27 posts tagged “flowers”
Lavender.... um ..... Lavender you have grown a lot in the last two years. :D
Thank you! I am definitely a work in progress.
Hahah! I was not sure I was going to find something nice to say to myself. The truth is that I feel like I have come into a period in my life where I learn SO much about myself and where I sit in the world. I remember the last time I learned this much about myself was when I moved out on my own for the first time. I am in that period again, and I love it this time. I am opening myself up for all the lessons and getting to know who I am at age 35. I am quite a bit different than I was at age 19 when I moved out on my own. Thank goodness for that. I was an annoying know it all then, now I am ...probably an annoying know it all.
I am SO sore from Yoga last night, she really knows how to work us without letting us on to realize we are working out, I think my yoga instructor might just have an evil streak in her.....my shoulders and neck are Killing Me!!! She was teaching a pose and we held a block with our knee into the wall and my back leg was shaking! Begging for mercy!!!! Her calm soft lovely voice describing waterfalls and hearts opening up to heaven, My mind loves that but my body knows it is being tricked! Haha! by the end of the workout my body was shivering like a noodle!!! I will continue, I need some serious strength training. I need to work on stretching my hamstrings so that I can sit up straight without rounding it to be able to, and possibly begin to fold forward at some point.
I went back to the concrete art center yesterday to try a couple different angles I wished I had tried before. Talked to the owner and gave him a card with one of the images on the front I shot last week. He is interested in using my images on the web site in exchange for being able to shoot his statues. I will get my name and web
address on the site. I am excited about this. ;-) It is not for reals money, but it gets my name out there and something on some sort of a resume if I should have one of those one day.
1. drink bunches of delicious Coffee! We buy from a place online, they roast the beans in my state's capitol and the name of the coffee delights me. Dancing Goats coffee A local artist created the design for the Coffee, and it is CUTE! and Man, I just saw some of the new Merch from the artist and I am going to have to check the bank account to see if there is enough for something special.
2. draw beautiful things on my sidewalk in chalk this afternoon.
3. play with my new 70-300 lens that has been intimidating me but begging for a photo walk around town.
4. look at photos on flickr to get more inspiration
5. make cookies
6. make a list of all the words that make me giggle, like
*rhubarb
*pookie
*fanny
7. go to see the new movie "Burn after reading" tonight
8. make a pot of iced tea
9. make faces at small children when their parents are not looking, not mean ones, just funny ones
10. bathe in colors today, wear a very loud and bright outfit today (if I have any clean clothes)
11. color with crayons today
12. play solitaire with real cards so that I can cheat if I want to. It does feel good to win.
13. enjoy the sunshine that is still blessing my pacific northwest home. It is a rare thing to have such wonderful weather this time of year. It is nice, I feel it is making up for a rainy August and June.
Nap vs. Photowalk.
I finally decided I needed a cupcake and went for a walk. I stepped out my front door and closed my eyes and breathed in deep to smell the sweetness of summer blooms, to smell the freshness of the morning rain, to smell which direction I should go.
(I should say that when I go on my walks, I use all of my senses, except taste, nobody should lick the railroad tracks, right? I smell every flower, I touch every surface, I see every shape and color, I hear every leaf blowing in a breeze.)
I was surprised when my feet started the opposite direction of the cupcake shop, but I did not question my decision too much. I just followed my internal direction. Something I have ignored a lot lately, bad me.
I saw a super fat cat with no tail, she was so friendly and walked with a waddle. Poor thing needs a diet. But she was a joyful kitten. Meowing a gravley meow, pushing her head on my knee. I pet her for a bit, then moved on.
