Socks said "Lindsey, I think that rose is fake!!! Just kidding, of course. It's stunning, looks like velvet. Good old Mr. Lincoln is a great red rose." I can assure you the rose isn't fake. :-) The Mr. Lincoln rose tree is one of several rose trees that line the walkway from our driveway to the front porch. When I first saw the photo when I loaded it from my camera to my 'puter, I also thought it looked fake! I used a Canon PowerShot SD1100IS with the lens on the Macro setting. Here's the same rose, taken with the macro setting (the same photo above) and without the macro setting. I took the macro photo on Sept 29, 2008, at 6:48pm, and the other one at 6:49pm. I love taking closeup photos of flowers, but they nearly always end up out of focus! The macro setting helps a bit with the focus (for me, at least). It doesn't help that there is generally a breeze when I'm trying to take pictures of our roses, so they won't "sit still" to have their photo taken! :-)

My dearest friend Esther, who took over the daunting task of mothering me when my own Mom died when I was 25. She is the love of my life. She and her husband (whom I also love dearly) came to town for my birthday last weekend. We all stayed in a lovely hotel and spent two days together. After all the years I've known her and her husband we have discovered we are probably related through her husband's side of the family. Here I am opening the gifts they brought with them. Jodi-

This vacation photo (by request) is from the Dodgers/Reds baseball game, although now I'll probably be in trouble for not following suit with a flower photo. LOL! (Hey, at least I'm in the right season...)

Yeah, the snout is definitely the favored lucky spot Casey. I love your Devon photos KarenMay! I loved Devon. Also been to Cockington, and Torquay (had a friend who lived) and ate clotted cream. :-) Jodi-