O MY GOODNESS, finally a new post

       It has finally happened!!!  Almost by mistake I visited my blog tonight, just to see if anything had changed that would allow me to add a new post. 

     Well, happily for me, all things appeared just as if nothing had held it back during the last several weeks!!  So I am going to go ahead and try to do the post I had planned over a month ago.  I so hope this means I will be able to return to posting every other week again.   I am excited!  Hi, everyone!!

Kentucky neighbors out the back window of a friend's house in southern Kentucky, last month

 

 

a favorite photo of a great blue heron, in a cove on Grayson Lake, during a ride in a small boat

from a walk in the woods one spring with Doug and Karen, after Doug discovered this patch of spring trillium covering a large rock, on a steep hillside

an amazing birthday card from Jean P. on my 75th birthday

our hen, our happy moments

 one moment at home, one night, one sky

 

 

 

dear friends in England, not my photo except that I love it

Dad with patient offspring, seen outside an upstairs window, during a 20 minute family feed

along the ride home from town --  Appalachian hillsides

shirt image is of Justice Stevens, my son's hero

two grandchildren photos which I couldn't resist including in this potpourri of photos

    Well, I couldn't actually do what I expected to for this blog -- another mystery to be worked on -- so I simply switched to sharing some photos I love.  All that remains now for tonight is to "publish" these without a hitch.  Thanks for sharing this happiness with me. 

      

        

renewal season during these serious times

post #483
        What I planned to do was to go out today and share new flowers and/or trees in bloom. I was trying to speak to how we have more reason than ever to live in the present. Deal with the day we're in. Pay attention to what are the important things to do and acknowledge our immediate priorities.

        But it has been super windy all day long. This does not make for good photography. So I chose to improvise by choosing photos I have from every year for the end of March -- give or take a day or two from March 29.  I became very curious about what I would discover.

        It so happens that out of the last 10 years, two of them had a lot of snow at this time!  (2018 and 2014)  Two other times I was away, once in Massachusetts with our daughter and her family, and once in England to visit my stepmother there. Also I've gone ahead and included a photo of the extreme wet we experienced in 2015, and some sheep that I loved being with while in Massachusetts.  Part of living well in the present is to go along with the flow, right?

      SO, here's some random photos never necessarily ever meant to be grouped together.

2009  X 2:

earlier photo of the legacy steps

2010   
 

crocus near the house

These used to grow in abundance, close to the house.

Bluets, or Quaker ladies, not out this year yet

 2012:

a good year for daffodils and for growing a granddaughter....

trillium, not yet in bloom but still lovely

2014:

bird feeding evidence

my neighbor, June, on her 80th birthday

big year for turkey visitors -- no dog around the house at this time

 2015:

flood waters at the Forks of the Caney, in Elliott County

very early redbuds

tiny first flowers in the woods -- name to be added as soon as i am absolutely sure of it

        I'll be working more on this post tomorrow, but at this very moment, it's time to call it a day. I'd like to dedicate today's effort to the many members of my Friends Team with whom I talk often, when I can, and who keep me honest and laugh at my jokes. Sometimes I actually forget that I am currently here by myself all the time and trying to do what Andy tells me.  (I guess I should consider our Kentucky Governor as part of my support network!)  May we be a better nation as we become more seasoned, and I hope spring's coming can be a blessing that will nourish each of us. 

reassured by spring flowers and a creek

post #382
      It's sort of spring! This weekend I have been to where there were wildflowers everywhere. I was at Pine Mountain Settlement School, in Harlan County, in southeastern Kentucky. We had lovely weather on Saturday, with mostly intermittent rain on Sunday (today). In any case, it was reassuring, to say the least, to have redbud trees in bloom, some tint of green on trees, and a canopy of early wildflowers. It took me around four hours to drive home this afternoon, heading as close as I could to the way a crow flies. It never fails that I find driving through eastern Kentucky fascinating and often beautiful. However, it's hard to find places along the way to stop for photo taking. Probably a good thing. I might otherwise not yet be home....
        I wasn't able to make many photos, but here are the few I did have time for:

star chickweed

The Chapel at Pine Mountain Settlement School, with an organ!

