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.

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.

Unsettled Air

Coming out of a local restaurant a couple of Thursdays ago, we caught a glimpse of a double rainbow in the eastern sky, between the trees. In search of a more open view, we drove to the North County Trailway in Yorktown and stood on the bridge over the New Croton Reservoir. The unsettled air produced some wild contrasts in the weather. The rapid changes in the surroundings were beautiful: wind-whipped inky clouds, water turned to hammered silver, sky scoured blue and spotless, pelting rain, and intermittent rainbows. Sometimes rays of sun pierced the raindrops as they fell. It was like standing inside a time-lapse sequence of May days, our hair flying, the condensed weather flickering over us. The scenes changed in such quick succession that I could almost feel the seasons of my life rushing over my scalp.

All five photos were taken from the Putnam Railroad Bridge on the North County Trailway in Yorktown, NY, on 5/22/08.