Miss Zelda 1993 - 2010
We lost a fuzzy member of the family yesterday. Miss Zelda passed over the rainbow bridge and is hopefully sleeping in the sunshine with big brother, Uncle Harry. It’s one of the really difficult things in life, losing the wonderful companions in our lives. Miss Zelda lived with my parents from the time she was a kitten in 1993. She was a beautiful gray and black tabby with white markings and beautiful turquoise eyes.
Back in ’93, my mom was visiting me in North Carolina when her good friend called to tell her that she had two new fuzzy babies for my mom. I can remember how excited my mom was and anxious to get home and meet them, Miss Zelda and Uncle Harry. Miss Zelda immediately moved in and began rearranging things. She quickly learned where things belonged and was equally quick to knock them off a table, dresser or where ever they didn’t belong. She had my mom well trained and when she couldn’t get what she wanted jumped back and forth across her pillow in a “gentle” reminder that she was there demanding attention.
She also became my dad’s buddy and loved to have him carry her around draped over his arm, purring away. She would snuggle up to dad in his chair and had him trained as well with her routine for belly and head rubs. She loved sitting outside on the deck, especially in the fall when she could chase the falling leaves . . . much braver than her big brother, Uncle Harry who ran inside when the wind would blow.
I’m sure my parents are going to really miss her companionship and I’ll miss her welcoming me on visits. She was a really sweet kitty and was well loved. We’ll miss you Miss Zelda.
Remember the good old days when people actually took the time to write a letter, lick a stamp and put it in a mailbox? Remember how good it felt to get a letter. You were excited to take it out of the envelope and read it. You kept it and read it over and over. I think that most people like getting mail, as long as it’s not that junk mail stuff or bills. When we wrote letters, we did stuff like dotting our “i”s with hearts and actually drew smiley faces. On the back of the envelop we would write S.W.A.K. For those of you too young to remember that, it means Sealed With A Kiss!
These days it’s all about fast and faster communication; OMG my BFF made me LOL. We email, text, tweet, update our status and post to our blogs. While I love technology and the convenience that comes with modern day communication, there is just something to be said for the tactile response and anticipation of opening that mailbox (the one that sits out by the street, not on your computer) and holding that letter, card or postcard in your hands. It never fails to bring a smile to my face. The front of my refrigerator always holds a hand written thank you (yes people do still send them!) or a postcard from a friend.
I recently discovered a website that will bring a little bit of that old feeling back. It’s called Postcrossing and the website is http://www.postcrossing.com. The premise is that you sign up (it’s free) and you receive an address where you will mail a postcard. The really fun part is that when you do this, your name is given to someone else on the site who will mail you a postcard from somewhere in the world! So I’m signed up and have sent my first postcard off to Hilary in Cheshire, UK!! Now the anticipation begins . . . where will that first postcard come from?? Hey, was that the sound of the mail truck?!
xoxo
This week I finished my fourth digital photography class. Our assignment for this class was to bring in photos that we had to take while thinking about them printed in a square format. Square, as opposed to the traditional rectangle format. Seems like a simple change, but it does change the way you approach your subject. So off I went, thinking square.
Each week everyone breaks out their prints of that week’s assignment and we all look at them while the instructor critiques them. Let’s just say this process is a humbling experience for me each week. The only other woman in the class is doing her big project for the class on photos that represent important literature in her life (meanwhile I’m out shooting photos of daisies). One of the guys is experimenting with pinhole photography (I had to ask what the heck is pinhole photography?) and another is practicing on local wildlife while preparing for an upcoming safari (do photos of my cats count?). Their photographs are amazing and beautiful.
While I have moments where I think I should just put the camera in a drawer and forget about it, the truth is that I am inspired by the incredible amount of talent that is out there. It just makes me want to be better. So back to those weekly critiques; the one consistent comment my instructor makes is that he’d like to see my work in a large print . . . I’m talking something like 40 x 48 inches. Of course this is going to mean a new, more robust camera and a move to a larger house with more space to hang big huge prints!
