Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday prompts are mirror, inspiring, time, close up, and sidewalk. I have an eclectic bunch of photos this week...they kind of look like a drawer of mismatched socks! lol...but they were fun.

1. Mirror. I was stumped about what to do for this prompt, and then got the idea to take a mirror outside. When I mentioned it to my husband, he remembered this big, old mirror sitting unused in our basement. He was a good sport and carried it outside for me, moving it around while I took photos - it's incredibly heavy! I absolutely loved the way this turned out - it's like you're looking into another world.


2. Inspiring. People who dance inspire me...I have never been a dancer or taken dance classes, but watching my daughter dance throughout her childhood gave me such a love for this beautiful art form. I gathered some of her worn dance shoes, and when I saw her pointe shoe ribbons, it dawned on me to spell a word out with them. It seemed to look best in black and white, so I went with it.


3. Time. This is the face of our grandfather clock - it's been in my husband's family for several generations. You can see where someone at some point painted over the number dial and re-wrote the clock numbers by hand. I'd love to know the story behind why this was done!


4. Close up. We have tiny strawberries growing wild in our side yard right now. There's a small patch of them.


5. Sidewalk. I was trying to find a way to make a sidewalk picture look pretty...walking around the block, I found this beautiful flower hanging low over the curb, with the sidewalk in the background. Perfect!


Please click below to see other wonderful photos, and to all of you who are mothers, I wish you a very Happy Mother's Day! I'm looking forward to lunch with my daughter later today before we drop her back to campus - she has three finals left for Monday/Tuesday, and then she's home for the summer. I can't believe she'll be 21 next month...they grow up so fast, don't they?

Root Bound

The horizon might be as old as the soul itself—or even older—and as enduring. And, like the soul, it always lures us further into our own lives and into the great mystery of life itself. The horizon is an edge, a spirit edge. It does and does not exist. Or, more accurately, it does not exist in ordinary reality, for we can never reach it or touch it or stand there. Horizons keep moving away, challenging us to go further. ~from The Celtic Way of Seeing by Frank MacEowen

My poetic muse has returned to me full-force lately...I'm not sure why, but that's why there's been a flurry of poetry on my blog. I stopped writing for a long time when I first started my photography last year, but now the poems are coming again. I've been scribbling in my word journal and re-working poems like crazy. So, this week's Photo Art Friday came about because of the poem I wrote below, and also the quote above by Frank MacEowen about horizons (Bonnie's suggested prompt). I absolutely love the idea of a horizon being a "spirit edge". What a wonderful way of thinking about it! I wanted to try creating an image with a transparent flower that somehow showed a horizon. Change is hard, growth is hard...yet our souls, like flowers, continue to grow and bloom no matter what the elements are. They are always that silent whisper inside of us, encouraging us to push forward, to endure, to learn, to evolve. For this image I used two of my own photos - a macro white flower, and an image of the beach at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I also used Bonnie's "Dream Wonder" texture at Multiply/50%. Since my image is of a flower, I'm also linking up to Leanne's Flower Art Friday. Click on the buttons below to visit and see other lovely photo art!

ROOT BOUND

My aging body is root bound
Too small to contain
The growth my soul has made
She has overtaken my insides
Her pure roots invading
My ribs' open cages
Shooting like streamers
Through the empty spaces
Poking through curved bone
With her questionings

Startled, I clasp my chest
To grasp at a sprouting tendril
To caress a delicate petal
But I come up against skin
Knuckles raking against
The whorls of growth within
My pulse lies cocooned amidst her
Thick and tangled tenderness
My earthly breath is rich
With her soundless karma
And in the air around me
I exhale her silken perfume.

© Sherri Brannon

Nothing Lasts Forever

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

My azaleas and rhododendrons are all turning brown and fading away...it's always so wonderful to see their gorgeous blooms each spring. But nothing lasts forever...so today, I honor their beauty with a few more pictures I captured of them in their pink peak. Until next year, lovely flowers - I look forward to your return! I'll be linking this up to This or That Thursday...click on the button below if you'd like to participate (tomorrow)!

Safe Keep

I'm taking Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class, and her assignment for today was to choose something that brings light into our lives. My immediate thought, of course, was my family and my beloved Ruby (our corgi)...they are my brightest lights, without question. But another thing that brings my spirit so much light is spring. Every year when spring shows its first signs, my winter melancholy lifts away. Everything is new, everything is growing, everything has a new beginning...there is color where none was before. I feel re-energized and replenished after months of wanting to hibernate from the cold, bleak landscape. All I want is to be outside amidst the warm sun and the blooming plants and flowers. I truly do feel filled with light during this time...I'm more positive, happy, and hopeful than at any other time of the year. For that reason, spring is one of the things I'm most grateful for! I'm including a poem I wrote about spring below, and I'm also linking this up for Kim's Texture Tuesday...I used her textures "Happy Heart" and "Now", both at Soft Light/25%. I also put the image into Radlab and tweaked it with a couple of filters.

SAFE KEEP

A canopy of pink turns the wind sweet
Softly scented to soothe your shadows
Walk your troubles away, my friend
Don’t shun the morning’s vibrant pleas

Let your sadness wander free
To follow spring’s bright blooms
Celebrate the burnished hope
That shimmers on dancing leaves

Hand your sorrows to the trees
They will store them for safe keep
Etched inside as burnished rings
Cradling worn thoughts, while robins sing.

© Sherri Brannon

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

For this week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday, the prompts are shadow, keys, smile, unedited, and fish. I had a busy week and was scrambling around yesterday trying to finish things up! Click on the button at the bottom of this post to see more great photos (or to see next week's prompts if you want to join in!).

1. Shadow. The sun was setting in our back yard and the sun glowing through the trees created such pretty light/shadows.


2. Keys. We have a beautiful, old grandfather clock that belonged to my husband's great-grandparents. I borrowed the key from it and hung it on a branch outside to give it a prettier backdrop.


3. Smile. I had to pull this from the archives - there was no chance to take photos of people this week! I took this of my daughter last fall.


4. Unedited. I love Instagram! We were at Best Buy and I noticed the clouds reflecting in the windows of the store. As always, I had to pull out my iphone while people stared at the crazy lady taking a picture of the Best Buy entrance...lol. :)


5. Fish. This was all I could come up with...at least I got to use my pretty Anthropologie measuring cup.


Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone~~

Leap Into Spring: Green

Alicia (of Project Alicia), Rebecca (of Bumbles and Light), and Kristi (of Live and Love ... Outloud) are offering a 6-week photography challenge aimed at capturing the beauty of spring. This week's prompt is green and I am happy to have a very green photo this week. If you'd like to participate or find out more info, click on the button below! I captured this shot of my rhododendron bush earlier this week while the sun was setting through our neighbor's trees. I was very happy that I somehow got some bokeh in my photo - it's never intentional! lol...every once in awhile, my lovely point-and-shoot just does it without any input from me.

Photo Art

Real life has kept me so busy this week...for Photo Art Friday, the suggested prompt was to create a piece of photo art based around our favorite book. What a clever prompt, and a thoughtful one, too - unfortunately, last night I hadn't even had time to start thinking about what to do. So this week I simply picked a flower photo and spent a few minutes adding layers until I liked it. This was a close-up shot of a dogwood flower - I used Bonnie's "Fabrique" texture and also several other layers, including a public domain image for the flower center (using a reverse layer mask). I was happy with the "grungy" effect. I'm also linking up to Leanne's Flower Art Friday (both her and Bonnie's Photo Art Friday buttons are at the bottom of this post). Happy Friday, everyone~~