Roseate Spoonbills

 Lucky me. I got to see some today along the SC coast. 

I like taking pix of people the most.

 

Coneflowers

 

Hydrangeas and coneflowers

Sally cut full blooms from her many hydrangeas and adding pink coneflowers and fern fronds, made beautiful arrangements for many spots in her house. I admire her eye for making a home a home. Here are a few pix. 

Distorted Reflections

 I was fascinated by the images in the mirror-like windows in some downtown buildings.

Leftovers for the Birds

 

Early at a fun place

A man with a good sense of humor

 

Two Homes?

 I often drive by this yellow building, maybe a residence, and I’m curious about it. It seems out of place where it is, and probably because of the color, it seems a tad French. The picture of the lovely home with the wisteria in front was taken in the colorful month of April, when Wilmington and many other places  are at their showiest. 

Composition and Contrast

 What we can see in an otherwise uninteresting photo. 

Brick Road and Stone Church

 

Painting

Because I must have something “to sink my teeth into” during the next decade, I must paint. My art friends enjoy plein air, being outside and painting what they see in front of them. Others paint from photos that they have taken. Some artists painfully reproduce the subject and others give artistic license to their paintings. I wish I could do either and am trying, but I can’t help but stray. Though I am moving into oils, yesterday I felt the lure of acrylics that I attempted to tame in recent years. The process has been: I paint on the canvas. Then I evaluate. Then I cover it with another layer of paint and then another. Eventually most canvasses end up in the garbage. I may keep these. The paints in both were three blues, a white, and a deep yellow, and the canvasses were well textured! I don’t plan. A frenzy overtakes me, and in a few minutes, something satisfying emerges. The rectangle I have named Into the swamp. The square one is Along the Trail. A name helps the viewer make sense of a painting. The iPhone is not exact in representing color  

Neighborhood Sightings

 Little free library and wild fern next to a little creek  

Sweet Henry

Beautiful Church

Driving today on a country road and spotted a gold dome atop a lovely well preserved little church. On the way back, I was fortunate to stop and get a pic or two. Russian Orthodox. Right in the middle of corn fields and farm lands!

Flowers are sensuous

 

Funny face on donkey

One from several months ago. 

Sent to GGM

 

Flowers at Lowe’s

 

Gnarly

Woohoo!!

 

POTD

 

a painting

 

Sunday at church. Mother and son.

 

An old church?

 

Sweet couple

 

From October

 

Just because nobody has seen this

 

At the yearly end of watch memorial service

 

Offended Cat

 

And old wall and tree

 From the grounds of my first grade school. 

Nasturtium leaves

 

Granddaughter Graduates. And her friend!

 

Girls in bw

 

Saucer magnolia leaves

 

Any town

 

May begins tomorrow.

For the past few years, I returned to blogging to post a picture each day in May. It was for my own discipline since I know no one follows. Works for me!

I was spending a few minutes thinking of doing it. But every May the same thing! Hydrangeas or any of the other pretty blooming flowers. Shore birds, ocean waves or shells when I finally get back down to the beach. Enough of that! This is my twelfth year in Wilmington, and I am used to all the sights. Ho hum. 

I had really given up on photography, almost. I realized a camera really did make a difference, and my good pocket cameras were gone. Less than a year ago, I bought a new iPhone and determined that it would be my camera. After all, that is what everyone else does, except for the photographers with the huge cameras who get such great shots that it practically ruins it for us hacks. But this week, I "discovered" a feature on the camera of my phone that made me happy. And I have started taking pix with enthusiasm. 

This year, using my phone, I will probably still take some pretty seasonal shots, but I will either make the B/W or arty. That's my goal. But for today since it is still April, some colorful ones.  . . .  Oh dear.  Looks like I can’t do it.