Finally Spring

It is the First of May, hope you have a happy May Day. I almost can't believe how long it has been since I last did a blog update. But to be honest I haven't been doing much to blog about. Playing games on my tablet, reading or listening to books, food shopping, those have been my main activities, and there isn't much in the way of interesting blog content in those activities. Hmm book reviews maybe but that has never been my thing, so I will spare my readers.

That said in the past few weeks I have pulled out my brushes and the watercolor paints and paper to do some playing around. First I painted some imaginary flowers, then I cut the resulting painting into 2 inch strips and then using an ink pen I added some top doodles. The results are in the top image, a couple of almost done bookmarks. I plan on coating them with Acrylic Medium and then calling them done. I have plans to do some more watercolor painting. I am not very good, but hopefully well get better.

These next two photos show what else I have been doing since Christmas, knitting socks. So far I have 3 pair finished, and a couple more pairs where the first sock is about half way done (I am doing the heel)

I am working with mostly wool yarns that has some nylon incorporated, the grey socks above have some Alpaca, which means a soft yarn with a lovely hand. I am knitting on double pointed needles, size 2 for the grey socks, and size one for the multi colored socks below, they yarn is dyed with gradations of color, I just knit. The socks don't have the same color gradations, but then the yarn didn't seem to have repeat gradations. I wasn't sure I would have enough for the 2nd sock so I didn't even really try to look for a repeat. Still I don't care, I love the colors in this yarn and found the gradations fun to work with.

For those who haven't tried it, sock knitting is fun and sort of addictive. Esp. if you can find a pattern that is well written and have had some experience knitting. There are various on-line sites that offer free patterns, though I found the Paton's Next Steps Four, Socks and Slippers booklet excellent for the beginning sock pattern (grey socks). I also recommend the Ravelery web site for all things knit, they have free patters and a large community of knitters. You need to join to get the patterns but the site won't bombard you with e-mails.

Our weather, here in Eastern MA was fairly warm in February (for that time of year) but March was snowy and cold so I wasn't doing many trips into Boston. Above is photo I did make on of my late March Boston visits. This is a photo of Boston City Hall from the Quincy Market area, the statue is one of Boston's past mayors, Kevin White, I think but I need to check

The above photo was made from Boston Garden looking toward Beacon Street. The pink azalea was inside the garden, and the white tree was in front of  one of the buildings on Beacon. The photo was made about a week ago, in late April. 

I made the above photo of a violet in bloom this past weekend here in Brockton. There are also various bushes in bloom and some of the trees in my neighborhood are starting to leaf out. I can say that Spring is finally arriving here in Southeastern MA.

Not sure when I will be updating the blog again. I am not currently driving so my access to woods has been severely limited. This means I won't be visiting my favorite sites for spring wild flowers this year. Lack of mobility is also going to limit the number and kinds of butterflies I can photograph. Maybe I can get back to doing more art which I can post, only time will tell, and I am sure there will be more socks.. In the meantime comments are welcome. 

Happy New Year 2018 - Chicago Street Art

I want to wish all my readers a Happy 2018, may you have good health, good luck and good times this coming year.

Per usual I spent Christmas and New Year's at my sisters in Chicago. For the first part of my visit the weather wasn't too bad so on a couple of days (one cloudy) I was able to get out and about with the camera. Then a cold front came in and it was too cold to spend much time outside and with the wind chill factor dangerous to exposed skin (temps were below 10 degrees F on a couple of days) so my photography trips were called off, it was just too darn cold.

Anyway Chicago has a lot of hmm, lets call it street art. These first two photos are buildings that have been painted to call attention to themselves. Both of these are restaurants, the top one a barbecue place and the one below I think was a Mexican Restaurant.  For the barbecue place they just painted the building over the entrance. In the one below they painted the entire rear of the adjoining building, fake windows, fake arch, fake courtyard and even fake stairs. I am sure that in the summer there are tables in this area and it must be a pleasant place to sit and eat. The fountain is real.

