frost

Shoot and Share

/ handmadebyjo / 3 Comments

140117 Coneflower FrostThe light this morning was beautiful when I took the dogs out for their morning constitutional.  There was some fog diffusing the sun long enough to keep the frost on the grass and flowers gone by in the garden.  I think I look forward to these moments but the reality is I don’t realize what I’ve got until I’m in the midst of it.  Once outdoors I knew I needed a camera of some sort so I abandoned the dogs to run in the house.  Much to my delight they were where I left them when I returned (they have a habit of “wandering”).

As I walked around the garden I was struck by what a lonely process creativity can be.  Sure, I share my images but I do not take them unless I am by myself (or in the company of dogs).  I need to concentrate, to really see what it is I’m looking at. If someone had been in the yard with me I never would have noticed how beautiful the light was.  It takes solitude for me to see.  Interesting.

I read grumblings about people not paying attention to their lives when they have their cameras (of whatever kind) in theirs hands.  Speaking for myself I can say that when I have a camera in my hand I pay special attention to everything around me, looking for that one thing that perhaps others would never notice.  I capture it for myself but once seen I share.  If I didn’t have a camera available to me all the time just think of how much we’d miss!

 

Cold End and Start

/ handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

131121(1)This time of year it’s always a more difficult decision to go to Rowe for an overnight and come home.  It’s not that I don’t relish the quiet and solitude, I just have to relish it in a dark, freezing cold house.  That’s always part of the thinking process – do I really want to freeze for an hour when I get there?

Yesterday I decided to go.  I wanted to see how long it would take to heat the kitchen when starting with a cold wood stove and then see how long I could keep the temperature up in the house using the stove through the night.  You know they tell you all kinds of things in advertising, I just wanted to see if it was true.

Chester and I arrived at about 4:30, the sun was down and it was getting dark fast.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike this time of year – for that reason – the days are too short.  I grabbed an armload of wood on my way through the shed and proceeded to build a little fire in the stove.  It wasn’t as easy a task as I had anticipated but finally kicked in.  Within an hour it was cranking and three hours from arrival the kitchen was over 70 degrees.  I had bought a kinetic fan that is placed on top of the stove and that was blowing the heat towards the other rooms (and it’s fun to watch – who needs electricity?).

When I had walked into the kitchen with my load of wood it was below 50 in the kitchen and the furnace was running.  It was just below freezing outdoors. Without the stove I would have been listening to the furnace kick on and off all night and the temperature in the room would never have been above 62 or so, no matter how high you turn up the thermostat.  I had all of the other thermostats turned to 64.  The furnace didn’t come on until around 4:00 this morning.  I got up to make my coffee around 6:30 and the little fan was still moving, a testament to the heat still in the stove.  I threw a piece of wood on the remaining coals and poof!, roaring fire.  It’s a good feeling when you know that a major investment of time and sweat is going to pay off.

I spent the evening twisting fringe on a throw that will be a Christmas present and thinking about how many other things I can make and have ready for the holidays.  Chester spent his evening on the floor in front of the stove.

With the payoff in the stove experiment fresh in my mind I took Chester out for the morning walk about and was soo glad I had come up.  It may have been cold (19 degrees)  but it certainly was beautiful.

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