365 Project: May

"Life just seems so full of connections. Most of the time we don't even pay attention to the depth of life. We see only flat surfaces." -Colin Neenan


This month, I shared pictures of

nature and objects

May Day

Chess Pieces

joy and remembrance

Field of Dreams

Keeping Company

past and future

The British Royal Family, 1944

Learning

"Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing." -Bill Cosby




You can see a slideshow of the 31 May photos here or view all of my 2010 photos to date here.

The three groups to which I contribute are 2010/365, EdTech 365/2010, and Project 365.

365 Project: April

April played games with us, veering from unseasonable warmth to frost-warning level cold then back to glorious sunshine.Flowers are beginning to bloom, and spring is a go once more. Since April was National Poetry Month, I thought I'd intersperse images and verse. Add in the scent of lilacs and the sound of birdsong, and you'll capture the essence of April's quirky charm.

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
- Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

Glimpses of Green

"Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night--

And I love the rain."

-Langston Hughes, April Rain Song

April Showers

"This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,

Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between

Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.


I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration

Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze

Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,

Faces of people streaming across my gaze."

- D. H. Lawrence, The Enkindled Spring

Furry Coat and Gauzy Wing

“Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
Splutters with soapy green, and all the world
Sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.”-Laurie Lee, April Rise

Bursting

"Is it so small a thing

To have enjoyed the sun,

To have lived light in the spring,

To have loved, to have thought, to have done?"
-
Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna

Learning


You can see a slideshow of the 30 April photos here or view all of my 2010 photos to date here.

The three groups to which I contribute are 2010/365, EdTech 365/2010, and Project 365.

Poetry of Another Sort

“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

"Forsythia is pure joy. There is not an ounce, not a glimmer of sadness or even knowledge in forsythia. Pure, undiluted, untouched joy."
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The green eyes of Springtime,
Charming, as ever,
Flirting, again."
-Michael Garofalo

"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me
bang in the face." -Langston Hughes

"Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees." -Rainer Maria Rilke

"Is it so small a thing To have enjoy'd the sun, To have lived light in the spring, To have loved, to have thought, to have done..."
-Matthew Arnold

365 Project: March

"March is the month of expectation..." -Emily Dickinson

This has been an unusual month for us, traveling from our cold northern climate to the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico...and back again. It was fun to explore a new environment, armed with two cameras and a lively sense of curiosity.

Interestingly, the most popular photo for the month is a late winter capture, The Garden of Eden in Winter (I hope to return next month, to try and solve the mystery of the hanging fruit)



My husband Tim's art always attract viewers; A Work in Progress shows his en plein air setup on the beach of Dorado, Puerto Rico



Pictures can tell stories. This ocean Baptism caught my eye as I strolled the Dorado beach one day



On my return home, a visit to my favorite local park proved that Spring had not yet arrived, since there were still Ice People about



And just this morning, I snapped my favorite maco and most hopeful picture of the month, Beginnings

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." -Hal Borland

You can see a slideshow of the 28 February photos here or view all of my 2010 photos to date here.

The three groups to which I contribute are 2010/365, EdTech 365/2010, and Project 365.

365 Project: May

With warmer weather comes more time spent out-of-doors, and my photos are starting to reflect that change of focus. Sometimes the "perfect shot" was no further than my own backyard.

Most viewed image was The View from Stark's Knob


The largest numbers of comments were generated by Lilies of the Valley


and Morels


A personal favorite has to be Sentimental Journey: Saint Brigid's School, since that building is where I received my (formal) education from Kindergarten through 8th grade.


It was the beginning of quite a Journey, one that won't end any time soon, I hope!


You can see a slideshow of the 31 May photos here or view all of my 2009 photos to date here.

The two groups to which I contribute are 365/2009 and 2009/365.

365 Project: April

It's been two weeks since I last posted here. Though I haven't been blogging, I have been walking, thinking, connecting (via Twitter and Plurk, as dmcordell) and, always, taking photographs.

Most viewed image was my husband's Steampunk Radio fantasy machine.



The largest number of comments were generated by Spiral.



Personal favorite? A collage, Blue, presenting some of nature's variations on my favorite color.


You can see a slideshow of the 30 April photos here or view all of my 2009 photos to date here.

The two groups to which I contribute are 365/2009 and 2009/365.

365 Project: March

Month three, ending with photo #90. I'm still trying to include a mix of personal and professional images, outdoor shots, and family moments.

Most viewed was The Mystery Tool, posted on March 29. Its solution, uploaded on March 31, will probably achieve similar numbers, as people continue to check for the name of this object.


My favorite was the Lamoka Point. Being able to hold a projectile point dating from 3500 - 2500 B.C. in my hand means touching history. I am in awe that such artifacts survive to tell their stories.



You can see a slideshow of the 31 March photos here or view all of my 2009 photos to date here.

The two groups to which I contribute are 365/2009 and 2009/365.

Spring is like a perhaps hand

"Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and from moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything." -e.e.cummings

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." -Rainer Maria Rilke


*To see more spring photos, visit my Hovey Pond 3/28/09 set

Poetry

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." -Rainer Maria Rilke

“A picture is a poem without words." –Horace

*View individual photos or as slideshow here

Spring Cleaning

"Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe


Spring made its presence felt today in upstate New York, and we scurried to take advantage of the sunny skies and (relatively) warm temperatures.

Since next week is Spring Break in our part of the country, I'll have some long-anticipated free time. I need to do some cleaning.

There are always those mundane domestic chores to complete. Although I'm not particularly good at housekeeping, the idea of a more organized environment is very appealing, and I can't wait to fling open windows to air out rooms and linen.

I also need to rejuvenate my body, with outdoor rambles and lighter, simpler meals.

Can't neglect my mind: Kim Cofino shared her vacation reading list; here's mine

• "All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well" by Tod Wodicka. This first novel was written by a graduate of our local HS and has received a positive review in the NY Times.
• "Saving Fish from Drowning" by Amy Tan. Love all of her books, with their mix of mystery and fantasy.
• "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Promised Intrepid Teacher that I'd read this story of "One man's mission to promote peace...one school at a time". Got tired of waiting for an interlibrary loan and bought my own copy.
• "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi. Clay Burell has urged/challenged us to study Vladimir Nabokov’s "Lolita". Amusingly, the original work is not available in Target (I'll need to visit a more sophisticated venue - wonder if eyebrows will be raised when I use my teacher discount card?) but the Nafisi account of teaching "forbidden Western classics" was. Is there some cosmic irony in this?

A rather ambitious program, I know, but entirely doable, if I "neglect" Twitter and Google Reader for a while.

Which brings me to my next cleaning task. I've been favoriting Tweets that mention potentially useful resources, emailing myself key posts from GReader, and signing up for new tools to try out (Aviary, Diigo, and Gimp, to name a few). Sorting through this cyber cache might be too large a project to take on right now, but perhaps I can begin advance planning for the much longer summer vacation.

There are postings to write and school units to plan.

Perhaps most importantly, there are people to connect with, in person and online.

It's quite a bit to tackle in a single week. There are no penalties if I don't get to everything. But there are definite rewards for cleaning and stretching and growing however and wherever this occurs.


"Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature --if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you --know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse." -Henry David Thoreau


“light sweeping” by Shnnn