Relaxing (182/365)

Sneak attack (180/365)

Knitorious (172/365)

Richmond's Knitorious M.E.G. hit Byrd Park, transforming a blah bench by the pond into a colorful work of art.  Like she says on her Facebook page, go out and see it while you can, kids!  Ralph enjoyed taking a break from the morning to watch the ducks float by from his perch on the fanciest bench in the park.

A Day at the Park (132/365)

Had a great breakfast at The Village Cafe this morning, followed by some fun in the sun at Byrd Park.

Fish out of Water (37/365)

For today's project, I made two adult and four baby origami goldfish out of standard printer paper, painted them and even applied "roly-poly" eyes.  I'm quite proud of my crafty accomplishments!  However, when it came to picturing the little family of fish, I did not factor in the wind that was blowing through Richmond today.  As a result, one of the adult fish became a casualty - he blew into Fountain Lake...

After the loss of the one fish, I was more careful as I lined up the rest of the family for their photo shoot.  However, I have to admit, I cheated a bit and put a thumbtack in the back end of each one in order to help keep them under control.  If you look closely, you can see the little, lost fish floating in the water behind the group in these shots...

And, not to be left out, Fountain Lake's ducks were very curious about the new addition to the pond...

Quack! (12/365)

So, Ralph made a friend.  This lovely duck resides at Byrd Park and I enjoyed taking shots of him for about an hour the other day.  He got so used to me being there that he allowed me to approach within less than a foot of him.  He really was a unique character, with red blotchy things all around his eyes and bill.  One friend described it as looking as if he had gooseberry cereal all over his face.  Since he was such a unique and beautiful duck, I decided to see if I could get him to let me back in his world long enough for a shot with Ralph and he did.  This is the result.

And here is a close-up of the duck, sans Ralph...

Links in the Chain (9/365)

"Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, 

and has given up worrying once and for all."

~ Ovid

Yesterday, I started seriously questioning my ability to complete this project. I suppose the doubt was bound to appear at some point. As I have stated before, I'm not a professional, nor do I have a track history of sticking with a project for any extended period of time. However, with a pep talk, or kick in the ass, from Amy (check out her awesome site, Snow Globe 365 - link to the right), I am forging on.  

Today's pictures were taken in Richmond's Byrd Park, where "Ralph" and I had fun playing with the ducks and freezing our (well, my) ass off on the cold ground in order to get the "right" shot. The above pictures are the result and I am quite pleased.  I believe there will be several more pictures to come from future trips to the park!