I'm toying with the idea of branching off with a photography blog. I'm sure some (many?) of you are enough with the pictures already. My apologies.
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This week Beth of I Should Be Folding Laundry rolled out a new weekly carnival - You Capture. This week's assignment was taking pictures of something you love - without the flash. (not a problem for me. I have Flash Avoidance Disorder as is evidenced by my many blurred and unintentionally soft focused pictures.) You all know that I love, love, love my husband and my girls and that I share many shots of them here. Well, not the husband so much, but the girls definitely.
I looked around for other things I love and I knew almost immediately what I would choose for this assignment.
The little cottage we live in right now was built in the 1930s. There is so much I love about living in an old house. I love the dormers and the original hardware and the creaky screen door. The wood paneling I do not love so much, but it's okay. Part of the charm, I suppose.
Our kitchen is a true marvel of the design thought of decades ago . . . it's a fairly large room with tons of floor space and almost no counter space at all. I like to imagine it has been home to many big ol' breakfast tables through the years, welcoming friends and family into the warmth of its walls. We don't have a breakfast table so it invites the girls to lots of hanging around (and hanging on) Mama as I cook and bake and avoid doing the dishes. (by hand. no dishwasher.)
My very favorite part of the kitchen is the window over the kitchen sink. From the first moment I stood there looking out into the backyard, I thought about all the women who had stood there before me. Years and years of women standing at the sink, washing dishes, thinking about children and war and bread rising and stock prices and husbands working late and mothers coming to visit and friends who are sick and babies who are new and humming and whistling and singing.
It's a westward-facing window and when the light pours in and fills the room every afternoon, I find my kitchen to be irresistible. It is with intention that I put off the breakfast and lunch dishes until the late afternoon because it allows me a chance to stand in the light and connect with the women who have stood there before me and wonder after the women who will come after.
So I'm wearing my footsteps into this floor
One day I won't live here anymore
Someone will wonder who lived here before
And went on their way
"Mother of God" - Patty Griffin
(Clearly no need for flash in a shot like this. I purposefully let the window blow out to try to capture the intensity of the afternoon sun.)
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Make sure to go by Beth's for more You Capture entries this week. Feel free to jump in and play along!
