Deep Throated

Summer of P: Past and Purple

From 2014: Iris

Get your mind out of the gutter. This iris was on the "Iris Hill" in our yard in Post Falls ... not near the curb.

(I'm not right in the head today. Can you tell?)

We had a new roof and new rain gutters put on the house this week. It's hard to blog in a construction zone, so I didn't. The house looks quite nice now, all buffed and polished.

Our "Summer of P" is nearly over. I'm considering whether or not to have a special focus for this Fall. "September is the other January" when it's time for new beginnings with the new school year, the new season. Ideas are coming slowly. 

Volunteer

Summer of P: Past and Purple

From 2015: Columbine

A bird or a squirrel planted this in our yard in Post Falls, Idaho. It was hiding in the shade of a pine tree. Until this flower caught my eye, I didn't know what a columbine was.

Shhhhhh

Summer of P: Past and Purple

From 2015: Whispering hyacinth

'nuf said

Extreme Close-up

Summer of P: Past

From 2015: Snapdragon

The colors. The softness. The undulating lines. The feminine qualities. The watercolor effect. The stealth it took to take the photo in a neighbor's yard. 

The "Georgia O'Keeffe-ness" of it all. 

Taking photos like this is one of the main reasons I took up photography, thanks to my college music professor -- to get up close and personal with flowers.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos.

Birthday Memory

Summer of P: Past

From 2021: Sundown over Fern Ridge Lake

There was much about the pandemic years that was atrocious. However this was an outstanding day.

Jeanne and I share a late November birthday. The gift we received was a full day of geocaching with Dale and Jodie. It was the best.

We found 14 geocaches in the countryside west of town. We visited a county park that was new to us. We had pizza at a joint that had just started serving customers inside again. We acted as a team, each taking on a role: driver, navigator, logger, swag stocker. So many laughs. Wonderful family time.

Here's the view from the last cache of the day.  Ideal.

Moon Shot

Summer of P: Past

From 2013: Nearly Full

The moon is a very bright object in the night sky, so it takes a lot of skill to get a decent photo of it. I'm at the beginning of my journey.

This is probably the best image of the moon I've ever captured. It was taken from the driveway of our Post Falls, Idaho home. I like the way it's framed by the pine trees.

I have an (eventual) goal to give some dedicated effort to learn how to take nice moon shots. I want to capture images where the ridges and craters are more visible. For now, I'll celebrate that I did this well ten years ago.

Mom's Favorite

Summer of P: Past

From 2007: Lilacs in Light

The Mystery at Lilac Inn

Any of you remember that title? It was one of the Nancy Drew mysteries.

Growing up in southern California, I didn't know what lilacs were. My mom said they grew where it got cold in the winter. She told me it was her favorite flower.

When I was about 10, my mom started allowing me to read her copies of the Nancy Drew books. They were some of the few books she kept from her childhood in the 1930s. She kept them way up by the ceiling on a top shelf in the laundry room. I had to climb on a counter and stand on tiptoe to get to them.

I loved their blue cloth covers. The thick pages. That "old books" aroma.

I loved that dresses were called "frocks" and they drove around in a convertible called a "roadster." Reading those books may be a principle reason I love words and language and have a vocabulary that helps me relate precise feelings. 

Mostly I love that my mom trusted me enough to read her Nancy Drew books.

When I moved to Idaho for college, there were huge lilac bushes growing outside the music/dance building. We used to keep the windows open in the Spring to drink in their scent. I came to love lilacs, too. I later grew some in our Post Falls yard. This photo is from one of them.

When I moved from Idaho to Oregon, Dale and I gave away most of our large library of books. I gave my mom's Nancy Drew books to my librarian daughter, Julie.

She keeps them on a top shelf.

Maybe in four years, she'll trust Melody to start reading them.

Trying New Techniques

Summer of P: Past

From 2007: Peppercorn

It took a lot of innovation to get this shot. I was trying to recreate a masterful macro photo I saw online. The photographer said he took his picture "while experimenting with extension tubes." I was too new to photography to know what that meant.

