I’m excited and a little bit proud to have created and published my first photo book on Blurb!

Wild Altars

It’s called Wild Altars  and you can find it HERE !  I am anxiously awaiting my first print copies of the book. It is the first project like this that I’ve created and I hope it’s not my last.

I’m feeling gratitude for so many things in my life.

My life feels crazy full and good!

I’m enjoying family time with our daughters and grandchildren. One morning this week we got to make chocolate chip cookies with our grandkids and visit with our oldest daughter. The kids and I played almost every card game we know. I love spending time with them. I also got to have lunch with my youngest daughter at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this week.

Summer flowers are in full bloom and they are lovely!

I’ve been having lovely time with friends and am looking forward to attending a coffee house concert with some of them tomorrow night. I’m especially grateful to the women in my artist way group who inspire me, encourage me, and make me laugh.

The warm weather and beautiful Minnesota lakes, trees, and gardens are filling me up to the brim with gratitude.

This morning I visited the Hopkins Farmer’s market and filled my market bag to overflowing with delicious fresh locally grown vegetables—lettuce, scallions, sugar snap peas, broccoli, green beans, summer squash, radishes, and cucumbers.

My black raspberry bushes in our back yard have also been gifting me with a fresh bowl of black raspberries every single day for the past week. For breakfast this morning I ate a mix of fresh sugar snap peas, radishes and cucumber slices and for lunch I had a small salad, leftover tofu green bean stir fry, radishes, cucumbers, and black raspberries—mmmmm!

I grew up eating fresh farm-grown vegetables and fruits from our farm garden and orchards and I love that I’m able to enjoy similar feasts of goodness (without all the hard work) thanks to local farmers’ markets and my own tiny back yard garden.

I’m also feeling full creatively—full of ideas, projects, online classes, and learning. One of my favorite photographers Brook Shaden is currently doing her own July Challenge where she is photographing, videoing, and blogging about her imaginative process every day during the month of July. I love seeing her boundless creativity, courage, and passion for her work. Her short YouTube videos are always interesting even if you’re not a photographer and her creativity is inspiring me to stretch my boundaries to try creating more emotionally expressive and conceptual photography.

Here’s hoping that you are also feeling that your life is feeling crazy full and good! Enjoy these fleeting perfect summer days.

May you walk in beauty.

Note: All photos in this post, except the book cover image were made at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this week.