There are many MANY shots of bamboo on stand-by here, so if you haven't had enough just let me know, I can post several more. Bamboo is the most elegant subject for the camera... knows exactly how to hold itself in an elegant pose without blinking.
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| Another artistic installation at the Bambouserie, cocoons among bamboo stalks |
Regarding my friend Stephen Heeney, mentioned earlier as my walking companion in the post about the Bambouserie... I should bring to your attention that he is the author of a very fine memoir, SCRATCHINGS, which traces his successful search for his hidden Mohawk ancestry. A quick online-search will supply you with more information about this book, a compelling investigation into what it means to discover one's true identity... at the same time, it provides an entertaining description of some of his extraordinary relatives... no one who reads SCRATCHINGS will ever forget Squire Davis.
As for my other favorite subject for photos besides bamboo -- tulips -- I have to say that watching this red bed by the front steps go through its life cycle has been an eye-opener in some profound way, as I've been studying the changes and relating to them from an emotional, human point of view. It's all about death, really...the stunning piece of news (did I just get it?) that nothing lasts forever... We already knew that was true about love (those of us who have had our hearts broken), and now it turns out it's even more true about life itself. Nothing lasts forever....but these pretty tulips bloom from bulbs and will be back next year... so no complaining allowed... They look like they're dying and dead but they're not REALLY gone. For the rest of us, however, growth & decay is a ticky bit more serious.
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| Hardly recognizable from the way it appeared in its kindergarten photo a week ago |
And here's one more, to finish off this slightly sombre subject... this is how it ends, not with a bang but a whimper, few sad petals in the rain...
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| Still beautiful, still beautiful... |
Happily, with all these slightly morbid thoughts of life's fragility, at the same time that the tulips are fading and falling, the micocoulier tree is coming into leaf... Sometimes I swear I can hear the buds, little explosions of green energy.... And even as the sky darkens with thunderclouds, the branches are exciting themselves with new growth. And so it goes, and so it goes....
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| Maybe it's all about hope? |