This is from the days I was taking photos with a point-and-shoot camera. I didn't even have my macro filter yet. Not having any extension tubes of my own, to get this image I experimented with holding my camera in one hand, and holding a small magnifying glass in the other hand. I was experimenting with where to put the light to try and get the same shadow as in my inspiration photo. 

I was in total flow. I worked on this shot for hours, trying one thing and another. I was SO pleased with the outcome after a day of experimentation.

Soon after, I did get a macro filter for my little camera which made taking close-up shots much easier, though getting the focus right was still manual (no auto-focus on that little point-and-shoot!).

Photography is time travel. This one image took me right back to my basement studio in Post Falls, the clip-on lighting, my cutting table covered in a white sheet. 

This peppercorn still makes me smile because it brings back "all the feels."

My Baby Had a Baby

Summer of P: Past

From 2017: Hi there, little one!

One of the favorite moments of my life.

When Auntie Jeanne and Auntie Jodie met baby Melody for the first time ... right before Jodie's wedding. Such a happy, happy month!

I keep very few photos on my phone. This is one of them.

She's Got Fuzzy Balls

Summer of P: Past

From 2016: Tennis Anyone?

I love me a macro shot.

The best part of this photo-organizing bender I'm on is finding old photos I've taken that tickle me. With this photo, it's all about the textures and simple colors. I also like the way the light is bouncing off the top of the ball.

The worst part of this photo-organizing bender I'm on is the emotional stuff I run into ... and the fact that my eyes are burning from looking at a computer screen for hours on end. The process is going well, however, so it's worth it.

Pushing Through

Summer of P: Past

From 2012: Perseverance

I'm working on a huge project with my library of photographs. If I'm lucky, I'll be done by the end of the month. Or maybe it's not luck, but diligence. There's no real deadline. 

I'm making steady progress with perseverance.

See the Sea

Summer of P: Past

From 2012: Lighthouse

The eye of the spiral staircase

Blue on Blue

Summer of P: Past

From 2007: Bridge of the Gods

Over the Columbia River, at the Gorge

All those intersecting lines ... and an American flag, w-a-y up on top.

Creepy? or Cool?

Summer of P: Past

From 2017: Pumpkin Glow

I vote "cool."

Sports Nuts

Summer of P: Past

From 2012: Bowling with Jodie

Embroidery on Paper

 Summer of P: Past

From 2016: Jeanne's Star

I made this for Christmas. I did a lot of embroidery on paper that year and turned the designs into Christmas cards. I gave the special beaded ones to the very special people in my life. 

The variegated blues work so well on the black background. The gold and pearl beads make this star shine!

Floating

Summer of P: Past

From 2013: Bubbles in the Back Yard

This image plops me right on the old wood deck in our Post Falls home's back yard. 

Hot summer day. Nothin' else to do. Go out back and blow some bubbles. Is there any chance at all I can get an image that's in focus and sharp? 

Hmmmm. Not quite.

Thanks for the Lovely Evening

 Summer of P: Past

From 2018: Purse-shaped thank you card

I've collected "Ladies of the Evening" for years. A long-time friend sent me a beaded handbag. I sent her this purse-shaped thank you card made from fancy glittery scrapbook paper, sequins, and ribbon.

A special card for a very special friend.

Tulip Heart Cards

I was back in card-making mode this week. This looks like a tulip to me. It's a simple happy design.

Most of it is made from scraps of colored cardstock, but the heart is a sticker made from fun foam.

I kept it simple on the inside, leaving plenty of room for a personal message.

Signed on the back, as usual. I'm still looking for the ideal-size heart stamp.

I liked this happy design so much that I repeated it three times.

I usually make cards individualized for the recipient. This time I felt myself procrastinating. I decided "done it better than good," so repeated the design to get the cards in the mail as soon as possible. I appreciate that this design is more universal than many I create.

#flowersforfriday

Quilted Heart #25

My friend M has a friend, C, who is going through a rough patch. Stage 4 cancer. 

Not good. 

