Red Barns

Thanks for joining today, if you’re looking for my Wednesday Hodgepodge response, it’s at the bottom. Now for my not-so Wordless Wednesday segment! 😉

The first Friday in May, I shared a red barn iPhone photo that I took at the end of March while at DH’s post-op eye surgery visit in Maryville, Tennessee. Nestled against the Smoky mountains it’s not surprising to find large open fields with barns, cows, or other critters in this little community behind a medical complex.

I wasn’t prepared with my big girl camera, so on another trip to the same location I took it so I could zoom in on this beautiful barn.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky on this gorgeous blue late spring day and while I like the picture I felt it needed a bit more character, so I introduced it to the world of Distressed FX for a redesign. BTW, the app designer loves to paint cows. 😉

Unfortunately this is another photo-edit where I failed to keep records of my adjustments. This is something I fooled around with during my blogging hiatus. Needless to say, I don’t recall what I did.

This post is title Red Barns. That’s plural and I have one more red barn to show you that I took in 2013. In 2014, I shared a large red barn with you that I took fall 2013 in Farragut and while going through my files I found another nearly identical photo.

I totally under-exposed both images because I did not know that when shooting from inside the car through the car window messes the light meter up something horribly. I used Pixelmator to adjust the brightness and ligten shadows.

This whole series I changed the original to an artsy photo creation, so why break precedence now. Let’s see how this looks remade using Distressed FX. I noted my changes this time. Using overlays, “Stirred” and “Phorcys” giving me the color and texture I wanted, I then adjusted the contrast and brightness to make the picture less dark before adding the finishing touch of a “Trio” of birds in a beautiful fall sky.

I hope to work my way back to this barn this fall to try it again. I hope it is still there.

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I’m working through how I want to best present things on my site. Years ago, I included Joyce’s Q&A hodgepodge in my mid-week post but I got away from that and I tried the last two weeks to incorporate it with the return of Way Back Wednesday. That just made for a long post. I’m not sure if this is any better but I thought I’d try it here today.

 

1. What pets did you have while growing up? Tell us a little something about them.

My family had dogs periodically during my childhood. When I was really young (under the age of 4), we had a small white brown-spotted dog named Sugar. I figured we gave him this name because he liked candy. I do remember feeding it to the poor thing but I didn’t know better.

Another time when I was around 10 or 11, we had a Chihuahua. I never warmed up to tha thing, always yapping and snapping at you and then it gave birth to a litter of pups but shortly after she ripped into them killing all but one. I really hated that dog after that! When I was about 15, I had a reddish-orange tabby I named Fred. This was DH’s idea to give him that name. That’s what you get when you ask your boyfriend to help name a pet. lol But…Fred seemed to fit and I grew fond of that kitty. I remember one time he got outdoors and one of the neighborhood dogs torn him up pretty bad. I thought he wouldn’t make it but he did. One day I came home from school to find Fred missing. Daddy said Fred got out again and I never saw him but I found out somehow Daddy actually gave Fred to my uncle’s kids. Daddy hated having animals in the house.

When I was about 15, I had a reddish-orange tabby I named Fred. This was DH’s idea to give him that name. That’s what you get when you ask your boyfriend to help name a pet. lol But…Fred seemed to fit and I grew fond of that kitty. I remember one time he got outdoors and one of the neighborhood dogs torn him up pretty bad. I thought he wouldn’t make it but he did. One day I came home from school to find Fred missing. Daddy said Fred got out again and I never saw him but I found out somehow Daddy actually gave Fred to my uncle’s kids. Daddy hated having animals in the house.

2. What is one thing you absolutely must accomplish today?

There isn’t anything that I “absolutely” must do but I need to call the Apple store. I have a question regarding DH’s employee discount. Supposedly, he we can save a little through his employer whenever we shop at Apple. We even save a little on our wireless bill with his employee discount. A penny saved is a penny earned and those pennies add up! I do know

Wait…I do know of one thing I ABSOLUTELY must do and that’s use my elliptical trainer for an hour while wearing my weighted waist belt. Exercise is an important part of my life. The more active I am the better I feel and it helps to shave some unwanted calories.

3. Where were you ten years ago? What were you doing there?

WOW, 10-years ago…well, I was in Knoxville and had all three kids home with two still being taught in our homeschool. My days were filled with “life” stuff instead of “internet” stuff and as hectic as it was in those days, I sure do miss it now.

4. September 26th is National Dumpling Day. Did you celebrate? Apple dumpling, xiao long bao (steamed Chinese dumpling), chicken and dumplings, pirogi, matzoh balls, or gnocchi…which dumpling on this list would be your dumpling of choice? Have you ever made homemade dumplings of any kind?

Nope, I didn’t celebrate. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a special day for it!

Apple dumplings sound delicious and I’d love to try making them but haven’t. I used to get them at the Apple Barn & Cider Mill in Pigeon Forge all the time.

The only homemade dumplings I’ve made is “Chicken n’ Dumplings” and it’s been years since I’ve made them, too. I’ve thought a lot about making this lately and I hope to make a good ole pot of this before the year ends. I better add chicken legs to my store list because I prefer dark meat in my dumplings. Yum! BTW, I see pierogi made the list. I’ve seen it on The Price Is Right for years and even in the grocery freezer section, yet I have not ever had it. can anyone tell me if its good?

 

5. ‘There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find an adventure and those who go secretly hoping they don’t.’ William Trogdon

So which kind are you?

I like to think I’m the type of person who goes in search of a good adventure just as long as it’s safe and not scary. I’m not a thrill seeker but I love to explore new areas discovering photo ops, restaurants, and more.

In past years I’ve always relied on DH to take me to my doctor appointments but since beginning his new job I rely on a taxi service to get me from point A to B. Sometimes, I have to walk to another nearby appointment when the taxi can’t get to me. These experiences are out of the norm and that makes it an adventure in my book.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I like the idea of keeping daily hops together but then it gets too long and often losses the reader. No one wants to spend 20+ minutes reading a daily blog article, especially when participating in hop. This is all trial by fire and I hope you’ll add your two cents letting me know what your thoughts are on this matter. Should I keep hodgepodge with my mid-week photo hop or should I break away moving hodgepodge to Thursdays?

To keep up with Curious as a Cathy, I hope you’ll join my email subscription service to get instant notification when I add new posts. Tell your friends to join the fun and I’ll see ya around the cyberblock. Keep your camera nearby coz there’s always a photo-op waiting to happen. Have a good day and please come by tomorrow for Throw Back Thursday (formerly Way Back Wednesday)!

Disclaimer:  Pixelmator is my photo-editing software of choice and Distressed FX is a fun cool app I use on occasions with my iPad/iPhone.  I have not been compensated in expressing my opinion or use of these products. I’m just telling you as one friend to another, so if you buy these then I won’t make one red cent!