God's amazing creative talent in us...

We, as humans, are created in the very image of God. (Genesis 1:27) I believe a very special part of being created in His image is that we, too, carry the creative spark of the Master Creator! What an amazing concept! We see this demonstrated in so many ways around us from artists to musicians to writers to inventors to problem solvers to cooks... to each and every person's unique abilities to create, build, fashion! Within us is that piece that makes us want to make something with our hands or our minds.

I discovered an incredible creative artistry recently that I just had to share with you. A woman who won the 2009 Ukraine "Who's Got Talent" show does this amazing work called Sand Painting. The videos are a bit long, but if you have a few minutes, it is well worth it to watch one of them! I found it absolutely spell-binding and fascinating....

"Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII." (1st video below)





God, You truly are amazing!! Thank You for placing within us Your creative spark that we may share the joy of creating!

they're heeeerrrre...

Last week they were budding....
this week they have arrived!!

The crepe myrtle trees are bloomin' all over the bloomin' city right now!
These are shots of the tree right out in front of my office window...

pretty in pink...

...and still more buds waiting to burst forth into
glorious pinkness!

I love the frilly edges of the dainty petals!

* * * * *

Thanks, God, for such beauty this day!

here they come...

If you were one of my readers one year (and one day) ago, you would have read my post about the glorious view out my office window. Gorgeous pink blossoms on the tree right in front of my office.

This year the tree is a little behind schedule, but.... here... they... come...

...anticipation....
...anticipa-a-tion...
(think of the old Heinz ketchup commercial tune!)
They're making me wait...
They're keeping me wa-a-a-iting!
...but they're coming!!

What says "CALIFORNIA" better than a blue sky and a palm-tree-lined street?!

Here's to a California evening yesterday... (yes, that IS the hood of my car, and yes, I took this on my cell phone camera while driving!)

And this was the sun setting as I arrived at my Bible study group...
Lovely, don't you think?

Thank You, God, for yellows and blues...

and crazy Dr. Seuss-looking trees!

Thank You, God, for another day of life in You...

take a walk in the woods...

...something to think about today...

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day,
he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer.
But if he spends his days as a speculator,
shearing off those woods

and making the earth bald before her time,
he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
~Henry David Thoreau

...and while you're taking that walk in the woods,

don't forget to give praises to the One Who made them...

the green leafy boughs above your head

the brown earth beneath your feet...

the clean earthy smell of nature...

the sounds of birds in the trees...

mmmmm... Creation!

Thank You, God! You are good to us!

Perhaps you remember that I love dandelions...

For some reason, these partial fluffs struck me as very artistic and beautiful...

...so perfectly designed...

...so intricately detailed...

...so lovely in form and design...

I give thanks to the Designer and Creator of such magnificence!

quote Matthias

Sometimes it seems like God is difficult to find and impossibly far away. We get so caught up in our small daily duties and irritations that they become the only things that we can focus on. What we forget is that God's love and beauty are all around us, every day, if only we would take the time to look up and see them.
~Matthias

a special treat while in Mexico...

While I was in Mexico last weekend, I was given a special treat! There are some cactus flowers that only bloom for one day--actually only a morning--and then the flower wilts and dies. One of my friends has one, and one must be there by at least 10am, or there will be no photographing it!

Well, the first morning I was there, I discovered the Ranch had a different kind of cactus with the same type of wilting flower. The cool thing was that I "just happened" to be there on the day it was in bloom!!! What a treat!! It was huge and so very beautiful!!

And, so I share it with you today...

A local honeybee was already hard at work gathering pollen from it!
Look at the amazing detail inside...

...and the gloriously white petals...

What a special treasure to behold!

the deep...

I know God has a great imagination! If you have any thoughts of doubt about that, just take a look at the platypus...or the ostrich... or the venus flytrap...or so many other strange and wonderful creatures that can be found on this earth...or under the earth...or in the sky... or, as I saw today... IN THE DEEP!!!

I watched an amazing dvd today of THE DEEP (BBC's The Blue Planet, "The Deep")... some of the very deepest parts of the ocean. There were incredible and strange worlds down there that only the greatest Creative mind could have imagined and designed! Creatures adorned with beautiful colors and lights, wild and wacky toothy creatures, and entire ecosystems existing--living, growing!--without any use of sunlight whatsoever!

They said that more people have been into space than have ventured into these worlds in the deep sea. What an incredible thought! And, to me, even more spectacular is that God created all of these unusual and crazy and lovely creatures knowing that very few human eyes would ever see them--for His own delight and pleasure!

