To the Gallery Then Back to My Yard

As I mentioned earlier, my first photographic gallery show is NOW ON in Beaverlodge, Alberta at the Beaverlodge Cultural Centre. I have nineteen photos featured and thought I’d give you a sneak peek. I didn’t have my camera bag when I took these during my opening, so didn’t have the correct lens for my camera. That’s why the field of view is so narrow; hopefully you get an idea what it’s like. For those in the area, I hope you’ll visit the show between now and July 23rd. The volunteers always have tea or coffee and some homemade sweets for gallery visitors to enjoy in their sunny tea room.

Back at home. As some of you know I’m battling a flu that simply does not want to release itself from me. I’m getting so worn out that I’m also getting restless and a tad on the cranky side. No one outside of home knows I’m cranky (but now that I’m blabbing about it, you know) because I do my best to push all that ‘stuff’ inside and revert to my happy face when I’m with friends or neighbours. I don’t mind admitting that this flu is really getting the best of me. After posting a couple photos from my backyard a week or so ago, two of you mentioned you’d like to see more of where I live. So, here is another glimpse into my yard.

This is in my front yard. I’ve always loved weeping caragana so thought I’d show this photo taken last week when both it and the lilacs were in bloom.

We have a patch in our backyard that we don’t mow. It’s the remnants of an old country flower garden, once the joy of my husband’s mom. For several years I used to break my back shoveling and weeding, pulling the incessant crab grass. My back finally began telling me that was something I needed to give up but I refuse to allow my husband to mow that area. Every June the orange oriental poppies that were once an integral part of my mother-in-law’s garden come through the thick patch of crab grass. This photo was taken just before they all popped open into their blousy blooms (remember those night photos I shared the other day?). I loved the lighting and was especially taken with how these two were like weeping sisters. What I hadn’t noticed was this little fellow who had been looking straight at me (see the inset in the lower right).

This is getting rather long and since I prefer to keep my posts brief, I’m going to begin closing down the tour with two final photos. I love flowers of all sorts, including a lot of ones that people call weeds. Just as difficult as it is for me to pick one favourite book or novel I’ve read, it’s equally difficult to say I have only one favourite flower. Among my favourites however, are peonies. I’m particularly partial to the old heritage varieties such as Sarah Bernhardt –oh what a divine fragrance they have. I got that love of peonies from my darling mother — she was a master at growing lush peonies and had a sylvan thumb with bountiful tomatoes as well. This is the first of my peony plants that is currently in bloom. Two more in the backyard should be opening up within a week.

And finally, this is what I saw outside my office window the other evening, looking through my backyard. This is the true colour and that’s why the photos I took the other evening were so orange. The sky really was this colour! I did no photoshopping to this; only sharpened it slightly for the web and added my watermark — nothing else. Now you know why I had to grab my camera! G’night.

PS: Did anyone watch the Queen’s Plate today? I’ll be so glad when that darn soccer is over; it’s causing me to miss all my favourite summer equine events. Anyway, I love CBC’s coverage (of everything) but they did such a great job telling stories today about the Queen’s Plate, about the Queen and her horses, about two of the jockeys, and each of the horses. Naturally I watched it! The jockey was so thrilled to actually get to see the Queen, he was beyond ecstatic. How wonderful.

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Photographs Never Forget!