Albeit LATE spring…..   I took some photos the past couple weeks and thought I’d share with you all:

The fiddlehead ferns are the true sign that spring is well underway…this was about two to three weeks ago:

I’ve never actually eaten fiddlehead salad, which is the unfurled buds/tops with vinegar.  I am told by Mainers that it is an acquired taste, and one best acquired in childhood (presumably meaning it’s not so good later on).   And here, the wider view of the ferns–and yes, there is a fiddlehead quilt in my future…I keep thinking it would be cool to ghost a real fiddle into the background:

In spring, with the runoff, the small Megunticook river rises.  It literally flows under Main Street (which is one block long), under the businessess, and down the falls into the harbor.  On the up-river side of the street there is a bridge area which is lovely…. I love the angles in the siding and balcony and supports:

Here is a wider view…it’s not as good as a photo, but gives you the context for the one above:

And here are the trees:

Eli took this photo, and we think it is a flicker of some sort up in the branches:

To wrap up my Simsbury, Connecticut posts, I’d like to share some photographs I took within two blocks of my B&B.  I find inspiration everywhere, and take COPIOUS photos… I have over 14,000 on my computer (in the process of being moved to an external hard drive to free up space, plus the usual back-up CDs) from just the past four years or so!   The first are from the B&B where I stayed:

The remaining photos are from the old cemetary and around the area.  The first building is the chamber of commerce and library, and had great details in the windows.  The second, multicolored building is I don’t know what, but cool.

And that’s it folks!  Here’s the glorious sky as I walked back for my last night…

looks like something out of an oil painting!

I had fun on two Fridays not long ago… I got to teach a very small class (of 3 students) at Quilt Divas in Rockland, Maine.  LONG time readers may remember that I was elated about this time last year to learn that my pomegranate notebook cover project, selected for a book by Lark Books, was on the cover of Creative Quilting With Beads. (by the way, only two copies left at my little store, but I have plenty of the beads available….they are hard to find so I bought a kilo!).

I hope the students had as much fun as I did.  Pam loves jewel tones and hand applique, so instead of doing the fusible applique thing, she did hers by hand.  Can you believe she had NEVER machine quilted before????  I can tell she’s gonna go gangbusters now!

Pam's cover, as she is beading

Judy also likes bright jewel tones, and had brought a range of batiks.  I think if this brown batik had been in stock (Judy bought it at least a year ago which, SOB, means it is likely not around anywhere) each of us would have bought a couple yards….

Judy's cover

I had a new idea, to piece the “table” area below the pomegranates, so Karen pieced up her bottom section. I love the summery colors (and we certainly need color…keep reading):

On the way to the final class, it had snowed yet again, so here is my little, old and bonked by reliable Subaru in front of the French and Brawn grocery that has been on the corner for over a century:

My green subaru on the corner

And the view down Main Street (PS…isn’t the building with the big round window in the roof cool?!):

Beautiful downtown Camden, Maine, Feb. 2009

On the way home, there was more beautiful snow on trees:

Even more trees and snow

Then I decided I had best dig out the trampoline.  Here is how much snow we got in the Wednesday/Thursday storm….that is my hand, and I wear ladies’ large gloves….that’s a lot of snow!

Lotsa snow...about four hand widths...on the trampoline

Good think I like it, because we have a LOT of it!   Here are two pictures from a snow in late January, and many more from this past week.  Won’t say much…just share the pics!  Here’s the view before I went outside to see how much we got:

The answer:  a LOT!  Even before the street got its final plowing and sanding, the snow reached back up almost to the mailbox:

Mailbox

Then, looking toward the garage:

Looking down the driveway to the house

Here, looking down the street, with lotsa snow (slip slip slide) and ice underneath….

Here's what a mostly unplowed street looks like...snowy!

Sun Glow

The sun was hidden behind high thin cloud cover, and just glowed across the landscape…

Amazingly, there was no breeze and for several days the branches were crested with snow:

I love the tracery of the branches, and played a bit with Photoshop.  I think the two tweaked photos would make great  screens for printing…..

More branches and tracery...remember the Medieval cathedrals?

Photoshopped (posterized)

Quilting teacher extraordinaire Jan Krentz recommended this book to me back in April; I bought it not too long after that, and re-sized the photos for blogging back in September… give you an idea how swamped I’ve been? Anyway, Nick Kelsh has written numerous books; after getting how to Photograph your Family from interlibrary loan (this book wasn’t available), I decided to order this one from Amazon since the price was modest (and it’s a business expense!  self-education for teaching composition and design!; alas, I just checked and something crazy has happened to the price…like over $50 each!  Look for it in a library or used book store, or give it a wait and see if they re-print it and it is once again about $16.

Well, the book applies to quilting as well as photography, and in a nutshell his recommendations are:

–don’t use the flash if you can possibly avoid it, and

–crop!

The latter, of course, is the part that best applies to quilting, but the book in itself is about composition and design, albeit in an oblique way.  Kelsh is a professional photographer, but he set himself a challenge:  to use his wife’s pocket digital camera to shoot ALL the photos in this book, thereby proving that even with a decent but not exorbitantly expensive camera one can, with a trained eye (including self-taught) and practice, take great pictures.

Note:  all photos are clickable for a larger view!

Kelsh shows a wide range of typical sorts of photos, using what the average Jane might snap, and then how to improve the photo (remember the mantra:  CROP!):

In this picture, on the left you have the typical shot taken from just up the path, with the subjects hard to see due to the dappled light from the shadows.  In the photo at right, Kelsh moved the subjects to where they are all in the same light (not dappled) and radically changed his position (up a rock or a tree I think) so he is shooting down on them.  Better!

This page shows another lesson I learned at least 25 years ago:  take LOTS of pictures, and you’ll end up with a gem or two (or nine).  In this example, the photo on the left has a small bit of sweet baby’s face, and lots of playpen and wall.  In the many photos on the right, you have almost ALL face… and a wide range of a sweet baby being a sweet baby in all their goofiness.  With digitals, we are blessed… it used to be financial agony deciding whether or not to snap the shutter, using up expensive film and more expensive developing.  Now if the shot is lousy, just delete!  So get yourself a large capacity card, and snap at will!

In this example, he shows us how to take someone’s portrait…without them in it.  If you changed the glasses on this one, and the pen, it could have been my dad!

The book is easy to read, and it doesn’t delve into serious discussions of design, composition and whatnot, but it still manages to convey the essentials of composition and design.   If you can get a hold of a copy for a reasonable price, it is worth it, or check your library or interlibrary loan options.