i had planned to blog about something different today but those plans have changed… so take a moment to appreciate these gorgeous flowers:

beautiful, aren’t they? for many months a small dedicated team have freely given their time, hard work and money to make the gardens surrounding our church beautiful and fresh, and since this summer began we have all been treated to the most gorgeous display of colour and growth, as the calla lilies bloomed amid the strawflowers and alyssum, with succulents scattered throughout.

well, thanks to someone selfish… these photos and a few scattered & trampled specimens are all that has survived a visit from our neighbourhood thief this week.

these flowers have bloomed for weeks to be appreciated by all who visited the church or walked in the grounds… but this morning when we all arrived, clods of soil littered the driveway; and gaping holes torn in the dirt were all that was left of some of the beautiful and lovingly tended beds. at least half the lilies are gone; and many that were not taken have been snapped off at the roots and left laying in the dirt. an entire bucket of growing succulent cuttings has been stolen as well… just to add insult to injury.

this was NOT cool… the lady in charge of maintaining the gardens is heartbroken and has been left feeling very discouraged, and all of us are sad at the damage… i wonder whether the person who took them spared any thought for the unhappiness they would cause with their thoughtless and greedy act? i’d like to imagine that they might feel ashamed, but perhaps that’s just giving them too much credit.

i have increased the width of this blog by 200px 🙂

this is something i have been meaning to do for a while now, but kept putting it off because fiddling with wordpress theme css is not my favourite. but it was actually simpler than expected and now it’s done, i can share larger photos with you! in addition to that, i will not only be posting my favourites from my client shoots in 2010, but also writing in-between posts of various kinds to keep the front page fresh and share some of my personal photography (which outnumber my client work at least 10-to-1 haha… i’m obsessed i suppose).

so, happy new year for tonight to all my readers and clients – and i hope you enjoy the improvements! 🙂

a tree from christmas past… now taller than a house and still growing

another calendar year is ending…

seems only a few weeks ago it was just beginning and we were all making resolutions and promising ourselves things would be different this year; 2009 was the year that we would finally: (fill in your own personal blank here) – or instead refusing to buy into the hype and cynically muttering what a waste of time it all was!

even though it seems arbitrary – dates are just numbers on paper; most of us feel reflective at this time each year and look back on the many trials and triumphs the past four seasons have brought us.

while browsing photographers’ blogs today, i came across this clip and was compelled to share it here for the benefit of my readers. although written for people who earn their living from photography it speaks to a wider audience than that, so i invite you to watch it, and contemplate whatever thoughts arise from the experience…

TRANSFORM

thanks to Zack Arias for creating and sharing this