We had a small gathering for Mother’s Day this year. Those pesky college finals got in the way of quite a few traveling home for Mother’s Day. We still had a great time.

We had Mother’s Day hugs. (that almost counts as a photo of my sister…)

The lovely Stephanie offered to host the BBQ this year…little does she know she might now be the designated Mother’s Day BBQ giver… I’m very quick to say “not it” these days… Thanks, Steph!!

We gave our Mom the “another photo??” look.

We drank champagne…

We drank beer…

And we told tall tales…probably about his toy John Deere tractor… it is about all he talks about these days…

Anyway, we missed all you kids who couldn’t come to town…and Stephanie, we look forward to having it at your place again next year!

• Happy Valentine’s Day
• First Bloom at the New House
• 2012–Personal Photography Project
• Oh, I was at the wedding too
• Who Wins?

So, we’ve yet to name the new house after 6 months of living in it..We’ve toyed with The Willows…because we planted a bunch of them. Or The Nest…because we used to have The Love Nest…and this just sounds more permanent than Love Nest. But, whatever. Still undecided. But…I digressed…here is some of how we spent our time at the new house this weekend.

I was busy with Murphy. You know, photographing him. Looking at how cute he was. I mean, I was BUSY.

I found some time to try out different lenses to capture these yellow flowers. I think they are field mustard. Surprisingly hard to capture…

Some of us just worked on silly stuff like planting trees. I mean really? When there were some cute puppies to play with?? And photos to take?

The Allium has just started to bloom. Total surprise because SuperGuy forgot where he planted it last fall…

Oh, and I was busy capturing the very first sprouts in my very first garden! I mean…that’s important stuff!!! Captured for eternity!

While some people just lollygagged around planting more trees. (After very helpful advice on placement from his nagging loving wife.)

I even managed to find time to almost capture a photo of Princess Maggie. She hates having her photo taken almost as much as my sister does!

So, SuperGuy continued on with his extraneous chores…

I just went and poured us some champagne and waited patiently for him to quit his fooling around with silly chores and come join me.

The Champagne Sunset photo is for Sale on my artist website in my Kitchen Art Gallery. (which is heavy on drinks, I know, I know…)

• About those rocks
• Reforesting the Neighborhood
• Cute Baby Smiles
• The Last Stoplight on I-64
• A Walk Around the Farm

Just some random thoughts and photos from our days.  Here is my basil plant in the evening sunlight…we’re just waiting for SuperGuy to build the cage over my garden so the deer don’t feast on my plants. Then this little guy will get plopped into the garden.

SuperGuy is having a great time mowing the property with his tractor. Probably too much of a good time…he mows a lot…

The finches are doing their best to eat all the grass seed we put down in the bare spots…

Then some gratuitous Murphy photos, just because… Here he’s giving me his “but aren’t I cute, Mom?” look. Notice he’s covered in twigs and leaves. All male.

Here he is giving me his better side. He’s sure this is his best side and throws it to me often. Love this dog so much…

Too bad Maggie is so camera shy…she’s a pretty dog too… I’ll try and get some more of her. If she ever lets me…

• The Week of Animal Photography
• Random Photos of my Days
• Just Sharing
• Well at Least there are Some Changes
• Where the heck have I been?

So my sister and I went to a weekend in Philadelphia to visit my nephew. He goes to Haverford College right outside Philadelphia. The campus is just seriously beautiful. Thought I’d share a few of my favorite photos from our trip to campus.

This is my favorite! Duck Pond at Haverford College. Doesn’t it look idyllic?

Haverford College Duck Pond Print Available for Sale.

Here is one of the few times I was able to get a photo of my sister. She hates having her photo taken–but this one is just so gorgeous! Such a pretty campus with walkways like this.

Here is the Haverford Cricket Field. I freely admit I know nothing about Cricket.

This is the clubhouse, or cabin, or cottage…whatever they call it on the cricket field. The whole campus looks like it should be a postcard…

Haverford Cricket Prints Available for Sale on my Artist Site

I fell in love with the big old trees they have on campus. Just lovely.

Yes, I’m geeky enough about these trees to look them up on the Haverford site…they have an elm tree that is a descendent from the Penn Treaty Elm where William Penn signed a treaty of friendship with Lenape Chief Tamanend in 1682. With carefully saved cuttings the desendents of the original Penn Treaty Elm have survived. Well, I thought that was cool. But I was all about the history on this trip!

Ok, and I just had to grab a shot of this handle-less door…

Haverford College Prints Available for Sale. Click here.

I’ll end with a photo of my nephew and sister sitting in Ben Franklin’s pew at Christ Church. Seriously…that Church just gave me shivers of history. All those people that shaped our country…and you can sit right where they did. The church is still an active church with an active congregation. I was on seriously history overload on this trip. Loved it. I’ll post more photos of Philadelphia in another blog post, but wanted to share these Haverford College photos. And a big shout out to my nephew who is graduating from Haverford this month! So proud of you.

• Deja Vu
• My Sister Loves Me
• My Sister’s Sense of Humor
• Church for Sale
• So what have you guys been up to?

Hi! I’m hoping that it quits raining and spring comes…we’ve had like, um, one day of spring-ish type weather so far. Of course I ran outside to grab some photos.

Here is the view out my kitchen window. Gorgeous. Almost makes me want to cook

Here is one of the half dozen river birches that we’ve planted around the property. They grow quickly. We need that in spots!!

If you look closely in the next one, you can see a hawk flying in the sky, framed by the elm branch. We have lots of hawks. I think I need a longer telephoto lens…

Here are some of the pretty blooms on our bradford pear trees. So pretty against the bright blue sky.

