photo finish

Trying to decide what my photo of the day would be on this all-important final day of the 31 photos project, I for some reason, unbeknownst to me, wanted to shoot the pool water. So I ran with the inspiration and carted my camera to the pool. Once there I snapped a few photos of the blank water and then decided it would be kind of cool to get feet along with it. So I called a random swimmer over and asked him to do me a favor. He obliged as I had him swim a lap of freestyle directly underneath my viewing window. Thanking him, I started to leave and, on the way, stopped to chat with one of the neighbors. She was assuming my photography was for some sort of newspaper article or write-up . . . for good reason: it turns out my "random" swimmer just happened to be the 50-yard freestyle champion in the city meet this past week! Fitting finish for last daily photo of the month, I think :-)

next stop: sakeji

today's lesson

a rain puddle. a pink parasol. and a sisterly hug. perfect

art lesson leftovers

Sometimes the mess is just too nice to clean up :-)

connor's pickle

Connor happily showed me his garden again this evening. And as we inspected further, we discovered not just two . . . there are, in fact, five pickles in his garden. I, however, am particularly partial to the toes that also have been known to be found in Connor's garden :-)

what does your garden grow?

I met my neighbors the other day, thanks to my bold curiosity about her gardening prowess. This evening, as I crouched on the ground to capture this stunning sunflower [and I didn't add a thing to this photo, so far as color or other touch-ups go!], their young son poked his head up from the vine behind me and made a proud announcement [he had already granted me permission to take photos in his garden]. "Hey! You can take a picture of this one too . . . we have a pickle . . . Wait--we have two pickles!!!"
Wow--I wish my garden grew pickles . . . .
Young Connor kindly consoled me for my lack of a pickle-growing garden . . .

pecking order

Watching the hummingbirds this evening, we wondered out loud as to the fact that there were only females flitting about. Then we realized why: a solitary male approached, and was promptly shoved out of the way by a female . . . he did not persist in his efforts and nor, it seems, did any other of these northern hummers!

line of sight, take 2

So today's machine of choice was admittedly less productive--and decidedly more fun--than the last one featured! A post-service outing afforded me the occasion to have my first go at four-wheeling on the pastor's toy. Don't be fooled . . . preachers can wheel [and deal?] with the best of them :-)

line of sight

Yes, this is, in fact, a lawnmower. And yes, I did, in fact, take a photo of it today. Why? Well, it made perfect sense to me: for after spending the afternoon with this particular view, I realized that I was quite fond of it . . . and what is more natural than to want to capture the image of something you are fond of? Ok, so maybe it is the end result that make me so fond of this machine, but it doesn't need to know that, now does it?

project do-it-herself

This was the day's DIY home repair project. And while it was certainly no work of fine craftmanship, done as best as I could figure out how to do it, I was proud of my work all the same. I was also amused by the fact that, as I crouched on the floor with putty-covered hands and concentrated push-point-placings, two burly athletes sat watching me. One took his mother's phone call, arguing good-naturedly about when he would make it to their family vacation; the other concentrated on his cell phone, cursing his large hands when he accidentally texted an unspoken message to an unintended recipient. And I contentedly carried out my solitary project to its satisfactory completion.

the one

No doubt you wonder why I would be so interested in this, apparently mundane, sort of scene. The reason is a simple one--silly, even: it reminds me of a painting I clipped out of a magazine back in high school. It was an impressionist scene, of a girl lost in her delight, flying high in a swing such as this one, suspended over a forest spring. The depiction captivated me at the time so that I longed to be transported into the middle of it. But I have no idea who painted it, and have not seen it since high school, so who knows what that particular piece of art was, or if it would have the same impact on my now . . . in my cynical old age ;-)

still [not] the one

so this is yet another "side" photo: a glimpse. a gasp. an i-must-capture-that moment. another photo i took when i was out intending to take the photo that i have not yet posted . . . oh, the suspense :-)

the photo that almost wasn't

this was not the photo i intended to take this morning. it was another sight that inspired me to grab my camera and dash out while i still had good morning light. and i did take a shot of the sight that had so inspired me . . . and then i saw this. and it was simply too lovely to pass up. so here you have it. i'll post the intended photo later ;-)

fly away home

This morning's sun glinted off the dew drops, catching my eye and making me kneel down to see what this was lying in my path in the cemetery. And then I was delighted--with its beauty, clearly, but also with the fond childhood memories that it brought to mind . . .
My girlfriends and I at boarding school in Zambia used to rescue dragonflies from the boys, as they were wont to torture the creatures with dismemberings and the like. We would do as best as our 6-year-old brains could conceive of to do in order to nurse them back to health, imagining them happily flitting off into a future of freedom and long-lived prosperity. Perhaps this particular wing belonged to one of those rescued creatures, carrying it across many oceans, years, and adventures, until it finally lay to rest in a little graveyard in the heart of the Southland . . . :-)