RoYELLOWgbiv

It's hard to believe it's the third Thursday of the month already!  Though I've been anxiously waiting for signs of Spring - which I'm beginning to see, though none are yellow - time still seems to fly by.  Paradoxical, isn't it? Coincidentally, in fact, I believe today is the first day of Spring, also known as the Vernal equinox, when the sun crosses the plane of the equator, making night and day approximately the same length all over the earth. Here are a couple of graphics for you (sorry, not yellow):

Since I'm not seeing much yellow in my surroundings right now, I thought I'd start with some of my favorite flower photos from Glacier National Park, in the northwest corner of Montana.

Oh, yes, it's a glorious place!



Next, a selection of  some of my older pieces of art that prominantly feature yellow:

 Transformation 24

 Gateway

 Transformation 4

Icarus Reborn

And finally, here is what I'm dreaming of:

Head on over to Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's beautiful blog for more yellow!

Happy Spring (or Happy Fall, as the case my be), everyone!

Inspiration Abounds + The Pulse

First of all, I want to thank my new followers; I always feel it's a great compliment when someone follows my blog. I'm grateful to have you along for the ride.

Secondly, I'm happy and honored to have my photo featured today in Chapter 4 of Still Life, part The Pulse, an ongoing online collaborative project by Seth Apter of The Altered Page.  Seth is an inspiration to me because he seems to get 10 times as much done as any other person, and still manages to be a genuinely nice guy.  I'm pretty sure that if did all that, I'd be tired and cranky!  If you haven't seen the earlier editions, please check them out as well; there have been a wonderful variety of still life photos by amazing artist-bloggers who you may not have met yet!

I've enjoyed perusing all the photos so far; it's interesting to see what they reveal about the artists.  Sometimes the photo seems to "fit" them completely; others you would never guess in a million years. And you'll find many fascinating new blogs to explore.


Inspiration can mean many things to many people.  According to Wiktionary, inspiration means:

1. The act of inspiring or breathing in.
2. breath
3. The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm.
4. The act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions; the result of such influence which quickens or stimulates; as, the inspiration of occasion, of art, etc.
5. A supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a supernatural influence which qualifies men to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.

 I was inspired by a visit to the blog of my friend Lynne Hoppe, who, in a couple of recent posts, featured glorious photos of some wild flowers that grow near her home in northern California.   Right now I'm referring to definition #4, though her posts are definitely also a breath of fresh air.  The flowers she posted reminded me of the astonishing beauty of similar ones I had seen in Glacier National Park, in Montana.  I live in Kentucky, so our wildflowers are completely different from those of the northwest.  (If you want to see what Kentucky wildflowers look like, I posted some photos of them here, here, here, here and here.)  Anyway, when I saw Lynne's photos, I was inspired to look at my wildflower photos from Glacier, and they made my eyes so happy, I thought, why not post them so people from all kinds of different places with all kinds of different wildflowers can see them too?  So that's what I did.  I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.

gentian

glacier lily

indian paintbrush

bear grass and ?

 forget me not

 columbine- these we do have in Kentucky

geranium

 saxifrage?

indian paintbrush

bear grass- Can you tell it's my favorite?

 bear grass, indian paintbrush, and ?

I apologize for not having identified most of the plants; I will hopefully look them up and make an addendum in the next day or so.

Just Because...

they're beautiful...

It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live.
-  Henry Beston, 1935, Herbs and the Earth                                          (Glacier national Park)

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life. " - Hermann Hesse                            (Lewis County, Kentucky) 

   

The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see ...  No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, as vital to our lives as water and good bread. -  Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire                                                                                  (Camp Joy, Ohio)

So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.
 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
      (Springrove Cemetary and Arboretum, Cincinnati, Ohio)       

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.  --- Henry Miller                   (Shabo Mekaw, Kinneykonick, Kentucky)

“It is a constant idea of mine that behind the cotton wool (of daily reality) is hidden a pattern, that we – I mean all human beings – are connected with this: that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art.”  -Virginia Woolf                                  (Lewis County, Kentucky)

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.  --Wendell Berry               (Shabo Mekaw, Kinniconick, KY)

"So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years...Laugh. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts....Practice resurrection.”-- Wendell Berry                                                                             (Shabo Mekaw)

 “When it’s over, I want to say: All my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." --Mary Oliver                        (Taylor Mill, Kentucky)

   “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”-- Wendell Berry
 (Glacier National Park)

                                      (James River, Richmond, Virginia)


 “Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?"


 Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross
Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?”
-- Mary Oliver

Cheering Up

This wasn't at all what I had planned for today's post, but I need a little cheering up.   So I decided to share  photos of some things that make me smile...

Not too many things make me happier than the Rocky Mountain views at Glacier National Park...

It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen...

... so lovely, it takes your breath away.

How can you not smile at this?

My son putting silly hats on the dog...

...butterfly parties...

...our little piece of heaven in the country...

...on the Kinneyconnick Creek...

...and goofy Christmas morning smiles...

Okay, I've just realized this could go on for a very long time.  It's pretty incredible, when I think about how many things I have to smile about; I'm just barely getting started...

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely feeling better already!

Rocky Mountain Memories

Some of you may recall that I took a trip to Glacier National Park last summer.  Since I came back, I think about the mountains literally every day.  I had a medical procedure done this morning, and am still pretty loopy, so I thought it might be best to just post some images from my trip.  Enjoy!

I love looking at these; what great memories!  I might do this every once in a while- I took over 500 pictures!