Poking Around Pickity

I’ve mentioned many times the favorite luncheon spot for Jennifer, Renae and me, Pickity Place in Mason, NH. After going so many times, I stopped taking regular photos of our visits, with the exception sometimes of the oh-so-beautifully-presented food. However, Renae brought to my attention that Pickity was having a photo contest this year to win gift certificates! “Capture the magic of Pickity” is the theme of the contest. During our last visit, I brought my Canon and set out to find the magic. It isn’t difficult to do at this place, but I was also hoping to find a few shots that other folks might pass by. I’ve collected my favorites here. Some are just because I really like them, a couple I am considering submitting. I won’t tell you the ones that struck me as possibly contest worthy just yet. Tell me your thoughts in the comments and we will see if we are thinking along the same lines….

Baaa, baaa … well you know!

Foxglove-a-glow

Set me free…

A gardener’s work is never done

Dragonfly in Copper

Grow dammit!

How sweet it is

I have until Labor Day to make my submission. I may not be limited to one selection. I’ve inquired at the FB page for the contest. Which ones do you think might have a little magic touch?

November is trying, but not really winning any points with me today

A moment of pretty….

…discovered while dealing with the ugly….

Raking leaves today. That photo above shows but a fraction of the 4 giant tarploads of leaves I’ve hauled out of my front yard today from the dreadful sycamore tree. I really dislike that tree this time of year! I mean really, look at the size of these leaves:

And there is exactly 9,786,584,001 of them! I counted! 😉

Just wanted to share…

One evening this week I was taken aback by the beautiful light and color I saw in the sky.  After running an errand to the grocery store, on what had been an unremarkable, cloudy sort of day, I saw the trees across the street from the store lit up by a gorgeous light, but the light was almost “cut off” at the top if you can imagine what I mean.  Looking toward the west, a dark cloud cut a horizontal line across the sky, but the great, golden orb of the sun was sinking just below that line.  I admired the amazing, golden color before me as I drove home from the market and hoped there would still be some nice color for me to photograph when I got home.

When I got home, color had changed but it was still beautiful.  Surrounded as I am by the things of suburbia, I have no clear view of sunset and the horizon, but I was able to capture these shots.  I haven’t adjusted anything in Photoshop; these are SOOC using my 50mm 1.8 lens.

I’ve never been a big fan of November: no leaves, no flowers, No-vember; however, this colorful sky was a lovely exception to a normally colorless month!

A Piece of my Heart

Each year when I return home from our vacation in Maine, I feel as though I’ve left a little piece of my heart behind.

After this year’s long and unusually traffic-filled ride, I took that much more pleasure in filling my lungs with the salty air and letting my soul settle in to the place where it feels so at home.

The colors of the evening never failed to disappoint…

And the morning light sparkled on the water like diamonds.

Although Maine is far from the tropics, when I put my head on the pillow at night I’d see this pine tree out the bedroom window that for some reason made me think of tropical breezes and palm trees lulling me to sleep.

To avoid overloading you with photos in one post, I will continue with another post this week showing some of my Maine “discoveries”.

Wrapping Up Color

It has taken me a week to do it, but I am back with a little wrap of the Color Photo Hunt! I’d say I was slacking, but I really haven’t been. I’ve been taking pictures and working outside and reveling in the fact that spring has really, truly arrived. My usual Saturday morning ritual of catching up with all of you over a cup of coffee was even put on hold for a visit to the garden center. Another blog post relating to that is still to come, but let me get on with the wrap-up!

Robin jumped in right away with a post about the color purple. She found a stunning variety of shots to showcase in purple. I don’t think she had to hunt too hard for her beautiful collection!

Joanne, my inspiration for this photo hunt, also brought us a lovely variety of photos of purple. Her purple Australian sunset is amazing! Joanne also includes the psychology of purple. Joanne has been delving into the psychology of colors, so I am happy to add a link to another post she did about blue. I just love the shot of the misty morning in this one.

Kathy found it pretty much impossible to choose one color to which she is drawn, so she chose them all! ROYGBIV is her favorite. I still remember learning that mnemonic device for the order of the colors of the rainbow when I was a child. Click here to have some fun checking out Kathy’s post!

Stacy did a color that many of us probably would not have considered when thinking about the colors that we are drawn to – she chose brown. For anyone who loves nature, this is really a perfect choice when you think about it!

Isa hadn’t even realized I had posted a photo hunt, but she happened to pop over and see my post and kindly asked if she could include a link to a recent post of hers about the color green. I said, “Mais bien sûr!” (French for “but of course!”) Well, I didn’t actually say that but I wish I had been witty like that at the time! Isa has a pretty collection of shots to remind us in those days without much color, that spring will someday arrive.

