The View

This has been an incredibly difficult week for me. And to add insult to injury I can't talk too much about it here and that's hard. I like writing out my angst. You should see the scrawl in my journals these days.

I briefly considered not taking my camera to the farm yesterday. Truth be told, I didn't even want to go to the farm to pick up our veggies. I wanted to just lay in bed or maybe write. But the veggies were waiting, the kids needed time outdoors and the day was just so beautiful.

That fact alone was another source of grief for me. I heap guilt on myself for not appreciating beautiful summer days. So when I'm in a funk on a such a day and not appreciating the gorgeous weather, I beat myself up for it. I'm pathetic and I'd like to some day get over my guilt complex.

Anyway we went to the farm and spent time swinging (Brienne and Laurent), reading (Celine), picking flowers (Brienne and I) and just hanging out. It was good.

Time at the farm didn't solve my problems and because Brienne forgot her shoes (only children forget shoes) I was late getting home for starting supper which added minor complication to our day. But it did get me out of the house, removed me from my (mostly in my head) problems, guilt, and exhaustion for an hour or so. 

And now I have these photos. Lovely photos. Photos that remind me of beauty not problems.

I love flowers and photography. And the farm.

(I hadn't intended or planned this post but it seems to be an unofficial Friday's Flowers post.)

Have you seen today's post about canning, preserving and a weekly menu? Last week when I scheduled it to publish this morning I made a small error that resulted in Google reader picking up the post a whole three days early. Ie: if you read blogs through Google reader the post would of showed up on Friday, not today which was the intended publish day. I caught the mistake right away and changed the publish day so that it didn't show up on the blog till today but the RSS "damage" was done. 

All of that to say I fear that today's post got lost in the people's weekend RSS reading.

So I'm just pointing your attention to today's post, in case you visit FIMBY via Google reader. Sorry for the mix up. Scheduling posts can be a pain but is very necessary at this point of busy-ness in my writing, homemaking and homeschooling schedule. Thanks for your patience.

A sweet thing happened to me last week which gave me inspiration for this last Friday's Flowers. I was asked for a sidebar button from Kathie at Two Frog Home. Kathie is familiar with some of my long term blogging goals (which includes building readership) and offered this to me as a complimentary advertising opportunity. Free advertising, well, why not.

itty bitty button
I'm no graphic designer but it works

In turn (on my own accord, not because she asked) I am letting you all know that she has just signed a book contract for a cookbook she's written. I'm terribly pleased for her. These successes are shared joys for all of us bloggers and writers who are finding ways to maybe earn some money from our writing efforts. Congratulations Kathie!

So all of that to say that Kathie asked me for a button so I needed to make one. It wasn't hard where to start, my FIMBY flower of course.

Three years ago I took a photo of my backyard Rudbeckia. When I got serious about blogging during the following spring I cropped that photo to a tidy square to be used as my avatar, url icon (if you're reading this on the web you'll see my little flower in the url bar) and overall FIMBY web symbol.

Another year later, spring 2009, I had a local friend and graphic designer create me a FIMBY logo to further "brand" my blog. But it all started with a simple garden photo, taken on the little digital point and shoot I used for years before getting my current D-SLR.

I love flowers. I put flowers in my soap, cross-stitched flowers (gifts from family) hang on my walls, I take photos of flowers and of course I garden for the beauty of flowers. A flower symbol is an honest expession of something I truly appreciate.

I don't want to be presumptuous and say I'm like a flower but there are qualities of Rudbeckia in particular that I'd like to think could be used to describe me. Rudbeckia is a very hardy, no-fuss perennial. It blooms wherever it's planted but it really does love the sunshine. The blossoms last for a long time and although it fits in well with it's surroundings it makes a statement in the garden. And of course it's beautiful (blush).

I wasn't thinking all this when I choose that photo two years ago to use for my blog. It was a practical matter of being one of my nicest flower photos-to-date. Even though I've taken hundreds of flower photos since on my new camera I'm sticking with the original.

This time of summer Rudbeckia features prominently in my bouquets, and this week's bouquet is a handful of Rudbeckia on it's own. Simple and beautiful.

~~~

Today is the last Friday's Flowers. Thanks for joining in. I'll draw a name later this month for a bar of my soap. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.

If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post.

Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, link to Friday's Flowers and share it with us.