choices

While giving Tully a bath in the kitchen sink in the middle of the day I witnessed a sky that was really unusual, it looked like this but in white and blue. And there tucked in the clouds was a little rainbow. It was either finish washing a very wet dog or run and get my camera.

 I chose the dog. 

So of course I was in the car at the beach waiting for the sunset that evening. It was beautiful, and worth the wait. Clean dry dog, and a beautiful image. I'll get the rainbow another day.....

Off to Savannah tomorrow and then photography trip to the Smoky Mountains. 

a soulful tune

The wind is singing outside my studio window, I mean really, it's singing. Its a sorrowful sound, the melody is simple, a triple up and then back down. Every once in a while it expands to four or five notes and then settles down again. I have no idea what is vibrating to create this soulful tune, but I don't care, I love it. 

I wonder what is happening in the dahlia garden at Planting Fields. These beauties on purple necks must be blowing in a frenzy on this windy afternoon. 

There will be no photographing them today.

POV

I was working on my point of view, no not an opinion, but where I place myself before I shoot the subject. I moved around till I got the woods behind this fist size dahlia and worked some magic with my 200 mm lens. Quite a serious looking portrait of today and tomorrow don't you think?

petals

Petals touch each other, young bright pinks and softly faded yesterdays.

a wave hello

I hope I'm not boring you with these dahlias but I haven't spotted a bobcat or an owl or some exciting bird behavior so the dahlias will have to do for now. My afternoon fix continues, more to come.....

a sun worshiper

These two colors are on opposite sides of the color wheel and they are known as a direct complement. One color seems to make the other color more intensely beautiful.  The dahlias are amazing all by themselves but put this against the blue sky and it's a WOW. My camera is already in the car ready for this afternoon's shoot.

yippee

It's DAHLIA time!

A day in the life of Tully

WHAT? I'm fine really, I don't need anyone to come play, oh no who's this.

 Yes, pleased to meet you but I'm really busy here snapping at flies and I don't have time for  playing. So if you don't mind.....

I'll just be moving along here, excuse me...

OFF! Are you kidding me? Get OFF! paleeze get OFF! I never asked for a playgroup. Where are my people. Geeze......

A fraid e frog

He chirps like a bird when I walk by and leaps into the pond. I got this image by sneaking around very quietly and hiding behind the potted plants so as not to send him into a tizzy. He lives in the pond with 4 other frogs. 

Have you ever read Country Dog City Frog by Mo Willems and Jon Muth? It is a beautiful children's book that I love. You will never look at another frog without remembering that story.

another view

Take the road less traveled, you discover more about yourself.

last hike

No more hiking boots, water bottles, packed lunches and trail guides. No more coming home to Tully wagging herself across the yard to me, smelling every part of me, wishing she could have been where I had been. No more freezing cold swims and sore muscles from climbing. 

My feet have landed back in LI. I will have to wait one more year before I smell those smells, lose myself in the woods, sit on the top of Mountains.

 The world is looking very flat right now. 

Sawteeth

The hiking boots came back on and my backpack was loaded with lots of water, lunch, a juicy orange, m&ms and almonds. My heart was definitely in better condition than my lungs. This is the first view from Sawteeth over looking the back side of Gothic, Basin and Saddleback. Below is the other side of Sawteeth taken from the scenic trail. This image was taken at Marble Point where the fire broke out earlier this summer. You can see Giant and Noonmark way over to the left. The lower lake and Indian Head is just below. We got down with 10 minutes left before the 5pm bus left so we just jumped in the lake, hiking clothes and all. A cold finish to a hot day. Happiness.......

row row row your boat

Today was a lake day, off came the hiking boots, on came the bathing suit and the bug spray. Lydia rowed and I sat. It was awesome. Quiet, calm and melting into the lake reflections. A cold mountain lake swim ended a perfect Adirondack day.

Inner core

I want to tell you about rocks.

 I have some favorites; the beautiful softly colored green rocks that my sister Shirley hauled down a Colorado mountain in her backpack because she knew how much I would love them. (They were big and heavy) Then there are the stones, little rocks, that Kelly hand picked from a Massachusetts shoreline, each shape and color she knew only I could love. And the cairn rocks that I see along my hiking, that show me where to go, I especially love the tiny flat one that Nancy quietly left on my Adirondack dresser last year, and the white perfectly formed stone that Susie plucked out of the ocean and put in the palm of my hand a very long time ago.

But the dearest rock to me is the one on the top of Noonmark. When I put the flat of my hand on the warmth of its earthy core I am grounded in a way that nourishes me until the next time I climb my way to it.

Nancy Betts & Phyllis Mary

Why don't you go outside and play instead of sitting around the house all day. Don't forget your coat! Be home before dark!

Lordy do! Will you wipe your feet! Where HAVE you been? Go take a bath, dinner will be ready soon.

Old shoes, young hearts....