Pilfered Picture Project, Week 44: Season (Fall)

In Frankenmuth, and at the park, fall has come to Mid-Michigan. The leaves are nearly down now, thanks to the wind, and the skies are clear and bright. Seasons change, but people never do.

Bonus post: The Birds

So, I heard this huge ruckus outside. Stepping on to the back porch, I noticed there were thousands of birds in our trees, gathering for the long trip down south. While most clustered in the trees which still had leaves, a few were brave enough to try the barren elm tree.

Believe it or not, this was shot in color!

Pilfered Picture Project: Shadows

My favorite fountain

Steph - pouting over something Uncle Scott said

Diva - the day before I put her & Punkin down

Paige, Me, and Brooke

I admit, I am recycling for this week's post. But, these are some of my all-time favorites, and all evoke the idea of "shadow".

Pilfered Picture Project: My Day

My day begins very early. I get up with Husband, making him coffee, breakfast, and lunch.

I feed the outside cats, the horses, the inside cats, the fish, and the turtles. I try my best to muddle through my day, still having the vertigo and nausea of the inner ear disorder . . . it's been six months.

Given that the inner ear issue, vestibular neuronitis, also impacts my vision by making everything look as if it is constantly shifting, this is how my day typically looks:

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Pilfered Picture Project: tradition

Dogs are mystical, yet predictable, creatures.

Our girls are very loving and sweet. Well, mostly.

They both have a little possessive nature when it comes to the beach. It's bad enough that a seagull should land, but hundreds of Canadian Geese? Not allowed.

Tradition dictates that they must be shooed away. And, since birds can fly away faster than a dog can run, I let the girls chase them.

So, this is Haithco, a park near our home. The tiny spot between the ride-on whale and seal is Joey. The dark cloud hovering over her is the very large flock of Canadian Geese who had stopped on their long trip.

Joey only scared them to the center of the lake. As tradition also dictates, Allie patrolled the shoreline - ensuring none returned. Hence, the huge flock behind her, waterbound.

PPP: Electricity

A lightning storm, backing the steeple of St. John's across the street, is the perfect example of electricity in the sky.

I don't know why, but it makes me think of the song, "Magic in the Air" by Badly Drawn Boy:

" . . .And if you should lose me

You will track me down again . . . "

Brody, in Sepia

Had to get him in on Boys' Week . . .

Pilfered Picture Project: Sepia Boys' Week!

Oh, my built-in subjects, outlined here in Sepia. It's boys' week!

Baruch, our Red-Eared Slider, age 3 . . .


Steven, age 6-1/2 . . .

Philip, age 4 . . .

And, Alpha, our Betta, age 1-1/2. Pablo Plecosso, our Plecostomos, is in there somewhere . . . (I think he's behind that oval white rock below and to the right of Alpha)

PPP: Friends

Allie & Joey are our dogs. And they are good friends. Usually. Here, they lean on each other following a particularly grueling run in the park.

Here, they share a really good sniff at the water's edge.

A dog's life. Must be 'ruff' - hahaha.

PPP: Boke 2: Electric Boogaloo (not really)

Found this to add to the sequence. This is Kheimon, ancient Greek Goddess of Winter. A lovely reminder that her icy grip is not long away . . .

I do like the juxtaposition of the spring blossoms behind her ~

Pilfered Picture Project: Boke

Boke (pronounced "BO kay") is the Japanese photography style of focusing on soft, out-of-focus. It's the quality of what is subtly stated versus painfully obvious. And while I am recycling a photo here and technically cheating on the project, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and I just didn't have time.

But, once I found out the subject this week . . . this photo immediately came to mind.

Pilfered Picture Project: View Through

No matter how lovely the subject, not every view through it is a pleasant one . . .

Pilfered Picture Project: Colour

We went out with some friends and met more at the bar. The bar is Kingfish, on the water in Bay City. As we stood out on the dock, near a friend's boat, I looked back at the Colour of the neon lights, reflected on the River.

Pilfered Picture Project: Landmark

And, oh, what a Grand landmark she is! We had drinks in the Cupola Bar - yes, up in that cupola on top of the Grand Hotel. It was pouring rain that night, and pitch black outside, but it was amazing.

pilfered project- week 33: home

Nothing says "home" like waking up next to the one you love.

Week 31: Season

Dogs.

The beach.

The smell, on the way home in the car, of dogs having gotten into dead fish on the beach.

What else says summer quite like this?

Week 30 - Pilfered Picture Project: Repetition, repetition, repetition

The bars on the gate.
The drops of moisture on the bars on the gate.
The view of fencepost after fencepost through the bars on the gate.

