Color Me November 10

Today has been a test of both my patience and my creativity. November 10 has been a grey, gloomy and rainy day preceded by one that was grey, gloomy, dry and uninspiring.

What to come up with for today?

 This little white pumpkin and I have had a lot of fun in the last several weeks.  With the greyness of the day I felt I needed to find interesting texture to add to images. But yet the dribble of rain meant I really needed to shoot from the doorway. No, I won't melt in a little rain but I'm pretty sure my camera is not as tolerant.

 At first I tried this setup but the light and colors were not giving me much joy.

 From two floors up this hosta is past it's best.

 The rose, ditto. Past its best. But yet it fit the mood of the day.

The day long rain washed colors clean and left good puddles for reflection.

Here's hoping for a day with more light and inspiration tomorrow.

Color Me November 8

The color story for November 8 is red; specifically the red of the poppies that grew in Flanders Field.

Today, in the United Kingdom, it is Remembrance Sunday. On this day ceremonies are held throughout the land, and indeed the Commonwealth, to remember those who served their country in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in November, the Sunday nearest to Armistice Day (November 11). In London very solemn events take place at the Cenotaph on Whitehall as the Queen and many members of the royal family along with current and retired service members gather to pay their respects and remember the fallen.

You may be wondering why I am choosing to focus on a day important to the UK. My maternal grandparents emigrated from England to New Zealand so they could be married and begin a new life. Many decades later I traveled back to the UK (although not as an immigrant) and while living there met and married my American husband. Later our two sons were born in the UK. Hopefully, that explains my affiliation.

As the sun was setting today I was photographing this set-up in grateful recognition of the service of: my Grandfather, James Patrick Coughlan (upper photo) who served in World War I including the landing of the Anzacs on April 25, 1915 and my Father, James William Coughlan (lower photo) who served in World War II in the Pacific theatre. Thankfully, they both survived the war (or I would not be here to write this!) but their service and that of their comrades who did not return should never be forgotten.

There are several well-known poems written about service in that most terrible of wars, The Great War, and I would like to close with an excerpt from one:

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

We will remember them.

This is the fourth stanza taken from the poem For the Fallen penned by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943) and published in The Times on September 21, 1914. Binyon was sitting on the North Cornish Coast a few weeks after the outbreak of World War I, reflecting on the Batttle of Mons (August 23), the Battle of Le Cateau (August 26) and the first Battle of Marne (September 5 - 9). Although it is the fourth stanza in his finished work it was these four lines that came to him first.

Lest we forget.

Color Me November 6

Today I went on a treasure hunt but before we get to that I also need to show you yesterday. The two days had some contrast in the weather which impacted how the color is seen.  And in case I forget to mention later, the temperature for yesterday peaked at around 76 F while today outdid the record books and went to 80 F. Yes, this is November!

Thursday morning started with a foggy look to it.  One aspect of Fall that I enjoy is how just one tree can make such a difference in how you perceive a scene. I love how this maple tree lit up my woodsy back yard. By the end of today? There are no leaves left on the tree.

My wonderful crepe myrtle gave me this look.

The heavy mist left droplets everywhere. I focused on the pansy pots on the deck and when I looked at my photos  I got the happy surprise of the thread of spider gossamer connecting the orange and purple pansy blooms.

More confetti courtesy of nature. This is from the burning bush planted in the common area of our neighborhood.

Adjacent to the burning bush is this combination of an ornamental grass (oops, I have no idea what it is) and the yellow of a redbud (h'mmm, I could be wrong with that name too). At first I was not going to include these two photos but then I thought about my theme, "Color Me November", and decided that, yes, they did belong here.

Friday, November 6, is the first day of the three day Holiday Open House at the Old Lucketts Store. I have not previously been able to go to this but today I decided it was a "must do" event. So off I went hunting treasure.

The store, shown above, is open seven days a week. It is chock full of collectibles and old treasures, some of which have made it into my earlier still life photographs. The three floors are sublet out to a variety of small business owners and any time you visit you are guaranteed a plethora of things that call out "take me home".  A few times a year the store augments it's appeal by inviting on site individual purveyors of treasure/junk/antiques - depending on how you look at it. I look at it as a chance to scout for props for my still life photography.

Clearly a lot of people look at it as "treasure". It was a grand day out for the camera...except there were so many people that it was hard to get a photo that did not have a person walking into it much less a (road worthy) car driving by en route to a highly sought after parking space. Oh, can't you just imagine how much fun the owners had creating this wonderful scene (above). It was clearly the most highly desired photo op of the day! Some visitors, oblivious to that, sought out the bench as a great place to sit and eat lunch.

