visual companions, part 2 of 2

post #315
        Back again, with several more views of my recently reassembled visual support companions in this sweet new home place. I ended last time with the B&W photo of the stairs at Wells Cathedral, in England, saying that this week I would show the placement of the piece as part of the stairwell where it now hangs. I call the next two photos "information images", i.e. not necessarily fine art, though any camera time for me is part of the whole effort.

going upstairs (I left the step ladder up for space awareness.)

headed downstairs

     Then, in what I am calling "the book room/guest room" are two artworks by friends. The poster is from an early exhibit John Flavell had here in Morehead.  The second, an oil painting by John Folinsbee (whom we called Jack), was a wedding present to my parents by the father of one of my mother's college roommates. He happens to be a well known member of a group of impressionist artists working in the Bucks County area of Pennsylvania in the early and mid 1900s.

in the book room, on the west wall

view from the book room, looking west

Living art -- looking south through the fern I fuss over every summer so that it can last through the winter in time to go back outside.... The orginal plant was passed on to me when a neighbor moved, years ago, and it amazes me that I still have the pleasure of its loveliness -- and its memories of Ronnia and her family!

       Another friend -- this one an Appalachian icon -- is author and poet James Still, whom many of us revere and miss. I have had the photo of his house for a long time; the signed poem was a kindness from Clara Potter Keyes, who is also greatly missed. It is the first time I have had a place to hang the two pieces side by side:

James Still's poem: Those I Want in Heaven with Me / Should There be Such a Place

a shelf of journals, mostly spiral bound, my sanity self....

a beautiful Vietnamese present to my mother from Tuyet, a long time extended family member

      I will probably be the only one who finds this last photo beautiful! These are EMPTY boxes, some of them having been filled more than once as the transfer from "the farm" to "the Gallery" continues.  (By Christmas the box part of moving will be completely OVER and DONE.) Anybody need some boxes??? Lovely as they are, their potential as scupture is, I suspect, fairly limited. However, if I continue to leave them in my Gallery section, maybe they will take on a life of their own.... (Just kidding!!)

        Again, I hope everyone has a few visual companions which can add a precious and grounding dimension to daily life. I am grateful for a warm, dry place to live, but also I am honored by what is on my walls and by what I see through my windows.

each photo has its story

post #150
       In recent weeks, I feel like I have been busy just keeping up.  Consequently, some photos have fallen through the posting cracks.  I'd like to share a few of those today.

       This first one was taken in June, in California, at a Vietnamese restaurant where I went for some take-out PHO.  While I waited, I found myself fascinated by the single photo on the wall.  Well, I guess pho and photo do have at least a phonic connection.  Anyway, I ended up having a long conversation about the image with one of the waiters, who thought the bridge shouldn't be off center.  I said I thought its offcenteredness made the photo a lot stronger.  It was graduation day in the area, so the place was busy. I just took a single photo and I didn't ask permission.  But I think of that experience and of this photo often, for some reason, so I have wanted to bring it to this blog.  I still wish I could cross that bridge -- and that viewers would sometimes want to enter one of my photos just as much. 

 

      On a different trip, again with family, I ended up with a bedroom that, just like home, had active birds staying within view.  I finally went outside and sat on the hillside to see what was going on.  This robin's nest was right above my window!  The babies were big enough to be pretty hungry, which explained all the activity.  Here are three of the photos I took, including the cleaning of the nest.  I was told that birds will take debris, like an egg that didn't grow, and carry it far away from the nest so that it won't leave a clue below that growing baby birds are nearby.  I wasn't expecting egg removal to happen, though, so my last photo isn't as steady as I would have liked it to be.

      

an unusual sighting of an anhinga, on the highest tree on a cliff by the lake near us

three of the herd of deer who seem to have adopted our field this past week

        I'll close with the full moon in Denver, during a delicious dinner outside.  This is really how it looked.  It was a thrill to have it be right where we could see it so well.  Sometimes things just work out that way, and they really do.

