Wordless Wednesday

Sunny Saturday in May

t was just the perfect kind of day to relax and appreciate the season... a little wander in the yard with my iPhone and Instagram app later, and my love of Walla Walla in the spring is at full bloom.

The one thing I wish I could have captured was a bunny frolic in the front yard. I caught two young ones hopping and jumping over each other in an almost-choreographed dance. Absolutely precious, but you'll have to take my word for it, as I was inside, upstairs, no camera within arms reach, and I couldn't pull myself away from watching to go and find one. A priceless moment.

I had brief hopes of a balloon floating over the house this afternoon (this is the annual hot air balloon festival weekend around here), as we are out of the flight path for morning lift-offs. In years past though, given the right conditions in the late afternoons, we've seen them land in the fields around us, quite close. Such was not our luck this gorgeous afternoon... 

What's blooming in your yard these days?

Wordless Wednesday: My commute

Haiku spring break

aiku is a form I haven't written since college (and not very much, then, either). I remembered how challenging it is, but had forgotten (or maybe never knew?) how much fun can be had in the challenge.

While at the coast this past week, I wrote one for each day we relaxed...

Friday
Road trips go quickly
these days, electronics help
miles zoom; who needs talk?

Saturday
Extra zzzzzs, we snore.
Rain drizzles, wind shifts to north;
dog yawns, vacation.

Sunday
Sunshine hits the hills,
Rain sprinkles 'cross sandy dunes;
I'm inside, content.

Monday
Quiet, peaceful me,
listening to the second hand.
Willing time. to. slow.

Tuesday
Relaxed, close to bored.
He's fifteen, so we savor
every minute, sweet.

Wednesday
Bliss through filtered green.
I walk, quick, for images
to capture, hold fast.

Thursday
Chief pulls at his leash,
eager to sniff, lick, paw, pee.
He's wild for fresh air.

Friday
Miles drag their feet, slow.
Trip back, we snack, talk, daydream
we're home already.

Such great memories of our time away, and now that a new week is upon us, it's like it was a month ago already!

Friday night grateful moment

or my grateful list this week, I went mostly photographic...

That panorama app I bought last week? Well, it turned out to be a bit of fun.

I think the thing I am most grateful for this week is stillness.

A walk on the beach, look out at the ocean, just be. Odd to say stillness when there's a prancing dog at the end of the leash, but it does seem stillness can be achieved with prancing, darting... frolicking, even.

There is something about staring out over water--whether it's reflecting so much light you have to squint at the brilliance, or dark and churning with rain and wind--that is such a cure-all. Many people have contributed their thoughts and words on the healing powers of the ocean, being at water's edge... seems a universal reconnection place.

It was a lovely time, to be away with family, to see and catch up with friends, to enjoy laughter and talking, and quiet time by the fire, too.

The many moods of Haystack Rock, eh? Different days, times, weather patterns, tides. Always beautiful to behold!

Also, very happy to be home! How has your week been? I hope your grateful list is long and filled with things close to your heart.

Photo 1, 2010

iterally, the first photo of 2010. Wasn't trying for that, but of all the brilliant sunshine-filled photos I took this morning, the very first one was the best!

Can't you just feel that 2010 is going to be a great year?

One last tidbit--you can hear it melting out there. Not just the dripping, which is loud. But there's also this creaking sound of the ice retracting (at least that's what my science-limited brain has imagined it is doing). It's pretty sci-fi!

Chance favors the prepared mind

We had the opportunity to attend a local hospital gala tonight. Usually these can be rather boring and/or stuffy affairs, depending on who we are sitting with, and what the entertainment is. And this time of year they seem to come one on top of another with various corporate sponsorship responsibilities for the husband.

Tonight I think we both would have been quite content to just hang out at home and chill. But we dutifully got on our nice duds (though I went for more comfy than chic, I hate to say. I still looked good, but I was not getting all gussied up in the cold for this event!) and went out.

To start things off, we had a lovely table of folks to sit with, plenty of pleasant conversation. The meal was fine, quite typical of the Marcus Whitman, but entirely edible. Yummy lemon tart for dessert.

The best part of the evening was the keynote speaker. When I heard he was a photographer I thought, what on earth is he going to talk about that will be relevant to this crowd? Hmmm, think, Sher, think! It's not that great a leap.

Steve Uzzell has had a 35-year career for National Geographic and various corporate accounts, and has won various Communication Arts awards. His work is very lovely.

But going along with the many beautiful photos he showcased, he had an inspiring commentary on problem solving in life and work, and how utilizing his approach to setting up a shot could work for any situation that needs problem solving. His talk was called "Open Roads, Open Minds," and when I went and looked at the list of companies he's presented to, it was pretty impressive.

He walked us through various ad campaigns he had been a part of, and how he had approached the shoot, from scouting locations through to the persistence in getting that one perfect shot. Being able to show a number of shots around "the one," it was amazing to see the difference mere seconds can make.

Over and over again he has seen that "Chance favors the prepared mind," a quote by Louis Pasteur. If he scouts things out, looks at them from various perspectives, maybe comes back every day for a week at different times to see the sun's angles, then he'll get that one-on-a-million shot.

He told of instances where he's driven all the roads around Long Island Sound, looking across at NYC, to get just the right angle of the city. Or he's calculated the sunset times to know where and when he'd need to be to get that one exceptional shot of a bridge with the sun behind it. And he talked about the time he flew for two hours in a helicopter to get the best shot of a bridge, and just happened to get a tractor trailer crossing the bridge, going the right direction, and it was a great color for the shot. Or this shot, where he waited for more than an hour for the only 5 seconds of sun that day.

He talked also about imagining the solution to the problem, and working your way backward to where you currently are. For me, it was a great reminder of that old saying: begin with the end in mind. (Or, as he also said, if you don't know where you're going, any road will do.) And, he talked about golf as being the perfect example of problem solving, looking out to where you want to be, and plotting how to get there. I thought of my dad many times throughout the talk and how much he would have enjoyed meeting this guy, but of course when Steve mentioned golf I knew that they would have become fast friends on the spot!

So, home now and to sleep. Maybe tomorrow chance will favor the well-rested mind?