This is the fourth winter of living in Brentwood (technically, it's my third as I was traveling back and forth to Illinois). The first winter we had our pool covered and serviced for the winter. But the pool company said a lot of people in Nashville keep their pool open year round. Really? We ought to try that. It worked fine the winter of 2012-13. The coldest temperature all that winter was 19. Not bad, we can do this. But last year...it was a lot colder, in the low single digits, and several times. And the surface of the pool froze and it looked unhappily cold. One night I thought I would take pictures and turned on the lights under the surface. And shot photos of the the fountain. Brrr...

Purple was my grandmother's favorite color.

As we neared the Oregon coast, I noticed the hills were covered with these purple flowers. I asked to stop so I could take pictures. I had seen similar ones in Colorado and Michigan and Alaska. They are lupinus, a flowering legume, of which there are more than 200 varieties. Texas bluebonnets are lupines. They are found in a variety of colors, although the foliage is quite similar. Seeds of the lupin or lupine have been a food source (similar to soybeans) for thousands of years, but are grown largely as an ornamental plant in gardens. These plants were wild, which probably means they escaped from someone's garden. I suppose some people might even consider them weeds.

Ten years ago this coming May, I went with two other photographers to the Oregon coast. This was a time of transition for me as I took my film cameras and my digital cameras. I shot many of the same scenes with the two different cameras. At the time, I was impressed with the immediate feedback I got from the digital camera. I could see immediately if the exposure was correct and whether other details within the photo appeared as I wanted. Not too long after that trip, I began to use the digital cameras more and more, and the film cameras less and less. And it has only been within the last few years that I have began to realize the potential in a digital image as I continue to learn how to process it. And only this week, as I have worked on these ten year old images have I began to see them as I saw the original scene. Was the cloud color this intense that evening? If not, it was how I remembered it. And I can create a digital image that expresses that day more fully than the transparency that was almost correct. I loved film, but I don't look back. One can do so much more with a digital image, even to make the clouds lavender.

ww

I look at scenes like this and wonder. This is the side of an old barn, and apparently someone decided a light fixture was needed on the side of the barn, and they had a spare one that might work. So up it went. And it likely worked. Maybe for a long time. But it's obvious this wasn't done by an electrician.

And still the barn didn't burn down.

We left the parking lot in absolute darkness. I was probably still wiping the sleep from my eyes, and we began driving toward our vantage point for dawn. We drove for more than 30 minutes on what seemed like the top of the world. We stopped and began to set up our gear. It was cold and windy. The color in the sky began to happen even before the sun would show itself. Soon it looked like the sky was on fire. Although I was still cold, I was thrilled at the sight. This is West Virginia.

This photo is scanned from a slide, taken by our friend Keith, that was damaged by flood water in Colorado. It's from a few years back, but it makes me smile. Today is our wedding anniversary. I thought about sharing that info in our Sunday School class yesterday, but we've been married longer than some of the folks in our class have been alive. So I didn't want to reveal that we might be older than they realize. Actually, we were kids when we got married, not fully aware of what all that "I do" meant. But we've made it this far. And we are blessed and happy, after 47 years.

It was a rainy Friday evening at the Godfrey UCC Church. My mother, sister and brother were there. (My mother had to give permission for me at the courthouse since I was under 21). It was a small wedding. My best friend Bob Griffin was my best man and Mary LaGudice was the maid of honor. They were our only friends present. And Judy's family was there. Judy made her wedding dress. And we spent our wedding night in an "expensive motel", and I left the key in the door!

Excuse my sense of humor. I thought it was funny last week to see this large crow, summoning all of its bluster, enthusiastically calling to the sky with dozens of blackbirds observing on the other limbs. From this distance, I could not tell if they were ignoring or listening to the crow.

Today is the third Sunday after Epiphany. The gospel lesson is Mark 1:14-20 which describes Jesus calling two pair of brothers, Simon and Andrew, and James and John, to be his disciples. Mark records that the response of each pair to Jesus' invitation to "come and follow him" is immediate.  The person of Jesus and/or his invitation was so compelling that the fishermen exhibit no hesitancy to leave their nets to follow Jesus. They immediately drop their current, familiar responsibilities to embark on a totally new journey. Mark gives us no clue as to whether the fishermen had a prior relationship with Jesus, nor to any of the rationale why they would do such a thing. The emphasis here is on the call of Jesus and the immediate response of the fishing brothers. The direction of their lives, their loyalties, were changed in an instant. The impact of the call on their lives was profoundly immediate. Nothing would be the same again.

Maybe my photo isn't such a joke. The listeners hear something profound, and are captured by the vision they hear, and the change that is imagined.

This photo of mine appeared earlier this week in SightPsalms, a daily visual devotional ministry of The Upper Room. I took this photo last January in my backyard. Earlier in the morning, everything had been shrouded in a winter fog, and then the sun broke through the eastern sky and illuminated this tree as if it was spotlighted. Suddenly there was depth to the scene, which made the image.