Day 360 – It’s Not Always a Bad Thing

It’s Not Always a Bad Thing

Day 360

Bright Cap and Streamers by James Joyce

Bright cap and streamers,
He sings in the hollow:
Come follow, come follow,
All you that love.
Leave dreams to the dreamers
That will not after,
That song and laughter
Do nothing move.

With ribbons streaming
He sings the bolder;
In troop at his shoulder
The wild bees hum.
And the time of dreaming
Dreams is over — –
As lover to lover,
Sweetheart, I come.

•••

A bit blown out, but sometimes it just works.  I went with a more traditional light in the second shot….

•••

It Doesn’t Look too Bad

Day 349 – Boom

Boom

Day 349

Stars Wheel in Purple by Hilda Doolittle

Stars wheel in purple, yours is not so rare
as Hesperus, nor yet so great a star
as bright Aldeboran or Sirius,
nor yet the stained and brilliant one of War;

stars turn in purple, glorious to the sight;
yours is not gracious as the Pleiads are
nor as Orion’s sapphires, luminous;

yet disenchanted, cold, imperious face,
when all the others blighted, reel and fall,
your star, steel-set, keeps lone and frigid tryst
to freighted ships, baffled in wind and blast.

Day 346 – Look at Me

Look at Me

Day 346

When I shoot a photo tomorrow evening, it will be the final photo of this project.  I have been dragging my feet about getting 346 – 364 posted; maybe I am postponing the inevitable, or more likely I am just lazy and spending too much time playing games on my iPhone – Words With Friends and Draw Something have me hook, line and sinker….  In either case, I am just posting the one photo tonight, or should I say, this morning (?) as it is almost 1:00 am and I am just plain pooped – tonight a book has been distracting me:  a nice bit of camp in a book titled Dark Shadows:  Angelique’s Descent by none other than the original Angelique, Lara Parker – prurient curiosity led me to read it, however it is an engaging story, if a bit on the dark (pun intended) side.

Until tomorrow…..  and a word of warning, lazy Cyndi has let the flowers do all of the work – I went out day after day and shot flower after flower because I just didn’t feel like “working” on anything that would make me have to think, which would therefore force large amounts of black smoke to pour from my ears.  I think it was a good compromise.

Day 345 – Sugar Beer

The glass is scattered on Harrison Street and I almost passed it by; it is a good thing I look up, down and all around before I move on.

Today’s post brought to you by the folks over at Sugar Beer:

The Lost Drink by Andrew Barton Paterson

I had spent the night in the watch-house —
My head was the size of three —
So I went and asked the chemist
To fix up a drink for me;
And he brewed it from various bottles
With soda and plenty of ice,
With something that smelt like lemon,
And something that seemed like spice.
It fell on my parching palate
Like the dew on a sunbaked plain,
And my system began to flourish
Like the grass in the soft spring rain;
It wandered throughout my being,
Suffusing my soul with rest,
And I felt as I “scoffed” that liquid
That life had a new-found zest.I have been on the razzle-dazzle
Full many a time since then
But I never could get the chemist
To brew me that drink again.
He says he’s forgotten the notion —
‘Twas only by chance it came —
He’s tried me with various liquids
But oh! they are not the same.

We have sought, but we sought it vainly,
That one lost drink divine;
We have sampled his various bottles,
But somehow they don’t combine:
Yet I know when I cross the River
And stand on the Golden Shore
I shall meet with an angel chemist
To brew me that drink once more.

•••

Perfect weather, a nice breeze, an hour or so on my hands in my camera’s favorite little town.  And I was left with 6 photos I really liked and since I am THISCLOSE to being finished with my 365, I decided not to limit myself to one photo choice per day.  Sugar Beer was actually not my favorite, but I liked the idea of giving this post the title Sugar Beer, so there you go.  I think Little Beard is the one I like the best, and oh!  You could smell the fragrance all of the way down the street as it wafted along with the breeze.

At the corner of Morton Street, the scent drifts on the breeze, the colors glow and I am in love.

They will shoot at anything, won’t they?

Closed for a long time, this place is starting to fade.

Allis Chalmers tractor, bright – it caught my eye in an instant as it graced a storefront.

Say Ahhh…

Day 344 – Don’t Steal My Sunshine

Don’t Steal My Sunshine

Steal My Sunshine by Len

I was lying on the grass on Sunday morning of last week
Indulging in my self-defeat
My mind was thugged all laced and bugged all twisted wrong and beat
uncomfortable in three feet deep
Now the fuzzy stare from not being there on a confusing morning week
Impaired my tribal lunar-speak
And of course you can’t become if you only say what you would have done
So I missed a million miles of fun

http://www.rdio.com/#/artist/Len/album/Steal_My_Sunshine/track/Steal_My_Sunshine/

I also have a bit of business to take care of today.  As we all know, I have been on something of a sabbatical from actually posting my photos to my blog and from keeping up with the blogs I follow.  I am slowly trying, one by one, to go through those blogs – oh my, have I missed a lot – and during my catch up from Thursday night, I was happy to see on Day 188 of Pablo’s blog, that he has awarded me with “The Heart on Fire” award.  If you have not caught up with Pablo’s work, make sure you check out my hotlink to his page – he is a huge talent. Thank you so very much, Pablo!

