photography – Whaddya Mean Rosebuds?

To My Dream Reader

Posted on January 11, 2015 by sshafarzek

Hey, you. Yeah, you!

But no pressure, right? As I browse through the postings from Blogging 101 — and with that, all the other delicious postings the Reader tells me about — I begin to think: my dream reader would be somebody who has the time to read. Or the patience. What a lot of words there are already in the world! So, Dream Reader, here’s what I’m thinking:

I won’t expect you to understand my life choices. Wow. When I read that possible prompt (“maybe your dad, so he’ll finally understand your life choices”), I had a moment’s almost dizziness. Imagine what it would be like to have someone — Dad, anybody — who understood your life choices. Imagine — for just a precious moment, say — what it would be like, being able to understand your life choices yourself. Oh, that would be something. Reader, I don’t expect to understand your life choices either. That’s okay with me. Life choices are very confusing.

I am curious about them. Really, deeply so. And I hope you’re curious about mine. Even if just a little. In a kindly way. With willingness, if not identification. With interest and not aversion. With, well, patience. There might be something there.

I like new ideas. Hope you do too. Even better, I like new corroboration of my old ideas. Bet you do, too. And the old viewed from new angles, reader. I want you to like that too, because I do. And I send out my pictures and perceptions with some hope they might tickle some sense of recognition, of mirth, or compassion, or just plain interest.

Reader, you and I, we face each other, in a kind of blindness, getting glimpses of this and that. When I read something, I hope it will add to my day — maybe my life — and if I only could, I’d be that for you too.

Hallowed E’en

Posted on October 31, 2014 by sshafarzek

My schedule this semester is putting me behind the eight ball, but I didn’t want to miss Halloween. I have some neighbors who really do justice to the season and so most of this is from their display.

This is what happens when you don’t brush your teeth, right?

I guess this is her sister, bad orthodontistry.

And these guys — not from anybody’s seasonal display. But don’t they look as if they’re saying trick or treat?

Hope yours is full of fun.

Fall Has Fallen

Posted on October 24, 2014 by sshafarzek

Yup, it’s here. Time to change the wardrobe. That’s what nature is doing, right?

Kind of a melancholy time. All that stuff that gets left behind.

But still, it has its moments.

So we stick around for a while. Right?

RIGHT?

Just Lookin’

Posted on October 22, 2014 by sshafarzek

The view from far away can look so good. Do your thoughts go there?

It might be hard to tell just what you’re looking at. And sometimes

it’s not so great at all. Other times, it even seems inviting.

Or one just wonders

And sometimes the view is looking back atccha.

Alternate Forms of Transportation

Posted on October 20, 2014October 20, 2014 by sshafarzek

Cars and trucks are mighty fine. So are airplanes and buses. This is just a mediation on how many ways there are of getting around.

Even getting to work (this was taken in the employee parking lot of a local hospital).

And there’s getting around just for the fun of it

and in the imagination

and by train (Yonkers, New York, taken from the train)

Or on foot

or just catching a ride.

Going Around in Circles

Posted on October 10, 2014 by sshafarzek

The circle is such an attractive shape. Even if I had the ability to speculate why, I wouldn’t get into that here (books and books about it), but the ghost of all that speculation — geometric, psychological, occult and esoteric — hangs around it. Around, indeed. Around and around, circles draw the eye and they draw my eye, maybe more than most any shape.

Even when they’re not particularly beautiful, circles compel attention.

invoking all those ideas about them — unity, fullness, ripeness, oh we could go on and on.

and we could remark about their usefulness

but wouldn’t that be redundant?

and beside the point?

But the circle would still draw the eye.

Even when it’s not quite there.

Wishes

Posted on October 8, 2014 by sshafarzek

I’ve been busy this week taking classes, which has led me to thinking, among other things, about how much of life is spent wishing for something.
Like world peace, or

or a nice get-away vacation, or

some “new” stuff

or new horizons, or

just freedom. Depending on where you are at the time.

Things Left Behind

Posted on September 29, 2014 by sshafarzek

Sometimes we mean to come back to them, even when we know they might not be there when we come back

Sometimes we’re just done

or resting

Sometimes it’s just not right

and other times it can’t be helped

Yes, it’s really Fall now, here in the Northern Hemisphere. Almost time for some things to close, but not yet

(Actually — disclaimer notice — this park is in Florida. I suppose it only closes when the winds come. Well, sometimes life is like that too. )

Putting Our Backs Into It

Posted on September 26, 2014September 29, 2014 by sshafarzek

Backs are kind of wonderful. They enable us to walk after all (just try it when your back is out) and they go on expressing a whole lot more than we think, behind our backs, as it were.

Sometimes it’s determination

and sometimes just attitude

or conscientiousness

or maybe, resignation

or that end of the day thing

which everybody gets

Where Are the Rocking Chairs of Yesterday?

Posted on September 24, 2014 by sshafarzek

The easy answer, of course, is at the antique store, at the second-hand shop, maybe, in your attic. Not in mine, I’m sorry to say. I have a rocking chair, but it dates to 1989 and you can tell.

It isn’t very comfortable either — at least for me. At one time in my life (somewhere in the 90’s) I had a group that met regularly at my apartment. One tall young man always took this chair. Then I realized why it wasn’t comfortable for (short) me. Rocking chairs have a symbolic quality, not just because they’re what we’re supposed to be sitting in, whiling away old age. At least I choose to think that. I think they might stand for ease in company — for anybody.

What Was Old Is New Again

Posted on September 23, 2014September 23, 2014 by sshafarzek

A favorite aunt brought me to the first second-hand store I ever went to. We had to drive quite a distance to find it. In our rural area, if you were done with something, you just gave it to somebody else. It was quite amazing to find you could just go out to a store and find treasures. These photos were take outside Circa, one of my favorite treasure hordes.

And this is the item I would have bought, had I the money or space for it. I likes these bowls too.

and this

and I was tempted (as always) to go inside.

But this is what I really would have bought. Doesn’t it look comfy?

Learning From More Than Books

Posted on September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 by sshafarzek

The children whose school garden this is have been learning something more than reading and writing. Yesterday, thanks to a friend, I was able to visit and see what they’ve been growing in a beautiful garden, which is now somewhat past its prime, but still producing