Spring Fever

It's spring fever.

That is what the name of it is.

And when you've got it,

you want - oh, you don't quite know

what it is you do want,

but it just fairly makes your heart ache,

you want it so!

~Mark Twain~

I'm Sharing this on 'Sunday Citar' this week, over at Fresh Mommy Blog.

3 Takes~Same Bridge

Distant~
too ordinary even with editing.

Pencil Sketch~
not the usual thing at least.

Seeing Through~
For me, the color contrast between the background and the bridge, made this close up shot my favorite.
I didn't realize, until I was editing, what a beautiful veiw one could see through and beyond this beautiful bridge, while still preserving the strong architectural lines as the foreground.

Great Cloud-Continents of Sunset-Seas

Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows

In yonder West: the fair, frail palaces,

The fading Alps and archipelagoes,

And great cloud-continents of sunset-seas.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I Heart Faces~Texture

I heart faces theme for this week is ' texture' . This gritty, 'texturally', old truck was the backdrop for some photos I took of Ilex last fall. Since the texture can be original with the photo, (not necessarily added in editing) I decided on this image for this week's theme.

Decorating With Cloches

After playing around a bit with the 6 cloches of varying sizes that I found in my 'stash'...
(Sadly, I must content myself with the reproductions and facsimiles which I have collected.. no French ones here:))

Trying different effects...

I decided on the combination of old books,{I love the look and feel of well worn books} a rustic stool, and the cloches - light, airy and mostly empty - for a January reading theme. Only the largest one is ample enough to 'incubate' a few vintage books under it's lovely bell shape. The remaining ones are much smaller and are just resting on small stacks of books or the stool. {This feels somewhat like my reading lately. A few books being digested while others remain on the stack... to be tackled later?!}

Decorating Inspiration

I recently came across this photo which I took in France a couple of years ago. It reminded me of how fun it is to decorate with one or more 'cloches' or bell jars, and how we ( Shannon and I) formerly used them with reckless abandon in our shop~Poet's Garden. Though I wish that we had been able to bring one of these beauties home (we never saw one for sale!), I still enjoy the thought of seeing them in real life and real use.

Tomorrow I will show to what 'decorative' use I have put this small bit of fresh inspiration.

Pensive

(or how many posts can you get out of one afternoon at the beach?!)

I must down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
~John Edward Masefield, 'Sea Fever'.~

The Happy Parents

Driftwood Fort

The Beach

A few hours at the beach, is all it takes to make me feel like I have gotten away, breathed some fresh air into my lungs, and of course... had a reason to get the camera out!

Best Face Photo

I Heart faces is celebrating their one year anniversary this week and is asking everyone to submit their best {recent and close up} photo of a face. Well, this was taken today while we were at the Oregon coast with Russ, Heidi and the boys. I think that qualifies for recent, and Luke qualifies for adorable!

Check out all of the great entries this week at...

Living Lovely--Claim Your Vision

After much thought and deliberation I've finally decided on my key word for 2010...

~Awareness~

~~~ having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge~~~

~esp. of something not generally known or apparent~

Heidi, at Mt. Hope Chronicles, is encouraging us to start the year with a new key word which will help define and shape our thinking. At first I was gravitating to the word Insight but as I pondered on it I felt that although I wish for increased insight, the word feels too introspective {and serious}. I need something to remind me to look up and out; up from my book, up from my computer, up from myself ~ outside, out the window, out into the world! With awareness and yes with insight and clear thinking too.


So to illustrate the concept in part, this story of the little wren which I discovered {this is me being aware, right? } has found a pace to sleep at night, right by our front door, in the top of a nest topiary. He hides deep down in the moss and is only disturbed if you actually touch him. He never minds our comings and goings. I don't recall what made me first stick my hand in there only to have this tiny bird fly out and startle me!

The flash that I had to use to get these photos never even woke him. I hope you can see him {her} in the close up and then also the overall setting in the second picture.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:6-7



{So, now I'm wondering where all the other birds sleep at night? Might have to do some research on that one.}

Tea And Conversation

One remedy for the winter doldrums
~~~

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

--C.S. Lewis

In an age when everyone is constantly busy and short of time, what could be more enjoyable than taking time to indulge in what was once part of everyday life, but has now become a luxury -- afternoon tea.

~LESLEY MACKLEY, The Book of Afternoon Tea~

"Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence,
and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."

~Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea~


"If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."
--Japanese proverb, from The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo

Quoting C.S.Lewis

Our daughter over at Mt. Hope Academy, has been talking about books and has listed all the books read and needing to be read by her and her family. Her lists are massive, ambitious and wonderful. They put my reading list to shame so I won't list what I've read, but I'm going to quote here from the C.S. Lewis biography, 'Jack -A Life of C.S. Lewis' by George Sayer, which I recently finished. In it C.S Lewis is quoted as saying in one of his books~(and he can say it better than anyone!)

Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to experiences not our own. They may be beautiful, terrible, awe-inspiring, exhilarating, pathetic, or merely piquant. Literature gives the entree to them all. Those of us who have been true readers all out life seldom realize the enormous extension of our being that we owe to authors. We realize it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. My own eyes are not enough for me. Very gladly would I learn what faces things present to a mouse or bee.

In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself: and am never more myself than when I do.

And I had to find a picture to go with this post since a picture is worth--well, you know. And who better a picture of than Ilex, one of our family's great readers.

Happy New Year~Happy Birthday

Happy New Year

always comes with

Happy Birthday Levi.

He was the first baby born in this county 8 years ago at 12:05 AM. (or something close to that)
It's really not too hard to capture 'the real Levi' in a photo. He wears his heart on his sleeve! This is one of my favorites from this past year.

Happy Birthday Levi!