October Sunset

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Here is my entry for Sky Watch Friday, enjoy our October Sunset with me. Click on any Photograph for a larger view.

South West View, Sugar Loaf Mountain

A few monemts later


View in the Western Sky

Hawk and Kestrel Day

Today's post is of my adventures yesterday trying to capture on my camera of the Hawk and an American Kestrel that visited the Walnut Tree that stands at the edge of the apple orchard at quite a distance from our cabin here.

This tree is the usual resting place of my friend the Red Tail Hawk that I keep trying to get closer to to get better photographs of.

I spotted a Hawk in the tree, so I got in my truck and drove towards the tree in an attempt to get closer, I drove up to within 55 yards of the tree and stopped and started taking pictures with my Nikon with the 70-300VR lens on and realized that I had gotten quite closer than usual to the Hawk and didn't know till I downloaded the photographs to my computer that I had been taking pictures of NOT the Red Tail Hawk, but a Red Shoulder Hawk, seems we do tend to get excited at getting good pictures instead of who we are shooting..lol.

Click on the photographs to get up close and personal views.

The Walnut Tree

Red Shoulder Hawk (Juvenile Lineatus)

Isn't he just handsome

Leaving the Tree

The next series of photographs is of an American Kestrel that also decided to land in the tree later in the day when I drove back to the tree and stopped about 30 yards from the tree in hopes of a Hawk stopping by again while I sat in my truck waiting.

I sat in the truck for about a half hour at around 3 in the evening and a Kestrel landed in the tree, and this time I had on my 2X converter on my 70-300VR lens in hopes of getting better photos of a Hawk, I was so glad I had it on because a Kestrel is only about 10 1/2 inches tall, so I was able to get fairly detailed photos of him.

Kestrel landing in the tree

Looking down

Beautiful isn't he

A Fall Sunrise

Today's post is of some of our beautiful Fall scenes here in the NC Mountains. I probably should save these photographs for a Sky Watch Friday presentation, but I could not wait to share with you.

The First photograph is of the Sunrise early one morning, followed by a shot of just the sky only moments later.

First sunrise shot in the morning

Moments later in the same area of the sky

Afternoon sky and scenery in the North West


Evening sky in the North

Late afternoon sky in the South.

Click on any of the photographs for a closer view.

End of Morning Sunrise

A Special thanks to this weeks Guest Host Amitua Maulik.

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My post for today's Sky Watch Friday is of catching the very end of a beautiful Sunrise and how it progressed.

Catching the very end of a beautiful colorful sky

North East view

Close up of NE view

View from the South West

Mountain Fall Colors

Today's post is of some Fall colors here in the mountains of North Carolina that I captured while going on a trip to Lake Toxaway which is about 45 miles from here.

We have some great colors here too but I wanted to get some photographs of a different place with a different perspective than we get here, as one can only photograph the same location just so many times before it gets boring to the viewer and yourself.

I am putting in only three photographs today but I have many more from that short trip that I will use at a later time. Click on any of the photographs for a more "Up close and personal" view.

Geometric Designs and Gems

Gourd Art # 108

Today's post is of another Gourd Art I just finished after working on it for the past two weeks.

The Gourd is a nice Big one,finished it stands 13 1/2 inches tall and is 12 inches wide at it's widest part, and did manage to give me quite a challenge to create it.

The Gourd is not fully round, as most gourds are not, and has a somewhat bulbous shape which lends it's self to a storage type gourd (to keep things in it).

I started out by first drawing on some Geometric Designs and then wood burning the designs in, and then cutting the diamond shaped pieces of top grade Lapis to be inlaid into the upper boarder portion. There are 22 diamond shaped pieces inlaid into the upper boarder and then a boarder around each piece wood burned in and colored with a special Sliver paint.

I then proceeded to color in all the Geometric Designs with leather dye, then there was one slightly bad spot just below the upper boarder in the gourd, so I designed another Geometric Design there and cut another piece of Lapis to be inlaid in that spot where it was pitted.

The next challenge was the top that I had cut off, it had some deep cracks and gouges in it,I filled those places and then drew on a ribbon type design, wood burned it in, then colored with leather dye.

Finished Gourd Art

View from the top

The troublsome top before

Showing top after

Signed bottom

Sky Buzzard

A Special thanks to Colleen Walton for being today's Sky Watch Friday Guest Host.

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Here is my post for Sky Watch Friday

High flying Buzzard in a Blue Sky

Another shot of him in another part of the Sky.

Buzzards are not the most beautiful of birds I know, but I like to watch them soar effortlessly riding the air currents and updrafts from the mountains here.

Buzzards can soar for hours upon end by riding the air currents, catching updrafts,and soaring high up into the sky until they become mere dots in the sky.

Dramatic Sunrise Skies

Thanks to Kcalpesh Ajugia for being Sky Watch Host .

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I woke up the other morning to some very Dramatic Skies, so out the door I went, camera in hand to capture some of the beautiful visions.

View to the North as Sun came up


View to the East


View to the North West

After the dark clouds rolled off into the distance and "Grandfather"(Sun) had climbed the mountains the day turned into a beautiful sunny day.

The mountains are coming alive with Fall Color now and soon we will have some glorious colors to show you on our posts.

New Gourd Art #107

Today's post is of a new Gourd Art I just finished, it is a full 3/8" thick after cleaning and sanding and stands 15 1/2" tall and is 8 1/2" wide.

I followed my "Creative Voice" from the gourd telling me what it should be, and this is what the result is, a Navajo woman making a pot to put some of the harvest in during the "Harvest Moon" you see over her head.

The "Harvest Moon" is cut from Iridescent Mother of Pearl and inlaid into the gourd, ground and sanded flush with the gourds surface and polished.

I also cut 6 star shapes out of Turquoise and inlaid them into the gourd,ground and sanded flush with the gourd and polished, then a boarder drawn on and wood burned in and filled with Brown leather dye.

The back side of the gourd is a young Native man with his fire and seeing a Thunder bird rising from the fire. The Thunder bird I made by cutting 8 pieces of Turquoise and inlaying them,sanding and flushing to the gourd and polishing.

I used a very light yellow inside the gourd to light it up a little, and with the top off it appears as if a nice warm fire was burning within to light the evening.

All designs are first drawn on with pencil, then wood burned into the gourd and color added with leather dyes and some paint, even the boarders are wood burned in and colored with leather dyes.

You may click on any of the photographs to enlarge for a better view.

Front View of the Gourd Art

Front view with top off

Close up of the Navajo Woman

Back side of Gourd with Native man and Thunder Bird

Close up of Thunder Bird made of Turquoise

Close up of one of the 6 Turquoise Stars on the top
Note: Several of the Turquoise Stars have flecks of Gold in the Turquoise.

The Moon Experiment

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Here is my entry for Sky Watch Friday

Moon lit Sky Experiment #1

Moon Lit Sky Experiment #2

I have always admired other photographers shots of the moon and the details they seem to get, so I thought I would try and see what pictures I could get with my small knowledge of photography techniques.

Today I am posting two versions of the same Moon Shot for your viewing pleasure and to show how my experiment with this project came out.