WPC: Morning

~

For the Daily Posts

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Morning

~

~

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

~

 

OWPC: Wet

~

With Appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells for hosting:

One Word Photo Challenge:  Wet

~

~

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

~

~

“Have you also learned that secret from the river;

that there is no such thing as time?

That the river is everywhere at the same time,

at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall,

at the ferry, at the current,

in the ocean and in the mountains,

everywhere and that the present only exists for it,

not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
.

Hermann Hesse

~

 

Five Photos, Five Stories: Hot

~

It was early this morning, coffee not yet made, and I was just beginning to stir together some pancake batter,  when I heard my partner’s muffled voice calling to me.  He wanted me to come outside with him to see something exciting.

He had found a good sized turtle on our driveway, and wanted to share it with me.

I peered out of the open back door to see what was going on.  And there, near the top of the drive, was a beautiful turtle just sunning himself in the steamy morning heat.  There had been heavy rain this morning just before sunrise, but the clouds had long ago cleared out, turning our garden into a sauna.

Not yet dressed for encountering neighbors, I made the compromise between photography and modesty by snapping a photo from the porch.

But then I wanted to see more of this beautiful turtle.  So I ventured a little further up the drive, camera aimed and ready.

~

~

Turtle had the instinct so many of us feel when we know we’re being watched. He decided it was time to move on.  He took off at a turtle’s run for the shadowy roots of the Beech tree, disappearing before I could steal a third shot of him this morning.

I suppose we were both feeling a little modest, and I didn’t pursue him.  I left him to his peaceful morning, and quickly headed back inside to mine.

But my partner was happy now that I had seen our morning visitor, and I was happy to have gotten  a photo of him.

~

Are those leaves already turning in May? Shot this afternoon along the bank of the James, where turtles love to sun themselves on the rocks.

~

Yesterday Barbara, at Silver in the Barn, invited me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories challenge ,which is quickly spreading  across the blogosphere.  I relish the relationships formed and connections found as we each write about our experiences and share our world through photos.

And so I made the commitment to accept Barbara’s challenge, and now pass that challenge on to Jenny at Jennifer Nichole Wells.

Jenny hosts the One Word Photo Challenge each week and takes amazing shots of miniatures which she creates and stages herself.  Jenny always has interesting little stories about her miniature scenes. She is a natural to invite to this challenge.  I hope she accepts.

This is a simple challenge:  To participate, you simply post a photo each day for five consecutive days, and tell a story about each photo.  The story can be truth or fiction, poetry or prose.  Each day one must also nominate a fellow blogger to participate in the challenge.

So I’ve combined my first day of the Five Photos, Five Stories challenge with Jenny’s One Word Photo Challenge: Hot today.

~

~

“Hot” was a prescient pick for today.  It has been hot and muggy all day long.

We’ve had summer temperatures this third week of May, when our highs are normally still in the 70’s.  We topped out near 88 this afternoon. The only comfortable place was in the shade.

Huge, fluffy clouds were gathering  by mid-day, and there is  a possibility of thunderstorms again this evening.

We took a drive on the Colonial Parkway late this afternoon to watch the clouds build over the river.  Once on Jamestown Island, in the deep shade, our car thermometer dropped to around 86.  Even though it felt hot and muggy, with mayflies buzzing around and landing on me whenever we stopped to take a photo, the cool greens and blues of the landscape look cool.  A slight breeze fluttered off of the river, barely lifting my hair.

Summer has settled early over us here in Virginia, and it is hot.  That is the long and the short of our story for today.

~

It was hot and muggy on Jamestown Island this afternoon, the steamy air full of hungry Mayflies. Can you spot the yellow Iris growing in this marsh?

~

With appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells for hosting the

One Word Photo Challenge:  Hot

Woodland Gnome 2015

 

*   *   *

Five Photos, Five Stories: Dormant Isn’t Dead

Five Photos, Five Stories: Perspective

Five Photos, Five Stories: Turtle Mama

Five Photos, Five Stories: Chocolate Cake

One Word Photo Challenge: Cloudy

Siletz Bay, Oregon

~

Thanks to Jennifer Nichole Wells

and her One Word Photo Challenge:  Cloudy

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

~

York County, Virginia

~

One Word Photo Challenge: Sun

A stranded Velella velella’s sail catches sun instead of wind on the Oregon coast.

~

Our sun powers all life on Earth.

~

Water garden at the Newport Aquarium

~

The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun as the Source of their lives, as did so many other ancient cultures.   It is still a mystery, although astrophysicists reveal more of its secrets each year.

~

~

Burning in its intensity, the sun reveals itself to us in refraction through our misty atmosphere.  Its reflected light illuminates our world by day and night.

