It’s hard to believe this little guy has come upon another birthday. Birthdays (for all of us) come faster and faster the older we get. Charlie is a happy guy who can also be quite demanding – he has trained us well, sigh. Charlie is the reason I started writing a blog – it was the one time he would sleep, in the chair behind me, with his paws in my back fast asleep. I didn’t want to scroll endlessly, so I looked into starting a blog. The first one was all about Charlie, LIFE WITH CHARLIE – his first year, after his first year I started another: ALMOST DAILY PICS (which included a lot of photos of Charlie). Some of the photos make me laugh out loud, although I wasn’t always laughing. This little guy was like a two year old on steroids. Then in 2011 I started this blog…

Koi are so interesting. They’re lovely creatures with so much spunk. I named the orange fish coming up for a bit of food “Orange Crush”, ha ha… The lily pads were stunning (as were the ever changing purple flowers) – that’s an entirely different post. When I looked back at this image it looks so much like a painting to me (it’s not!). I love the rings of movement and the reflected light from the sky creating interesting patterns in the water, the movement of the fish is beautiful. So elegant.

When I’m out walking I’m always looking up to see what I see. Cool cloud formations, birds flying, golden light against tree limbs, etc. In this case – does this not look a little spear-like? Hence my motto, always look up! #avoid

Hummingbirds are pretty magical little creatures. We have been to the mountains in May and there were no hummingbirds – which, after seeing them so plentiful one August, you really miss their never-ending entertainment! This time we visited in June and tada, there they were. This is Waynesville, NC – which is stunningly beautiful.

Saluda, NC – elevation, 2,103′. If you haven’t been to Saluda, NC, I highly suggest it. It’s a small town with big atmosphere! We need to spend more time there – we stop on our way to Waynesville, NC for a nice lunch. Everything is so tasty! In Saluda, there is something called a Coon Dog Day Festival – and it’s going on NOW… Isn’t this mural fabulous? I love the dog and the writing “it’s all about the dogs“!

Happy July 1st! Good grief time flies, it’ll be Christmas next week at this rate. What better to celebrate the first of the month than a Dahlia photo? I took this when we were in Michigan visiting my family. A stunning array of blooms. Absolute perfection in my book. I want Dahlia’s everywhere – how gorgeous in vases and on the shrubs. We had to run down the street and take this photo – too pretty to pass up!