Making Pictures
Sometimes I wonder how Mike puts up with me. I'm not exactly a "normal" wife. Not only am I generally uninterested in things like cooking and other traditional wifely arts... I spend a lot of time doing messy things that would make most "normal" people shake their heads.
Last week, I flagged down a local parks crew. They'd been out pruning the ornamental plums and cherries that make our corner of the world so pinkly magical in early spring. For years, I've been asking the dudes to tell me when and where they're pruning... so I can grab some branches before they hit the chipper.
This year I hit the motherlode.
The dudes pulled over in their truck and, when I asked for branches, handed me some clippers and told me to take whatever blooming sprigs I wanted. I looked at the clippers in dismay. "Can't I just take them all?" I asked. And the dudes pretty much just shrugged and said, "Um... yeah... sure... if you want them." So I hauled them all... a truckload of small-tree-sized blooming branches... into the back yard.
Over the weekend, I used some sprigs (along with tulips, daffodils and Dutch irises) to make a bunch of bouquets, which I placed all over the house in vases.
But the real fun started when Mike went to work, and I was free to drag said tree-sized branches into the house. (!!!) I made a huge mess, but... whoa... you should've seen my office filled with blooming branches!!! They're still here. Rather brown and dry... and shedding petals like crazy. But I'm not ready to give up on shooting their shadows yet.
So I really really appreciate that Mike obligingly turns a blind eye to the... ahem... organic matter littering the hallway, stairs, etc. As he turns an obliging blind eye to the various things I leave lying around... plastic eyeballs, doll parts, waterbloated books, hairy crab shells, huge creeping roots covered in sticky mud... etc.
In my defence, I come by this naturally. Just the other day, my mom was telling me how very tolerant my dad has become... how he rarely if ever remarks on the stuff that SHE has strewn around (I'll spare you the list, but it's frequently weird).
So... yeah. Anyway, this is one of those pics that turned out pretty much almost exactly as I'd imagined it. And it's pretty much straight from the camera (I just bumped up the contrast a bit to try to bring out the shadows a little more).
Happy first day of spring. May all your metaphorical offices be filled with metaphorical cherry blossoms.
Making Pictures
Sometimes I wonder how Mike puts up with me. I'm not exactly a "normal" wife. Not only am I generally uninterested in things like cooking and other traditional wifely arts... I spend a lot of time doing messy things that would make most "normal" people shake their heads.
Last week, I flagged down a local parks crew. They'd been out pruning the ornamental plums and cherries that make our corner of the world so pinkly magical in early spring. For years, I've been asking the dudes to tell me when and where they're pruning... so I can grab some branches before they hit the chipper.
This year I hit the motherlode.
The dudes pulled over in their truck and, when I asked for branches, handed me some clippers and told me to take whatever blooming sprigs I wanted. I looked at the clippers in dismay. "Can't I just take them all?" I asked. And the dudes pretty much just shrugged and said, "Um... yeah... sure... if you want them." So I hauled them all... a truckload of small-tree-sized blooming branches... into the back yard.
Over the weekend, I used some sprigs (along with tulips, daffodils and Dutch irises) to make a bunch of bouquets, which I placed all over the house in vases.
But the real fun started when Mike went to work, and I was free to drag said tree-sized branches into the house. (!!!) I made a huge mess, but... whoa... you should've seen my office filled with blooming branches!!! They're still here. Rather brown and dry... and shedding petals like crazy. But I'm not ready to give up on shooting their shadows yet.
So I really really appreciate that Mike obligingly turns a blind eye to the... ahem... organic matter littering the hallway, stairs, etc. As he turns an obliging blind eye to the various things I leave lying around... plastic eyeballs, doll parts, waterbloated books, hairy crab shells, huge creeping roots covered in sticky mud... etc.
In my defence, I come by this naturally. Just the other day, my mom was telling me how very tolerant my dad has become... how he rarely if ever remarks on the stuff that SHE has strewn around (I'll spare you the list, but it's frequently weird).
So... yeah. Anyway, this is one of those pics that turned out pretty much almost exactly as I'd imagined it. And it's pretty much straight from the camera (I just bumped up the contrast a bit to try to bring out the shadows a little more).
Happy first day of spring. May all your metaphorical offices be filled with metaphorical cherry blossoms.