Well, summer school is perking along!  I just brought in a wet leaf from my garden, and looked it through my macro lens.

I hope my family and friends won't find me a nuisance, but I've been watching videos I can't wait to try out with my favorite human subjects.  In July, I'll have my children and their families for four days in Texas--where, in early celebration of my 70th, they are renting a lake house in Marble Falls.  I can hardly wait!

In all my years of schooling, right up there with  graduate school years of reading and writing about literature and writing with friends in writing groups, I've never had such a completely absorbing project than these online photography classes.

A couple of nights ago, I dreamed I was in elementary school again, and it was truly a nightmare.  I hadn't written my papers, hadn't shown up for tests, and the principal said I would fail the grade.  In the dream, I begged my parents to let me quit school.

Real school wasn't that bad actually--I always liked school--but maybe the dream showed up to remind me that this free-style studying is what it's all about for me, a woman of a certain age.

The teachers at Udemy vary in teaching styles, but I'm watching one now that is particularly charming as well as informative, taught by a man in the UK named Bernie.  I love his British humor and the ways he poses people for natural-looking portraits.  For $10--I still can't believe this!--you get about five hours of instruction with handouts.

Each course varies in length--some are about an hour, but most are five or more.

I should probably cook up that leaf right now, but taking pictures is ever so much more fun than cooking!