For the past 20 years I have lived with budgerigars most commonly known as parakeets. Now while all budgies are parakeets, not all parakeets are budgies. Budgies are small parakeets originally from Australia, mostly the arid regions of Queensland.
I suppose the title stones may be a bit misleading. When I say stones I mean anything from a rock you might find in your garden to a beautiful zircon. I use stones in my beading and find them not only beautiful but interesting as well. I've been interested in rocks as long as I can remember. I used to ride my bike down to the local lapidary store to buy all the pretty ones I could afford on my 50 cents a week allowance.
My first introduction to beading was in 1967. My dad was selling our house in San Carlos to move us to Phoenix where he had a new job. One of the many people looking at our house was a sweet old lady. She asked me if I was interested in beading. I said sure. The next day she brought me an old candy box filled with beading stuff. I started stringing necklaces and making daisy chains out of the seed beads she provided.
My first introduction to photography was also in the 1960's. My dad gave me a Kodak brownie camera around 1964. For those of you not old enough to know what this is, it's basically a small, brown, range-finder camera. It was very easy to use and took black and white pictures. From that I progressed to a 35 mm, Pentax, range-finder in the late 1970's. On a range finder camera the lens is separate from the site you use to select the image you are taking a picture of. That means that sometimes people's heads get cut off or the picture you thought you were taking gets cut off. It took me a while to get the hang of it. From that I graduated to a Minolta SLR after borrowing one from a friend. I loved that camera but sadly Minolta did not enter the digital era! Now I use a Nikon D200 which to me is like a mini computer. I love the instant response. You can now see instantly if you cut someone head off, but happily that rarely seems to happen anymore.
