TSS ♦ Playgrounds, Pictures & Perfect Get Well Gift

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Every weekend my oldest son goes to visit his girlfriend who lives about an hour’s drive away. Once we drop him off, we look for places to walk the dogs, or for some empty fields to play ball. Anything to tire out two very energetic dogs. Two weekends ago it was drizzling and I wanted to try to get some good rain shots with the camera.

We found an amazing school, with gorgeous fields for the dogs to run in, lots of great foliage. And the most fantabulous playground I’ve ever seen!! As you can probably tell I fell in love with the blue hippo above, which my son loved teasing me about. After that we came across this spongy-padded area with these uber-cool saucer swings. Son and I had a blast on them while the hubs laughed his ass off at us!

And finally, after playing ourselves out, I took a wander around to see what there was to snap pics of. I took a lot of pictures and like always I ended up with a lot of bad and a few good. It’s a great way to figure out how some of the settings work. I really like pictures of metal objects with raindrops on them. There is something so neat about the texture.

But what I really get a kick out of is when a photo comes out entirely different from how you pictured it. These two plant pics came out with strange colors compared to how they really look. I haven’t played with these in photo-shop at all!


This picture was the biggest prize for me that day. My son caught a glimpse of this while we were driving. Someone had set out their trash for pick-up and all three of us thought it was the perfect thing for a photo. I tried out a few settings, but this is the one I liked best using a mixture of superfine grain and ultra exposure with no flash. Yeah it’s just a pile of garbage but I love it!

Anyways, that was a wonderful and fun day, but being outside in the rain, along with my natural bad luck with spring viruses – I developed a cold that made me feel like I was breathing through cement. Turns out I had pneumonia :(  And I am quite possibly the biggest whiniest sick person ever! Having been on a horse-pill sized does of antibiotics I’m finally starting to feel better. And the hubs certainly helped me through the worst few days, especially the day he arrived home with flowers, all my library holds and a super-awesome-coolest cthulhu ever!!

Sorry for the crap picture but I’ve been living on the sofa for a week and it was covered in books, Kleenex, remotes, DVDs, blankets and other assorted crap. So I totally photo-shopped it out  :P

Here are the books, it’s so hard to see what they are from the above photo.



© 2008-2010 Joanne Mosher of The Book Zombie. All rights reserved.

17 comments:

Stephanie said...

So sorry to hear you are sick, Joanne. If it makes you feel better, the pictures are really great!! And dang, with a hubby that will bring books, flowers AND a cthulhu...you are a lucky woman!!

Hope you are feeling better soon. I had a case of pneumonia about 2 years ago (in the spring too) and it sucked bad. I feel for ya!

Meghan said...

Gorgeous photos! Pneumonia is a nasty illness. I'm glad your husband is doing his part to take care of you and I hope you feel better soon!

christina said...

Oh my god! I saw you on that flying saucer thing and squeeled with jealousy. Okay, so maybe it was an inner child shriek since I'm all "adult" now, reading my feeds and sipping coffee...but Geez! How jealous am I really?!?

Love this post. And I hope you feel better!

Beth F said...

Awesome photos! Hope you're feeling better soon.

Frances said...

Feel better! More time on the playground will at least improve your spirits. No fair! I want to play there!

bermudaonion said...

Your photos are fantastic! I want to play on those saucer swings! Glad you're feeling better - having such a sweet hubby helped, I'm sure.

Darlene said...

Sorry to hear you got so sick Joanne. I hope you're on the road to recovery. A hubby who brings all those good things home is a definite plus!

I love the photos. Like you, I for some reason have a fascination with rain drops on things. I don't know why but I think they look so cool. I love the pic of the pink plant. It almost looks like little frozen droplets on it-very cool!

Take care of you...

chrisa511 said...

That is officially the COOLEST Cthulu I've ever seen! You have a great husband :) So sorry to hear you had pneumonia!! That's awful. But I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better.

I loved the pictures of you with the hippo :p They put a big smile on my face. And the other pictures you took are gorgeous! Especially the pink/purple plant..I think that's my favorite.

Ana S. said...

Take care of yourself, Joanne! I hope you feel better soon!

And yay, Lost at Sea :D I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Those saucer swings are too cool for words. I LOVE swings. I've gotten some weird looks for invading playgrounds, but hey, a girl has to have some fun :P And besides I make sure I only do so when there are no small children in them :P

Eva said...

That playground looks great!! Sorry you've been so sick. :/

Your photos are gorgeous; what kind of camera do you use?

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I hope you're getting to feel better soon! I've never photoshopped before, but I would have never guessed all that "crap" was in the last picture. Love the water on metal, too.

bethany (dreadlock girl) said...

Oh no! Sorry you are sick ;( Still, those pictures look so fun, even in the rain it is possible to have a good time and it looks like you did! Here in Oregon we know what when it rains it pours.

Kailana said...

That sucks that you are sick! haha. I just messaged you on Twitter to ask what school that was! I am so cool. Hope you feel like yourself soon! That's awesome on the husband front, though, and the pictures were great!

Jill said...

Great photos, Joanne! I love the dandelion. And sorry to hear you've been sick - that sounds awful and scary. But what an excellent husband you have, bringing you a cthulhu to cheer you up!

Zibilee said...

You took some really great photos!

Anonymous said...

First. It cracks me up that you and your son are both wearing hoodies. He looks just like you. :-D

Second. Sorry you've been sick. That sucks. And pneumonia?!? That really sucks.

Third. My cthulhu can kick your cthulhu's ass.

Ladytink_534 said...

Those swings look like a lot of fun and I wanna play on the hippo! I had a tricycle just like that as a kid and when it got to looking like that my dad sanded it down and spray painted it for my little brother.