Where does the time go?

I blissfully prepare for the babies. Yes! Two babies! Marc and Amanda are expecting their second daughter in October, and Morgan and Beth are expecting Button in December. Button's sex is as of yet undetermined, and Morgan has given her/him the sweet name of Button until they can come up with more definite plans. These babies have opened a floodgate of creativity! I've returned to knitting after years of not knitting. I think it's partly in frustration at not being able to weave baby blankets, but  nonetheless, I'm getting a lot accomplished. I'll have three grandchildren by Christmas! Hard to believe so much can happen in one year! Elaina is going to be a big sister and a big cousin and she's so excited about it!

I did take time out to go with friends Deb, Kim, and Erica to see Boney James in High Point at the High Point Theater. I'm a new relatively new convert to Jazz music, and I still prefer old style Jazz, but Boney put on a wonderful concert and it was great to get away for the weekend. This pic of
Boney was taken in a dark theater with my new Tamron 18-270 PZD. Not too bad. I was worried that it wouldn't be fast enough for concert shots.

 Beth received her Master's degree in preparation for completion of her PA program at Duke. Her undergraduate is from Smith. Bright lady. Very bright. She will finish up in August and the baby is due in December. Busy year for her and Morgan, too!

The other big news, lest I forget, is that Marc and Amanda bought a boat! Here we are jetting about Lake Hickory Mother's Day Sunday. Lots of fun! He makes a dashing pilot...


My blog posts are so family-oriented. I say nothing of any social or political importance. I used to have so much to say about so many things. I think spending so much time alone has made me quiet. Not deep, necessarily. Just very quiet. Since I last posted, the country has been rocked by storms and floods. Bin Laden in dead. Obama slayed the boogie man. Our kids continue to die in wars that nobody understands. New strains of diseases develop and take lives and I  blog about knitting. But this is my life in my little corner of the world. I pray. May we be filled with loving kindness.

Too long away...

I'm definitely not going to be a regular blogger, or rather, not a blogger who posts regularly. I think there was a point in my life when that would have met some need for me, but not now. I think that creatively, I had a lot more to say earlier in my life. I find that the older I get, the less I have to say. However, I find myself doing more. I'm training right now for not one, but two, 5k's. I'll be walking, of course, but, hey, a year ago, I had no thoughts of being in "training" for anything physical. It feels good. There, I said it. It really does feel good, and I feel good. I do have more energy and my outlook/perspective/mood is great.

Which is a really good thing, because come October, I'm going to be a grandmother, again! Marc and Amanda are expecting their second child this Fall, and I'll need all the Miss Jan energy I can muster! I'm so excited! Elaina has been such a huge part of my life, and now to think that all that joy will be relived. Life doesn't get any better. Really.

Elaina is such a big girl now. She turned four the end of January. She is beautiful. I'm still "Miss Jan," although she tells me that she's fully aware that I'm her grandmother, she simply chooses to call me Miss Jan.

I've signed up for another Tracey Clark class. This one is a year long and is called Picture Inspiration. I think I've developed a bit of addiction for these classes. During the time that there wasn't a "Picture" class being offered, four of us--Claudia, Jolanda, Dotti, and I--started our own version on Flickr called Prompt Addicts. We have 64 members and the four of us are alternating posting weekly photo prompts. It's been a way to meet some creative women from all over the world--Jolanda's from the Netherlands. I've made some wonderful friends. I LOVE the Internet and I LOVE my computer.

I've signed up for Darrah Parker's class, "A Slice of Life." It's a photography class that's not focused on the technical aspects of photography, but more on developing an eye for photography opportunities in everyday life. It starts in April. Kat Sloma's class was wonderful and I hope to repeat it in July. She is such a phenomenal instructor, and I notice that right now, she's participating in Picture Inspiration.

Closer to home, I hope to go to a photography/editing day at Amanda Padgett's home in South Carolina in April. I've taken several of Amanda's editing workshops and she's come to feel like a real friend. I've learned a lot from her and I take every opportunity to put in a good word for her great site www.everydayelementsonline.com. 

It's strange how life goes on when across the world in Japan, their country is reeling from the tragic earthquake and tsunami. We felt it in minor ways here in the States, but I believe that thousands will be dead in Japan. Now, a nuclear power plant has blown up, which in itself is such a nightmare. I can't begin to imagine how the people there must be suffering, but my thoughts and special prayers are with them. Who knows, I may have family there. My dad was stationed in Japan during the Korean War, and had a long relationship with a beautiful young woman named Miki before returning home and marrying my mother. He had a lovely handpainted portrait on silk of Miki that I remember seeing as a child. I have no idea what happened to the portrait and I'll never know if maybe Miki had a child or children by her young GI. I've always felt a special connection to Japan and I've always been the only one in my class who could sing the Japanese National Anthem in Japanese. My dad also introduced me to Zen Buddhism at an early age, which may have contributed to my not-necessarily-all-voluntary separation from the Belk Memorial Presbyterian Church Sunday School Class at age 11. Well, that's another story for another day. May we all be filled with loving kindness. May we be well.

Starting to recognize your eye...

I'm afraid I may have the eye of a blackbird. I find that I'm attracted to bright color and movement. When my friend and I visited our local museum, there were two newer exhibits. One was of a well-known local photographer, but I found that many of his photographs on exhibit lacked color. They were phenomenal, but only a couple of them actually moved me.

The other exhibit was of large, bright abstract paintings, mainly of birds. I didn't spend a lot of time in the exhibit, but it did brighten my spirits.

There is a permanent exhibit of Hudson River Valley paintings on display. I spent very little time in there. I know that the small, drab landscapes are not exciting to me. Unfortunately, several galleries were closed for preparation for new exhibits, so we were unable to visit the Folk Art, Catawba Valley Pottery, and Glass exhibits which are my favorites.

This is a very cursory description of a rather brief visit to a small, local museum this week. I do plan to return when the new exhibits have opened, which, come to think of it would be now. My favorite photo from the trip opens this post and was taken when I walked a short way down the hallway into the Science Center for children. Those red neon lights occupied me longer then the rest of the trip because I was determined to get them the way I wanted them. And I like them. Like I said, no fine art eye here. I've got the blackbird's eye for bright and shiny, folk art and weathered faces. I believe I learned something, and I believe I like that, too.