Lavender

My parents divorced when I was 9 years old. My mother used her monthly child support check to hire a series of live-in housekeepers. Eventually she found Stella Miller, who lived with us Sunday night through Friday evening for more than 10 years.

I bring this up because lavender was her favorite color, and I remember that one year she asked my mother if she could paint her room lavender.

When we finished, her room looked exactly the color of these flowers. I loved Mrs. Miller, but this was just a horrible color to paint a 12-foot by 10-foot room. I was always claustrophobic whenever I entered her room.

As some sort of counterbalance, my mother painted the room I shared with my brother a startling bright yellow. I mean, really startling bright yellow. My room faced east and you needed sunglasses in the morning when the sun reached the windows.

Anyway I dedicate these lavender flowers to Mrs. Miller.





Day 128 of 365

Before and After

Day 127 of 365

Tea Rose

From the front yard.





Day 125 of 365

jomariFILMS

When I'm not pretending to be a photographer, I split my time between part-time jobs and entrepreneurial musings.

This entrepreneurial thing is really new for me. After all, I worked nearly 28 years for the same company doing essentially the same job, all the while knowing exactly what was expected of me. Like magic, the money was directly deposited in my checking account.

Not that I haven't had some ideas before. I started building and managing websites for The Kid's soccer clubs when he was a preteen and used that work to gain skills in website construction that I marketed to small businesses.

Anyway, the other day one of my clients was telling me how she wanted to create a promotional video that would be fun while letting her customers know about a wellness service she offers.

This is the business end of the camera that set me back $5000.

This is my artful portrait of The Kid at work on the video.

Like this combo image, the idea I had was to combine The Kid's talent at filming and editing with some semi-pro equipment and enter the market for budget promotional videos.

You can watch the final product here. The Kid's other video work can be found under his nom de plume, Shughe

So, of course, the new film effort needed a logo . . .

. . . and The Kid needed business cards.




Some slides from the production.

Day 125 of 365

Cat In The Attic

The Cats don't like being confined to the house, but they don't like the rain even more. So two of our three cats resigned themselves to an entire day of napping. But the third cat, Cardiel, howled and complained incessantly until we opened the door from the kitchen to the garage.

Immediately, Cardiel found his way into the rafters . . .

. . . and paced back and forth . . .

. . . and explored the boxes and bags of stuff stored in the garage.

Eventually Cardiel came inside. His explorer instinct satisfied, he took a nap.

Day 124 of 365

Something from nothing

All in a Day 123 of 365

Groundcover

All in a Day 122 of 365

Long playing 33⅓

Four months down, eight to go . . .




All in a Day 121 of 365

Rosebud

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. Even Gertrude Stein might agree. And soon enough a rose will be enough and then too much. We are entering Rose Season.

All in a Day 120 of 365

Return to Gnome mountain

Meanwhile, back at the Gnome ranch . . .



Just FYI: This isn't really the color of these irises. The green and yellow and gold are close enough, but the rest is just an approximation. The camera is incapable of capturing the purple luminescence of these flowers and I haven't found the right Photoshop filter.

But a little watercolor filter does make for a dramatic -- if admittedly unrealistic -- photo.

All in a Day 119 of 365

Morning Lillies

Each morning I run by these Calla Lillies. They are hidden beneath a tree and around the corner of a fence. The sun shines on them for only a brief period between when it rises above the house across the street and before the tree shades the flowers. I finally caught them at just the right time this morning.





All in a Day 118 of 365

Seeing things in the clouds

Got an urge to play in the clouds this afternoon.

The sun kept playing hide and seek.

Not excited about the original, I ran it through the photocopier.

Big, fluffy clouds (thanks to some serious Photoshop tweaking).

And, finally, an explosion in the sky.

All in a Day 117 of 365