Seeing What's Not There - Day 30

Shadows Define Texture  

Texture in a Piece of Wood 

-  is defined by the pattern of highlights and shadows        

Our fingers can touch a texture, feeling it as a collection of raised and lowered areas on a surface. Our eyes can see a pattern of light and dark, and our brains have learned to associate it with the texture that our fingers can feel.    

Seeing What's Not There - Day 28

Shadows on Spring Grass  

Shadows Across the Lawn 

-  where the grass is starting to show green       

Just a few hours ago, this area of lawn was covered with snow - now as the snow is melting away, the grass is coming to life after the winter, old blades greening up with fresh chlorophyll to feed itself and start new growth.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 26

Shadow Stripes on Spring Leaves  

Shadows Enhance the Textures of Dried Spring Leaves 

-  which covered the ground during the winter       

When these trees block the light from striking the ground, their shadows give information about the size and shape of the trees, the intensity of the sunshine, and the texture of the ground where the shadows are falling.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 19

Shadows Over Mixed Ground  

Shadows Tell Your Eyes About The Ground They Cover

-  and give information about surface and texture       

These are shadows cast by a cluster of trees. They lie across a melting snowbank as well as the dried leaves covering the ground the snow has melted away from. The surfaces have different forms and different textures, and the cast shadows reveal this.

Seeing What's Not There - Day 12

Shadows on Birchbark

Shadows and a Sunny Glow

- from the birchbark on a mature treetrunk.         

The winter takes its toll on the outer layers of birchbark. The wind shreds it, and the frost splits it, and the coming and going of daytime sunshine expands and contracts it. And the shadows from bright sunshine enhance the textures of the birchbark and the volume of the tree trunk. 

Close Up and Personal - Day 13

Cracking the Spine on a New Book   

Waiting to Start  

-   and there's hours of enjoyment ahead 

If I don't get at least one new book over the holidays, I'm just a bit disappointed. Getting a book as a gift is a fine thing, no matter if it's a title that I've been anticipating reading, or if it's someone else's choice that comes to me as a surprise. Just taking a day off and putting my feet up and sticking my nose in a book is a supreme pleasure.

Close Up and Personal - Day 12

Lego Exercise Party  

Working-out Emma Drinks Lots of Water  

- at her Exercise Party     

Step-ups! Treadmill! Sit-ups! Exercise Bike! And drink those Eight Glasses of Water!

Close Up and Personal - Day 11

Saturday Baking  

Fresh Cinnamon Buns  

- still hot in the oven     

Saturdays at our house are a special time for afternoon desserts and treats with friends and family - this week it's hot cinnamon buns, fresh out of the oven. Don't expect any leftovers!

Close Up and Personal - Day 10

Silver and Labradorite Sparkle  

Labradorite Jewelry   

- Feldspar crystals catching the sunlight   

Labradorite is a semi-precious mineral which occurs in several locations around the globe.
Formed millions of years ago by heating and cooling of crystals of feldspar, Labradorite refracts direct light in an iridescent blue-green, indigo-ultramarine luster which appears to come from within the gemstone.
I was so pleased and surprised to find this ring waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning!

Close Up and Personal - Day 7

Traditional Portuguese Embroidery  

 Folk Embroidery Stitches 

- detail of a pattern on an old family apron  

Front panel of apron, oval shape, depth approximately 15"

As in other countries, different regions in Portugal have distinctive embroidery designs and techniques.
In the district of Viano do Castelo, the historic peasant costume consists of colorful shawls, blouses, skirts and aprons, textured knit stockings, filigree jewellery and a recognizable style in embroidered patterns.
The white stitching on a red fabric shows up strikingly in this detail of a traditional apron design.

Close Up and Personal - Day 6

Christmas Lights  

Rope Lights in a Spiral  

- It's Old Christmas day and soon the decorations will come down for the season 

That's it, the Christmas holidays are over for another year.
And so we move on to other things - onward into 2014!

Close Up and Personal - Day 5

Stacked Rocks 

Balance and Reflection  

- with a mirror image  

I have a collection of rocks that I have picked up along my way - smooth beach rocks, stones with interesting colors and patterns, pebbles with shapes that reminded me of something at the time. Some of these are on my windowsill, stacked on top of each other. It's an engaging puzzle, requiring some patience, to get the stones to balance on top of one another. It's something of an engineering feat to get them to stay there.
There are five rocks in this stack, along with their mirrored reflection.

