Wishing you the best and the brightest of this holiday season. I am ever so thankful for friends and family, near and far, who make this such a special day. Merry Christmas!
McNeely Conservatory
Yellow of spring
The one color that sums up everything about spring is yellow. It’s the color of sunshine, the color of warmth, and the color of daffodils. These bright flowers shine with color and promise and brighten any day. Although we don’t have daffodils blooming outside just yet, I was fortunate to find these lovely blooms at the McNeely Conservatory in Como Park. They speak to me of warmer temperatures, the end of winter, the hope of spring, and the promise of summer.
Lessons learned from a sprained wrist
It’s now been two weeks since I slipped on our notorious Minnesota ice and badly sprained my right wrist. Much like the camellia in this photo, I am starting to emerge from this injury although I’m still seeking some protection as I do so. I realize though, that I’ve certainly learned some lessons from my injury: (1.) Appreciate all the things you take for granted. Until now I haven’t realized all the things, big and small, that I do with my hands. (2.) Trying to do things with a non-dominant hand is not as easy as one would think. OK….I tried to get my brain to talk to my left hand and tell it how to move and what to do, but of course the message wasn’t getting through completely. I have humbled myself many times as I fumbled trying to do simple tasks. (3.) Mindfulness is really important, and not second-nature. I have learned to pay more attention to what I am doing at a specific time. If I’m outside walking, I try to concentrate on my walking — one foot in front of the other. How easy it is to be distracted with thoughts of how cold it is, where I’m going, what I’m going to be doing there, what the roads are going to be like, what I’m having for lunch, etc, etc, etc. Live in the present!! (4.) When walking on ice or slippery surfaces, always carry things in your dominant hand. I read this tip the day after I injured my right wrist. If you have something in your dominant hand and you fall, you will most likely use your non-dominant hand to break your fall. OK, you just might injure it badly, but you will not be nearly as incapacitated as you would be with injuring your dominant hand. (5.) Everything takes longer when you have an injury, and patience is something to strive for. I haven’t been able to tie my boots, put a glove on my right hand, or turn the key in the car ignition without some assistance from either my left hand or from the willing two hands of a friend. My frustration would get the best of me at times. And photographing with a tripod and a dominant-hand injury forces me to slow down — look, observe, envision the shot, and only then do I spend the five minutes to mount the appropriate lens, place the polarizing filter, set the camera on the tripod, adjust the tripod legs, attach the cable release, focus, and then make the image. And just maybe, that’s not a bad thing.
Holiday poinsettias
How quickly the year has gone by. Here we are once again at the wonderful season of Christmas. No matter what one’s faith, there is a specialness to this time. If we look past the pressure to shop, the expectation of finding the perfect gift, any anxiety over meals, cookies, etc., there is still a child’s unbridled excitement over the mystery of the holiday. I encourage us all to focus on the joy and beauty that surrounds us at this holiday time. Our spirits can be lighter and we can be of good cheer, and with a bit of encouragement that attitude can become contagious and spread to many. May you find and rekindle the joy and happiness that can reside in each of our hearts and spirits during this time of year, and may you keep that alive within you as we all prepare to begin 2011. Merry Christmas!
Spring color in bloom
It’s winter outside — the ground is covered in white, the temperature is in the teens. But this morning I walked into a breath of spring when I visited the McNeely Conservatory in Como Park. The Winter Flower Show is now on display in the Sunken Garden, and it’s colors and sights are a treat to the eyes as much as its smells and scents are wonderful to experience. The pinks of the azaleas and the pale whites and yellows of the pansies were a beautiful combination of color — soft and delicate as only spring can be. In order to create a “softer” feel to this photograph, I placed a piece of plastic wrap over my lens. It had a wonderful effect of softening the lines and making the image more about the colors and the “feel” of the colors than of the lines of the flowers. As we deal with the snow storm that’s moving through over the next three days, I’ll easily return to my photos and my memories of the smells and colors of the conservatory garden.
lindastaatsphoto.com 