When Old Is New Again

I am someone who gets caught up in all the latest gadgets, bells and whistle...I'm a gatherer by nature I think? If I read a review about a great book, I have to have it now.  When in France I loved the shoes there..oh I could have gotten the same brand when I got home, probably for less money, but no, I had to have them right then and there and I wanted them to be from France..the same thing happens when I listen to Kim Klassen tells us about all the great books she loves, or the props she uses and then she gives us the list in our on-line class, I go like crazy to research it and find it.  My photography community is wonderful..the people are great at sharing and answering questions..and if you admire someone works, they more than likely will tell you how they have accomplished their style...and then I sit and ponder and plot.. 

I love to take photo's of the boys..and I've used all kinds of lenses...as a matter of fact, recently I just bought the 24-70L 2.8 because it would be good for both still life and the boys...indoors..still not what I was looking for for outside shooting...it is however great for still life..along with my 35mm.  For awhile now I've been following two very creative and unique photographers of young children and the out of doors...their photo's were sharp as a tack...they had a great bokeh background and the photo's just popped.  I have faved many of their shots on Flickr and just love what they do...and always..I'm thinking tri-pod.  Well that is great if your kids stand still but I wanted to shoot them in all their daily activities...sooo, finally, I got up my courage (because I didn't know either one of them) and I wrote to them...and guess what...one of them wrote back.  We had a dialogue..it was informative and lovely...She told me that she used a prime 85mm...and that was how she got those shots..of course her subjects were cute and somehow she did get them to pose and her creativeness in composition was outstanding...I'll have to work on that. 

In the end we had a lovely conversation and I was really impressed with her sharing...and since I had recently bought the 24-70 I didn't think I could press for another lens so soon...but I stored the information. The problem with me is once I have the information...it never leaves my head until I make a definite decision.  Oh I let it sit there for about two weeks and bam...I was off to Hunt's and B&H doing my research...shocker...the prime 85L series 1.8 is around 2,000.00.  Well that wasn't going to work right yet...so I set in on that shelf in my brain...marked "ideas".   It has been there for awhile now but for some reason this week I started thinking about it again..so I went to my "lens shelf" and found my 35mm and took that outside..and shot the boys with it all day...really nice photo's, really nice, but not the look I was trying to capture...and then, when returning that to the closet I saw my prime 100mm macro...BINGO.

I took that lovely out and thought, well if an 85 is good, why can't I give my 100 a try...and I was off and running..I have used this lens many times for my macro work and I love it for that.  It's a prime lens, 2.8.  I have also used it for portrait photography...up close and tight shots...but on Tuesday I used it for every kind of shot and I was amazed at the sharpness, clarity and the bokeh that I love.  I went shopping in my own closet and found a treasure.  I have since culled those photo's and I'm sharing some of my favorites here today for Friday's Finds..and what I found this week is that perhaps we should take more time to check our own supplies before rushing off on a treasure hunt..I am so happy right now with my closet find..and I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to upload and view the boys through this new/old lens...the only thing that I'll have to work harder on is focus because the focusing field is pretty precise but when I got it...it was magical...all the photo's here today are mostly SOOC except for a bit of desaturation.  I wanted to share with you what the lens is capable of doing..not what I'm capable of doing in lightroom or Photoshop...that will come another time...so what about that 85mm lens...I can't say I'm done with the wanting of it or the researching of it, because my understanding is that it's a pretty fast lens, but I have put in on the back burner for awhile and I'm going to keep working with my 100mm...see how it goes, you know.  Maybe next week I'll start looking around here for photo props.  Who knows what I'll find when I start opening up draws and closets...and for sure there must be some boards I can steal out of Jim's workshop...

 

 

"You don't get the same moment twice."

Props and Finds

Be Still...reflections and finds...It was a lovely week of finding my props for the Be Still 52 class...It all happened so effortlessly and unexpectedly, like most good finds do...So this week I was in search for props of all kinds...table linen, backings, maybe tile for the "from above shots"...what did I have in my house already and where could I get others...I certainly didn't think I could accomplish this all in one week but with the generous suggestions provided in class, I now know in what direction I'm heading...and I like nothing better than a great challenge and a Great Price...

Memorial Day weekend and my family came to Maine..first family gathering of the season and all the great antique shops were re-opening.   My son loves to find great antiques...his home is mostly all great finds from many different shops...and a few from my house.  He knows his wood and he knows a good price...let's just say he knows how to work it.  First stop...I got a very old white wicker rocking chair..more on that later. Then a lovely child's wooden chair.  Then we moved on.