All perfect symmetry of repetition. All in a row.

Pilfered Picture Project: Photography Representing Another Art Medium

There is a song that has haunted me for nearly 20 years. It's a much older song . . . an old Appalachian folk song, to be exact. But it's the way in which the group The Story sang it that makes it so ethereal and yet so real.

The song is titled "In the Gloaming" - gloaming being an Old English, and hence Appalachian, word for evening. It's about unrequited love, broken hearts, and, yes, suicide.

While gloaming simply means the twilight hours, in my mind it has always been associated with a misty evening - rife with the wispy exhalation of plants after a long hot day. Since my early childhood in the country, those wisps of mist have always seemed to me to be like souls, floating once more on the earth. Endlessly swirling, lost. A perfect way to represent this song.

In case you are interested, the lyrics:

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
when the lights are soft and low,
and the quiet shadows falling
softly come and softly go.

When the trees are sobbing faintly

with a gentle unknown woe,

will you think of me and love me

as you did once long ago?

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
think not bitterly of me,
though I passed away in silence
left you lonely, set you free.

For my heart was tossed with longing ~
what was once could never be.
It was best to leave you thus, dear -
best for you and best for me.

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
when the lights are soft and low.
Will you think of me and love me
as you did once long ago?

The Story, performing it live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeIWmz9bY9k&feature=related

This song also makes me think of a true old Lover's Leap, like this one - down in Kentucky at The Red River Gorge. The gray edge of rock is the edge of the cliff. It's a long way down.

Pilfered Picture Project: The Circle

Annabella, one of the many outside cats here, showed up 6/22 with 6 babies.
~
When she disappeared on Sunday, 7/4, little did we know she would leave her babies behind. Even more little did I know that it was because they were all so ill (except Leonard). And, sadly, all but Leonard would be dead in just a few days.
~
This is Bitsy's hidey spot ~ a watering can on our porch. We thought she just wanted to be alone. In truth, she knew she was not long for this world. She was finding her place to die.
~
We never found Ritzy's body (she was a champagne tabby). We wonder if the hawk circling overhead got her. Kitz was gone when we found him, but twin sister, Mitzi, died in my arms. It killed me to know that while I was busy at the doctor, they were busy dying, about 50 feet away from the house. They had climbed into the lillies together, and they were buried together, next to Bitsy. Itsy, on the other hand, I took to the vet to be euthanized. She was too far gone, and it happened so quickly! All the litters of kittens I had hand -raised. It was just so fast, their demise. So fast.
~
Leonard, now named Pixel, found a loving home with Tim's brother & his wife. We wish him all the love and luck in the world.
~
The circle of life continues, as Husband and I are left to ponder how many barn cats and unloved babies, with so much to give, die each year, alone, under the lillies.

pilfered picture project (week 27): minimalist

the two outside cats we brought from Cincinnati, Patrick & B-dub, were enjoying a late afternoon snack, little realizing they were also the subject of a minimalist sketch, in black and white. at the risk of objectifying them.

Pilfered Picture Project: Nature

I was astounded. Living in such a wide open space, at 10:30 p.m., we could still see so much of the sunset. Summer nights, late sunsets, all beautiful things - the mystery & wonder of Nature.

Pilfered Picture Project: Pairs

These are our new boys, still living at the private rescue. We get all four on the 4th of July weekend (we hope)!

On the left is Valentine. His white mark on his forehead is a perfect heart! And Reno is on the right . . . brothers, inseperable. The only way to tell them apart is that Reno has a question mark where his heart should be!

Say, "Cheese!"

Pilfered Picture Project: Black & White

I could have loaded a million black and white photos. Instead, I just shot a few . . . blurry body parts and crisp car ones.

Pilfered Project: Child's Play

Colton: Child's Play

Market Square Fountain

The Woodlands, TX

Pilfered Project: Ground Level

We hopped in the car to take the girls for a ride. I had not been feeling well, and we both thought the air would do me good.

As we made a 90 degree turn on a road I'd never traveled before, suddenly the River was before us, and a freighter was loading. The perspective made it appear as if the long ship were at Ground Level. Without a camera, just a phone, the picture is not quite as awe-inspiring as it was in person, but the essence is captured here, in the twilight.

Pilfered Project Catch Up: Jump

I was outside, taking a picture of the full moon. I had the flash off. I didn't see the end of the ramp to the house.

The dystonia from the allergic reaction still has me a bit stumbly. As I caught my foot, I had to Jump to make sure I didn't fall.

