Friday, November 11, 2011

a year of mornings…

I can’t believe it has been a year.

On November 11th, 2010, I took the above picture looking out our front door. It was one of those golden fall mornings that takes your breath away just a bit. When I took the picture I wasn’t thinking about anything other than just preserving the moment. Then I got a little obsessed, thinking about how it would be fun to take a picture every morning for a couple of weeks and see how things changed.

Andrew had recently checked out the book “A Year of Mornings” and no doubt it had something to do with my thought process (“A Year of Mornings began on January 1, 2007 as an almost daily photo conversation, in blog form, between two friends that live 3191 miles apart. It lasted the entire calendar year ending on December 31, 2007”). As I continued to think about it I decided a daily photo was a bit ambitious. Why not once a week? Since the garden was in decline I thought maybe I would continue the photo journal until the trees leafed out again in the spring. That moment came and went. Maybe I’d continue until the Cannas were tall once again?

Then I decided I was already so far in why not just take a photo once a week for a year? Ideally the photo would have been taken the same day and time each week but I’m not that good! I hit most weeks…although I think there are a couple missing and there a couple of extras too, especially from the beginning when I was still thinking of it as a daily project.

The angle of the camera changed a lot too, as I tried to avoid capturing my reflection in the glass door. I also think I’m guilty of taking more pictures on sunny days, not to paint a pretty face on our weather but because that’s naturally when my eyes were drawn outside and I thought about the project. It is fun to see the colors change, the garden get really open and empty through the winter, and then fill up in the spring when I launched my redo-the-front-garden project. If you’re really observant you can see the front steps change color (they went from light grey to dark charcoal when we had the house painted), the neighbors lawn go from lush green to Portland gold (for the summer) and unfortunately you’ll be exposed to our garbage cans out for trash pickup.

Here is my “year of mornings”…

13 comments:

  1. That is awesome! So fun to watch things grow and fill in. I should do that - but I'd never have the persistance to keep doing it all year. Maybe once a month, I might try that.

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  2. It needs to be a big flip photograph book, then you would get the real affect of things growing.......

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  3. Love it...what a great idea...I've been going through images of this past year for some future posts these past few weeks and sometimes find myself totally transfixed by just HOW much the garden changes throughout the year. Love that you caught the snow pictures!

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  4. Very neat idea! It would be lovely to continue it and see how things grow in over the years.

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  5. This was wonderful! I really enjoyed seeing the progression, especially st this time of year when things are all dying back. Is that goutweed at the foot of your stairs? And the upside down pot at the beginning is protecting something?

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  6. This is way neat! Looks like your mornings were damp to start..

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  7. You should set that up as a slide show. What fun!

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  8. Oh I love this Loree ! So much the essence of being a gardener..

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  9. What a jolt those scarlet rhodies gave in their moment. The lime euphorbs too. Loved this post, Loree!

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  10. Well, that was fun! If you ever open your garden for HPSO (hint, hint) you will have an excellent record for choosing a date.

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  11. VW, thank you! I wish I had a fish-eye lens, that would have been really fun!

    Beech Street, that would be cool! I may do that, unfortunately you all won't be able to see it.

    scott, I was startled that the biggest snow was so late in the season, but then I remembered that was the week of the NWFG Show in Seattle and that the damn snow almost ruined my plans to go!

    kate, that's a great idea...maybe once a month from here on out.

    Alison, goutweed...bishops weed...YES! Can you tell I brought out the big guns to get rid of it? Of course not. If you know a secret please share! And yes, the terra cotta pot was protecting an Echium. It worked!

    Darla, this is Oregon after all! Damp to start, damp to finish...and often damp in between too.

    Les, now that's a great idea too! Maybe I will...

    ks, thank you!

    Denise, you are so right, and I was surprised how mellow the white snow blossoms of the trees appeared to be, they were iced in white for weeks it seemed "in real life."

    ricki, if I ever were to do that (not likely) it would definitely be as late as possible, that's when things are at their peak!

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  12. Fabulous concept, love it! The time series photographs illustrate the subtle (and not so subtle) changes through the year, fascinating! I might have a go, probably early next year and see the changes on a particular view/border.

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  13. This is a fun concept and a great record to have. I loved seeing that little (echium?) survive over winter and grow huge as the months went on. It seems like this might roughly coincide with your front-yard makeover, so you have that added satisfaction: your garden's progress is clear beyond just seasonal growth!

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