Photo-a-Day Week 50

We are getting close to the end of the year, and Christmas items are starting to enter my photo array. Hope you have been enjoying the various photos and maybe you would consider doing your own photo-a-day challenge for 2026! It certainly has been an interesting exercise in observing my surroundings and finding something to photograph. Some of the photos are interesting photo techniques, and others are purely subject matter-centered. Let's look at this past week's photos and the also-ran photos.

Day 342-

Lebkuchen tins. I have more than I would like to count. Each and every tin was purchased filled with lebkuchen. I can count seven more from my chair that are visible. Downstairs, there are more- another stack like this one. There are more in the closet with the Christmas decorations. We lived in Germany two times for a total of almost seven years. We like lebkuchen and I LOVE the tins. Each tin is different, a different decoration each year. When the girls were little, they had some of their 'treasures' in a tin, another had their artwork, and others recipes. Some of the tins still have a faint aroma of lebkuchen, that yummy gingerbread cookie from Germany. Our second time in Germany, we lived near Nuremberg, home of Otto Schmitt lebkuchen (these tins are from Otto Schmitt). Starting in October, you could smell the gingerbread in the air as they began the holiday baking.

Lebkuchen

Day 343-

These two items are from my mom's house. The Ruth stained glass window is in the Chevers chapel in the casement at Fort Monroe, Virginia. My mom, along with a number of other ladies from the Chapel of the Centurion at Fort Monroe did the needlepoint chairs for the Chevers chapel. Years later Fort Monroe ended up closing, and they closed the Chevers chapel. Those who worked on the chairs were able to have one. Fort Monroe is now a National Park facility. The Ruth stained glass window has the quote, "Whither thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge." A memorial to the Army wife.

Ruth window and Chapel chair

Day 344-

This is a pet peeve of mine. Bills or bank statements that come with an additional page printed with "This page left intentionally blank". Once those words are printed on said page, it is no longer blank. 

But is it?

Day 345-

Grocery shopping, looking for products that are gluten-free for when my daughter comes at Christmas. I took a photo of the shelf of breakfast cereal to see if any of these were of interest to her. She passed on these.  

Gluten free

Day 346-

After college, one of my friends and I went to Europe with Eurail passes and our backpacks. I bought a couple of pairs of wooden shoes while in the Netherlands. I like having them on the side table in the living room. I also have one of the others that my mom did some tole painting on. I can't remember where it is, will have to look for it one of these days. (not a high priority)

Wood on wood on wood

Day 347-

Our neighborhood book club has a cookie exchange in place of a book discussion in December. Others from in the neighborhood are invited. The group has grown over the years. A few years ago the option of not bringing cookies was offered. I am glad as we are up to baking eight dozen cookies. We share a half a dozen in each baggie or tin. Everyone who brings cookies takes home the same number of cookies they brought. The selection of cookies is always fun to see and sample! This is just some of the cookies, I put some into the red tin with the gold rim- to keep them fresh.

Cookie exchange haul

Day 348-

I got our Christmas cards done and in the mailbox to get mailed. Charlie helped me with addressing them. It was most appreciated as the list grows. Do you still send out cards? I feel like it is a nice way to stay in touch. As the grandkids grow, it is a nice way to share their cute little faces. Our kids don't want them on social media, which I totally understand, so this is my way of being the grandma showing off her little loves. 

Christmas greetings

A couple also-ran photos- 

Liebling was checking out the front yard, now that the leaves are down, the street is visible. She lets us know if anyone drives or walks by. 

She also likes to stare at me, hoping it is time to go out and play. Between her and Fiona, the plea to go out and play is strong. 

One of the possible choices was my plant window. I have grow lights to supplement the light from the southern window. Some years, I think about starting my indoor plants over again- that means tossing the leggy, not good-looking plants, and trying something new. 

Another sunset photo from a moving vehicle. It wasn't as bright and colorful as the sky, so I decided to use the mailbox full of cards.

Well, two more weeks!! If you decide to try this year-long challenge, let me know. I would love to follow your challenge. See you next week.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 48

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet, but we are looking forward to a full house at Christmas. Let's see what we had this past week with the photos. 

