Our mindful eye

Sometimes, ok most of the time, I don't know how to write the first line.........

This week (that is so every week, right).......Ok, so last year I bought a lemon tree, or so I thought.  It did fine and would get blossoms, but then they would fall off.  Eventually I did get one that stayed on and became a ........well for the longest time it looked like a lime and I thought maybe I got a lime on accident, though I would love a lime tree too.  It stayed green for months and then finally started turning yellow.  I didn't know when to pick it off the tree so I left figuring it would maybe fall off once it was close to ripe.  Well it never did get ripe, the thing was hard as rock.  Even after I removed it, it never became softer. Once the cold weather came, I put it in my art room, and well forgot about it a time or two.  Eventually all it had on it was 1, yes 1 single leaf.  I put it the living room so I wouldn't forget about it.  The leaf held on all winter long but no others sprouted.  I thought it's life span had been realized.  

I put it outside about 3 weeks ago, and much to my surprise, it started leafing out all over the place.  Then it started getting buds on it!  It's alive, it's alive! I go out each morning to check on it and my other plants.  I get so excited seeing the leaves starting to furl out and the little blossoms starting to grow!  Maybe this year I will grow enough lemons to make a batch of lemonade.  Well a girl can dream, right........

As for the photo itself, it is always difficult for me to get the right composition on this type of photo.  Once I figure out what worked for me, I set my focus........and didn't nail it.  I know shooting with a lens wide open mean just moving an inch can mess up the focus.  But with a little editing I think it still worked.  I wanted to show the photo in color, but once I tried it in b/w I liked it even more......dang it.  So I have included both, which one do you prefer? I think the b/w feels more architectural and the colored one has more whimsy. 

As always, I am excited to see what Tracie West is up to!  I know she has been doing what seems to be a color challenge this past week and her collages have been awesome! 

I have not been able to post my photos to the Instagram feed because of issues, but hoping to get that fixed. Other than that little glitch, we have continued to keep this up.  It has been more than 21 days, but I can't say it feels like a habit yet. 

Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy. 

~Terri Guillemets