Light and Shadows

I haven't been blogging much lately...my apologies for being absent and out of the loop. I've been dealing with some pretty intense rib cage/upper back pain for about five weeks now and it's just not improving...it's very uncomfortable to sit for more than a few minutes at a time. This has put a huge cramp on my blog posts, photo editing, and any other creative thing I'm wanting to do...all of which require sitting. I'm also having trouble sleeping because lying down just doesn't feel good. I've started physical therapy this week and am hoping it will start helping me heal. I'm trying to stay positive and not let my discomfort get me down. Any and all prayers and good thoughts are deeply appreciated.

The weather went crazy last night - we went from the high 60s to single digit temperatures overnight. The winds were brutal - in excess of 60 mph! It's still very gusty this morning but it's supposed to slow down soon. Needless to say, I haven't been outside and I took the above image this morning in my dining room. The grain, light and shadows are symbolic of my state of mind right now: there's an ongoing struggle between the frustration of my pain and my hope that I'll be better soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope spring is coming soon wherever you are! We're almost there...

Spring is Just a Rumor

SPRING IS JUST A RUMOR

I wander with my winter heart,
inhaling the March tones,
the silence of things,
the showy sunset.
If the sky had a scent
it would smell of
tangerines and honey.
The birds speckle the air
with flecks of color:
rubied cardinal, rusted robin,
purpled finch.

Tulip buds hide and ache
beneath the snow, yearning
for their colors.
I breathe in the smell
of a winter fire, the
loneliness of chimney smoke.
I fret about the looming hollow
of moon shadows across
midnight walls. Spring
is just a cruel rumor,
whispered bitingly
among the oaks.

© Sherri Brannon 2014

Every winter, 
when the great sun has turned his face away,
 the earth goes down into a vale of grief, 
and fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
 leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
then leaps in spring to his returning kisses. ~Charles Kingsley

Actually, spring is more than a rumor...it's a tiny light in the distance, and I can see it. This makes me happy! It's supposed to be in the 60s here for the next couple of days. I'm so ready to let go of the winter "blahs", so much so that this poem irritates me when I read it back. These words I wrote are tiresome...remnants of that melancholy head space I get caught up in every February and March. I'm so ready to let them go and move on to the renewal of spring!

The photo was taken with my iPhone on a winter sunset walk to our community lake recently. Thank you for stopping by! I'm linking up today with Poetry Pantry.

Flower Power

It was such a welcome change to work on this flower image and see so much beautiful color for a change...this endless winter landscape is so gray and drab that it's seeping into my spirit. Every blog post I write lately is about my melancholy, winter state of mind - I apologize for sounding whiny! This weekend the time changes and that always helps: more daylight in the evenings. Just a few more weeks and April will be here...

This was a flower I photographed at Disney World in January. I used Bonnie's "spring light canvas" texture and also played around with the cutout artistic effect in Photoshop. I then put my image through Radlab until I was happy with how it looked.

Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts. ~Dodinsky

What Would the Fox Say?

It's kind of sad that we spent a week in Florida and the only chance I got to take photos was on a foggy, gray morning. You would never know these photos were in Florida, except for the pelicans! I love fog photos, though, and was excited to get outside with my camera. And I was shocked to discover, once I uploaded my images, a photo with a very alert fox in it. He was staring down those birds and hoping for a hearty breakfast! Can you spot him in the first image? I was so focused on the birds that I never noticed he was there. This beautiful pond is right near my parents' house.

The mood of these photos matches my creativity lately...I feel very uninspired. I haven't been doing much of anything that's creative and I'm hoping to snap out of it soon. Winter is taking a toll...spring, please come soon!

I'm linking up with Kim's Texture Tuesday - in the first image above, I used her "sybil" texture at Soft Light/25%. Thank you for stopping by!