Once again it's two more weeks! Summer is a-goin' in -- a hurry

        I stay amazed that light around us changes so much even when we are not paying attention. I think that being aware of light and working with ambient light is one aspect of my creative life that keeps me grounded. It's like checking out the temperature of the water without a narrow purpose. Even the darkening evening sky is part of that constant awareness. As I am writing this, the sky is blue, gray and pink, blended with nuance but without fanfare in the sky over me.

        Today's photos are all recent, and perhaps they seem to be random, but they are the light that I see and respond to. 

        This first photo is along Sideway Road, past where my house is. For some reason unknown to me as yet, the field has not been mowed this year:

the day lilies -- in their prime -- from inside my home

This is the phoebe who, from above the lilies,  monitors my coming and going from the house.

family outing, totally unexpected, as the sharpness (not) of this photo reveals

I do love this photo, which I would label "Barbed wire, new gate, and hay ring." To me there's something about these combined layers that mirrors poetry.

        OK, now two Rebecca photos, one by her and one of her-- the first one PROOF that the rhododendrons bloom this year, down by the waterfalls! (The blossom is showing signs of a recent heavy rain.)

photo by Scott Pryor, waterfall really looking just like it does here

        Now, to end this collection, another 30 second video, of the first curve on my former driveway, after it passes over the cleared area for the pipeline.  Lots of ice storm depris can still be seen. Notice the scarcity of flat surfaces.

        Once again, I really enjoy sharing these photos and stories on this blog.  Two weeks from now will be July 25, and I will have photos from an altogether different place.  

        Also once again, I want to encourage EACH ONE OF US to have a vaccine, FOR THE SAKE OF ALL OF US.    Ann

Outbreaks of Happiness

post #516

            Words seem necessary, but this long, long week speaks for itself. Well, first, for weeks, we saw the long, long lines that people tolerated, everywhere, wearing masks, sometimes waiting for hours and hours, to VOTE YES to have each one's VOICE be a part of our constitution's presidential every-four-years schedule. We had mostly good weather, except for a couple of hurricanes or simple heavy rains, and also fires. All that with the virus, ready as always to take you down. 

        Physically I couldn't have easily done what those voices did, though I like to think I would have tried. Luckily, in Kentucky, where I live, early voting by mail could be done by request for reasons of age or concern for the virus, so that is what I did.

        Now we are processing the outcome. For those of us who can not understand the Trump appeal, we were astounded at how strong our sense of relief has been. That's why so many hit the streets Saturday afternoon and evening to dance and shout. It was a joy that just had to be shared.                                    

       I do want to share also that this week I heard from my Japanese friend Mariko, who married a Frenchman and lives in France, and her cousins, who live in California and New Hampshire.  I also heard from Reidunn, who lives in Oslo, Norway, and from close friends in England, Bill and June. Knowing my feelings EACH ONE expressed happiness that the mean guy had not been re-elected. They were thrilled that Americans were not continuing to go down the road of being cruel, cut off from the world, and [governed] by chaos. Another Norwegian friend, Kjersti, now living in Canada, called last week distraught about Trump's behavior and calling the damage he continually causes incomprehensible.
       I hope to have future conversations, with whoever wants to really talk and listen. We need to figure out how to work through with friends and neighbors where the disconnects occur.   

      OOPS, I've talked way too much. My bad. I planned to show some photos from my life as an American choosing to live in rural Eastern Kentucky. My America. We are all part of the work that a vibrant democracy requires.  As my friend, Melva, suggests, we should construct a political party that is called "Common Sense."

 

 This set of photos is going to take at least two weeks to show. They are mostly in order of date, but somewhat grouped if connected by topic.  I call this first photo "story line." Cathy K. worked at the sewing factory that used to be in Olive Hill; they made jeans.  It's one of my early photos from when I started making photo note cards.

 

a worm eating warbler who must have been sitting on eggs she didn't want to leave

mother LISTENING intently to daughter

looking for mom on those same steps

a mom competing with the rash of younger family members using months for their ages.....

This is the consequence of mountaintop removal mining, near Hazard, Kentucky, the photo made while I was in a small plane. The health of our earth is at stake. Believe it.

on our land, lady-slippers, no longer in that same place, the land is changing

        I want also to touch on families, everywhere, and the security they can provide, and the importance they play in lives lived. I don't know if turkeys love each other, but they sure do hang out together.  This first gathering took place essentially in the yard outside my house!

 

turkey families on an outing

We call this gathering Cousin Camp.... There are stories.....

                I think I will save the other photos for next week - This has been a long week and it's not over yet. I know I have shown most of these photos before, but they look different to me after the import of the last few weeks. I just am so grateful for where I live and for all who are in my life and for discovering I love to take photos.  I'm also grateful that so many fellow Americans got it together to go vote this year, enough of us to cause a change in the direction our country was headed.  I do believe that if we are patient, and if we listen to each other, we can go beyond how partisan we have become.  The first task may simply to be to examine what truth entails and why it is so important to our lives. Please, everyone, don't give up on the inclusive core of our American dream.   

              Special thanks to everyone who helps with the consequences of the virus -- Ann

             

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. 

diverted again, this time by the creek!

post #381
       Cold and snow were forecast for yesterday, despite the APRIL date.  Who would believe it! I am lucky that my photographing daughter, with T, almost 7, and the two dogs, reluctantly set out for the creek and the waterfalls. Yet, despite the cold, it turned out to be a magical adventure. I have never been down there right after a covering snow. So, thank you, family, for sharing your winter wonderland via these photos. Good job!

headed down to the first crossing of the creek

amazing to have these colors to cross over

communing with a fallen tree

Murry standing out....

Is this magic, or what!

turkey track, one of several in the area

the top of the first waterfall, framed by rhododendron limbs

checking on the fairy pile

This is my favorite of her photos, at the top of the first waterfall. There would have been no snow to see had they not gone down until the afternoon. Again, thank you, thank you. This is what a swamp is not.....

      

This week it's dogwoods and red-winged blackbirds!

post #332
        Rainy week, good light this morning when I took these photos, and April's wonders continue.  I am again parked on a winding road, nearby, looking down on fields and woods. Thank you, drivers, for safely passing me. I wanted to revisit the dogwood tree alone in the woods, blooming with abandon. 

how it started today

spring greens above

     Back home, I ended up sitting/hiding in my car, with a bean bag on the open window ledge to use as a camera balance, trying to catch the red-winged blackbirds on the pond. I do get one -- a female -- using my 70 - 300 lens, which is the best I can do without being a committed bird photographer.  I have cropped one of the photos to show more detail about the bird - which is a female RWBB. I have read somewhere that a single daddy blackbird watches out for several nests at a time.

 

bird is there, but hard to see

cropped photo of the female red-winged blackbird

The bird is gone, but imagine it returning often....

turkey in the yard, with (trust me) a daddy RWBB companion

  I have way too much fun putting these posts together. I have other photo work that needs doing now, so thanks for the looking with me. I so appreciate all the people across the world who expressed support this Earth Day weekend for using hard-earned skills to learn as much as possible about the world we live in -- the one we want to preserve and protect by using this essential information.