today's balanced date in an unbalanced world

 post #475, 10th year of weekly posts.  It's so nice to have some simple sun today, here in Kentucky.

                          Happy 02/02/2020 yappaH

       Frankly, I've been uncertain which way to go today on this post.  Balance or unbalanced. The continued cruelty being propagated by our so-called leaders is hard to take in stride. I know, there have been equally rough times nationally from the beginning  of time, but this seems so unnecessary for 2020. There are those pesky life-of-the-planet issues that need our attention and energy instead. How unfair that it becomes necessary to monitor the bad behavior, for example, by so many who call themselves leaders, all of whom should know better. 
        Also, we have flowers coming up -- in January -- and so far hardly any snow! Coca-cola recently decided not to find alternatives to their well known plastic bottles -- "because our customers prefer the traditional bottles." What, are they drinking the bottles? Why do they have "no idea how many bottles Coke adds to the enormous piles of plastic" already floating around and harming us in the ocean? 
        Then there's the long contentious stretch ahead until the next election....
        For me, today's thanks go to all the artists and writers and poets who do the hard work of thinking these things through and speaking up from their hearts.  I for one really appreciate the presence of a new idea or a new way of perceiving something. Or, as in photography, a new way of looking at things.  GO, CREATIVES!  

         So what photos do I share today.  I think a few more of my hidden favorites are good for the looking and for my soul. Thanks as always for taking what you want to from this blog, and then going on to something else in your life. We are each holding up others we touch.

ballet student dances with Van Gogh's A Starry Night, several years ago

pond tree, in progress

last year, lilac

nearby family cemetery, with mist and meadow and marker

another pond -- and my home, again several years ago

view #1:  road side daylilies 

view #2: side by side, those liilies with the center line

along the way home, hilltops and curves -- and trees

  

      
               Here's to nature's gift of resurgence with months of merely hidden inner beauty.

recent photos, mother's day, and a birthday

post #335
        Sunday hello, sun here today, for mothering moments and other such sundries!

       I know that this day celebrates them that raise us, as they say, and it gives me a good excuse to feature some recent photos of my granddaughter, Thea, and her mom, my daughter Rebecca, now living nearby!

some photo shooting along our path, with the dogs -- the black one older, the other a puppy

a birthday moment, with other kids and their parents

         Then, starting home from town very recently, with my camera in the car, I realized there was some amazing evening light going on. I hadn't planned to make photos on my way home, but how could a photographer resist this confluence of that light on sky, trees, and water!  I'm including a few of the photos I took at the same time as this first one in order to share how it all came about.

The Photo

I had pulled over in front of a retail building, and the road home is on the left.

Here I'm getting closer to what I want in my photo.

I made this photo as a record of where I was and how the storm sky looked just before I got back on the road to continue home -- after those magic moments.

       In fact, we've had lots of rain here recently. I made these next photos in a favorite spot along the ridge where I live. 
       I'm sure there are some beloved moms buried in this Cox family cemetery. I don't want to say anything Hallmark-y, but I know we each have our own particular feelings on Mother's day -- and every day -- and I love hearing these individual stories. May I suggest that we honor the day by telling someone our stories or by asking to listen to a story.

    Remember - share stories!