The Third Act

grateful April (24)

Well, considering tomorrow is a no internet day for me and Monday is May, this will be my last grateful April post for the mini project.  I think it's done what I intended, grounding me a little more into the now.

This is a picture of tea camellia leaves.  It's mostly the very tips.  I had trimmed back the plant and thought I'd try my hand at actually processing some of my own tea.  I let the leaves set for a few hours, then steamed them for a minute and then put them on a sheet in the oven (set at 240F) for 20 minutes.  The leaves smelled wonderful in all stages.  The tea itself is light and has a savory, vegetal kind of tone.  It actually tastes like one of my favorite green teas, Purple Bamboo.  Not sure how I did that, but I dig it.

But while I'm grateful for that (homegrown tea), I wanted to note my greatest gratefulness...for my wonderful kids, my siblings, friends and good neighbors.  This project was more about the little stuff, but this...this is big stuff and I wanted to claim it.

See you in a couple days!

 

 

grateful April (23)

Green outside my windows!  Spring green to be specific.  After the rains wash away all the pollen and the leaves glisten with their vibrant color...it's the best!

 

 

grateful April (22)

Art...viewing, reading about it, researching, creating, experiencing.  I never knew it would become such an integral part of my being.  What would the world be without art, in all its facets?

 

 

 

grateful April (21)

Fruit!  I don't think there's a fruit I've ever met that I didn't like.  That being said, there are still many I haven't tried.

I admit, by this time of year I long for stone fruit...cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines!  I enjoy spring berries too and it's exciting to see all the little blossoms on the raspberry plants out front.  I'll stick with apples (cold storage by now) and citrus until then.  Oh...and I've been enjoying Mexican papayas a lot too!

 

 

 

grateful April (20)

Since it's Polaroid week over at Flickr, I have to include instant film in the random list of things I'm grateful for.

I've been shooting instant photos for so long, that it used to be cheap to buy the film in packs of four or five at Costco.  Can you imagine??  I've been shooting them so long that I blew through many boxes of (mostly) Fuji peel apart film...and that too was affordable.  I've seen the original Polaroid product disappear and new folks taking up the reins (through what has seemed like trial and error).  And then Fuji Instax film came on the market.  For me, while Instax film doesn't have the same color and quality as the old Polaroid stuff, it's at least affordable.  I'm not connected and can't get free film, yada yada, so I have to work with what I can afford.  And to be honest, Instax works just fine for me and my purposes.

At one point in time I even made a few Blurb books using some of the many archived instant prints (who is going to want all this when I die??) I have.  I always meant to go back and make zines on the regular...maybe once a quarter...but, I haven't done that...yet?

 

 

grateful April (19)

Avery!  My silly, anxious, enigmatic canine companion.  See her here, waiting in the dining room, gradually moving close (I circled where she was in the first image).  I was processing film at the kitchen sink.  Clearly, she thought I was working on food.  It took her a while to finally get the message and move on.  She's so funny.

 

 

 

grateful April (18)

The Earth!  Being that it's Earth day and all.  Definitely grateful for it.

 

 

 

 

 

grateful April (17)

Light leaks!!  Because sometimes it's just kinda fun to embrace the mistakes...

 

 

 

 

grateful April (16)

Pinholes!  I've been using various pinhole cameras on and off since about 2006 (I think?).  I've tried pinhole caps on my digital, but it simply doesn't compare to what's picked up on film.  Sometimes I go for long stretches without making these.  Then I pick up my trusty Zero69 and once again I'm enamored.

Given that Pinhole Day is fast approaching, it's good to get back in the swing of things.  I used a couple rolls of film while wandering around Pony Pasture Park a couple days ago.  Sadly, the first roll of film didn't get taken up well on the spool which resulted in rather significant light leaks (that being said, some of these images may prove interesting).  But the second roll worked out satisfactorily.  Hopefully I'll be making more of these (and you'll be seeing more!).

 

 

 

 

 

grateful April (15)

Not gonna lie...I'm having a bit of a blah streak.  Sometimes it's hard to come up with something towards which I feel gratitude.  It's not like I don't know there are hundreds of such things.  It's just that my head is in a space where it's just hard to access that emotion.

So today...I feel grateful for the opportunity to just be as I am, in this moment, however imperfect or uncomfortable.  That's something really...something to appreciate.