Vernal Vivacity

One of the pleasures of spring is doing a bit of pruning and bringing in the cast-off twigs and branches -- in this case, from the red currant bush in the front garden.

I have several small vases of those cuttings, and late this afternoon, as the sun was setting, I pulled out my trusty blue placemat, seen in many previous blips, and started playing around with angles and light from a west-facing window.

Despite enhancing my first round favorite with color boosting and highlights reduction, I couldn't help feeling that it didn't represent the life force I was seeing in these tiny prunings. ("Life force"? Chalk it up to my being an English major and doing my senior thesis on D. H. Lawrence...)

So back I went to my improvised photo studio, and this time I stayed closer to reality. These crinkled emerald leaves, like the simple folded paper fans that young children learn to make, freshly open to the sun, say "Spring!" for me in a way that few other things can.