Four Thousand Beautiful Words

I haven't done a photo post like this in a while, but I had the urge tonight to just share things that have caught my eye of late. Grateful eyes see beauty everywhere. With all the rain we've had lately...well, there seems to be a theme.

A Gerbera daisy in my yard

Beads of water on a leaf on the deck

Cherry tomatoes in our garden

Water droplets on the dressina plant

All photos by Linda Davenport 2009

Photo published in Schmap!! San Francisco

Everyone likes a compliment, and I just got a nice one.

The folks at "Schmap!! Beyond the Map" selected one of my photos for publication in their online city guide to San Francisco. That's a very nice compliment!

It's also a rather interesting business model. They apparently search Flickr and possibly other photo sites for pictures. When they find ones they like, they create a "short list" and invite photographers to submit those photos. They don't have to pay for photography, and photographers like me get a photo credit and some exposure. That sounds like a winner all around to me.

You can view the guide and my photo here.  And I have to say the Schmap people do a great job with their guides. Their walking tour information for San Francisco is excellent, right down to guidance on which bus to take if some of the hills on the route are a bit daunting.

Thanks for letting me share the joy!  Oh, and here's the photo used in the guide:

Saved by an Estrogen Tsunami

When you pray for rain, buy an umbrella.

I asked the universe to rain on me and end the creative drought I found myself in. Salvation came in torrents, waves of beautiful, quenching relief that washed over me like a flood, waking me up and bringing me back to life.

I went to a women's retreat this past weekend. We called it a Goddess Weekend, but I like the name a friend from Twitter used for a women's outing - an estrogen tsunami. (Thanks, @micrathene!)

This tsunami was made up of woman of all ages and stages of life. There were the just barely eighteens, the young mother suckling her son, the single, the married, the divorced, the mothers and grandmothers. Some were healthy and robust; some were battling illnesses. Some were happy and cheerful; some were seeking solace. It would be hard to find a more diverse group. Yet among them all there was a common thread of strength, creativity, survival.

How can I tell you how good it was to be in the company of these women? We laughed and talked and told stories. We shared a powerful ritual in which the maiden, the mother, and the crone used us to tell the stories and teach the lessons we needed to hear. We made food together and cleaned up together. We danced and celebrated being sexy and fun. We loaded our own gear in and out and hooked up our own electronics and backed our own cars in and out of the woods. It was fun, but most of all, it was healing. Whatever the cause of my creative drought, the beautiful, wild, soaking rain of my sisters' company has put it to rest.

In honor of the estrogen tsunami, I'll share some photos I took this weekend. Water is a favorite subject for me and my camera, and the light and patterns of the creek flowing over the rocks just fascinated me. Maybe it reminded me of the way we women flow through life...over rocks and jagged edges, under, over, and around obstacles, sometimes in a flood, sometimes in a trickle, but we keep moving, moving, moving. Along the way, we cleanse, heal, soothe, refresh, nourish...when needed, we reshape, remove, and destroy. We are strong, even when our touch is tender.

Rush on, sisters...rush on.

3,000 Beautiful Words

Sharing some beautiful things that have captured my eye, my lens, my heart of late...

Heraclitus said (loosely paraphrased) that a man cannot stand in the same stream twice because it is never the same stream and he is not the same man. We are constantly in flux, dynamic, evolving, works of art and works in progress.  The stream is always moving.
 

I love sunrise, expecially in winter. As the days grow short and cold, the daily affirmation that the wheel is always turning warms me and renews my spirit. From light to dark to light again, from strength to weakness and back to strength...take no great pride in days of light...feel no great despair in days of darkness...turn, turn, turn...

Beautiful things are everywhere..like this gentle gift from a farmer's market awhile back. I'm grateful that glowing slivers of July can be saved through the lens to light the shadowy corners of January.

Photos by Autumn Heartsong; Stream in Cosby, Tennessee, USA; Sunrise in my back yard, Harrison, Tennessee, USA; Sunflower and Grapes, informal farmer's market, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA.

