I LOVE this time of year, when summer’s lush bounty is g.o.n.e. Dried up like so many flowers past their bloom.
Once They Were Sunflowers
When the gaudy colors of fall have fallen and faded.
Hidey Hole
And a few hardy new shoots live on underneath the decay.
Morning Shadows
When everything is stripped away and it’s the sheer simplicity of light and shadow and frost on the meadow
Baby Ponderosa
causes the breath to catch in wonder at the sight of a single tree.
I am so grateful for the beauty all around me. And for that I give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! And if you live where this is not a holiday for you, I am more than happy to eat some pie in your name. Because I will do anything for my best best BEST beloved readers (smiley face emoticon here)
xoxoxo
Susan
Technical infor: Camera, iphone 5c. Photos edited in Snapseed app. Not rocket science, just arty fun.
Oh my sweetums, one day, right here at the Porterosa, I went in search of hearts. Because sometimes a girl needs signs of love from the universe, just sayin’.
And I found them EVERYWHERE. A veritable plethora of love signs.
On the ground.
Fallen from trees.
Cast by shadow.
Created by fleeting light.
And spun by Charlotte (with a little help, perhaps, from a pony nose. Or not.)
Lessons learned:
Open your eyes.
Open your mind.
Whatever you’re looking for is right there in front of you.
Technical info: All photos taken using an iPone 4S. Point. Shoot. Dat’s all.
As always, my best best BEST beloveds, if you like what you see here please tell me about it in the comments below. And share it with your friends. I’ll be yourbest friend if you do. Really. I’ll sit with you at lunch. Play with you during recess. And if you pin it, I might even do your homework.
Oh. My. Goodness! Where did this week’s post go? Where???
It went…AWAY. Poof! Just. Like. That. To the interwebs away place, wherever that may be.
I didn’t discover it was missing until this morning. I thought maybe it was just a crappy post and you, my best beloveds, were insulted that I put it out there. Insulted enough not to comment here or like on FaceBook.
Just one of those things, y’know. I’m a big girl, I can take rejection.
But after two days of cyber silence this little worm of an idea began squirming around inside my head (under my hair, the place where magic happens). The little worm said, ummm…did you hit publish?
What a silly question! I’ve been blogging almost two years now. I know ALL about the Publish button. The Save Draft button. The Move to Trash button.
Uh-oh…
And now I know all about the Publish in a Parallel Universe button.
Yes, Parallel Universe. You have to trust me on this. It would also help if you were a theoretical mathematician and/or physicist. But mind-altering drugs, drinking too much and listening to this episode of Science Friday will get you there too. ‘There’ being parallel-land where parallel-you is reading the original post and snorting your coffee out your nose because it’s so damn good. The post, not your coffee. Although I hope the parallel-you indulges in decent coffee too.
And of course parallel-you leaves pithy comments and shares Arty-Life around the parallel-interwebs.
Just like you do here, right?
Okay, are you sufficiently confused yet? Good. Then I guess it’s time to climb off the dog ate my homework wagon and share a little ART with you now.
Bottom of the Bowl # 1 Susan Lobb Porter
This, my best beloveds, is the beginning of a new photo/digital series I’m calling The Bottom of the Bowl. I realized one morning that the marks left on the bottom of the bowl of yoghurt were akin to the marks I leave on canvas. Imagine that! The original photo was all white and boring but then again, so’s a blank canvas. Right? But thanks to cyber-fairies and technology ART can happen even from dirty dishes.
Stay tuned for more. And please, tell me what the parallel-you would think of this. I’d really like to know.
I love this time of year. Every day has a few more minutes of light. And I luvvvvvs me the light.
It makes things so much more interesting.
Like this cedar. You’ve seen it in countless pony photographs, most of them taken in the morning. The morning light is different. Softer. More diffused. And of course from the opposite direction.
But ka-boing! Check out the bling from the setting sun. The camera doesn’t begin to capture how bright it was.
A couple minutes later? Shrug. Meh. Faded glory.
It was more dramatic in the paddock. But not for long. In a few minutes all that beautiful light went away. Somewhere.
I thought the play of light and reflected color on Lana’s neck was beautiful.
Then I turned the camera on me. The sunlight was at that level where it could catch my hair, and I love what it did to it. But Lana’s back was just a little out of range by this time. If you squint you can see the faintest of outlines but that’s about it.
The sun went wherever the sun goes and I went back to the house.
Oh my sweetums, life is PERFECT! Yes indeed, perfect because the sun thesunthesun, that big old thing that lights up the days as we spin around in space…the SUN is showing her lovely face around these parts again.
And filling my heart with gladness, yes indeed.
Even though the days are short and continue to grow shorter (Boo! Hiss!) as we head towards the solstice, the storms and wretched dreary days of last week are GONE. Poof, just like that. YAY!!! They’ve moved on and taken their howling winds and fierce rains elsewhere.
Winds that kept me awake through the night, wondering if I would EVER see my children again. Seriously, I almost got up and wrote them LETTERS, farewell, my lovlies… but didn’t…because that might tempt the universe to dump a tree on the house.
Along with the wind came the rain. The heavens opened up and dumped over a foot of water over a few soggy days. The river rose high and ran crazy wild. And tera was no longer firma, just muddy soup.
The dogs planted themselves at the door as the water spill over the gutters and said, We’re not fools,we’ll pee in the house.
But now the rain, the wind are gone. Done. The dogs are doing their business outside.
And all is right with the world because the sun is back, the light is brilliant. And there’s a wee bit o’warmth beyond the late autumn chill.
But it’s the shadows that grab my arty heart.
The way the light comes through the curtains.
And bends Nana’s rocker around the corner.
The way it caresses the oaks in Mama’s grove.
And muffles shadow chimes silent against the wall.
But mostly because it gives me long long legs for dancing in the grass.
I hope wherever you are, the sun is shining today.
Oh, and hey…if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video I made last week. I seem to have struck a creative chord with that one, it’s had quite a few FaceBook shares already. If you like it, please do me a favor and and tell your friends. You can find it on my website as well as my FaceBook page.
Faded leaves. Bleached grass. Frost on the meadow this morning.
I took the long way down to feed the ponies. Long way means heading to the left instead of the right. Means looping down around the meadow before circling back again.
Because there’s something about the light, the sun-with-no-warmth quality of a November morning, that demands photographs.
Demands to chronicle the understated glory of frost rimed leaves.
And deer trampled grass. Andrew Wyeth grass.
Ice in the horse trough, crackled and crystalized along the edges.
Hiding mysteries underneath.
And in between.
Reminders of children now grown.
And ancient horses. Muddy. Waiting for breakfast.
And Jasmine, the sourse of many ‘mom’s hairy ass jokes’ waiting for her kiss. Mmmmmph!
