Tyler's Tree: April

I took this photo around the 8th of April and never posted it. Since that time the tree has put out more leaves and branches and also had a cold spell come through that took off some leaves and branches. But it is still looking good and growing energetically!

And, oh yeah, my azaleas were beautiful this year. My husband keeps asking me "is that all they are going to do, flower one time?" and I keep telling him "yes, once a year they go all out and then they rest!"

We had a family reunion at our place this past weekend and there was a whole herd of smallish children. I kept nervously watching all the things we had planted, hoping none of them would come to any harm. Everything went very well until we were walking with the last family group out to their car when suddenly, their four year old reached out and snapped off the top of one of our newly planted trees! Nobody knew what to say! We were all shocked. It turns out the poor kid thought it was a weed and we "didn't want it to get any bigger"! Hopefully the tree will recover but if not, my mother has plenty more "babies" where that one came from.

52 Photos Project, Week One: Conversation

Time for a new year in the 52 Photos Project! I believe this is the third year of the project.

I chose this photo because I had a short conversation with these women when they stopped me and asked if I'd take a photo of all of them together. Of course I said yes and one of them gave me their phone to take the photo. I took two shots and they didn't like that one of them had left her sunglasses on. They wanted me to shoot again. As I was trying to see them clearly in the screen (the sun was making it difficult) and relax so that I'd get a good photo, I told them how I really didn't do well with photographing people, that I much preferred taking photos of things that did not get nervous when you put a camera in their face. The women all laughed and I ended up getting a good shot for them. One of the women said how they had seen my big camera and thought I'd be a good person to ask to snap the photo. Little did they know!

As they walked off, I decided I'd get me a good old "butt shot" out of the deal and I snapped two shots of them walking up the hill to the observation tower. I was trying to hurry because they were moving fast and I didn't want one of them to turn around and catch me! When I got home and looked at the photos, I realized one of the photos was focused on the women and the grass was blurred. The one above was focused on the grass and the women were blurred. It was my favorite.

It reminded me of the quote I'd saved from an email conversation a friend and I had. I see it all the time in articles about photography and writing and other forms of art: You have to learn the rules well so that you can break them well. I don't doubt that that is sometimes true in life as well.

Conversations...

Resting in Times of Quiet

(and trying not to sweat in the deafening silence.)

I belong to a group on Facebook that is working through the book, "A Year With Rilke." I had every intention of participating but I never ordered the book. One day, these phrases were part of the readings. They sort of spoke to me so I put them on a thang.

I've been wasting too much of my time lately on Facebook. I'd be better off blogging but I am also sort of in a dull spot right now and don't have much in the way of inspiration. I'll be back around eventually.

Wrote this a couple of days ago and just rediscovered it. Hello, dull spot. I've got two more "thangs" completed and waiting in the wings. One thing I am trying to do is to commit first to blogging, and second to Facebook. I still think of just opening up about my blog on Facebook but I am not quite ready to be that open!

52 Photos, Week 52, Self Portrait

I've been a very sporadic participant in the 52 Photos Project. This is the last week of year two. A new prompt is up for the first week of the third year. I'm going to try and keep up with all the prompts this time.

This quote comes from a website called "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows". There are all sorts of made up words and definitions for those words. It is fun reading. I originally saw it when someone posted it on Facebook, from Upworthy, with the description "random internet quote guaranteed to give you the chills." And dang if it didn't give me the chills! The quote makes me feel tiny and insignificant, but in a good way.

I created the collage of present day me and young me on Thursday night and I couldn't figure out what text I wanted to put on the collage.

Gallery 51: My Favorite Place

I can't just choose one favorite place! But this is one of my most favorite places. It is the place where my grandparents' home was. There are many memories for me when I walk the dusty roads around here, or go out in the woods. It is a contemplative place for me. Recently it has been a healing place for me.

The view here is from the front porch. Some of you may remember the bottle we found out in the woods with green fern growing through a hole in the rusty cap. The fern has died and is now white. Last weekend we worked on a couple of flower beds. The fence gate (with no fence!) you see past the bottle is located in the middle of one of those beds. We had wild honeysuckle growing there and will train it to grow on the gate. We plan on adding a climbing rose later.

We chose the location for the flower beds in an area where old tree trunks were. We wanted to make it easier to mow without worrying about someone mowing over the stumps and messing up the lawnmower. It's going to work out well, I think. The azalea bushes were blooming their merry little hearts out last weekend. I hope there are still blooms when we go this weekend. The dogwoods were just about gone.

(This is my contribution to the 52 Photos Project, Gallery 51 I suppose a new gallery will start week after next. I hope to participate more consistently in the coming year.)

Hodges Gardens

My husband and I, along with my parents, took a road trip to Hodges Gardens this past Saturday. We had a great time and I got a few photos. 

There were butterflies galore.

The dogwoods, white and pink were in full bloom, along with the azaleas and the camellias.

The sound of water was prevalent as we walked around. There were a couple of waterfalls too.

This was an odd little sight, made odder by my processing of the photo. I just liked the lines of the stumps and the way the light was shining on them.

And this, I believe, is one of my favorite photos of the day. These four women stopped my on my way down from the observation deck (no mountains, but the ground undulates marvelously in this part of the state) and asked if I'd take their picture for them. One of them handed me their iPhone and I snapped two shots. When they looked at it, they realized one of them had her sunglasses on so they wanted me to take another shot. As I was getting them all lined up on the screen, which was hard to see in the sunlight, I told them I really didn't do good taking pictures of people, that I was better taking pictures of things that didn't get all nervous when they saw a camera. They giggled (and I got a great shot) and said they saw my big camera and figured I'd be the perfect one to ask to take their picture.

As they left going up the hill I got two shots of them walking away. In this shot, the camera focused more on the grass in front of me leaving the women in the background blurred. I also got a clear focused shot of the women, but there is just something about this blurred image of them in the background that I love. It makes me think of the mandate you often hear, more especially when it comes to anything creative, that you have to learn the rules in order to know how to break them. Sometimes I wonder if it is not also that way with life.

Absolutely

This one is expressed with sort of a "tongue in cheek" attitude, but even so, there is some truth to the idea.