This Reminds Me

Tonight I was fishing through an envelope of old photos, hunting an appropriate print to scan into a greeting card for a friend.  Rachel peeked over my shoulder and muttered, “Wow.  You used to be good.”

I settled on this one for the card – a yellow rose shot in a neighbor’s yard.

Here are my favorite photos pulled from that envelope….

This bud’s for you, Judy….especially since a print of it is hanging in your hall bathroom, thanks to the annual Houston Azelea Trail.  I used to have Saturdays to do things like that.  Now – ummm – not so much.

The rain drop intrigued me.

Did you know tulips started off in Asia – not Holland?  I didn’t, until I heard it on the  Azelea Trail.  I’ve always found green the most soothing color, and sought it for backgrounds.

Moving right along – and up north – to this Indiana hay field in 1985.  Only after I visited in fall did I understand my mother saying, “I miss seasons.”

Fireworks from the rooftops during Houston’s sesquicentennial celebration in 1986.  Sarah, her friend Eileen and I spent the night in a downtown hotel so we could catch the primo views.

No rooftops here – just 14-year-old Sarah twirling sparklers in front of my apartment in 1986.  This was way before Photoshop, people.

Choo-choo!  The Galveston Railroad Museum.  I had prints of these statues color washed in green and later copper.  Quite dramatic.  A green wash hangs framed in our kitchen.

And finally – a Santa Barbara coastal sunset.  When I see this print, I think of ”Now the Day is Over,” which we often sang as a parting hymn in church of Christ Sunday night services.  “Now the day is over.  Night is drawing night.  Shadows of the evening steal across the sky.  Now the darkness gathers.  Stars begin to peep.  Birds and beasts and flowers soon will be asleep.”   Sometimes I miss acappella harmony so badly, strains trickle from my lips unconsciously.  So if you hear me singing bits of a harmony solo, forgive me. And just tell anyone else I’m off my medication.

Now, most of my shots are of Vacation Bible School, or a kiddo’s birthday party.

So maybe I did used to be good.

But now I am good and happy.