Spring’s Secret Garden

Monarch feeding on a Butterfly Bush.

The Secret Garden was one of the classics I read to my children. We spent many hours in the car driving to Maryland and Long Island to visit family (hon, trust me, we know every rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike), and made the time pass quickly by learning language, discovering stories, discussing characters and predicting plots. I only found out later that “brain imaging has suggested that hearing stories evokes visual images in children’s brains, and more strongly if those children are accustomed to being read to.” (The Merits of Reading Real Books to Your Children  by Perri Klass, M.D.,The New York Times)

Wait! What? Something I did was good for my kids? Woohoo! Hopefully, that balances out the other stuff that might not have been, ummm, as advantageous.

“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Epitaph

I wear a veil of sadness. My mother’s illness and passing has left me unmoored, so please bear with me as I stand in an ocean, the waves lapping and tugging, lapping and tugging.

Epitaph by Merrit Malloy

When I die

Give what’s left of me away

To children

And old men that wait to die.

 

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me,

Put your arms

Around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

 

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words

Or sounds.

 

Look for me

In the people I’ve known

Or loved,

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on in your eyes

And not your mind.

 

You can love me most

By letting

Hands touch hands,

By letting bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go

Of children

That need to be free.

 

Love doesn’t die,

People do.

So, when all that’s left of me

Is love,

Give me away.

Aqua Lustre

Chesapeake Hyatt Infinity Pool and Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

Water is in the news.

I planned on posting photographs of water before predictions that Hurricane Joaquin was headed our way. Luckily, it didn’t reach our town and we avoided another Hurricane Sandy situation.

Along with patterns created by the juxtaposition of sky and man-made objects, I love taking pictures of water. Its’ color, translucency or opaqueness, movement and mystery are eternally fascinating.

Aqua water is especially alluring, which is why I love the Aqua Lustre Raku glaze offered at my summer Raku class.

There’s more to come in this Series of Blue (Serene Sky and Metal and Blues).

Hon, thanks for visiting Bmore Energy.

Raku ceramic plates I glazed with Aqua Lustre.

Raku ceramic vase and tea box I glazed with Aqua Lustre.

Grotto, Israel

Sandpiper Bay Infinity Pool, Florida

Bar Harbor, Maine.  Check out the hammock.  WHO was planning on sleeping there?

Serene Sky

Bar Harbor, Maine

Blue is my favorite color.

I was in a happy, red mood the entire time I was pregnant with my fourth child.  I sewed red, gingham curtains for her room, bought red, checked crib bedding, and have always dressed her in red, wool coats.

Something about a yellow house says “cheerful, warm and welcoming,” so it’s no surprise my historic Victorian house is painted yellow.

I only miss a weekly bike ride or run in the nature reserve nearby house if I’m out of town. The rich green foliage and mottled green river are truly meditative.  

White feels uncluttered, clean and calm.  Pure white feels like summer.  Winter white thumbs its nose at the frost.  What color I wear depends on my mood.

But, I’m always in the mood for blue.

In this first post in a Series of Blue, the contrast of hard, earth-tone rocks set against sun-saturated sky, a sail billowing with the breath of an other-wordly being, and a lone raptor looking for a meal captured my attention.  And then there’s the indigo sky.  Entrancing, tree-silhouetting, deep, mysterious indigo transitions the day as it slips into night, provides a background for bats flitting amongst the pines, and implores me to take a deep breath and soak in the sky’s dye.

Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine

Bar Harbor, Maine

Indigo sky.

What’s your favorite color?  Why?

 

 

 

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Pink and Purple Color Comparison

Dale Chihuly, Blown Glass Spheres, 2014.

Pinks and Purples 

I loved the glass in the garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Dale Chihuly created gorgeous glass sculptures that grew alongside “rooms” of blooms.  The resulting color comparisons were poetic.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends.

Hon, I write.  I write picture books and chapter books.  In my stories, the little girl inside of me invites other children to mark the place where the sidewalk ends.

In that place and in that space,

we explore the world with open minds,

share our curiosity and wonder,

marvel at spiders and stars,

and believe in the magic of our imaginations.

Zinnia, Denver, CO.

Columbine, Breckenridge, CO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purple Reeds, Chihuly, 2014

Flat Sea Holly, Denver, CO.

Blue and Purple Boat, Dale Chihuly, Blown Glass, 2014.

“Glass itself is so much like water.  If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea.”  (Quote by Chihuly.)

Related Posts:

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Glass in the Garden

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Fifty Shades of Grey

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Orange Color Comparison

 

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Orange Color Comparison

Dale Chihuly, Blown-glass spheres in a boat.

Orange 

If you ever wondered–and even if you didn’t–where I came up with Bmore Energy’s tag-line, “Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary,” I’ll tell you. One day Hubby and I were taking a walk, and I pointed out some pretty yellow flowers. He said he hadn’t even noticed them. I said, “I find the ordinary extraordinary” and “That’s it! That’s the essence of my blog.” He laughed. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in a wow-Naomi-has-an-eye-kind-of-way. My guess it was in a what-is-she-talking-about-kind-of-way. Two things are certain:  1) I’ll keep pointing out words, images, sounds, people, animals, nature and the infinite amount of things I find fascinating, and 2)Hubby will shake his head and laugh.

Last summer at the Denver Botanic Gardens, my bet is that everyone found color at the Dale Chihuly exhibit fascinating. The next series of posts will study color comparisons.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for viewing. I hope you like my photographs.

Enjoy!

Complementary Colors.

Orange Mountain Poppy, Breckenridge, CO.

Glass Spires and Spheres.

Goldfish.

Koi.

Flame-like translucence.

“Glassblowing is a very spontaneous, fast medium, and you have to respond very quickly.” (quote by Chihuly)

Related Posts:

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Glass in the Garden

Dale Chihuly in Denver, Fifty Shades of Grey

 

Encrusted in Crystal

Crystal encrusted boughs bow under the weight of their secrets. 

Icy Compostions

Nature creates its own composition of Winter ice and Fall leaves.

The ice magnifies the brick’s texture, creating a pointillist-type palette of colors.

In my imagination, this piece of ice is the head of an Ice Creature.

The ice is all angles and edges.

Was Mother Nature inspired by Piet Mondrian?

“I wish to approach truth as closely as is possible, and therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental quality of objects.”

Mondrian

Pink Flower Power

Ranunculus

Plum Tree

Hyacinth

Bleeding Heart  plant

Move over butterflies…I’m obsessed with photographing flowers.  I love the layered petals of the Ranunculus, the contrast of the Plum Tree’s pink blooms with the blue sky, the Hyacinth’s candy-striped petals and how daintily each Bleeding Heart flower hangs from the stem.

Tomorrow, I’ll be planting my flower boxes. Happy gardening, hon.

Nature Photos

Adirondack tree fungus

Central Park color

Central Park willow tree

Each nature photograph I take unlocks a memory of scents, sights and sounds.  I hope these photos bring you a moment of calm in this busy back-to-school season.