Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.
Showing posts with label weeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weeds. Show all posts

Sunday, March 20, 2011

First day of spring...

Bone of the Earth broken by the winter elements, 3/19/2011
A Woolly Bear, 3/19/2011 (unusually marked, hardly any black on his rear end!)

Crow Feather, 3/19/2011

An old fossil, 3/19/2011


Dried grass and weeds on the stone wall, 3/19/2011

Rust, 3/19/2011

Leaves weeds and stone, 3/19/2011

Butters sunning himself on the first day of spring
It's hard to photograph this little clown...he rarely sits still (unless sleeping)...it is also hard to type captions when the little wiggle-worm is in my lap!

...and he loves to kiss the camera
A lovely weekend with sunshine, a giant moon in the night sky, resting, painting, writing a little, wandering around the acre photographing the mess winter made of things, but finding beauty in the flattened out grasses and leaves, rotten wood and rusty bits...all very enjoyable...

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Misty Morning...

My Fred and I pulled over one fine morning (April 1st) and took pictures of the mist... there was a touch of frost on the ground and the day was warming up with the sunrise... it's just been very weird having 80 degree days so early...

I've been playing with color and cropping again...
I just wanted a sliver of this one...

This next one is pretty much untouched, I only toned it down just a little bit...


...the old trees in the flooded place are gorgeous...and the frosty weeds with the ribbon of mist make it so fragile...and my favorite tangle of vines and briars...

I "finished" my proofreading marathon today (is it ever truly finished?), but I will be spending more time spot checking places that I want to change and to check on things that I thought about changing, but passed over as "okay"...and then I'll do random spot checking here and there before I turn it over to my Fred for one more pre-printing proof. We're almost there, I can't throw up my hands yet. It has been frustrating to find things wrong in a manuscript that I've been working on steadily for over a year, but that's okay. (I'll keep telling myself that!)

It's okay, really. It's worth the extra effort to make it right.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Beautiful things...

Birch bark, March 2010

Rotten pumpkin from last Halloween, March 2010 (maybe not so beautiful to some, but dang, I thought it was mighty cool looking anyway!)


Weed and peeling paint, March 2010

Bare Trees and mist, March 2010

Old bricks, March 2010

A pale leaf, March 2010

The Robin's Story:
I rescued this poor little fellow this morning, (I believe it is a young male from last spring.) The robins have been abundant on the acre and there was a bit of a scrappy bird war going on, and this little guy took a header right into my studio window! I looked out and saw the poor thing lying in the leaves, I feared that he was dead, but when I went outside for a closer look, I saw he was breathing and the little eye flickered open. The other robins were fussing wildly, partially still at war with one another over territory, but those in the immediate area were cussing me out for butting in. I gently scooped up the little fella, cupped in one hand and held him close, sheltering him from the wind. It's such a beautiful thing holding a fragile wild creature, feeling it's life and warmth. After a brief examination, I determined the little wings were not broken, the feathers were all aligned proper, usually they're just stunned and need a chance to come around. After a bit of time, he perked up, and the little feet grasped my fingers, I asked him if he wanted to leave, but he remained hunkered down in my hand, so I tucked him close again. A little longer, the wings fluttered and the eyes were brighter. When I felt certain that he was going to be all right, I found a safe place in the blue spruces on the north side where it was less windy, and perched him on the branches, but he wound up tumbling to the ground and hunkering down in the leaves; a bit of wavering sunshine landed across his back and he seemed content (so of course, I ran inside to get my camera!) He spent most of the day there, being quiet, getting his bearings. By this time the rest of the robin tribe seemed to have sorted out their territorial dispute and were hopping around looking for food, flying and tut-tutting. Later, during my walk with Max, he was still there, but hopping around, looking over his shoulder, watching me; hop and flutter. I called out "Hey, you, I need to make sure you can fly, go on, git!" I clapped my hands and he took off for the trees. A happy ending.

I'm up to chapter 10 in my latest proof-reading round with The Fractured Hues of White Light, I'm hoping to get past chapter 11 before the day is over...and squeeze in a little bit of painting too...

My giveaway of Dusty Waters at Library Thing wound up today, the three winners were announced, and I will be mailing out their signed copies this week, by Wednesday the latest.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Looking at things...

...and seeing...
This frost was on the hood of our son's car...

A broken branch from my favorite tree...looks like old bones...

I love the texture of it...


Then there was this spot of "lace" on the ground that looked lovely in the sunlight...but because the image turned out so washed out, I played with the contrast and made it into a warm black and white...