It wasn’t too hard to figure out what color Sybil would choose when it came to this challenge, even though she did try to trick us! If there is one blogger that I read that is a more hard-core gardening lover than me, it has to be Sybil, so her color naturally had to be green! I still remember Sybil’s response to Scott’s “Winter” photo challenge because it made me laugh and I totally agree.

Dawn was totally right when she said that I posted a photo hunt about color at a time when a lot of color was not easy to come by for those of us in the northern climes. But a color hunt would have been too easy in the middle of summer, wouldn’t it, Dawn? Dawn wracked her brain and came up with some beauties to feature about the color red and the joy that often goes with it.

Carol is another who had trouble choosing just one color to present in her photo hunt. She talked about neutrals, and burgundy and green, and gave us a nice peek into her life. I love blog posts that give us those little peeks, don’t you?

Indecisive bloggers turned out to be quite common in this photo hunt! But you know I’ve never been a stickler for the so-called “rules”. Sonali’s lovely post starts with a beautiful burst of yellow, which I thought was going to be her color choice, but she went on to present a pretty variety of colors.

Apparently I made Tamara worry that she wouldn’t get her post in on time! (Tamara – see that part in the last paragraph about me not being a stickler for rules, LOL!) Tamara is another lover of purple and has a sweet post presenting her favorites.

If you happened to miss my post (but probably not since I haven’t post anything else in a week, I’m guessing!) it was completely in the pink!

I’m glad so many of you jumped in and enjoyed this photo hunt. I thank Joanne one more time for the inspiration. I can’t promise it with any regularity, but I will try to come up with a few more photo hunts in the future, oh, I don’t know, maybe when I feel like it? 😉

My Color

Hello  everyone!  I can’t believe it has been two weeks already since I posted the color photo hunt post and that I haven’t posted anything in between!  Spring has definitely arrived to this part of the world and I’ve found myself quite busy with all of the spring yard work that goes along with it!  I had a birthday a couple days ago as well, and toss in all of the everyday life stuff and I just haven’t had the chance to be here at the computer.  I feel like I have lots to write about, but since today is my deadline for the photo hunt, I will get on with telling you about my color.

I have always been  drawn to the color pink in all of its varying shades.  Heck, I even love the artist who calls herself Pink!  I think she’s a fabulous singer.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you’ve seen pictures of my kitchen and dining room.  Ever notice the color theme that runs through both?

When I received a Kindle this past Christmas, I ordered a case for it. Here’s the color:

With spring busting out all over, it was time for me to start putting my feet in my favorite style of shoes – sandals! But you can’t wear sandals without first getting a pedicure, right?

And you knew there would be flowers didn’t you? Could there really be a spring blog/photo hunt about color from me without flowers?

(I bought myself a bouquet on my birthday!)

Here in New England, magnolia trees are blooming like crazy this time of year. They are simply gorgeous. I don’t have one of my own, and I envy all of the yards I see with these beautiful trees. I drove around town looking for one where I could take pictures without stepping into someone’s yard, then found one at our public library. I took these shots on my birthday, which just happened to be about as lovely a day as you could ask for.

I found a webpage with the psychology of pink. Here are my favorite lines from that page:
“The color pink represents compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of nurturing. Pink is feminine and romantic, affectionate and intimate, thoughtful and caring. Pink is intuitive and insightful, showing tenderness and kindness with its empathy and sensitivity.” If you’d like to read more, click here.

I hope you all enjoyed this photo hunt! It is not too late to jump in! You can post all day today, and if you’d like more time to be included, just drop me a comment to let me know. I’m looking forward to coming around to see all of your wonderful color posts! I’m hoping to do that later today, and to write a wrap-up post in a few days.

Colors of Your World

(from April 2011 archives)
As so often happens to me when I am making my way around the blogosphere visiting all of you, I got inspired this morning. This time my inspiration came from Joanne at Home Life Online and this post of hers.

(from April 2012 archives)

I’d like to use Joanne’s lovely post as the basis for a photo hunt. Many of you mentioned in the comments of my last post how much you enjoyed the photo hunts that I’ve posted in the past. I fell out of the habit in recent months, but Joanne’s post got me thinking. So here’s what I am proposing: Choose a color that you are drawn to. Post at least 3 photos (can be more if you like!) that feature this color in some way. Tell me what it is that draws you to this color. If you’d like, take it a step further and do a little research like Joanne did and find out some of the psychology of your chosen color.

