365 Photo Challenge - April

In April, I had what will likely be the easiest of my monthly challenges - Foliage. Unless one lives in a desert, we all have an ample supply of foliage to zero in on. But in the Pacific Northwest we are sometimes overwhelmed by foliage. Gardeners here spend as much time figuring out how to stop things from growing in their yards as they do actually encouraging plants to grow. In April, you can see the landscape greening right before your eyes on a daily basis.

So I was spoiled for choice. I found however, that like the omnipresent grey rockery variety of rock I encountered in March, unless you got very close, green foliage was very much of a muchness. So I tried to get close, and I went for what caught my eye.

Maples caught my eye more often than anything else, I left a lot of maples on the cutting room floor. What surprised me most was how much red there is in spring growth - one of those things I think I knew but had never really considered. Much of the red remains in stems but you must catch some red leaves quickly before they turn.

New rose growth

Another group of surprises came when I was at my computer looking more closely at some of the tree leaves I had shot. Quite a few of them turned out to be very much in bloom, something I tried to remind myself of when shooting the May Florals.

Just because it's green, doesn't make it foliage

When one is planning, whether it be a flower bed or a much larger landscape, your color palette is supremely important. I have always been drawn to the blue-grey and the chartreuse foliage for that defining 'pop'. Had I done foliage later in the year I think I would have found more of the blues and greys.

One of the many grasses now being cultivated

I suspect I could have done an entire year of foliage photos - and I might do that one year, if only to catch the autumn leaves turning. Until then, here is one from 2010 taken from my deck.

?Year of the Book?

New Year’s Resolutions don’t scare me.  I’ve been making them and breaking them for years and I think I am the better for it.  I try to make my resolutions rather open ended with no specific numbers or dates so failure just sort of slips by quite easily.  Mainly, for me, the point of it all is a sort of taking stock.  I think just pondering appropriate resolutions is a helpful process, bringing things to the front of your mind and cutting into our regular denial a bit.

In the last year I have instituted several changes in my way of getting through life, most of which are going quite well.  So it seemed to me I that I had done enough pondering of my failings already.  Besides, by the time one gets to my age, it’s pretty much the same failings year after year.

Last year, my daughter made a general resolution to finish projects – some just ‘on the list’ and others started but languishing.  I thought I needed some sort of general resolution or theme for 2011 that I could work at all year and yet still set goals, preferably something creative.

The answer came quickly and easily:  2011 – The Year of the Book.  I’m still looking for a title that doesn’t sound so corny, but it wasn’t difficult to set a list of goals. The list includes organizing, finishing, learning, using up, and more.  It does not include reading them, reviewing them, or talking about authors – that will just carry on as usual.  Since I am having so much fun with this blog, it seemed appropriate to set up a separate site to publish my goals and also follow my progress.  

Pages from a finished book of leaves



Pages from a 'nearly' finished travel Journal from 2007



Pages from another 'nearly' finished travel journal from 2010

And so, my first goal is to set up the new site.  I’ll let you know as soon as it is ready to go.  If you can think of a cleverer name for this project, please let me know.