Seven Lilas......or self-portrait multiplied and simplified.

A photo collage of shots taken with multiple mirrors which I edited in Adobe Photoshop. This is what I played with tonight to unwind.[not that I am that "wound-up"! I just don't feel complete unless I get to play with some kind of art/journaling every day or so!]

This style is called "notepaper". I don't know why it is just 2 colors...and I didn't have a choice of the colors either, but I rather like the high contrast and my image being reduced to simple shapes. Since it was "notepaper", I thought I should write on it...and perhaps I will, using the text feature in Photoshop, or printing it out (yikes, what a lot of ink that would take!!!) and making notecards...for now I will just use it for a blog note!

On a more serious note.....( I'm not smiling in these photos you see...)

I'm grateful for all I have and for the blogging world. To be able to "play" and live in a warm environment....etc. Many blessings every moment! I know that even if there were 7 of me I could still not do much without others! By joining together we can raise the level of good which can be done! If you have not found a way to help out the suffering world, especially Haiti, this week, visit this link to Jamaican singer Wyclif Jean. $5.00 donations from many people will add up!

Fun with the Holga camera yesterday....or "I finally got some film!"

The camera has only a few simple settings, just point and shoot! I did a deliberate double exposure of our elm tree and the house across the street, above. I think this is my favorite of these shots taken as the shadows were lengthening on the snow-covered yards. This elm is so large and powerful that it has an almost mystical presence for me. Last year's ice storm took out much of the canopy but it has survived!

My snow-covered garden bench and our mailbox are two of my other favorite images. How many years have these things been in our yard, providing a quiet place to sit on the one hand and fun and interesting news and packages on the other!

These other photos were taken either in the shade or about an hour later when the sun was lower; they show a slight rosy color on the horizon. Some of the photos have the "black soft edge corners" which are typical of the "vignette" effect the Holga is famous for. I definitely like the sunny ones best...funny thing too, Mr. Pear told me that I was using Black and White film, so I was surprised when I picked up the developed pictures this afternoon!

I am sharing the camera for awhile with my friend, Tracie...so it will be fun to see what she photographs!

Looking down the street, it is almost sunset now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the way, my friend, Sr. Macrina Weiderkehr is a wonderful photographer as well as a poet.
Visit here for a chance to order this calendar from her monastery, St. Scholastica's in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Something beautiful......

This brand new, soon to be released (available September 8th), 2009 wall calendar is the companion to the book, "Seven Sacred Pauses-Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day" by Macrina Weiderkehr. The photos for this calendar are by Macrina. The wall calendar also features quotes from her beautiful book.*

Calendars may be ordered from the address below, and are only $10.00!

I am pasting the message I received from Macrina here too, along with the address.

----- Original Message -----
From: Macrina Wiederkehr
To: roste11@cox.net
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 12:37 PM
Subject: Fw: Macrina's 2009 calendar

Hello from Macrina
I wanted you to know about our 2009 calendar in case you would like to get some for Christmas gifts.
Use the person and the address below for ordering. I am very pleased with it.

Thanks also for the poem [ I had sent her a link to Youtube, where the late John O'Donohue was reading one of his blessings]...even though I knew and have heard him reading it, it's always new.
I could listen to him reading the telephone directory. I am at the lake writing...every now and then I pop over to Indigo Pears and am always startled with delight.

Macrina

Mayan Meyerriecks
Director of Communications
St. Scholastica Monastery
Benedictine Sisters
1301 South Albert Pike
Post Office Box 3489
Fort Smith, AR 72913-3489
(479) 783-4147 Ext. 34
maryanne@stscho.org
http://www.stscho..org/

* Macrina's book has been awarded "Best Spiritual Books of 2008" by "Spirituality and Practice".

A new perspective......

I subscribe to an on-line newsletter for artists written by Canadian artist, Robert Genn.

Above: a rock from my gardening friend Paula Mariedaughter, worn by years in a river bed.

Below: bamboo stumps....see those grasping roots?

Last week he wrote about "Miksang" the Buddhist tradition of finding peace and joy by looking closely and carefully.

This can be done with the close-up lens of a digital camera.

Other images here include columbine seed pods, a day lily on a windy day, and new growth on a yew plant.

(Robert's newsletter link:http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/giftscribe.php )

Lots of "green" things in my world this week!!!!!!

This is a planter from last summer now filled with ruffled petunias from a friend...I had recycled the soil and planted on last year's memories. I was sure that the astilbe had died over the winter.....but this week I found it growing up strongly through the broken Buchan stoneware mug (from Scotland with a Thistle handpainted on it).

These moments are similar to the ones in "The Secret Garden" where they find that lost and supposedily dead plants are still "wic" or alive!

I always feel blessed when something I though was lost, comes back to me like this!

The photo of the geranium and the birdhouse shows that after a long winter inside, this plant is also "greening and growing"!

[These garden photos were taken by Mr. Pear this morning....I will be leaving him on his won for a few days while I go stay with my mother who is having cateract suregery.]

At mom's I will be handquilting on this "Summer Roses" quilt which uses some of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics (fat quarters) which I had purchased in October. I have framed this small quilt with a lighter border to represent a window frame...looking out into a garden!

And I am going to be eating a green cake at my mom's....this is called "Watergate Cake" as the recipe became popular about the same time as the Nixon scandal....

Here is a recipe with a frosting called "cover-up"..LOL

One more "green" thing (a blessing) was meeting Annie, of "Little Rock Daily Photo" blogfame...[her blog background is green and Little Rock is a green and leafy city on the Arkansas River!] , who stopped by my place of work yesterday for a few minutes!

Annie is a delightful person and a wonderful photographer/writer!

Finally, one very,very,green thing,emerald green,in fact....my friend Carmen has posted about the doll I made for her, Esmeralda!

I may not be near a working computer this week, so I'll catch up when I get back!!!!