May--Canola and Wheat Pictures

All for a Few Good Pictures

Over the course of my life I have been asked to take a number of examinations to prove that I'm a sentient being, and I passed them all. In fact, the tests have universally agreed that I'm not overly deficient in intelligence and am capable of making rational decisions.

Unfortunately, you can't always tell that by my actions.  Yesterday was a case in point.

Although I had left school later than usual, and I knew that I needed to arrive home in time to run an errand or two before I had to dress up and come back to school to host a table for our annual school-supporters' banquet, I saw the clouds...and the sun...and the sun on the clouds..and the fields luxuriating under the new-fallen rain.  

Because we've been in a long, pitiless drought,
I wanted to see water. I plead that I was bewildered by welcome sights:  blue streams curving around green terraces, tree feet wading in puddles,  heavy clouds soft-shielding the sun.
I turned south and followed the country roads where pictures beckoned from every side.
Sounds rational, doesn't it?

It wasn't really.
I had forgotten one little item.
Dirt roads  covered by six inches of rain and left to sit overnight turn into mud.


Need I say that it was a long ride home? Need I explain that gravel roads make unusual furrows under the onslaught of flood run-off? Need I describe the blank stare of unconcerned cattle or the color of the mud that now coats the bottom third of my vehicle? I'll spare you.

The fact is, I made it home, finished my errands, arrived at the banquet on time, and nobody knows about my lapse of sanity...well, except you. You know now. And the cows. They know.

Mim's Photography

 Mim's been taking pictures all week-end and I promised her we'd upload her pictures and look at them on my computer. Of course there are the usual blurry "I'm learning how to hold still when I shoot" pictures, and lots of "making funny faces" pictures, but among them are some excellent shots as well.

It becomes apparent almost immediately that her perspective is different. Grown-ups really look big when they are shot from a five-year-old's level.

 No, Art's head isn't about to crash into the ceiling, but it certainly looks like it.

 Her brother, Zaya, willingly poses for the camera. Years from now these pictures may show up in a senior slide show or in a "this was your life" album, but right now it's just fun.  I suggested that maybe it would be good to get the distorted, making-faces pictures out of their system so they wouldn't be tempted to post them to facebook when they were in junior high...but Carina said, "We'll see."
Most likely, with technology moving as quickly as it does anymore, there won't be a facebook; that will be an antiquated concept.

They found a long stick of bamboo. I didn't remember a bamboo plant being around there and thought the stick had most likely been thrown by the recent storms, as a large tornado had passed within a few miles of there, but Zaya said it was growing in the southwest corner of the property and he ought to know.

 Here's another shot of furniture--twin bunk beds that are really quite low, but somehow look high in this picture.











There were several rabbits hopping around behind the well house. Ashley and Mim were both snapping pictures. This time, Mim was steady with the camera, and the picture turned out fine.

 We all went for a walk and found lots of material for photographing. I'm including this one because I like the red color.

 Here's Turtle, mowing the lawn.

 Zaya took this picture of Mim with the bamboo pole. She's wearing the camera bag, but was willing to relinquish the camera for long enough to record this moment.

When we uploaded all her pictures, Mim helped me decide which ones to delete and which ones to post. She insisted on this one because she thought it looked "three-dimensional". I'm not sure what technique she used to capture it, but I suspect it's called "running out of batteries".

Summer is Hanging on, but Falling Nonetheless...

I went walking early this morning, because I no longer have time during the week, and I'm terrified that I'll gain more weight...I know, it's beautiful outside and the air is refreshing, but If it weren't for fatness, I'd talk myself out of it, or into taking a drive instead. That's how lazy I really am. Oh well, all the confessions aside, I went walking early this morning.
Up by the courthouse I enjoyed looking at this sky and taking a picture. In fact, I took a lot of pictures, so here are a few of them. You can see that it was quite a bit lighter by the time I got home. Somehow that's what always happens when I take the camera along.

I'm enamored with the beauty of sunlight and shadow on trees, and stop to rest my eyes on clusters like this, where they huddle in creek beds.

These no longer wear clear spring green, nor yet the intense dark green of summer, but they are clad in a pale, dying green, a green already fading into dull brown fall.

There were a few brave flowers still in color,
but most have succumbed to the drought and look pretty pathetic.

Even the poison ivy has gone all red
and it snakes around the tree trunks
with a languor that makes it look
innocent and inviting.
We know better.

In some of the tree tops--already bare--birds
congregate to ponder upcoming travel plans
and watch the contrails high overhead.
Perhaps they are wistful.

Family Pictures

I finally got a copy of all the wedding pictures. We just bought the disc--copyright and all. Now wouldn't that have been a neat thing to do years ago at our own wedding? I'm remembering that long ago...33 years now. Actually, there are a lot of neat things you can do now with a wedding and most of them involve a computer. You can print your own programs and invitations, make announcements and updates on facebook, thereby receiving instant reactions from friends, make slide shows, post videos. Life is much more simple ...and of course more complicated at the same time. There are more pictures here than I could possible post...let me see...which ones do I put?

Old Farm House

This is the basic design for old farm houses in our part of the country. I've been in several of them and can tell you what the "state-of-the-art" floor plan was for the early 1900's. Downstairs are three rooms--a large, long living-room; a square kitchen, big enough to hold a table and chairs; and a big bedroom. (Most of these, if they have been kept intact, have a bathroom added on under the stairs; this one probably doesn't.) In the living room, at the foot of steep stairs leading to the upper floor, is a wood furnace. There is no door to the stairs, so the heat--theoretically--goes up to warm the four bedrooms, each of which has its own gable and window. It's a neat design for a farm family, especially since the farmers in this area grew their own harvest crew...and chopping cotton crew...and pulling rye crew...

The ground looks dry because I took these pictures back in March before the rains came. Now it is all green and golden.