Fields White for Harvest

Yesterday as hubby and took a short drive to Easton Center, I was captivated by the beauty of the fields we passed. I commented that I wish I had my camera and needed to come back.
Hubby said,"You better hurry up because they will be harvesting soon."
So that afternoon, with camera in hand I parked beside the road, got out and took these pictures.

 I am participating in August Break over at Susannah Conway's blog. I will be posting a photo a day with few or no words for the month. Tomorrow I will post my favorite photo from this photo shoot to begin the journey. Join me and let me know if you do.

Serendipity by the Bay

I mentioned in a previous post that Amber, McKenna, and I had chosen a word to do a photo challenge together. The word is Serendipity. Definition: : the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. McKenna had an even better definition which I can't recall. she can share later.

Coming home from the wedding on Saturday night, or I should say back to the camper, we came into the town of Bucksport, Me. I noticed a lot of activity for 9:00 pm at night. After inquiring at a local gas station, we found out that fireworks were going to be set off over the bay.

 I pulled a pair of pants from my suitcase and donned them under my dress, as the air was damp. 

We walked down to the hill above the bay and enjoyed one of the most delightful displays of fireworks I had ever seen.We also met a local couple who filled us in on Bucksport by the Bay festival. It was a delightful surprise.

All the photos were taken from my iPhone. Not the best pics but its serendipity!

Most Blessed

I had the joy this weekend of attending the wedding of a sweet gal I've gotten to know over the last few years. I had a long drive home today to think about how blessed I am in my friendships. There was this amazing blog post forming in my head as I traveled but I am too tired tonight to remember what it was. I will stick with sharing the photo for now.

Final Week

This is the final week in Inner Excavate-along. The chapter concludes the journey with ideas for capturing the full experience in any number of ways. I have been printing out my posts and pictures each week and putting them in a folder until I came to the camper. When I go home on Monday I will print out the remaining posts and complete the journey.

My favorite part of the whole excavation was the separate collaborations with my daughter and granddaughter. We are going to do another one together that I will blog about soon.

The other nugget I dug out from this course was the reminder to take pictures of simple joys all along the way. I was sitting here thinking about what to post when I happened to look up and glance in the mirror. To my delight, I could see a hummingbird in the new feeder we put up. He is not there now but you can see the feeder in the mirror on the left. It is capturing the view outside my door.

I am not sure I would have even thought to take a picture of this prior to these seven weeks. Thanks Liz, the Flickr community and Amber and McKenna for all the fun!

Four Generations on an Ordinary Day

Lily Observing Everything on our Walk

I have been reading interesting books lately centered around heaven. Through these readings I have been reminded once again how precious every day life is with the people we love.

My girls came to the camper today. We sat on the deck for awhile, went for a short walk and eventually were forced inside by the rain. I snapped a few pics:

Ordinary day, extraordinary girls

Exhausted Mama

  

Me Trying to Catch McKenna on Film;She is the One Hiding in the Corner

Image from McKenna's Blog today because I Couldn't take her picture :)

A Little R & R

Reading and resting today.

Poetry Collaboration

Poetry Collaboration: 

McKenna and I gave each other a list of words from which to write a poem for Inner Excavate-along, week 6. Here are the results.

McKenna

 

 Poem Untitled.

Waves transport me;
look to them,
and I enter deeper into
the haze.

The haze of my future:
what's next and where
I am going.

The blue is hypnotizing,
transferring me into my
tattered thoughts
The rhythm waits;
saying only two drifting words:

Whats next?

Playground

Why did you stop?

come play with me

jump on the merry-go-round

faster faster

tummy tumbles

til the dust

 settles

Try the monkey bars

  I hold you up

now letting go

you can make it

fingers burning

need to finish

triumphant

Teeter totter

work takes two

flying high

smack the ground

hang on hands

look- no hands

soar!

