The tides are in our veins...

I've been back from my annual women's retreat to Port Aransas, Texas for a few weeks now... 

...and I'm already counting the days until next year.

Photos will have to do for now. 

Somehow, I managed to keep my photography under control - 

I can post my favorite shots in one post.

Granted, it's going to be a long post. 

But it's still one post. 

I hope it gives you a sense of our weekend retreat.

The tides are in our veins. 

~ Robinson Jeffers

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea. 

~ Isak Dinesen

Tequila Sunrises (and Sunsets)

I just spent four sunshine-filled days on the coast with twenty women and my camera...

...with some dancing and ping-pong thrown in. 

That's pretty dang close to heaven for me.

I tried my best to get up in time to capture the sunrises, 

which is always in direct conflict with my desire to catch up on rest - and go dancing!

But the sunrises just called me every morning. 

No alarm clocks are necessary when you don't want to waste a single moment of a weekend you wait for all year. 

(The sunsets were captured purely by accident and more glorious because of it.)

"What more pleasant sensation than sunshine on skin, 

Spirit and flesh drinking in the light 

Of God and energy itself." 

~ Terri Guillemets

Beach Chairs and Learning Layers...

A few years ago, my friends pitched in and bought me Adobe Photoshop Elements for my birthday. But trying to use it on my old computer was hopeless. 

Too slow!

Fast forward a couple of years... I have a new computer (thanks to those same friends, plus a few others and family) and the time has come to design a business card for my brand-new photography business. 

Time to dust off PSE and learn something about layers.  

May I introduce you to my new business card...

When I posted this photo on Facebook, someone mentioned a Jimmy Buffet song with lines that fit it perfectly.

How could I resist playing with the photo a little more ?

Oh, this is fun!

I'm still a total PSE newbie, but I can see where it could be addictive! 

Stand by for more...

For Marilyn, at long last

A chance meeting with artist Marilyn Lindholm on the beach of Port Aransas in 2011

a year's worth of procrastination

and a can't-just-be-by-chance-meeting with her again last weekend.

That's why these are here.

I sent them to her via email last night.

I love scratching dusty to-do's off my list.

Beach Yoga

Just spent a week in Pensacola Beach, visiting family, but also breathing in the sight and sounds and smells of the Gulf of Mexico and the snow-like sand, and letting go of my 'real' world and its daily stress. 

Obviously we aren't the only ones who come to the beach to de-stress. 

On one of my morning walks, I noticed this gull apparently giving yoga lessons beside the water.

  

He's pretty good, isn't he?

Hope you had a relaxing week!