It's been hot here along the river, with recent days getting into the low-90˚s F. Way too hot for your boreal-natured correspondent. Usually. But in the aftermath of whatever nasty respiratory ailment I've been struggling to overcome, I've been suffering with constant chills, regardless of what the thermometer says—often needing to wear a heavy sweater throughout the day just to keep from shivering.
Yesterday was the first day in a long while in which my temperature seemed to stabilize and remain normal without medication. With the lack of fever it also became the first day I truly noticed the heat. Which isn't a complaint. While I'm not completely over things yet, yesterday felt like I'd honestly—finally!—turned a positive corner. I feel considerably better than I have in several weeks.
For that I'm deeply thankful.
The photo of the common orange daylily was taken the same day as the groundhog shot…though late in the evening, just before the sun dipped below the western treeline. Knowing I was too sick to cook, and hoping a bit of fast food might taste good to me, Myladylove stopped on her was home and picked up a couple boxes of chicken strips.
I decided to try and sit out on the deck long enough to eat. A moment after managing to make it to one of the rockers, I looked around a saw the lily, in shadow, with the shadowed river beyond, glowing like a stained-glass panel from the low sun's backlight. I knew the lighting—and the image—would disappear in a moment. And I didn't want to miss the photo. So I heaved myself back up, staggered the few feet to the door and to my camera just inside, lurched back to the rocker, framed, focused, and clicked…and before I could click again, the sun winked out behind a tree, the light turned flat and dim—and just that quickly, the image moment was over.
I don't know if all the above plays into things—a sort of situational favoritism—or if it's just an image I would have liked, artistically, anyway. But this simple composition—a single orange lily, gleaming with luminescent fire, surrounded by shadows—is one of the most personally pleasing shots I've made in awhile.
I hope you like it, too.
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10 comments:
Hi Grizz - so glad you turned a corner to wellness and normalcy!! Phew.....a long road. And the lily is stunning - it stands on its own beautiful merit - you captured the colors beautifully and the majestic stance is worthy of a bow or a curtsy or a salute. Glory be!
Have a wonderful Sunday
Love Gail
peace.....
Yes, I do like your backlit lily. And also the ground hogs and in fact all your photos which are always excellent. Glad to know your health is improving. So nice to have a Ladylove to bring you tasty treats. Your cup runneth over. As always, thankyou for sharing.
I like this too. Glad you are feeling better.
Gail…
I'm sure glad to be feeling better, though I've certainly got a ways to go to get back to where I was six weeks ago. However, I actually did a little honeysuckle lopping around the yard this afternoon. Couldn't work more than 5 or 6 minutes at a stretch, then had to sit and rest for maybe 10 minutes before taking another whack. So still incredibly weak. But it didn't seem to make me feel any worse for the minimal work accomplished. I'll keep pushing and heading forward, and ought to be at full steam by the end of the month—if not before.
I'm also glad you share my delight re. the lily image. It's really all about the flower and the light…all I did was snap the shutter.
Out To Pasture…
Thanks for your positive vote on the lily—and the groundhogs. The woodchucks are just so cute even Mr. Grinch would have to like them. But the lily…I dunno, there's just something about the simplicity and that splendid backlight that speaks to me. It has to be one of my favorite images in awhile.
Hey, of all the blessings—assets, treasures—in my life, Myladylove is at the top of the heap.
Penny…
Thank you, on both counts!
That is an beautiful shot, Grizz. Good to hear that you are feeling a bit better. Almost sounds (with on-going chills and fever) that you had some form of pneumonia. You probably still require a good deal of rest to completely recover.
Bonnie…
Thank you—those are delightful words from an artist of your caliber. I probably have several hundred summer lily images in my files, but this may be my favorite of the lot. (Of course I'm rather prone to thinking my latest "child," whether photographic image or written piece, is the best of the bunch.} But I sure like this shot, for whatever reason.
No question I'm going to have to take some time the recover completely from whatever malady I've been battling. Whether I had pneumonia or not is a question I've also considered. I never ran a high fever—just a degree or a few tenths more—but then I was always taking Tylenol, regular as clockwork. I dealt with daily chills—no matter the 90˚F weather here—until about three days ago, and felt truly awful. And when I first went to urgent care, I was having great difficulty breathing. The doctor there told me I had the worst sounding lungs she'd heard outside of a hospital setting. I know this really put me down, and took a lot out…plus the aftereffects linger still. But I'm finally feeling better. Recovery is just going to take time.
Wow - you've really been through a lot. I've had pneumonia a few times - once in hospital for 9 days with it and really felt like each breath was my last. Take care, you do NOT want to have a relapse.
Bonnie…
Since no x-rays or cultures were taken, I can't say whether the diagnosis of bronchitis was correct, or whether I actually had pneumonia. And while I haven't had either bronchitis or pneumonia in years, they are not strangers.
As a child, and up to at least my mid-teen years, I dealt continually with severe asthma and related respiratory problems. Asthma runs through my father's side of the family like a plague…all my paternal aunts, uncles and cousins suffer from it, as did my grandfather and his father and my great-great grandfather. One adult cousin, a young mother, died not many years ago during an asthma attack, in spite of being rushed to the ER. By age 5, I'd already been through several doctors and specialists, in and out of the hospital, been a test patient for several drug and therapy trials—all to no avail. The last of these physicians told to "…make the most of whatever time you have with your son." Luckily, a brilliant young doctor, fresh out of university, heard about my plight and asked Mom and Dad to allow him to try and save me. Which, obviously, he did. I was his only pediatric patient…and I remained his patient until he retired in his mid-70s. Yet to say he saved my life is almost an understatement. Not long before he retired, he showed me my complete medical files. They took up over 12 feet of shelf space!
Anyway, from first grade until about the seventh or eighth grade, I generally missed something like 100 days of school per year because of my asthma and respiratory issues. I had a "home teacher" for the third grade. Otherwise, the other years, I was simply allowed to take proficiency tests and passed to the next grade based upon their results rather than my lack of attendance. I read all the time, which was about all I could do given that I had so much trouble breathing. So self-schooling—or at least passing the tests—was never a problem.
But just walking down the hall from bedroom certainly was an ordeal, requiring a long time thereafter to re-stabilize my breathing. Bronchitis was a regular diagnosis—as common as maybe once a month. I'd develop full-blown pneumonia once or twice per year—and on several occasions, what they termed "double pneumonia." Went through every one of the new "sulpha-drugs" as they hit the market.
Then, somewhere around 14-16 years of ago, I simply "outgrew" my asthma and everything that went with it. Instead of every little sniffle turning into a respiratory problem, I became exceedingly healthy and hardy. I've had no more than two or three actual head colds in my life. One or two sore throats. The flu maybe three times. Otherwise, my medical problems have mostly stemmed from me beating myself up in one way or another. At least until these last few years. But still, this has been my first respiratory reoccurrence since my teens, and I let this one get too far advanced before taking action. No fool like an old fool. But I do know, from considerable experience, that this was serious, whether bronchitis or pneumonia. If there is a next time, I won't allow things to get such a jump on me before seeking help.
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