radiata

A couple days ago, I pulled out of the driveway and noticed that one of my hurricane lilies had bloomed with full regalia. These gals are gorgeous and fully deserve the "radiata" of their full name (Lycoris radiata). Well, I finally got myself out there to take some photos today, and got a couple decent shots. The gaura is threatening to overpower the lycoris, but that blistering red is impossible to cover!

In other news, I am playing with aperture. I was going to go crazy if I didn't figure out the aperture settings, because the autos are not good enough. And I've been pleased with the results.

June 28, 2007: The Last June Pictures

It's about time to take a colorful break from spreadsheets and numbers. I've been trying to fit some of my data with an inormal function all day, and it is driving me crazy. The first dataset fit nicely within an hour, but it took some skillful maneuvring. The second dataset passes the eyeball test with flying colors -- the fit that should appear is obvious just from looking at the data -- but the fit program ignores the data points unless I mess with the parameters until they make no mathematical sense and obscure the true beauty of the data. It drive me crazy. Crazy. Screamingly crazy.

So I took a break. There were a few garden photos from June sitting around on my hard drive, and these are some of my favorites: clematis, hibiscus, and tomato. Of course there are a couple more pictures sitting around in the June folder.

First.

I just arranged my first purchase of "original art".

This feels really strange. It's just a couple of small paintings, but most of the art that decorates my walls is my photography or reproductions, and I don't actually have any paintings. Last weekend my mom and sister and I visited an artists' space together, and I noticed one pair of paintings that I really liked. Enough that I could see them on one of my walls. And the prices were reasonable, so I took one of the artist's cards home with me.

Well, after a week of procrastinating and mulling it over, I finally got around to calling the artist, and she said she'd hold them for me for purchase in November or December. I am *so* excited.

Luxury...

Luxury...
is walking outside over the hot pavement to pick tomatoes and basil from the garden for lunch.

Self-control...
is walking back inside to continue working.


...the taste of the sun and the warmth of the grass...