Front yard, back yard, down the street . . .

There's always so much to shoot in and around our friends' house in San Diego that I never get bored. And last month's visit was no exception.

This ranunculus, gleaming pink in shady light, was right there on the front porch, screaming to be photographed.

And on the wall just above it, a rustic straw wreath featured a cute little bunny face peeking out.

I wandered around the back yard and found a wonky wooden birdhouse (that nicely echoes the colors of the bunny wreath). My friend was aghast that they hadn't "fixed" the birdhouse before our arrival; I was so happy they hadn't!

And then up the street I found some decorative tilework on a stucco wall that I liked for its combination of warm/cold colors and for its simplicity.

So much to see if we just look a little closer!

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

ROYGBIV: GREEN!

And now we come to green, a particularly soothing color in nature. Because I'm less of a nature photographer than anything else, I find I have a plethora of green manmade things to choose for this category, such as the abstract design I found when wandering around fishing boats on the Oregon coast.

Next I feature a photo of birdhouses Chris made and that we had in front of our Oregon house. These eventually disintegrated and Chris made some more, similar in style. And this year we have tree swallows nesting in the middle house. Made us feel good to provide "affordable housing" for these birds.

And finally, a close-up of the side of a bus that June, Jill, and Gisela found for me when I visited North Carolina a few years ago. Do they know me well, or what?! This was such a cool junk yard to shoot in, although their "watch out for snakes" warning was a bit distracting . . .

It's now Sunday, although I'm writing this on Wednesday before the move. I am hoping that we have happily awakened in our familiar bed, that the cat isn't too freaked out, and that we can now begin opening boxes (which is actually a lot like Christmas -- we won't remember what's in each one!) and placing things where they seem to be most appropriate, knowing, of course, that in another three months everything will be all changed around again as we realize the couch looks awful over there, wouldn't it be better over here?

Green is an especially appropriate color for today because our house is completely surrounded by tall conifers, so much so that when the light is right, our white ceilings display a definite green tinge that's reflected from the trees.

©Carol Leigh
 All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Garden Art

I photographed this birdhouse in a friend's garden last year. And right now my friend is probably thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, this looks familiar. Is this ... huh? ... what? That's MY birdhouse!" Well, yeah, it is.  :-)

©Carol Leigh

Walk Around the Block . . .

Photos found during my frequent forays around the block...

The three birdhouses we've had outside for the past 10 years are slowly falling apart, but I still like how they look. The hydrangeas are becoming raggedy, but this clump still glows in the early morning light.

The blackberries up the street continue to blossom, the berries rapidly ripening, the last of the season. A rock rose in a neighbor's yard looks pretty good; our rock roses froze two years ago and haven't quite made it back yet.

And finally another weed. Actually, it's the same weed you saw a few days ago, this time photographed on a different day, under different light, with a different camera/lens combo.

Fall is quietly arriving here on the Oregon coast, after about four weeks of summer . . .

©Carol Leigh

Serenity

It's been a tough couple of days dealing with family issues, especially being 3,000 miles away. I turn to a photo of a quiet morning in North Carolina at Gisela's house last fall. Ahhhhh! Almost as good as a bubble bath! ©Carol Leigh

Birdhouses

"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." — Henry Van Dyke

©Carol Leigh

Birdhouse Number 02

This was a fun one to do. I combined a tacky-looking birdhouse (shot in front of an antique store) with a photo of rusty metal from a fishing net salvage yard. I added various photos of numbers, paint, a checkerboard, and a wooden step from a staircase to complete the look. Not yet available for sale. ©Carol Leigh