awesome.  We laughed together frequently.  My husband and I enjoyed dinner with her most Sundays during our courtship (he was there every week).  I would wink at her and she would wink back and that would start a giggle fit between the two of us.  After that we needed only look at each other to fall back into the laughter, much like young girls.  Sometimes she would make faces behind my husband's back, usually sticking her tongue out but sometimes crossing her eyes.  I always laughed.  I couldn't help it. 

We had some very special moments after Mark and I married and her health was declining.  One night, as I tucked her in bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead she told me that she was glad that Mark found me.  I left the room crying because I was glad for the same thing. 

I can't wait to see her again.  I hope she knows how much I love her.  I am blessed to be part of her family and married to her wonderful son.

On the way to the workshop

It is a simple idea to pull out your camera and grab a few shots on the way to a photography workshop.  It felt natural.  The sky was a gorgeous tone of blue.  The light on the gold leaf of City Hall made it glow.  It was delicious looking.  I stopped for a few minutes and captured a few pictures.  This was one of them.  I just told you about the "delicious" colors and this is photo is black and white.  I did love the colors of the picture but I decided that I prefer this photograph in black and white.  There is something about the drama of black and white that just seems to work with the geometry of the building and this particular angle.  I hope you enjoy this one.  I do.

Photography Workshop

I went to a photography workshop today.  It was my second time going to this workshop.  The first time I was overwhelmed.  I think that is an incredible understatement.  I only had my camera for a month when I went and didn't know anything .  I had dabbled with the automatic settings.  I signed up for this workshop immediately after the last one.  I practiced the exercises in the book and to my surprise I became comfortable with the priority settings and manual mode.  Please take note of the word comfortable in the previous sentence.  It is a relative term.  I no long feel like crying when I move the dial to M and try to figure out what to do.  I went to lunch with a few of my classmates and they asked me all sorts of questions about aperture, shutter speed, ISO and metering.  I could answer them.  I have no delusion about what that meant.  It simply meant I understood what was being presented (I felt like an expert and to my classmates I was seen that way but know that I am not).  It did feel good.  I quickly ate humble pie when I got home and all of my photos downloaded into JPEG format and I know the camera is set for RAW.  Now I need to figure out that new challenge.  Sigh!  I do love leaning.  This is quite the adventure for me. 

The picture above is from the Safari portion of the workshop.  This is a "fun" photo (not something I deem beautiful).

Sunday was awesome

Sunday was a beautiful day.  My husband I went for a drive to the coast on Sunday and found this pretty little beach.  It was lovely.  During the drive we experienced all sorts of weather.  Sun, rain, fog and wind.  We even saw a rainbow on the way home.  It was the perfect way to spend a few hours between church and visiting family.