Monday, September 28, 2026

The shining


 The Grady Twins Shining on the Archer Exit.


This is a conceptual image. It is not literal. I am not expecting your statement against begging, etc. It is a photo of imagination. There was only one girl at the exit. I found in the two photos I took of her, one had a smile and then upon seeing I had the iPhone held toward her, a frown. In the movie, the Shining, the two twins that haunted the Overlook Hotel, Lisa and Loiuse, one had a frown, the other a smile. I placed the shining twins in the background. I deleted this from my main page because it was taken literally.

Rest a spell


 Rest a spell


Love to pull off the rapid stream into the slow eddy under the shade and rest a spell before heading on back upstream upon the Itchetucknee.

Throw back


 Throw back


Often I go back

And replay the time

O'er and o'er

Like a Floyd Echo

I never tire

Of the sound.

Butter beans


 Butterbeans 


Cousin Thelma Bolton’s signature song at the Florida Folk Festival was butterbeans she would usually sing by popular request. I too love butterbeans. Last night around eleven, seeing the ham hock I’d been slicing off sandwiches from, was all but bone, I got a hankering. I then began digging in the freezer, and to my joy, came upon a bag of them good ole butterbeans on the bottom.

This morning before Melanie left for another weekend shift, another story, I asked if she’d add the right amount of water. She did and left saying, now don’t go off and forget them. Well, I hope not. Now if only I had some good ole cornbread, I think the cares of this life would grow strangely dim indeed.

In morning cool


 In morning cool


Pausing from leaving JT at TLC for the day, there in the garden across the highway were the three working in the cool of the morning. I so saw my father there, water hose in hand, going about methodically to each plant, knowing how much was needed for the day. Then, come evening, he’d repeat the watering, giving the plants enough for the night. And eventually, as the other two, with weeding and pruning, the garden would respond bountifully.

Cardinal rules


 Cardinal rules


For such brilliant color, the Cardinal I find is quite shy. They don’t perch long in one spot. They mostly have a branch or some object between them and my camera. Today I changed out the water in the various pots, upgraded to a mixture of more sunflower seeds. For the time, they seemed a little less cloudless sulphurish. Cardinal rules


For such brilliant color, the Cardinal I find is quite shy. They don’t perch long in one spot. They mostly have a branch or some object between them and my camera. Today I changed out the water in the various pots, upgraded to a mixture of more sunflower seeds. For the time, they seemed a little less cloudless sulphurish.

Sirens


 Sirens of my past

Intaglio etching

2x2

Oxology


 Oxology 


The ox rests in the pasture at Shaker Village at Mt Pleasant in Kentucky. A journey I am grateful to have taken and can take again through photography.

Friday, September 25, 2026

Rough start?


Rough start?

Begin at

Zebra and Zinnia

And count back

Oceans call


 There are times

I portend

I do miss

The ocean....

I cannot hide

There are times

That I am drawn

Toward the tides...

I have to say

There are the days

I roil upon

The inner waves...

While in my mind

I find

The break of infinity

Time and time

Again

In this ocean.


Johnclarestokes 

To the tides

Leaves of glory


 We saw leaves go to glory,

Then almost migratory

Go part way down the lane, 

And then to end the story

Get beaten down and pasted

In one wild day of rain.

We heard "Tis over" roaring,

A year of leaves was wasted.

Oh, we make a boast of storing,

Of saving and of keeping,

But only by ignoring

The waste of moments sleeping,

The waste of pleasure weeping,

By denying and ignoring

The waste of nations warring.

Robert Frost

Glory for the small


Ascribe glory


To the majesty

Of the One 

Who gives a

Coat of royalty

To His smallest

Subjects