Downward dahlia!

                                  Entered at http://pixeldustphotoart.blogspot.com/

She was in a large dahlia garden belonging to the owner of a house on a corner when I drove by.  I stopped and got out of the car; the woman was wearing an apron and was down on her knees pulling weeds with very long roots.  I told her how pretty her yard looked and asked if I could take a picture.  She said many had stopped in late summer to take pictures.  She pulled her gloves off, smiled, brushed her mussed white hair to the side and went inside.

Many of the flowers, all dahlias, of all shades and different shapes had seen their best days but it was still a sight to behold with the mix planted in several straight rows, each about 40 feet long.   This one stood out and was closest to me.  I have done nothing to alter this photo....she's a-naturale.  I could have changed the exposure, made it sharper, or embellished the color and the background....or, I could have used a textured template...this I have yet to do! So that is my goal for next Friday...to try something I've not tried before with a photo.  I imagine a kind of "vintage seed packet look...I hope!

Please, feedback is welcome...as are tips, criticism, or comments on any of my posts. I am still a fledgling blogger, trying to find the right combination of creativity, art, and writing that will attract a fair amount of people who share the various interests I do and might return here from time to time.  downtheeyrieroad.blogspot.com contains a little bit of everything....and I've only just begun.  It's a far cry from what I imagined it to be (about my dream of having a cottage by the sea) with a page that welcomes, but it will evolve.  And it's not for my eyes only...then there would be no point in doing it..  I already keep records, a journal or day book for having some order of  thoughts,  plans, ideas, happenings, and all kinds of notes and lists.   But this isn't meant to be about me...it's an offering to you, from me.
Kathy

Fun with depression glass color...

Having started out collecting the green depression glass, liking my mother's taste,  it wasn't long before I fell in love with the pink and the yellow.  I am not fond of the blue or dark green.  What I am am really on the lookout for is a combination (watermelon glass) green and pink pitcher to use for iced tea on a summer occasion.  I should have bought the one I saw in Oregon several years ago for $65.  Then there are the watermelon glass goblets and glasses.  I have a full set of the pink with the green stem that you see in the picture below but I'm hoping to find more of the rarer reversed glasses in the same pattern....but with a green bowl and a pink stem/foot. 

Anyway, I thought about the colors in the hand made needlepoint cover of the old stool that my grandmother Eva made many years ago.  I put the above set of glass item on top of it and aimed straight down to get the results you see below:

None of the other attempts at fading or what not turned out better than these two photos.  So, while pretty, one cannot see the flowers from that perspective. 

I love the hand me down items inherited from my mother and grandmothers.  Needless to say, I have simply added to the 
collections from time to time....like spoons.....how I love the spoons and spooners!  That is for another post sometime.

Vintage suitcases & trunk...pin cushion..

The shadows are played up in the first photo....hidden are the dirty marks of the olde suitcases and trunk. There are a million different ways to "touch up" this single photograph.  Next, the natural light of day with only a flash...pretty plain...        

           

In the first of the bottom two photos, the emphasis is on the play of the light rather than the texture of the tablecloth.  The vintage pincushion at the macro setting and the sepia tone of the second photo causes one to notice more of the detail of the tablcloth.  The shine of the silver is contrasted more against the background but not necessarily brighter.  I don't know which I like better?!

More experimenting to come.....pics of some things around the house....and another poem...later this week...hope you come back for a look.  

Kathy ~

Mary's running shoes...1st Marathon Portland, Ore. 26 miles

We finished the course,

well worn before we started

Discarded at last,

a new pair will carry on

Welcome morning mist,

ribbons of asphalt ahead

Rising with the dawn,

she'll run another marathon

Fleet like Pegasus,

race time cut by one hour

New sneakers propel her

 be they blue, brown or neon,

by klr

           This was easy to assemble...some sepia and inverted colors from picnik.com.  The carpet provided the texture.  Mary provided the subject matter.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Painting of the nails...mother and daughter...

Posted to http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Mellow Yellow Monday

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Promises of Rain...

by klr

 Seasonal plants sink into

the steamy background

Gold splinters of light bounce off

the estuary

                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                           

Drops fall from a mercury lined cloud

Fairy like mushrooms push out

 leafy banks of green

Leaves catch in a wee puddle

Dribbles of rain descending

sounding of spring times 

yet to be

Budding beauties get their bath

The haze in my head is passing,

Time to bake a cake and

have another cup of tea

http://www.lgordonphotography.com/p/creative-exchange.html

The Toast...

 The Toast


by klr

                                                                  painting by Richard Jack

                                              

Whilst they gather by the fire

beneath the glass chandelier

  smoke slips around them

 a gramophone tune rings dear

Wallpaper defines the room

  champagne toasts given 
recalling past holidays

 when stardust fell from heaven

Where once a Parisian
blue scarf waved against her cheek
rests a violet net shawl
and an irised parakeet

On the shelf sits a padlocked gold box

where old tales are kept
   Where once hung a man's corduroy hat
 the black cloak in which she wept

No more anguish from within
she smiles blissfully
and with a slight flair of bravura
  waltzes away audaciously

by John Sargent

Literature & History Vignette...