When M told me about her profound sadness, I offered to make a Quilted Heart for him as a way to help him know there are folks around who care. I'm grateful M said yes. I like making these hearts and appreciate having a reason to make another.

I started with a blue fabric with a snowflake/star design. To it I added a delicate lace heart. Then I popped on a darker blue ribbon. I sewed the pieces together with a backstitch using matching blue thread. 

M told me C likes penguins, I made one from felt, adding googly eyes for lightheartedness and whimsy. 

I finished it off with a bow of the same blue ribbon and a charm: the Tree of Life.

Please join me in a quick little prayer for C's difficult health journey ahead. Bless M, too, for giving me this small opportunity to serve.

We are all so connected to the joys and pain of one another.

Early Embroidery

Summer of P: Past

1980 (ish):  Embroidered Pillowcase

This is one of the first large surface embroidery projects I ever stitched. The pre-printed pillowcases were bought in 1976 in Chicago, Illinois. My family took a cross-country trip during the country's bicentennial. Among other things, we swam in the Atlantic Ocean, saw Niagara Falls, toured Carlsbad Cavern, had our first Canadian and Texas experiences, got to know a whole lot of shirttail relatives, and visited the towns where my parents grew up.

When Mom was young, her parents owned a Ben Franklin five-and-dime store in Chicago. The store they owned was gone, but Mom took us to see a more modern version. That's where I bought the pillowcases. It was Mom who taught me to embroider backstitch, lazy daisy, chain stitch, satin stitch, and French knots. Most of those stitches are seen in this sample. I picked the vivid floss colors (a little bit 'Yikes!')

Can you tell? This photo shows the top right hump of a heart shape. Even back then, I guess hearts were a 'thing' for me.

Pod Cast-away

Summer of P: Past

From 2016: Seed Pod

I'm pretty sure this is a chestnut. I found it when I was living in Idaho. I was out on a walk and picked it up off the ground because of the color and texture. I was wearing a hoodie and put several of these pods in my hood to carry home because they were too pricky to hold in my hand.

Seven years later, it reminds me of the coronavirus. Experiences change perspective.

A Berry Good Year

 Summer of P: Past

From 2020, The Ripening

Dale and I found this bramble while visiting a park south of town. Blackberries grow wild and free here in Eugene. A bit of a menace, really. This time of year they're starting to ripen all over town. 

Want to make blackberry jam? Now's the time!

P is for Pinecone

 Summer of P: Past

From 2016, a pinecone from our front yard.

We had hundreds of pinecones in our yard each year. Dale used to pay Jodie five cents each to pick them up before he had to cut the grass. 

I was proud of myself for being able to capture this macro shot of a pine nut tucked between the scales.

Summer Sunshine

Summer of P: Past

From 2020, the Sunshine Wreath

Crochet, pompoms, and embroidery. 

This may be my favorite summer decoration, hanging in our living room.

Well, my favorite until I make another fun craft.

Summer of "P" - revised

My intention for the Summer of P was to pay attention to some things:

• Patio
• Parks
• Picnics
• Past
• Purple

Dale and I have been doing better than expected with patio. We're at the point with the new furnishings where we enjoy spending time out there every day. 

I've been noticing lots of purple and find myself taking photos of all manner of objects. Few are worth editing or are blog-worthy.

But we've not visited many parks. We've taken no picnics. And we've visited no museums (past). Dale was on the grand jury for a month, and our travel fun time was sporadic. We lost our rhythm.

Now that jury duty is over and we have only one more month of summer, I hope we can visit at least one more park and take a picnic lunch. It's been hot, and now the wildfires have begun, so picnics at parks may not be all that fun.

And for past? Instead of visiting museums, I'm going to revisit some photos I've taken in the past and enjoy them all over again. I'm starting here.

Our granddaughter Melody when she was just over two months old. 

Throwback Thursday: Pollen

From this date in 2016.

Doctor appointments, then playing catch-up this week in real life, so I don't have much new blog content. This photo makes me want to get out my macro lens on my "big girl" camera.

So many interests. So little time. 

Even in retirement.