Open and Closed

 

This week I chose two exercises in Inner Excavate-along. The first one was the challenge of choosing a theme and getting a friend to take her own pictures around that theme, while I did the same. We didn't share them until today. My daughter, Amber joined me in this adventure. We chose the theme Open and Closed.

My pictures are on the left, Amber's on the right.

I chose the Poetry exercise for my second, which my grandaughter did with me. I will post it tomorrow.

Check out the Challenge this week at Liz's blog.

Pier Pics

Bar Harbor Pier

 

Today was breezy and warm and a beautiful day to spend with my girls. 

Perfect Summer Day

A warm breeze caressed her skin, lulling her into a gentle sleep.

Sound like a line from a novel? Nope. They are words describing a piece of my day.

Leisurely morning tea and email evolved  into a game of rummy during lunch with McKenna. Then Ken and I sat on the deck reading our books and I had a little nap.

Amber and Lily joined us for supper. A fifty-cent bottle of bubbles provided magical entertainment for all of us.

a perfect summer day

Collaboration

Week Six of Inner Excavate-along is about moving out of the solitude of creativity into community with others. There are several exercises to choose from in this chapter. I chose two and two creative partners.

My daughter, Amber and I have chosen a theme and will be taking pictures the next couple of days around that theme individually,then we will compare what our eye saw through the lens of the camera and share the results with you. I also will be linking to her blog, but can't right at the moment being iPad challenged :)

My granddaughter McKenna is doing the poetry challenge with me. I wrote my toolbox list for her and she is writing one for me. From those lists we will each create a poem.

All three of us are excited about doing this week together so stay tuned.

The Voice

The Eternal is My shepherd, He cares for me always.

He provides me rest in rich, green fields beside streams of refreshing water.

He soothes my fears;

He makes me whole again, steering me off worn, hard paths to roads where truth and righteousness echo His name....

You care for all my needs, anointing my head with soothing fragrant oil, filling my cup again and again with Your grace.

Excerpts from Psalm 23 in The Voice translation

Calling a Truce

"I want to call a truce, to find a way to be a body and soul...I want to learn to nurture my body."
Susannah Conway

I am reading bits and pieces at a time of "this I know" by Susannah Conway. Today's reading brought tears to my eyes. My body and I have always been at odds, it seems. When I was young, I worried that my shape would turn into my mothers, gaining weight in all the wrong places.

As I had children, the battle began to take off baby fat.

Later I struggled with digestive issues from a congenital pancreas problem. Moving into midlife threw my body into a hormonal frenzy, resulting in serious food allergies. No weight problem now, except how to gain it.

This summer,I am struggling with another issue and today, as I looked at my arms and legs and saw the effects of aging, I talked to my body.

" I love you. You've been good to me no matter what. "

Then I read Susannah's words which touched me where I am.

I have taken the pathways of various diets and vitamin regimens, recently juicing , trying to bring my body back into some order. Along the way, wisdom was added, but much remains the same. I read my healing scriptures everyday and trust God's care. I think of a phrase I read somewhere.

"in acceptance lies peace."

I feel like body and me have been in a struggle for a long time. Time for a truce. I am not sure what that looks like, but somehow it feels right.

"Nurture."

I like the word.

In Quietness and Confidence

" we don't write to be published...we write to make sense of the noise in our heads." Susannah Conway

I typed for an hour and a half but my words fell flat today. My head is quiet.

I have always done my best writing when my soul is laden with life's changes and challenges.

The words of Susannah Conway resonate with me. I don't mind not writing today.

I would rather be free.

The Beginning- Again

Seasons of prayer shift from declarations to silence to sharing in cycles and times.

On this beautiful summer morning, I moved into quietness, waiting, letting the Spirit use my holy imagination, which he implanted in me.

I was sitting on the beach when the Father arrived. This was a surprise. I often walk with Jesus, not the Father. It must be important. We walked until we came to a gazebo filled with lights. We sat. I noticed a small trunk to my left. Father motioned for me to open it.

