hello all!

    It seems that I made it through the digital blog gates once again!  It is a beauiful day, and I hope all goes well for everyone as summer settles in.  I have managed to have had an unusual month of May during which I've had several birthday moments!  It seems turning 80 brings out multiple celebration genies.  In any case, I feel totally spoiled. I'm very grateful, as always, for sharing love with family, friends and community. For having so many years under my belt, I wish I could have been able to better solve some of the current problems our planet is experiencing.  I'll also say I wish there was a way that everyone could have a TRUTHMONITOR  to carry around since it seems so hard to do away with so much ugly and persistant misinformation! 

    Now I will try to bring up some recent photos I have wanted to be able to share. 

spring at home, with my pond, with rain, and with my second floor deck --  different perspectives on life sure can provide solice for the soul

 

Preparation for this summer's theater camp -- perfect pigtails on our star!  A play a week!!

Next see also the hallway signs of her fellow Thespians....

           Thanks go to these very longtime friends who made sure I remembered that my May birthday this year was worthy of a monthlong celebration!!  (Photo by ROW)

    I am so happy the blog is working for me today. I will keep on trying.  In the meantime, again, I wish everyone a safe summer and a time of working for increasing kindness rather than for still more anger and cruelty in our public arena.       Ann

 

FIRST POST of 2023!!!!

       Once again, almost by mistake, I was able to connect to my blog!  It is always a happiness to work on a new post. I hope everyone has had some peace and some joy over the holidays.  I also hope my friends in California are safe and somewhere dry during the current and unusual and dynamic and frightening and very wet weather there!!

     Here now are some of the photos and links I have wanted to share over the last 12 weeks.... Please note: the four grandchildren made it into these photos.....

always good food from the Cuisine J.W. !

Two photos of the versatile pond:

checking out bulldozer noises yesterday on the property next to mine (find my house !) 

looking across my field from my house at the newly shaved steep hillside  -- I learned that there will only be one house, at the top. When it is not winter, I won't be able to see it. 

 neighbors are treasures:

S and J's super cute Pygmy goat -- living for now in the house -- very lively and fun.

 

 

I made a DENVER trip in early November:

during a museum visit nearby E's office

an artsy view of two of my photos hanging at the bottom of the stairs  -- which are my exercise guarantee when I visit my Denver family.

    Gettting ready to bike to school:

This last-photo-for-tonight is by Rebecca.  It shows the "first waterfall" and Nik and Hannah who came the week after Christmas.  Lucky us!

I just wanted to show signs of life in the winter here!  I am going to do more "normal" photos in upcoming efforts.  I seem to get distracted from doing one of these posts on a totally predictable schedule, so I will just say I plan to return here soon.  Many thanks for your interest in my work.

 

surprise, surprise --- mostly snow photos

 

                                                       SNOW AT LAST!  (photo by Rebecca Wright)

 
     Here in the other end of Kentucky from the terrible tornadoes, we have had two days of snow, and then last night and today lots of rain -- snow chasers.  I believe next will be some lower than usual temps.  So I figured I needed at least to enjoy the snow while it lasted and the photography that it provokes. (Those many people stuck overnight on I 95 earlier in the week have my total sympathy. How terrible and scary. I haven't needed to go anywhere for days, but my car is facing down the driveway, in case.)

    That first photo is wonderful. I love it, but I didn't make it.... Another bravo to my daughter.  They explored the icicles down by the waterfalls and, near the house, wore the snow out with the sled and two playful dogs.   

       SO here, barely in chronological order, are some other snow photos:

Well, this is an older photo, along Route 504, and it wants to be included even though it's an earlier storm...

The way to plow your south facing driveway is to get the mail carrier to drive up to the house to deliver a package and later have your son-in-law bring over some of his tasty stew and a dolly to move a file cabinet. By then the road snow will begin melting -- 

 

 

 

 

This is after she drove up and then out, apologizing for not being sure if she had driven on my driveway or not!  She managed better than some do even on a good day.

the end of the first day, still snowing at dusk, so very quiet everywhere (no wind), the pond not even frozen yet.

deer tracks, I think -  on the way to water

this afternoon, after the rain finally stopped

                 NOW, next, la pièce de résistance, a "movie" of the pond before the rain began:

         Please remember that it's possible to double click on any one of the photos, and they will then all line themselves in order at the bottom of the screen.  That way, they can be seen one by one.  Just sayin'.  I had some struggles today, which I hope don't show.  And I will be trying again in two weeks to make things work more smoothly.  It's hard to believe I've been doing these posts for over ten year and still have to learn stuff.  I love the movie this time -- I hope it works smoothly. 