Fun at Home

Grow some fun at home today with the people you love. You have all you need to raise a bumper crop of laughter and lasting memories that will be sweeter, more nourishing, and juicier than anything you can cook up elsewhere.

I was sitting at the dining room table tonight making Yule cards (see the pictures below), listening to the sounds of my husband and two of our daughters watching a movie in the other room. Their laughter was beautiful! We've done a lot of things together as a family, but nothing comes close to the fun we have at home.

Speaking of fun, I've been growing some of my own the last couple of days. I'm no graphic artist, but I'm an avid doodler and love to make my own greeting cards. From the time I was old enough to hold a fat crayon, I've gotten giggly, giddy enjoyment out of stacks of colored paper, scissors, glue, and bright, shiny pens. What fun! Here are some of my off the wall creations, nothing award winning - just homegrown fun at its finest. And since most fun is better shared...I'm sharing. Enjoy!







Photos by Autumn Heartsong. "Good Times" greeting card copyright Autumn Heartsong. 2008.

7,000 beautiful words...

...pictures from recent weekend jaunts. Nature saves her finest garments each year for the next to-last-dance...then does the last one naked and unashamed. Enjoy these photos from her all-dressed-up dance!









Photos by Autumn Heartsong; 1 - 6, Little River Canyon, Alabama, USA; 7, Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia, USA

Fertility Engineer? Maybe...

...or maybe it's just Nature's way of getting things done.

This guy was in the garden this morning, busily moving from flower to flower. By the time I spotted him, he was so laden with pollen it's a wonder he could still fly!

Thanks, little buddy, for getting the work done. Hope you enjoyed your feast. We sure do appreciate the results.

After the rain...

...the sun comes shining through.

We watched a summer storm from the front porch a few days ago. What a beautiful thing! It was one of those delicious summer rains - big, fat rain drops falling straight down, thunder rumbling in the distance, trees dancing freestyle in the wind. As the rain began winding down, the sun broke through and streamed down through the rain.


After the rain ended, the whole yard lit up with twinkling lights - the sun glinting off the droplets of rain on every tree.
Isn't that the way of it? It rains sometimes...but even in troubled times, the light is still there if you look for it. When the rain stops, everything is washed clean...new...and just enough rain clings to the surfaces to catch the sun and reflect it back.

Attitude is everything.

Don't blog when you're exhausted...

...because you'll fall asleep at the keyboard and wipe out your entire post just before you hit the "publish" button. $*#@!

Prior to the falling asleep incident, I was celebrating the current success of my herb garden and how I have my husband to thank for it. He didn't plant the bed; I did. What he did was share his bountiful Green Man energy with me.



You see, before Three Crows came into my life, I had managed to kill house plants, tomatoes, flowers...in short, anything I tried to grow. I used to joke that I could eradicate crab grass (a common scorge of southern lawns)if I just tried to grow it.

Nowadays, however, I'm having a lot more success. The herb bed is beautiful! I love stepping off the porch and clipping handsful of fresh flavor and fragrance. Rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley, sage, cilantro, lavender, chamomile, chives, and now stevia and apple mint...they're my babies and I love them. And I just planted more...spearmint, peppermint, tarragon, tomatoes, and peppers...along with lots of flowers for the porch and deck rail boxes. Three Crows is still recovering from surgery, but he was there, guiding the efforts and sharing his energy. Amybeth (eldest of our combined girl-children) helped, too, and I think she enjoyed her first gardening efforts.





So...keep a good, green thought for continued success, and I'll share more photos with you as the babies grow. And try growing some of your own. You'll love it!

The California adventure continues..

Today was fun! I started the day in the Muir Woods Redwood Preserve and an easy mile-and-a-half loop on the trails. New photos are on Flickr.