Now it will not be too hard for you to figure out what my background is once you look at the photos I have picked out to share with you. Here is just one of the amazing edifices tagged as "birdhouse" that were for sale. Oh, trust me, if this had come home with me I would not be hanging it out for the birds - and, if you are a regular reader of this blog you will know I have a number of bird houses in my back yard. This gorgeous offering is about 20" - 24" high and there were several others similar that attracted me but I had to walk quickly away from.

This building was where I made my first purchase (I was very disciplined and did not load up). But when I was first there I know there were at least seven of those snow sleds lined up along the wall. And yes, that is the back end of the old car seen in an earlier shot.

Whoa, here's a surprise. I wandered off the beaten path behind a building and came across the wonder of a hen house filled with the most glorious array of hens. I'm sorry, I cannot tell you what they all were.

But check this out - the Coop de Ville! Nothing here is for sale but clearly the owners have both a sense of fun and a love for poultry. This is one glamorous hen house. You can see that there is a fully enclosed outdoor run (chicken wire walls and ceiling to keep those lovely hens safe from predators) that is linked up to this amazing place for the hens to go roost at night. I guess I can excuse the few non picturesque items that are a necessity to keeping the hen house clean which I wanted to whisk away to make for a more lovely finished photo. How cool is this!

So yeah, I visited twice.

The entire location is a great example of how things don't have to be perfect to be amazingly attractive. A few days with Kim (http://kimklassen.com/ ) taught me to watch out for the written word. When I glanced in this direction what grabbed me first was that sign "Kindness Matters". The rest of it might easily be written off as junk, but pause a moment and examine each piece of this setting and you can see the artistry behind it. Well, I can see how the addition of those words make all the difference in how I interpret this vignette.

And I close out with this. It may look like nothing much just yet but it is a portion of the booty I scored from the treasure hunt that I embarked upon in this my day six of  my Color Me November escapade.

It will be a wonderful end cap to my day if you comment!

Color Me November 4

The art group I belong to hosts a virtual gallery each month and the prompt for November was "Color Me November". I spent ages out and about trying to come up with a variety of images that might fit. But as submission day was November 1 they were always going to be a little premature to exactly fit the prompt.

Then I was reading a friend's blog and discovered that there is an effort out there among bloggers to create a new post every day in November. H'mm, that sounds very ambitious for me. But what about if I made my own rules? I will try to combine "Color Me November" and post every second day. I'll use a combination of photos taken that very day and some from my files that I want to share.

Sounds like a plan.

The first Tuesday here in the USA is election day. Right at sunset yesterday I was frantically trying to set up a quick vignette to illustrate that point.

Yes, I did vote. Remember those glorious photos of the crepe myrtle tree a couple of days back? Those leaves are falling fast.

 It's a beautiful sunny day here and my #1 son has decided it is perfect weather for raking up the leaves - perfect or not he and I are doing this every second day right now.

 The turtle has voted to head for warmer climes.

 Did I share this one already? I had fun setting it up during a lull in proceedings on Studio Tour weekend.

One last shot is this vignette I have arranged for the kitchen table.

Getting back to the first photo; I call that "Squirrel Nutkin was Here". I kept finding little piles of the leavings of acorns that the squirrels had feasted on. Those big acorns would be wonderful photo props I thought but sadly, the squirrels did not let me in on the secret of where to find the really big ones. Interestingly I have noticed that this Fall we seem to have way fewer black walnuts around the yard than usual (they stain whatever they land on and I can never get them open although the squirrels sure can!) but way more acorns. This likely tells us something about the coming winter. But what?

You can find the virtual gallery by going to http://www.greatfallsstudios.com/virtualgallery-new.php

Okay, that's two for November.

Fabulous Fall Colors in my Neck of the Woods

The colors have been magnificent this fall season and it has been really difficult trying to choose just a few photos to post here.

Let's try and narrow the choices to ones from my back yard and a handful from the village I have called my hometown now for 15 fall seasons.

In no particular order here...

 Autumn confetti in the back yard.

 Playing with seasonal color.

Crepe myrtle foliage on Wednesday...

 Crepe myrtle closeup on Thursday. I suspect a very similar one appeared here last year as I am captivated by the way these leaves color themselves for the season.

Crepe myrtle on Friday. I am focusing on this tree because I might have to make a difficult decision to either take it out or have it pruned fairly harshly. It is a beautiful specimen but I fear it is getting too big for where it is planted at the end of the deck. This is shading the deck to the extent I am getting green patches on the deck flooring and the branches are overhanging the roof in a way that makes the landscape guys and the pest guy tsk tsk.

 I love watching the early sun begin to light up the trees across the road. And on this morning the moon was hanging around to admire the view also.

 The library parking lot has a variety of tree colors.

 These wonderful foliage colors were a real showstopper in the library driveway.