Day 328-

I bought this planter after one of our Flings. I had seen it in one of the gardens, and I loved it. After a Google search, I found him! I change out the plant material every so often. Currently, there is a pup of a Color Guard Yucca and some 'Angelina' sedum. Our front porch is home to countless Anoles. Seems like every time I take the dogs outside, the first statement out of my mouth is, "Leave the lizards alone!"

I have an Anole on my face

Day 329-

The crescent moon was bright on Monday night. If my ride to bridge had been a few minutes later, I would have taken the photo from my driveway. She was right on time, so I waited until we got to our neighbor's house where we were playing cards. I wasn't sure the photo would come out because as soon as we got out of the car, her motion sensor lights came on. I tucked around the corner of her garage and captured the moon through the branches. It is not easy to photograph a bright moon with a cellphone.  

Crescent moon

Day 330-

The rain came, and there were ripples and splashes of water on the deck. Shadows and light are a great way to show off ripples of water. 

Ripples

Day 331- 

After a light frost, most of the herbaceous plants have disappeared. This little volunteer seemed to appear overnight. The little ray of sunshine made it really glow. I think it is another of the Golden Asters that have been volunteering in this area of the yard. Chrysopsis mariana, a lovely little native plant. 

Golden Volunteer

Day 332-

Not sure if this is the first hard frost, but when I finally rolled out of bed, there was still a good bit of frost on the deck. First frost or not, I love the water crystals. 

Frosty

Day 333-

There was a lot of bird activity in the side yard, and I decided to get the big camera and zoom in to see who was flitting around from branch to branch. Turned out it was a flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I like how this male Bluebird was staring at me from afar. There were a couple of not chosen photos, check them out below. I love Bluebirds! 

What are you looking at?

Day 334-

The bird feeders on the deck attract lots of birds and a few squirrels. The dogs are on alert; unfortunately, they will bark at the birds in addition to barking at the squirrels. Liebling, the German Shepherd didn't used to bark at the birds, but now with Fiona, our Border Collie, there is a lot of barking. We are working on it. 

On bird/squirrel alert

Our not chosen photos are as follows-- like I said before, I love Bluebirds!! I just thought the photo of the one looking at the camera was my favorite. 

On the frosty morning there was also ice on the top of the hose caddy, where there was once ripples of water. 

The skies before the rains and the cold weather were kind of cool. Not used, but still an interesting sky.

This brings us to the end of another week of photos. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can comment on Blogger, on Substack, or on Facebook. Thanks for visiting.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 45

Sunday is almost over, time to get my post written! I spent a good deal of time outside today, working in the garden, spreading some wildflower seeds to new locations. Removed a good amount of blackberry brambles, though there's a lot more to get rid of. Not sure where the rest of the day went, but here we are, after 10:00 PM, and I am just starting the week's post. Let's get right to it.

Day 307-

Liebling is nine years old and starting to get gray around her muzzle. Her eyes are so expressive. There are times I forget how old she is, if the toys come out of the closet, she is jumping and barking- ready to go out and play.

Sad Eyes

Day 308-

A quick snack of some leftover snacks from bridge. Yogurt-covered pretzels and spicy Sriracha mixed nuts. I made my own mixed nuts with cashews, pecans, almonds, and peanuts. It is a quick and easy recipe. Spicy Sriracha Mixed Nuts a hit in our house! 

Spicy and Sweet

Day 309-

Coming back from the doctor's appointment, over hill and dale, we came upon a logistics company, Amplify, a Landstar agent's yard. Charlie worked with Ranger Landstar in Florida for a year in a program Army calls "Training with Industry". Some families have a yellow punchbuggy call out while on a trip, we call out Landstar trucks and trailers. To see a whole yard of trailers was kind of fun. 

Landstar

Day 310-

While waiting for the moon to rise on the night of the Super moon,  I was able to enjoy the sunset. The best place to view sunsets and moonrises is down on the dock. Our house faces south, and the lake is to the north. East and west views are hidden by the woods. To get clear views, the dock on the lake provides long views. 

Sunset on the Lake

Day 311-

Goldenrod blooms have faded into puffy seedheads. I love how the sunlight dances and sparkles on the seeds. Of course, no photo in my garden is complete without a strand of dog hair. Today I scattered some of these seeds in our drain field. Solidago sp.

Goldenrod seedhead

Day 312-

The low angles of the sun make for wonderful photo opportunities. The dogwood along the driveway is in its full fall colors, and the light behind it is something to behold. 

