Winter is making itself known this week in Minneapolis with almost daily snowfalls. The weather forecaster calls them nuisance snowfalls—just enough to snarl traffic and make things slippery on the roads, not enough to stop us in our tracks (so to speak). This morning the snowfall managed to coat the driveway but little more. Tomorrow we expect no snow, but then a big snowfall Friday into Saturday.
With weather like this outside and Jon and I still recovering from a monster virus, I am so appreciative of being able to indulge in
Flower Therapy
I bought an amaryllis from Trader Joe’s before Christmas that is very strange but beautiful. Instead of planting the bulb in soil, the bulb is coated with wax and contains enough moisture to see the flower through it’s blooming cycle. This is the second year I’ve bought this type of amaryllis bulb from Trader Joe’s. And the one I bought this year is an over-achiever. It sent up three flower stalks!
This is the unadorned bulb on my dining room buffet flower photo studio. Each day I find some different view of these flowers to photograph. Often the images are uninteresting or duplicate previous efforts. But every once in a while I make something that I really like.
My flower therapy today was focused (perhaps I should say unfocused) on creating dreamy blur. Sometimes I like my images to suggest the flower without having anything really sharp in them. I know the experts say that something needs to be in focus. Ignoring the experts, I play with almost total blur. The image below is my favorite image today.
When January unleashes its might in Minnesota, I find seeing and photographing flowers cheers me up while I wait patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for spring to arrive. We’ve probably got a lot of winter left but flowers brighten my spirits and make the days more bearable.
On another positive note, today was the first day that I feel like I’m actually beating back the virus I’ve been fighting off. I’m still sleeping a lot—about 10 hours each night, and I’m not back to normal yet but I feel like my energy is returning. I’m coughing less and blowing my nose less often too. Jon, who got sick almost a week after I did, is not feeling quite as well, but he says my progress today makes him hopeful.
May you walk in beauty.“A flower blossoms for its own joy.”
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“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”
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And here are some old flower photos I am enjoying…
I find beauty in every stage of a flower’s life. The petals on the gerbera daisy above are beginning to droop, but look at the amazing details of it’s center! And take a look at the top image in this post. Even though it’s almost dried up the gerbera is beautiful to me.
Plumeria Flower in Hawaii after the rain. The scent of these flowers is heavenly.
I love the papery layers of ranunculus flowers
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