Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, colors, feathers, glass, Inspiration, Photography, water on December 23, 2014| 4 Comments »
I remembered seeing another feather earlier this morning. It lay upon the floor and I thought how lovely nestled at the foot of the bed. After photographing the little feather in the glass, I collected the larger feather upon the floor. And it too was a joy to photograph.
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, colors, feathers, glass, Inspiration, light, Photography, water on December 23, 2014| 2 Comments »
I was racing around and suddenly grew thirsty. I picked up a glass by the bed and just happened to look down before I swallowed the little feather that had slipped out of its pillow to drift into my glass. And so, did I then empty the glass and relieve my thirst? Nope. I raced around to different light sources to see how best to illuminate this unexpected treat.
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, Inspiration, nature, perspective, Photography, views, windows on December 22, 2014| 2 Comments »
when I focus on the wonderfully altered views. Heavy rains are coming with strong winds so I expect future views will change quite a bit.
Posted in Inspiration, tagged colors, Inspiration, moisture, perspective, Photography, water, windows on December 22, 2014| 1 Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, birds, Branches, flight, Inspiration, monotype, nature, Photography, reflection, urban landscape on December 18, 2014| 2 Comments »
I was standing by the window waiting for them all to take flight and so I nearly missed the one that did.
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged bowls, colors, kitchen, Photography on December 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, tagged african violet, beauty, colors, food, herbs, indoor gardening, Inspiration, musings, oregano, Photography, plants, textures on December 15, 2014| 3 Comments »
Some folks think I yearn for a big field to garden, but I don’t. I enjoy my few clay pots and random mugs filled with dirt, tucked in all sorts of corners and moved about as my whim and the sun does strike.
It has been fun this year to grow flowers, herbs and the occasional vegetable. The trailing green growth and splashes of color have been inspiring, as well as occasionally quite tasty. Most of the herbs have died back or faded away completely with a few exceptions like the oregano.
I planted a few new seeds on Saturday. Spicy cress, fenugreek and more nasturtium. The fenugreek has already started to sprout. Perhaps I’ll be able to harvest it for Christmas. On Sunday I picked up some paperwhite bulbs with a goal to plant them in January and perhaps soon after photograph white winter blooms against a backdrop of falling snow. Until then, I have these herbs and, oh yes, that violet.
Posted in Inspiration, tagged abstract, beauty, colors, diffraction, glass, Inspiration, light, Photography, reflection, refraction on December 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
… it struck the bottom of the glass where it lay in its rack …
… and it was beautiful, too.
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, tagged african violets, beauty, colors, indoor gardening, Inspiration, nature, Photography, plants on December 14, 2014| 4 Comments »
It better be, to crawl around on the kitchen floor, photographing the undersides of African violets. It is certainly a pleasure to look up at what is so rarely seen. There are two plants, both needing to be repotted. A winter task I am looking forward to doing and then I hope to tuck the plants away into a warm winter spot where I won’t mess with them so much. One I’m definitely watering too much but the other has new buds forming. Perhaps it is of hardier stock. We’ll see …
Posted in Inspiration, tagged African American experience, ancestry, birthdays, brothers, family, family history, Inspiration, life, nostalgia, parenting, Photography, storytelling on December 9, 2014| 17 Comments »
Oh, yeah, that’s me. During this merry month I was born. While I do not tend to shout that information about, it does give me a unique opportunity to share images of the people who brought me into this complicated, beautiful world. I still have this dress. It’s a soft pink, many layered affair, with a pink silk ribbon at the neck. Of all the outfits I must have worn as a baby, it is the only one my mother kept. As it hung in her closet until the day she died, it now hangs in my closet on its small white hanger. I keep contemplating getting it framed.
In this image, my mother sits with one of her sisters. When this image was taken, I do not know. Probably early 1950s, well before I was born. And this is her in the 1960s, I think.
She never dressed this way around me. I think raising four children can wear a person down. Thank goodness, she was persistent.
Here’s my dad as a little boy during the 1930s, and then twenty years later serving in the Korean War.
I heard he could have quite the temper as a young man but I only knew of him as a gentle soul and the person who would eat anything I put into his hands, even a Milky Way candy bar where I had licked away all of the chocolate.
When I was little I asked my parents questions about the stars in the sky and never really asked about how they met. I’ve heard rumors that my mother set sights on him before he set sights on her. He was interested in one of her sisters but somehow my mom managed to be around whenever he came visiting. Lucky for me.
By the time I came along there were two big brothers who were kind enough to keep an eye on me and the little fellow who followed not quite two years later.
What more is there to share? Well, as an adult I am notorious for finding the bright side, and I think it is in part because I had such a bright childhood with so many good people around me helping me laugh.
I’m grateful to have these photos to share and to help me hold onto the memories.
Words + Images 