White

For winter's rains and ruins are over.
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain, and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~ Algernon Charles Swinburne

xo

Morris Green Idyll

"My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another."

~ William Morris

"Step into the potting shed and the hum of the everyday world dwindles into silence. The air is warm and smells of earth. Wood flats checkerboard the potting bench, terra-cotta pots tower in the corner like soup bowls on a kitchen shelf, and bins of soil beckon, their contents rich and deep. ... Sequestered from the accustomed demands of life, and focused on the task before us, our imaginations swell. The garden beyond the door grows lush in an instant, and plum trees planted only yesterday droop beneath the weight of sun-warmed fruit. Visions for next season, and for countless years to come, unfold in vivid color to dazzle and entice. A new perennial bed against that old brick wall. A trellis of climbing roses beside the bedroom window. A fence of espaliered apple trees along the garden walk."*

"Spring comes early behind the closed doors of the potting shed. Gardeners cannot wait for it to arrive in its own good time, creeping slowly through the perennial beds; winter has been too long and the hunger for green is too great. Weeks before the soil outside has lost its icy chill or heart-shaped leaves have clothed the naked lilacs, we urge the season along."*

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

"Beauty … is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life."

~ William Morris

xo




For Eva Ricci's March in Green hosted by Karrie Brewer Drake, this month.

* The Potting Shed by Linda Joan Smith p. 9, 10, 59

Happy Easter!

There is a photo competition at a new blog that I've found,  www.rocktheshotforum.com/.  It's been very inspirational and encouraging - full of good advice!!

I took this photo a year ago (when we had something, actually, growing outside =P) but I've only just brought some artistic vision to it this monh. It is a blossom from my weeping cherry tree and was a complete joy to create because I felt like the style and feeling that I wanted to communicate was clear to me and my skills in Lightroom could just flow right out of that. It really, actually, felt like I was painting with watercolor! It was a complete joy to be in that creative zone!

 
'Joy' and 'flow' - that's the word for it and, Ladies, wouldn't you just love to have a chiffon dress like this?!?! =)

And, we shall see what we shall see and, in the meantime, I hope that this image brings a moment of refreshment and peace to you!

Happy Easter!!!

=)
 

xo

 www.rocktheshotforum.com/

Nest

I know, dear friends, that you would be incapable of laughing at me if I told you that, after my last cheery post about 'surviving winter' (which I wrote, last Monday, when much of our snow was gone - during which, as I wrote my last flourish, I saw my first robin -  during which I had the knowledge that we were expecting a little bit of spring snow the next day... you know... to help green up the grass....)

...I just know that you would never laugh at me if I told you that, the very next morning, we woke up to eight inches of snow and still heavily precipitating till there was a full foot of the white stuff.

Happily, I've been practicing what I preach and had already applied several of the antidotes to the winter blues that I had listed.

For example, retail therapy.... craving the ability to back up from my subjects to get a wee bit more negative space and still retain a low dof, I purchased the nifty fifty f1.8 which has been a serious relief from my dilemma! I could never have taken these images (without hovering, that is) with the nifty sixty. So, here we are! Very happy!

Also, after a tentative start of finding my way around Photoshop, Sarah Gardener's book has pried open the world of creativity in that medium for me. 'I feel like the old time, maritime Captain who, when asked where he was going, replied, "Sir, I am restricted to the ocean!"' (~ Sidlow Baxter - Scottish preacher - friend of Eric Liddel of Chariots of Fire fame - you know, from that gang - preaching on the Holy Spirit.)

Anyhoo!

Beyond that, I am in love with her style, feel and COLORS. Her images are an infusion of spring in my eyes and heart!

In the meantime, this is the first image that I've attempted for the word prompt 'green' for the year long challenge that I've taken on with Eva Ricci. It's not VERY green, is it? but, to me, it embodies the spirit of the word...

~ Natural, spring, alive and growing, hopeful, refreshing. ~

I am, also, participating in Mary's 'Inspiration Thursday', this week (and a little late), and the word prompt is 'round'. Alas, next week's prompt is 'fence' and all of the fences that I know of around here are buried in grungy piles from the snow plow. But, I just know you wouldn't laugh at me saying that after my last post.... ;-)

nest 'au natural'

delicate f1.8 - just because I CAN! ;-) =)

Would you please help me, though. Which one do you like best? I'm leaning towards the first one because I'm a creative chicken!

and I hope you have a wonderful spring weekend!!

xo