One in full sun

Usually I would have isolated the single bloom... eliminating the distraction of the other stems and leaves. But there are always distractions in our path; things we have to either step around or leave alone and look past to see where we're headed. Traffic. Life traffic. Eyes ahead and hands on the wheel.

A day at the beach

One more before I put the slides away for a while. I have found that going through these slides has begun to make me feel sad. I woke up one morning and 'saw' my life as a flip-book. You know the ones where you flip through the pages and it looks like a movie. I saw those who have died, as well as the births, friends, travel, school, jobs, houses, cars that make up my life. So, I'm putting the slides aside... for now at least.

As for this photo, I remember that air mattress - it was army green. And we always took a brown army blanket  to sit on. 

Back to the present...

Footwear Choices

Another from the archives. I certainly don't remember this moment and I doubt that my mother will, but questions abound:

It's obvious that I'm unhappy. Where are my gloves? Why is my mother putting a sandal on my foot? (Note: It is possible that I wanted the sandal and not the skate or the boot.)

And... apparently my dad thought the situation worthy of a photo. :)

Memories come flooding back

I now have in my possession, boxes and boxes of my father's 35mm slides. In this post not enough photos, I  lamented that I couldn't find old photos of Christmas mornings, vacations, etc. from my childhood. Well, I have them now. I've only gone through a few hundred slides (and scanned less than 20!) so far and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. I'm finding it difficult to stay in the present, with so many memories coming into sharp focus.

They haven't been stored in the best of conditions, so humidity, heat and age have left their mark on many of them. But I'm having a great time... I just need to slow down a little. :)

Here we are in front of our vacation cottage at the New Jersey shore. My older sister (center) died at age twenty-four, so this is a rare photo of the three of us. I hope to find many more in the remaining boxes.

Does anybody really know what time it is?

It's time to change the time. I have thirteen clocks in my house. Before you think that I might be obsessed with time, let me explain:

There are two wind-up clocks that I have to manually change.

There are three that have no batteries in them so... 

There are two that I never turned 'back' last Fall, so... they'll be correct with no intervention needed from me.

There are two appliance clocks (oven, microwave) that never seem to be correct, so I don't even bother to look at them.

There are two cable box clocks and two computer clocks that will automatically reset themselves.

Oh, I forgot my watch... that makes fourteen.

It must be Spring

Tulips and ladybugs... well, one ladybug at least. I was feeling as though I had done too many tulip shots, though I never tire of finding a new view of their graceful curves. Then this ladybug went walking across my window (inside). Not one to touch bugs, I encouraged it into a cup and then into the interior of a tulip. It cowered down at the very base, half-hidden beneath the stamen. I took a few shots of that spotted shell, barely visible. And then it began to climb up along the petals. As I began shooting again, flash firing, it turned and headed back down to safety. I figured this was the best shot I was going to get and so I set it free outdoors. Ahhhh, Spring... and the tales the ladybugs tell.