Missing tomatoes and N

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day! I enjoyed the Coming Home photos up on The Pioneer Woman's site. If you haven't seen them, by all means click on over.  

Still working on my collection of unintentional alphabets...I saw this while walking Gus & Cotton this weekend.  Everyone agree this is an N?

This long weekend flew by even though I can't point to any grand stuff.  I worked in my yard and found the missing tomato plants - they had been overcome by the fairy roses, but survived.  And I pruned back the fairy roses.  Planted marigolds at the feet of the tomatoes.  Refilled the bird feeders and put out the hummingbird feeder.  I think I saw one darting about the hydrangeas which are very blue this year, and aren't blue and reds attractive to the hummers?  Anyway, I also found a pack of seeds I'd ordered a year or more ago - touch me nots which I remember from my grandmother's yard - and put some in pots and some directly in the ground.  I've got my fingers crossed that some will germinate.  These are a form of impatien that the seed pods explode when you touch them (self seeding) and are also called Balsam.  Anyone recognize them?

In other news, I attacked an overly full closet, but right now I think it won because the table I had cleared is covered in clutter again. 

Say, if I plant peppers near my mailbox, with the basil and the rosemary, does that make them public property?  You know, since they're in the right of way?  Hmmm.  I'll cram them in between the tomatoes, I think.  It's tough when you have about 10 square feet of sunny space.

I'm considering going to one of the Squam art weeks - anyone ever been?  Know anyone who has?  It's basically creative camp for adults at a camp on a lake in New Hampshire.  If anyone has any first hand information, I'd love to hear it.

4 day week ahead: yay!

What is in a Name?

Yesterday I came up with a perfect name for my blog:  Kibbles and Bits.  It is the perfect combination of dogs + Molly.  But my blog has a name. And there's always the risk of infringing on copyrights, I suppose.

This happens sometimes when I think up a good retail name.  No matter that I am not a retail person. After all, the Girl Scouts and I parted company when they said "go forth and sell [cookies]".  Except that there's a bookstore in Apalachicola, FL that is a retirement dream.  But it already has a name.

I wish I wrote these things down when they happen.  But that might put a damper on having them float up from somewhere in my brain stem where they must originate. 

I've been thinking a lot about wishes and dreams lately, and putting a name to my dreams. Do you think we stop consciously dreaming after a certain point or age? 

For me, the routine of everyday swamps the creative time unless I consciously think about it and make room for it.  Then I find that the dreams are there, just below the surface waiting to be claimed.

Flower Time

Something unusual is happening this year...the usually blue hydrangeas have a  touch of pink...see what I mean?  And there is a bumper crop!

And if only there were scentographs or smellosnaps ... I took a zillion photographs of gardenias last night because I was intoxicated by the scent.

They are blooming all over the neighborhood, and so are the magnolias.  It is wonderful to walk the dogs and breathe the fragrance.  It almost distracts from having my arm yanked off by a large, long-haired yellow dog with a penchant for squirrel chasing.

Sweet Onion

What you see here is a testament to my current scatter-brained tendencies.  I made a bean salad one night, and forgot to put away the unused half of the sweet onion.  No great loss, by the way, the onion was not very sweet.  When I discovered my error the next morning, I just let it keep drying until the weekend.

I wanted to see what it would look like.

Yesterday the only afternoon light was in the kitchen window sill.

Onward and upward.  Or, time to go to work.

Inspiration

Part of my current photography class includes identifying photographers I like.  To do that, I googled great photos or something of the sort, and I found Irving Penn, who just died last year.

This is one of his photographs:

It made me understand how inspiration flows through everything.  Remember this?  I took this at the prompt I got from a photographer-instructor in a previous class.

Now, I'm not saying mine is as good as his, but it's a little uncanny how similar they are since I hadn't seen that one before tonight.

Richard Avedon, a famous Vogue photographer, photographed a model holding an umbrella leaping off a curb in the 50s, I think.  That photo is inspired by a photo by a photographer from an Eastern European country. And recently there was a spread in Vogue of current top models in fabulous gowns grouped with some on ladders.  And that photo was inspired by an Irving Penn photo from the 40s of that period's top models grouped in fabulous gowns, with some on ladders.

Nothing's new under the sun.

And that's okay because our personalities add to each iteration.

Amazing, isn't it?

Totally Random

Last Saturday I was messing around with my camera and the water droplets on the caladiums.  Until Gus got thirsty.

Then I turned my attention to the fern on the table because he couldn't reach that.

And then, Tuesday, I saw these little yellow flowers peeping out of the Creeping Jenny.  I didn't know that Creeping Jenny bloomed!

But most of all, today what is in my heart is this:

TGIF

Feeding the Baby

Sitting at my computer this morning, I noticed the suet feeder was almost empty.  I looked back when I saw motion from the corner of my eye.  The woodpecker on the feeder hopped over to the tree, and this is why:

Sorry the photo is blurry - I managed to knock over my camer on it's tripod leaving a gouge in my desk.  I wasn't sure the lens or the camera would work and I was paying attention more to that than focus!

As I type this, the other woodpecker from this winter's pinecone pictures has turned up. 

Better get that suet refill!

ABCs

I'm working on a little project. 

Have you seen those photos of items

that look like letters and then

 you put the letters together to spell a word? 

That's the project. 

Or rather the project is to

make a gift using that alphabet photo thing.

I found a B this weekend.  And a Q. 