What an amazing place! I know now what "the forest primeval" means. To the eye, it looks pretty much the same as Armstrong Woods that I visited yesterday. That makes sense; two old-growth forests in the same area, same types of plants, etc. Muir Woods is very old, though, and I think probably older than the Armstrong area, though I need to research that. 2008 marks the 100th year of the Muir Woods as a named entity, and the forest itself is ancient.

The first thing I noticed about the woods was the smell. Oh, that wonderful smell! Fresh, clean, earthy... heavenly.

Then there was the doe and fawn that crossed the trail. A guide leading a group of children noticed the pair trying to cross the trail to get to the creek. After finally getting the children and the oblivious adults to be still and somewhat quiet, the doe crossed but the baby was spooked by the crowd and failed to cross. Little deer starts looking for momma deer all around and can't find her. Everyone was oh-no-ing quietly.

Now, I've been told by more than one person that I carry a lot of "momma energy," and I know it's true. I got a little reminder of that today. As I watched the fawn search for momma, I said a little prayer and just asked the Lady to guide the little one to momma. Where does the fawn go? To me...all but into my hand. I think she (gender chosen for convenience; the fawn wasn't THAT close) would have just followed me across the road, until the kids realized the fawn was right under their feet and got excited. Baby ran back into the woods. The doe had started calling, and finally came back across, collected her offspring, and crossed back to the creek. We moved on. It was beautiful.

Next: San Francisco! I drove to Pier 39 and played at Fisherman's Wharf all afternoon. The best thing about SF and northern California in general is that it's drop-dead beautiful. The wharf was fun...lots of shopping, mostly touristy stuff, some jewelry, and food. Oh, and they had an honest-to-goodness arcade - that was fun! I didn't play anything; I just enjoyed walking through the dimly lit palace of fun things. Dinner was The Eagle Cafe. It was good, and the bartender made me the best bloody mary I've ever had! It had freshly grated horseradish in it and the rim was sportig a layer of seasoned salt. Yum!

Finally headed for San Carlos and the hotel I booked on Orbitz. I have to say that I am impressed with Orbitz. I hadn't written down the hotel address so I called Orbitz for help. They found me in the computer system with just my first and last name and were able to give me everything I needed. With their help and the guidance of the trusty GPS system in my rental car, I got where I was going without mishap.

Now it's time to pack up and get some shut-eye. My flight home is 6:00 AM, which means a 3:30 departure from my lovely room. Hope I can sleep on the plane!

G'night.

What a great day!

I had some time after the last session I wanted to attend today, so I headed out for some adventure. Chuck at the California Visitor's Center in Santa Rosa gave me the scoop on a scenic drive, along with a handy map with route personally highlighted by Chucks' own hand, so off I went. It was great! You can check out the photos on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25941852@N07/show/

First stop...Martinelli Winery for a quick taste and three lovely bottles of wine. This small family winery had some delicious reds and the place was just beautiful.

Next up, Korbel Champagne Winery. Loved the bubbly, but the bottles wouldn't fit in my already-purchased wine shipper, so I bought a bottle of cream sherry. I've never been a sherry drinker, but this stuff is delicious!

Next...Armstrong Woods and a walk among the redwoods...quite possibly the highlight of my trip so far.

Turned onto US 1 and followed the coast for a ways, through Sonoma County State Beach area. I popped off the main road at Goat Rock State Beach and walked down as far as my city girl sandals would let me. And...you guessed it...the pictures are on Flickr at the link above.

My 8 AM oatmeal finally ran out and I had to find food. Ended up at The Tides in Bodega, and it was good. The food wasn't pretty, but it was tasty (lots of garlic) and filling. The restaurant is right on the water so the view was worthy.

Finally, turned for home. Bodega Highway reminds me of home...lots of modest homes and dairy ranches. We don't have ranches in Birchwood...but we have cows...and pastures...and other country stuff. Bodega Highway was like that...felt good.

Whew! Good day...long and adventurous. Tomorrow I check out and head back to San Francisco to see what I can get into there. Stay tuned!

Three beauties

amy amy sarah cropped.jpg