Spine

On Sunday I took a drive to the North Fork and came across a community garden in New Suffolk. Since I started my little garden this summer where I planted mostly tomatoes and was unexpectedly more successful than I could have imagined, I'm drawn to plots of vegetables that I find in unlikely places. This unusual variety of Swiss chard with its yellow spine was so stunning that I had to take a photograph. 

Bit of Blue

Yesterday I was outside with my grandson in the foot of snow the weekend storm had dumped in my yard. As I cleared away what had accumulated on the back step, Brody picked up a smaller shovel and built a sailboat of snow beside the deck. To complete the picture, he gathered a few broken branches and a piece of metal that had fallen off my screen door to create the mast.

Awed by his imagination, I looked up at the sky and saw a vivid blue breaking through the clouds. Cheered by the sight, I ran inside, grabbed my camera and long zoom lens and ran up the outdoor steps to the second level.

How could I render it through the mass of branches, I wondered. Moving the lens closer and closer, I fiddled with the focus until this image came into view. With 2010 almost behind us--a difficult year on most fronts--I found hope and comfort in this bit of blue. I hope you do too...