My Journeys - Exposed

October Moon

Debbie Barrett — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:53:27 +0000

October Moon Lyrics by Pat Johnson, click the play button below to play his song.
October Moon by Pat Johnson Music Page

Attack of the Yarn Bombers

Debbie Barrett — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:39:46 +0000

Attack of the Yarn Bombers, a photo by Deborah Barrett on Flickr.

My friend Sara does a little tree hugging after her fantastic performance in Hair last weekend in Dallas. The knitting community brightened the entrance to the Opera House with lots of colorful knitted art.

dbarrett8@comcast.net

Time…making it

Debbie Barrett — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 06:34:32 +0000

So much for trying to publish a weekly post. My last post was published on August 14th. Other priorities come first before I can find time to sit here, edit my recent photographs and find the right words to share with you. Work, sleep, paying bills, spending a time with the husband and the 4 Paws Gang have a higher priority. Oh, did I say work? Since I last shared my life with you, I have travelled to Denver, Chicago and Louisiana. The Denver and Chicago trips were quick 2 night trips each for business. The road trip to Louisiana with my friend Donna for the Labor Day week was pure relaxation. Well almost…the speeding ticket on my way home was a bit more excitement than I really wanted.

I’m still learning my new camera and haven’t had much time to spend with Nellie, the Nikon. I didn’t take her to Denver or Chicago with me; although I wish I had. My hotel was right on the banks of the Chicago River and the larger than life statue of Marilyn Monroe was right across the river. I saw some fantastic buildings on the cab ride from the hotel to the Willis Tower where our company now has relocated the corporate headquarters. I know I will be visiting again and Miss Nellie will be with me next time. In the meantime, here are a few of my shots taken with my new D7000. I also posted a few on Flickr this morning. There’s a widget on the right side of this page that takes you to my Flickr photostream if you are interested. If you want to see larger images of the photos posted below, click on the image.

From my office parking garage:

During my trip to Louisiana over the Labor Day weekend, we drove through a recent fire area near the my friends’ home on Nantachie Lake. When I got back to Houston, we learned of the fires that started in the Magnolia, Bastrop and Steiner Ranch Areas of Texas. The lack of rain is really damaging our Texas landscape with wildfires and dying crops/trees and dried up lakes and ponds.

A cotton plant after a rainy weekend in Louisiana:

I knew we were going see a Harvest Moon this month and I didn’t want to miss it. I captured this a day before the official full moon; however, it was high in the sky and had lost all the orange glow before I had time to pick up my camera.

The next night I was late getting home, but I could see the moon on the horizon. I called home and with little instruction, Simon took my camera and the 70-300mm zoom outside and caught this as it came into sight. Not too bad, eh?

One more bit of news before I go. It rained today…not a lot, but enough to lift our spirits for a little while. Keep those prayers and rain dances coming.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

“How Does Your Garden Grow?”

Debbie Barrett — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:30:20 +0000

“What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.”
- Jane Austen

I think today is the 12th or 13th day in a row of Houston area temperatures reaching over 100 degrees. Are these the dog days of Summer? I feel like I have no energy and not much enthusiasm to get out and about which isn’t good since my sore knee needs a bit of exercise to keep it moving. So Ms. Nellie II and I took a stroll through our local botanic gardens before noon today to see how the flowers are surviving this heat.

Water Lily Pond

Water Lilies

Dusty Peach Bougainvillea

"I can reach it!"

Summer Nectar

Pausing for a Rest

Stained Glass Beauty

Surviving the Heat

The blooms are doing fine thanks to a great gardening team at the gardens. I, on the other hand, am melting. Turn down the a/c I’m headed home to look for my misplaced elegance! Let me know how your garden grows.

Dreams Do Come True

Debbie Barrett — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:58:16 +0000

: Created with Kim Klassen’s “Dream” Texture

My sweet husband bought me a new camera yesterday. Nellie, the Nikon (my wonderful little D40x) now has a bigger sister named “Nellie Two.” It’s the D7000. Yep, I did the happy dance!

