Let the Games Begin

On Saturday over 260 young baseball players gathered at Garver Park for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Little League Baseball season.  The little man is on the Reds team in the wildcat league for 7 & 8 year olds.

Boys waited, hanging on fences

 and talking with friends.

  

It was time to line up...

From oldest to youngest, every player heard his name announced.  Then out to the field he'd run to join the throng of players while broad smiling parents and grandparents clapped and cheered.

All the players gathered in the outfield to recite the Little League Oath and sing the Star Spangled Banner.  Lacking wide-angle capabilities, I shot the long line of players in a row and then used Photoshop Elements to create a panorama that gives some idea of the number of boys and girls.

In the afternoon the little man played his first game of the season. The way the coaches teach the boys, the rules that they follow allows each kid to hit and to learn a bit about every position.  No scores are kept in the first phase. It's all about learning the game and having fun!

April Musings

Here we are beginning the second quarter of the year with April showers and a high of 65 and that’s this morning.  Last week was busy with the little man on spring break.  There were Mario Kart races, pancakes in the morning, and the Imagination Station. 

I made this image dark on purpose using a texture by Distressed Jewells. I guess I was in a somber mood while processing.

 It was cold, windy, and overcast a good share of the week. We didn’t get kite flying in, but anytime a breeze blows kites soar, but flying still happened. 

I’ve been negligent with the 365 project and so far behind that I’m dropping the 365 and just calling it All These Things.  I’d love those three words as a title for a photoblog, but it’s all ready been snapped up and yes, I’m rambling.

Do you have spring dreams?  One of mine is to create a focus with my camera and writing. 

Two weeks ago, B & J and I went on a Sunday photo expedition.  We stopped by the home of a gardener I’ve known for many years.  To call Joyce a passionate grower is an understatement.  She lives and breathes growing.  She is a consummate grower…she grows indoors and out. I’m guessing that it’s more about the plants then the overall garden design, but I’m going to pose that question to her.  The only thing blooming in her garden were crocus, but the buds on her daffodils were fattening in preparation for the golden explosion of color.

Joyce’s garden is going to be my photo project for the rest of the growing season.  My focus will be on photographing, at least every two weeks, what’s blooming in her garden. As soon as the rain stops this week, I’m heading to Joyce’s garden and I doubt I’ll be disappointed in what I find. 

I'm ending with a processed photo of a poignant statue I found in a cemetery on the edge of Bryan, Ohio.  Yeats' poem, The Stolen Child, just seems to fit the photo.  The scrolling texture came from Shadowhouse Creations.

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

~ W. B. Yeats

And We had Donuts...

Oh yes, we savored a long moment of self-indulgence this morning...donuts! 

What used to be called just John's Donuts in Bryan, Ohio, is now John's Son's Depot Donuts, still in Bryan.  BUT...I had to make a run to the local grocery store yesterday and there it was...a shining, gleaming, glass door cupboard holding the decadent dough creations.  Right there I decided that in the morning the little man and I would run to the store for Williams County's best fried guilt in long, round, and oval shapes. 

I don't care how insistent you are that Crispy Cremes is the absolute glazed donut.  In my book John's Son's Donuts take the award. 

"Donuts...is there anything they can't do?"

~ Homer Simpson

Happy Sunday!

Central Park in Bryan, Ohio

On a quarter acre corner in Bryan, Ohio, sits the charming public garden, Central Park. It’s a visual feast for the eyes with a gazebo, arbor, fountain, and brick garden shed. The brick path wanders past flowerbeds, fences, and stonewalls. Inviting benches offer a place to rest quietly in thoughts or read. The cottage garden style plantings are a mixed color palette of hemerocallis, lilies, daisies, crane’s bill, ferns, hostas, annuals, and more. The roses, luxurious and lush at one time, were now fading making way for the midsummer explosion of color.

The Bryan Parks & Recreation Department plants and maintains the public garden on the corner of Central Street and Portland in Bryan, Ohio. I highly recommend visiting the little garden, its delights will whisk you away, even if only for a brief moment or two.

Central Park in Bryan, Ohio
On the corner of Central Street and Portland
http://www.bryanparksandrec.com/

July Photo Fun Update

I apologize for not keeping the July Photo Fun information handy. I’d love to see photos of your favorite garden spots, deck, patio, porch, flowerbed, or garden and share them with the world. Just email your photos to: the_cottageonthecorner@yahoo.com.