Bird Tweets

Day 260 Summer Deliciousness

This truly is a major accomplishment. Every year we plant tomatoes with the high hopes that come August we will be eating fresh salsa, tomato sandwiches, or those firm red globes chopped and mixed with the other fresh vegetables from our garden. And every year, (or at least until this year!) we either have a bout of disease, mold, mildew or the banal slaughtering of the 5 foot tall vines by the resident deer family before the tomatoes ever get plucked for our summer table. It is a sad scenario and yet each and every spring we start all over with fresh hope and dreams for the fruits of our labor. It makes me smile to see how full of happy expectation we can be in the face of nature's random acts of destruction. Human beings really are amazing creatures.

What garden success have you had this year?

love, robin

Day 257 Limitless opportunities for success in a tattoo

If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits - Don Ward

I need to tattoo this quotation on some part of my body that i look at everyday. It would be even better if i also saw it in the mirror backwards so that i had to lean in twist, bend and think to decipher the words. It might help me to embody this in my every choice, gesture and countenance. It is the gracefulness of faith in one's ability to succeed.

What mantra are you repeating in your mind and heart?

Love, robin

Day 256 Garden on My Mind

"Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about."
-- Unknown

I spent the afternoon yesterday with my new friend Julie in her garden. It is a place i cannot begin to describe to you in words as wonderful as it is!  It is her art. I will be taking photographs to share with you just as soon as i can point my eye to the viewfinder long enough to click. I just kept turning in circles looking here and there, seeing so many details i had to see with my own eyes! After awhile i became restless because my own Avalon is forlorn and neglected and i know it too can be beautiful. It's a day in Avalon for me! 

This is from the early spring, one of the harbingers of spring here in my garden. They cover the ground with this beautiful blue carpet.  I often wish Oregon were dry and warm enough in the spring that i could lie down among them watching them float all around my head like a crown. 

Love, robin

Day 252 Magic by Day, Enchantment of Night

This is my very own version of the Taj Matent based upon the fantastical creation by the lovely Debi. The name  is Cindy's brilliant characterization for Debi's 'sleeping quarters' for the 'camp out' during last Barn House show. If you read my blog with regularity you may remember that our patio roof collapsed on Christmas Eve last year after ice and snow became too much for it to hold. We remain roofless at this point and as we have been having record heat this month i decided i needed to innovate. The vision created with tablecloths and old curtains is quite lovely i think.

Since it has been so very steamy here in our usually cool Northwest i have been watering Avalon pretty much non-stop in order to keep the haven a haven and not a desert.

And while i have been pushing sprinklers and pulling hoses around Joe has been preparing his canoe for a weekend away for fishing and boating. Believe me he deserves a break for some summer fun. He has been working pretty much non-stop since my Dad got sick in May, working on home projects, doing helpful things for my family, volunteering his gardening skills for friends as well as faithfully working at his day job.

On Sunday as nightfall began in earnest i walked through the garden with my camera and watched for opportunities to capture an ephemeral moment of beauty in each little ecosystem of Avalon. The blue background of this photo was due to the alchemy of water and the blue toned light of dusk. There wasn't a blue object or flower in sight. If you look closely you will see there is a backdrop of spraying water surrounding the scene that shows as white streaks. Cameras do sometimes show us magic that with our eyes we may never see.

A frequent pastime of summer is following around the various winged visitors to Avalon trying to take their portrait. The fat bumblebees are all over the Agapanthus and it being later in the evening they seemed to be as lazy with the heat as i was. 

I captured this rare photo of my twin (Robin-Bird... get it?) through the screen of my kitchen window. I'm not sure if it was the screen or the radiant light that caused the diamonds of water to sparkle so but no matter because when magic presents itself i regard it as my reward for believing.

What night magic have you captured with your camera of late?

Love, robin

Day 238 The World Exploded In Love All Around Me

"Whether she is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist,  for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts

Walker Evans

Today was a glorious day to be a photographer!!!

love, robin

The World Exploded into Love - Bob Schneider

Day 228 Coaxing Spring Out of Hiding

Miss Olivia the pig has been feeling down lately. She is an outdoorsy type of girl and the weather here in Avalon has been just dreadful. The rain and cold feels as though it will never end. There is mud everywhere and our patio remains collapsed and in ruins. The entire property looks forlorn and tattered as a result of one of the worst winters that we can remember since moving to Avalon in 1985. It is enough to put the poor pig off her feed. She seems a little peeky don't you think?

Zippy is in even worse shape. She is taking the long winter very hard. Zippy is like every other dog in this one way: she loves to romp in the grass. She soars through the air and barks like a real dog once the ground dries and the air becomes warm enough for her to go without a winter coat.

Anyway both girls were moping around the house so much that i just knew i needed to do something to cheer them up. So all of us girls put our heads together thinking of ideas for how to get Spring to come out of hiding. 

We haven't yet settled upon the details of the perfect plan but we know that Spring is full of vanity, considering herself to be the prettiest of the seasons. So as we continue to talk amongst ourselves about how to lure this fickle girl out into the sunshine we'd like to hear from you about what ideas you have for giving your life a Spring makeover.

love, robin

Day 169 Zen, Quantum Physics And A Pool Party!

