snowflake blue

A Solar powered outdoor snowflake turns various colors as it goes thru it's cycles.
It was challenging trying to time the picture to when the color changed because the light fades in and out.

Pizzelle

This is a wafer thin Italian Christmas cookie, which is round in itself, but of course I have to make it round in a different way. They are a wonderful anise cookie with neat patterns and I make them each year on a pizzelle iron I got from my mother-in-law. Enjoy the patterns and I will enjoy the cookies!

more red white and blue

One of the many figure heads in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia

red white and blue

This Mandala is a pie piece from a picture of a flag draped figure head in one of the maritime museums we visited in Virginia.

Pansy in the snow

We have had some very cold days and snow but it is warming up this weekend. A pansy was blooming in the snow and dead leaves. Finding it was a nice surprise.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all a Merry Christmas early, before the craziness of the holidays settle upon us.
We are even supposed to have snow tomorrow!

Sayings

I have always liked Mary Ann Radmacher's words - and have put her quotations in more than one Mandala. The above quote is a summation of the year, of life in general. It is in a ring of chiming bell flowers that I took in Crested Butte this past summer, when I was doing what I love - taking pictures!

Red Leaf Star

I scanned some colorful fall leaves and played around with the shapes. I really liked the way the veins showed up and made patterns of their own.

mushroom

Surfing around the Mandalas on my laptop I found this one made from a photo of mushrooms. To me it looked a little bit like a doily - some of you might not know what that is. A doily knitted, crocheted or made of paper allows the surface of an underlying object to show through. In addition to their decorative function doilies can protect furniture from the scratches or dirt. When I was growing up, my Mom used to put them on the arms of chairs in the living room or between items in the china cabinet.

fall colors in a flower

This flowering vine had wonderful fall colors - it bloomed right before the first frost.

leaves falling on snow

There is symmetry in the leaf and in the Mandala - we have had another big snow and the leaves are still not all off the trees. So after the snow a lot were coming down. They were melting into the surface of the snow which created a bit of a shadow at the tip of the leaf.

dusting the trees off

Picture the mandala from yesterday was taken from.

snow

We had 7-8 inches of snow Wednesday - my Grandson came over to brush the trees off with the broom. We wore our hoods so the snow wouldn't fall down our collars! Then we had a snowball fight! Fun was had by all.

Bow Sprite

Bow Sprite We got to go to a wonderful Maritime museum in Newport News, VA. they had a room full of bow sprites and hugh model ships. Very interesting.

other colors of fall a beauty berry

Hear on the east coast it is time for Beauty Berries - they are this wonderful shade of purple. Found this bush on the path to the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg.

changing seasons

A blur of aspen gold. The seasons are changing - the aspen turned and now the snow is falling in the high country and in places on the front range. I've seen a white flake or two coming down outside but not sticking to the ground.

ballon reflection

The blue of the Colorado ski adds to the bright colors of this Morning shot and I like the double and triple squares that form in the middle. Even the blue-green triangle balloon forms the edges of a square - if you allow your mind to finish the corners. The Ballons were doing a splash and dash manuver over a pond, thus the center is the reflection in the pond.

more of the emerging plants

From the picture in the last post. I liked the tightly formed leaves as the plant emerges from the ground. The repetition adds to the overall pattern. The color and shapes from the earlier Mandala are different - from different parts of the same photo

back to the new amongst the old post

This is the original picture of succulents emerging
The earlier post was mostly of the dead and dried foliage to the left , the next post will be of a Mandala that has more of the green in it - they are totally different yet from the same picture!

hibiscus

Hibiscus are lovely flowers on their own - the colors of this one were beautiful an I liked how they faded to white on the edge.

Affirmation in the wild flax flowers

This affirmation struck a cord with me and it fit in one of my recent Mandalas. The wild flax picture was taken on a trip to Crested Butte Wildflower Festival in Colorado.

new amongst the old

Succulents coming up in the debris from last year's growing season. I liked the light and dark patterns created by this picture. I'll upload a different version of the same photo in a couple days, that has much more green.

Just for Fun

Alien among us! My grandson got a balloon character made for him after dinner one night - it was an alien! Thought he looked kind of cute! He made for some interesting design elements, too.

words

Every so often a saying I like gets put into one of my Mandala. This image started out life as the morning light refractions in a common domed paperweight. I bent the light some more by putting it into mandala form. The quote says "Unlike a painter, a photographer starts with something finished and works backward." Anonymous

gray scale columbine

This photo had interesting shadows and highlights so making it black and white seemed a good idea. Do you agree?

evening sunset

Evening clouds have been colorful this past week, and temperatures have been a bit cooler.

butterfly wings

There were lots of butterflies in the mountains this past weekend, with all the wildflowers they have lots to eat. I liked all the patterns within patterns that are on the wings.

flowers

Flowers blue and gold, will have some wildflowers in the next couple offerings as I attended the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. The mountains were beautiful and the flowers were everywhere.

mini garden

This is a mini garden for my friend who just passed away. She was also a gardener, this garden is to remind me of her with two chairs for friends to sit and visit.