I was drawn to my neighbors house with tall yellow daisies, sunflowers, and brightly colored zinnia. Her gardens are amazing. I saw that down the sidewalk she had placed bunches of pots of zinnia. LOVELY! I went an started taking photos of a big fat fuzzy bumble bee on a pink zinnia when I hear a small voice call to me saying "so you like my flowers!" I said looking up to see a beautiful woman a little younger than my father's age maybe "Yes! I do! I always have!" We talked about the zinnia and how she seeds them every year by placing the dead blooms in a paper bag and in the winter shakes the bag up to retrieve the seeds. Then she sprinkles them all over in the spring. Pointing to all the large patches of zinnia saying "free!" meaning she did not buy the seeds. She asked if I wanted to see her back yard, I exclaimed "YES!" it was even more stunning than the front. Her name is Joan and she is a freelance writer for a local paper. She got some scissors and left me with a bundle of fresh cut flowers from her gardens. My hand could barely hold them all. Enough to fill 3 small vases. What a lovely person. I wished I was bold enough to ask to photograph her cutting her blooms. She was beautiful.
I went home, put these flowers in water and went on. Walked along the railroad tracks and saw a couple of chairs. They reminded me of the dining chairs in my grandparents home. Even the cracked plastic covers and the sticky foam exposed. They had a peaceful feeling about them, so I took their photo as well.
I made my way to my favorite antique store. A lovely couple I really enjoy chatting with. I think after my sale (I don't quite know when I am going to do it) I am going to tell them to come back after the sale is over with boxes and take whatever they want. They gift me with fun things all the time. A customer they knew came in and I made my way to the tiny back room where they have a giant hat box full of buttons surrounded by hanging linens and embroidered cloths. I began to dig in the buttons, what a soothing thing. All the glass, shell, metal, and plastic buttons from well over 100 years of age hitting each other, swirling around my fingers. Cool and dusty. I grabbed an old platter to try and find some matches. 20 for $1. I heard a group of giggling women on the sidewalk outside, they got louder and louder, then entered the building. It was a local group of older women who are in the Red Hat society. They were a joyful bunch of women, about three of them were gravitated to the buttons as well. They were drawn by the sound of them and the desire to run their wrinkled hands through them. We chatted and laughed, they told me of button jars and tins they have at home from their mothers and grandmothers. We chatted about what we were using them for, one lady makes big snowmen and wanted big black buttons, we helped her find the ones she wanted, another wanted a different type of black button for her crafts, and another just wanted to feel the buttons on her fingers, palms and wrist. She was the last one out of the room, she told me upon her parting that she was going to get out her grandmothers buttons tonight and look at them. I told her how nice that sounded. I paid for my buttons and a couple of embroidered pot holders. My phone began to ring, I am so unused to the phone ringing I thought it was the antique dealers phone, they told me "That is you Dear" Haha! It was my Dad. He told me I was not at home, and I said Nope, I was out for a walk downtown and was headed for the cupcake store. He laughed at me and said he will meet me there. I walked over and met Dad, bought 4 cupcakes for husband and I, then he gavbe me a ride home. We chatted a bit about his new girlfriend, family and the upcoming funeral for Sweet Marie on Saturday. We decided that we were going to have a family night that day.
I felt like the day just rolled out the yellow brick road and I followed. I am so glad I went out. It was a very nice walk. ;-)
I wanted to feel light as a feather
to bounce along dry hot sidewalks
to find treasures along the railroad tracks
to find shapes and lines and color
to breathe in deep
to let my eyes dance and hoping my body would follow
I will ease you into it, I warn you, the cute is BIG, but in such small packages. I took a walk around my hood, through alleys and gravel sidewalks. It was not cold, but it was cloudy. Nice weather. I enjoyed myself very much. So I am almost done, rounding my way down the street to my house, reaching into my purse to get my keys ready when I look down the road away from my house. I see teeny balls of something frolicking in some grass, I was unsure what they were, Kittens? Puppies? I could not tell. I walked over to them. OMG! I almost was killed dead by the cute! Scroll down to see who I met, My neighborhood just got a bit cuter!
cute
Tonight I will make this awesome spaghetti, it is SO easy to make and it is SO delicious!
First, Boil water for the whole wheat spaghetti and cook al dente.
