Hazy Dreams

Last summer's fireweed in evening light.

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FIreweed and Buttercups

The fireweed is creeping up toward the top of the stalks now.....Summer is sadly coming to a close..

Fireweed Reflection

I have not been successful in getting a reflection shot like this until this one! I love how I have focused on such a tiny part of the entire fireweed plant, and the small droplet shows a bit more of the whole plant.

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I promised months ago that I would give a timeline of our house buying experience. This is not it!

As much as I though we were prepared to handle the financial aspect of home ownership (and unexpected surprises that come with it!), I still have been surprised time and again at expenses cropping up. Yet, time and again, we have been taken care of.

The most recent example is property taxes. We received a credit of a few hundred dollars on our down payments to account for the taxes the sellers were responsible for. I was informed of the approximate amount of the taxes we would be responsible for later. I accounted for all of this in our monthly budget and went on my way. However, no one let me know when we would receive notice for the taxes and when they would be due! The bill came at the beginning of July, and I immediately went into a mini panic mode. The taxes are due in either one or two installments, and I planned to do one, which would be due in October. My problem was that I had assumed the taxes would be collected at the end of the calendar year, and never considered the fiscal year. I started to scramble for where I would come up with the remainder of the cash before October.

I was also aware that July was a three paycheck month for C. I just planned to use that cash for house repairs. After receiving the bill, I upped the money saved for taxes, and still pondered it in the back of my mind. Now that we are done with July, I am pleased to announce my budget is back on track for the property taxes to be paid in full in October. I wanted to use that money for something else (house repairs!) but it is so cool how the money is there for another need we had.

I felt the whole house buying process was guided by God. When we actually got into the house, and I got a handle on how much the new utilities would actually cost, I started to panic a little. Were we in over our heads? However, as I stated before, we been fine. Expenses come and go, and God has been providing perfectly. It's an encouragement that we followed God's will in this house, despite my sometime doubts.

What have you been pleasantly surprised in lately? Any cool stories to share?

Tiny Drop

Even though the fireweed signals the end of summer, I still adore it. It's a beautiful plant, and I had to stop and take some photos of it after a rain we had.

First Fireweed Bloom

July 7th, I saw this bloom. First one I have seen so far. It is still quite a bit early for this area, but since then, the blooms have been popping up a tiny more. Not ready for winter to become imminent!

Anchorage Fall

Spent some time in the middle of September in Anchorage, shooting the last of the flowers.

I tried to shoot dragonflies all summer, and I found two to shoot in Anchorage!

The dying fireweed

Spit After Sunset

The moon was incredibly compelling last week, and so I was able to shoot a little after dark, something I usually don't attempt. It was unfortunately windy, so the fireweed on both sides of the image was shaking a lot, and I shot a lot of duds. This was the one with the least amount of motion.

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Twilight

The almost full moon last week brought about some incredible scenes, which I will share in the coming days. Not the least was the fireweed.

Backlit Fireweed

Shot this fireweed plant an hour before sunset last week. Partial silhouette and partial backlighting made it a very interesting scene.

Burnt

I have shot this stump many times in the past year, after the Mile 17 forest fire last May. The fireweed is not thriving as much as I would like in that area this year, so I had to make due with just one flower around it.

Sparkles

One of my new favorites!

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Oozing Pink

An unopened fireweed petal after a rain shower.

Fireweed

Fireweed. My favorite flower. Seems like I wait all year to see it, and then when it comes, I get depressed that it signals the end of summer. But I just loving seeing it all over town. It brightens up yards and ditches along the roadside. A random burst of pink here and there.  This image has some more dying lupine in the left background.

I am patiently awaiting my favorite spot to burst with pink so I can shoot there. It's an unbeatable and beautiful view.