You don’t always have to be shooting like a pro to find a pretty image. last night here in Portland was one of those nights. It had been rainy most of the day, but as evening rolled around I found myself heading out to the First Thursday Art Walk, and was greeted by the most glorious end to the day. All I had on hand was my iPhone, but it was pretty hard to go wrong on a night like this!
As the wooden shoes suggested, it was time to visit Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm again. This year, the fog caught us a little off guard, but with its challenges, it also provided opportunities for some interesting images. I like the warmth of the tulips in this one, contrasted against the cool blues of the fog. I hope you enjoy it also.
Curt
Three days of sunshine, think that’s the longest single stretch since I arrived here back at the start of March.It’s a little on the warm side by Portland standards, supposed to reach 81 today. It is however, a lovely, lovely day.
Reminds me of those days in May when I was still in high school. There weren’t a lot of them, but the last 3 weeks of each school year, the sun would warm the land and you just couldn’t stay inside. Kinda felt like Huck Finn on days like those, skip a class, maybe two, go sneak off across the baseball diamond, and down the hill to the willow tree by the creek.
Just sit leaning up against it’s trunk, leaves to the ground on all sides. It was like an invisibility cloak, you could see out, but no one seemed to be able to see in.
It was fun to watch the little kids come down and play by the creek, trying to catch pollywogs and minnows. Mothers walking their kids in strollers by. It was just so relaxing.
Eventually you heard the class bells ring, and you looked around, what the heck, you felt good enough again to face the 7th period doldrums in class. Even Mr. R’s Algebra. Nothing could be worse than that.
Be well.
‘Twas about a year ago… this boy started to take pictures beyond his dreams. Could it be?
For those of you interested… this is the grand unveiling of my latest painting. Iris in Oil. 9×12 inch. Hope you like. The official real life unveiling will be Friday, May 4th at Mile Post 5 First Friday event.
Curt
Can you think of a better way to spend Christmas day, than a place called Christmas Tree Pass?
Yes, this last Christmas (2011) in my attempts to reach the end of the earth… ok, the end of Nevada… I back traced a couple of steps to find this lovely washboard dirt road that went up and down, twirling all around. But as it did… the scenery became ever more amazing. It was one of those occasions where you say I am glad I bought a Jeep and not a Subaru!;)
Back in 1996, having finally made friends with our first shelter refugee, we somehow found ourselves walking her to another shelter event. She had been a handful, we were the third family to try adopting her… the first to stick. Her foster-mother, was at the event we were headed to, all we wanted to do is show her mom, we had intact made it.
Well things didn’t quite go as expected, foster mom, was sick that day or something. Anyway, much to our chagrin, we took a couple of minutes to look around. As luck would have it, there in a corner away from all the big dogs, was this little puppy, not bigger than my hand. she looked so horribly confused, didn’t have a clue what was going on. her only friend seemed to be a little raccoon chew toy even smaller than she was. Her eyes were so big, her ears flopped over so cute, and she had the biggest white snowshoes for feet. how could you not fall in love with such a cute little thing.
15 years she lived with us. 15 years she gave us unconditional love. 15 years she was my best friend in the world. She seldom complained, she always came when you needed some love, and she watched after me, continually.
Last November she died, quietly, gracefully. Her loss devastated me. She deserved a tribute, but I haven’t been able to give her one ’til now.
Katrina, I do hope your Arthritis is feeling better, and you have hooked up with your friend the squirrel. If you see Hagen, please tell her we miss her too. I will always miss you.
Some of you already know that I am fascinated with trains, especially steam engines. Back in 1999, I think I nearly died and went to heaven. California was celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th birthday), The California State Railroad Museum its 20th anniversary, and combined they threw a Party!
Cab forward in the Lobby as always, The Collis P. Huntington in the window too… Out of town Visitors included 844, 4449, The Challenger and a collection of assorted small engines of all shapes and configurations. It was a week to drive all fans of steam into Nirvana!
Several people have been asking for updates on my latest painting. This is it. I still have a long way to go on it, but it is coming along.
Iris is my first attempt at oil in maybe 5 years. The first was Dragon’s Eye, then Gemini (Orchid) followed by the small pink Dahlia. After working on this for a few days, I am starting to believe I should have probably skipped the let’s try with acrylics stage.
Anyway I hope you like what you see, I am actually having fun working on this one. It has been a long time since I could say that about ANYTHING I have painted.