    Let's pursue truth and not believe what doesn't make sense.  And while we're at it, as members of the same human race, let's sharpen our capacity for kindness.    (Voilà, that's my first political statement of 2022! )

summer sweep up 2021

    Tonight is another attempt to share a sense of things, but there won't be a video segment.  Instead, the reality is that there were many good times this month, but I would also run out of energy.  And it didn't help that the weather stayed warm and there wasn't rain to keep the pond cleaner..  (No hurricane here, such as HENRI, now in New England.  It has taken me back to my childhood which had Long Island Sound as a part of it.)

     I had hoped to have figured out how to transfer photos I use on Instagram to this blog.  I want to share some of the early Instagram photos and the captions I use.  It can be done. It will be done. The only way I learn is to try to do it.  So maybe by two weeks from now, by the next post, I will have figured it out. I share all this "behind the brain" thinking because it's part of what photography brings to my table.

    I hope my family and friends in New England are safe and have electric power tonight, but the odds are against every one of them not losing electricity power.  ( I just hope the Congress doesn't lose its power, while the struggle to guarantee democratic voting continues.  So much is at stake. I also welcome new refugees to our country! In fact, we need them here, just as we needed them in Afghanistan. We are better because we are a nation of immigrants, as has often been said.)   

Photo roaming, from small bits up high and on down, to the floor, with cousins:

laying out your cards

 

the one day we could use the pond:

 then some small moments at the small pond at my house:

            

Be safe, believe in science, wear a mask in school, & Happy Birthday to twins Laura and Leah!,

    

 

Bonnie's flowers and family, later, after the burial

    I went by the house later, to photograph the flowers Bonnie's family had kept up with during her illness.  Bonnie loved her flowers, and her family, many of whom were still there. I have shown other flowers of hers other years, but this was now.  It will never be quite the same, so we can honor her in this way.

 

Bonnie's sister, who, I believe, did most of the flower keeping. She's on the porch, and I really like this photo of her.

    May we all enjoy the beauty of flowers and of each repeating season. I'm grateful so many people I know take such good care of the outside spaces they have.  I have a sister who knows all about plants and who has been sharing her knowlege of native plants for years. My other sister has invasives on her mind, and she plants trees when she is not chainsawing. I can not manage either of their obsessions, but I am glad, at least, I can take photos of gardens and woods.  Thank you, wildness.

     Three more photos:

            The first is one I had to try hard to make, but then I didn't do the work until now to get it off the camera and on to the blog.  I love my little pond, which, at the moment, seems loaded with red-winged blackbird activity after these dogwood blossoms came and went.

        Two weeks ago I promised another iPhone video, which I will indeed try for tonight. Again, if it's not there when you visit this blog, it will mean EITHER that I didn't get it to work OR it's still downloading.  Enjoy your family and friends. Don't believe the lies about who is our legal president. (It's Joe Biden.)  Thanks as always for visiting here. Be safe. And vaccinate!

                                                                    along Mauk Ridge

water falling, running, or frozen

         I have the idea of going wild about spring this year --- and starting with waterfalls.  This year there's a lot of work to be done to even get to the falls I have shown before, due to the damage caused by the recent ice storm. Getting to see those wild flower treasures we look forward to finding every April may be really hard to manage as well. The clean up priority has to be the nearby fire trail in order to assure access to it if need be. That's why I want to honor the creeks and the falls and the flowers that may be hidden to us this April while nature works to mend itself. I will show flowers in the next weeks.

        First I am going to try to load a vimeo of a creek on a normal day, several years ago. This can take awhile -- even overnight --  but it should work out in the end. I hope you will be able to listen to the water.

         

The creek continues, flowing toward the falls.

 Here's the top ledge of the second waterfall:

summer falls

winter artfulness

the big waterfalls, frozen and fallen

That day we heard the ice crash down just before we got there. Sometimes the top and the bottom touch in the middle!

summer view

        I can't resist leaving the forest's treasured spaces in order to share a long ago happy winter water moment at the pond.  It shows how you can't believe everything concerning water that you see.....

    There are so many more waterfall moods and photos, but these ones give a taste of the joy.