“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” -Claude Monet
A summery flower photo seems appropriate since I’m taking a break from work-stuff and sitting outside in Kansas on Feb. 1 in a t-shirt in the sunshine.. It’s making me feel a little seasonly off-balance, but I’ll take it. I’ve been giving my printers a run for their money all morning trying to get prints and greeting cards ready.. first art fair of the year coming up in less than two weeks..
“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ….. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.” -Ruth Stout, Kansas born author
This photo came out a little blurry, but I still like it. Shot while driving over the train tracks in my hometown.. makes me think of Carl Sandburg’s poetry.
Good Night by Carl Sandburg
Many ways to say good night.
Fireworks at a pier on the Fourth of July
spell it with red wheels and yellow spokes.
They fizz in the air, touch the water and quit.
Rockets make a trajectory of gold-and-blue
and then go out.
Railroad trains at night spell with a smokestack mushrooming a white pillar.
Steamboats turn a curve in the Mississippi crying a baritone that crosses lowland cottonfields to razorback hill.
It is easy to spell good night.
Many ways to spell good night.
Read more Carl Sandburg poetry at Bartleby.com.
I spent a little time out on some country roads today.. Pretty sure I’m at my highest, happiest self out there. I had this idea in my mind that I’d get a shot of the mysterious snowy owl that’s been making appearances this far south in search of food, but instead I was surprised with several bald eagle sightings. I’m pretty sure my next equipment investment will be a bigger zoom lens.. Getting a good nature shot is almost as good as making a good paper cutting, and sometimes I just can’t get close enough..
“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
-Henri Matisse
This crazy summer heat is getting to us all. The last image is a bonus image, possibly stomach turning for some, from my driveway of a dead male Dobson Fly. I’ve never seen nor heard of these and found out through my Golden Nature Guide that it was not, in fact, extraterrestrial.
Colorado City, CO, July, 2011.
I’ve found that one of the prettiest times to drive through the Kansas Flint Hills is at sunrise… During my drive back from the art fest in Salina this time around, it was a bit cloudy and rainy, but the sky was photo worthy nonetheless.
A couple photos from yesterday morning’s post-storm bird watching drive. My mission was to find an Indigo Bunting, which I did (!), but I came upon this Brown Thrasher which posed beautifully for my camera.
Indigo Buntings, of which I’ve seen three already this summer, are very interesting because of the beautiful color of the male during the summer (a bright, almost cerulean, blue) and because they are migratory and use the stars to navigate during their night flights. I did get a photo of the Indigo Bunting, but it wasn’t very good as the bird was hiding behind the leaves. He was hard to miss, though, because his color sticks out like a sore thumb.
And last to pose was a female dickcissel.