Number Three-Hundred-And-Sixty: Arrangement Of Ball And Flower By Three Year Old

Essie, like any other three-year-old, always seems to have a few special little items of the moment. Unlike Kitty, her constant companion, these are things that are in vogue for a few days and then just as suddenly set aside. For a few days last week it was this Temari inspired ball* I'd made for her a couple of years ago and a bright orange fabric flower from a string of flowers her grandma had bought for her. She set them on a chair on the front step for safekeeping and I liked their bright colours in the sunshine.

I took the picture with Camera+, then imported it into Snapseed where I straightened it and cropped it.

*The orange string on the ball is actually a loop so that she can fling the ball around by it if she wants to.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Nine: It's What's Inside That Counts

The apples on the tree in the backyard were bigger and nicer looking this year. Essie was so, so tempted to eat them but if you cut them open they're brown on the inside. Sad, because they look so good. It's been raining a lot over the last few days and yesterday I got this shot of one sitting in the grass all spangled with raindrops. I love how there's a little pool of water in its stem dimple.

I took the shot with Camera+ then imported it into Snapseed where I cropped it then used the Drama filter on it.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Eight: Dragonfly Away

I took this photo yesterday while watching Essie play in the front yard. I turned my head and saw this dragonfly perched on the edge of one of the chairs. I very slowly turned on my phone, unlocked it, opened the camera app and approached, all the while hoping and praying that it wouldn't fly away. I got one shot, then he just disappeared. Gone. So this was the one picture I got of him and thankfully it turned out OK.

I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it, used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and the Shade filter from Effects.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Seven: Mushroom Mushroom!

Essie and I were outside a lot today and during one of our excursions I noticed what I thought was a plastic lid or cup of some kind growing by the neighbour's fence in our driveway. I went to see what it was and discovered that it wasn't garbage; it was something much more unappealing. A mushroom!

I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it and used the Shade filter from the Effects menu.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Six: Fruitless

Today I heard an ungodly noise outside so ran and looked out the window to see that the city workers had come to cut down my neighbour's tree! Seconds later she Facebooked me to ask if I was aware that it was coming down and there was much excitement.

I've posted about this tree before. I called it The Poop Tree and often made fun of it for its pooplike growths. Well, imagine my surprise when Kristen informed me that one of the workers told her it was a cherry tree and the poops were actually an affliction called Black Knot! Poor Poop Tree. I feel so badly for having mocked it when all along it just wanted to be a sweet cherry tree.

I walked over and took a few shots with Camera+ of the stump that was left when the workers cleared out. I like the shape that is left and though I was pleased with the pictures they weren't quite good enough, so I ran one of them through Corel's Paint It! Now on the Oil setting and absolutely loved the result.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Five: Presentation Is Everything

As I mentioned on Day 353 one of Essie's favourite foods is mango. That shot showed what it looks like in the bowl after I've cut it all up. I used to just hack away at the skin then carve pieces off of it like a savage, resulting in slimy hands and a bowl full of kind of mushy chunks. So I looked up the proper way and now I cut up mango like a boss.

I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it, used the Shade filter from the Scenes menu and the Faded filter (at 50%) from Effects. I took the picture in the kitchen under a regular lightbulb so these managed to more or less correct the colour and lighting.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Four: Idyllic

I took Essie into the backyard to pick raspberries this evening and she got distracted by the bean plants in her grandma's garden. I chilled out in a lawn chair and just admired her and the evening sun behind her. I love this shot. It just embodies everything about how wonderful my mom's backyard is for Essie to play in every day and how this past year of AOMi has turned into a fantastic trove of picture memories for me to hold on to.

I took the shot with Camera+, cropped it and used the Flash filter from the Scenes menu.