Sunday Photos - Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium

One of the reasons we took our trip to New Mexico last week was to attend the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium held at the Ruidoso Downs race track. What a fun event!! :)
There were vendors galore and almost constant live entertainment in the grandstand area and the big tent but my favorite things were all outside.
One of these was the Chuck Wagon Cookoff, named "Best Chuck Wagon Contest" for 2012 by True West Magazine. It was VERY a little cold and windy the day we were there but the wagons were awesome and these hardy men and women were cookin' up some mighty fine-lookin' grub!

This barrel was identified as a butter churn. You could make a LOT of butter with this!!

Don't you just love this guy?!? He was so friendly too, lots of kids (and adults too) were lined up to pet him!

A big thrill for us was getting to attend a Craig Cameron demonstration. What a neat guy, he is one of our favorite horse trainers!

We really enjoyed the Symposium and look forward to going back sometime! :)
Linking up with Orange You Glad It's Friday, Weekly Top Shot and Your Sunday Best.

Sunday Photo - 10/07/2012

I got to go on a farm tour yesterday to Sleeping Frog Farms, an intensive 75-acre farm nestled in the Cascabel corridor of the San Pedro River Valley, founded on permaculture design and biodynamic growing principles. What an amazing place this dedicated quartet of young people have created here in the high desert!
This Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly thinks the zinnias they have planted are pretty amazing too! :)
Sharing with Orange You Glad It's Friday, Weekly Top Shot, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, Your Sunday Best and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Sunday Photo - Chickens

These probably weren't the chickens you were expecting! :) Living down here close to the Mexican border, we have lots of Mexican pottery items available to purchase. I have several pieces in this style, I love the colors! This pair sits in my kitchen window, normally, keeping me company while I'm working.
Sharing with these fine linky parties: Orange You Glad It's Friday, Weekly Top Shot, Your Sunday Best, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Back Online

My computer has been in the shop for the past week so I haven't been online. Wait a minute, what do you mean nobody but Robyn noticed?!? LOL!!
Anyway, I hope to get caught up with everyone in the next few days and get back in the swing of blogging. One thing I did notice last week, I sure have a LOT more free time when the computer isn't working! ;-)

These are pictures of one of the Lantana bushes in front of the neighbors' house. They also have yellow and red ones but I wanted to share these pretty orange ones for Orange You Glad It's Friday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Photo Art Friday - 09/14/2012

I'm joining Bonnie for Photo Art Friday this week where she challenged us to compose a seven word sentence that describes your life or experience or process as an artist (be it a photographer, painter, mixed media artist, digital artist, whatever ...) and marry your sentence to a piece of photo art that somehow illustrates your sentence. Of course, this is entirely optional and you can link up any piece of photo art that you want to share!

I came up with my "sentence" a couple of weeks ago and have been working on what type of photo art I wanted to use to illustrate it. At one point, I was even trying to figure out how I could use a picture of the laundry hanging outside on the line! LOL!! Instead, I started with the beautiful basket of peppers in the lower left corner. The peppers were given to me yesterday and as I was getting ready to chop them up for the freezer, I realized how lovely they were! Then, I started thinking of all the beauty that is in my life every day and decided to add my sweet goat, Daphne, and a beautiful wildflower I photographed earlier this year. I used Bonnie's free Vintage Vellum texture as a background.

Quite often, I think I have to have a WOW picture for it to be beautiful and be considered "art" but I'm learning that there is beauty to be found in the little things every day! :)

I'm also linking up with Orange You Glad It's Friday, which was one of the memes I had in mind when I photographed the peppers!

Sunday Photo - Red Bird of Paradise

Also known as Caesalpinia pulcherrima. All of these shots are SOOC, the colors really are this vibrant! All I did was add the watermark and a little frame. :)

Linking up with Orange You Glad It's Friday, Flower Art Friday, Floral Friday Fotos, Weekly Top Shot, Your Sunday Best, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, Mandarin Orange Monday and Macro Monday. Check out all of these fun memes for some awesome photography!

Flower Art Friday - 08/31/2012

Blanket flower (Gaillardia grandiflora). Picture taken beside the interstate where these lovely flowers have been planted. :) Edited with Pixlr Express.

Linking up with Flower Art Friday, Floral Friday Fotos, Orange You Glad It's Friday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Sunday Photo - Melon

I had two of my Athena Cantaloupe plants grow to maturity and I ended up with exactly two beautiful cantaloupes. At least they are both nice and big, with firm flesh and really great flavor! :)
Linking up with the new Orange You Glad It's Friday, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, Mandarin Orange Monday and The Country Garden Showcase.

Sunday Photo - Field of Flowers

I stopped beside the road on the way home from the Farmers' Market today to take a picture of these beautiful flowers. They are planted along the fence at a local pick-your-own mini farm. This shot has been edited in Pixlr-o-matic with the HDR-type "Hagrid" effect. Linking up with Weekly Top Shot, Your Sunday Best, Floral Friday Fotos, Flower Art Friday and Orange You Glad It's Friday, a new meme at Hood Photo Blog. :)

This is the SOOC shot which has a little softer feel to it. I have been admiring the wild, happy display these flowers present for a couple of weeks now and finally remembered to take my camera with me! :) Linking up with Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday.