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The Windowsill

I'm in the home stretch of a 365 project, and I'm not going to lie to you ... This month has been the absolute hardest. It seems that whenever I'm not working, it's dark or raining. The first week of January, I decided to do a series of photos of my windowsill at work. Mostly because it was the only place that seemed sunny and full of life.

My paper lantern, reflected in the window:

A sprig of purple heart in a glass of water:

Ok, this is technically not the windowsill, but its shadow on the wall:

The purple heart stems, sprouting roots:

One of my tiny succulents in the late afternoon sun:

So what's the point of this series, aside from supplying photos for my 365 project? The point is that inspiration won't always hit you in the face. Sometimes you have to go looking for it, and sometimes you have to make do with what you have.

Speaking of inspiration, I fully expect to be inspired by my friend Beth's new personal blog, My Point of View, about food, photography, life, and work. Check it out, won't you?

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Looking back & looking forward

Happy New Year! I always find this time around the holidays and at the beginning of a new calendar year to be a nice opportunity to take stock and set some goals. I turned 30 in the past year, and it's been kind of enlightening to contemplate the changes in my life over the past decade:

I've lived in 8 houses in 4 states, and worked for 5 different companies. I got engaged and married, and we bought our first home together.

I learned how to garden. (I knew how to grow things, but it's different when it's your own land and you're really trying to nurture your own food.)

We adopted 5 sweet kitties, 4 of whom are still with us.

I started to lose interest in writing and performing my own music. But I discovered digital photography, and then re-discovered film photography, including polaroid.

We moved to Frederick, and have really started to feel at home here. It's a beautiful city with interesting people, many of whom have become friends through Twitter, work, or volunteering at the Delaplaine and Maryland Ensemble Theatre.

So what's the plan for 2010? I've never been a fan of resolutions, but I do enjoy working toward goals of some sort. I'm on track to finish my 365 project before the end of January, and I've already signed up for classes that will help me learn to develop my own film and mat and frame my own prints. (All of these things are part of a more long-term goal to exhibit my work.) We want to continue to grow more our own food, eat locally and in season when possible, and eventually eliminate meat from our diet. I'm also setting a personal and professional goal of improving the timeliness and thoughtfulness of my correspondence ... As much as I value thank you notes, I'm pretty horrible about writing them.

Here's hoping that this year is even better than the last. What are your goals for the new year?

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Late afternoon in the garden

Is it just me, or is fall the most fleeting of seasons? I wish these pretty colors would stick around a bit longer.

               

All of these photos are from our garden, taken on Sunday, October 25. I reduced the size of the photos, but otherwise didn't edit them at all ... Straight out of my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 camera.

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Squirrel Buddy

Christopher made a new friend in the backyard. At least now I know what's been happening to all my trail mix.

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Gardening: A right, not a privilege

I was reading "English Town Digs Up Lots of Space to Grow" in The Washington Post (published August 16, 2009), and this line jumped out at me:

It's worth reading the full story, about guerrilla gardening, land sharing, and other cool stuff happening in the UK.

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Rain barrel envy

Sarah & Mark have a really nice rain barrel that makes ours look kind of pitiful. I'm jealous.

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Our mid-late summer garden

When we first moved into our house, the backyard needed some work. Kind of empty, terrible soil, and that fake well was full of poison ivy ... Yikes.

Four years later, the view from our back deck is much more lush:

Oh, and here's a "before" view from the middle of the backyard, facing the house. I love how the previous owners were using the space next to the house for a weed patch / motorcycle parking / satellite dish receiver. It makes me cringe:

The first thing we did was rip out the weeds. In 100-degree heat. While being swarmed by mosquitoes. But the hard work paid off:

Now we have a private cafe, with bluestone from the farm where I grew up!

The inside of our house has come a long way, too. One of these days I'll get around to posting photos of the interior. For now, here are a couple other photos of the backyard.

P.S. -- This post was inspired by Katie's before & after photos on Flickr. Visit her blog sometime ... It's one of my favorites.

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Just to clarify ...

In my last post, when I said "catching fireflies," I meant catching them on video. I don't capture them in jars or anything, and I definitely don't want to encourage or condone that. Harvesting fireflies is a despicable thing. I feel strongly that the harvest of wild fireflies should be abolished, and plan to take action to prevent evil companies from further endangering these magical insects. I hope you'll help the fireflies, too!

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Lately, I've been ...

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