None of the words in the

project requre a B or a Q.

What I really need are Ds. 

At least 3 of them. 

And I'd like them not to be identical. 

It's harder than it looks.

Details

This is a light I bought at the monthly market south of town for my 'new' house.  It isn't perfect; it has a crack in the lip of the glass, and I think it shows here.  And it was supposed to have come from a prominent family's home (that I can't recall the name of) from around Philadelphia or somewhere else in the Northeast.

I had to put lightbulbs in the other day and was forced to dust the light - I couldn't avoid it any longer when the dust and I were face to face - and I remembered why I liked the light so much in the first place:  the details.

Hope you see the details in your day today!

Just Doing It

I have a friend, Marlene, who is setting off on an adventure this week.  She is going to work in Alaska at a resort for the summer.  I think this is a wonderful adventure!  In honor of where she was going to be, she bought a new camera, and I got to help her get oriented to her camera last night.  Then we went in the front yard and took some photos.  Marlene got some keepers, and I took these while she tried out settings. 

If nothing else, I hope Marlene got the fever to just go play with her camera.  These were during the wonderful time of the day when the light is just beautiful, and they are straight out of the camera (SOOC).

I know there are film purists, but for me, digital has been liberating.  I can take the volume of pictures it takes to learn, see them immediately, delete liberally and try again.

I spend a lot of time looking at Flickr or magazines or newspapers to see the images they show to decide what I like and want to emulate. I attended a workshop, and am taking some online classes.

But the thing that's been most valuable is just doing it (forgive me, Nike).  Taking lots and lots of photos.  Figuring out what I can do that I like.  Making it a priority to learn everything my camera can do - and I've got lots to explore, yet. 

Bon voyage, Marlene!  I can't wait to see your photos and hear your stories from this summer.

Heart

During my photo class when we were supposed to be looking for hearts, I couldn't find any.  Then on Saturday, walking my dogs, wait.  We were supposed to be walking but there was a lot of stopping to sniff the bushes, the grass, the sidewalk...you get the picture (pun totally intended, ha!).  As I stood around waiting for the sniffing of clover to be over, I noticed this old mailbox post that someone had enhanced with a few swirls and twists of metal. 

So late Sunday afternoon, I risked all and took the dogs on another walk and brought my camera. The risk is that two dogs on two leashes are a handful.  Two dogs and my precious piece of camera equipment was anyone's guess.  But they were pretty good and I was able to take a photo.

Around the neighborhood everyone is replacing these old wrought iron stands with the Home Depot wooden ones.  And they are serviceable.  But they don't have any flourish or whimsy.

And we all need some whimsy.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my mother.  I took her to brunch to celebrate Mother's Day. 

Afterward, we went to the nursery and I picked out some plants for my yard, and she bought a coleus to grow in her window sill. 

I found these, which I don't recall ever seeing before.  They're called fuschia, but I bet you knew that.  I'm in love with the vivid colors. 

Dare You

Germinating

So, I've been looking for some art workshops to go to.  More in the order of arts and crafts workshops - the kind that have a variety of things to try.  I've looked at Squam (which has not been ruled out, mind you), a scrapbooking workshop because they are really more than scrapbooking - they are about techniques, and photography workshops which are harder to find than you might think.  Unless you want to travel to Europe (yes, please) and are within your budget (not so much).  

Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine has a new workshop this year, CREATE, which is in Chicago.  It looks so appealing because it's full of things I've never tried. Plus the thing that caught my eye in my mother's Jan issue is one of the projects! 

Mary Englebreit just finished one in St. Louis that I couldn't attend because of timing, but believe me, it's on my calendar for next year.  And there's one called Silver Bella in Nebraska that sounds wonderful.

But.

One has to travel by air to all of these because none of them are in the vicinity. I can't envision lugging art supplies which include dangerous paint brushes and, worse, paints, oh - and exacto knives and other questionables in my luggage, checked or not. So I tried things closer to home, and the only one I found was Donna Downey's Inspired Artist workshop, but I found it too late.  It's next week.

So.  What's a girl to do?

Find one in metro Atlanta - anyone hear of something in our area? 

OR

Start one up.

Guess which one is the most far fetched, scary, ridiculous, hare-brained notion I've had since sky-diving?

Last Hurrah

Can you believe these guys are still going in my front yard?  I bet this week is their last week since temps are going to be in the 80s.  Besides, it's time to plant tomatoes!

It's Sunny Somewhere!

Yesterday, it was so beautiful.  Windy, but beautiful.

This is a little reminder since today is decidedly not beautiful.  It's rainy, rainy and rainy with a side of stormy.  I usually like waking to the sound of rain.  This morning, not so much.  I was even a little afraid, I guess because the rain was so hard.

And, Eli - I am sorry you had an accident and got all those stitches. But I hear you were So Brave!  Take care of you!

Tree Flower

On my walk with the dogs last night, I noticed the pieces of tree blossoms on the street and in yards.  I reliazed I hadn't ever looked closely at a whole one, but loved the orange color in the pieces.  Do these come from oaks?  I think maybe so. It's from a Tulip Poplar.

Just as we were getting home, I found a whole one and found the orange makes a star when you look at it head on.

Coming into the house, I put the blossom on the mantel while I disengaged leashes and flipped on the lights. 

Then I saw the glow from this flower.  Isn't it beautiful?

P.S. Anonymous got it, the flowers yesterday were from my Chives.