Mary Bedy Photography

Curving Birch Just Googling “the color green”, you get information like “there are 297 shades of the color green”. I don’t know how someone determines that - it sounds kind of subjective to me, but maybe there are scientific studies that supported that conclusion. But does that veer off into “kind of green” or “blue-green”? It’s probably more complicated than I care to know. Fall Forest Glow My mother and I used to have arguments about whether something was more blue than green or green than blue. I think she had trouble seeing some aqua hues, but maybe it’s me that can’t see some shades of green. How would you know? I have no color blindness, according to regular eye exams. Some languages only have color words that encompass blue and green together, and they don’t distinguish between these shades on the color wheel. I think mom and I would have benefitted from such a word when discussing wall colors, although maybe one of us would have been disappointed with the ultimate choice. The

I don’t know about you, but this year and especially at this time of this year, I’m exhausted. Tired of the rhetoric and the hate speech. I will now stop talking about all that and give you (and myself) a small gift. I present to you several images mostly from nature. Images that do not offend. Images that bring forth memories of quiet vacations, or wanderings in nature. Of staring at water patterns at a shoreline. Of light and shadow, subtle color and the joy and peace of silence. These are all images of quiet places. They are places which hold good memories for me of balance, the bleeding away of stress from my body, the quieting of my mind. These are places I wish I could visit again, as several of them are far away, but even the memory of standing in these places calms my spirit, and dampers the incoming noise of the outside world. I know everyone reading this simple blog post has one or two of these places that they hold dear. With this writing, I would like you to close your eyes

I’m drawn to natural patterns, like most other people. When you choose wood for a piece of furniture or flooring, or any other application, you pick the wood grain with the pattern that you most respond to. It’s the same thing with granite slabs for your kitchen counters. The pattern and color that you enjoy the most is what you will choose. But natural patterns and textures extend to so much more, like fuzzy patterned fungi growing on a tree stump, rugged tree bark, ice bubbles in a pond in winter, a snow laden tree. Nature is the ultimate painter and sculptor. She brings things into existence and makes them grow in patterns, she freezes them according to the laws of physics of crystal structures, and she paints them interesting colors. She surrounds us with so much beauty, it’s hard to see it all. The colorful arrangement of the feathers on a duck, the camouflage of various insects and animals, the beautiful bright fish in the ocean, and the waves of sand molde

In this strange time we are experiencing right now, where it’s really not a good idea to engage with a lot of strangers outside your family, there are not that many places you can go to relax. Restaurants, libraries, bookstores and other locations that are frequented by a lot of people are generally not a good idea for a while longer as of this writing on July 1, 2020. But there are a few places one can go and at least have a change of scenery from the walls of your home, where most of us have spent the bulk of the last few months. For me, this is either down at the boardwalk along the Saint Clair river, where it’s easy to practice social distancing, or it’s the local hiking trail where you might encounter two or three people out for a walk or the occasional cyclist. I always take my camera with me even if I’m just mostly going to walk or relax on one of the benches along the trail. It’s a small hiking trail, but it’s well maintained and there are several trees along the path that I