Birds and Blooms

I am excited today because first of all, Harry Potter!  What a visually amazing conclusion to the series.  Just awesome.....but I digress before I even get started.  Second, and perhaps more important, I am going to respond to a request for a blogger from Birds and Blooms.  And yes, I am blogging about it to mentally determine if I would even qualify as a blogger for my favorite magazine.

The original purpose here was to give myself a sounding board for my watercolors, but I haven't picked a paintbrush up for a couple of months.  Instead it has been a good way for me to clarify my feelings about my surroundings, and with what goes on in my life,  facing changes I may need to make.  After all, life is too short and this latter half  is about doing what I love, or trying new things that I think I will love.  Thus a writing class this year, the new camera and teaching myself how to watercolor...and now, responding to a request from Birds and Blooms.

As a 'when I have time'  photographer I wonder if I would even qualify as a part time blogger for Birds and Blooms; after all, I am just learning how to use a decent camera,  and I just recently learned how to blog. Still, I love to write, I love my home with the plants all around, and the deck.  I love the hummingbirds approaching me when they are ready for more of my homemade nectar and I spend so much time looking at the magazine wishing I could do what those people do that I think well, why not?

If you know me you know my favorite thing is to sit on this deck to watch the hummingbirds and the finches; I keep the water hose handy to spray the neighborhood cats that also enjoy watching the hummingbirds and the finches.  For now Dawnee has  the camera that we share; hopefully when I get it back it will come with a new lesson from her on the next thing I should try to make the photos great. So I will need to wait for my weekend to take anymore pictures (Monday and Tuesday this week).

When it was my turn with the camera last week I took an awesome photo of a hummingbird resting in the nearby trees.  I am fascinated because his beak is parted, wings are ruffled from the breeze, and he just stayed there and posed for me.  I have included it with this blog.  It is my goal to paint this one for myself.  But the beauty of it as a photograph is breathtaking.  I fear to touch the paint with this task in mind and  I intend to study the photo while I am on my deck, protecting the birds from the cats and designing a painting that will display what I see in the photo.

I am excited about adding photos from surrounding area, with the idea of  visiting Chris and Lisa in northern Washington and perhaps traveling down to crater lake.  Blogging for Birds and Blooms would just give me the excuse I need to meander the valley and coast with camera at hand.  I could say it was for Birds and Blooms, but I would be able to take pics of things I want to paint and actually get to write about them!  Sounds like a win-win from my viewpoint.