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Pond Walking in July

Those seven ponds my husband’s grandfather made way back when are a treasure. There is always something to notice each time I take a walk around them. We’ve had some incredibly hot weather until just a few days ago, and I haven’t walked around the ponds since July 6. Today, I made myself get out and stroll around with the camera.

I thought about the colors I usually see this time of…

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This Place, and Seeing Something New

This morning, I took a chance. It’s overcast, a nearly 50% chance of storms, possibly with severe winds, thunder, lightning, and all that can accompany a summer storm (or two). It’s humid, the kind that feels like one is wearing the air. But I took a chance and walked around the ponds with the camera. I “fixed” the problem of the distortions when I downloaded them with the card reader. The…

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Today Was Supposed to Be the Day

Today was supposed to be the day that I would go for a photo walk. That was the plan when I woke up. I dressed appropriately, put on my tennis shoes (Southern for sneakers), gathered all my camera gear this time, and headed for the lake. The swamp roses, wild hibiscus, are blooming on the lakeshore—beautiful white and pink blossoms, some as big as my hand.

I was also testing out my camera…

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The Struggle Is Real. . . .

I want to be a writer–a real writer. I wanted to write when I was in high school. I wrote a few short stories, and my English teacher then said they were “good.” I had no more feedback than that. I went to college, majored in music and in English, but ended up with a bachelor’s in English only. (Long story, and perhaps another entry.) But all my writing was academic writing, and my professor…

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Telling Stories, Part II

Last night, we have a summer storm—wind, heavy rain, sharp lightning, thunder that rumbled for minutes. And it lasted for nearly two hours. I confess, I am not one who particularly enjoys storms, meteorological or otherwise. And last night, I stayed awake throughout the whole storm from 2:45 a.m. until nearly 6:00 a.m. I roamed the house from window to window to see if I could see what the…

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#photos #stories #story-telling #writing

Telling Stories. . . .

When I began blogging, oh, I don’t know how many years ago, I did so because I thought I “HAD” to in order to promote myself as a photographer. I thought I would go pro, as it were.

That didn’t happen. But I kept blogging, off and on, nothing regular, and maybe that’s part of the problem. I didn’t, and still don’t, know the rights and wrongs and the shoulds and shouldn’ts of blogging as…

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Currently, in June. . . .

It’s been a while since I’ve done a “Currently” meme. Something to think about for the month of June:

CURRENTLY. . . .

Reading: Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Sara Donati’s Into the Wilderness series, and Jodi Taylor’s The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series

Planning: for retirement; a summer-long photography project, and a pizza date with a dear friend

Watching: Outlanderseason…

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Place: the indigenous story

The school year has ended. Whew! And a new chapter begins, however temporary. It’s time to pull out the camera and the notebooks and dust off the blog. It’s time to work on this blog space and get back into the habit of regular creativity.

In Kim Manley Ort’s class, Place, the focus for May is on the indigenous story. I began researching the Native Peoples of South Carolina, and what I’m…

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A Sense of Place

It started in April, a new class with Kim Manley Ort, a photographer and writer I have followed for several years. She practices contemplative photography, which is a whole ‘nother post altogether! This class focuses on the places we live, starting with the geographic/geologic history and moving into other history. In May, the focus is on the history of the indigenous people, the “homegrown”…

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A Year, Really?

I opened WordPress this afternoon to discover that I have not written or published anything since sometime in 2018.

What happened?

I suppose it’s just life. . . . The busy-ness of school from August to May, I suppose it could be pursuit of other interests, even. It may even be a loss of interesting in keeping a blog.

Yet, as a teacher of writing and composition, I know I need to write,…

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#Kim Manley Ort #Photo Projects #Place

Back to School

It is that time. . . . Back to school for teachers and for students. Officially, I start Monday. Unofficially, I’ve been working on school stuff all summer long. I’ve spent a few days working with my yearbook staff making plans for this year’s book. I’ve been reading, and reading, and reading, and researching. Now, I have to put it all together. I have immersed myself in teaching literature, not…

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#reading #school

What Happened to My Plans?

When I started the summer back on May 26, I made plans. I had BIG plans.

1. I was going to do Ali Edwards’s project “ A Week in the Life.”

2. I was going to approximate the Story in Sixes project from Lensworks magazine to see if I could tell a story in six photographs.

3. I was going to catch up on Kim Manley Ort’s “Impermanence” class.

4. I was going to catch up on Laura Valenti’s “The Art of…

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There’s a First Time for Everything

On Monday, my mother called me to ask if I wanted to ride down to Bennett’s Point with her. She wanted to check on the place down there and cut the grass. She hadn’t been in a month or so and wasn’t sure my brother had been recently. After I rearranged some plans for Wednesday, I told her I’d go. As usual, I packed the necessities, including my camera gear. My gear IS a necessity!

We arrived at…

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#childhood #Family #memories #road trip

Summer Vacation 2018

It has been a while since I had a teacher’s version of “summer vacation,” that extended period between June and August when I am not in school. For the previous five years, I taught at Remington College in Columbia. We worked in four-week modules, and since I was part time, I worked a mod and then had the next mod off. Now that I am working full-time in secondary education again at Newberry…

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#editing #photography #projects #summer vacation

When “Something” Is Missing

I’m sure you know the feeling. Something is missing, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Life is busy—job, family, chores, errands. . . . The list is endless. But still, “something” is missing.

For me, it’s been creating things. Oh sure, I’m creating lesson plans and activities for my classes all day long, but that’s for other people, and not for me. I come home in the evening, and I do…

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Spring Break

What do you do when you go out for a photo walk only to discover that the camera batteries are dead? I had just enough “juice” to change the white balance and the shooting mode. The last time I used the camera was to shoot a school pageant in the gym, so I had the shooting mode set to continuous and the white balance to auto because gym lighting is notoriously bad and hard to get right, at least…

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#spring #spring break #sunrise

One Little Word 2017

In January, I chose the word DARE as my one word for the year. Something happened along the way. I sort of dropped out of following the word through the year. But then, something else happened. I dared to go back to full-time teaching! I started a new job with Newberry Academy. I took on the head of school’s “dare” to teach/advise the desktop publishing class, aka yearbook, something I’ve never,…

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#Ali Edwards #grow #one word #word of the year

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