Through the Past, Darkly – Self-Portrait Weekly Photo Challenge (Background)

It was long after those halcyon nights with our Cliff House friends drinking pitcher after pitcher of beer at The Goal Post Tavern, punching quarters into the Juke Box to listen to another round of Honky Tonk Women or Jumpin’ Jack Flash.  It was after we’d opened our little record store, and closed it just two years later, flat broke, making an ignominious exit in the bone chilling depth of icy winter.  Exiled.
Long after the apartment with silverfish, cleaning the spoiled milk of others on hands and knees, selling leisure suits to henpecked husbands.  Well after our rebirth of wonder; lifted by a Jewish family business, our intrinsic and earned worth recognized, rewarded.  Back on both feet.  Long after the first house, a master’s degree, a solid career, a new house, Apple computers, a beagle, roses; long after it seemed I had the world in the palm of my hand, it vanished, disintegrated.  Mother died,  husband lost his mind; total eclipse – for years – but not forever.

ghost of a chance

ghost of a chance

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Escape

The first summer after I started my career in education (1983) I insisted Creighton and Itake a vacation.  We spent three wonderful days in August, on Orcas Island, and bicycled San Juan  and Lopez Islands as well.  The next year we had a week, and eventually we would spend the first two weeks of July, in Cabin number 1, at Beach Haven.

This summer, 2013, will be the first one in thirty years that we will not be going to Orcas.  Instead, we plan to spend a week at Beach Haven in October.  We visited twice before in November, so we know it will be a quieter time.  This photo is one I took in November, 2007, on the Ferry that transports visitors from Anacortes, WA to Shaw, Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan Islands.  As the Ferry churns ever away from the mainland of busy daily life and work, it takes me to a place of absolute peace and restfulness; my escape.

bye bye

bye bye

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Going in Circles (Weekly Photo Challenge: Patterns)

If you read my blogs you know I am a naturalist and plant devotee.  In thinking about the weekly photo challenge – patterns – my first impulse was to put together a mosaic of various forms I notice in the flora around me; from the arch and symmetry of a fern frond, to the diminishing drops of Dicentra (Bleeding Heart) hanging in full bloom.  Instead I decided to limit this first study to display the beauty of going in circles – a floral show in the round.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above – Whirling Vortex

It was our first day in San Diego.  My older sister, Diana, and I were visiting our younger sister, Lori.  We arrived in the early morning.  Knowing we would be tired but eager to see the sights, Lori suggested we visit Old Town for lunch, and then drive up to the Point Loma Lighthouse.  It was perfect.

Some of my favorite shots of the four days we three sisters were together I took at Point Loma.  We meandered through the grounds and up toward the lighthouse.  The vistas were excellent.  I snapped photos of my sisters in relaxed action, and of the building itself as we came closer to it.  Though small, it had a nice museum that featured the huge, prismatic glass structures used in centuries past to cast great beams of light out over nighttime oceans.

As I walked up the winding staircase toward the top of the lighthouse, there was little of interest to photograph.  When I reached the top, it was hard to get a good shot up –  but looking down took my breath away.

From Above Whirling Vortex

From Above
Whirling Vortex

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green on blue (weekly photo challenge: up)

Earth Day dawned cold after a cloudless night.  As the sun warmed the air and earth, I ventured out for a walk in my neighborhood with my husband Creighton, and beagle Josie.  There was one dab of a white cloud in the sky looking like it might be lost and wondering where all the other clouds had gone.  Walking under a tall Aspen tree, I looked up to see its leaves framed against the bright blue sky.  As long as I can remember I have loved the sight of spring green leaves upon the background of blue sky.  In an earlier post I noted that the green in plants is created by photosynthesis; the process in which light is absorbed by plant proteins that contain chlorophyll pigments.  And what makes the sky blue?  Molecules in the air that scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light.  Here are some of the images I captured of green on blue.

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solvitur ambulando

Every page of this gorgeous, hand made book is a work of art. Judi Goldberg has created a masterpiece of poem and process, painstakingly selecting every element. Each page is printed on paper that augments her message. The fonts, dingbats and images she has chosen magnify the meaning of her words – her thoughts – her sensations. And all, I mean ALL of it done one footstep, one hand stroke at a time. This is a very limited pressing deserving the attention of serious artists and collectors of rare works.

judigoldberg's avatarhere.say.

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available from author

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earth + sun (weekly photo challenge ~ change)

These photos were taken on the northwest shore of Orcas Island, Washington, USA.  Camera:  Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47  No enhancements, no filters, just cropped and sized.

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green + light (weekly photo challenge: color)

White has no hue; it is the color we see when we look at light which contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum, at full brightness and without absorption.  Substances appear white because their surfaces reflect back most of the light that strikes them.*

Green is a combination of two primary colors; blue and yellow.  The green in plants is created by photosynthesis; the process in which light is absorbed by plant proteins that contain chlorophyll pigments.  This chemical reaction provides the energy a plant requires to live. *

Side by side, green and white are stunning.  Here are some examples from my gardens.

*Wikipedia

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on being

my hands pull out the dead shrub
I pour water into a hole in the earth
plant a life form
birds twitter above
clouds swirl
the universe opens
in a heartbeat

stories around night fires
over centuries
and generations
seek to explain
if not understand
let alone comprehend
the mystery separating
what is certain and
the wholly unknown

stars rewrite the heavens
fear and reverence twist within
we knit the distance between
learning
to survive
find safe haven
love and be loved
to realize our individual truth
the essence of being
and wonder at the sheer immensity
of it all

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The Imagi Nation (Daily Prompt: Fantasy)

Two Lips

Two Lips

What a sad place the world would be without fantasy.  There is a poignant scene in Miracle on 34th Street when Kris Kringle teaches Suzie how to imagine.  It always reminds me how important it is to encourage a child’s imagination using whatever means they can understand.  Fantasy is one way: it is gentle, inspires hope, gives us incentive to get through hard times or to be on our best behavior when it would be easy to get cranky.  Most importantly, fantasy provides room for us to expand and embellish an image or story thereby cultivating our personal creativity.

Tubular Moss

Tubular Moss
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