 The color contrast between this tree and the quilt shop are an amazing advertisement for the wonderful array of fabrics inside.

Every time I drive up to the village I pass this pond, on private property, on a bad corner with very little area to pull over or stand to enjoy while photographing. But on this day I couldn't resist. It was necessary to dodge traffic and I felt a little uneasy about spending too long in finding the perfect location. But I was pretty happy with this shot. The next day I passed by and there were ducks and swans swimming on the pond which would surely have added a beautiful foreground to a photo but I decided to keep driving. Oh well.

 Here in an overlooked portion of the front garden these chrysanthemums are turning on quite a show. The location, under the ornamental plum tree and behind a boxwood border, keep this area somewhat hidden. That is why I use the spot to poke in plants I want to get rid of from elsewhere in the  garden but yet feel like they need one last chance. It is not perhaps a color combination I would have consciously chosen but, gee, they do look really good in this peak of bloom don't you think?

I was upstairs and in the midst of looking to photograph the treetops in their fine fall foliage when I spotted this plane flying overhead.

To close out the post I thought flying south for the season might be a reasonable way to finish up.

Finding Stillness in Rivers, Manitoba

There has been a distinct lack of posts this summer - have you noticed?

I've been sorta busy, doing this, doing that. One of the major this/that items was managing an art exhibit that is on show for the month of September. What with recruiting, installation, judging, the reception and take-down I shoehorned a personal trip in there for September 22 thru 26. Manitoba, Canada was the destination and the purpose was to be a part of the Finding Stillness photographic workshop hosted by Kim Klassen .

Full disclosure, I am currently doing a yearlong online class with Kim; Be Still 52.

Anyways, at oh dark thirty on Tuesday past I headed out to the airport with the destination of Winnipeg. Once there I collected my rental car and following the curious directions (head out of the airport, take a right on Berry, go until you can't go straight and then turn right on Portage. Now drive straight for about two hours and you will be in Brandon where your hotel is) I did indeed get to the Best Western hotel. For this, my first ever visit to Canada, I was unprepared for the concept of that long straight, flat drive. There were amazing sky views with wonderful clouds and lots of prairie landscape but I had my black Elantra pointed west and was reluctant to pull over.

Four other ladies who were also workshop participants were staying at the same hotel so we joined up the next morning to drive to Rivers, the location of Kim's brand new Studio.

 The workshop was a three day one. Finding Stillness is as much about making personal time as it is about setting up still-life vignettes to photograph. Each day we had a one hour quiet time to totally immerse ourselves in personal activity. On day two I wanted to take a walk around the small town of Rivers to explore. The weather was quite un-co-operative with a persistent light misty rain and I was able to take "moody" shots without having to make special settings on my camera. As you can see the leaves have started to turn already.

 Meanwhile back in the Studio Kim had provided many options for us to photograph. I liked the seasonal color these gourds (?) provided.

 It was a delight to also have Xanthe with us. Herself a noted photographer xantheberkeley.com she was joining us from London and was always willing to pose for us so we could include people shots. Thank you Xanthe, it was a treat to listen to you, watch you and photograph you.

 Here's a Still Life I created using wooden spoons handcrafted by Xanthe's husband, Luke Hope. You can see more of his wonderful pieces at hopeinthewoods.com  Initially I had a setup that was all brown and cream but, hey, I like color. By adding the blueberries and the cut strawberry I was happy with this composition.

Another lovely lady assisting with the workshop was Aeleen Sclater aka prairiegirlstudio.ca.  We heard all about her gorgeous homestead and garden and were treated to many examples plucked from that garden. Ooh, those carrots looked good!

Kim has a faithful companion, the very engaging wonder dog, Ben. He was right there with us most of the time and such a gorgeous and obedient pet. On Friday morning we went on a nature walk to the local reserve.

We found amazing spider webs...

seed heads...

 

and this intriguing sign which proclaimed that "licensed trapping was not permitted". So go for it people, unlicensed trapping should be lots of fun!

During quiet time on Friday prairie girl Aeleen set up her harp and delighted us with beautiful soothing melodies. All the more special when you find out that her husband has handbuilt this and four other harps for her to play. A part of Aeleen has come home with each workshop participant in the form of a CD and I so look forward to listening to that when I am creating in my own studio.

In closing, here's the street view of The Studio. Right across the road is a large mural which reflects in the front windows. From inside it gives the impression that it is always a blue sky sunny day outside.  But for this photo I liked the colors of the blue bike, the orange pumpkins and the yellow chrysanthemums sparking up the black backdrop of the Studio.

It was a wonderful few days of Finding Stillness. Thanks so much Kim! I now have a library of photos to select from all full of wonderful props and more so generously shared by you Kim.