~

Siletz Bay, Oregon

~

Broken into living colors, sparkling off of water, dancing in jiggling waves through the watery depths of a pool; we think its light alive.

~

“D” River Beach

~

Sun, Sol; the source of all energies on Earth.  We find joy and healing in its beauty.

~

Newport Aquarium

~

 With Appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells

for her One Word Photo Challenge:  Sun

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

One Word Photo Challenge: Rain

 

~

With Appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells

for her One Word Photo Challenge:  Rain

~

~

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

One Word Photo Challenge: Eigengrau

~

Eigengrau, (read: I’-Gen-growl, both g’s hard) is the color your brain sees in the absence of light.

Jenny has chosen a very esoteric color to end her color challenges.  Her final ‘color’ is the absence of color in the absence of light.  Those who understand these things explain that eigengrau is more of a dark grey than a true black, by the way.

~

~

Also explained as ‘brain grey’ or  ‘dark light,’  this color describes what you might see upon opening your eyes in a dark room.

This is a new color term for me, and a fitting way for Jenny to close out this challenge.

~

~

Don’t worry, Jennifer begins a new ‘One Word Photo Challenge’ next week using weather themes.  She starts us off with an easy one:  rain.

~

Colonial Williamsburg in late afternoon

~

I am choosing to interpret eigengrau as the dark grey one sees when an object is seen in silhouette against a background of light, and the deep shadows where light cannot reach.  Although the Germans, who coined this color term, elaborated an entire cult to celebrate the very esoteric ‘Black Sun;’ I celebrate the life giving sun of visible light. 

~

~

The photos I’ve chosen celebrate the light, which nourishes all life, while also showing us the shadows.

With Appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells for her

One Word Photo Challenge:  Eigengrau

~

~

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

WPC: Fresh

~

Fresh:  new, different, out of the ordinary….

~

~

A perfect theme for this opening of a new season. 

~

~

The world is freshly washed in crystal clear raindrops.  Fresh flowers finally opened in the garden. 

Our spirits feel re-freshed through the transition from bleak to bright

as we hover now on the cusp of spring.

~

~

Fresh:  energetic, clean and cool, unspoiled,

Full of life and promise-

~

~

The Daily Post challenges photographers to show something which is fresh.

 

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

~

One Word Photo Challenge: Beaver (Brown)

~

Some might call it ‘mole-skin’ or ‘cafe au lait,’ but Jenny calls it ‘beaver.’

~

~

By whatever moniker, it proves a dull and washed out shade of brown.  Or perhaps a dark faded khaki?

~

~

This color looks to me as though it has been through the washer a time or ten too many.

It is the color still most prominent in our garden: the color of winter bleached leaves and long dead stems; spores, and cold scorched foliage.

~

~

But from such as this is the newness of spring nurtured.  It holds life, potential, promise.

~

~

And so as always, I want to thank Jenny for choosing the perfect color again this week.

In searching for ‘beaver brown’ I was able to look beyond it and find more signs of change; more promises of  spring’s return.

~

~

One Word Photo Challenge:  Beaver

Woodland Gnome 2015

 

“There are times to stay put,

and what you want will come to you,

and there are times to go out into the world

and find such a thing for yourself.”
.

Lemony Snicket

~

One Word Photo Challenge: Seafoam

~

Seafoam; such a soft pastel color hovering between green and blue.  This color always transports me back to the color palette of the 1950s.  It feels cool.  It tastes minty to the eyes.

Definitely a watery color, it remains far more chic than the fluffy beige foam which washes up on east coast beaches.

~

Artemesia last October

~

This color proved a challenge for me this week, in case you were wondering, Jenny.  The closest I could find in nature were the greenish greys of Artemesia and Lichens.

~

~

Which is how this week’s challenge inspired a newly minted moss garden, using a tiny pot purchased from the artist.

The pot was probably made by local Williamsburg artist John Watters.  I can’t quite read the signature to be sure, but it was made in 2013.  John works with delicious glazes in lovely blues and greens.  There is no drainage in this little pot, but I laid a layer of gravel, sand and glass chips below the soil.

~

~

The plant is a tiny Begonia Rex surrounded by mosses and lichens scraped from the garden.  It will grow on happily here for a few months until I can transplant it into something larger and set it outside in the shade.

Do you see the sheen of silver on its leaves?  In the bright sun earlier today it looked as though its leaves were covered in finely ground garnets.  So beautiful!

~

~

And we had beautiful sun today.  Each sunny day now feels like a gift.  Each day brings us closer to spring, and will make it that much easier to find color in the garden once again.

With appreciation to Jennifer Nichole Wells

and her One Word Photo Challenge:  Seafoam

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014-2015