Pre-Dawn Walking

Pre-dawn walking is required during a southern summer, it's likely to be the coolest part of the day and the risk of thunderstorms is less.

This morning the air was still and close, still the birds sang and the darkness was comfortable.

I take this walk every morning through my urban suburban neighborhood.

Each house is different, bungalows, farmhouses, colonials. Quirky, and since most are older each has evolved with it's own look and personality. Nothing like the new suburbs further out - so confusing with each house built the same with only slight differences in appearances.

The gardens around these houses too are vastly different

Some pristine and manicured, not a blade of grass higher than the other. Shrubbery controlled and pruned into exact shapes. Others overblown and lush, packed with blooming plants in numerous colors. A riot of color and smells. And here are the neglected yards, overgrown and weedy, a bit forlorn. A sad beauty in how the plants have take over. These lonely yards speak to me, feel familiar. I wonder if their keepers are just too busy to care for them, or don't care, or can't care. Maybe the neglect is a reflection of their spirits.

Each yard a refection of the spirit of the people who inhabit their space.

My house is a combination of flowering lushness and fortressed shrubbery - the front facade a solid face to the street that gives little away, shielded by dense green shrubs. The side yard, a lush full space of colors and blooming. The gate guards the hidden garden. Flowers, water, birds and animals. A quiet space that only a few are invited to enter.

Photography & prose by Terry Rowe. Your visit & comments are appreciated.

You can see my art work or photographs at www.terryrowe.photography.  Any photographs in my blog are also available for purchase. 

Make Every Day a Special Occasion

A recent change in my living arrangements required the division of household goods. The "good" everyday flatware was given up and I got the lesser 'make-do" flatware.

Using the less than lovely utensils was a daily reminder of settling, making do with something I had accepted for necessity but not for it's beauty.

In talking to a friend about the flatware I was reminded of grandmother's silver. Beautiful in look and feel, grandmother's silver was carefully packed away in the basement, being saved for special occasions.

Grandmother's silver

Why do we save the best for other people? For special occasions? Why don't we treat ourselves as our own special guests?

I promptly donated the unloved stainless steel flatware, someone else will make good use of it. I unpacked grandmother's silver and use it everyday.

Every single time I pick up one of grandmother's silver pieces, a fork, a knife, a spoon, I am grateful to have something so beautiful to use. It is a true pleasure to have my every day be a special occasion, even if I'm the only one at the table.

What can you do to treat yourself as a special guest in your own life?


Photography & prose by Terry Rowe. Your visit & comments are appreciated.

You can see my art work or photographs at www.terryrowe.photography.  Any photographs in my blog are also available for purchase.