gandywhite's Xanga Site

gandywhite

Country: United States
State: Georgia
Metro: Atlanta
Gender: Female

Interests: Decorating, Gardening, Cooking, Playing with Grandchildren, Teaching Sign Language, Sharing my love of Christ, Art, Photography, Travel, Camping, Auburn Football.
Expertise: Dabbling
Occupation: Consulting
Industry: Insurance

Message: message me
Website: visit my website

Member Since: 7/5/2004

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Family Fun on the 4th

The 4th of July is always fun for me if the family gets together at the White House. This year was not an exception. I didn't have my camera out, but the daughters took care of everything. Thanks so much Angwith2 and T4tots. We missed Papa Bear who had to work and Sis Donna who was ill, Cousins Bob, Pam and Joey had to leave early and missed the group photo but it was great having them come this year. A few moments of happiness to share with my xanga family:

Luke, the youngest

Natalie

Carter and Nat

Banana and Princess S, the oldest

The Group Shot

10:51 PM - 30 eprops - 19 comments - email it

Friday, June 27, 2008

Arizona Vacation Journal - Last Day

Weekly Photo Challenge - This weeks subject was suggested by Assipassi

Candids - meaning taking pictures of people doing whatever they're doing, without them knowing they are being photographed. So no "sit-down" portraits or images where the people know that somebody is going around with a camera.

OK, I'm don't mean to break the rules, but I just had break the rules on this one!!! It just fit so perfectly.

I'm actually skipping over most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday on our Arizona vacation in order to post these pictures....which just begged to be put in here someplace. I'll go back and pick-up Walnut Canyon, more of the Petrified Forrest, the Painted Desert, Tonto Natural Bridge and hundreds of pictures from Phoenix Desert Museum, but for now I want to review just a bit about my 2 male traveling companions.

Even after we left the Grand Canyon, our days were packed full of stop and go tourism. There are times when I know that I was a real pest about "must see" places, but every place was unique and interesting and we didn't get bored.....but by Sunday the men folk were beginning to wear down. Bro had done almost all the driving and we had put a lot of miles on his new Rav4. G-daddy was so patient when I made special requests. I asked everyone be up early to see the Phoenix Desert Museum because the hummingbirds were the most active at 8am according to the brochure. The temperature was quite comfortable when we arrived and started our tour. This is a huge "living desert" museum and I had my trusty camera and just wanted to be sure to see everything. Sometimes a strolling pace is more difficult than moving along more quickly, but Bro and G-daddy had there own pace and there were times that I moved ahead....sometimes in a different direction...and sometimes lagged behind. Everyone just let me do my own thing without complaining a bit. When we got to the "kitchen" garden area, the guys decided it was time to take a little rest. They were fortunate to find a shaded bench. OK, so I snapped this shot candidly...even though they are sitting and knew I had a camera. But it portrays the moment so well.

The rest of the tour just wore us out, but when we returned to Bro's house, we had a great dinner, then I decided to download the last of the pictures. When I peeked out of the office, SILN showed me the perfect shot for the last photo of the Arizona Vacation. So here is my contribution to Candid.

8:43 PM - 36 eprops - 21 comments - email it

Friday, June 20, 2008

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks subject is suggested by StormInHeavn

Natural Beauty

The ancient Greeks called the world {kosmos}, beauty. As I moved through Arizona, I found that I could look at the sky, the mountains, the trees, the animals, and delight in the beauty that I saw. I also observed what talented artists did to capture nature’s beauty, as in the Living Desert Museum. Groupings of plants and animals certainly appealed to the eye and were delightful to the senses. It might have been a grouping of cacti, a flower garden, the feathers of exotic birds, a snake, butterfly or leaf. Beauty could be found everywhere.

I’ve been reading some works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and found a great piece about Nature that includes a chapter on Beauty. “A nobler want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty.”

“But in other hours, Nature satisfies by its loveliness, and without any mixture of corporeal benefit. I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top over against my house, from day-break to sun-rise, with emotions which an angel might share. The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light. From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea. I seem to partake its rapid transformations: the active enchantment reaches my dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous” Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we visited the Petrified Forest, I found even in the hardness of rock a beauty that was unmistakable. The intermingling of color and the reflection of light made me curious about the natural elements that could have produced such a “sudden” change. A little research gave me this information: “Petrified Forest National Park contains one of the world's most spectacular collections of petrified wood. Remnants of giant trees from ancient forests of the Triassic Period over 200 million years old, these logs turned from wood to rock after the trees were buried under layers of sand and silt. In some cases, the microscopic structure of the wood was preserved during the process.”

In many places small sections of logs lay scattered about the ground. John Muir called the area "a kaleidoscope fashioned by God's hand." The petrified wood displays a variety of colors resulting from the minerals it contains--pine quartz for white and gray, iron for the reds and yellows, browns, blues, and greens, and carbon and manganese for the black.

