Water Lilies

I've been working to finally get through my owners manual for my Canon Rebel.  It's been fun to experiement with shooting manually rather than always using the automatic setting which, up until now, is basically how I've been shooting my pictures. These are some of my first efforts shooting manually.

The colors of a water lily are extrodinary.  I marvel at the amazing colors God has seen fit to bestow upon us for His glory and our enjoyment.

Longwood Gardens in February

The family with us in these pictures are very dear friends of ours. Aimee, the mom, teaches our children art. We took advantage of a beautiful day at Longwood Gardens to practice our drawing skills. And, there was an extraordinary amount of fun to be had on the grounds as it was a Monday morning and it was not crowded! The relatively new children's garden is always an incredibly imaginative place to go. We are thankful to God for these dear friends and for another day of looking up close at His beautiful creation. There was one place that Luke and I especially enjoyed -- we both wanted to linger longer at the orange and red tulips that were backed up by some beautiful purple flowers. It's a shame I don't know the names of all these flowers. Next time, I'll try and make note of them.

Last night at church we sang the song, "I'd Rather Have Jesus" and the third line reads, "He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom..." I couldn't help but think of these beautiful flowers when I sang that song and how our Savior is fairer still -- by far!