Author: alejna

3 unrelated photos

Here are 3 (largely) unrelated photos that I have taken at different times in recent years.


Botanical gardens in Paris, France in 2007.


Park on the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago, IL. 2010.


Forbidden City, Beijing, China. 2012.

through the woods

It’s true that I just really wanted to use that post title, following yesterday’s “over the river.” When I thought of what images to go along with those, it occurred to me that I had just used bunches of them for my post “tunnels through trees.” Happily, I do tend to collect a lot of images, which means that I always seem to have more photos that I haven’t yet posted here. (At least, I don’t think I’ve posted this one here. But I believe I did on Instagram.) In any case, I do quite like this photo, with its various contrasting and criss-crossing lines: curving tire tracks in the light snow and the crisp straight-line shadows of the morning sun streaming through the trees. This photo was from February of 2013, but the trees look about the same now at the end of November, with only a few stubborn leaves hanging on the trees.

So here we are at the end of November. I more-or-less participated in NaBloPoMo, in that I posted every day and left a link to my blog on the official NaBloPoMo site (I’m number 870 out of the 1427 blogs listed there.) But I didn’t much have time to check out any of the other blogs listed. And given that I had been posting daily the previous 2 months, it didn’t feel much different. Not like in 2007, when I created the now-defunct Ministry of Silly Blogs, and otherwise connected with quite a few bloggers who became friends.

And now that I am through the woods of November, I need to decide whether I want to continue to post daily. In these 3 months, I have actually not written very much. There still remain the backlog of posts running through my head, including some on important topics that I feel compelled to address. But even though I have not quite written what I had hoped, I have appreciated having this creative outlet, and making myself use it regularly. I have enjoyed posting many of the varied collections of photos that have been accumulating in my photo library.

over the river


The Hamilton-Fish Bridge (aka the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge), glowing with rosy light reflected off the Hudson River at sunset in August, 2009.

For the past 5 years or more, we had been going down to my in-laws’ in New York roughly one weekend per month, including most major holidays. In fact, last Thanksgiving was the first that we did not spend down with them for easily more than a decade. (Unless I am forgetting something, which is, of course, possible.) This year, since we have been busy with our move and many other projects, we have not been down to New York since the summer. Happily, John’s two sisters have each been able to visit their mother, and each has even been able to drive her up here for a visit, first see our new house back in September, and then again last week for Thanksgiving. So, we did not make the trip down over the river and through the wood to Grandmother’s house this year. But it did get me thinking, along with my stream-prompted nostalgia for my own grandmother’s house, of the trip we would regularly make over the Hudson river to visit one of my children’s grandmothers. Here are several photos of the Hamilton-Fish Bridge across the Hudson River that I took over the years, from my position in the passenger seat. Most often, the photos were from our departure, as we tend to head down late at night after the traffic lightens. (I do have a few photos of the bridge after dark, but you can’t see much.) I do like the way the bridge looks different at different times of day, in different light conditions.


Looking very stark and gray in December, 2010.


A bright afternoon in January, 2013


Partially wrapped in September 2013.


Silhoutted in August, 2012.


Bright sun and sharp shadows in October, 2012.

down the stream, or up the creek (friday foto finder: stream)

Given that yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US, I find myself being nostalgic for the many Thanksgivings I had at my grandmother’s house growing up. Unpacking various pieces of china and serving ware to put away in our new house, assorted family heirlooms that I remember from my childhood, and using the buffet that was from my grandmother’s house has filled me with a steady stream of memories. It is no surprise, then, that seeing this week’s friday foto finder theme of “stream” brought to mind one body of water: the one in the town where my grandmother had lived.

These photos are from May of 2005, the last time I visited that town. The creek that runs through Beulah, Colorado ranges from a tiny trickle in times of drought (which Beulah sees quite often) to a rushing torrent in the spring, gushing with the runoff from the snowmelt up in the higher mountains. During that visit, the creek (pronounced “crick” by many locals) was quite high.

My mother and I walked down to see the place where the creek crosses Central Avenue. At this junction, the creek calmly flows under the road through some pipes for much of the year. But in the spring, the creek insists on crossing the road. Cars and trucks typically drive right through the creek, but happily there is a little bridge for pedestrians who aren’t wearing their waders.

To see what other streams are flowing, merrily row yourself over to the fff blog.

beautiful inedible fruits

Here are three photos I’ve taken in past years of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. The continued clinging of these fruits to their branches well into December and even into March suggests to me that no birds found these fruits to be palatable.

One of my ongoing projects came to bear fruit today, again of the inedible kind. But not the photogenic kind, either. I got notification that some funding I applied for, my first research grant application that was all my own, is likely going to come through.

broken brick wall

Repetition
of shape and lines
forms the impression
of a unified whole.

Variation
in color, texture,
size and position
highlights the plurality
of the parts.

A structure
seeming so solid,
exposes its fragility
in its bends and cracks.

late leaves, early buds

As we head into late November, there are fewer leaves still clinging to their branches. I do enjoy the splashes of color offered by these stubborn holdouts.

While I tend to think of buds as signs of spring, some shrubs form their buds in the fall. These colorful rhododendron leaves and buds caught my eye a few mornings ago as they caught some rays of the morning sun.

emojis spotted in the wild


This is how I felt much of this past winter.


That door is alarmed, you say? Well, this guardrail is downright dismayed.


This campus sculpture is distressed.


And this leaf is appalled.

Yesterday, I posted a set of photos of happy faces. This seemed like a reasonable follow-up, since some days, you just don’t want to put on a happy face. (You see them too, right? This is not the first time I’ve shared found faces. If you’ve been visiting for a while, you may even recognize the little leafy guy in the bottom photo.)