Winter inspirational quote: “…can spring be far behind?”

Buddha inspirational quote: Peace comes from within . . .

“Peace comes from within.

Don’t seek it without.”

~ Buddha

Green Tea Ceremony

My daughter Miriam Balsley shared a Tea Time Ceremony with me during her recent visit. I learned about the ceremony while in Richmond, British Columbia, which has a huge Chinese population. I’ve heard it said that in Richmond you can get the best Chinese food outside Hong Kong. We shared fresh highly antioxidant green tea.

My mom was kind enough to include me in an abbreviated Tea Time, or Green Tea Ceremony that the Chinese still use today when drinking Green Tea. Sacred Green Tea! Copyright (c) 2010 Miriam Balsley

Migration Time

This beautiful nature photograph of swans reminds me that this time of year is the time of the waterfowl migrations. I took this digital photograph in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and used as an inspirational photograph for the month of September in the 2009 Edgar Cayce Calendar. You may not know it but swans migrate.
A gorgeous mature swan and two “ugly duckling” immature swans.
Copyright (c) 2007 Carol Chapman

A Beautiful Sunrise

Even though the weather gets colder, a beautiful sunrise can always lift the spirits.

This lovely nature photograph was taken with a cute little SD 1000 canon.

Copyright (c) 2010 Carol Chapman

Beautiful Fall Foliage

It’s that beautiful fall foliage time of year again. Here’s the nature photograph I used for the October page of the Edgar Cayce Calendar.

Beautiful Fall Foliage Colors in Virginia photographed at Miles Creek in Mathews County

I used a Nikon D50 normal lens for this photo.

Copyright (c) 2007 Carol Chapman

Loading the Canon in the Civil War Reenactment

This is a great photograph of soldiers in the Confederate army loading the canon during the Civil War Reenactment last Sunday, October 17 at Cedar Creek, near Middletown, Virginia.

Confederate Soldiers Prepare a Canon for Fire during the Civil War Reenactment at Cedar Creek on October 17, 2010

I attended the Cedar Creek reenactment, my first, with my friend Jean Keating who is the author of the Civil War romance: Love’s Enduring Bond. Check it out. It’s a tender, heart-rending story – should bring a tear or two!

The digital photograph was taken with a Nikon D50.

UFO Photograph

Here’s the “deer in headlights” plus UFO photo mentioned in my previous post. It was captured with a motion-detect remote digital camera.

UFO in Upper Left of this Nighttime Photo

The story is at Field and Stream.

Winter Star Party a Great Success!

Sad to say, the Winter Star Party is over. However, we had great viewing on our last night, in spite of clear sky reports to the contrary. Because of this year’s cold weather in the Florida Keys, many amateur astronomers had left, giving those of us remaining, the pick of the places to set up our telescopes. Actually, because it was so windy, the most sheltered spots were the best. And, to tell you the truth, many of us spent much of the night visiting with each other knowing that we wouldn’t see each other until next year. I feel happy to be part of this group. And, since I had the digital photos of the Galactic Center that I had came to take, it was easy to relax and reminisce about the week. I will be using the photos in my movie investigating the 2012 phenomenon.

2012 Galactic Center Photos

I am happy to say that I managed to get two wonderful photographs of the Galactic Center a couple of mornings ago, here in the Florida Keys. The weather for this year’s Winter Star Party has not been easy. Many nights, the skies are clouded over. However, on two nights, which also happened to be bitterly cold and windy, we had clear skies right to the horizon! Usually, the night sky over the horizon is hazy because of the surrounding water.
Fantastic! Especially since the Galactic Center rises out of the ocean on the southeast horizon at about 5:00 a.m. Unfortunatley, a sliver of the old moon was rising just behind the Galactic Center. Nevertheless, with my trusty Nikon set to take 30 second exposures, I did get both a horizontal and vertical image that, with Nikon’s Capture NX2 software, I was able to resolve a great photograph of the star constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio surrouding the Galactic Center. Many people believe that the line up of the earth and sun with the Galactic Center herald a new world on December 21, 2012.