       

back to tobacco, this time in Vietnam

post #56
       Before I got sidetracked two weeks ago by sorghum making, I had intended to finish up my tobacco series on this blog by showing photos I took during that 2004 trip to Vietnam.  I wrote about those two weeks, in post #25, and included several images.  But now I want to share the day our bus passed through a village in Vietnam which had tobacco drying in each front yard and under each porch overhang.  I made my only photo request of the trip (which was not designed for either photographers or for tobacco farmers) by asking if the bus could, please, please, stop there on our way back from the day's historic site.  Actually my request sounded more like begging.  I explained that I just couldn't face my community at home if I didn't take any photos of the totally amazing sight of seeing tobacco growing alongside rice!  
      We did stop later, I (and others) did get off the bus, and our guide was able to explain to the family why I wanted to take the photos.  Of course the explaining part was, to me, a gift.  I am always more comfortable being able to express appreciation  and to do the small talk thing.

        Facts: the time of year, October, the location, the middle of the country, where there are several growing seasons.  Of note: many Vietnamese homes and stores are open in the front, and there is a lot of visiting back and forth.  I still wonder how they take to the American way of closed-off living.
     The next photo shows what really got my attention -- rice, tobacco (more than one crop a year, I presume), and corn growing side by side!

     
     Two last photos, non-tobacco but Vietnam, are again with the help of being with someone who could translate my interest for me.  I usually send a photo to whomever I take one of, but on this trip it was hard to do that every time. I do apologize for the imperfections of these slides (which I have scanned and made digital) but I didn't always have much time to work or much choice about the light.  Otherwise, it was a wonderful trip.  I am so grateful to have been able to go there.

two sisters -- one of my favorite moments from the trip

A Sideway Views review

post #25

     I started this blog five months ago and have managed a weekly post ever since, almost always on a Sunday night.  What can I say.  The writing part has been more fun and more work than I expected.  I had in mind a photography blog, to share what goes into creating a photo, without much personal info, not even my full name -- so it is not a promotional effort.  However, the photos reflect my life and concerns.  Therefore I am not exactly anonymous either.

    And I haven't sent out a general blog announcement yet, even to far flung friends and extended family!  But I think I can get that done this week.  I am shamelessly using today's blog as a note-to-self to get over inadequacy issues and just do it.  In any case, there are some things to review about blogs, for new readers and old readers alike, most of which I have learned during the past four months.

incense for sale

irrigating, while laughing at having their photo taken

1. I do realize there are many blogs these days.   Keeps me humble.  Very humble.
2. If I am posting, you'll know I am alive, even if you don't hear from me in the usual manner!  I dream about writing and sending out notes like Virginia Woolf did, several every day, but, sadly, that's just not going to happen.
3.  Some folks have told me they couldn't figure out how to leave a comment.  Here's the scoop: click on what is usually "0 comments" at the end of the post. Then, at the end of the "box", choose anonymous!  (This is not "a comment" on who you really are...)  I have my blog set to review comments before I post them, which means I can respond to just you if that is what seems appropriate, IF I have your email address, that is.  I don't receive an email address with the comment, so if you need a response, please help me out.  In any case, your comment won't get posted until I have read it first in the email Google then sends me.
4. I continue to recommend Google Reader if anyone is following more than a few blogs.  It takes one click to see if there are any new posts on blogs you've listed -- with no need to check each blog individually.  There are probably other such blogging shortcuts out there but I make no claim to understand the whole big picture.
5. It's easy to link anything cyber to the blog.  When words appear in a different color, then clicking on them can bring up a link.  Hmmm, I wonder if bloggers ever mess with their readers by putting something totally random as the link.  So far I haven't done that.  But it could be done.

Ha Long Bay

         Enough already.  What are these photos, you say?  Well, they were taken in Vietnam, where I traveled one wonderful time, in 2004.  In view of the terrible destruction in Japan from the tsunami, I thought some sea photos would be a reminder of our shared world.  What hurts one of us hurts us all.

fishing nets