A Season for Everything

There is something just magical about springtime and summer. Sure, you could say it's all about the rebirth of plants, flowers, and the stirring of hibernating animals. I share the excitement of seeing the first squirrel running about, the first flower bloom (I take photos of all these things!) and the sounds of the world awaking. It doesn't matter if it's the sound of birds singing again or children playing or dogs barking, the dead silence of winter breaking gives my spirit and creative nature new hope.
With warmer weather we look forward to all the chances to play again. I like to play in the dirt, and make my garden grow and feed my family. I look forward to each stage of the gardening season, from crocus to tomatoes! Plans to attend festivals, car shows, parades, anything we put off because the weather keeps us inside, become reality again. But the true reality is the work behind making those plans successful. For the garden to even think about holding my tomatoes and squash, the ground has to be tilled, fertilized and mulched. It's backbreaking work, but it's always worth it! This spring we had the added work of cleaning up what the ice storm ripped apart in our yard, but nature was still chugging along. These daffodils bloomed as soon as the debris uncovered them!

As a family we are experiencing all the normal things of life. In just a few short months we have seen the set backs of a job layoff, the joys of prom night and graduation, the thrill of putting a new engine in a car and hear it roar back to life, and the bitter sweetness of taking our two sailors to the airport, then see another son joining the service as well. But these things get recorded in family history as an image or just in our memories, and we keep on, moving on, because we know life is a mixed bag, and there are many great things coming, not just bad.

Car show season is going into high gear. One of our sailors is sailing the high seas, physically, but his heart is home behind the driver's wheel of his '73 Charger. We keep that spirit alive for him by taking care of his car, driving it, and taking it to car shows. The work of washing, waxing and vacuuming the car is not so fun, but just as the work in the garden has it's rewards, so does the work in the driveway! In March Eric came home for a few weeks and he wanted to work on his car. He had dreams of making it more powerful, and as a family we helped him make those dreams come true. It is a real family project, memories and work combined!

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My calendar is filling up, and time is becoming more accounted for, which means I can't write too much this time. This weekend alone we hope to fix the transmission in an old farm truck we bought to fix up and drive, and also attend a local festival, which I'm sure will result in new images to share. The county fair starts this week, and I have things to get ready to enter for that on top of everything else.
I have been learning to develop my own black and while film, so I have some film just anxious to be exposed this weekend and throughout the summer. I have taken TTV photography an extra step and am shooting video through the viewfinder. I hope to capture the spirit and fun of the festival this weekend with that. I have other photographic experiments going on as well, and hope the results are worth sharing soon.
Here is a video I did from a car show in Somerset a couple months ago using my new ttv rig:



Enjoy Your summer....it won't last long!