(from August 2010 archives)

I’m going to post a deadline of Sunday, April 28th for this photo hunt, but you know how I am about deadlines – it is more of a loose goal than a firm commitment. If you want to participate and you need more time, just let me know. As we have done in the past, leave me a link to your post in the comments of this post and I will do a wrap up post a few days after the deadline. It would be great if you could help me spread the word about this photo hunt to your own blog readers so that we can have lots of participation. Thanks, and I hope you have fun with your chosen color!

Composing for Color

Color, color, color – what a challenge for this dreary month!  Those were my thoughts when Scott Thomas first announced his photo assignment for November.  I read the links that Scott shared, as well as Scott’s post full of lovely examples and set my thoughts in motion.

Jennifer, Renae and I enjoyed another lovely luncheon at Pickity Place last weekend and I hoped that Pickity might provide some photo opportunities.  There was not a lot of offerings, but I had my eyes open for leading lines and punches of color.

This may be a bit opposite of the ideas expressed in color composition, but I like the way the gray and white cat was framed by color:

These next couple shots I took on my day off from work on Monday.  I was surprised to catch the sun just peeking above my neighbor’s shed surrounded by fog, giving the shot a beautiful but a little eerie color:

I couldn’t decide which version of this picture I liked better. It was taken only a couple minutes later, but the fog is bit more evident in this shot. Does that take away from composing for color?

Here is one more different take on color composition. On my looking-for-bluebirds walk, I happened to look up and spot these bright red berries spattered among the grayish brown branches – color just jumping out at me.

So who woulda thunk it? Include my bluebirds and I think I found a pretty good variety for dreary ol’November. Thanks for the assignment, Scott!

Searching for Color

Scott Thomas has a new photo assignment out for us this month called Color Composition.  I think I am going to find it a challenge.  I’ve just finished telling you about how challenging I find finding beauty in November to be.  So? you may say, Scott is allowing archived photos for this time around!  Yes, I reply, but usually I am so excited to share a photo with you that I find appealing, I’ve already published it here on the blog!  I found this photo that I took last month that could possibly fit the assignment, but I’m not sure.

Hmm, now I’ve gone and published it too!

So I’ll be keeping this assignment in mind over the next week and a half.  It is due on Wednesday, November 21st if you’d like to participate.

After all the strange recent weather (Hurricane Sandy, Winter Storm Athena) a pleasant three-day weekend with temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s is on tap for this area.  I’m hoping to take the poochachos for a much needed walk and I’m off to Pickity Place again tomorrow with my sister and our BFF.  I’m not sure what our day off from school on Monday will bring just yet.  How about you?  Have any interesting plans for the weekend?

Searching for Autumn Color

It might be a bit early still.  I had it in my head that by Columbus Day weekend, western Massachusetts was usually ablaze in the colors of fall.  I wasn’t able to find much photographic evidence in the archives on my computer.  I searched dates around this time in 2010 and 2009, without luck.  My 365 project on Flickr showed a bit of color on October 10th of 2008.

When the forecast for this weekend said sunny skies and temperatures around 80°, I knew a walk in the woods would be on my “to do” list.  The forecast proved accurate, and the doggy duo and I set out for an afternoon walk yesterday.  I reveled in the warmth and sunshine, telling myself to enjoy it, knowing this was likely the last New England weekend to enjoy such weather.  Hoping to spot hints of pretty color, Mr. Andre Rebel came along for the walk too.

While I didn’t see vibrant shades filling the trees, I was able to find some hints of the autumn palette:

These little cuties reminded me of Michaela’s post from the other day:

I also found something new along our familiar path.  While rounding a bend, this popped up:

Bridge? I thought to myself.  What bridge?  Lo and behold:

A new footbridge had appeared along our walk, at Daphne’s favorite spot to take a little rest.  Normally, this is the place where I have to figure out the best spot for a little leap across the running water while the dogs happily slog across.  The dogs still slogged through, but I happily made use of the new addition.

In some spots along our walk, and in general about town, I’ve noticed some of the trees seem to be skipping their autumn display and going straight from green to brown:

In the pleasantness of the afternoon, we ambled further along the path than we’d been in quite a long time.  As the sunlight peeked through trees in the shadowy section of our walk, it suddenly came to my consciousness that I had possibly obtained my own form of quiet contemplation and meditation.  If meditation is the absence of active thought, then I think it happened, if only for a short time.  For a short time, I wasn’t thinking about chores that awaited me at home, the trials of the previous week at work, or the tasks ahead for the week to come.  It was just me, the dogs, the woods and breathing.  And it felt really good.