Please don't ask me where these restaurants are, I have no clue other than on the North side of downtown Chicago and toward the lake, Lincoln Park area (I think) I do all my wanderings starting on foot from my sisters and usually walk toward the lake (east) and usually south (toward downtown) but I don't really bother with street names or addresses. If I end up over by the lake and Lincoln Park I know which buses will get me back to her house otherwise I am happy to just wander. 

But Chicago also likes to put up sculptures and other types of art works on street corners and in small parks.

The colorful bends above are to mark one of the areas that make up the City of Chicago, The sign says Lakeview East, different areas have different signs.

Above is one of the Corner Sculptures I found, I don't recall what the marker said about it. It just sits out on a street corner, I would think that they might be worried that someone would try to take it, but then again maybe not.

Near a Children's Hospital I found a small park, there was a sculpture of children playing a circle game in the center of the park, and this one on the corner, not sure what it is supposed to be.

As a final photograph, Chicago has a Nature Museum located a bit north of the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is near a pond and also fairly close to the Lake (Lake Michigan) Instead of a lawn with mowed grass they have landscaped much of the area around the building as native prairie: using native shrubs and plants. The photo above is of some flower heads (seed heads) left from last summer. I don't know what the flower is/was but thought the seed heads interesting.

I have visited the Museum in the past, they have a butterfly room with live mostly tropical butterflies, it was fun to try and photograph them, they also have exhibits showcasing native animals and their habitat.  A good place to visit with young children, when my sister and I visited food was in short supply so I suggest a packed lunch if you are in the area and want to visit.

That is it for today, not sure when my next update will be or what it will be about. I am finding that I don't have a lot of motivation to get out the camera when it is freezing cold or the ground is snow covered. Ah well, per usual comments are welcome.

Rejected Photos and some art

I have been working on next years (2018) calendars. Every year I try to select the best photographs I have made over the past year and create calendars for family and/or friends. This year there are 3 different calendars.: one with bird photographs, another with butterfly photos, and the 3rd with, this year anyway "Landscape" photos. Not that all of the photos in the Landscape Calendar are really of landscapes. Feeling that just landscape photos would get boring (the area I make my photographs in is fairly limited) I included some photos that are more close up photos of nature, not long distant shots so I have fudged a bit.

The bird and butterfly calendars are in a way a bit easier to pull together, I just pull out my best photographs and select from there. Since I need 14 photographs for each calendar I usually don't end up with a lot of extra. Esp. as I don't want to repeat species in each year. But with the landscape calendar there are some months that are harder to make the final selection for. So this blog post includes my "rejected" calendar photos. They didn't make the final cut, but were selected as possibles.

The above photo was a possible March. For the Landscape calendar, photos are made in the month they represent. This one was made in March at Ponkapoag Golf Course, showing the Sugar Maples that line the road leading back to the Bluehills Reservation area around the pond.

The above photo was made in Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, MA in April. Powered boats are not allowed on lakes in the state parks, but some visitors bring inflatable kayaks or canoes such as seen here.

This photo was made in my local city park in August, and shows this year's swan family, parents and cygnets swimming away from me. I used another photo of the swans in the calendar, one I liked better, and didn't want to repeat the image, so this one got cut.

The photograph above was made at the Governor Ames Estate, Easton, MA in July. This is what I mean when I say that not all of the photos are "Landscapes". Still nature, but not a long distance shot. I really like this photo of water lilies, but it just didn't fit in for that month.

This photo was made at Daniel Webster, MA Audubon site in Marshfield, MA in June. It shows the fields where the bobolinks make their nests. The fields are mowed toward the end of every summer so that the trees don't take over, but it is done after the young birds have fledged so are out of the fields. I just liked the range of values and colors in this photo, but it just didn't fit so got eliminated.

Hope you enjoyed this peak behind the curtain so to speak and like viewing my "rejected" photos.

Lately I have been trying to get back to some of my other loves (drawing and sewing) so above are two bookmarks that I have been working on. I painted a made up landscape on some watercolor paper, then cut the paper into strips and added ink work over the painting. There are a couple of more that I need to finish, but these two are the ones I have done so far. I apply acrylic medium to the fronts and backs which not only makes them waterproof but pretty durable.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome