Bullwinkle and his Daffodil Poem

Meet Rocky and Bullwinkle.  While meandering around my garden I thought of that silly cartoon show and named these two in their honor.  Of course the poem "Daffodils" that Bullwinkle would recite was running rampant through my grey matter at the time.

The poem itself is by Dorothy Wordsworth and appeared in The Grasmere Journal if the wiki is correct:

I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them,  

some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, 

they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing. 

The image is post processed from RAW in the orton style.  The final image was post processed in Virtual Photographer to remove the cyan cast since this was largely shot in the shade. Enjoy.

Nothing screams spring like a Daffodil

Since I was a little kid in the UP of Michigan nothing has screamed spring like the arrival of the daffodils, sometimes even popping up through the remnants of the winters snow.  That bright yellow blossom with its trumpet wide open seemed to just scream spring and alert us to the coming warm days.  

Of course in LA we get our spring way earlier than the rest of the country.  Even better daffodils are completely low maintenance and naturalize to our climate.  All we need to do is plant bulbs once, cut off the dead blossoms and just let them sit.  I like that kind of gardening.

This shot was done in the Orton style.  I did shoot bracketed in RAW.  I post processed the raw file adjusting the color depth and temperature.  The final image when dumbed down to jpeg was run through virtual photographer to bring about the look and feel of a Kodachrome and to remove the cyan cast since most of the image was in "open shade".

Has anyone else noticed that digital recording media seems to lend much more "blue" to the shadows than traditional silver based media?  

Regardless of the question or how I got here, enjoy Daffodil and think of the warm spring days to come~

forced journaling...and my wife liked this one

I'm in a class that has some forced journaling requirements. Not that I'm a great writer or even a poet, but I' took the easy way out on the random thought process. I came up with this ditty that my wife and daughter liked. Its funny but the idea came from the fact these old "K-Swiss" classic wear like iron, look like hell but they are still so comfortable.  The all want me to get rid of them. The bit after the jump. Call it a classic meandering...

These shoes

They're old - Dec 07

The've taken me on adventures

I slipped off a cliff - 

hit a cacti before going over the edge.

They took me to London,

they took me to Paris.

I walked the path of kings,

At the Louve I saw the mark of the common man.

They took me on hikes at Rushmore and Yellowstone.

Hundreds of walks.

Now they have a bigger journey.

to find me a happy place.

I need it for my wife

I need it for my kids

I need it for me.

I needed these old shoes.

random album cover - flickr fun on face book

To Do This

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it to FB with this text in the "caption" or "comment" and TAG the friends you want to join in

ou est frazgo?

That's "where is frazgo" en francais folks.  I've used that tag a few times over the years first on the now defunct "textamerica", then a few more times on LA Metblogs and Flickr.  Kinda like that silly kids show "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego" its about the random different things I spot as I meander about.  Think of it as the ultimate ICME as it poses a question rather than tell you where it was.  

"Ou est frazgo?" will be a regular feature.  99.9% of the time it will be so random the image source will be my cell phone cam or the che-ez.

Things are in turmoil here.  I'll save you all the boredom of the dx, rx and tx suffice it to say that was the reason for the silence and slow come back.

Enjoy it.  Identify it, just don't expect a prize ;)

"7 Unknown Things" Meme...

Interesting week over on facebook and with my friends on metblogs and our various readers.  A meme started flying.  At first I ducked but eventually I got tagged by Roger Jacobs who has his blog "Carver's Dog" who was tagged by Joseph Mailander who has the "Cocktail Circuit" blog...which I think I need to get hooked on since I do like a nice cocktail every now and then.  That's what we do when we're grown ups finally, right?  Guess the beer bong years are over.

 I have no idea who will respond.  My tagee's will be at the end.  The rules:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.

2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

7 Unknown Things

1. I eat m&m's in color order, never mixing

2. I weighed a diaper once then tallied how much poo diapers I changed over the years with the kids...nearly 2 tons.  They owe me.  Dearly.

3. I lived in Death Valley for an entire year at Furnace Creek.

4. I never got a ticket I did not deserve.

5. My first speeding ticket I was 3 mph shy of going to jail...in a dealers loaner car.

6. I firmly believe in consumer guerrilla warfare.

7. A martini made with a jalapeno olive doesn't taste as good the second time around.

Now if you really want an eye full you'll have to friend me on facebook and check out my 25 things note on that meme from hell.  

Now for my taggees: West Coast Grrlie Blather, Mademoiselle Gramophone, The Aaron Proctor Effect, Pasadena Daily Photo,  Pasadena PIO,  [sic], Julia's Mexico City, Xanga, and for good measure The 99 Cent Chef.  It could be worse...you can pick your 7 and it doesn't have to follow a theme.

Artist Reception 2/2 5:30- 7:30PM

That's my stuff hanging at Focus One.  The artist reception is scheduled for Monday evening, 

February 2, 2009 between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. FOCUS ONE FINE ARTS GALLERY is located at 404 East Huntington Drive in Monrovia, California.