Dogwood with Sun

Day 313-

This photo was from a series of a number of photos, trying to get the best angle to show off the tiny mushrooms. I have the "not chosen" ones included with the one I think was the best.  A small, tight pinecone with several small mushrooms popping up at each crease caught my eye. I was next to the pollinator garden, hanging a bird feeder in place of the hummingbird feeder (long taken down) when I noticed the pinecone and all its adornments. Do you like the one chosen or those I discarded?

Pinecone with mushrooms

Some not in focus

Again, not the best

Different view, still not my favorite

This brings us to the end of another week of the photo a day. Hope you are still enjoying the variety of photos. We are getting close to the end of the year!  

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 43

As I started collecting the photos for this week from my posts, I found I had misnumbered most of the week's photos. I was all excited, I had reached number 300!! It wasn't #300, it was 299. Next week start with 300. Whatever the numeral, we are getting close to the end of the year. It has been an interesting project to get a new photo each day and not use my rather large library of photos from past years. While getting a new photo each day isn't the challenge, it is not to repeat subjects- or at least make them appear new. You will see more than one photo of my pets, but they are doing something different. Hoping to keep you, my audience, interested and coming back for more is the job!

Day 293-

Fiona is an insistent dog, she wants to go out and play all the time! She is a Border Collie and will do her best Border Collie stare to get me to move. Sometimes it works, but not always.  

I want to go out and play

Day 294-

This building is on a corner that we pass at least once a week, it is across the street from a gas station that has been redone recently. I don't know anything about the history of this building but am sure there are stories to be found! 

Days Gone By

Day 295-

Foggy mornings draw me to try and get a photo of the misty fog and the light of the morning sun, shining through. The fog that rolls across the lake in the morning is also a scene I would like to capture. As we move into the cooler weather, I hope to get a fog on the lake picture. 

Foggy morning

Day 296-

This day, I was a little hard pressed to find a subject to photograph.. Turns out a few bananas, a couple of avocados, and an overripe pear were good to capture. The black and white show the shapes and shadows. 

Still life in black and white

Day 297-

This week I was getting my houseplants ready to come back in the house from the screened porch and found a couple frogs on the plants. The first one was a Green Tree Frog, I didn't take a photo of it. The second one I came across was this little guy, Cope's Gray Tree Frog. It was chilly, and he wasn't moving very quickly. Once I picked it off the plant to move it into the garden, I expected it would jump off my hand right away. He didn't. I think it was glad to be in my warm hand. I placed it on the branch of the Edgeworthia at the bottom of the deck steps. It was there for a good while before hopping off to a good spot. 

Cope's Gray Tree Frog

Day 298-

Driving to our friends' house for dinner, we had glimpses of a sliver of a crescent moon. The sky was beautiful as the sun was setting, giving it the oranges and reds on the horizon. 

Crescent moon at sunset

Day 299-

There are a lot of churches in our county. Some with pointed steeples with a cross on top, some, like this one, are brick with a fortressed bell tower. It is the Main Street United Methodist Church. More church steeples to come in the coming weeks. 

Methodist

Here are the photos not chosen-

First, our little tree frog. I wanted you to see how little this little frog was. Such a cute little frog. I find the Cope's Gray Tree Frogs every so often. Love their coloring.

An attempt to capture the fog on the lake from the deck. It was not a great representation of the foggy morning.

As Fiona was sitting at the front door, staring at me to go outside, Liebling was just chilling, staring, wondering if we would go and play.

This concludes the review of last week's photos.  Please come again! Keep thinking about your favorite photo!

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 28

Boy, where does the time go? Seems like I just did a post on last week's photos and here we are again! After looking at this week's photos, I realized I did more black and white images than usual. Let's look at each photo and see if I can share a little detail on each.

Day 188-

Along the driveway, I have a couple of pieces of rusted front porch railing. I love the rust and have been trying to get a native wisteria to grow up the railing like a trellis. A couple years ago, I installed irrigation pipe and heads on this side of the driveway. I had installed irrigation on the other side years before and decided that if the wisteria was going to grow, it also needed water. Hoping next year to have blooms on the Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls'. 

Rust and Vine

Day 189-

Liebling is the champion of the rings! She likes chasing and catching these rubber rings. This photo may look like I am holding the ring high above her, to get her attention, but it is sailing through the air. She is focused! 

