Gargoyles and Sunflowers

Today I prepped for the gargoyle photo safari by wandering around the UO Library and Art Museum and pointing my camera's zoom lens at the stone heads adorning the walls.   I'm made the following observations

• Early morning sunlight or evening sunlight will turn stone ruddy.  Noon time sunlight turns stone white or yellow.  Unless there's a forest fire 100 miles away.
• Deeply embossed designs or fully three-dimensional heads probably photograph the best on the side of the building the sun isn't shining directly on,  i.e. the north side at noon or the west side in the morning or the east side at dusk.  
• I think shooting a stone face or figure with sunlight striking at the extreme right, left or top will result in a high contrast shot that will confound the camera's ability to deal with light levels. . . unless there's a neighboring building or sidewalk providing light in-fill.
• It's probably best to shoot heads and gargoyles as directly in the front of them as you can.  Shooting wall details at an angle may result in awkward trapezoids.
• I thin better views are obtained by standing across the street or equivalent distance from a building, otherwise, you're looking at up gargoyle noses.
• It's hard to hod a two pound camera still in order to keep images centered when the zoom is all the way at 83X Zoom, unless one has a tripod.  

In different news, the big sunflower outside our deck has suddenly wilted; all the streaming yellow petals are sagging.  I guess the inner flowers have all been pollinated by the bees and the big flower's job is done--its head is swollen with seeds and hangs down toward the ground.   The smaller, newer sunflower blooms are still tracking the sun, and I suspect they will be holding their heads up for another week or so before it's their turn to droop with seeds.  The squirrels will probably discover them before too long.

Early Friday Morning

I've been researching cameras in preparation for purchasing a superzoom lens camera.  My current camera is fine, but it's going on fifteen years old and the shutter button is beginning to fail.  I love its macro lens, and I've taken quite a few picutres of bugs and slugs and stamens -- and I'm ready for a camera that can take a descent photograph of the moon or of a gargoyle five stories up.   Of course, the camera I wanted to get (recommended by The Wirecutter) was discontinued two months ago, and isn't in stock anywhere (unless I get it used or refurbished).

Last night the full moon was next to a brilliant Mars. I tried to take a picture of it.  I' m not sure if there was a bit of a haze, or if there's something going on with my lens, because I got a lot of flare off of the moon.  I'd been hoping to get a good Mars and Moon shot to contrast the Venus and Moon shot I took a fortnight ago. 

A hummingbird has just visited our gladiolas while I was writing this morning.  I'd been waiting a while, and I'm going to hazard a guess that until the sun's been shining on them for about a half-hour, the flowers don't generate enough interest for the darting birds.  

We're in between heat advisories.  Today is supposed to be the coolest day since last Saturday, and a new advisory starts Sunday (on the overmorrow).   I'm very thankful for the air conditioner in our bedroom.  

More Sunflower Photos

The sunflowers continue to be a source of photographic inspiration.  My photo album looks like something  Vincent van Gogh would paint.

On the writing front, I had a nice session Tuesday where I cleaned up some sections and wrote about 700 new words.  

Morning Divination

This morning one of the sunflowers in the yard had turned its tawny face toward the rising sun.  I saw a bee at the twelve o'clock place on the flower and, as I drew nearer, noticed a fly--black and green with iridescence--at the six o'clock position.   As I tried to puzzle out the meaning of this, the fly flew away and the bee began a clockwise circuit of the flower, toiling away from tiny interior bloom to the next--one for each potential seed spiraled around the sunflower's face.

Is the bee some kind of summer grain genius, or industry?  Is the fly winter or envy's avatar? 

Then a hummingbird visited the gladiolas, and I had to intervene before Smokey could position himself for a pounce.

Now it's the three of bees combing their way along the spiral of miniature flowers.  Smokey has retired to his favorite cushioned yard chair in the shade, and Cicero and Spencer have crept into the yard -- which calls for cat treats all around.

Pause Before the Heat Advisory

We're about to have another heat wave in the valley.  It's not my cup of tea, and it increases the chances of forest fires in the area, too.  Apparently, our weather is currently "patchy smoke," probably from a local field catching fire over the weekend; starting Monday afternoon there's a heat advisory out for about 36 hours.

Aside from the discomfort from the heat, other thing that bothers me about the hot months is that our fans (which I love for moving air around) make a lot of background buzzing, which, now that I've reached a certain age, makes it difficult to pick out conversations.  Sometimes in the mornings before it gets too hot I go around turning off all the fans and reveling in the stillness of the air and the quiet.  I stand near the center of the house and I can hear all the little sounds -- the movement of the leaves in a breeze, the 'fridge, the rustle of birds, neighbors walking their dogs.  

When the fans come back on, it's like living wrapped up in cotton -- useful for when you want to take a short nap, but it's the sonic equivalent of waking up in the middle of the night because one of your arms has fallen asleep and you have to physically move it with the other, all the while wondering if you're pulling a tendon the wrong way or twisting your arm out of its socket.

Oh well, off to fill a tub with cold water....

Rest?

On the gym front:  I've pulled something in my arms (again)--it's the elbow joint in my left arm this time--and it's been a bazillion degrees the last week, so aside from some elliptical work, I really haven't been going to the gym much.

One the writing front:  the novel is at a virtual standstill, and I'm thinking the best route may be to look at the 52,000 words I do have and break them into short stories.  Lately, I've been not writing more than I have been writing.... I don't know if this is a function of pollen, heat, sleep, "man-o-pause," politics, a mutable Summer schedule that throws routine out the window, binge-watching Queer Eye or what.    On bad days I write less than 500 words; on worse days I write variations along the lines of  "You can't write.  You write crap.  You're too old.   You're too white and cis.  You're not gay enough.  You're too lazy.  You're a fake.  Fake fake fake.   You're not literary enough.  You're not dark enough.  You're not enough."

OK... some of it is related to not getting into an anthology and doing research to try to figure out where the story failed for that particular market.

I might try a stab at personal essay, which used to be fun, but I'm not sure if I have anything new to say.

On the music front: I've been playing my harp more.  Yay me.

July New Moon Near Venus

Writing Music

I'm sitting behind the wheel of my parked car, waiting for The Child to finish an activity, and writing.  There's a keyboard resting on my thighs and the car seat is cupping the small of my back.  

The only problem with writing in the car like this in the Summer is that it's pretty warm, but if I roll down the windows someone inevitably decides to smoke or stop and have a cell phone conversation more or less next to the car.  The breeze is nice, though.

To cut down on the distractions of the other folks going to and from their cars (cue the father with a crying infant), I've got the radio tuned to KWAX.  I've got almonds; I've got tea, and-- Ack!  They've changed shows.  "Harmonia" has been swapped out for "Early Music Now"!  What the heck?
(Listens)  Hmmm, they seem slightly... less folksy?... than Harmonia.  The music seems a little more focused on a medieval and very early Renaissance music from Spain, Italy, and France.  The host seems to be less your eccentric liberal-arts aunt and more corporate symphony cousin.  The production values are a little higher.  I guess I'll have to listen a few more times to see what I think... I'm still surprised KWAX changed shows.    

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I've been attempting to mix things up at the gym in order to keep my elbow joints from aching.  I think maybe the Nordic Elliptical on top of the pec-flies and the lat pull-down.  

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The other afternoon, I sat The Child down and we watched an old US Department of Defense film on resisting fascist propaganda.  I'm hoping it helps him to recognize some of the hateful rhetoric bouncing around.