James Center Christmas Lights

Well it's Christmas Eve. Last night I went to the James Center Downtown where they have a beautiful light display. It was a great night to be out, it rained earlier in the day but by nightfall it was beautiful and not cold. There were tons of people taking advantage of the nice weather to come out and enjoy the sights. This tree is the biggest one at the center. It's also the only colored display, all the others are covered in white lights. If you live in the Richmond area you should definetly take the time to venture down to the James Center.

Christmas Wreath

I love this wreath. One of my friends made it and I think it's one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen. When I look at it all I can do is smile. It just has the Christmas Season written all over it.

Bag Pipes

These are some guys from the Christmas Parade. I love hearing the sound of bag pipes it's so pretty. They all look so serious while they play too, it's kind of funny.

Curious George

One of the balloons that I saw while at the parade.
I LOVE Curious George..he's just so cute and lovable.

Hillbilly Clown

I love this guy. He's a hillbilly clown. He was part of the Ukrops Christmas Parade.

Fall Oak

This is a tree that's in the middle of Short Pump, and also in the middle of construction. It's big and georgeous. I especially love it in the fall.

Gobble Gobble

It's that time of year again! Time to losen the belt buckles and leaving room for all the pie. This guy is at a local park, I think he's counting his blessings that he's not on the menu, because man is he BIG!

It's Halloween! Get your candy out. Chocolate is no good, but these are my favorites.

This is from a farm in Hanover where you can pick pumpkins, and play a ton of games all while looking at all of the animals that they have there. This one is from a duck race made from pvc pipes. The kids really enjoy this.

Pumpkins

I love pumpkins...the color and the shapes, and everything about them.

Window Frame

I was at my church yesterday and I was cleaning the windows. Well as I was cleaning them I noticed how the window framed the beautiful fall leaves... This tree was one of the only tress that have started changing due to the lack of rainfall in our area.

Country Road in the Fall...I can't wait until the leaves really do start changing...now only if we can get that rain....

I thought these were neat. They are crayons that are made of melted colored wax and hand carved wood. Very colorful; although I don't know how well they actually work.

It's that time of year again; Fall. I like fall for a couple of reasons. One because of the cool crisp air and because of the beautiful colors that seem to spring up from everywhere. Pumpkins are everywhere at this time because Halloween is just around the corner. But I personally love the look of a pumpkin as a decoration minus the cut out faces. This picture just says "Fall" to me.

The State Fair of Va is here! There is nothing quite like the sights, the smells, and the experience of a State Fair. My favorite part is the exhibition halls, that showcases people's talent. This picture is from the Carousel, that is absolutely beautiful.

This is antother shot from Field Day of the Past. They had some great Classic Cars there. And as you can see they had a Ferris Wheel there; I would have gone up.....were it not for my fear of heights.

There were lots of Vendors at the Field Day. This one was a Native American booth. It had alot of interesting things there, and everything was very colorful. These are some wind flutes that they had for sale; there was a guy there that was playing them and the sound was just beautiful.

This handsome guy was finding shelter from the heat on Sunday at Field Day of the Past. The sign said "Guard Dog on Duty", but his owner said he couldn't hurt a fly. When I was taking his picture it was as if he was posing the whole time. He knows he's a handsome dog, and he was showing it off.

One of my favorite things to do is watch a Rodeo. I know I know, but I just can't help it, there's so much adrenaline in the air and the horses are so beautiful. This photo was in between riders after they finished readying the next person.

I went to Field Day of the Past this weekend and got some really great pictures. This one is one of my favorites, because of the simplicity of it. These guys were just sitting back in an old truck shooting the breeze without a care in the world. I was actually lucky to get this shot because about 10 seconds later they all jumped out to watch some tractor pull that was going on. I have so many pictures from this weekend that I'll post one a day this week and still have 100 more left over. I thought I would start with my favorite; although there were alot of nice moments captured.

A bunch of young guys in an old beat up truck.

So my obsession with door handles continues. I love these ones, they look so old and rustic. The color of the door really makes them pop. It's funny to me that one handle is more worn than the other one. It's interesting, because of the two I would think the other would be the more worn, because that's the one that would be used to go in .

Here's a full view of the door. The building is now abandoned but the outside is still beautiful.

I found this umbrella by the canal walk. It's part of a table set where people can sit and have lunch or just chat while having a nice view of the canal. It's a really nice set up. I liked the way the buildings reflected off of the umbrella. This is really a cool area, I'll post more photos of it at a later time.

Summertime has to be one of my favorite seasons, coming right after Spring. Since Downtown Shortpump has been developing over the last few years, resturants have been popping up all over the place. My favorite ones to go to are the ones that offer patios that you can eat out at. I like going and having the sun on my face and the breeze at my back. My friend Mel and I use to go out every Sunday night and have dinner out there until it go too cold to sit outside. But alot of these resturants have these and it's a nice addition. These are outside of a seafood resturant, that I frequent.

This is a little farm at a park. It's really quite neat, it has sheep and turkey's and horses. It's all part of a refurbishing project to upgrade this old house on the property. I posted some wagon wheels a couple weeks ago from the same property. This is actually one of the fences that holds the turkeys, which are quite big!

Richmond Scape

This is the beautiful city of Richmond as seen from the James River. It looks so peacful from here!

Kayak Mayhem Take 2!

As a continuation to yesterday's post, here is a person who knows how to handle their kayak. This actually looked like alot of fun, and I think I might like to try it sometime. I might want to stay away from all of those rocks for the first time though!