For this weeks photo challenge, I have chosen to show you two views of the same photo. One, that is natural beauty and one that I have enhanced with a Kodak Easy Share process. Like a woman putting on make-up, it doesn’t hide the natural beauty, it just enhances it!!!!

2:55 PM - 46 eprops - 26 comments - email it

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Father's Day

G-daddy was a little boy once, just like you.

“Behold, what manner of love hath the Father bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God” 1 John 3:1

Growing up, I don’t think my children ever thought that their father had ever been young. Was Granny White really his mother? Was he born wearing dark rimmed glasses and a grey suit? Obviously he had those strong arms and hands even as a child. Couldn’t three children always fit in his lap? Surely he could always read the newspaper, juggle a large glass of sweet tea, and hold at least one baby all at the same time. I think my children probably thought that their Dad and I only whispered about how he came into this world, because they could not imagine this wonderful man ever spending entire summers barefoot, or using a creek for a swimming pool, or flipping little green peas with his fork when his mother wasn’t looking. They probably didn’t know that he caught lightning bugs in a mason jar and attached a playing card to his bicycle spokes just to make noise. I know that they did not understand that he might have cried when he was hurt or unhappy, and when he was a bad boy, he had to go cut his own switch that his Granny would use on his legs.

Now that he is a grandpa, he talks more about those days than when my children were young. I hope his grandchildren will listen and appreciate his stories. I hope they will ask him questions about what made him grow to love the Lord so much. I pray that they will see in him his wisdom and discerning spirit and want to know how to be more like him when they grow up. I hope that when his grandchildren crawl into his lap that they feel the tender unconditional love that he has for each of them and they understand that they will one day be fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers and they will tell their children and grandchildren, “There once was a little boy who grew up and became a wonderful father and then a grandfather. I called him G-daddy….but he was once a little boy, just like you…..and guess what he did?.....He………”

"Fathers, like mothers, are not born.
Men grow into fathers- and fathering is
a very important stage in their development."

David M. Gottesman

4:05 PM - 22 eprops - 12 comments - email it

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Arizona Vacation Journal Grand Canyon History

So much of what we have seen in Arizona indicated that it was "Historical". Sometimes it has been difficult to find enough information to determine WHY it is historical. I think just by adding that word to the name, it holds some importance to the community and is therefore a tourist attraction. I guess in a sense, everything is historical.....or has a history. So much of the Grand Canyon history is well documented. Fortunately there are people that have been concerned about preserving much of the historical landmarks. Since I have returned home, I've picked up a lot of interesting, sometimes boring, often useless information about some of the landmarks that I saw during my visit. On the second day in the canyon on the west rim trail, we saw remnants of the Lost Orphan Mine. It began as a copper mine in 1893 when a man discovered a vein of copper about 1100 feet below the rim. In 1953, years after the copper ore had become too expensive to extract, uranium was discovered on the site and it was acquired by a mining company to be redeveloped. The headframe still stands. After years of controversy over the mine and the eyesore that it created, the site was purchased by the federal government, but operation continued until 1988 when the mine was shut down due to higher than normal radiation levels and the area fenced off. The area req uires some clean-up because of radioactive materal but the Park Service does not have the necessary funding to accomplish this. Early residents soon discovered that tourism was destined to be more profitable than mining. The first accommodations were not so different from the mining camps. However, in 1901 when the railroad was extended to the South Rim from Williams, the development of formal tourist facilities on the rim increased dramatically.

The El Tovar Hotel was built in 1905 by the Fred Harvey Company to provide first class accommodations to Grand Canyon visitors. The hotel was named after a Spanish officer in Coronado's expedition to find the Seven Cities of Gold.

We had breakfast here on our last day and enjoyed fine dining. G-daddy still talks about his trout that he had for breakfast and my spinach and wild mushroom omelet was wonderful.

The wide porches, arched stone windows, swings and rocking chairs adds to the friendly warm ambiance.

About the same time, the Hopi House was built for the Hopi artisans to live. They made their wares to be sold in the souvenir shops. It was designed by Mary Jane Colter, one of the first woman architechs in the United States. Now it is a souvenir shop.

In 1914 the Fred Harvey Company asked Mary Jane Colter, to design the Lookout Studio. She created a camouflaged building due to its irregular lines and limestone building materials. A fantastic canyon view can be seen from this building that sits right at the edge of the rim.

The original mule and horse barn built in 1907 is still used today. Each morning the mules selected for the days trip are sent to the round rock corral. Here the mule rider will meet their mule. After a hard days work carrying their passenger, the mules are taken back to the livery for a big meal and a chance to relax.

One more photo-op as we headed out of the Canyon. It was difficult to say goodbye...I could have easily stayed another couple of days. I used the timer on the camera and was able to get my traveling companions in the picture as well. Aren't we a perfect tourist picture? Today Grand Canyon National Park receives over five million visitors annually - a far cry from the yearly visitation of 44,173 which the park received in 1919.

10:55 PM - 22 eprops - 14 comments - email it

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