Our Place in Nature

I’m finally learning how to like, use feed readers and decided I should start following a few blogs that I watch, but never did anything with.  One of these is by a woman I first met on LiveJournal a few years ago, in a Tarot group.  I got a free reading, then started reading her journal, signed up for her yahoo list-serve, and now I get e-mails about her blog posts.  I decided it was probably a better idea to read her blog than to keep getting spam

I got my first tarot deck for myself back in 9th grade.  A simple Universal Waite deck.  Since then, I’ve collected a good 8 or 10 various tarot and oracle decks.  Some of these have moved out of my possession already, some are in my possession not to be used as divination tools, but as research for other hobbies and projects.  I have always been rather hung up on the “right” way to do things.  I like to follow rules.  Probably a bit too much.  Slowly but surely I’ve been learning there is no “right way”, and there is no “wrong way.”  There’s just, “the way that works for me.”  This is… interesting to learn to deal with.  But I’m working with and through it.  Because of my need for rule following, I always had a hard time with tarot because I never memorized the book meanings.  Every time I tried to learn them, I just couldn’t stick with it.  That should have rung a bell for me right there ;-)  But I am also stubborn. And so for the last 12 +/- years, I’ve been poking at tarot, knowing that it’s a valuable tool, but not utilizing it to its fullest potential.

I’ve decided I’d like to ask tarot to be in my life as the tool it is meant to be. To help seek out clarity to situations that I cannot find my own answers to. I have always enjoyed using spreads with the cards. I’m a visual person and like to make the pretty pictures that layouts can inspire And so, I found a new layout on Arwen’s tarot blog, Musings on the Tarot, the “A Walk in the Woods” spread. One she found years ago by someone else (documented in her post) and shared with us, her readers.

Trying it out, I like this spread. It feels very natural. I love the outdoors yet don’t make enough time for my own walks in woods. But the winding path, and the surprises to be found on a walk, are right up my alley. I look forward to being able to use this spread somewhat regularly in my continued exploration of my various paths in the woods.

I started writing on LiveJournal many, many… MANY, many, many moons ago. At various points, I friended lots of people. My friends list expanded and contracted many times. A few of those friends I grew virtually close to, and still keep in contact with them. Some of them left LJ and neither of us kept up on contact, but I still consider them friends. And one, passed away. I refuse to take him off my friends list, even though I know I’ll never see another post from him. Johnthecamera. Out of all the people I friended, most wrote about their day to day lives, as I did. We all chased each other filling out memes and quizzes. But Johnthecamera was the only person on my friends list (at the time) who posted pictures. I always enjoyed his photography. And I can’t believe how long it took me to realize that he hadn’t been posting anymore. It was 2005. I went to his journal, checked out his last entry, and read through the comments. He had passed away in November 2003. Almost 2 years it took me to realize he was gone. And now, it’s three years later.

I was cleaning up paperwork today. And I found my holiday card from him from 2002. It had one of his photographs as the front. A stand of foggy trees in the sunlight. Unfortunately, there’s no where else I can go to find more of his work that I was so drawn to, something I looked forward to all the time in my heyday on LJ. And now, with my fascination with flickr, and with camera in hand, this is when I really miss him. I’d love to follow his flickr stream. But, as he’s not here, he can’t make one. And so, I strive to find photos that remind me of his style, and hope he’s up there watching and that I can make him proud

Project ideas I’d like to attempt. You’re welcome to steal the idea, but I said it here first

~ Places that look like scenes out of musicals, or call to mind show tune lyrics. When I get enough, they can probly even be separated!

~ Inspired by the idea of the flickr Water and the Senses group. Basically, for me, taking “non-traditional” photos of natural water sources. Photos that convey more than just the sight of water.

~ Inspired by the idea of the flickr How I Used to Be group. Photos of me and artifacts from “past lives.” For me, this covers more than just the last 26 years…

~ Various 365 projects. Anything as long as it’s one photo a day. 365 self portraits. Having one object that is in one photo every day. I photo to record my day for a year.

~ Not for many many years yet… When I have my own place and my own gardens, a series of the different blooms and trying to get new and interesting captures. My gardens throughout the year. Also, related but different, the wildlife that comes to my gardens, particularly hummingbirds

~ Library of Congress, inside and out (I have a fascination with the water fountain out front)

And those are the ones I’ve actually semi thought out. I have other ones roaming around my head that are just general “I like to look at these things” type ideas.

I’m not a fan of standing around stirring stuff on the stove. But I’ve found two recipes I’m willing to do just that for! Both from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook copyright 1969, 8th printing 1971. (If anyone ever has a desire to get rid of their copy of this edition, PLEASE let me know! I want one! Some of the recipes are not the same in other editions. I like this one.)

