PRACTICE

makes perfect, or at least better!

i've been uninspired for the past week and feeling more than a little tired so i thought i'd do something a little different.  a few days ago i dragged out my camera tripod (which was given to me as a gift 4 years ago, to encourage my love of photography) and which i've used...maybe once...in all that time.

i wanted to become more familiar with it, to develop a "relationship" with my tripod and be more comfortable using it.  whenever i think of taking it somewhere with me, i feel my anxiety level rise and i have a vision of struggling with it, or the tripod falling over or ending up in very peculiar positions. 

i'm not known for my patience with things mechanical or even electronic for that matter, so this vision usually ends up with me chucking it over a hedge or into the ocean, in pure frustration.

my sunny kitchen full of light, a west coast Salish basket, a bowl of shells and a needlepoint of a Larson painting which was done by a dear friends aunt.

so...with all this in mind, i pulled out the tripod, set it up (and yes, it did go into some very peculiar positions at first) and started walking through my home taking practice shots of the things i love.

wherever i travel in the world, i bring home either a small stone or a shell and these sit in a tray on my coffee table in the living room.  i often pick up these stones and hold them to remind me of my journey's...bamboo garden stakes cut up into small pieces, a birds nest that i found in my garden with a collection of feathers. a small west coast Indian totem.

this idea came from a gratitude list that i started over a year ago.  I began to list everything and everyone in a journal that i felt gratitude for...even the little things, especially the little things...that we take for granted.  this evolved into making a small scrapbook of photographs with journalling.

glass fishing floats found on the west coast, a stone vase, a Oaxacan wall hanging and a "mussel bowl" - a housewarming gift to ourselves when we moved here.

i'm going to do more of the tripod work.  it does get easier to use, the more i use it and it gives me the opportunity to focus in on the little things around me. 

none of these things are expensive, their value to me is in the memories...the rocks that we picked up in Mexico, the table of family photographs in the living room, the pot full of curly hazel that i found in the back of a store in chinatown in Vancouver and the scroll of fish painted with the simplicity of Chinese brushwork, that i found in a market in Shanghai.

i love coloured glass and the way it catches the light - these are above my kitchen sink...the slate tiles are also in my kitchen...and a vase that i rubbed with copper leaf sits in an alcove in the front hall.

a Buddha that my friend Ona brought back from her travels in India, a birthday present frog planter from Vietnam, a Yiching teapot (very tiny - holds one cup) from China and our names written in Chinese by a man on a boat on the Huangpu River in China.

each thing is like a index tab on a file folder that's full of wonderful memories and things dear to me.

what are the things in your life, around your home, that you treasure...and why?

Comments

[Ostara]

Many lovely treasures in your home, Kate - thank you for sharing them here. Your question about treasured things deserves an answer in kind, so watch for my reply at stillpoint in a day or two. (Don't be surprised to see common themes of rocks, feathers and bottles!)

Cheryl

[Linda]

Kate, thanks for coming by my blog. I couldn't email you because Blogger doesn't show the poster's email addy. But Luke's hat is a pattern from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan Anderson.

BTW, love your photos. Very lovely stuff!

[Helen Morley]

Kate, we got our DSL service connected today WOO HOO !! , and now I am excitedly surfing around and having a ball :) With dial up I couldn't access your Blog (music videos etc made it impossible) but now I can and I love these images. You are doing well with your tripod. I love your Blog too and I am enjoying listening to the music as I type :)

[windyangels]

What a wonderful idea Kate. Thanks for sharing these items which you treasure. Thanks for putting out the challenge about the things in our lives which we treasure.
You have some fabulous pieces in your home. I love the glass, the nest, and the cracked eggshell.

Was the book about gratitude by Sarah Ban Breathnach? I don't have the title but I wrote down many quotations from her book as I was doing the gratitudes each day. I recently rediscovered my gratitude journal.