We took Nellie Two to Kemah today and found a few sunflowers growing near the coastline. I’ll come back later and add a few more shots to my flickr photostream, but I just had to stop and share my good news. Isn’t he a wonderful husband?

A New Challenge

Debbie Barrett — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:04:21 +0000

Well, I thought I had a geeky effect to show off. I wanted to add a mouse over technique to a photo so you would see the original without any editing if you ran your mouse over the photo. Jill from Jillsy Girl Studio featured this on her site twice this week. Yesterday I tried it and couldn’t get it to work. If you get notified of my new postings, you probably received a note; however, I removed it since it didn’t work. Then I asked Geri from My Heart Art to help. She has a Geek Alert section on her blog filled with lots of help and ideas. After hearing from Geri, I worked again this morning for about an hour on just 3 little lines of html code without much luck. Finally I gave in and went to wordpress support only to discover that wordpress.com does not support the mouseover technique. I need to use the non-free version. Oh well, I guess I just won’t dazzle you guys with my technical ability right now. But a big thanks go to Jill for getting me interested and to Geri for her quick help! I now know how to do this, but I need my blog hosted in a site that supports it.

The photos I want to share were from a walk yesterday morning through the Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens. I met my friend Gwenn there around 9:30am yesterday before the temperature touched the 100 degree mark. Here’s a sampling of the wonderful colors blooming there:

"The Bee and the Coneflower"

: “Brown Eyed Susan” Daisy

: “Texas Star Hibiscus”

: Golden Dewdrops

: “Hidden Ginger”

: “A Splash of Purple”

I saw the quote I added to the photo below on a supporter sign in the Botanic Gardens.

: Kim Klassen’s “Love” and “Aurora” Textures applied

I came home and found the lovely poem that contains the quote.

God’s Garden

The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

- Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858 – 1932)

We only have one or two drought resistant blooms around our home. What’s blooming at yours?

There is something about the Moon…

Debbie Barrett — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:38:45 +0000

that has always grabbed my attention, especially if it is full. Ever since I bought Miss Nellie the Nikon her 70-300mm zoom lens last year, I have captured a few full ones and posted them here on Flickr. Last night was no exception. After a few hours at a neighborhood wine bar near Trish’s house, the full moon caught my attention while driving home. It was shining brightly as a variety of clouds drifted by, filtering it’s light in an array of tones during my 30 minute drive home. I popped in the house, yelled hello to the hubby and dogs and went back out to the garage to find my tripod. I adorned Miss Nellie with her longer zoom and spent a bit of time outside with the clouds and mosquitoes trying to find the perfect shot.

And no, I didn’t howl while I was out there. What about you — do you howl at the moon?

Elfen Graves??

Debbie Barrett — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:08:06 +0000

Simon and I took Sophie for a walk through the woods of the Mercer Arboretum nearby. The lack of rain has really affected a lot of trees and underbrush. The Cypress Pond area was missing the pond. The Cypress Knees, which are usually peeking through the swampy water, looked a bit like little, neglected Elfen tombstones. We may need to start doing rain dances.

I dug, beneath the cypress shade,
What well might seem an elfin’s grave;
And every pledge in earth I laid,
That erst thy false affection gave.

I pressed them down the sod beneath;
I placed one mossy stone above;
And twined the rose’s fading wreath
Around the sepulchre of love.

Frail as thy love, the flowers were dead,
Ere yet the evening sun was set:
But years shall see the cypress spread,
Immutable as my regret.

~ Thomas Love Peacock

A Sweet Week (give or take a few extra days)

Debbie Barrett — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:50:59 +0000

I want to share a few sweet moments that happened last week.