" So God created the great creatures of the sea

and every living and moving thing

with which the water teems..."

~Genesis 1:21

These photos are of just two of the wild and crazy fish found in the depths of the sea! Look at those giant eyes and that glowing "fishing lure" (on the head of the Anglerfish)!

I found a short clip from the dvd, and it is well worth watching just to whet your appetite for the strange and wonderful world of THE DEEP!!! (I especially love the amazing red jellyfish in this clip!)

(if you would like to see more incredible discoveries, watch the other clips on Youtube or order the dvd on Netflix! it really is amazing!)

beautifully flighty creatures of Georgia...

When I was in Georgia, I was treated to seeing some of the little creatures that live in that country. Some of them even were kind enough to sit still long enough for me to photograph them! Like, this fuzzy little baby butterfly: (well, it IS, you know!)

I have no idea what he will look like in his adulthood, but I thought he was quite lovely in his "worm" state! Look at the patterns...and that wonderfully red head!!

And, here are several butterflies I was able to capture...

This little guy below sporting the black and white and yellow was especially calm and cooperative!

He was hanging out on a stick, and he let us hold him up close for examination...I think he may creatively pose as a bee to ward off predators. God gave some of his creatures the best camoflage tricks!

I especially love the shot below...

it looks like this one is ready for take-off!

...and here is one that has just come in for a landing...

My absolute favorite little butterflies, however, were very small and very fast-flying blue ones we saw in one of the villages in the south part of Georgia. It was a small village out in the country, and we saw the blue butterflies flitting all over the place. I tried and tried to get a close-up shot of them, but they would NOT hold still! (I think they were a bit overly-caffeinated or hyped up on some sort of super-nectar!) They weren't very remarkable-looking on the outside of their wings--sort of a pale brown with just a hint of powder blue.

And then,

finally,

one landed

and sat still

for just a few seconds....

just long enough

to capture these...

Isn't it beautiful??

(and especially against the dusty brown backdrop)

...lovely, lovely blue...

...the fuzzy white body...

and look at that adorable face!!

Ah, isn't traveling delightful?

hello, georgia! (საქართველოს)

...and so it begins...

My blog will probably read like a travelogue for the next week or so, but I do hope you will enjoy the photos I share of this lovely country I was blessed to visit!

Today is just a small beginning... and Welcome to Georgia ... or, as it is in Georgian: Sakartvelos (საქართველოს)...

(photo by Anya Polozkova, as I didn't cross a border by land)

This is a beautiful OLD church we visited on my first day in Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia). Let me introduce you to my lovely sister, K, and my nephews, S and J, and my niece, T. They live in Tbilisi and run the Youth With A Mission base there.
I wanted to start the Georgian photo-logue here because it was the first day I was there... but also because God gave me a very special welcome to this land on the very first day:

(sorry, Blogger is up to its old tricks and refusing to post this photo properly rotated!)

God loves Georgia and all its people!
And, I believe He also wanted to make me feel right at home!

Note to all digital photographers:

Perhaps you are already aware of this, but I learned a valuable lesson with my sd memory card this trip! I purchased a 16GB SDHC (high capacity) card for the trip. The package said not all devices can use the high capacity cards so to verify that yours can. I thought "testing" it by taking a photo would be the way to verify the usability since there was nothing in the camera's owners manual. WRONG, I was!! It tested fine before I left, so I joyfully took ALL of my photos on that card. When I got home and tried to download the photos to my computer, none of my photo programs nor my computer itself would recognize and download the photos!!! I ended up taking it to Costco and paying them to download all my photos to cds just so I could get them on my computer!! I'm glad I was able to resolve it, but it's not an ongoing expense I want to have to deal with (especially since I took about 2000 photos... yeah, I know I'm obsessive!!!) :)

mess? or masterpiece?

There is a wonderful little community on the south east side of our city which is located by and on some canals. It is technically an island and it is well-known for its lovely luxurious homes and beautifully-landscaped yards. Recently I was driving down one of the streets and my eye was caught by the yard of one of the homes. It was totally unlike any of its neighbors and was filled with riotous and chaotic beauty...
Here was this lovely yellow house ...but the yard was completely unkempt and overgrown with "weeds."

...beautiful pink and fuschia "weeds"-- flowers in my book!

tall, overgrown, unsightly? beauty!

dotted here and there with brilliant orange California golden poppies...

...so, I ask you...

crazy, untended, chaotic MESS?

...or, as I find it...

a glorious MASTERPIECE of color and design?!