I’ve not succeeded in luring bluebirds to my yard in Louisiana but this makes up for it.
The whole back of our home is windows and these lovelies often catch my eye….beautiful, fleeting, elusive…..each one of them eliciting an “ooh, shiny!” response from me.
On this August morning in Louisiana my weather app reads 92 degrees with 88% humidity at 8 a.m.
This would be why I’m not a fan of the South in the summer. This would be why I avoid being out in the elements at this time of year. This would be why air-conditioning is my friend and why I wasn’t looking forward to being outside for even one photo session.
However, I had a relative who was giving birth a few days ago and all through that day, as I was praying for her and thinking about her, images of water kept playing through my mind. Although it’s been 28 years since I last experienced it, I still very vividly remember the power I felt when my water broke and the process started, that rushing of the water.
Which turned my thoughts to a local dam I found by accident the last time I lived here, so I went out in search of it, remembering the rush of water flowing through it’s man-made barriers in an attempt to harness and control that particular element.
The search did not disappoint.
My memory also served me well in knowing this was a place often frequented by people with spray paint in hand and although graffiti has little to do with the elements, my camera also turned to the evidence of themselves they’ve chosen to leave behind. I suspect visiting this place might be a sort of rite of passage to high schoolers in the area. Perhaps that, in itself, is a sort of elemental pull to this place.
This entire photo shoot took all of 15 minutes and I was soaked with sweat by the time I was finished. Yep, I’m not a fan of experiencing the elements in the summer in Louisiana.
Headed up to South Dakota in a few days….highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s.
Places with those kind of temperatures in August are my new happy place.
My sister texted this photograph to me yesterday. That’s her on her wedding day and me peering through the screen door. I think it got both of us thinking about the passage of time.
Which turned my thought to both buildings and people.
A foundation is poured, walls are built, fresh paint is applied.
In youth our skin is taut, supple and untouched by the years.
But time intervenes and both new buildings and our bodies become canvases painted by time. Continue Reading
I had dinner with a special group of people last night in a raucous restaurant, people who have become family over the years. Some of us connected to each other in this city because of the fact that we didn’t have family near, some of our group being the ones who do, but who accepted us as family initially because they supported the military but eventually because we all fell in love with each other.
I know, sounds odd, that particular use of the word love.
Yet we’ve left many such “friends who became family” throughout my husband’s career.
I saw a lot of unusual things this past week in Montana but this sight along the Missouri River at sunset (the timing of said sunset, also being unusual at 10 p.m.) won the prize.
Riprap, as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armor or rubble, is rock or other material used to armor shorelines, stream beds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour and water or ice erosion. It is made from a variety of rock types, commonly granite or limestone, and occasionally concrete rubble from building and paving demolition. It can be used on any waterway or water containment where there is potential for water erosion.
I’ve never outgrown my love of bulletin boards. I had one in my room when I was growing up and I continue to hang them in my home to collect the things that come my way and catch my eye as I move through my life.
Refrigerators count too. What ends up on them is a bit more transient, as they tend to collect things that I need to be reminded of in the near future so notes, etc. tend to go up and come down as events pass by.
The refrigerator in our new home has a wood front and isn’t magnetic. As a result, I hung a magnetic board in my back hallway so I could continue to enjoy the magnets I’ve collected over the years.
I didn’t write a blog post in response to last week’s “delta” photo challenge because my muse failed me. I looked the word up to try to gain insight. My husband and I talked about it’s meaning in relation to mathematical statistics and I read other’s posts about growing up in delta regions but just couldn’t grab hold of a connection between my experiences and the word.
Posting wasn’t the only thing I almost didn’t do this past week.
I almost skipped going to mass on Sunday. My husband and I had co-hosted a party on Saturday night that had been many months in the planning so waking up Sunday morning and heading out to church didn’t happen. In the back of my mind I knew 5:00 mass that evening was out there but honestly, I didn’t expect to go.
But I did. And there, five days past the day I normally post my blog, I found my delta.