Butterscotch Pudding
~2/3 c packed brown sugar (1/3 c white sugar for vanilla pudding)
~2 tbsp cornstarch
~1/8 tsp salt
~2 cups milk (skim makes it really thin)
~2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
~2 tbsp butter softened
~1 tsp vanilla (2 tsp vanilla for vanilla pudding)

Blend sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Combine milk and egg yolks; gradually stir into sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into dessert dishes. Cool slightly and chill.

Chicken or Turkey a la King
~1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained (reserve 1/4 c liquid)
~1/2 c diced green pepper (red pepper)
~1/2 c butter
~1/2 cup flour
~1 tsp salt
~1/4 tsp pepper
~2 c light cream
~1 3/4 c chicken broth
~2 c cubed cooked chicken or turkey

In a large skillet pot, cook and stir mushrooms and peppers in butter 5 minutes. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring until mixture is bubbly. (Make a rou). Remove from heat. Stir in cream, broth and mushroom liquid. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken; heat through. Serve over torn up toast.

It’s been probably a good 12 years since the last time I used an SLR camera.  And that was in 7th grade where we took pictures around the school in Black and White, and then developed our own film and made our own prints.  And even now, I’m not sure it had a lot of settings to change on it.  I don’t remember doing anything other than focusing with it.  But in the last week, I’ve had a film SLR to experiment with.  It has no battery, and therefore no light meter, and so I’ve had a chart with me to determine the light levels of my subject, and what f-stop and shutter speed I need for a proper exposure of my subject.  With this in mind, I’ve been looking at the world somewhat differently.  I’ve been seeing my surroundings more as moments and feelings to capture, rather than just as a space I exist in.  Looking through the camera view finder, focusing on objects near and far, seeing the development of Depth of Field and bokeh while framing my shots… the world has become even more vibrant than how I already saw it.  Granted, the world isn’t too vibrant in the last dredges of winter, but I’ve been capturing a lot of blooming spring as it has started coming to life

Places to hit in DC
~ Arlington Cemetery
~ Theodore Roosevelt Island
~ The Tidal Pool area
~ The Mall, as always
~ National Zoo
~ National Arboretum
~ for an evening off some time, Gaverty Park (to watch the airplanes come in…) (I think that’s the name… it’s some park at the end of the Regan Airport runway…)
~ Marine Corps War Memorial

Places AROUND DC to hit…
~ Great Falls National Park
~ Point of Rocks, MD
~ Fountainhead Regional Park
~ Mason Neck State Park
~ Pohick Bay Regional Park
~ Harper’s Ferry, WV
~ C&O Canal National Historic Park
~ Gettysburg, PA
~ Prince William Forest Park
~ The Triangle

A lot of these are just woods, and places to walk and take pictures… But they’re mostly all day trips. I’m going to need to figure something out for carrying enough water plus camera equipment…

On top of all these… I want to find more parks on the Appalachian trail, any other major trails (that one that goes cross country?), canals (locks are teh awesome!), railroads (bridges and tunnels, and the train schedules), creeks/rivers/bodies of water with boats and/or waterfalls, and lighthouses. I do have the lighthouse site bookmarked that has all the lighthouses mapped… I just need to figure out if they’d be day trips or over night trips. And THEN, there’s also all the CW battlefield sites within day trip distance…

I’ve got a LOOOOOT of exploring to do… I’m going to have to learn how to keep everything cleaned up and ordered so that I spend less time slaving to my crap and more time out in the world!

Our place in nature.

This comes from a quote by Dion (Dionne?) Fortune ~ “We see our place in Nature, we see whence we have come and where we are going, and we see our relationship to the Cosmos, and the whole of life opens up.”  I’m on a journey to find my own place in nature.  I had lost it for a long while there.  Lost touch with my faith and my creativity.  Became a drone.  Living my life by the will of others, defaulting and letting someone else take the reigns.  And finally I realized what a toll that was taking on me.  I took back my reigns.  And I am finding my place.  And it’s totally awesome!

In recent months, I’ve rediscovered my creativity.  Not just going through the motions.  Doing creative things but following someone else’s example.  Following a pattern.  Sure, it started that way because that’s what I’ve done.  But I’ve been learning there’s a lot of things where there is no right way.  And no wrong way.  And so I’ve started putting a toe or two “out of line” by my way of thinking.  I’ve started straying from the path of conformity.  Of following in another’s footsteps.  “You’ve gotta be original, because if you’re like someone else, what do they need you for?” ~ Bernadette Peters.  And so, I borrowed ideas and I changed them to suit me.  Made them mine.  Made them original.  And then I found other mediums for expressing my creativity.  I’ve rediscovered my eye for form and creation.  And in such a way that it can be shared.

I hope that through this journal, you and I can take a journey.  Me, a journey through my own rediscovery, new discoveries and expressions of my creativity.  I hope that my own journey inspires you as others have come to inspire me.  And that we both find our own places in nature.

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