TSS: 8.15.10

What a lovely way to spend the final week of summer!

As many of you read earlier this week, I was offered the opportunity to use a friend's lake house this week and after much internal debate, I decided to accept that offer.  Both of my daughters joined me and it ended up being a delightful two-day girls' get-away.  We left around 9:00AM Wednesday morning and returned home around 4:00PM Friday afternoon.  We stayed up late talking and watching movies, we slept in as late as we wanted, and we ate nothing but junk food.  I did a little bit of research reading for my novel project, and even had the girls help me brainstorm a variety of story lines that I can now work on as time allows.

One of the goals that I had for this mini-excursion was to practice taking some landscape photographs with my new camera.  Unfortunately, it was too hot to do much of anything outside, and the walk down to the water's edge included a wooded section that literally buzzed with swarming bees.  I am not of fan of any insects and had no desire to risk stinging pain for a photography lesson.  However, my desire to accomplish the goal, along with my new resolve to embrace life's adventures, helped me to think a little outside the box.

On Friday morning I woke up at 6:25, quickly put on my clothes, grabbed my camera bag, and headed down to the shore.  I surmised that the bees would not be fully awake at this point, and even though I could imagine all kinds of creepy crawly things hiding under the rocks and weeds, I kept my adventurous spirit and sprinted to the lake.  I was not disappointed.  The sun had just crested above the horizon and I was able to capture this photo.

I spent about twenty minutes down there, trying to experiment with horizon placement, depth of field, wide angle shots, and water reflection.  I took about fifty photos before deciding to go back toward the house before the heat was too oppressing and the bees were fully awake.  As I drank my cup of coffee I felt a sense of pride of following through on personal commitments, and a sense of awe of the simple beauty of nature.  It was a wonderful way to end the get-away.

Last night I had to pick my son up from the airport.  He flew in from Nashville to attend the wedding of a high school friend.  The weather in Kansas City was horrible.  Thunderstorms moved in around 6:30PM and then did not let up for nearly six hours.  All planes were delayed and some completely cancelled because of the dangerous lightning.  Fortunately Brian was able to land - about 90 minutes late - and we arrived home without incident.  The wonderful benefit of this storm, however, is that in less than one hour the temperature dropped from 104 degrees to 74 degrees.  The rest of the weekend is supposed to be sunny, mild, and low humidity.  Perfect weather to allow for great family activities before the start of a new school year.  I am indeed blessed.