Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Chasing the Light Around the Crab Apple Tree



I've been fixating on the crab apples that have fallen from the tree just outside my kitchen window. I've walked all around them, taking their picture from every angle imaginable, and I still don't think I'm done with them. I love the way the sun peeks through the clouds and around my shoulder, highlighting individual apples, how it lights up the grass lying over and around them as the grass cradles a few inside its shade, the shadows the light creates as it falls here for a second, and then there for a second, silhouettes of boughs hanging overhead. I just can't seem to get enough of these little beauties.




I have spent two days chasing the light around that crab apple tree, never failing to see something new, something different.




I've been having a very good time.




Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don't have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace.

~ E. B. White






The photographs are mine.

26 comments:

  1. When I started reading I was thinking along the lines of E.B.
    Things so many in the country take for granted we transplants have a field day with oggling over. They are indeed beautiful in the lights and the shadows Teresa!

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  2. Sweet pictures! Love the light and shadow...topped with a perfect quote. :)

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  3. The celebratory feeling in those pictures is simply overwhelming. They are so lovely, Teresa. I love to visit your blog; I always leave feeling like I've taken something into myself.

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  4. It's the beauty of mother earth and her bounty!

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  5. Thanks for bringing back a childhood memory of the Japanese crab apple tree in our backyard. It wasn't a good climbing tree, but it was really pretty... I remember how it felt walking over the fallen crab apples.

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  6. Love that quote by White!!! How right he is! That, and retirement help a lot with that. Keep chasing that light Teresa. It suits you.

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  7. Mmm....very nice. Now--how about some nice crabapple mint jelly?

    I have had gorgeous flowering crabapples in my last 2 yards...they are magnificent.

    Beautiful pictures and verse...

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  8. The shadows brought forth by light also bring forth the light. Contrasting energies at play.

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  9. Art takes time, obviously. Your photos capture the feel of being in the presence of fallen crab apples.

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  10. It is as if you are dancing with them and the sunlight, Teresa. I can feel your joy and catching the sunlight all the way down here in Illinois. Great quote. I just ordered Two Gardens, which are letters from two women, one of them being E.B. White's wife. Our garden club will be reading it in January.

    The smoke from the Boundary Waters fire has made it here, as well as the burning smell. Not too pleasant. Hope it is alright where you are.

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  11. What a wonderful quote, and so very perfect for you living the moment when light dances in and around your crab apples. let nothing get in the way of living itself.

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  12. Great photographs. I suspect I would have been better trying to photograph the ones that fell from my tree rather than picking them up, packing them in a bag and promising to make myself an apple pie. Some other project got in the way and I was left with a bag of rotting apples.

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  13. Good Old Mother Earth
    Sends crab apples down your way.
    Smile, have a happy day.

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  14. The colors do catch ones eye, but sometimes not the cameras. I shot some berries on a plant the other day and there was no comparison.Lovely thoughts

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  15. it's supposed to fun damn it and it is!

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  16. Nice shots, Teresa. I wonder if crab apples are similar to mountain apples in Hawaii... Very sweet and juicy!

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  17. A Big Thank You to Each of You for taking the time to read and leave a thoughtful comment. I thought about jelly, and then I didn't. I'm hoping the deer family that's been by regularly will eat them.

    GiGi, They are definitely not sweet. Very sour, but good in jelly. :)

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  18. I love your contemplative posts and photographs. They remind me to slow down and live in the moment - which I'm not very good at yet.

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  19. Love the quote. Yes! Sounds like my ideal woman -- I am powerless to resist the immediacy, variety, beauty and excitement of her wild embrace!

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  20. Hej Teresa! What a lovely tree to have outside your kitchen window! It's fantastic how the colours of the apples change with the light. Red, pink, purple, with blue shades. Great photos, Teresa.
    Living in the country is good, visiting the country is good. It has to be there!
    Grethe `)

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  21. Chasing light......a phrase that I will remember for some time. Requires great speed, stealth, and a big heart.

    Crab apples do have their own special appeal, don't they.

    Really liked this post!

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  22. Linda, Will, Grethe, and Wild Bill, Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I appreciate Each of your responses. :)

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  23. I love the color of those crab apples. When I was in the fourth grade we lived in Maryland and near our home was a center parkway lined with crab apple trees. They were so beautiful in bloom in the spring and the crab apples were fun to eat in the fall. I've never forgotten those trees.

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  24. Visiting your website is very refreshing feeling. very innovative and dynamic look and contents. I would love to visit the place.

    Thank you for sharing.

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  25. Lind, Aren't they just stunning in bloom? The spring here was just a wild array of pink blossoms.

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  26. Santosh, I'm so glad you visited my site. Thank you for the kind comments. I hope you'll stop back.

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