Lake Habeeb, Rocky Gap State Park

This is another photo from Rocky Gap State Park.  It's one of my favorite places to photograph.  The lake is so beautiful and peaceful.

Celebrating Memorial Day

Thank you to all the men and women who have faithfully served our country to protect our freedom. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice. Here are some photos to honor all those who have served and are serving now.

Backyard birds

I set up my camera tripod in my kitchen yesterday and got some great bird shots. The starlings made a mess of my bird seed so now I have seed all over my walkway. Dumb birds!

Support our Troops

Since Memorial Day is quickly approaching, I thought I'd share about a great program.  The folks at Green Beans Coffee do a lot for our troops.  They have a program called Cup of Joe for a Joe.  For only $2 a cup, you can buy a service member a cup off coffee.  You can buy as many as you like.  What's great is that when Green Beans Coffee delivers the free coffee, you get an e-mail telling you in what country the service member is stationed and sometimes the service member will even write a thank you note.  Sometimes they'll even include their names.  I've gotten notes from lt. colonels, captains, lt. commanders and many others.  It's great how such a simple thing as a cup of coffee can encourage someone.  And reading the notes encourages me, too.  If you are interested in finding out more, check out http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com and click on Cup of Joe for a Joe.

Some inspirational words

My McCartney Rose bush is going strong. There are all kinds of buds and flowers on it now.  I found a great Bible verse to go along with one of my photos I just took today. (If you click on the photo, it will open up a larger image.)

Niagara Falls Whirlpool Aero Car

Since we were talking about the Whirlpool aero car the other day, I thought I'd post a couple pictures. I'm glad I remembered the name of the thing because it wasn't coming to mind the other day. This ride is not for the faint of heart! It's a long way down from that car! It is situated totally on the Canadian side.

Roses

I went out to my garden the other day and look what I found! These are McCartney roses. My plant is so tall that it's hard to get close to the flowers. They've opened up a little since I took these photos but it's been so windy that it's hard to take pictures. I love photographing roses so if things cooperate, I'll try to share some more with you at some point.

Niagara Falls

This is one of my favorite photos of Niagara Falls that I took when I visited there in 2006. This is the Canadian Falls photographed from the American side.  It was in the late afternoon and the sun was shining from behind the mist. I love the effect that it gave.

Garden scene

I went out to my garden this afternoon to take some photos. I thought I'd share this photo with you.

Blog Updates

I added a gadget on the right side of the screen so if you want to be notified when I add a new post, you can enter your e-mail address and you will get a notification.

While I'm posting, here's a photo I took yesterday. I love taking photos of rainkissed flowers and the 2 inches of rain we got yesterday made for plenty of raindrops!

Photo Contest

I just entered a photo contest from the National Wildlife Federation. They have a people's choice award also, so if you like my photos and want to register with them so you can vote, I'd appreciate that.  You can also view my photos by going to http://www.nwf.org/PhotoContest/PhotoContestHome.aspx and search my name--Margie Gacki to see the photos I entered.  Here is one of them:

Rice Paper Butterfly

This is one of my all time favorite photos that I've ever taken. This is a rice paper butterfly that I photographed at the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls, Canada.

Some words of encouragement

I found a great Bible verse to go along with one of my photos and wanted to share that with my blogging friends.

Rocky Gap State Park

My dear friend Cathy drove me out to one of my favorite spots around, Rocky Gap State Park. It was nice to get out of the house on such a beautiful day. This photo is of one of my favorite spots in the park. The redbuds are so beautiful.