8.06.2009

solitude


"solitude is such a potential thing.
we hear voices in solitude, we never hear
in the hurry and turmoil of life;
we receive counsels and comforts,
we get under no other condition...”

{amelia e. barr}


i'm off to spend some time in solitude. i'll be taking a country drive out to my mother's house. it's not that long of a trip—only about forty-five minutes. but i look forward to it. i've decided to make it a weekly thing, and i started last thursday, only on that trip, i was not alone. mr. b. drove for that one, and that left me free to take hundreds of photos along the way. once again, it was the perfect weather for it. the clouds were a lot like they were in the hay bale pics {although you can't really see them in this pic}.

i'll post the rest of them later tonight. the good thing about having slow internet is that it forces me to log out and use my computer in other ways, so i spent a good deal of time opening the shots in photoshop and cropping them and resaving them for the web. the lower i save the resolution of them, the faster they upload to the web.

anyway, suffice it to say... there will be many of them. but if you know me through this blog by now, you know how much i love the energy and movement and mood of drive-by shootings. so i could not pick just a few. i just couldn't.

it looks like another beautiful day here. i look forward to spending time with my mom. last week, i helped her hang some pictures and rearranged the living room and dining rooms with a little bit of my interior design tendencies kicking in. it turned out really nice! today, i'll be doing the same in some other rooms of her house. i actually can't wait! i could do that stuff all day long.

we'll also probably go to her new favorite coffee shop. i'll try to get pics... it's really a neat place! and i'm hoping we can go get thai food at my favorite thai restaurant that is just down the street from her place. and a visit to see her would not be the same without a traditional stop at the local thrift store, where i find really great deals! {etsy! etsy! etsy!} but mostly i just can't wait just to see mom and hang out with her.

i can't believe the week is already almost over. i hope yours is fabulous so far! hang on for one more day! then the weekend will be here. yay! happy thursday!

{by the way, just to give everyone an idea how slow my internet is, it took me about a half hour to type this in blogger. it should take more like ten minutes or less on an average computer. i know, because i used to blog on my computer at work. this is woefully slower. i would have just typed it in microsoft word which would be faster, as i am not in a web browser. but ms word capitalizes call my sentences automatically, and if you have been reading here for a long time, you know i like to use all lower case. a bad habit, i know. my best friend got me doing this years ago, and it's a habit i find hard to break.}

11 comments:

margie said...

i gave up blogging when i am at the lake. the slowness of the dial up was killing me. i love a quiet drive in the car, with the camera. i am quite okay with pulling over to the side of the road and taking photos. often, if andy is driving i will have him slow down and i will stick my head out the sun roof for a good shot. only on a country road though!!

~h~ said...

1) A day with your mother is a good idea. That, and your to-do list reads like my kind of day! I used to meet my grandmother for lunch every Friday and I miss those kind of days.
2) This shot reminds me of the film 'Grey Gardens.' Rambling and blurred.
3) Rearranging furniture is a pasttime of mine. I heard my son telling one of his friends the other day, "My mom is kind of weird. She changes the living room every two weeks." I've been known to rearrange family member's houses as well. ;)
4) Enjoy some solitude. :)

beth said...

have a great trip sweetie....
and I don't know if it's just me or maybe your internet but your words are showing up all teeny tiny and kind of blotchy which is making your blog almost impossible to read....just fyi.....

and all the other blogs I've read so far this morning have been fine....

I hate internet problems !

spread your wings said...

enjoy your solitude and your time with your mom. coffee shops, thai and thrift... i think that is what T and I are up to this weekend too. she mentioned last week before moving to athens that we didn't get to our favorite thai restaurant all summer. where did the summer go? and of course now that she has seen how her stuff fits in her new home i know she's going to want to go to the thrift store to help fill in the gaps.

Elaina M. Avalos said...

Enjoy your trip and taking photos! Looking forward to seeing the results.

On another note, I think you can change the capitalizing thing in Word. You can turn off auto formatting. Go into Word and then Format and then Auto Format. You should see an "options" button. Click on that and then on "Auto Correct." Uncheck the "Capitalize the first letter of sentences" and then you should be good. :)

Also, I just found the coolest thing. I had no idea! Microsoft has this free software called Live Writer. You can find it on their download site. Or...you may even have it on your computer already. You can write and format blog posts however you want (offline). I think I'm in love with it. :) And then hit the publish button whenever you're ready!

Char said...

enjoy the trip. i enjoy the lower case as i use it too. you can turn off your autocorrect in word if you like.

joyce said...

Have a wonderful trip...I love drives by myself..I can stop wherever I like to take pictures & snoop around.
The type you use is hard to read, and, having had dial up for many years I know how much it sucks. Now I pay an exhorbitant amount for "wireless", which is nowhere near as reliable as cable.

Unknown said...

my mamma is visiting for a month and two weeks have already flown by. i am going to be so so sad when she leaves. i looked at her the other day and wondered how much longer we still had together? it was a sad thought but it was refreshing in that it shook me up and i am simply relishing every moment in her presence.

as for the lower case. i am definitely one of those as well. it somehow seems to be the right thing to do in my mind.

Peter Tschirhart said...

Solitude is the name of my boat. It's so perfect to float upon it alone, but I prefer company, many hands on the lines and the laughter of children.
-p

Chris said...

Love that blur...it is so pretty and soft and lovely, just like you! Hope you get lots of awesome pix :)

Journeying Five said...

enjoy the solitude and coffee!