Behind the chapel is a wooded area with all kinds of treasures....

trillium (not my best photo but included becase it's my only one from yesterday)

With more time to work, I could have shown better how this feels like a carpet of flowers.

These trillium are blooming atop a large rock.  I love this habit of theirs.  We have some similar patches here as well.  I need to go check on them soon.  (Harlan County is farther south than we are up here.)

big, brave, beaten up tree but still standing

I always like to stand on the little walking path bridge that goes over this creek. For me the creek of a place is like an anchor.

           Creeks also make me think of creek beds, and then tonight I think of my own bed... .Long day, but worth it. I can always hope that some year I will be able to go down there just to take photographs, during April. But then I would miss the fun of being around a fire pit, with kids and marshmellows and a guitar and a ukelele and the singing of vintage songs and current songs, and the such. I hope everyone has had some beauty this weekend, though it is not yet spring everywhere, at least not in the United States.
 

Thankfulness photos from the past 12 months, part 2 of 2

post #261
        I'm back with some more photos I am thankful for being able to make. This week it seems to be mostly people, and happenings. I am also thankful for people I haven't made a photo of, including President Obama whose bravery for his whole presidency in the face of demented racist individuals with guns and arsenals is so generous. That may sound like a strong statement, but it is the truth.  And it will be hard for him and his family for the rest of their lives. That fits my definition of generous.
        So here we go again, in part 2!  Locally, I was able to take some photos for some friends who got married this fall, and I even ended up in one taken while they applied for their marriage license. Again, bravery and generosity are factors in their lives as well.

taken by the Lexington Herald-Leader

Jennifer Reis, artist extraordinaire

my friend photojournalist John Flavell

  
 Other friends caught in important moments:
         

Jean Rosenberg, watching her husband, John, recieve an honor on stage.

            Three photos of George Ella Lyon, whom I enjoy being able to catch in all kinds of moments:

during the Appalachian Writers Conference, in Hindman, KY, with her close friend and fellow writer Gurney Norman

Our writers group happened to be meeting the day the news came out about the two year poet laureate honor!

George Ella near her childhood home (house) in Harlan, Kentucky, the day she found out that her book TRAINS RUN was accepted by Simon and Shuster for publication!! It is the second of her books written with her son, Benn Lyon, and it will be edited by her long time editor, Richard Jackson.

       My big group photo of the year was at my church -- The Lexington Friends Meeting. Our members are called Quakers. We undertook a major renovation of the building, and it was mostly completed! I feel like this is a happy photo, even though not everyone could be in it at that one time.

      Last March, one of our members, Roberta, who is a cellist, put together a program featuring her cello, two members who are poets, Melva and Judith, and some of my photos. It worked out so well. It happened in the same room as above, on a Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful, heartening event:  

before

after

         Following all this reverence, the next photo is for pure fun. I keep thinking our 42 year old fridge will stop working any day, and I know it should be replaced in any case.  Yet I am just so thankful to its reliable self for still working!! 

        Well, here is a photo of me, thankfully still working -- and yet I am older than the fridge! I was so thrilled that day to be way back in the woods with friends. Doug discovered this boulder covered with trillium, and Karen took this photo. I think it is the first photo of me on my blog since I started this weekly gig five years ago!

    I have to find a place for this next photo, just because I love it -- a granddaughter who will be spreading her wings in different ways every year, like we all are doing as well in our own way:

       Then a reminder for me that there is beauty in what lies ahead, even though there will be challenges:

          There are many other photos, friends, places and moments I am thankful for, but I end with this second view from the deck, made this frosty morning. It celebrates the light that changes and surprises, the mainstay in all my photographs. I've never seen it before looking exactly like this: