flowers — Page 136

Saturday Morning

July 21, 2018 at 9:37 am by Claudia

We sat out in the Secret Garden this morning, drinking our second cup of coffee. It’s the perfect place to talk; intimate, relatively quiet, birds singing, chipmunks running by. I’m treasuring these sunny mornings – it’s going to rain tomorrow and Monday and off and on throughout next week.

That means I’ll be doing some mowing and other garden chores today. I’m fine with that, in fact, I’m in the mood for that.

Thanks for all your support as Don and I play with our cameras and Don learns an entirely new skill. It’s good to have something to get excited about. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re not mourning the loss of Margaritaville. We are. We just try to keep the sadness at bay. Yesterday, we took a little nap together on the sofa and when I woke up, I felt such sadness that I wouldn’t be getting a call from Don as he made his way to the theater for the evening. That he wouldn’t be hanging around with his Margaritaville family. That audience members who planned to see it in the fall are being deprived of seeing it with the original cast – a more joyous group of people you will never meet. That particular cast will never perform together again. And that makes me unbelievably sad. Imagine how it makes Don feel. Sigh.

So we mourn, then we distract ourselves. It’s all part of the process.

This bee is exploring the mullein that grows in the back forty. This is the mullein that is over 6 feet tall. It is no longer standing up straight, but is curving downward because of the torrential rain we got last week. I’ve tried to help all of the mullein stalks stand upright, but it isn’t working.

It’s a pretty time in the gardens. But I still have to weed. And I’m approaching that time – it happens every summer – when I no longer want to expend the energy to weed. I’m not there yet, but it’s coming. Prediction: August.

We’re off to have a little breakfast in town and then Don is going off to do his thing and I’m coming back here to do mine.

Happy Saturday.

On Location

July 20, 2018 at 9:10 am by Claudia

I’ll respond to yesterday’s comments when I’m done writing this post. I had a busy day yesterday and I was too tired at the end of it to do anything other than plop on the sofa.

Don wanted to go ‘on location’ to shoot some photos, which means to the town just north of us. I had plans to mow, so we split the difference. The morning for photography, the afternoon for mowing. We found a neat place to set up, right in front of a favorite local bookshop, Inquiring Minds.

As amazing as this sounds, right after we got there, a young guy walked by and stopped to talk to Don. He has the same vintage camera. He even offered some tips. Such a small world! The camera definitely attracts people and Don loves nothing more than to meet people and chat with them. A woman and her daughter walked by and the daughter was raving about the camera. Turns out her grandfather had one and he was a well-known photographer who concentrated on jazz singers – among them, Billie Holiday. All of this happened in the first 15 minutes we were there, as Don was assembling the camera. In a small town.

I thought you’d like to see this little sidewalk garden in front of the shop.

Isn’t it adorable?

Don has been working with this camera for a mere four days. He studies hard. There’s a steep learning curve because it’s vintage, entirely manual, and it’s heavy. But each day he has improved. Lighting, framing the shot, aperture settings – all of it is new to him. The whole idea of this kind of street photography is that the photographer has one shot. Period. It’s a polaroid, the film is expensive and so, one chance to get it right, to capture that one moment in time.

But, of course, when you’re first starting out you have to experiment a whole lot before you can offer your services.

I’ve been his model all week long because I live with him. It’s been fun. (And I’ve been playing with my new camera as well.)

Here are yesterday’s winning shots:

That red brick wall is the perfect backdrop!

Then I took my turn:

I don’t mind saying I have a crush on this incredibly cool guy.

This has become a real passion for him and the perfect thing to help him through the transition from doing Escape to Margaritaville in New York City to suddenly being back home. I’m so proud of him.

Afterwards, we walked across the street to our favorite vegan restaurant and had a bite to eat.

Such a pretty bouquet on our table!

Then back home to mow the corral and the entire front lawn. Yikes. I was bushed!

I love my new camera and I have much to learn about it. But so far, it’s a winner.

Happy Friday.

Movies, Spider Webs & Mowing

July 19, 2018 at 9:16 am by Claudia

We watched a great old movie last night, All the King’s Men; the original 1949 version with Broderick Crawford, based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren. For some reason, we’d never seen it before. Filmed in black and white and gritty – almost film noir – it’s a powerful statement about politics and corruption. In fact, I kept looking at Don throughout the movie as things were happening that were all too similar to what we are seeing in Washington. The narrator says something towards the end about Willie Stark, the corrupt politician. I’m paraphrasing: Willie knew that you could say anything over and over again and people would believe it.

Sound familiar?

If you watch it, watch this version. There’s a recent remake with Sean Penn, but it can’t hold a candle to the original. Crawford is great. He won the Oscar for his performance. It’s currently available on TCM On Demand.

I saw this when I opened the front door yesterday morning. It’s all in the light, isn’t it? Later that day, I couldn’t see it at all.

Amazingly detailed work.

This coleus is starting to grow spikes with little purple flowers.

I have become a coleus fan. There are so many variations and they’re all beautiful.

Nothing beats Mother Nature for sheer beauty.

We’re going to do some photo shooting on location today. That sounds awfully official, but it just means that we’re going into the next town to take some pictures. And then I’m going to start in on mowing. Yesterday I caught up with weed whacking. Mowing and weed whacking have been on hold because of the heat and humidity and rain. It’s beginning to look a little tidier around here.

It’s a gorgeous day today.

Happy Thursday.

Saturday Morning

On Location

Movies, Spider Webs & Mowing

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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