It was empty, save a single morning glory. I caught my breath, for yesterday I found a single morning glory on my newly planted vines.
I heard Him say,
the Beginning.

Yesterday, here in my home, I sensed the same. The beginning of restoration. It would be a long story to tell here, but morning glories bloomed on the side of the house I grew up in as a little girl. They were the color, the hope in my dark world.

Somehow I know that they were planted by the Lord who saw this day.
He spoke these words eternal.
Beginning.
Restore.
Again.

A Perfect Morning

My morning made me smile.

Tending my flowers is one of my favorite things to do. I nearly finished when out of the corner of my eye, a new splash of color caught my attention. Peeking out from under a large green leaf was my first morning glory. Beautiful deep purple with a star in the middle.

I took pictures with my camera, then my IPad. When I came in the house and passed my bedroom mirror, I took a quick happy pic.

Portrait Practice on a No-Makeup Day

After ten days of vacation, I need a vacation. Yesterday was spent catching up laundry and four hours in the office, grabbing a few groceries and various other tasks.

This is a no-makeup day. I pulled on my sweats and sunglasses to make me incognito, stopped at the bank and kept my beloved massage appointment. My neglected flowers beckoned to me on arriving home. After a late lunch I was exhausted, but kept thinking about the exercises in chapter 6 of Inner Excavation. Deciding to play around a bit with reflection, self-timer (which I have never done), and self portrait, I made myself reach for the camera.

Here are a few results with no fixes except the cinemascope.

How I feel today

Reflection of me behind the camera

Lost in the beautiful sight out the window

This is what i was looking at

Not bad for a first try and brave for a gal with none of the fixins :)

Final Day

The final day of vacation was quiet.
The family left in stages and by the end of the day I was sitting on the deck reading a little in my books.
Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this week.

Standing in the Rough

The deck of the camper is rough under my feet but it grounds me. If stained and pretty, it becomes slippery in the rain.

Vacation ends tomorrow.

I am pondering this past week and all I have learned. It was a tough week in some ways because I was physically challenged in an area. This was both frustrating and exhausting. I leaned hard on the thought that God is my helper. He provided McKenna for help, too :)

I only lost my cool once. Even then, I learned there are "turtle" times, when it's okay to pull your head in and heal for a bit...and forgive.

This week was rough under my feet at times. I didn't like that I wasn't able to react perfectly. I hate weakness that restricts me. Reminders of past failures crop up with grown children.

I am reminded of something Susannah Conway said in "this I know." I may have mentioned it before.

"This story does not belong to me."

I add, " not anymore."

I will go home, weed out and focus on all of the memorable moments this vacation held for me, good and bad.

I will only hold on to those that belong to me.

Turning Sixty Unedited

This photo was taken by my nine year old granddaughter two days ago with my camera but without my knowledge. When I uploaded my photos I was shocked . I could feel my self resisting the changes, the lines, the weariness and in that moment, something shifted.

 Letting go

embracing

familiar

Life a gift

everyday

graced

Lines

deepening

breath

Lessons

embedding

treasures

Today on my birthday,I embrace all that I am,carrying sixty years worth of life in my mind and body.

  For Inner Excavate-along Week 4  titled "I See Me."

Polaroid Moments

Every year over the 4th of July our entire family meets for a week at the camper. We have a fifth wheel with bunks so the grand-kids pile in with us. The rest of the crew fit in a pop-up and another camper, and one family goes back to their home nearby.
As you can imagine, there are a few tense moments, especially if the weather is rainy. Yet it is the time together that makes lasting memories. Here are a few from yesterday.

Family Views

One of my goals for this summer and the Inner Excavate-along journey is to experiment with my SLR Olympus. McKenna has been giving me a few tips. Here are a few shots I took yesterday in our gorgeous 80 degree weather.

 hubby's morning ritual

 grandson and my birthday gift in the background

 pool fun

 bella feet

my favorite- beauty before me