IMPERFECT YEAR, IMPERFECT PHOTOS

Do you love snapping photos?  These are from the past twelve months or so--imperfect photos of an imperfect year, by their imperfect photographer.  Imperfection is part of our lovely, challenging, painful, beautiful lives (see Post, January 14, 2024), isn't it?   

 

The first picture is of our mild dusting in January with deer just waking on the slope by our patio, heads turned toward me, instantly alert.  The bit of sky above is sunless.  More snow came later.  Oh what a better photographer would have done with this scene!

 

This has been a year when we look to our own lives, our own homes, travels, friends and family for respite.  A year when the man who acts as president descends further into cruelty and we fight harder for our democracy. Luckily, for many of us, the pleasures of home are abundant.  

 

This photo is of an approaching storm at the North Carolina shore.  I was walking on the sand at the time and turned back toward the path I would have to navigate to safety.  I can't remember if I made it home without getting soaked.  These dark clouds come often at the beach and catch us unawares.  But beautiful, yes?

Earlier, before the January snowfall, we hosted a holiday supper and I got out my Spode Christmas china.  I come from a family of women who love ceramics.  I have inherited my grandmother's 12-place setting of formal china. Casseroles with lids, sugar and creamer, large and small platters, gravy boat, two sizes of bowls. . . .  More than I have ever needed, but love having nevertheless. Someday it will end up at a consignment shop, I am sure.  Probably no grandchild or niece will want it.  What do we do with all these wonderful old things that we have inherited?  Not worth much, actually, but family memories, heirlooms.  I may be their last custodian.  Is that true for you of anything? Do you have a quilt, men's pocket watch, or old work bench or desk?  Something your grandfather used every day? 

I have china from the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair which my Grandmother attended as a child, Bavarian vases and tchotchkes.  Maybe cost her mother pennies, but precious to me. But the Spode Christmas pattern you see below, I collected myself.  Replacements Unlimited, pretty well-known I think, is just down the road here in North Carolina.  My husband gave me a whole Christmas tea set one year and that began my collection.  So here it is, set out for a party. There's some of my great-grandmother's cut glass in there too.  And some I've already passed on to my daughter.  

From the bare trees you can tell that the shot below is of a winter sunset from our meadow looking out to the woods.  Never have I seen one more beautiful.  Shouldn't we seek out the daily sunsets more? Or sunrises? Everyday the sky is a gift, right out our windows and doors.  Free to all.  I can get lost scrolling sunset pictures; or zinnias; or hummingbirds.  Instead, I need to promise myself to go out every night to see the sun set or the moon rise. When Mr. Wiggles was alive, this was so much easier as he needed his last walk before bed.  (Another reason to have a dog!)  It takes but a minute to salute the end of the day with a bow to the moon or stars.  

Another December photo below is from the past year.  We attend Duke University Chapel for services.  It is Gothic, with a majestic Flenthrop organ and a choir unsurpassed.  Visit if you can.  The poinsettias were arrayed for the season.  On Christmas eve when the students are gone, a community choir leads the congregation in Nine Lessons and Carols.  One year my father and I joined the singers, when he still had his high tenor voice and I my first soprano.   

This too is a favorite photo, a soft blanket my sister-in-law and brother gave me for Christmas.  A cozy spot.  How many such have you made in your place?  I don't have a rocking chair, but that would be comfy.  

You can tell with the heat of August, somehow I am thinking about winter! Probably because we hit over 90F again today.  My plants needed water, in ground and in pots and I gave all a thorough soaking.  I hope the heat will bring rain tonight.  

Thank you for looking at these photos and thinking with me about your year too.  With gratitude, Nina Naomi