Kayak Mayhem

I was on Belle Isle yesterday enjoying the last day of summer. I sat on the huge rocks and read my book for a couple of hours and enjoyed the silence. Every once and awhile a person who was kayaking would float by, and I was able to get a couple of shots. This one I was lucky to get, I was watching these two come off of the rocks in awe that they didn't tip over. While thinking this, I captured this one...well tipping over, it seems he mis judged the rock and just skimmed it enough to cause him to tip. He was fine afterwards, no harm done.

Engarde!

This swordfish was just begging me to take it's picture. It was posed and ready for a fight. This is a sculpture that is outside of Blue Point Resturant in downtown Short Pump. They have the biggest pieces of carrot cake that I have ever seen!

I was driving around town last night, and I was pretty tired and I was thinking, "where is the best place to get an energy boost?" Well like a beacon in the night this sign jumps out at me, and calls to me to come in. How can I resist, I can I say "no", it's bright and shining, it's one of the best words in the U.S. right now. Now some might disagree with me, but the cirlcle that I hang around with would tell you that this place is the best place in the world. You decide.

Window Washing

You ever wonder how they keep those windows on tall buildings sparkling clean? Well I found out the other day just how they do that; and let me tell you I was scared to death.

I don't know how these guys can get up on a 30 story building and do that. Do you know what the view from up there must look like? What happens if they drop their squigee or something? Or what if they run out of water, do they just tap on the window and ask if someone will let them in? I don't know, but I do know that you'll never find me up there!

Coffee 25 cents

This is an old sign that was on the side of a building in Shockoe Slip. I know alot of people that would be very happy if coffee was still 25 cents. I find it endearing that they are trying to keep the feel of "old Richmond" down there, it definetly adds to the character of the Slip.

I was down in Shockoe Bottom yesterday when I came across some railroad tracks. This is what I saw first. I liked the way it looked, the curves even the way it looked so old. And then as I turned around; something made me laugh.

Tell me how one cone is suppose to make a train stop when it's coming at full speed around the bend?



It's so funny. I don't even know why it's there, because there's nothing wrong with the tracks, but when you see a cone you stop. I don't know a train that will stop at full speed when it see this!

Moon

I got a call tonight to go get some shot of the moon. So I did....this is what came out. The moon was red. It looked really cool I was glad I got the opprotunity. It was kind of hard though because I didn't have a tri-pod, I left mine at work today. But I got on the top of my car (remember I'm short) and held my breathe and took shots.

Weird

We were at field day today, at a huge field on a very hot day. I was tired after 2 hours of running around and little water. There were a little grove of trees that looked so far away from where we were, but it didn't matter because all I cared about was finding shade. So I did. This is one of the trees I sat under. My kids thought I was crazy; they kept telling me that taking pictures of trees was weird. But I tried to tell them that sometimes it's the "weird" ones that make the best pictures....So here's my weird picture.

This is a basement window at Maymont Park. You can get tours through this gigantic house and learn about the people who owned the land and how they produced such wonderful gardens. It would have been an even better picture if the rose bush was actually in bloom, but I don't think it's that bad of a shot.

Corner Building

Ok, so not very appealing. But I found it intersting. Especially when you choose the hottest day of the summer to walk around the streets of Richmond. I was sitting on a curb resting from the 110 degree weather when I looked up and this is what I saw. My first thought was "it looks like it might fall on me", followed by "man I'm short!". This is a view from my perspective, of a random apartment building downtown. Not only was it neat but it provided much needed shade on this hot day!

Wagon Wheel

I love pictures that look like they belong in another time. I don't know how old these wagon wheels are; but they were just laying against an abandoned barn. They look worn and weathered and very appealing. I love the green in the wheels, from dew and moss.

I was home thru my neighborhood last night; when I I saw a sign that was telling us that one of our streets would be closed. I thought that the sign looked really cool in the night. So tonight I have to find another way home; but right now the picture is cool.

3 Little Ducks

I'm not much of a "bird" person. Especially ones that can chase me down looking for something to eat while pecking at my toes. But these ducks were distracted by the mass of children holding bread in their hands so I was able to closer than I actually would have. This is the only white duck at this paticular pond, and when it's in the middle of all the other brown and black ones it looks neat.

Storm Clouds

I was standing outside this evening
(ok well, Joey stopped to look) and a nice storm was brewing. We started snapping pictures; he on his camera phone, me on my camera. It was actually pretty fascinating, until he pointed out that the clouds were actually starting to move in a circular motion...I didn't want to stick around after that! We've had some pretty awesome storms in the past week. I just happen to like the clouds in this one.

Out My Window

I know what you're thinking; what makes this picture so special? This is a picture that I took from my room in the middle of a storm at 11:30 at night. All of my lights were out; so what looks like a day picture is really almost midnight. The lightning was so wicked it would light up the whole back yard like it was noon. I thought it was awesome, so I thought I would try to capture it. I didn't use a flash...I didn't need one thanks to the weather.!

Bubbles!

I just thought that this was an interesting shot. Some kids were playing with a bubble maker, and they were able to produce some nice size bubbles. The joys of childhood!

Fish of Many Colors

This is some art work of the kids that I teach. They looked so cute and colorful hanging up. I love the way the watercolurs blend and the glitter that makes them pop.

This is a shot from off of Brown's Island over looking the James River. The Bridge is the Mayo Bridge; that runs into Hull Street.