I have started a “Liz Bennefeld, Artist” page on Facebook to differentiate between my editing/writing/résumé services business and my artistic and creative projects, both commercial and personal.
I invite you to stop in at my new “Artist” page and if you enjoy it, please click “Like”! Thank you!
Another frost photograph from Thursday morning.
My first frost photograph for winter 2011-2012 was taken on January 12, which is the first morning that there was frost on the front-door window.
Fledgling in the Nest
I had expected to have more photos up, but things didn’t work out as I had planned. Last Saturday night I took a trip to the emergency room, again, as a result of multiple encounters with, first, cigarette smoke on Thursday, and then on Friday and Saturday, what I suspect was smoke from recreational fires in the neighborhood. This time I ended up in hospital. I am expecting a release to go home on Tuesday morning with a scrip for prednisone, again. I am not excited about a home oxygen supply. I mean, electronics are us!
And so I was looking out a third-floor hospital window when we got our first real snowfall of the year.
The bout of asthmatic breathing, which I have decided after looking through descriptions of symptoms is exercise induced 
asthma, has taken a lot more out of me than I feel comfortable with. Only now that the wind and dust have given way to rain showers and calmer breezes do I feel at ease going outside. The allergens really do make a difference in how I feel. I have missed a lot of opportunities for taking photographs during the past month or so, and I am sorry for that. I am also sorry that I am not as eager to get out for walks with my camera and just take photographs of my surroundings. Once I have caught up with things here at home, I must do something about that. Something creative…
I took several photographs of the waterfall at Rendezvous Park in West Fargo on Saturday. Al and I were there with other members of our amateur radio group to provide communications along the route during the “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” fund-raising event for the greater Fargo-Moorhead area. I tried some texturing on this photo to sharpen details.
Rendezvous Waterfall
This gallery contains 3 photos.
We enjoyed our first hard frost of the autumn, and I am looking forward to cooler weather to continue. I have added these photographs also to my gallery, QuietSpaces, at RedBubble.com.
Still not up to getting out to take more photographs, but here is one from this day last August. Took a bit of work in Painter to it, just to see how it would come out. Hope you like it!
Dragonfly at Rest
ETA: I’ve uploaded the larger version to RedBubble (just click on the photo), and made it available as note card, postcard, and canvas print. Not sure how it would look in the larger size, but I thought that the small canvas version might look pretty good with the combination of oil painting and natural effects.
Margins, by Liz Bennefeld
Margins, edges, boundaries…so many things, ideas, physical and mental barriers define our lives. Sometimes boundaries are good. They protect us. Many times, however, boundaries protect us too much. We fear to move beyond them. “Something” might happen, good or bad. Risk are worth taking, if the goal is worth achieving. Life is not a pre-scripted movie. The ending may not include achieving the goal. But if one does not risk, the one certainty is that the goal will not be achieved.
As hot and wet as this summer has been, it’s hard to imagine going out this fall to find photographs similar to this one. I picture the ditches and side roads as still being wet, muddy, and difficult to traverse. It didn’t take my garden that long, though, to dry out pretty much. I’ve tried to water the plants every few days. The lettuce did not make it, nor did any of the wildflower seeds I planted. However, I have picked half a dozen summer squash (the yellow ones) so far, and it looks as though there will be many more before frost ends the growing season.
I could use a “fallow season” myself. As much as I disliked the penny pinching of the economic downturn, I certainly did cherish the hours and days free for creative pursuits, for cleaning and straightening, and for reading books from cover to electronic cover. With the increase in activity, I find myself battling a chest cold, which has not been fun.
Almost the weekend, and no commitments but to read through the rest of David’s book (I wouldn’t have had the chance to read it otherwise) and to run the 2-meter net, Sunday night. Then next weekend, it’s Al’s turn. And blood donations, again, if we are well in time.
I have no wildflowers in my gardens, yet, from the seeds that I planted at the end of last month, but there are plenty of summer squash flowers, and last year’s mustard and lettuce, if I’ve identified them correctly, are going to produce more seeds. I must remember to buy mustard seeds again. It was nice to have enough on hand to grind my own powdered mustard for cooking.
Mustard Flowers
Lettuce Flowers