Queen of the Rings

Day 190- 

As I was looking at the garden up by the road, I noticed there was a Cicada exoskeleton on the Russian sage. Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, has been reclassified as Salvia yangii. I get frustrated when botanical names get changed. The Cicada is the annual one, opposed to the 13-year cycle brood that emerged earlier this year. At night, when I take the dogs out, it sounds like a jungle with all the insects singing their songs. Add in the frogs and toads singing, it can be quite loud! 

Cicada Time

Day 191- 

We drove to a political event this past week and took the backroads to get there. I noticed this rusted-out pickup truck and tractor on our way there. There was construction a little further down the road, and I wondered if we were going to take a different route home. I was glad when my husband took the same route home. I told him I wanted to get a picture for my photo of the day. The nice thing about driving backroads, you can drive slowly or even stop to take my photos. 

Hay bales and rust 

Day 192-

Wild morning glories, Ipomoea lacunosa, were blooming, and the white blooms really stood out in the shade of the trees along the road. In the photo with color, the white didn't "pop" so I tried some filters and decided the black and white was the best option. To get closer to the blooms for a photo, I had to watch out for a lot of poison ivy! 

Black and White

Day 193-

My Monarda fistulosa, Wild bergamot, is blooming and the bees are loving it! There have been some Skipper butterflies on it as well, but they fly off quickly when I approach with my cellphone camera. The bumblebees ignore me, so they are the stars of the photo. 

Bumbles and Monarda

Day 194-

When we first moved here, we planted a red crepe myrtle along the driveway. As it has grown, so have the pines around them. The crepe myrtle is quite tall, looks like it is leaning because it is reaching for a small amount of sunlight. This crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, is most likely 'Dynamite'. In addition to the lovely flowers, crepe myrtle has the most amazing exfoliated bark. 

Exfoliating bark

I thank you for stopping by again this week. This coming week, I will try not to do so many black and white photos. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 27

Week 27 marks the halfway point of the year! Welcome back to another wrap-up for the week. 

Day 181-

My friend David Sullivan, from whom I accepted this challenge, said it was National Camera Day. I have a shelf of old cameras, so it was appropriate to get a photo of them to celebrate. A couple of the cameras came from my folks, and one from my husband's childhood. 

Yesterday was National Camera Day

Day 182-

Just outside our neighborhood, we have friends who have a gnome house. It was in an old tree stump. Over the years the stump deteriorated. Because there were so many tree stumps uprooted from Hurricane Helene, they were able to acquire a new stump. Many of us have been waiting to see the new reveal. It is as charming as ever! In the photo below, you can see a hammock and a swing on one side of the house. Around back there is a campfire where marshmallows are being toasted. I love the little window boxes. I am sure there will be more added over time. It is always fun to check out the gnomes.

New Stump Remodel

Day 183-

We have had a good number of Swallowtail butterflies this year. Some years, I only see a few, and they have tattered wings. This one is in beautiful shape and enjoying the Hyssop blooms. 

Swallowtail on Hyssop

Day 184-

While looking for a Yellow-billed Cuckoo high in the trees in my backyard, I found a nest. It took a long time to finally see a little head pop up. It is a female Summer Tanager sitting on her nest. It is pretty high up in the tree, so getting a better photo isn't possible. I will keep an eye out for more activity as time goes by. 

Summer Tanager nest

Day 185-

On the morning of the 4th of July, I looked out to the lake to see if there was a lot of traffic. We are on the northern end of the lake, so most of the boating in our backyard has someone teaching someone to water ski or taking some children on a tube. It is quieter and we like it that way!

Quiet on the Lake, Happy 4th

Day 186-

Every day, multiple times a day, we are outside playing. Fiona loves to play with the disc. Liebling likes the rubber rings. Fiona jumps pretty high to catch the disc. I used to play with a Frisbee with her, but the edges would get cut up and then cut up her gums. I like this fabric one, it sails nicely and is easy for her to catch.

Got it!

Day 187-

While looking for inspiration for today's photo, I noticed a dusky moth on the garage door. I think it is a Decorated Owlet. If it isn't one, I will correct the name.

Decorated Owlet

Like I said at the top, we have reached the halfway point of the year! More interesting photos to follow each day. Hope you keep coming back. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.