     Perhaps my point and shoot camera does not do as much justice to the subjects as would a Canon SLR. And maybe the composition does not follow the 1/3 rule.  But I couldn't resist taking a picture with the idea of an older world:  an old camel ink well, a 1940's heavy elephant bookend - and a few books that many of us may have had to read years ago,  or wanted to read,  and were captivated by.  This Arabian Nights volume does not have the splendid full page color illustrations that a bigger one does, but I loved Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and it pertains to a culture we currently read in the news everyday.  The Last of the Mohican's was a dull read for me and I cannot get James Fenimore Cooper's image out of my mind since I played the card game "Authors"! (and Nathanial Hawthorn)  Great Expectations was a delight as are all of Dickens's stories, I think.  This is an 18 book collection from The Book League of America in New York with no copy write date.  Other books include Lorna Doone, Kim by Kipling, and The Cloister and the Hearth.  I think I will take the last one to bed with me tonight.  And I love my globe mapped bookends.  I wonder if I would get an A for effort with this if I were in a class? 
Thank you for stopping by the Eyrie Road.

September Night Sky

 The scent of burning embers

Mountains still lush green

School days fondly remembered

Being sweet sixteen

by klr

Attempting to photograph a starry night would certainly require more camera knowledge than I possess plus a location outside the city.  But this particular morning I was struck by the shadowy forms of a birch tree and a maple as the sun was just thinking about rising...

Chocolate anenome -Which is better?

Posted on The Creative Exchange

by klr

by klr

Open to criticism - what is wrong with these photos?

The antique urn or vase is posted on Lisa Gordon's Creative Exchange along with many wonderful photos.

First photo with Nikon COOLPIX S8100

Well, I don't know if I needed to go through all the rigmarole I did to get to this point of posting my first photo from my new camera or not - or if I will be able to find another method.  I hope that as I go along I will find easier ways to do things or shortcuts I don't know about yet.  This dried flower arrangement has been in my atrium for some time now and it has a fall color scheme to it so it is apropo as the first one up on my blog  (at the start of autumn) that I can truly say is an original photograph of mine. I tried to use the X-large size but it overlapped onto the side gadgets space. 

It's a start! 

Hercule Poirot, I presume?

Many people who read this can say they have been to Paris, but it is someplace I never longed to see until just recently.  Having heard both positive and negative reports, I guess I want to find out for my self just what it would be like to spend some time in France.  Perhaps this book is a bit on the slurpy side of romantic but it contains a marvelously well portrayed period in history from someone who knows her subject. So I just read.

The recent movie , "Midnight in Paris," captivated me and further prompted a search for all things French.  There are other old movies, and songs, with similar titles that clutter my mind; I recall one with Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, those with Audrey Hepburn at her finest, not to mention Catherine De'Neuve and Juliette Binoche and little sparrow, Edith Piaf.  I envison hopping on a train and encountering Hercule Poirot.  My friend visited the gardens in Provence, which was the highlight of her trip.  I, too, would like to see that part of the country.

Particularly, I have become an admirer of French antiques. Generally expensive but one can find a piece for a reasonable price if one knows what to look for.  Dealers travel to France simply to buy and sell again the wares found there so there never seems to be a shortage of authentic French antiques or French inspired decor.  I'm not an expert, but I know what I love when I see it.  Nothing too exotic as my taste is not too ostentatious, yet interesting, a good conversation piece..  The King Louis XIV silver plate tableware  I own is the closest I will ever get to French aristocracy, but it is lovely.

I'm reminded of Louis Armstrong when I think of Paris (is that because he played in the French Quarter in N. O.?) and Madeleine, heroine for little girls who were disciplined by nuns.  And the subjects of history and art must take up a myriad of volumes in their libraries.  But I would just like to take my granddaughter there, or at least plant the seed of traveling there in her head so she might go someday while backpacking through Europe, even if I never make it there; I hope she spends all day in a museum, takes a boat down the Seine, stays in a small village, tastes the food, smiles at everyone she sees,  and buys a 1.5 oz. of French perfume as a souvenier.

Goodbye summer...

In a last minute attempt to hang onto summer, I retrieved a few photos selected from my stash taken from a multitude of photos by many people. ( I did not take them) to carry me through to the next trip to the ocean.   No doubt there will be a different forecast and the skies will be gray or stormy.  That is just fine with me, for it's cozy inside and it's another opportunity to beach comb and smell the salty air I love.

Blue and white as well as red and yellow are associated with the beach.  I chose some in blue and gray for this post.  I did think about adding some special effects from picnik.com  but decided against it.  All are reminders of a recent visit.  The old VW bus with surfboards for nostalgia, the homemade sea shell mobile, a favorite lighthouse in Cape Cod, some buoys and an oar for nautical decor, a soft pillow for the head while reading, a beachy wreath, Jonathon Livingston Seagull (if you are familiar with his story), and the sound of waves and waves and more waves.