Warmth
Drawing with Poppy
Daily photo #25
I have posted about his work before. Just recently, Mike sketched two new portraits for me. I plan to get them framed but I was so drawn to this one that I began playing around with light and a poppy. I’m happy with the rich glow cast on the paper by the petals and the way the lines keep pulling the viewer into her sweet mouth and the quiet joy in her eyes.
Abalone with Confetti
Daily photo #24
This beautiful shell belongs to one of the tastiest sea creatures I’ve ever eaten. The creatures are so prized that, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the meat of just one 10 inch abalone can sell for as much as $100. My family has been diving for them ever since my Dad was a young man. My husband and sons now struggle down in free dives up to 50 feet deep–it is illegal to use tanks to harvest the abalone –to gather the odd looking but tasty beast.
The shell is used for inlays on guitars and furniture as well as jewelry but around my house I use around 50 or so as edgings for my garden.
The abalone can create a pearl, which in my opinion, outshines traditional white pearls. In addition, the abalone’s pearls are even rarer than those of an oyster. The abalone’s creations are irridescent and range from gray, to turquoise to pink. They often have unusual and breathtaking shapes.
Like a Deer in the Headlights
Daily Photo #23
A translation of Georgia O’Keefe–from the dry Southwest to the wet hills of Northern California
Thanks to Headwrapper.
Black Sands, Shelter Cove, Needle Rock, Bear Harbor, Wages Creek—the names of my childhood camping spots are as varied and as evocative as the memories that go with them— and best of all, most frequented of all, was Usal.
As a kid, I thought its name had to do with the lumber company that owned it and I envisioned the title emblazoned on trucks and spelled U-Saw—a sort of log-it-yourself business. Now I know that this was an Indian word (probably no living larynx vibrates with the exact sounds of that language and no living soul remembers the nuances of its meaning).
Logged hillsides lined each side of the old road into the area. The logging was fresh and raw then but there were still some thin trees standing. Ragged ferns and bushes survived in scattered clumps around the bases of trees and beside the several shallow streams we forded to get to the ocean. Read the rest of this entry »
Bronzing the Lilly
Daily Photo #22
An older Calla Lilly ages gracefully in my garden.
I know the idiom is really ‘gilding the Lilly’ as in Shakespeare’s
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
However, I coined the term ‘bronzing the Lilly’ to describe how an aging flower can sometimes evolve from beautiful to exquisite as its edges turn coppery.
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky
Purple haze all in my eyes,
Don’t know if its day or night
You got me blowin, blowin my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?*
Daily Photo #21
Last night’s sunset with Lupins
Cat’s Ears
AKA
Star Tulip
Daily Photo #20
The local name is Cat’s Ear but there is an invasive dandelion type flower in England that goes by a nearly identical name so some people prefer the Star Tulip designation.
This petite wildflower cuddles deep into meadow grasses and the three fuzzy white petals contrasting with the purple throat and sepals as well as pale blue touches make it difficult to photograph (after many tries, I just gave up and settled for this one) but beautiful to look at. It seems to favor 3 or 4 flowers to a cluster and has one long leaf. Kids love to pick it. Don’t let them. There aren’t enough as it is.
Bat
Daily Photo #19
While not the best photo, I couldn’t resist showing this tiny inhabitant of a derelict building on our property. I opened the door to the old home this morning with unusual difficulty. This little guy tumbled from some roost onto the floor. I did the best I could to take his picture, then, using an oak leaf as a scoop (he was incredibly light and small), carefully moved the tiny bat to a shelf high up where neither my cat nor dog could get him.
I’m concerned because I think it had been hibernating and was very slow to move and react. Some species of bats (Is this a California Myotis?) can starve to death if disturbed during hibernation. On the other hand, it is a lovely warm day and the swallows are certainly getting enough insects. Hopefully, he will, too, this evening. He did stretch and crawl around some after I moved him to the shelf.
Yes, I went right home and thoroughly washed my hands with soap and water even though I don’t think I actually touched him.
Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain
Just recently I read here about a local reporter’s less than flattering view on blogs. The title of her story, “Indecent Expression” tells a great deal about her slant on one of my favorite forms of communication. She argues that blogs “are dangerous.” She rightly points out the problems with unsigned comments and anonymous blogs but she fails to note the power of and opportunity afforded by this form of discourse.
I felt compelled to send a letter to the Journal and thought I would keep the conversation going by offering my submission to you. In the print media, a letter appears to the editor and rarely receives a response (although I got a very nice personal email from Hank already) but online the dialogue can flow back and forth for days between many people with a variety of views. I would especially like to hear opinions about the blogsphere’s use of anonymity and how that has affected discussion. I have been interested in this subject for awhile. Read the rest of this entry »
