Mom

January 27th. . .

I moved a thousand miles south a couple decades ago. 

I was in my early 20s. Because of the distance I was lucky to get home once a year. 

Five years later my mom  died from injuries as the result of a very tragic car accident. 

I'm thinking about her friends. 

I see their smiling faces. A deep love in their eyes. Connections that cannot be broken. 

Of shared experiences with their children. Their husbands. Their community. And especially fishing.

I don't always get to see these women when I come home. But when I do it brings a clenching to my heart. Overwhelming emotions that are hard to control. It's like the funeral was just last week instead of 30 years ago. Even now as I picture their faces, my throat closes up and my eyes fill with tears. I picture myself as a little girl and them having their arms wrapped around me as I cry. They cry too. 

In honor of my mom whose birthday is today. She would have been 77. I look at her sisters and try to picture what she would look like now. I imagine what our conversation topics might be. What type of art she might be doing or if she would have established an art related business. . . thoughts. . . imaginings. . .

Around Town, Fall 2013

Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds.
I had to find 'new' areas of town to get Fall photos this year. (Except for the usual 'bank' photos)
In both Spring and Fall I take the south road as I exit the bank drive thru to cruise the neighborhood. The Badford Pear trees are simply gorgeous. This year the colors ranged from yellow, orange, to red and sometimes purple.

But most of my usual areas were hard hit by an early freeze.

My friend Kathy, wanted to drive through her old neighborhood which she claimed was gorgeous in the fall. She didn't need to twist my arm!
We have very few Silver Maples here. It's the pale one with the white branches.

An incredibly gorgeous Chinese Pistache took my breath away. I haven't figured out why mine doesn't look like this one.

I wish I knew what this small orange bush was. I should have just taken a stroll down the path. 

A few more spots around town.

 The alley behind the bank. Yes I stopped way back at the stop light. (Shot from the car) Fortunately no one was coming behind me. I'll bet you money no one else in town took this photo! And why in the world is there a pedestrian crossing sign there?

My last stop of the day was to take my friend home. Her yard is lovely!

She loves to photograph humming birds and she has the perfect plants to attract them.

Even the Autumn Joy was photo worthy.

Yes, I'm still having a hard time giving up Fall. I think maybe one more post of my Instagram pics will suffice but who knows.

I hope you are staying bundled up with this northern that's about to blow through!

Gratitude Day 2

I am grateful for friends that inspire me, like Carol Hart. Not only does her garden look fantastic, she takes awesome photos not just with her camera but her phone too. And she made her iPad cover into a piece of art. She did one layer of paint then used stamps and ink. On mine, I painted one layer then used more paint with homemade 'stamps' and a couple stencils. I also 'split' a turquoise napkin and used gel medium to adhere it and put another coat over the whole thing. I had 2 paint nicks before I got finished but after a week it is still looking good. Carol reminded after it was too late, "go easy on the acrylic (thin coats) because it turns to plastic and will peel off." I've done very little mixed media stuff but it sure is fun. 
Thanks Carol!

Good-by, Not

Nearly 2 years ago my friend Cindy decided to start a 'girls only' photo group for more personal support among the girls at our local camera club. A couple months ago the threatening news of her possibly moving clear across the state reared it's ugly head. This wasn't welcome news to us, however it was great news for her family.
This week was our last official meeting. Cindy decided to get all mushy on us and told a story. When she was quite young, her mom took her and her brother to a store and gave them each some money to buy a gift. (It was Cindy's birthday.) Her brother was so excited about his gift for her he couldn't even wait to get out the door to give it to her. It was so beautifully wrapped and she was careful to preserve every piece. As she unwrapped it he told her that he bought it because she was his shining star. At this point she showed us the necklace. Then went on to pull gifts from her purse for each of us and tell us that was how she felt about us. I believe we all had tears in our eyes.

Thank you, my friend. You've been such an inspiration and encouragement to me.

Thank God for FB and other technology. Perhaps we'll do Google Talk or Skype after they get settled in.

All photos processed in RadLab.

Autumn Color in Palo Duro Canyon

While visiting our friends, Barb & Jeff, in Amarillo, we took a spur of the moment trip out to the canyons. Much to my surprise the cottonwoods where robed in glory. These are majestic old trees and are dwarfed by the canyons. However the drive through them yielded bright sunlit leaves on a perfect memorable Sunday afternoon.
I miss my friends, who moved from here about 5 years ago. Jeff has had a nasty battle with cancer this year and just this past week had a very delicate surgery to remove a tumor around his descending aorta. He's doing well.