Pilfered Picture Project - Soft

Soft can be a color. It can be a texture. It can be a voice. It can be a sound.

Here, Soft is a bit of my garden.

I know - I'm behind and A RANT

I have the pictures, just ran out of battery power, AGAIN, while uploading! I will take care of that soon! ッ

Haven't had a good rant in a while. So, here went . . . my Whole Foods Market rant of the day.

A friend shared an article on the CEO of Whole Foods.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/04/100104fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

My retort:

That is a very interesting article, but oddly, it's true. They DO sell a lot of junk.


Being recently diagnosed with CD, I found "The Gluten Free Bible" to be very enlightening, but I nodded my head when the author spoke of eating things now just BECAUSE there is a GF equivalent. ANd I knew just what she meant.

Feeling robbed of soooo much food in the world, you will buy something just because you CAN eat it. I smile because, as we speak, I have cookies in the house. GF cookies, of course, that I bought at WFM on a trek there this past weekend. I was diagnosed with CD about 6 weeks ago. We haven't had cookies in the house since Christmas leftovers went out for the birds in January. Don't get me started on Hershey's Kisses! :)

I have had a working relationship with WFM for about 18 - 20 years as I worked in the organics industry for many moons. In this time, they have considerably expanded their selection, but as the "natural" and OG markets have grown, so has the 'trendy' customer's expectations of a natural food store. Customers who are not used to healthfood stores, if you will, expect WFM to be like your local Piggly Wiggly, Kroger, or Wegman's - choose your local grocer. And, it HAS gone from the truth of its title to being full of more processed foods! (WHOLE foods started as an organic and macrobiotic retail source, which is the definition of "WHOLE FOOD". Now, you are lucky to find more than 1/2 an aisle devoted to whole/clean food eating!)

When I first went vegan in 1980, at the age of 14, the options were limited to brown rice and vegetables, with tofu and seitan for your proteins. After 5 years, I went vegetarian, and by the early 90s, the alt-meat choices had grown exponentially. Gluten in all of them, and I have been deathly ill since, until we found out what was wrong with me just weeks ago!People see the word "organic" or 'natural' and automatically assume it's 'good for you". It can be loaded with saturated fat and still be all natural! I know of morbidly obese VEGANS! It's all in what yu eat, and a pig in lipstick, is well, still Sarah P . . . I mean, still a pig.

Pilfered Picture Project: Week 19 ~ Green

I wasn't quite sure what Green meant to me. I am so sick of hearing it in an environmental context because it makes me frightened this is just a "trend" and will soon be abandoned by the wayside. And there was the so very obvious green of a country springtime all around me.

So what is Green? How does one visualize it? I have seen through green every day of my life - not only in my life's practices, but also my eyes.


We were brought up to shut off lights when we leave a room, turn off the water while brushing our teeth, and to reuse and recycle everything we can. I look around the farm, and I see green.
The light through the leaves was lovely this afternoon, too. It made a cloudy, gloomy day feel more like spring. This is from the tree that nearly concussed and injured us, looking down the hollow stump to see if Momma bird did have a nest there. I saw her take food in today. She must! I celebrate the many aspects of the tree:

Pilfered Picture Project: Weeks 17 & 18

Hands and Season eluded me. Now that I am almost feeling better, I have been preoccupied with lots of projects here, including a compost bin instead of just using a plastic storage bin!

My thoughts for Hands were varied. I thought about how much time I have lost on illness already this year, so I was wondering if I should pursue the hands of a clock. Then, this afternoon, a much more obvious one dawned one me.

The hands of my husband heal, comfort, and perform surgery, yet still take the time to have fun. I present "Husband's Hands" - holding the ball he was throwing for our dog, Joey. (And kicking AT me, not TO me, mind you, but AT me!)



And here is another. You see, before I went in the hospital, I purchased 3 jalapenos. Mexican is one of our favorites and is a true winner for my celiac disease! The problem is, one of the peppers disappeared. (JOEY!) So, Joey decided, several weeks later, she would find it, bring it to Mumma, and leave it on the floor next to the bed for Daddy to present. Here it is, in his Hands:




But what of "Season"? Should be easy enough, on a farm at least.


I thought of babies, and along came Baby Toad. (Dennis Hopper, Jr.) I apologize for the blurry post, but he was only about 1/2 an inch long and very squirmy~
And an iris leant itself an O'Keefe kind of air.


The many pictures we attempted to take of the inside of a hollowed out branch stump (where we believe birds have nested) proved in vain. And nearly got Tim a concussion and me a twisted ankle.


We'll stick to the ground, for the moment!


Enjoy ~