Our next little shop in Bridgton, Maine just makes me smile..their antiques have a history and the employees know the background of most of the pieces and on Memorial day I got one of my best finds...two really, both I just love..which brings me to the photo above...Baby's Breathe, sitting in a lovely little bottle...oh my, you are going to see a lot of that little baby...1940's, ready for this, Listerine bottle.  I almost fell on the floor..those of you that know Kim Klassen, know that she has a Listerine bottle that she loves...I would not have known about this bottle if not for her...and it thrills me that we share our little bottles, although I think her's might be bigger...I tried to get the price down a bit but they told me that it was already priced very fairly...so I handed over my $8.00 and was happy to do so..Great Find right?  There were other great finds from that shop but I'm saving some of them for another post...come back and check it out.

O.K. now the props..from the above photo...Tin tray..from TJ Maxx...love it.  Cheese cloth draping..to make my flowers seem like they are sitting on a cloud...finished it off with a texture and a lovely quote...Be Still my heart...love the lessons..

Those of you who know me, know that I love a good cup of tea...It is no surprise then that wherever I am, whatever space or country, without even looking at a clock, I know when it's 4 o'clock.   My Prince Albert tea set is always on display in my living room.  It resides on an antique table well over 100 years old that my friend Ms. Margaret left me..that table is one of my prized possessions and she would love that my Tea Set sits there...her and I shared many a cup of tea together when I was growing up...Now the Harrord's Lemon Curd was not my find...but my daughter's.  She was in London recently and her and I have shared tea over there a few times..so home she came with the best Lemon Curd anywhere..my opinion.  Now for those of you with a bucket list...I really encourage you to add Tea at Harrod's..it's such a gift to sit and be waited on like they do there and honestly, they really know how to make a cup of tea...no bag please...So normally I would not share that liquid gold curd but if any of my faithful followers would like to join me for tea...not only will I share it but I'll make you some lovely scones...oh, what the heck, I'll make you clotted cream also...Did I tell you that tea is at 4...

Like the Lemon Curd...I also did not find that book...it found me, in my mailbox.  I had heard of it, and I had wanted it...another bucket list item perhaps...but it made it's way to me...Now just imagine this scene...it is Friday...4p.m, the water is boiling..loose Earl Grey in the strainer.  Ginger and pecan scones fresh from the oven and Harrod's lemon curd and homemade clotted cream...quiet time, restorative time.  A time to Be Still and enjoy the end of a busy week...on my porch, with my Gracie, tea and a very Good Book...

Life isn't always easy...sometimes it's down right hard...so whether we find our props or friends help us out...we have lots to be thanful for...For Sons who shop with Mom's, For Daugthers who hand carry a special treat, to friends who pop things in your mailbox...Be Still and know that you live in Grace...

GRACE

Life is a classroom, we are both student and teacher, each day is a test. Each day we receive a passing or failing grade in one particular subject; grace. Grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence and the list goes on. It's something money can't buy and credentials rarely produce.  Being the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the richest or even the poorest can't help. Being a humble person can, and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude.

Rhone American Cemetery

On our last day in France we were invited to visit the American cemetery for our fallen soldiers..It was a humbling and stunning vision...So many beautiful white, granite stones...some with names, many without. All of these soldiers were from Operation Dragoon.  Their objectives included capturing the ports of Toulon and Marseille...trapping the German Nineteenth Army and linking up with allied armies in the north. U.S. Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces, plus British and French air units, rendered vital airlift and tactical air support throughout these operations.  In less than a month, Seventh Army had advanced 400 miles into France. It fought onward in multiple campaigns to victory, May 1945.

It is a simple setting, stark almost...except for the two wreaths that are purchased each month by donations from family and friends...they are moved to two different graves each month..A symbol that they are not forgotten..we learned of the stories of these men and they were sad...One friend saving another and having to take the message home..there were many soldiers that were never identified but they also have a marker..and on the Wall of Missing the names of 294 of our missing are inscribed on the face of the retaining wall of the terrace of a the memorial.  

As we walked quietly and listened to the American officer in charge of taking care of this cemetery I looked around, I'm somewhat of an observer...and I was touched by so many from our group that had tears streaming down their cheeks...most had broken away from the group and were, in some way, dealing with their own memories of these times, perhaps their own children or family.  I know I was thinking of my Dad. He was not here in France, but he was in the military during two wars...and he was on many shores...it was so humbling to hear the stories...so many, did not tell of their time.  I looked closely at the graves, so many were in my eyes, babies...

Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial, in France...This was to be a temporary American cemetery, established here on August 17, 1944..The French government has granted free use of the land as a permanent burial ground without charge or taxation...I'm sure so many are grateful, as are they to us.

Dedicated to my Dad...always and Forever for his service to this Country...

Today is Memorial Day. The first official observance of what we now know as "Memorial Day" was held on May 30, 1868, by proclamation of John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic and a Civil War veteran. The day was set aside to honor those who died "in defense of the country during the late rebellion." Known as "Decoration Day," the observance drew on a long Southern tradition of honoring the dead by decorating the grave site with flowers. In late spring or early summer, extended families would gather in mountain cemeteries for "dinner on the ground," spreading tablecloths on the grass and using their best plates for the potluck meal. They arranged colorful flowers on the graves, sang hymns, held service and baptisms, and prayed. This practice is still common in the South, from the Ozarks to North Carolina.

On this day in 1868, 5,000 people helped decorate the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery; memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states.

Be Still and Thrive

We have, if we are lucky, about thirty thousand days to play the game of life. How we play it will be determined by what we value.  If we worship money, we'll never feel truly abundant. If we worship power and recognition, and fame, we'll never feel we have enough. And if we live our lives madly rushing around, trying to find and save time, we'll always find ourselves living in a time famine, frazzled and stressed.  So find your place to stand, your place of wisdom and peace and strength. From that place remake the world in your own image, according to your own definition of success.  

Those are the words on the back of the book jacket for Thrive..written by Adrianna Huggington...those are the things I have been seeking for a while now..It is starting to fall into place for me...finally...this book is a book I recommend for everyone and I don't say that about a lot of books...it is probably my most underlined book and I'm also not sharing it..you all need to get your own copies and underline what fills your soul.

Be Still, a new class by Kim Klassen and Thrive are ringing true for me now.  Be Still is a practice that I'm learning more about after a year of a few serious health issues..at my age I can remember a slower, more relaxed pace.  I'm searching that again.  In the meantime, my Friday Finds...a few Be Still moments.

Image my surprise when we found this baby bunny underneath my sons kayak.  It was stored in a section of our yard that we don't use...I felt so bad that the bunny was by himself but he knew enough to be Still, to rest and hope that we didn't see him.  I checked him later and he was gone.  I'm hoping his Mom came back and took him back to the nest or else he found himself another hiding place to Be Still in...he reminds me in this photo or how I like to feel sometimes...all tucked in, with a small patch of sun...resting.

This week I was so blessed with meaningful gifts from friends that I don't get to see often..Gifts for the heart that remind me that life should be a soft place to fall...simple and timeless.  This pottery was made, in the shape of a heart, by my friend Nancy...the flowers were from her husband.  Gifts that go beyond the everyday.  I was overwhelmed by the time, energy and thought that Nancy poured into this gift, made with the soothing motion of a wheel, with her hands.  I see her in my minds eye, slowing down during this process. Another friend from far-away...sent me the most beautiful book.  That also is a slowing down gift. For me to take the time to sit down and savor the beautiful still life photography that we both love....a gift we share together even though we are not close in distance...a knowing that someone understands my love and my need for some quiet time.  I thank them both for these gifts from the heart.

Finally, another gift.  A most special gift from a most special man...my son.  For Mother's day...he made me this meditation table for my bedroom...a small table made with his hands of fine wood, sanded slowly and deliberately to a smooth finish, stained to match my furniture and polished.  A slow process to bring me to a place of quiet and calmness.  It waits for a Buddha that I saw at a shop that I love.  He also gifted me the vase, with the birds and the brass bowl with beach sand (did I tell you how much I loved the ocean) and the sand will hold the incense sticks called "joy" that he choose for me. The prayer beads remind me that I am never alone and the rock in back came from the ocean in St. Maarten that reminded a bit of a little fat Buddha...My son owns his own Yoga Studio and I take meditation classes with him...He is a kind and gentle spirit and he knows me well...He also knows how to "live in the moment"...I am thankful for him.

All of these gifts came to me this week....a connection and a sign for me...that I am headed in the right direction...one never reaches a destination on their own.  It is always a road paved with help from family and friends and kindred spirits...I am excited for all lies ahead...breaking some old habits and moving slowly into the new. Finding my way again..as I have so many times over the years...change happens and we have to be ready and willing to look at it...so for me to Thrive I must live with more Grace, more joy, more compassion, more gratitude, and more love and more Breathing.  Onward, Upward and Inward...BE STILL...

Haiku

Labyrinth Garden

Charms gently swaying

Calling me

by CC

Last sentence was also taken from the jacket of the book Thrive...but it's perfect, don't you think.

