Blue, Green, and Purple

So I get photos of blue skies and sunshine, (for the first, and last time in awhile) and I forget to post them! How I did that I don't know but here you go, maybe they can tide us all over until the sun comes back...

See, blue skies; they are real!

Irises

Iris and the sun :)

lilacs 

lilacs

P.S. Since the photos themselves were taken on May 31st I'm posting them with that date, even though I actually wrote this on June 10th. Most of you probably don't care but I'd feel like I was lieing if I didn't admit it, I'm weird that way.

Cloudy days and wind blown flowers

I was playing tag with sunbeams today, trying to get some good photos, but it turned into a game of hide and go seek. I'm not sure who won, the wind joined in and I lost track...

The first of the irises

Unexpected Gems

Sometimes when the view from my window draws me outside with camera in tow I come back excited and eager to share. Then there are days like this where I come back and every shot is like one I've done before and even if they're beautiful photos they're all boring and uninspired. I honestly didn't expect to find anything inspiring or interesting in the whole batch.

I'm not a professional  I've never taken classes and I don't even take my camera everywhere I go. I take it out when I'm inspired or I'm going somewhere I really want to take photos of. I only share them here when I feel like they are worth sharing, and even then I don't always get them into a post. I'm a procrastinator you see and if I don't post them right away after I get them on the computer they aren't likely to make it here at all. I expected this batch of photos to be doomed to a forgotten file on my harddrive, never to see the glow of a computer screen again.

Then I actually looked at them. A lot of them were pretty mundane I'll admit, but there were still a few gems mixed in. Maybe not diamonds, but garnets at least.

Apple Blossoms

Apple tree blossoming

climbing rose

Apple tree in bloom

Blooms on an Apple tree

Strawberry plants

Lilacs 

More lilacs

Violets

I guess sometimes things don't have to be spectacular sometimes its alright to just have something good. I suppose that could apply to more than just photos; most of the time my life feels like the same thing day after day but when I take the time to look at it there really is always something different. Maybe nothing big, but something good. The idea seems a bit over the top but I'll leave it any way. Maybe someone else can find a way to say it without sounding cheesy. 

Anyway, I hope you all have a good day, even if its not very exiting.

Catching After-Rain

I've been waiting for the skies to clear for a few days now so I could take more pictures. Spring is possibly my favorite season, I love watching the world wake up from winter's sleep. Unfortunately we've had several overcast skies this week and gray skies are not the best for photos. Yesterday we got hit by rain and then the sun broke free at sunset and gave me a chance to capture the fresh washed world for you all. 

The plum trees bloomed a few days ago, they didn't fair very well in the rain 

I couldn't get a photo that really showed the way the rain caught the light but this comes close

Or rather I tried to capture that world, I really only got a glimpse. A photo can only show a part, it can't hold the smell of an orchard full of new opened blooms or the mix of rain and recently cut grass. You can't feel the cool grass against your feet or the after rain chill on the wind when you look at a photo. I'm sorry you weren't there and that I really didn't capture much of it at all.

Pro Choice? Are you sure?

Since Roe V. Wade America has been divided between the 'Pro-Choice' and the 'Pro-Life.' I often hear people who are pro choice say things like, 'I wouldn't get an abortion myself, but that's my choice.' or 'its none of my business what someone else does with their body.' There are variations, some don't want children or only want a certain number, some are just trying to support woman. The personal reasons are different but the idea is the same; My body, My choice.

Now there's a lot that could be said about that but what I want to get to today is the question of why. Why are pro life advocates against 'choice?' Why can't they accept woman's 'right' to control her own body? Why can't they just not have abortions and let everyone else make their own decisions? 

Or more importantly; Why they think abortion is wrong in the first place.

You see the reason that they are pro life is the reason that they can't stand by in silence.

From what I understand, to be pro life is to believe that every life should be protected from unjust attacks. To believe that human life has an inherent dignity and should be respected, from its beginning to natural death. Its the belief that that life begins at the moment when an egg and sperm are joined to create a new strand of DNA, entirely unique and completely human. Its to believe that the value of life to be constant, not variable. 

See I really think that that's the heart of the matter: one side says that the definition  and value of life changes based on conditions (such as; age, born or pre-born, conditions of conception, medical conditions, the mother's perception, or local law.) The other holds it to be constant, unchanged by circumstance. 

Consider this; in some states the abortion cutoff is considered 24 weeks, in others it's 20 weeks. This is mainly based off of 'fetal viability.'  The problem with this is 1.) It is somewhat inconclusive, most experts say fetal viability is at 22 weeks, but the youngest premi on record was born at 21 weeks. 2.) It is subject to change, medical advancements are being made every year making survival in early births more likely.

But what is the difference between a fetus who is dependent on it's mother for the necessary nourishment to develop and a baby who is likewise dependent on others for the same things?

Genetically a fetus registers the same at all points of its development, from conception to birth (and after.)  From a DNA test science would classify them all the same way and as the same thing, human.

So a fetus is human, scientifically, but does it have the same value? How is human value to be determined? Is it the ability to survive on one's own? Then that would class babies, as well as those with disabilities or of advanced age, as of a lesser value. And who decides, is it different for different cases?

That doesn't sound right does it?

You see when you say that you are pro choice, aren't you really saying that you think individuals should have the right to assign different values to humans according to circumstance? If you can decide when someone starts being a person, then does it not follow that you also decide when they stop being one? What is the difference between a human fetus and a human person?

If a fetus is only a mass of human genetic material and only becomes a person after a certain point then someone has to draw the line, someone has to say when that is. Do we have that right? Should it be an individual's choice to define the personhood of another 'potential' person?

Should anyone have that kind of power?

Sunrise, Camera, Coffee

I always said I'd never be a morning person but I think I may have fallen in love with sunrise photography....and coffee but that's nothing new.

When Life Smells Like Spring

Dare I say it could be spring? That winter may indeed have let us loose from his chill grasp?

Forgive the dramatics but if you've been following the weather in the Minnesota area lately then maybe you can understand where I'm coming from. If not I'll put it simply; winter would not END. Every time it started to warm up it would snow again. This last time it snowed on May 1st, May Day, we woke up the next morning to around 18" of snow and no power. Now I like snow well enough, but really that was too much.

I have been starved for life and color. I drink in every blade of grass and devour the sight of anything flowering or even just looking a little greener than it has for the past several months. I've started several blog posts on this topic but the reality of a gray, or even white, world stifled my efforts each time. Not even last years spring photos (which never got posted here when they were new) could spur me on past the first effort.

But now there is life in the world again. Fresh grass and the strong new shoots of tiger lilies and daylilies spread green across the lawn. Daffodils proudly display their colors, first of the year. The magnolia is in full bloom, white but living, not cold and lifeless as the snow it resembles. Even the sky is bluer.

Its been warm this week, more like summer than spring, but it was the sunlight this morning that stirred up my spring fever more than anything else. I'd taken pictures earlier in the week but everything was still so gray then, today it's bright and alive.

I know I've rambled a good bit here but its spring and I can't help myself. So thanks for enduring all that, enjoy the photos and your own spring, or whatever season it is where you live.

Magnolia 

Daffodils