Welcome to the rt tulley photography blogIt features photos, text, and poetry.July 28Hats
I am thankful for hats. I don't know what it is, but I have always loved them. I collect hats (and photographs) like many people collect souvenir T shirts. Although I have a few souvenir T shirts, for me it's hats. I've loved wearing hats since I was a small boy. My favorites are the wide brim hats that shade your head and neck very well. But those are more expensive and are harder to store, so my collection consiststs mostly of baseball style hats (I call them golf hats though). The biggest problem with hats is how and where to store them. My solution has been to put them in a plastic storage bin. I was just now counting my hats and was up to 36 with more uncounted so it has to be well over 50 or more! When I went to Texas for the first time, my souvenir was a straw cowboy hat. When I left Texas after graduating from UT with my masters, was a black felt cowboy hat. What can I say! I just love hats. I like to coordinate my hat color with my clothes' outfit; therefore the need for hats of all colors. When i was doing the Audubon Golf Trail book I had to get a souvenir hat from each of the twelve trail courses when I played them. My Facebook photo is me with all of those hats.
I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of my hats. I got the crazy idea of a hat tree. I waited until Bebe was at work and Beth was gone (I knew I'd get in trouble if I got caught bringing out the tree!) and I pulled out my daughter's artificial Christmas tree and loaded it with hats. I was hoping to get all of my hats on it, but there was no way with that small tree. I probably would have had to uncrate out our large Christmas tree, but that is such a pain to get out and then pack up that I decided the small one would have to do. My daughter Beth came home before I had a chance to put it up and she thought I was crazy. Luckily, it got put up long before Bebe came home! Below is a photo I took at the Bayou Recruiting Bash of a lady in a purple plaid Ben Hogan style LSU hat.
hats
hats tell the person what the person does hats shade the eyes and head hats tell who the man was a cook has his hat a cowboy has his own a green beret, a baseball player their hats are always worn tom terrific had his thinking funnel hat sherlock a double brim with ear flaps the lone ranger his ten gallon hat beany flew with his propeller cap i like my hats but nothing so fancy or daring they are colorful, distinctive, and useful with you this secret i am sharing i could go from places here to there with a touch of unusual in the hats that i wear. © rt tulley
July 27Azaleas
I am thankful for azaleas. Azaleas light up the day landscape in the southeast in spring. The sheer magnitude of the numbers of and assortments of colors of azaleas in the south is amazing. They are a true gift from above.
This is a photo from Avery Island, Louisiana, in the Jungle Gardens in spring, showing several azalea bushes across the pond. Avery Island is absolutely beautiful during springtime with all the azaleas in bloom.
azalea
her name was azalea a beautiful southern belle she rose at day’s first light at dusk into bed she fell her suitors were many her detractors were very few azalea was the belle of the ball she was the belle of the bayou a young man named robert came around one fall day to ask for to court azalea and take her far away it is said she left with Robert for she was seen no more but she left flowering displays of her namesake galore. © rt tulley
July 26Shelter
I am thankful for shelter. Shelter is good to have in storms, hurricanes, or tornadoes for sure. Even when we are parched by the sun a good airconditioned shelter from the sun is welcomed. More drastically, remember the bomb shelters and fallout shelters of the fifties and sixties? I am certainly glad that we never had to use any of those, but if we had, many of us would have been very thankful.
I came across this bucket of umbrellas during a tour of LSU on which I accompanied Bebe's cousin's daughter Elizabeth last week. She lives in Shanghai and is interested in attending LSU. These umbrellas were inside the Bell Tower, I suppose in case it rained on a tour. LSU colors, of course. Although these would not be good for major storms, hurricanes, or tornadoes, they are great for the more humble variety of rains/storms. These are, in a sense, portable shelters. If you've ever been caught in a cloudburst without one, you know the benefit of these.
shelter
give me shelter from the bad storm give me a fire to keep me warm give me a blanket when nights are cold give me a love for me to hold. © rt tulley
umbrellas
umbrellas are great to have when the dark angry clouds let loose and cold water falls from the sky the soaking effect to reduce but if you have your umbrella don’t you always just know it certainly won’t rain that day there will be no clouds show but if you forget that sucker get ready for the full impact for surely as the sun sets in the west it will rain cats and dogs in fact. © rt tulley
July 25Loyalty
I am thankful for loyalty. The loyalty of friends, the loyalty of loved ones, and perhaps the loyalty of some people unknown to you for being true to integrity and principles, stands out as one of life's most enjoyable things - to know that someone always cares enough for you that they will stand by you through molasses and water (thick and thin).
This is my dog Cupcake and I. She follows me around everywhere I go and lies at my feet. It is certainly gratifying to know that my dog thinks so much of me that she wants to follow in my footsteps. I can't think of a single person that does that! True loyalty and unconditional love. No matter what I do or don't do, she will look at me with those big brown eyes, smile, wag her tail, and look like she's thinking: I love my master! (Notice how I covered up myself with the newspaper? Cupcake doesn't care that I am overweight, or wrinkled, or gray headed, but certainly my ego does). This photo was taken using my new remote radio controlled shutter trigger with my camera on a tripod. The controller is in my left hand.
loyalty
wish that i could have loyalty that everyday my dog shows to me no matter where i go whatever i may do she follows without judgment and forever stays true. © rt tulley
July 24Swamps
I am thankful for swamps. Swamps are beautiful but forboding places. They are teaming with foliage, water, and wildlife. Swamps are synonymous with Louisiana.
This is a photo of the marsh land at the Lake Martin Wildlife preserve near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana in February. The leaves had not yet come out but I liked the stark beauty of it all, the cypress trees, and the cypress knees.
a swamp tale
back in the swamp where very few can go there lives a man name of zydeco joe ole joe or zydeco as he is sometimes called has little hair in fact he is quite bald in these days when spanish moss is so difficult to find zydeco joe has no trouble at all he is the moss finding kind he makes his living by selling spanish moss he can find more than anyone you come across what his secret everyone wants to know i say the honest truth happened a long time ago see, it is said of zydeco that he had a full head of hair but now if you look at him there is no sign of any there so this is the story if you stay and then lend me your ear one day he removed all his hair then planted it in cypress trees near so now i tell you true his hair grew into moss long and fine and branched out to form more so his supply is never in decline but if you don’t believe this story that i for you say thirty years later just look at what was once black moss you will see it has all turned gray. © rt tulley |
