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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.