revisiting late April 2016, for a really different look

        I have been curious how much this spring -- after the prolonged ice storm -- is different than other springs.  I decided I had a fair variety of photos from 2016 to draw from, plus the weather that year made everything seem so lush at this same date compared to this year.  Mine is in no   way a scientific evalutation. It is just what I saw then and what I see now.

        So, some photos from then, either around the house where I lived that year, or from a long walk in Laurel Gorge, in my county, where the lady slippers were plentiful that year.  (I have not yet been there this year to see the probable debris from the ice storm. I might have to go this week! maybe tomorrow as part of my trip to get my drivers license renewed and to see the greenhouse the high school students have established this year, with their teacher, MaKayla Rose.)

        Here goes! These are all from this time of the year, but 5 years ago.

      

 

        I have been having a lovely birthday today, so this post may have been posted later than usual. I'm so grateful for the beauty around me, and for those of you who share these posts with me. Thanks!   Ann    

 

The eyes have it!

        Today's post is about spring, yes, but it's also about why an eye is so essential for a good photograph. I am grateful for mine. And it's wonderful to have a daughter and now a granddaughter who also have a good eye! Of course the eyes are helped by the concurrent ability to notice stuff, see something by itself or as it relates to a bigger whole.  I love living where there is so much to reward a good looking around. 

         First, just a few images via my eye, with their titles. There's never only one way to frame it, but it's fun to work with the balance from the start.  (I'm still pulled by real views, not ones I have set up, or altered.  It may be a luxury -- or old fashioned -- to stick with that deliniation, but that's what floats my particular boat.)

on the way

black and white in color

blue heron at Grayson Lake

tail detail

        NOW, some spring photos by my daughter, Rebecca Wright, in 2019. I'm not adding titles, because, obviously, they are not my images, but I might give a name or two because spring here was a forever time ago.

 

(garlic drying, from the garden)

(jack-in-the-pulpit)

(house and BARN)

(newly picked strawberries)

 

        

     One important purpose for today's post, actually, was to feature a photo by my daughter's daughter. I enjoy both her and her photo eye so much. You Go Girl!  Here is her photo of a crocus flower, from yesterday:

        I love her light, I love spring, I love that today's post is up before 7:15 p.m.!! Sometimes it happens. I'm always grateful for such unexpected moments.

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

             

Getting closer to the big election

post #509

            I'm not a credentialed political pundit, but I have always cared about politics/ social change/ community support and such. (I was going to be a government major in college until I decided to go with a degree in French literature.  After I discovered photography, I began to wish I was young and hardy enough to be a photo journalist.)

        Our current national mess interests me. When it gets dangerously out of hand, like it currently is, I am always trying to figure out WHY something is happening, what can we each do to make it better, and why do so many people accept the difficult without thinking they can instead contribute to the search for change. Even the Appalachian area of Kentucky, where I live, has a long history of passionate political activity. It's like a glue that keeps our national heart beating and renewed.

     I'm also curious about a lot of things. I like figuring stuff out for myself. I'm fortunate to have discovered a love for photography in my fifties, so I continue to have a lot to learn. I wanted to share tonight just some pleasures I get from noticing the small and the lovely in my every day walking around.  And I found a cartoon from the The New Yorker in July that I recently realized speaks to what I do every day.

This is actually lavender, one of my few tended plants, and it has provided blooms almost all summer! The deer don't eat it.

Panicled Aster! Who knew! A weed is never just a weed....

 I totally missed seeing this poor squashed baby snake at first, but there it was on my return.  Then the next night, it was all gone. Was it eaten? if so, by what or whom? or totally smashed by a tire?

 

 

(See the cartoon ahead.)

a Golden rod variety -- this is the first year I've noticed it

        Yesterday I happened on this cartoon in a pile of New Yorker magazines, and this time it struck me as hilarious, my own little way of seeing the world.  No one is going to believe me all that much either. I don't arrange my photos. I just work with what I see, though that does require getting out in the world you're in. None of us needs to be spectacular every day, but we can still be both amazed and honored to be present.

         Now it's fair to remark that some day no one is going to believe the close call we are currently having concerning our precious democracy.  We are letting our President get away with doing anything he pleases with no concern for the well being of others or of the world. Right now the main thing I ask is for EVERYONE, including Republicans in the Senate, to be clear-eyed about our tomorrows. Let's be kind and be attentive to the world we are forging for our kids and grand kids. Greed or fear have never provided a true key to happiness or made our lives better. 

 

A lovely end of August

post #506
           After complaining lately about Blogspot's failed revision, I feel I should report that, maybe, the recent effort to revise these blog mechanics has gone in for a redo!! Praise be....  But, in another glitch, now that I am using Mpix for my prints for the note cards I make, it seems they have currently been cyber attacked!  
         This viciousness seems to mirror some of the daily outrageous difficulties in our nation's dealings (or not dealing) with the virus, with our leadership, and with our efforts to confront the systemic racism we absolutely have to acknowledge and overcome.

         So, with all that in mind, I have several phone photos to share, and I hope the system works. There may be progress for the blog, but I'm not willing yet to take on anything complicated.. 
          As for the other stuff, we need to stay clear eyed and vigilant.  And everyone needs to vote.

my sweet pond, and house, and cattails

 OK, this next photo shows the makings of a BLT.  In August I eat a year's worth of tomatoes, because they are so tasty and juicy. Also in August, I eat the only pound of bacon that I eat all year. I have a thing about BLTs. I love them.  Today I finished the bacon. I thought I had finished with the tomatoes as well, because they are grown by my nearby family. THANK YOU. But as I sat outside dripping with mayo and bread and lettuce and bacon to go with my yellow tomato, my dear son-in-law dropped by with several more tomatoes. So now I get to gradually separate from the tomato part of August, while going cold turkey with the bacon. (delicious phrasing there.....) 

Soon after I went for a short walk -- after my early dinner..  Here are a few photos.
 

These are joe-pyes below my house. I have never become used to "owning a tree" or even "owning a showy weed" like the joe-pye.

I get to walk on a narrow paved road that has very little traffic. This was the first caterpillar I didn't step on. 

This is the second caterpillar I didn't step on, even though it was harder to see.

 My parting image tonight comes from the lady's restroom in our wonderful local bookstore, CoffeeTree BOOKS and the Fuzzy Duck Coffee Shop.  What could be better than this to replace "Happy Birthday"!! I wonder if the whole world can't help recognizing these words. I do know that the whole world can always stand a little humor and 20 seconds by Dolly! Enjoy.