Outdoor textures

I love the textures outdoors, even just in our own back yard. This picture was taken in the early Spring, weeks after the oaks had dropped their dried leaves. You can imagine the crunch underfoot in this picture. By the way, this is a close-up shot of this 6-or- 7 inch diameter tree. I was crawling around on my belly with my camera one perfect Spring morning, trying to find interesting things that I'd normally walk past without thinking about. Getting down on the ground and close up helped me to see things in a fresh perspective.

OK, for most people it's just a dead tree and a bunch of leaves, but if you slow down and think about the simple components of the picture, it might relax you, sort of like a poem.
If it's still just a "whatever" experience, that's ok. Life also gives us laundry to fold, grass to mow, groceries to put away, phone calls to make, people to pray for, and really tall trees that take our breath away.

Make it a good day, ptcp

Comments

Heather said…

thanks for fresh perspectives dad! I'm really enjoying your writing on the blog. Keep it up...

June 23, 2009 at 10:04 PM

Spring in a bottle

Sal and I both like tulips, so while winter still has a loose grip on Minnesota, we're enjoying some "bottled freshness". I remember planting tulip bulbs with my Mom when I was a kid growing up in Massachsetts I can still recall the frangrance of the bone meal that we always poured into the hole before pressing the bulb gently into place. I think they might be my favorite flower.

Welcome to the Wisconsin North Woods

Nana and I love going with very long-time friends Steve and Pam to their wonderful old Eagle River, Wisconsin cabin, about 250 miles from our MN home. The four of us generally drive up in one car. My assignment is to bring car snacks for everybody. Fall is great for apples and cheese, and some baked goodie, like cookie or brownie, plus nut-or-snack mix. The in-car visiting is non-stop. We decide when, where, or whether to do Friday night supper. Painted glass piece hanging in the cabin window overlooking loon-populated Bass Lake (Eagle River, WI) The fire, essential to a great northwoods cabin experience most months of the year. The boat and the dock at bottom of the cabin hill. The water level low due to the unusually dry summer in these parts. The driveway up to the main road. Bass Lake

The Gentle Smith Matriarch

We met in 1966 when she was 18 and I was 22. We began dating soon afterward, and as I recall never disagreed on much. Our childhood homes were 3000 miles apart and we loved Minnesota and each other, so we got engaged in July 67, married in December and moved into a house with a teenage foster daughter. This was followed by , Daughter 1 the following September, Daughter 2 three years later, Daughter 3, a year and a half later, ..and eventually Son, 3 years later. There were also about 15 different short-term teen-foster boys in those years. The gentle matriarch has worked her whole life, hard. I went to college nights for a few years, she worked outside the home part-time while the kids were growing. She spent frugally, loved lavishly, and has always cared first and foremost about her family. She is a gentle giant who has brought love, fun, discipline, imagination, good food, and artistic, creative homemaking to our big family....and as I write this she's preparing for Easter Dinner...

PTCPapa

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