Widow's Endorphins: Dried Up and Refreshed

Widow's Endorphins: Dried Up and Refreshed: True confession:  I have bags of this stuff.  Dried rose petals.  Decades of decayed roses.  Take a good, long look because they&#...

Dried Up and Refreshed

True confession:  I have bags of this stuff.  Dried rose petals.  Decades of decayed roses.  Take a good, long look because they're going into the garbage.   My sentimentality regained it's sanity, when I realized that I no longer remembered which dried rose petals came from which bouquet, or why I'd preserved them in the first place.  Which birthday was this from?  Who gave me these?  Was this from Christmas, or Valentine's Day?  Did I grow this rose on my balcony? 

Their colours have faded over time, and my sentimental petals have lost their scent.  Their time is up.  It's not as if they haven't been useful.  I've scattered the petals across dining tables, sprinkled them with essential oils, and even used them in photo shoots -  quelle surprise! 

 

While scattered rose petals herald the arrival of a bride down the aisle, these dried petals will be unceremoniously dumped into the disposal bin of my building.  I feel no remorse.

It is the memories of happy times, not the keepsakes which are important.  I am keeping that in mind, as I declutter my home.  Change is coming, and I am embracing change! 

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Widow's Endorphins: I Heard It Through the Grapevine: I heard it through the grapevine that 5.13 Billion people have mobile devices.  That's more than 66% of the world's populati...

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I heard it through the grapevine that 5.13 Billion people have mobile devices.  That's more than 66% of the world's population!  The numbers come from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), and they should know, because they represent mobile network operators around the world.  

Most of us can't part with our mobile phones.  We grip them tightly, like we're carrying our brains in our hands.  Then, we stumble, and the phone does Cirque du Soleil style somersaults through the air, before crashing to the ground.  Dropping a phone could result in anything from loss of the mute button, to poor quality reception for the rest of the phone's life.  I've been having fun this week, designing mobile phone "crash helmets" to protect the brains of your constant companion.  

 I Heard it Through the Grapevine, is the perfect name for the phone cover above.  The grape leaves, and tiny blue Champagne grapes were growing along a rain-dampened fence, not far from my Toronto home.  Every colourful, and beautifully patterned grape leaf is unique!  

Hope the phone cover helps your phone last even a tenth as long as Marvin Gaye's Motown classic.  It was recorded in the Winter of '67, and released in '68 - which is over half a century ago.  Never get tired of it!  

I love the image of the metal ivy vines intertwined with the sturdy living wisteria vines, their weathered branches becoming one with the manmade structure.  As a phone cover, Interwoven speaks to our interwoven relationships, whether in our contact lists, or on Facebook - where many of us discover how many of our friends already know one another. 

The image also reminds me of family trees, and the bringing together of two very different families, to form one.  The most tight knit families I know of, call one another every day.  Every.  Single.  Day.  When was the last time you called your Mum, or Mother-in-Law, to in the words of Stevie Wonder, say, I Just Called to Say I Love You? 

Don't forget that other leaf...cannabis leaves are often overlooked in the world of fashion.  I love their graphic, elongated lines.  I've had fun altering their colours on the computer, such as this in image, Tropi-Canna Mint and Plum...

Maybe it's the British Columbian in me - I just love totem poles and telephone poles!  They are as much a part of the BC landscape as the mountains and sea.  When I returned to the Westcoast last July, after nearly three decades in Eastern Canada, the iconic telephone poles were still standing along older neighbourhood streets, and back alleys, and hugging the blackberry brambles of country roads and ditches.  ELO's Telephone Line, gets me every time, and I'm listening to it, as I type.  

Totem poles are found in public gathering places throughout BC.  Waiting for an early morning sailing to Nanaimo's Departure Bay, on Vancouver Island, I photographed a small portion of the late Tony Hunt's Kwakiutl Bear Pole, guarding the BC Ferry Terminal, at Horseshoe Bay, in West Vancouver.  The tall, weather-worn totem was carved from Western Red Cedar, and was one of 19 totems commissioned for the BC Centennial in 1966.  Not having had my first cup of coffee, it was as if I was looking in the mirror.     

Nothing takes the industrial edge off tech devices, like cover images of pink ruffled cherry blossoms and peonies.  There's something eternally sunny about these flowers, which brighten up rainy, or snow drift days.  In order of appearance:  Japanese Cherry Blossoms Blue Sky,  Cherry Blossom Branches, Wedding White Cherry Blossoms, and Cherry Blossom Impressions. 

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers to photograph.  They're fullsome blossoms with layers of ruffled petals, casting shadows throughout.  There's so much movement in the light and shadow!  These peony phone covers speak softly of everlasting beauty, romance and drama...maybe they scream just a little...Blondie's Call Me, meets the Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace!  In order of appearance:  Honey Peonies, Peony Drama, and Peonies and Ice Cream.

Being a floral photographer in Toronto has its disadvantages...nothing grows during the months of snow and ice.  It's never stopped me from taking pictures of flowers!  Supermarket flowers have been a source of beauty and inspiration during the dark days of October, November, December, January, February, March, April...and let's face it, even May.  These double carnations were in a plastic bucket at the grocery store, just begging to be "discovered" like a Hollywood starlet.  This phone cover is called, wait for it...Pale Pink Carnations! I tell it like it is.  No excuse not to remember that name.

Jeans and a t-shirt today?  Slip Jeans over your phone for a matching look!  I've always loved the look of faded blue jeans.  They're timeless.  These were photographed in a rural flea market, here in Ontario, and could travel around the world.  Jeans are universal.  The phone covers are slim fit too!

The phone covers are available in more than a dozen styles which cover the shape and layout of iphones and Samsung phones.  They're made of durable Lexan plastic, with embedded print, UV and scratch resistant finish.

To paraphrase Operator, the 1975 hit by the Manhattan Transfer:  Operator...information...how do you order these phone covers?   Just one ringy dingy...  http://bit.do/phonecovers