This gorgeous rose was on our table at the ice cream parlor where we met my niece Cindy’s cousin Kent who is directing a play at the Sheridan Drama Festival. Big coincidence as he is from NYC where the play his wife is in, “The Humans,” just won a Tony. Nice guy. Yummy ice cream–and this beautiful flower.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/05/flower-of-the-day-july-6-2016-daffodils/
Layers
We store our truths in layers,
peeling back the amount we can stand to see.
Each year peels away some layers and builds others
until we grow in furrows and in hillocks.
Smooth truth is for the very young.
The old need their protections
as memory, like flesh and misfortune,
begins to bury itself to cluster underground
in cliques and hidden passageways,
lurking like guests in a British mystery play,
searching for us as we search for them in kind.
Old beaus, lost children and beachside vacations
sealed shoulder-to-shoulder in a too-small room––
a pantry, perhaps, or closet––
waiting waiting
to be peeled away.
Marigolds, lobelia and cockscomb fill in around weathered wood in my friend Patty’s back yard. Thanks to a big wind that blew down her back fence, patio and part of her roof, her gorgeous yard is fully viewable from the major street that runs by the back of her house.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/04/flower-of-the-day-july-5-2016-lotus/
The minute and humble grass flower is often overlooked, yet how necessary it is for our world and when we look closely, how beautiful. You need to click to enlarge this one.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/03/flower-of-the-day-july-4-2016-hydrangea/
Solo Act
Rope Ladder
You call out from the island of your sleep,
each word at first garbled,
as though caught in quicksand.
Beside you in this room,
I waken to your shouted words:
“Is there any window in this room?”
and I am given ingress to your dreams,
even as each new early morning declaration
becomes a strong sure stroke towards your escape from them.
Tonight marked the end of our two day family reunion with my mother’s side of the family. The matriarch is Jane, 90 years old, and the youngest was Maddie the miracle baby, age 9 months. I am somewhere in the middle, but closer to Jane by one year as of midnight. I unfortunately don’t see these lovely people often enough, but every time I am around them I’m appreciative of their closeness and acceptance of either others’ differences.
I had a wonderful time, as you might be able to gather from these photos. (You might want to click on them to enlarge them.) The statue of Lincoln marks the highest point on the Lincoln Highway. We passed it this morning as we drove from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Laramie to visit Jane in her daughter Sara’s house. In college, the art class I was in came up on a cold blustery day to scrub him down with acid. Yesterday, we just stopped to admire him in his new spot next to the new wider interstate road. He’s been raised up a good deal on a very high pedestal, so I wouldn’t relish giving him a scrub now.
The other photos were taken in three different locations as different events were held in three different homes. Representing my mother’s branch of the family were my niece Cindy, my sister Patti and I. All of the rest were descendants of my mother’s sister Peggy and their spouses. Lots of laughter, fun, memories, discoveries and great food.
Water-logged or sun-dried, this hibiscus is one of my favorite sights of the day.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/02/flower-of-the-day-july-3-2016-day-lilies/
Observing the burning off the hugely overgrown lot next door was a bit like viewing burning tea leaves. I saw a woman in a turban riding a giant frog among a hundred other images over the three nights it took to complete the burn. What do you see? Yes, it did get scary. And very very smoky. I especially like the shot of the LED lights on the plants next to my pool with the glow from the burn behind them.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
