Journeys in America

Working with my family history has taken me down a few different paths. The first is my letters project News From Home: A Father's Letters to His Son, and the second is my YouTube channel featuring my grandfather's 8 mm home movies from the 1930s and 1940s.

I've finally found a way to merge them into one project. It's called Journeys in America. I have a web page now, in addition to Google+ and Facebook pages for the project.

The project will evolve, I'm sure. I'm excited to see where this venture will take me. And I'm curious to hear your reaction.

Prairie Path Books

So, check out Prairie Path Books. They are a new company based in Wheaton, a Western suburb of Chicago. A good friend is one of the principals. They have a unique concept in selling books through special events -- with no actual brick-and-mortar store front.

They have had a couple events so far as they get their feet on the ground and work out the kinks. They were really nice events.

The first featured Jenny Riddle doing a dramatic book review of Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In.

The second was a particular favorite. It was in The Vault in the basement of a restaurant in Wheaton called The Bank. Danny Ellis, an Irish singer-songwriter, was the featured artist. He told stories, did readings from his book The Boy at the Gate, and performed selections from his album 800 voices, all of which dealt with his years in a Dublin orphanage. It was truly captivating. His song Tommy Bonner still makes me tear up.

Anyway, so you might wonder why I'm featuring pages from their website as my art? That's because I took the photos for the website. (See the photo credit in the first screen capture up top? "photos by Haley Hughes")

It's been fun challenge for me, and especially rewarding to see the end result. It certainly gets me away from the landscapes and puppy photos that I've been concentrating on lately. 

Make me move -- better yet, come get me

So, we were on a little nature walk at Meacham Grove for exercise the other morning, and Odin decided to stage a sit-down strike in the flowers. I probably should have thought things through before taking a 3-month-old puppy on a mile-plus walk around the lake. I ended up carrying all 30 pounds of him for at least half of it. It was good exercise -- for me.

A rainy morning at Mallard Lake

Having a dog is a great reason to go on walks in pretty places. And bring my camera. Here we are last week at Mallard Lake Forest Preserve. Luckily there were still some colorful flowers in bloom to add some pop to what might have otherwise been a dreary rainy day. And fortunately, the rain did hold off for a while so I could get some photos. We were standing on the bridge shown in back here when the skies did finally start raining. That was OK, since Odin is still a puppy and can't handle long walks yet anyway.

Through a kaleidoscope

Last week, my son an I took a little excursion to the Morton Arboretum. In the Children's Garden we found a kaleidoscope that was pointed at a bed of flowers. This photo was taken looking through the lens of the kaleidoscope. It's one of my favorite photo from that day.

Odin the Fuzzy

Here is Odin at my son's football game a few weeks ago, when Odin was just turning 3 months old. So cute and fuzzy here, I want to snuggle him, yet still with those sharp and annoying little puppy teeth. He has been a good guy at the games, using our chairs for shade and just hanging out.

Canada geese

This one was from the same trip to Busse Woods earlier in September as the previous photo of the frog. I like this one for its simplicity. Technically, a little blown out, I'm sure. But yet it leaves the birds hanging in the sky, and I like that.

Mr. Froggie went a-hunting...

While Little X was at preschool one day, I took an excursion to Busse Woods, a forest preserve in Elk Grove Village, to take some photos. I noticed this little guy popping his head out of the water, and was able to get this shot. He looks rather intense, doesn't he? 

Meet Odin "The Sweet"

He's a fluff ball with sharp little puppy teeth. So cute. But why does love have to hurt? :)

We had been almost 11 months without a dog in our lives. We said goodbye to Loki in November 2011 and to Thor in September 2012.

The husband and the son had been lobbying hard for a dog, so when we heard that BARC, the Bernese Auction Rescue Coalition, had a litter of puppies that it was trying to place, we decided to act. We took a weekend and drove to Kansas City, 10 hours each direction, and picked up the cute little guy.

We deliberated about a name, but decided to stay with the Norse god theme. Odin. He had to be an Odin. The All-Father. Especially because he is going to be a big guy. Over 100 pounds easily. Funny thing was, we were not original in our thinking. One of the other males from the same litter is also an Odin, while another male is a Zeus.

Our son also made a major contribution to his name. He wanted to name the puppy Sweetie, so we compromised and now he is Odin "The Sweet". It's right on his tag. It's official.

He's been a part of our family for almost four weeks now. We are so happy to have him.

To see more Odin photos, check out his set on Flickr.

Mother Nature's Lacework

I'm having a little fun here with some tinting. This was at the Morton Arboretum again. This time on the Big Rock walk, which is a recreation-in-progress of an Oak Savannah, which were the wooded areas in the middle of the Illinois prairies once-upon-a-time.

I pointed the camera straight up and captured the canopy of trees, thinking it looked lacy and pretty.

I've been enjoying the nature photography. Mostly because the weather had been relatively cool for a few weeks. August is usually so stifling, and the sun so intense. We are back to normal August weather now, so expect topics to switch for a few weeks. How about some puppy photos?

Swift Road Prairie

On the prairie at the East Branch Forest Preserve

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has awesome dog parks. They are big, sprawling places where you can go on long nature walks with your dogs. The other day, we went to the prairie at the East Branch Forest Preserve with a friend and her dog.

With so many flowers in bloom, I've been trying to work on some macro photos. I like this one. I re-cropped it from the original, but otherwise made no changes to it.

It's part of my Flickr set: Prairie in Summer.

A moment captured: Bridge through the prairie

The prairie at the Morton Arboretum

Hi. I'm here. It's been just under a year since my last post. Thanks for sticking with me. I've been busy being a mom -- a mom with a camera constantly in my hand. I thought I should do something about that. Such as share my photos. So, without any further ado, here we go...

While my son, the X Man, was in preschool the other day, I decided to take my camera out for some exercise at the Morton Arboretum. When I entered the park, the docent at the gate mentioned how pretty the prairie was right now with so many flowers in bloom. So I headed in that direction and had a great time wandering around, reacquainting myself with the prairie there. It was a sticky, rainy day, but I got a lot of pretty photos. You can check out the set on Flickr, or wait and see if I post more. I hope to soon. I do.