Zippity Doo Dah! Zippity Day!

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. Our Host, Mrs. Nesbitt hails from Great Britain. We started with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. We are now in our second year, round 4! This week's letter is,"Z".

Cue Uncle Remus here, singing The Song of the South aka Zippity Doo Dah. I hope you click on the link as this "Z" experience would not be the same without this song buzzzzzzing in your head!

These are two of the five baby swallows that are just about ready to leave the nest. they are at my friend's house and the five of them lined up next to each other are a hoot, but they were not in that pose when I came over to take these photos.

Zymurgist, or zymurgy. The study of fermentation. It is befitting to use a picture of Louis Pasteur since he got the science ball rolling on fermentation! You see, Louis wasn't all about mold and penicillin!

Zinc, or in this case, a zinc plate. Zinc is much cheaper to use than copper in the Intaglio/etching process. The downside to that is that in order to etch a zinc plate, you need to use a very dangerous acid called nitric acid. This is one of my earlier plates-student work.

Zebu

A type of cattle that is humped, more suitable to surviving the tropics and less prone to disease. This image came from this site here.

And there you have it, "Z". Be sure to come back next week as we begin our new round of ABC Wednesday!

Wall Shadows

Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse by stopping by to see what others have posted!

Like an appreciative audience jumping to their feet, clamoring for more of what they just witnessed. Excited and restrained all at the same time. These grow in my side yard. Although I planted them many years ago, I am not certain what the name of this grass is. I know that it is a native grass and I think it's called feather grass. But, I could be wrong!

I thought this was hysterical. What first caught my attention was the white bear peaking out from the window of the storage shed. As I began to take pictures, I realized that there was a very annoyed cat looking at me wondering why I had to disturb his early morning snooze!

And I just love the transparent shadow cast by the glass of this bird feeder in my friend's yard. It just speaks of magic to me, but perhaps you don't see it. I can't explain it, but something as ordinary as this, I find great beauty in.

All three images have at least two things in common. The obvious is that they are all shadows. Second, they are shadows cast on walls. If you find anymore, leave me a comment to let me know! I'm always looking for more connections!

Yakkity, Yak, Yak, Yak

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. Our Host, Mrs. Nesbitt hails from Great Britain. We started with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. We are now in our second year, round 4! This week's letter is,"Y".

YUCCA

Hey, I would be remiss and negligent if I DIDN'T post an image of a yucca seeing as I live in the land of yucca, New Mexico! Trouble is, narrowing it down to just one image when I have a kazillion!

YARN

These lovelies were hanging outside a fiber art/yarn store up in Taos. I wish I knew the name of the store to post here, but, alas! I don't. Northern New Mexico is known for it's weavers, such as the Chimayo Weavers. Although, I think this store is that of La Lana Wools.

Yarrow

These grow in my garden. Yellow yarrow and white yarrow. I would advise against planting white yarrow in the garden as it is invasive like mint is; best kept in a container! They make for nice cut flowers and serve well as a "filler" an a flower arrangement.

YAK

Or, yakitty, yak, yak yak!! Nope, I don't have a yak out in my back yard. This one is from a Google search of images and it appears here at this blog.

Seeing Red!

Beauty pure and simple

Mother Nature gets to take the credit for this elegant beauty. I benefited by having a camera on hand. The shadow from the stamen? An added bonus!

Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse by stopping by to see what others have posted!

Wear It With Pride

On Being a Patriot

You would look upon the American flag with a sense of pride and have proudly flown it from time to time.

You celebrate who we are across the country and go see a local parade and cheer them on. No matter how "rinky dink" or small that parade might be.

We show our patriotism in many ways-many wear representations of our flag in various ways. On our shirts.

Even on our faces.

Our heads! We wear it with pride.

We gather together in groups across the country with the traditional BBQ; bonding over food. Isn't it remarkable that the majority of us on July 4th are doing rather similar activities?

And, if wearing it and displaying it weren't enough (because we are an over the top kind of culture), we even display our flag via food.

Dessert is always a good medium to work in, I say!

We the people, the patriotic people, will spend our day on July 4th celebrating our country's independence by way of our parades, our attire, our food, our fireworks. This freedom was and continues to be hard earned. And it is something that we have to continue to fight for.

And, if you don't consider yourself to be a patriot, do you know what the opposite word is for patriot? According to Webster's Dictionary, the opposite of patriotism is terrorism. Now, that's something to ponder on...

Some insights from Thomas Jefferson can be found here.

