Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged Arnold Arboretum, autumn, colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, photos on December 19, 2011| 3 Comments »
Apparently each year I have to relearn that I am sensitive to cold. So, out and about on a late afternoon hike at the Arboretum, I didn’t last long before there was concern I might lose some fingers and toes. But before packing up and heading home for tea, there were some glorious sights to be seen. It is truly amazing the vivid colors present throughout the park with winter just days away.
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged eggs, food, Inspiration, Photography, photos, science, steam on December 19, 2011| 3 Comments »
Actually, an image of steam rising from a couple of eggs I boiled for a young friend’s lunch yesterday.
I guess the sun was shining through the kitchen window just right. Or I just happened to look over my shoulder at the right time. I’ve been trying to get better at planning photo shoots and selecting items to photograph. I must say, I would never have thought to photograph steam. Until now.
It was captivating to watch the patterns appear and disappear.
I must say the next time I boil an egg I’ll be curious to see how the light is shining into the room. 😉
Posted in Inspiration, tagged Inspiration, plums, poetry, William Carlos Williams on December 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
… that since yesterday’s post, still no plums have I eaten, but a friend did share a poem. 😉
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
by William Carlos Williams
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged Contributing Writer, Elizabeth Langosy, food, Inspiration, Mary Oliver, Photography, poetry on December 15, 2011| 2 Comments »
Today, I could stand it no longer. I raced to the grocery store in the rain. You see, over the past couple of weeks I read two very different literary works that had me hungering to purchase specific food items. For what purpose? Photography followed by consumption. First I read Elizabeth Langosy’s article, A.S. Byatt’s Plums. In a nutshell, the article explores the challenge for writers in conveying sensory experiences to the reader. It is a powerful read accompanied by visually striking images of plums that have yet to leave my mind. I couldn’t find them in the store today, but thankfully I did find green beans. You see, I had also read Mary Oliver’s poem, Beans.
In Oliver’s same book, she writes of walking through blueberry fields and of gathering honeyed blossoms with crispy seeds. But in the grocery store, the blueberries did not jump into my basket nor did bottles of bright gold honey. I did buy one red pepper and a bit of garlic to stir fry with the green beans.
After one last look for plums, I found an asian pear on sale. FYI, later at home, after a bit of slicing and dicing, that made a tasty snack!
I also found sitting alone at the bottom of a shallow basket, a passion fruit. In my literary frame of mind, I was instantly reminded of the women’s travel magazine called Passion Fruit that I had found very inspiring when I first dabbled at travel writing. I bought it and, once home, immediately sliced into it.
I have since learned that I probably should not have sliced it open just yet, but there is a part of me that is not sorry to see such pale beauty.
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged Inspiration, nature, Photography, photos, pictures, rose on December 15, 2011| 1 Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged flowers, Inspiration, nature, Photography, photos, pictures on December 14, 2011| 3 Comments »
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged collage, Inspiration, music, paper crafts, photograpy, visual art on December 14, 2011| 1 Comment »
Well, one day, I was helping a young friend print a musical score. We were using her laptop and my printer and we kept hitting print and all sorts of buttons but nothing would happen except occasionally a blank sheet of paper would emerge. We chalked our failure up to bad software-hardware communication. Days later I realized that one of the printer’s cables had been improperly connected. I fixed it and began printing documents that I needed for work. The printer chugged out a page but on the page was not the text I was trying to edit, instead I saw musical notes. Now you may have picked up from this and other posts that I am not an especially technical person. I knew I needed to clear the printer queue but I had no idea where to start. Eventually, I figured it out. By then, I had many pages of music. What to do? Hmm…
I still have three sheets left which I think I will save for a future “musical moment.”
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged black and white, Charles River, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Photography, photos, pictures on December 13, 2011| 4 Comments »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, Postcards, Publication Updates, tagged Inspiration, magazine, nature, Photography, Postcards, visual art on December 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Just a couple of quick updates. First, you may remember the series of posts late last month about storytelling through paper crafts and collage. Well I turned some of the artwork into postcards. Printed on high quality paper, they are bright and beautiful and I hope images that will make people smile as they pull them out of their mailboxes. If you’re interested in purchase, just send me a note and I’ll let you know how you can obtain them.
Second, you may remember previous posts about my continuing adventures with a very young friend about colors. Our most recent discourse revolved around the color white. She may just be four years old and I … considerably older … but she does gently nudge me to push at colorful boundaries in unexpected ways. As I wrote about in this post, for her I’ve tried to pull together a sampling of my favorite “white” images.
I’m quite pleased with the result. I hope she will be too. If you have an interest in this little magazine, it is available here as a print copy or for download. Ah, technology. 😉
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged food, Inspiration, life, Photography, photos, pictures, recipes on December 12, 2011| 1 Comment »
I was recently lucky enough to attend a fancy restaurant where I sat at the bar watching the chef prepare her culinary masterpieces. They were all quite frankly little bite size works of art. Well, with a lot of undirected energy this afternoon, I decided to play around with the leftovers in Steve’s kitchen using the chef as my creative inspiration. First up, a few radishes sliced thin, arranged on a simple plate, then each slice either topped with quarter teaspoon of guacamole or quarter teaspoon of Steve’s homemade pesto.
Then I found some tomatoes, sliced up a couple, and then paired the slices on a long glass tray. The slices were drizzled with basil-infused olive oil, and I’m considering topping them with some finely chopped garlic.
I dug around the refrigerator and came across a tub of roasted pine nut hummus. Scooped some into a tiny white ceramic ramekin and then mixed the hummus with a drizzle of hot sesame oil to add a bit of kick. Final garnish is a couple of fresh peeled carrot sticks.
In progress are the mushrooms. I’m of a mixed mind about mushrooms. Sometimes I like them and sometimes I don’t. I’m contemplating taking three small mushrooms and stuffing them with bacon, cheddar cheese, and fresh parsley. So far the mushrooms have been selected. What do you think? 😉
Words + Images 