Plumaria

In any ABC Store in Hawaii you can buy a piece of plumaria plant and bring it home to root.
This is the one I got in Nov 2010 and it has leaves! It is amazing to me that it is growing at all, but grow it is!

wedding cake

I liked the light reflecting in the beads on top of the wedding cake. Still am processing pictures from Mexico. Had a fun time.

resting sea lion

We got back from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where my son and new wife got married. We went by the land's end rocks on the sunset cruise the night before the wedding, we saw wildlife on the rocks to include this sea lion. I think he got there before the tide went out. he looks very contented.

Tail Lights

This is the picture the previous Mandala came from. A night shot of tail lights going across 15th street looking down Larimer Square.

Tail Lights

A month ago I took a night photo class, one of the things we were to do was get a good picture of blurred taillights. We went to Larimer Square in downtown Denver which has little lights strung all the way across the block. In this Mandala they create a spider web effect. The crossed structures in the middle are the blurred taillights of cars driving down the street - since it's a one way street no headlights were coming back at us. All the night shots required a tripod. It was fun!

New Leaf

My houseplants have been very patient waiting for Spring to settle down so they all can go outside and enjoy the summer, but the weather has been so unsettled and it's still snowing in the mountains. Above is a new leaf of a Rex Begonia just catching the early morning sunlight inside the house. We haven't had any early morning light of late because it is raining and raining! Can't complain we need the moisture. Would like the sun to shine again though.

Spring Sunrise

Spring in Colorado comes in only a few days - it's been chilly and now for two days we will be in the 80's. Whew! It's still a privilege to live here. It's planting time today. I've been carrying seedlings in and out as weather permits, it looks like it will stay above freezing at night now!!

spring

When the apple and pear trees bloom Spring has to be near! we actually had some rain here this morning! Above are pear blossoms. Grass is greening up and the dandelions are blooming, too.

sea shells

Sea shells are fun to pick up, look at, listen to (if you get one big enough),

and just enjoy the variety of their shapes. There are fossil shells in the stone with the dark matrix. A jingle shell, coral, the arm of a starfish and the tail of a seahorse.

April sunrise

Had to drive to airport early and the sunrise lit up the whole sky. It was beautiful.

colorful bark

Bark of a sycamore tree color enhanced a bit, neat colors.

just for fun

After traveling through petroglyph country in Utah last fall, I picked up a painted rock at Edge of the Cedars State Park gift shop. The glyph makes it's own design and flows into the shadow of the feather in the mandala. Glyphs were their pictures - with our digital photos we have an endless supply of images.

Wearing of the Green

Plants wear the Green all the time - this is a Boston Fern in the early morning light. Just to remind us that it is not officially spring yet we had a dusting of snow overnight, enough that I had to scrap the window before driving anywhere this morning.

cactus

Subtle purple green shades make up this cactus mandala. There are some really nice cactus in Arizona.

pottery

On my trip to the Southwest this past fall we stopped at Wupatki National Monument to see the ruins and in the visitor's center they had some of the pottery found at the site. Above is a triangular slice of a water jar. The center formed a round kiva shape and the way the stripes were cut made it look like ladders into the center. Almost maze like, patterns within patterns.

prickly pear cactus

Always have loved the lovely red color of the tunas on a prickly pear cactus.

Begonia

Sunlight coming thru the leaves of my begonia. It bloomed a couple times this winter one blossom at a time. The leaves are it's draw - the sun highlighted the red outline.

Orchid

Blooming flowers are an indication of Spring, that spring is near. We are just coming off a couple weeks of cold, cold weather and my orchid bloomed!! It actually has 2 bloom stalks so I get to enjoy it for longer than usual! I'm very grateful for plants that bloom in the winter.

Feburary already

Spent Sunday morning in the humid heat of the Butterfly Pavilion - it was a welcome change from the snow that was outside. Besides the butterflies there are lots of blooming plants, to include this croton with a white fuzzy bloom. Enjoyed the morning in the warmth as we are headed for yet another storm and arctic cold!

winter scene

Now that the holidays are over, the stock show is over and the X games over, the lights on the Denver City and County Building will be turned off. While they were on they were vibrant. It's always nice to have a City focal point.

winter kale

was hoping to get out of the deep freeze on trip to Texas but it was cold and dreary there, too. Came home in a snow squall, however, we had wonderful Colorado sunshine today even if it was cold.