Linking up to Friday Finds with Kim 

Serendipity

This is not the post I wanted to write today...this is the post that came to me through many channels.  The timing was perfect and so I had to go with the feeling that there was a message here for me.  I have always believed in serendipity but this time it was amazing and the timing, so appropriate.

How to explain it...yesterday I was just scrolling Facebook and I came across a posting from a friend of mine who at one time lived in Salem..the town where I was born.  It was from a friend of hers reminding her of something that had happened a few years back...out of the corner of my eye..I saw link to a page that said..."you know your from Salem if....."  Now that intrigued me and so I clicked.

I started strolling down the page and it was like home sweet home...until about 3/4 down the page when a photo popped up that took my breath  away...

This is where I lived and I worked for so many years...this is the apartment house that I lived in above the drug store (at the time I got married) The building on the corner of Bridge St and Arbella..now please understand, I did not live there in 1900..but it did look very much that way when I was there..and before this apartment...I lived a few streets down on the left, on the corner of Bridge and Barton...I never traveled very far in those growing up days...

The lay-out was, just above the drug store, The Bridge St. Pharmacy, in the front of the building was an apartment that my Grandmother and I shared and on the Arbella side was my Mom's apartment that she shared with my 3 brothers...My Mom worked at the drug store for over 25 years and both me and my brother worked there after school each day...

So now here's the amazing part...as I was scrolling down this page in utter amazement, having a wonderful time reading all the comments about Bridge Street and the drug store, I then read a comment that really just knocked my socks off with joy and wonder...

• Went to that corner drug store with my aunts in the 60's 

  May 3 at 1:26pm · Like
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  Jim Lemire That drug store was the first place I got a lime ricky. 

  May 3 at 1:28pm · Like ·  1
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  Rick St Pierre Oh, how i miss lime rickeys. no such thing in FL. taco bell has the closest lime drink. is brighamms still around up there? 

  May 3 at 1:30pm · Like
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  Vicki Papalardo I was the soda "jerk" at the drug store after school from '66-'69...fun job 

  May 3 at 2:14pm · Like
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  Deborah Vergari Retos Galiatsatos And we used to visit you Vicki while you were working! 

  May 3 at 2:31pm · Like
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  Jim Lemire here is that corner drug store now, Bamboozle skate shop, photo from streetview google maps

  

  May 3 at 2:34pm · Like ·  1
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  Barbara Connell Wilson I remember a woman " Eleanor " She was very nice

  May 3 at 2:42pm · Unlike ·  1
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  Vicki Papalardo Yes Eleanor Archambault worked until 3 pm then I worked 3 to 6 after high school

  May 3 at 2:50pm · Unlike ·  1
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  Judith Regan oh my goodness! Arbella was my street growing up! That was a drugstore when I lived there and my brother was a "soda-jerk" behind the soda and drink counter. I loved their "vanilla-cokes" and their vanilla frappes!! I miss these stores, "mom and pop" deals

  May 3 at 8:13pm · Unlike ·  4
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  Judith Regan The building that you were talking of off to the right was "Kuzmar's"

  May 3 at 8:16pm · Like ·  2

 Then I come across a comment by Barbara Connell Wilson and my heart melted...she was talking about my Mom...she remembered her...How sweet.  The next comment was about my Mom also...oh my.  How my Mother would have loved knowing these sweet ladies remembered her.  How she would have loved knowing that her little job made a difference to everyday people...it would have lifted her up.  She never really thought that her job as a "clerk" was important or of consequence but reading this I see that she was wrong. No matter what we do in life, if your goodness shines, you do make a difference in someone's life.  Not everyone can be high tech and brilliant...we need all kinds of good people to make the world a better place. In that little neighborhood...my Mom made a difference and I'm so happy to see that she was noticed and that she might have been a bright spot in some young adults life along  their way...whether by being a employee along side of some of them or perhaps she was  the one who served you your lime ricky or vanilla coke..(blended at the soda bar) and chatted with you while you enjoyed it. When you walked into that store you would find her there 6 days a week waiting to serve you...

So where does the serendipity come in...right there, finding this post..I found it on Mother's Day weekend. I found the gift of seeing my Mom through others eyes..and I think it was so amazing that through a connection like Facebook, through a friend's page that I only know from a group  we both belong to now, not then, and from there, to just be reading about my city...my Mom came back to me for a visit.  She once again lets me know, in her own way...that all is well, we are never very far away and yes, we can go home...

Happy Mothers Day to all my friends who visit here. Remember you to, are making a difference to someone, even if you don't know it...