In keeping with this award, I am to share 7 more tidbits of info about myself and give the award away.  These tidbits of info are getting harder to come by so I am going to CHEAT!  I was tagged last Christmas on my Facebook page with 30 Christmas questions about myself.  You get to enjoy 7 of them – just think of it as an early present:

1. Favorite Christmas movie?  It’s a Wonderful Life for films and Charlie Brown Christmas for small screen features.
2. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate?  Toss up between my mom’s hot cocoa recipe and my yummy cooked eggnog.
3. Favorite gift received as a child?  Barbie Townhouse I was NEVER going to get and found completely assembled next to the tree on Christmas morning, lights glowing on it and my heart in my throat.  I still remember the thrill.
4. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen.  Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.  And I do recall the most famous reindeer of all…..
5. What I love most about Christmas?  I know that I should be saying it is all about the “reason for the season,” but it is truly Christmas Eve when the entire family gathers.  There is so much love and laughter in Mom’s house; I treasure each moment of it.
6. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?  I found the gifts by mistake one year while playing hide and seek and saw all of those gifts under the tree that Christmas.  I didn’t have the heart to tell Mom and Dad that I knew; as young as I was, I knew it would break their hearts.
7. Do you hang mistletoe? No.  No one I know ever has.

And now for an award or two:

• Kathryn whom I have neglected
• The Daily Click whom I have neglected
• Stacia whom I have neglected
• Robin whom I have neglected
• Yearstricken whom I have neglected

I do realize that you all receive awards all of the time and you all have strains on your own time budgets, so if you want to respond to this you can, but if you don’t, I completely understand.  I look forward to finally catching up with your sorely neglected (by me) blogs.  Muah!

Day 328 – Taking a Peek

Taking a Peek

Day 317 – Purple Haze

Purple Haze

Day 309 – Would You Walk It?

Would You Walk It?

Day 309

All Things Decay and Die by Robert Herrick

All things decay with time: The forest sees
The growth and down-fall of her aged trees;
That timber tall, which three-score lustres stood
The proud dictator of the state-like wood,
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak,
Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver’s stroke.

•••

Well, I am feeling pretty full of myself at this point, having completely caught up with my posts!  I am likely going to break my arm while patting myself on the back for actually getting out to get the photos each day too and while I am at it, why not congratulate myself for reading 6 books in the meantime?  I do have to say that it is getting somewhat difficult to do all of this self-congratulation while my cat, Booker, fights me for the keyboard of my laptop, rolling and stretching ever closer to it.  Silly little cat!

I WAS pleasantly surprised tonight as I went back through the posts on Pablo Buitrago’s page that I have missed while reading and found that he has given me the Sunshine Award!  Thank you so much, Pablo!  And as promised, I am responding to the award on this, my final “catch-up” post for this week:

What is your favorite color? : I like BLUE.  Any shade of blue will do, though I particularly like that shade that graces the top of a police car when the officer is pulling someone over – hopefully not me though!

Favorite Animal? : Cats – could I be a crazy old cat lady someday?  Possibly…..

Favorite Number? : I haven’t really thought about a favorite number, but I do like even numbers better than odd!

Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink? : Ice.  Water.  Yum.

Prefer Facebook or Twitter? : Facebook – Twitter’s soundbites just annoy the bejeebers out of me – and yes, I do have a Twitter account that only my WordPress posts go to.  I don’t remember the password.

My Passion? : Faith, Family, Fotos.

Prefer Getting Or Giving Gifts? : I am more comfortable giving than receiving.

Favorite Day Of The Week? : Sunday, then Monday – it is the beginning of a fresh new week full of new possibilities!

Favorite Flowers? : Narcissus.  No, lilac!  No, Lily of the Valley!  Or maybe hyacinth or iris.  I can’t possibly choose!

I am supposed to award this Sunshine Award to some people, however as I look through all of the fabulous and talented and wonderful folks I follow, I am having a very difficult time choosing just a few!  But choose I shall:

Antoinette at the Cooking Spree brings me sunshine in every recipe she beautifully presents.

Dawn at 3 Quarters Today brings me sunshine in every positively positive post!

Bonnie at All I’ve Got is a Photograph brings me sunshine with each sweet comment she gives me and each sweet photo she posts.

I am going to stop at three because my brain is positively *boneless* and weary from making it work so hard!  Good night all!

Day 303 – Not Pink

Not Pink

Day 303

Pink Azalea by Kim Unsong

Early on an April day
In the land of morning calm
Azaleas bloom pink
At sunrise with a bright salaam They bloom alone
Around a quiet place
Where men, animals and insects
make little havoc of rat-race Azaleas are no Cosmos flower
Standing by the roadside
Flirting, giggling and cheek-rubbing
Against passersby, so dignified
They only bloom pink
Like maidens’ heart, so purified
Breathing free fresh air
In the morning glow, misty-eyed
They drift upon the river
Getting neither wet nor dried Azaleas refuse to be tainted
By evening glow on the west-side
Mellowing into a pink shade
Beneath the sun at eventide

But it does have pink undertones....

Day 296 – It Doesn’t Smell as Good as it Looks

It Doesn't Smell as Good as it Looks

Day 296

Purple — is fashionable twice — by Emily Dickinson

Purple — is fashionable twice —
This season of the year,
And when a soul perceives itself
To be an Emperor.

•••

Short but sweet as I am, once again, running behind!  Gosh, I wish I could catch up, if only for a little while!  Egad!