Close Up and Personal - Day 4

Navel Orange Gazing  

Orange Peel Rim Shot  

- Intense back-lighting reveals textures in bouncing light  

Along with their tangy tastiness and their health-food goodness, oranges - especially navel oranges with their umbilical bump - have a lovely textured peel, smooth and pebbly, which is oh-so-attractive in how it catches the light.
I placed this orange at my window and exposed for the dark side of the sphere, resulting in blown highlights, yes, and also a fantastic rim lighting that sets off the texture around all sides of the fruit.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 27

Catkin Rosettes

(This is the jpg - 100kB - is there a perceptable difference?)

(This is the png8 - 373kB - is this one that much better?)

Tiny pieces of birch catkin mulch, or could it be breakfast cereal?   

- or maybe a jigsaw puzzle?    

We haven't had snow now for several weeks, and the catkin detritus is drifting into piles along the surface of what snow there is, accentuating rises and falls on the ground.
These cross-section exposures of the centers of catkins show the geometric layering of three-lobed nutlet upon nutlet in the catkin, nature's redundancy.
Let them accumulate! In the spring, these piles of organic matter will provide a rooting material for newly-sprouting birch seeds.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 20

Yarrow in Snow

Yarrow in Snow  

- a tiny celebration at my feet 

Making my way through an accumulation of snow, I nearly walked on this yarrow plant. It looked like a set of miniature fireworks, radiating an exuberant display of energy in the snow drift.
Yarrow is so common, growing by roadsides and in fields, that people may not even know its name, let alone its reputation. But Achillea millefolium has a medicinal history going back to ancient Greek soldiers who used its astringent properties to treat battle wounds. It is a common plant that is uncommonly useful and it is pretty, summer and winter.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 19

Tamarack Cones in Winter

A String of Orange Cones  

- colorful winter decorations  

Tamarack, larch, juniper, hackmatack, whatever you call it, this tree is a botanical wonder.
It is an conifer but it loses its needles in winter. It replenishes its chlorophyll every year in new leaves just like a deciduous tree. It looks like its cousins, the evergreens, but really it isn't one.

Tamarack wood is sturdy and workable for everything from shipbuilding to snowshoes. The inner and outer bark, the needles and the sap provide medicines. The roots are strong for weaving baskets. The tender new shoots and the inner bark are good to eat.

And this tree is attractive year round. In spring and summer, its needles are soft and smooth, in fall, they take on a luminous yellow color, and in winter, the tamarack's branches and cones show the complex structure of the tree.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 17

Sunny Birches with Catkins

Catkins  

- silhouetted against birches in the sun  

Catkins are a birch's way of making another birch.
In summer, the fertilized female flower ripens and develops a stack of tiny tri-lobed nutlets, the tree's seeds. Over the fall and winter, these miniature gliders gradually separate from the core of the catkin and drift to the ground. There, the nutlets provide food for birds, mulch for other plants, and where conditions are right, some of the seeds sprout and grow into baby birches.  

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 16

Moon and Birches

Almost-Full-Moon-Rise Through Winter Birches  

- with a diffuse glow of color through clouds 

Watching the moon rise majestically and slowly above the horizon is such a relaxing thing to do.
In the summer, these birches are in full leaf and they block the lower sky. It's only through the bare branches of these trees in the winter that the moon can be seen at such a low angle.
And the light, yes, it is bright enough to read by.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 15

Branches in Winter Dawn

Sunrise through Branches  

- directing the viewer's eye through a blur of color 

Different camera settings will give wildly varying results in a photograph.
A twist of a dial on a camera lens could have put sharp focus on all the trees in this scene, right back to the rising sun. A different twist of the dial allows the viewer's eye to contemplate just the branching structure of the twigs in the foreground, leaving the wonder of the early morning color as an unfocused blur in the background.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 14

Golden Birch Catkins

The Colors of Birch Catkins

- winter decorations for the garden 

Every few years, birch trees will produce a bumper crop of seed-bearing catkins. This year the birches are filled with dense clusters of these ochre-colored pendants.
The catkins create vertical patterns that look like golden chandeliers in the tree branches, moving gently in the wind.