Well, a gratuitous photo of Murphy. Just because he looked so darn cute.

I’m hoping that just real. soon. now. the sun will come out again and we’ll have warm spring weather!

• Trees as Baby Gifts
• A Walk Around the Farm
• About those rocks
• Travel Day
• Winter Blues

I’ve been busy playing with photos. Lots of photos. Lots of playing.

I found this old camera at an antique mall. I inset a photo of my grandmother and her son who died as a toddler into the lens on the camera for a reminder of the past. Found the old glasses…somewhere on my trips antiquing.

This is SuperGuy’s grandfather’s bible. So cool to have a bible that has been read through so many generations of one family.

And, of course, another use of my growing mason jar collection. A bouquet of tulips that SuperGuy brought home and surprised me with. (we can’t have tulips in Columbia…they are like deer crack…and get eaten to the ground.)

I also went to Philadelphia to visit my nephew, so I’ll be posting some of those photos soon!

All Images available as Wall Art.

• Attack of the Groundcover
• My Sister’s Sense of Humor
• My Sister Loves Me
• Mason Jar Love
• Decorating with Photos

Very excited! The very first bloom at our new home!! I’m going to be out of town next week…so I was so afraid I’d miss the first blooms! But, this daffodil did not disappoint me like that. She bloomed!

Her friends are getting ready to bloom too!! SuperGuy planted bulbs all over last fall. He can’t really remember where So it’s a surprise when we see them popping out of the ground.

He planted this whole bed of daffodils under my beloved elm tree. (and I think I saw some hyacinths coming up too!)

We also planted 5 lilac bushes on Friday. I hope they bloom sooner than my poor lilac bush in St. Louis!

Oh, and as a bonus, SuperGuy got to figure out how to use the post hole digger attachment thingie on his new John Deere tractor! THAT was exciting I think it took him longer to figure out how to attach it than it took us to dig the holes…

• Long Live the Lilac
• Things that Upset Me
• The Little Lilac Bush that Could-Part 2
• The Annual Spring Question
• About those rocks

Yes, it was time for the annual Easter egg slingshot competition… SuperGuy dyed all these eggs…he’s crazy…notice how weird he is…all sorted by color.

Okay, I admit…they look kinda pretty like that…

And here was our target this year. This poor blow up money hung from a tree branch…

Everyone lined up for their turn to shoot the eggs with the slingshot.

We had a few injuries this year… like a backfired egg…okay, to be honest…Michael shot himself 3, count ‘em THREE times this year. This has never happened before in the 12 plus years we’ve been doing the slingshot competition.

My door got hit too…

My mom is always up for watching some good boy fun, and enjoyed the silliness that is our slingshot competition. I love that she loves my boys so much…(she is still so pretty…)

Some of us enjoyed the competition by drinking champagne…

And, of course, we had to have at least a few brotherly scuffles along the way.

I’ll edit the rest of the photos and put them up on Facebook later today.

Just another crazy family tradition at our house…

• Easter Egg Sling Shot Festivities
• Decorating the Tree
• Easter Egg Adventures
• A Bird in The Hand
• The Great Easter Egg Shoot Out

Please, save me from myself. I wanted to do a cupcake photoshoot. Wanted to add to my food photography portfolio. Okay then. I bought some cupcakes…

Yes, those chocolate cupcakes look yummy. But I also bought vanilla cupcakes. So I had choices…

Then, I fell in love with the sprinkles. I mean, who doesn’t think that bright colored stars make great sprinkles?

Though, I have to say, I’m kind of in love with this close up of the swirl icing…

But, alas, SuperGuy and I are dieting…so I could NOT leave these in the house after the food photography shoot. So…what’s a woman to do? She promptly gave them to her son who stopped by and told him to share them with his roommates. Problem solved. Kind of. Because I’m now craving a cupcake…

My Food Photography and Kitchen Art photos are for sale on my artist website. I warn you…they might make you hungry…

Also, are any of you on tumblr? I started posting some there.  I’m Kay Pickens on tumblr if you want to follow me there. I’ll follow you back!

• He’s So Proud Of Me!
• Pinterest Anyone?
• Hi-remember me?
• the lucky life of a male
• The China Cabinet

So I decided to get outside and walk around the farm in Columbia to see what all has survived the winter. Sorry, this is very picture heavy!

It was very muddy…

Love my pretty, funky, dotted mud boots. From Tractor Supply. On sale AND comfortable!

Then I walked out to our lot line.

I saw a bluebird on the lot line marker while I was out there. Unfortunately if flew off to the phone wire, and I didn’t have my long lens with me. But my first bluebird!! Very happy.

This muddy mess is where our square foot garden is going to be. I hope we get it all put together and fenced in for some spring planting…

We planted 5 bradford pear trees last fall. Here is the one near the house. I know Columbia thinks they are horrible scrub trees, but I just love, love them.

Okay, showing off my mud boots again. With the cow the boys got us in the background by my beloved red front door. Which, btw, I think I’m going to ask SuperGuy to put up a screendoor on it. It just seems so country that way. Also, we need the cross breeze!

Oh, and did I tell you? I learned to drive the John Deere tractor! Go me. Starring my mud boots again…maybe this post should have been titled “Ode to my Mud Boots”.

We had deer grazing in the yard just before sunset. The dogs started barking like crazy at them. The deer just looked up and then kept grazing…

Then we sat in our normal happy hour spot…putting the barstools in the windows and watching the sunset. Oh, and we might have had a drink. Or two.

Then the sun set in a burst of flair for me.

My day. The end.

• Oh, Deer
• Somebody had a Fabulous Christmas
• First Bloom at the New House
• About those rocks
• Happy Valentine’s Day