soozphotoz

pretty sky

As I drove out of my neighborhood yesterday morning, I shot this photo while waiting for the stop light to change. The foreground is hideous but the sky certainly was stunning.

I made another turn, I pulled off to shoot the farmhouse just several yards away. Although it was only moments later the sky had already changed colors.

The Vanishing Red

Today's skies are grey and drizzling but the berries in the backyard are a vibrant red (which is my favorite color :-). I offer another Frost poem which you can listen to HERE. But if you're expecting a cheery Christmas poem perhaps you'd best skip this one.

The Vanishing Red ~Robert Frost

He is said to have been the last Red Man   
In Acton. And the Miller is said to have laughed---
If you like to call such a sound a laugh.
But he gave no one else a laugher’s license.
For he turned suddenly grave as if to say,
“Whose business---if I take it on myself,
Whose business---but why talk round the barn?---
When it’s just that I hold with getting a thing done with.”

You can’t get back and see it as he saw it.
It’s too long a story to go into now.
You’d have to have been there and lived it.
Then you wouldn’t have looked on it as just a matter
Of who began it between the two races.

Some guttural exclamation of surprise
The Red Man gave in poking about the mill,
Over the great big thumping, shuffling millstone,
Disgusted the Miller physically as coming
From one who had no right to be heard from.

“Come, John,” he said, “you want to see the wheel pit?”

He took him down below a cramping rafter,
And showed him, through a manhole in the floor,
The water in desperate straits like frantic fish,
Salmon and sturgeon, lashing with their tails.
Then he shut down the trap door with a ring in it
That jangled even above the general noise,
And came upstairs alone---and gave that laugh,
And said something to a man with a meal sack
That the man with the meal sack didn’t catch---then.
Oh, yes, he showed John the wheel pit all right.

bath

bird
bath?
shower?
who can tell?
frisky water fun
or--godliness on the half-shell?

planting

grave digging

grave digging

i unearth the remains
of yarrow past its
prime --
numbers of the fallen
known only by
indistinguishable markers
with names
in a language no longer spoken

buried treasures of
long ago gardens and
barrettes
shards of balloons--
no gems yet
but who knows what one might find
grave digging
in order to
propagate new
lively pleasures

I cannot imagine more perfect weather than what we had this past weekend. Yes, some will say it was hot...in the low 90s...but I relished it! I finally cleared out all remaining remnants of fall and used every garden tool I own to cultivate the dirt for new perennials. I did penance for last year's neglect. I love to sift through the soil that has been overturned and search for little buried treasures. I am constantly amazed that I always find something new...a small piece of a broken toy, and old plastic plant markers which I return to the ground like fish to water just so I can rediscover them again, sometimes years later. They serve as a diary of what has been planted over the years.

I was the first person to arrive at our local nursery on Monday morning. I bought cone flowers, salvia, a peony, red geraniums (I don't care if they are a cliche, I love them), foxgloves, and black eyed Susans...in part because of their name and because they are Marylands State Flower.  I have one small section next to the house that is incomplete but the rest of the backyard looks quite presentable. It will be a couple of weeks before the new perennials bloom but that should be just about the time my summer break begins!

We had a small cookout last evening with my daughter, her boyfriend, my mother-in-law, and our neighbor Amy. Fortunately these people know me and there was no need to impress. I grilled chicken and hamburgers. I had taken them off of the grill and placed them all onto a plate. One small fragment of chicken fell between the grate and the side of the kettle. As I reached to retrieve it with the tongs.....yes, you guessed it...I tilted the plate and everything fell to the newly cut grass. Did I mention that we are not allowed to bag clippings so they are just distributed across the grass...and in this case, on to the sauce-covered food. We simply brushed off what we could and threw them back onto the coals to singe out any lurking germs. So much for Hostess of the Year :-)

fish tale

Tai Shan Update

I shot the photo above about two months ago when I visited the National Zoo to see baby panda Tai Shan. In yesterday's Washington Post Metro section Tai Shan was featured for the boom he has brought to the zoo. He has not only grown but has become much more daring. He now climbs to the top of his favorite tree (about 2 stories tall) and watches the crowds watching him.  Guess I will have to join the crowds over Spring break.

art & nature

Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more. ~Van Gogh I do not recall what kind of bird this is, but it reminds me of the Mix and Match games in which you could take parts from different animals and create your own species. It's difficult to tell in the photograph, but the feathers were brightly irredescent. Like certain styles of art, this work of nature was both strange and beautiful at the same time.

Safari, Disney Style

Although most people visit Disney World to escape reality, we want enough of reality to be able to believe the fantasy. Disney's Animal Kingdom comes close to a balanced blend, if you do not take Dinoland into account. The landscaping was beaurifully wild, lush and at least gave the appearance of being indigenous, if not "natural", to area. There were birds of every sort constantly flying overhead; even herons (I think) that stood 4 feet tall flew freely and strutted around the patio restaurants giving some pause to what might land in your lunch.

The Safari bus bumped and shook too realistically to get good photographs and of course the driver wove factual information about the "free roaming" (but contained) animals with a story of our mission to be on the lookout for poachers (whose park tickets cost slightly more than ours). Even in its Disneyesque style, the Safari ride was less zoo-like than I had anticipated because, again, the landscaping was fairly realistic...or so it seemed as I've never actually been to Kilimanjaro and am basing my impression on having been brought up on National Geographic magazines.

winter playground

emerald needles

embroider the landscape with

ivory threading

After shoveling the sidewalks, I waded through the mid-calf deep snow in the park across the street. The left bench seen in the photograph above is the same one that I posted a photo of a few days ago (although that photo was taken last year). The sun was still hidden behind clouds when I shot these a couple of hours ago, but I was still surprised at how it almost looks as though I shot them in black and white.

Maybe, just maybe, tomorrow I will have the day to take more photos :-) Oh and to all you Karaoke Girls in Mississippi (you know who you are!) Hey :-) And the next time y'all have a K party in your jammies, I want an invite too!