Showing posts with label posts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label posts. Show all posts

Sunday, November 23, 2014

fourth and final year of my most popular blogs, and news (Arts Fair, George Ella Lyon book)

post #218
A bluebird nesting box in our yard, opened recently to reveal an even more crowded living situation than my study!  It is nice to have beautiful companions in crowdedness....

        Who would think it.  A post from a year ago ends up on my top three from year four.  It is called a change of seasons sweep-up: post #164 on 11/17/13.  There is mistletoe, barns, a four wheeler, and information about the upcoming annual Arts and Crafts Fair at Morehead State University.  I am thinking the number of page views might have something to do with the Fair, actually, since two weeks later, on 12/8/13, for post #167, I have some photos from the Fair -- which also made the top three posts for the year.  In fact, there have been recent viewers!  I do give the link for Monarch Butterfly stations, however, a hot topic in recent years.  The post is called Updates: monarch butterfly stations, the local arts Fair, and frogs changing colors.  
         I love that little frog whom I would not have noticed perched on a milkweed pod had I not been looking carefully at the plants almost every day, for art's sake.  Here is another photo of the frog when I went back to revisit him later in the day.  He had moved to a lower leaf, still green:

tiny!


This is just another version of the frog earlier, on the milkweed pod above the leaf.


       The top post for year four includes a couple of milkweed in winter mode, several interesting but far from awesome photos of some mourning doves making do during a snow storm, and two scenes from down near our waterfalls. I don't even show the waterfalls, shaped by ice.  I have NO idea what draws attention to this post, #171, on 1/5/14.  A good mystery to have.  Maybe, now that I think about it, it might be due to the simple mention of milkweed in the title.

      By the way, I am doing the Appalachian Arts and Crafts Fair at Morehead State again this year, on Saturday, 12/6/14, in two weeks.  The hours are 9-4.  Of course my own hours are a lot more than that -- prep time earlier in the week, set-up time on Friday afternoon, and regrouping time after the 4 pm closing.   As my new bumper sticker points out, "ARTWORK IS WORK."
      This year I will have my photo note cards, as I always do, but I will have many more 8 x 12 photos matted in 12 x 16 archival mat board, each in a protective sleeve, $25 each.  I will be sharing a double booth again with Jennifer Reis!!  As I say every year after she and I do this, "ARTWORK SELLING CAN ALSO BE FUN!"
       If I manage to be on top of my game, I will post a photo from the Fair in a special blog post early that day!!  Girls gone wild!

         Speaking of artwork, it is a privilege to announce that George Ella Lyon has two books coming out in November.  The trailer for the first book, VOICES FROM THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON, has just been released, and she sings on it! Beautifully. The book contains poems written by two poets, George Ella and J. Patrick Lewis. They imagine the voices of people who took part in the march.  (Published by Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights, 2014)
        The link to the trailer is HERE.  I love the fact that her singing sounds louder and stronger just as the resolve to be there became stronger for those many people who went.

        This coming week, my plan is to take a photo a day for next week's post. I haven't actually ever done that yet, and I think it is way past time to try it.  I'm rewarding myself for finally studying the instruction booklet for my "new" camera....  In the meantime, here is a photo to keep you warm.  It shows all the wood my husband has prepared for this winter for use in our wood burning cook stove!  It is currently sheltered in the barn, with some logs used already since I made this photo.  Surprise, Frank, and thanks! 


Sunday, November 24, 2013

our sunny Sunday before Thanksgiving

post #165
        Well, lately, each week, I have been posting quite a few photos.  As we must regularly remind ourselves, however, there are only 24 hours in each day.  The time has come to cut back on the number of blog photos I post, for the sake of my other photo work.  I have to practice discipline to do this, which is not my greatest strength, but giving up the blog is simply not an option. I love doing it.  So I will try instead for a period of restraint. 
       I also want to explore other layouts for the blog and to figure out how to make the photos I do post look closer to their real sharpness while at the same time protecting them. 

        Since this is the week of Thanksgiving, here's my plan: this week and next I will share some photos with comments about how they each helped the photo work better!  The first one shows the spider whose web caught two leaves and who had not blown away by the time I saw this masterful display.  I caught it with amazing sharpness considering my camera was hand held and the wind was blowing!  (This is what I mean by photographic thankfulness....)  I hope the huge web shows up in what you are seeing, and, if not, I will post this photo again in a future post once I figure out how to make safer, sharper photos appear here.

      

      Next are three "portraits," with thanks to all creatures who appear, who tolerate, and who are sharing my world:
chewing on an apple right outside my desk window

looking resigned to all sorts of attention at the 4H event

enjoying the milkweed pod, beautifully blending in

      This next photo was made hand held, on Carter Ford, after a big rain.  It has one of my semi-philosophical, semi-humorous captions, which I am always thankful to find in my head:
out on a long leaf, over muddy water....

     To make myself end for today, I thought it a fine opportunity to share a photo of one of our wild turkey visitors.  They are skittish, and don't do what they are told, so this is the best I could get:
      Happy Thanksgiving, safe travels, and my thanks to you, viewers from all over the world who visit this blog when you can.