New Era

I'm sure I'm not the only one who kept finding tears welling up, throat tightening in joy yesterday. It just seems so amazing to have a forward-thinking, grounded, fair, open, young man in the white house. I am so grateful and hopeful for this presidency. I was especially impressed with Obama's addressing how hard work and facing difficult issues is the only way out of the mess that has been created. He stands up, doesn't hide behind words, doesn't back down, is honest, and has true clarity. He is not clever (in the 'heh heh, watch me pull the wool over their eyes' sense), but is truly intelligent.

Here's a funny tidbit: there's a shy photographer in Indonesia that looks like Obama.

Length and Fullness

Now that my head is not so caught up in itself quite so much, I feel a bit more free to appreciate beauty for its own sake.
I'm into the complementary length and fullness of these. Not so much the clothes, so much as the shapes. The backgrounds are good too.

Images

Tulip fields, Netherlands



Viking celebration on one of the Shetland Islands, Scotland.



Ladies enjoying a lazy summer day



"Happy Land" from Fun and Fancy Free AKA Mickey & the Beanstalk. (Remember Mortimer snerd guessing that at the top of this beautiful hill lay "a red barn" instead of this magnificent castle? I love that cartoon).



Double rainbow



I love this design. Mmmmm

Cold Night

Frost on the windows. Old ceramic gas heater in our front room. Fuzzy animals.

Eastern Hemlock

There's a huge eastern hemlock that's parked out front of our apartment. Something I've never seen before happened 2 nights ago--the cones all dropped and were stationary on our stoop. Was it the cold that made them drop? (-1 F) Do they drop normally, and I've just never noticed them because wind usually blows them away?