The Petrified Forest

As summer draws ever nearer, and my days that are a bit more carefree come to a close, I find myself thinking about my winter to do list and wondering how much I truly accomplished. I traveled a bit, so that was good, I spent a lot of time with my family, again good, but I’m not certain I did enough to feed my creative soul.

I just got back from a weekend trip to New York City with my sister, and I have come back so inspired creatively, I am ready to start a massive project that I had already been planning and will take me about a year. Being a dreamer, I am bound and determined to also be a follow through-er, and have been doing pretty well this winter with at least that!! I am hoping I continue that forward progress with this project, as I think it will be oh so good for me. Both fun and cathartic. As a bonus, it will help clear out some of the clutter in my art room! So once I have something to show, I’ll start sharing my newest project, stay tuned for that… As a teaser, the show’s title will be ‘letters of love’. (I think).

One of the problems with digital photography is when I photograph for myself personally, which is of course, often, I tend to just leave the images on my camera cards waiting until I have time to sort them out, back them up, etc. (My beach portraits and studio work are always downloaded and backed up immediately, it is only my own personal work I’m a bit more lax with!!) So this time of year, when I am not photographing families and seniors at our gorgeous Cape Cod beaches every day as I do all summer, my camera cards tend to pile up… Dreadful, right?

Today I made a dent out of the pile, granted, I am photographing a preschool tomorrow, so it might have been just the tiniest bit out of necessity!! While I was downloading and backing up images from my trip to Iceland, visits back and forth to Connecticut and my mum’s house, beach photos from winter walks and excursions, I came across these images from the Petrified Forest in Arizona from our family Grand Canyon trip a few years back.

What a place! I loved the Grand Canyon, but I think I may have liked the Petrified Forest even more. We were greeted nearly immediately by the Eastern Collared Lizard, which we don’t see a lot here on Cape Cod (lol), and it seems petrified trees satisfy that same love in my heart as rocks do. I found them fascinating. And inspiring. And simply so beautiful. Add to that many petroglyphs, and it is no wonder I was so bewitched.

We spent a lovely day in that magical place, exploring, hiking, and just being awed by nature and all of her brilliance.

I found a great quote today: Getting rid of your obstacles makes it easier to achieve your final goal. Great right? Most of my camera cards are clear and ready for taking family photos at the beach this summer, one obstacle cleared!!