Ah Sli She Pah

Being There: Photographers in Their Natural Habitat

I must admit I'm a little late on posting this. It's a submission to the New Mexico Natural History Museum call for photography. The exhibit opened a month ago and will be up all summer through the end of August.

We were supposed to take you to a place in NM that we love to do what we do-photograph nature. The catch was that we were to include ourselves in the photo.

I was laughing so much to myself when I was doing this; grateful that I was out in the middle of nowhere-a wilderness area in the four corners region of the state called, Ah Sli She Pah. Laughing because I was going back and forth to the camera to set off the timer and running into the picture frame hoping that I was placing myself well and then striking and holding a silly pose before the camera went off. I feel awkward posting this image since it contains all of me. Ugh! But, there you go. Goofy herself.

It was a juried show and I got one of three honorable mentions. I'm thrilled. I only submitted one photo! You could submit up to three I think.

To see all the other images in the show and the prospectus, click on this link here.

"X" Marks the Spot

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. Our Host, Mrs. Nesbitt hails from Great Britain. We started with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. We are now in our second year, round 4! This week's letter is,"X".

Xenon

Xenon is an inert gas whose "name is from the Greek word ξένον [xenon], neuter singular form of ξένος [xenos], meaning 'foreign(er)', 'strange(r)', or 'guest'. In 1902, it's discoverer, Ramsey, estimated the proportion of xenon in the Earth's atmosphere as one part in 20 million." Suffice it to say that its natural occurrence is RARE.

"In a gas-filled tube, xenon emits a blue or lavenderish glow when the gas is excited by electrical discharge. Xenon emits a band of emission lines that span the visual spectrum, but the most intense lines occur in the region of blue light, which produces the coloration."

Thanks to Wikipedia for this lovely image and information. You can read up on more obscurity on Xenon here.

Xray

A form of electromagnetic radiation. Well, you all knew that, didn't you? If you are one of those knowledge hungry folks, find out more about it here.

I'll bet more than 50% of us ABCer's will have xray listed as our word! This is from my stash of xray films that I have (I will not disclose how I acquired them).

Xanandu

It's been a Broadway play, but I also know it as an art gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. I just took a webinar with them this past Saturday. It is a high end gallery that is very successful in spite of the fact that there are 60 other art galleries on the same street that they are on.

Xenophile

I'll bet you never gave it a thought as to what a xenophile might look like! The definition is listed as: "A person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures." I almost got stumped as to, "what image would I use with this word?" Then I thought of Marco Polo, the explorer. Most certainly a xenophile, don't you think? His explorations changed the world forever.

So, there you have it, folks. "X" marks the spot. You didn't need a treasure map as all the treasures were unearthed here!

Sequel to the Summer Solstice

5:52 a.m. Sunday, June 21, 2009

The summer solstice.

You remember the post I did last week about Chaco Canyon and it's connection to the summer solstice? Well this is sort of a sequel to that. Early that morning on the day of the summer solstice, a bunch of us met us at the City Hall here in Rio Rancho. In front of the City Hall is a commissioned piece of art called, "Chaco Rising". It is a beautiful sculpture that is an interactive sculpture. Interactive, that is, only on the days of the solstice: summer and winter.

Artist, Jaymes Dudding came out to see his work interact with the sunrise that day. He also teaches a Humanities class at the local community college, Central New Mexico Community College (CNM for short). He encouraged his class to come out for it too. Here you see him with some of his students and other hardy people like ourselves who wanted to witness this remarkable event.

The sculpture really captures the geologic feel that is unique to the Chaco Canyon area and to the greater area that it is in, the Colorado Plateau.

When you peer into the slits of the sculpture, you can see the 'sun dagger' making it's way across the diochroic glass that his wife made. A tribute to the cosmos and the universe and to the ancient civilization that created the site that this sculpture's inspiration came from. This is a 'panoramic' shot that I took so that you could get a sense of the light making it's way across the glass. My husband shot some video of this and interviewed the artist. He also used some of my images that I took that day and from a recent trip I did to the Chaco Canyon area. You can view that video here.

Our city of Rio Rancho is only 27 years old. It is a very young city with no history, no old buildings, not even a downtown. It is growing faster than we have the resources with which to keep up with. And, we are faced with the haphazardness of just being a bunch of subdivisions. Public art such as this brings cohesion to communities and gives a sense of identity. I think most people don't stop and think about whether or not public art as a thing to be valued. I say it is. Perhaps I'll expound more on that in a future post.

For today, though, it is really all about the SHADOWS! Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse by stopping by to see what others have posted!