My photography model

 

My cat Lucy is becoming more and more the subject of my photographs. I think she is beginning to love it too. She just loves the attention and is even beginning to be able to follow some simple direction like a real model.

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Something stormy this way comes.

I live in the Midwest and Spring is also storm season here. And there is one brewing now.

The clouds are literally ready to burst forth rain and thunder.

Hope it isn’t too bad. I hate thunder and lightning. And so do all the pets in out house. On a night like this I can count on waking up with two seventy pound mutts and two unhappy cats in my full size bed.

Spring, baby you are a firework

I woke up a few days ago to exploding trees and I grabbed my iPhone to go on a quick adventure.

So I began at the beginning. This is actually the crooked old lady in the front yard. She was so dark and decrepit all winter. And then Spring came and gave her a make-over. Nothing too huge, just a little color to pick up her attitude.

She had enough attitude to ask for a close-up.

Of course the fireworks show for Spring included millions of bursts of green.

Even the pathway around the yard was littered with bursts of color, and anyone who reads this blog knows that purple is my signature color.

And I know the world discounts some of nature’s most bright flowers and plants as “weeds” but I would never judge such beautiful creations. Only the thorny ones are the ‘w’ word to me.

Evergreens aren’t actually green all year. At least not green like this. I thought the shape of this burst warranted a close-up.

And here she is my inspiration! She was the first tree I saw this morning that had exploded into Spring color. She is my Mona Lisa, only so much more colorful.

The dark bark against the bright purple-y pink flowers. Too pretty to pick. Thank goodness for cameras.

Perfectly posed.

On the way in was a girl not so obviously a beauty. Most people would walk past her without a second look. But she has her beauty too, it is just a more quiet kind of beauty.

Up close she had bright and beautiful red buds. And here is a secret, in the sunset she is on fire. She blazes with a beauty like no other. Soon in a future blog, I will show you her sunset beauty.

So I pondered if I should include this tiny beauty. She is a classic beauty, tiny and petite. Perfect and pink. But she is not my own, I didn’t buy her or grow her. I see her everyday and envy her from a yard away. But she was exploding with Spring’s beauty on this day that I was running around taking pictures. So I included her here. I hope you have some of Spring’s explosions where you are and that you can take some time to enjoy them. Even if they are in a neighbor’s yard.

Earth Day 2013 otherwise known as Spring finally comes to Indiana

Spring finally showed up in my neck of the woods. We had seen a little peek of her but then we had two days of frost. Spring can be fickle here. But then we had a small explosion of color in the front yard. I am so excited. Though I am young-ish, I have the very old lady hobby of loving to garden. My Grandma Kennedy taught me how to garden when I was a little kid. She would give me an old serving spoon and a pot of dirt and show me all the nuances of making something beautiful grow. And my Mom and I would spend summer days baking in the sun as we weeded the little gardens sprinkled over our acre of yard. These are grape hyacinth flowers. We have some that came from the farm my Grandma grew up on in Southern Indiana. And I have some irises from my Grandma’s old house too. I like that our garden is full of our heritage. Our family history is in bloom from Spring to Summer and I can’t wait to get some more gardening done!

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Beauty along the road

Friday was a hard day for me. But I did not fail to notice the beauty of the nature around me during the day. At the door of the doctor’s office was where the first picture was taken. In a shady corner near the door, the small patch of grass was covered in tiny purple flowers. Purple is my signature color. So the ground cover made me smile. Hours later as I left, I noticed a large grape hyacinth in full bloom. My Grandma Kennedy loved hyacinths. I would always cut some out of our yard and give them to her in a bud vase for Easter. I took seeing these as a sign that she was watching over me. I believe she has become my guardian angel since she passed because she sends me signs that she is there. I believe the grape hyacinth was a sign because I had been to that same doctor only a few days earlier and there had not been a patch of purple flowers there before. I do choose to find meaning in these small things. I think I would miss her so much more if I never saw the heron or didn’t notice a huge bloom of grape hyacinths growing next to the sidewalk. I got really hard news at that doctor’s office that day. The next few months are going to be hard too. I am glad I have a strong guardian angel to look out for me. And I am glad I can find such spirituality in Nature.

Winter wonderland! I love it when it snows!!

 

This was one last picture of our fun snow day last week. This one kind of makes me sad because of how different this view is in the summer time. Our fence is usually covered in morning glories and day lilies. And our yard art looks so dark here while in the summer it sparkles with all the colored glass reflecting the sun’s rays. Even the wind chimes were silent that day. I do love snowy winter days don’t get me wrong but I am ready for spring.

Snow day!!!

So last Wednesday we had a couple of inches of the fluffy stuff fall very quickly overnight. So the next day was declared an official snow day!! ( by me ) Those awesome little winter surprises that make the normally dreary and unbearably cold weather and lack of sun tolerable for at least a moment. And just as I did when I was a kid, I got all bundled up to go outside and play!! Here are some of the pictures I took.

The branches were so heavy with snow.

 

The snow weighed this tree down until it looked like a completely different tree.

One poor little branch drowning in the snow, reaching up to stay above the surface.

We are lucky to have a variety of trees around our house, like this funny little crooked one.

This made me wonder why one tree was naked and the other covered in a beautiful snowy outfit?

Hopefully these are the first of many marks that I make in the world to make it a better place through art and expression.