One of my photographic goals for the summer was to capture hummingbirds in mid-flight. But in order to accomplish this i had to be diligent about setting up each day with the belief that "today it will happen." Whether i see a hummingbird in the vicinity or not isn't the point is it?

Christina from soulaperture reminds me that an aspect of preparedness is about doing one's 'homework'. Which in this situation refers to technical competence with my equipment, visual and spatial awareness and understanding light. Yet i can imagine she would also say that my success, i.e. capturing hummingbirds in flight is inextricably tied to my willingness to surrender to a spiritual process as well. I am aware that in my creative world i must do my spiritual homework too.

And then there is the mystical and pseudo-scientific concepts of quantum physics and neurobiology at work in the midst of a photo-shoot. If one ascribes to the New Thought principle of the 'law of attraction' then what i am holding in my mind and projecting into the universe will have a profound impact on what actually occurs.

Jamie from a map of my planet wrote a post in regards to this and her desire for cupcakes. And by golly when you read that post you will see that it is in fact quite relevant to cupcake shops!

For my purposes the idea that my thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) about photographing hummingbirds dictating the reality of my success or failure leaves me thinking perhaps more deeply than is good for me. Because the other concept at work is the Zen of 'letting go' of expectations in order to achieve perfect contentment.

Which brings us full circle and back to our Pool Party here. What did occur upon doing my various homework assignments was to capture this blue bird having a swim in the birdbath right under my nose. As you can see from the position of the camera i attracted myself a feathery creature, was awake enough to see and capture this delightful scene but not alert or technically agile enough to straighten the tripod angle.

Not a bad outcome at all though! What a grand party it was! Lots of splashing, cawing and general boisterousness. If a hummingbird had flown across the visual field of my viewfinder i would have said... "maybe i'll catch you next time cause we are havin' us some fun and don't have time to stop for a chat!"

tell us a story.....

What have you unwittingly attracted into your own viewfinder of late?

Day 167 Inspired By Dead, Dying, and Withering 'Beauties'

I need to get out more. Away from Avalon and it's derelict beauty. I've been encouraged to look at the change of season from a fresh perspective. Jessica from wayfaring-wanderer suggested i may want to "embrace the dead, the dying, the withered." I trust Jessica. And besides, once i started looking around i saw that many of my favorite photographers were romancing the detritus of summer.

My newest 'find', fab photographer, Diane Varner named her photoblog 'daily walks' and just about knocked me over with this take on fall fashion for your local wooded path.

So this morning before the sun climbed over the horizon i was in my car and driving to one of my favorite places in all the world. I knew if i were to see the world anew it would happen right here.

Look what i found....
the place where fairies are born.

and look... someone molted an old pair of used wings.
So delicate, brittle even.
Oh.. there is still some fairie dust on that left wing. How sad and beautiful!

I was so enthralled with what i discovered this morning i went out in Avalon after dark tonight and found this...
My moon.

What do you find when you look for the dead, dying, and withering beauties?

Day 166 The Zen Of Patience And A Little Girl

I have this bad Avalon habit. Every year as September rolls around i begin to itch with annoyance at the garden. The flowers, the foliage, the soil, it all begins to look rather derelict. A frowsy fading beauty moving out of her prime. My urge is to get on with dismantling it before it completely falls apart. I have learned to hold back but it isn't easy.

Today i am posting 5 photographs i took this Saturday for a photography class. It seems i was to have a zen like experience teaching me patience as a virtue. For 3 hours i kept my eye glued to the viewfinder. I stood on boxes, lay down in the dust and balanced by body at odd angles, taking less than 100 shots. They were captured in a working greenhouse. That is to say the greenhouse's function was for purposes of propagation and production. it was disheveled, crowded and the blossoms available to photograph were few.

As you can see by the results i was allowed to enter a world of hidden and mystical beauty that belied the context of that industrial greenhouse. Amazing but not really....

I crave these zen lessons like my younger self; that good little catholic girl who yearned to repent and live within God's grace and his gift of mercy. I am a grown-up now. No longer Catholic, no longer the innocent girl-child. But the truth is nothing has really changed in my heart. I still look skyward when casting out a desperate prayer. I get on my knees, bow my head and close my eyes when i am afraid for my soul. And i still believe in the glory of life. I try to heed my lessons. They reach far beyond the patience gained by a gardener.

My Avalon prayer. My Zen mediation.

"Late summer in Avalon offers a moment of quiet repose. It is the time when i must surrender my efforts to manage the garden as it has passed beyond my reach. It is moving to a melody that i cannot hear, weaving in a pattern i cannot see. It requires no human maestro. The choreography of the season has perfect pitch and is in splendid harmony with the circle of life. I must sit silent, patient, offering a quiet prayer of gratitude."

Day 165 Love Thursday, Love For The Birds

Another Love Thursday from Shutter Sisters.
The theme for this week is; "How is it that love finds you?" This was easy for me. As Fall approaches the residents of Avalon prepare for the season of cold by spending a lot of their time at the bird feeders and bird bath. They seem to be sprucing themselves up and filling their bellies in preparation for the Winter. Although there is a bit of a feverish air to this activity it also seems to be fraught with excitement and joy. I dearly cherish my feathered family of the garden. Sometimes when i am going about my everyday activities the call of the Chickadee or the warble of the Song Sparrow will break through the barrier that marks me as human, and for an instant i can share the joy of flight and soar away from myself. It is a good love.
XO