First: Just over a year ago, I virtually met a lady named Barbara on flickr. She and I have the same camera and we both shared photos in the same flickr group dedicated to photos taken by the Nikon D40x. Via her flickr profile, I followed Barbara to her blog and learned even more about her and her love of writing and photography. She and I have developed a good e-friendship using flickr, facebook, her blog, and even just email. You are reading this today due to her encouragement to give blogging a go. Click here to experience Barbara’s way of drawing you into her life. The whole point of this bit of background info leads up to how this last week started (if you allow me to include June 24th as part of last week) with a very sweet moment. I had the honor of getting to meet my virtual friend in person, face to face, for lunch. She was on her way home to spend the weekend with her high school girlfriends and visit her parents. And since that is very near where I work, we met for lunch at the Ashland House Restaurant and enjoyed each other’s company for an hour or so. We chatted like two friends who haven’t seen each other for a while. I know if we lived closer, I would be sharing time with her more often. I hope to see her again soon.

Debbie and Barbara

The other sweet moment I want to share with you is how Simon and I spent our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday, June 28th. We agreed no gifts, we are just taking the day off and spending it together. So when I arrive home from work, late as usual, on Monday night, he gives me a beautiful bouquet of red roses and peonies. Bad Simon! But I couldn’t really fuss since they were beautiful. Tuesday morning arrives and we talk about flying to New Orleans for lunch (since I work for an airline that is pretty easy to do on such short notice if there are empty seats); however, we opt to drive to Brenham, TX instead for the day and not deal with the hassle of an airport. As I am getting ready, he brings me 2 cards and a small box (oh, he is really in trouble now; especially since I lived up to the deal we made and didn’t spend any money on even a card for him!!) One funny and one sappy card and a beautiful pendant in the little box! Once again, I couldn’t get too mad, because the pendant was a cute little pavé dog paw on a silver chain. He said something about it being from Penny since she wasn’t here to help us celebrate. By then the tears were flowing. You see, when I first met Simon, I told him that my Jack Russell, Penny had to approve of him before I would consider dating him. Well, needless to say, he won over Penny’s heart in a few visits and mine soon after. Penny died just over a year ago and he knows I still miss her a lot even though we still have 3 members of the 4 Paw Gang to keep us company and covered in dog hair. Pretty sweet husband, eh? But the truly sweetest moment of the day in the most literal way was:

Our empty cups after sampling Blue Bell Ice Cream at the end of the tour.

We toured the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory in Brenham after we had lunch. At the end of the tour we had our choice of a scoop of one of 16 flavors. Yummm! If you haven’t tried Blue Bell Ice Cream it is definitely worth a trip to a state that sells it. Come on down for a visit! On our way home we took a slight detour to Independence, TX so Si could visit a gun store and I had the opportunity to view this beautiful field while waiting for him.

Hay Field in Independence, TX

Not a bad way to spend the day with your hubby and a pretty sweet week, don’t you think?

Refreshment for a Pisces Soul

Debbie Barrett — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:37:07 +0000

Born in March under the sign of the Fish, I have always loved being around water. Summers of my college years found me driving to the beach for the day or being a nanny in Bermuda. Once gainfully employed, I rented a beach house in Nags Head, NC each June. A few years later, I moved to Miami and most weekends I could be found on or near the beach. About 15 years ago, I owned a waterfront house on Lake Conroe right here in the Houston area. Sitting by the water, doing nothing, thinking about nothing has always relaxed me deep inside. A steamy morning shower just isn’t the same thing.

So last Saturday, I was in need of seeing and feeling ‘WATER’. Lucky for me my husband was off and we had never taken our youngest dog to the beach. It didn’t take much to get the hubby to agree. With the car packed, Sophie (our dog), Simon and I drove to Galveston for the afternoon.

Simon and Sophie

There is something about the gently lapping motion of the waves that melts away the stress of the week.

Galveston isn’t the prettiest of beaches; however, on Saturday, if you looked past all the seaweed on the beach, it was a great summer day at the shore. White clouds, greenish/blue sea, lots of gulls…

Protected Dunes - Galveston West Beaches

Flying in Formation

Soft Afternoon Waves

A Gull Line-up

The Benefits of a Sea Breeze

I left feeling so much better. Sun, water and the salty ocean breeze refreshed my soul. What’s the one thing that does this for you?