suburban / urban

L - Nikon / T - Canon

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive." ~Eleonora Duse

the simple beauty of nature can be found no matter where you live

challenge / failure

solo post - L, Nikon

With a new kitty in the house, of course we're going to be photographing her. But this is a challenge. Why do cats always proceed to clean themselves when we get out the camera? Plus, I'm not sure she's very photogenic. I know I am not. But Beth gave us a challenge the other day and agreed to try. She said we might just surprise ourselves and like it. Well I do not like it. The light was bad, my settings were wrong, I was doing it quickly and I failed. But I will give it another shot or have my daughter take one of me instead - maybe then my head won't be cropped out.

read / re-read

L - Canon / T - film sp

I do like to read but I don't always pick out books that keep my attention. Lucky for me I have a nice library right in my office complex and can check out the latest releases and just swap them out if they don't pull me right in - some books just don't. Both of these books sounded interesting - I had just read an excerpt from them on npr.org so I checked them out today and will see if one grabs me.

I don't re-read books very often but I have a few that I enjoyed enough to re-read. Taylor on the other hand re-reads often. In fact she told me she had recently re-read "The Road" and is now re-reading "The Bell Jar". What about you? Is there a book you enjoy over and over again? / i'm re-reading the bell jar by slyvia plath.

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." – chapter seven

self / self

L - Nikon / T - Nikon film camera (click for a better view)

Even though this weekend was not the holiday weekend I had planned, I guess it turned out OK. The thing I was most excited about was meeting a blogger friend in Birmingham for the first time and going on a photo adventure together - that failed and sort of threw my whole weekend off-kilter. I guess I shouldn't put so much weight on any one thing to make a weekend. It's not that it was all bad - it wasn't really. I had a nice visit with a favorite cousin and talked about painting; I enjoyed time reading a new book in my hammock; I did some needed cleaning and felt good about that; I drove to Watkinsville to a pottery show and then got an ice cream cone and explore the little town by myself; I went on a pleasant walk with Evee and watched her splash in the creek; I went out to eat with a friend at a quaint little cafe and enjoyed the night air; and most importantly I started a new painting. It's just that I was out of sorts off and on all weekend. Discontented for a number of reasons really... and I don't like that feeling. / we're starting film now. we all went downtown as a class and shot... which was alright i guess. there just wasn't much out to take pictures of since it was 8am. i passed a cool abandoned place when i was coming back from jefferson the other day. i want to shoot there for the first requirement in our next set of assignments. i'll share more later.

reflect / transform

L - Nikon / T- phone pic

I've been reflecting a lot lately on change, aging, love, motherhood, talent, the future, the past, etc, etc and remain wordless. Honestly, I probably never will have the words. I don't have the talent for expressing myself like so many of you do. So once again - wordless. / the theme for our final project in drawing is "transformation". this college freshman is working on "spreading her wings". i had my roommate take a photo of me and along with some reference of wings i am going to create a self portrait of myself with wings.

p.s. these words from her tonight make me sad. It's strange – the closing of her freshman year almost makes me sadder than when she first went away in the fall. Why? Has anyone else had this experience with their child?

some treats / a glimpse

I went to Trader Joes today to get some poinsettias for the mantel and found all my favorite Christmas treats. It's not Christmas without clementines, Panettone and Lebkuchen. My brother lived in Germany for several years and he bring back Lebkuchen at Christmas time. I guess that is also when I fell in love with the original Steinbach German smokers and nutcrackers. I have a pretty good collection, but my mom has a great collection. I bought my first one when I went to Germany along with something I really treasure - a 3 tiered German carousel of the Nativity. Do you collect special Christmas decorations? / here is a glimpse of the "creative" portrait i'm finishing up for drawing. sorry for all the drawing stuff - it's just pretty much all that's going on right now.