* in a blender or food processor blend 1 can of Diced Tomatoes w/ garlic, 2 fresh chopped tomatoes, 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 5-7 minced garlic cloves (recipe calls for 2 TBSP but we love garlic), 2 TBSP olive oil, fresh ground pepper. Blend until just chunky
* In a bowl mix the cooked noodles (easier to mix if you snap the noodles in half before you cook them) and the sauce.
*Sprinkle lemon juice over the pasta and top with goat cheese.
Seriously a 15-20 minute meal. SO GOOD!
Tomorrow I am going on a field trip with my photography class. I am excited but also nervous. I get so nervous for such silly reasons. We are going out to Orting, Farmland. It sounds like a lovely trip. BUT, it is supposed to be raining! YUCK! I need to stop by the thrift store today to see if I can pick up a rain slicker and maybe a camera bag. I refuse to pay full price for these things. I am a total penny pincher.
I am hoping to get home at a decent time in the afternoon, our towns farmers market starts tomorrow too! We buy as many of our groceries there as we can. It is early in the season, so it is basically just greens, but they are SOOOOO good!
Sunday seems like it will be a nice relaxing wear your jammies till noon type of day. Maybe I will go to the park to see if that mama goose has hatched her babies yet. They are so cute.
Todays list:
*dishes and countertops
*laundry
*upload photos from my walk along the RxR tracks to flickr
*work out
*walk to thrift store to see if they have items I need, and maybe items I don't (Haha)
Things I am not liking this morning:
1. never went grocery shopping and so I did not have plain yogurt for my smoothie
2. I had flavored yogurt so I decided to use that even though it would probably be too sweet, but discovered it was past it's expiration date, then realized it was past it's expiration date when I bought it!
3. my arms are SO sore from scrubbing the river rocks SIL and I picked up for my massage
4. when I went garage sale-ing with granny I picked up some vintage clothes, and one shirt was too small and I got stuck in it. Husband had to help me out. We were laughing really hard, so I guess this belongs in the list below, but I really liked that shirt and was bummed it was too small.
5. Camera bags are expensive and ugly. I want cute!
Things I like about this morning:
1. husband has dentist appointment and we got to sleep in an extra hour.
2. I got a new close up filter, as you can see to the side, a few of these pictures are magnified quite a bit.
3. I am making a new friend in photography class, she is really nice and I think she should start a blog here even though she does not think she can write or have anything to talk about. I think that she would be surprised at how fun this is. ;-) (I know you are reading this!)
4. There is a class field trip this weekend, and next weekend some of us might get together too. I like photo walks.
5. I gave my baby brother some awesome vintage t-shirts that I don't wear anymore, it made him SO happy! One of the shirts is a 1984 Police concert tour shirt. It is awesome.
6. After scrubbing about 50 rocks, my hands are SO SOft! I think I scrubbed my fingerprints off, I can totally commit a crime and they would only find smudgy fingerprints.
7. I am getting a massage today, SIL needs to test the rocks we just found
8. It is sunny now, but at about 5am, it was POURING
and it sounded so lovely!
Photo Quest #13 was to describe Spring (or Autumn) and what it means to you.
Well Spring here in Western Washington is like a kid waking up for school on Monday, Cranky, screaming "5 more Minutes of Winter! " followed by fits on angry hail, rain storms, wind. Then after the Shower, there are rainbows, Tulips, and fresh green leaves waking up from a long winter. As soon as you start to enjoy this bit of spring you mention something Spring does not like and they Storm off to bed again leaving the ground frozen and littered with ice pellets. This is what Spring means to me. Haha! Here are my Three Submissions.
The longer I stay at home and heal myself, the stronger my little internal caller ID/ connections with others get. I am glad, it shows how much I have healed.
These pictures were taken at our local butcher shop where we buy meat for our home made cat food. They are really great people, they believe in community and do not allow the other farmers to become shady in their farming practices. They have high standards for who they buy from. We buy eggs from the chickens too. :-)
I will photograph my day and show you all tomorrow!
Have a great Friday all! I will!
I am thinking maybe some fruit trees, but our yard is not really that big. Anyway, here are a few more photos of the backyard.
