Seemingly a bridge, but truly a pier

This setting was something I came across while doing an project for a builder who wanted his home documented. Having spent a couple of hours photographing details of the interior and exterior and putting the home completely in context for a variety of uses, I was on my way home. And here was this most gentle, but beautiful scene. Lyrical. Simple. Soft and hard. Nature punctuated with a bit of color. It was a total surprise and one I savored.

Wide River Gallery, a slightly different take

I'd never thought about what this site was to be specifically. In general I thought it would be to showcase my photography. Then I realized that there are other things that can be brought to people than my photography (although it will come through things that I've photographed). That said, here is a photo of an artist's work I saw at the Wide River Gallery in Colonial Beach yesterday. They are stark, straight forward and quite wonderful. What was even more interesting was the poetry that went with them. Connie Canby, the owner/proprietor of Wide River pointed the poetry out to me. I'm not a big poetry person...it isn't what really reaches me, but when it does, it really does. This was a special treat.
I found the whole gallery is really humming with things to look at and at reasonable prices. There is jewelry, special ceramic pieces, and pottery and some woodworked bowls, all of which are worth a look, as well as the two featured artists. A very worthwhile destination, if you are in that part of the world....oh, and across the street (diagonally) a Thai restaurant!!

A touch of summer flowers

When it works out I help friends of mine with flowers to take to the various farmers markets. In a way it is a rather overwhelming job. They have the flowers picked by the workers and when I arrive there are buckets and buckets full of them. You might think oh, what an idyllic sort of job...there's a bit more to it than that.

A series of ball jars are put up on top of a makeshift table. Maybe a dozen of them are put out to work at once. Once filled with water and strategically located, then it is a rush to fill them as quickly as possible. This means placing taller pieces in first and then filler and then nice big flowers like zinnias and rudbekia to give the bright colors of summer. An occasional sunflower might be a hit. Anyway, it is demanding to do set after set of a dozen arrangements and when I'm finished, I'm usually pretty exhausted. But it is a labor of love for this is the real thing...real flowers, going to real people who might not have that bit of country color otherwise. A joy truly, but one that takes some effort.