Morning all. I am feeling a bit ragged today. I am also having fantasies about using a sling shot to put out the lights on my neighbor’s house. They have automatic lights on the front of the house and for some reason last night they had people coming and going until about three am. The lights went on and off strobing through my bedroom windows. Hence the slingshot fantasy. They were quiet at least, but those lights are not my friend. So writing prompt now, coffee later. Possible black out curtains installed after that… or at least ordered.
I like this one. I need to think about the details but I like the character.
Tuesday, March 12th: The pine needles gleamed with drops of dew.
The pine needles gleamed with drops of dew. The moisture gathered in diamond droplets in the deep recesses of the clusters and hung suspended off the very tips as though defying gravity. The early morning light gleamed off of the water and made them shine. I slowly lifted my camera and refocused. The clear droplets emphasized the shape texture and color of the deep green needles in a way that made the color seem almost too saturated to be real.
Were pine needles that deep a shade of green?
Apparently so. I took my photos, choosing the angles that would best display both droplets and the many depths of the green. I took my close up shots, where the droplet and the edge of the needle encompassed the entirety of the lens and then I took wider angled shots where the entire forest looked draped in diamonds.
Both appealed to me and I was happy with the images. I slipped the lens cap on and slung the strap back to my shoulder. It didn’t stay there long. Images of mushrooms and ferns soon joined the pine needle droplets.
As I walked along the section of wood I chose for my morning walk I found some of the rougher edges of the past few days settle. The woods were like a balm to my soul.
‘Or maybe it is just the silence.’
There had been precious little silence for the past week. What was supposed to be a quiet vacation in a cabin in the woods turned into an extended family vacation. I wasn’t quite certain how. I remember saying that I couldn’t go on the trip they had planned as I had already booked some time away. After too many months taking pictures of war zones and immortalizing the atrocities man did to man, I needed a break. I needed to take pictures of quiet things. Things that balanced my mind and calmed the spirit.
I planned to go alone, my tolerance for my fellow man at an all time low. Instead of letting me go, everyone decided that my cabin in the woods sounded fantastic. And they joined me. I wasn’t entirely certain why or really how it happened. Somehow my small solo cabin was changed for one of the large family sized ones.
‘It would be different if they enjoyed it,’ I thought. Thus far there had been nothing but complaints. The internet was intermittent and the cell service spotty at best. The electronic games and amusements as well as office contacts were not reliable enough to hold their attention and the great boredom descended.
They did not want to swim in the lake because it was ‘icky’ and they did not want to walk in the woods because there were ‘bugs and things’. I wasn’t entirely certain what things were but it was said with wide eyed disgust.
‘Snake maybe,’ I thought. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the rest of the vacation without a little mental breather and so I took my camera and slipped into the woods while the rest still slept.
Ten til Midnight 