Friday, May 28, 2010

Eyes of Niles

Niles, my friend Cindy's cat, posed so patiently and elegantly for the camera. Gorgeous, the way his pale green eyes caught the spring light.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie
is that a cat has only nine lives.


-- Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)

To admire Niles' glory more fully, merely click on the image.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Something of the Marvelous

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

-- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Parts of Animals, bk. 1, ch. 5

Funny how you set out to take a photograph of one thing, then something else catches your eye and takes you in a whole other direction. This podlike, mummified ... thing ... was part of a box of potpourri. (Could it possibly be a slice of orange?) As I headed out to the deck, it was literally underfoot, aglow in the light streaming through the sliding glass doors. Outside, I held it up to the muted sunlight, played with the way it cast a shadow, then realized what a terrific composition it formed against the bold wood grain of the picnic table.

Click on image to enlarge.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Clematis Shadows

I can't resist the immediate thrill of posting this photo of the clematis my neighbor brought me last night. She knows I love to arrange the flowers that arrive from her garden in vitamin jars, cans and juice bottles. Late this afternoon I lost myself in admiring the individual flowers with my camera. That rich purple ... those textures and shadows!

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

-- Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)

The photo was taken 5/16/10. Click on image to enlarge.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Strangeness in the Proportion

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
from Of Beauty, Essays

Thank you to Thea and Mark for the Mother's Day roses, and thank you to Shane for the Mother's Day creature, all featured in this picture. Emma, thank you for trying so hard to get here! The tinyitis "monster bug" was made by Deanne Neiburger of Deetsy on etsy.com. The photo was taken this afternoon, 5/15/10. Click on image to enlarge.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Reading the Sky

Walking downhill on my road at the end of April, my friend and I came across clouds like smudged words in the sky. I wandered ("lonely as a cloud"?) through a book here on North American weather, a thrilling find. According to the photos -- and with no true understanding -- the closest I came to naming them was altocumulus undulatas, under "middle clouds." Well, whatever they were, they were quite beautiful and mysterious. It was like finding an erased message written on a blue chalkboard. What did it say?

The poet is like the prince of the clouds
Who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer;
Exiled on the ground in the midst of jeers,
His giant wings prevent him from walking.

-- Charles Baudelaire, "L'Albatros," st. 4, from Les Fleurs du Mal (1861)

The photo was taken 4/29/10. Click on image to enlarge.