A Favorite Cemetery Scene / Catch a Wave

It was a day chock full of good stuff. There was fresh ice to play with when I woke up, my husband and I had plans that included a lovely lunch out, and I got to take an impromptu stroll around a favorite cemetery on a beautiful, windy, blue-sky March afternoon.

It was cold enough overnight to freeze, but the ice on the cat's water bowl on the front porch was thin and fragile. It had some gorgeous swirls in it, though, so it was a wonderful cold canvas for me to paint my colors on with beads and light.

I most often make my ice abstract photos in darkness, but on this day, I made a few with the lights on. As the fragile ice began to melt, the sides of my shining bowl of ice began to break, and the broken pieces looked to me like waves from the ocean, crashing onto the shore. You may see one of those in the extras. Doesn't it almost look like the ice wave is trying to wash away that red berry?

We had a nice, early lunch out at a favorite steakhouse restaurant. I went wild again, and ordered everything I wanted. The value has been good there, but I worry that the prices on everything will go up; everything else is. Maybe not unlike others, of late I've had the sort of doomy feeling of "hurry up, enjoy all of this before it's gone."

So one more time, I went and had it all. I took more food home to eat later than I actually ate in the restaurant. Yes, you may call me Container Girl - so sue me - as I always take along my own containers for leftovers, which were substantial. More good stuff to eat at home on the weekend! (And yes, I did enjoy steak and ribs for lunch, steak salad for supper, and then ribs as a bedtime snack.)

Then we did some errands in town, and when we came home on route 550, my husband asked if I'd like to stop and take some photos at Gray's Cemetery. It was very, very windy - dauntingly so, in fact - but beautiful and sunny, with blue skies. So we stopped and I got to walk around while my husband sat and read his book in the pretty little white pavilion.

Here is a favorite scene and composition of mine from Gray's Cemetery, featuring the gnarly old tree that's wrapped around two gravestones; I like to think it's drawn them to its bosom. There's a farm in the back that you can center just between those branches. It's a lovely view and a favorite shot, so here it is, one of my best ones for the day.

I am running through my extras really quickly already this year, but I just had to show you the ice shot too, as a big warm-up is on its way this week and I fear the days of beautiful ice are limited. "Thank God for ice!" I exclaimed on this morning, as I photographed it again and again, cooing over its beauty and its glory. 

Ice is one of life's absolute marvels, with far more complexity inside it than others might have guessed. I bet I'm the only person you know who will be sad about the ice being gone when springtime comes. I guess I'm just strange that way. But I am what I am and so here we are, looking at ice again.  :-)

I've got two photos but I've got more songs than that because two of them I could not choose between. For the photo above, I wanted both of these so here they are. First is Johnny Cash with Ain't No Grave (Can Hold This Body Down). Second is the Association with Windy. And for my picture in the extras of icy waves crashing on the shore of life, I've got the Beach Boys, with Catch a Wave. Enjoy!