MORE FROM NELLIE

In a bunch of loose photos in my mother's basement I found this picture of my grandmother, Nellie (Hunt) Collings. This is how I remember her. I spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa Colling's house in Jerome, Idaho as a child. They would babysit me while my mother worked at a sewing shop. The child is my cousin, Bruce Collings. In front of Grandma is a stack of wooden blocks. On one of them are the letters, B.C. which were probably initials Grandpa burned into the wood with his magnifying glass for Bruce. You can see a doll wrapped in a blanket and also a bushel basket which was used to hold toys. Grandma was a fun babysitter. She told great stories of her life growing up during the settling of Utah. She had quite the sense of humor as illustrated in the following poem:

I was invited to a party once upon a time.
They told me I could either bake a cake or make a rhyme.
So I decided I had better write a verse.
While my poetry is horrid my cake making is worse.

Nellie was called upon often to provide poetry for community events, but mostly for funerals of the death of dear ones; the majority were departed children.

Then the Policeman Said...

Continued from previous post...
The officer was a long time friend. He shook his head and grinned when he saw who I was. Hubby continued to pretend not to know me. I explained my desire to photograph the sunrise. The policeman opened the microphone fastened to his shoulder and called in a false alarm. Then he said someone had notified them that a radical terrorist in dark clothes was preparing to drop things off the highway overpass on unsuspecting motorists. We both looked at the clouds over the mountains. “Maybe you can come back tomorrow,” he suggested. He spoke to the officer in the other car and then both patrol cars departed. Hubby and I walked home.
Conditions were not good for the great photo for several days. Finally I returned alone. This time I spent very little time at the center of the overpass. The police had better things to do than look for imagined radical terrorists. (Although taking donuts was a great idea, Ann.) Plus the traffic was heavier and it was really hard to keep the camera steady with the thunder and wind of passing trucks. At last I got something close to the photo you see above. I had to help the final result along with Photoshop. Okay, the mountain is not that close, but I was going for a dramatic effect.

THERE'S A FINE LINE BETWEEN HOBBY & INSANITY

Photography can lead you to strange places. I have been so excited about capturing the moment that I have been chased by dogs, yelled at by farmers and nearly froze my feet off in the snow. After going digital last year the habit has become even worse. Now I have unlimited shots and instant gratification!
For some reason I decided I wanted a photo of the sun rising over the mountain at the end of Main Street on the morning of the equinox. In my mind I could see the silhouette of the peaks with rays of sun reaching skyward and the first light flashing through the notches.
I decided the best view would be from the center of the highway overpass. It was a short walk from our house and sunrise is my favorite time of the day. I even talked Hubby into coming along. We made it to the location with time to spare only to discover the mountains covered with clouds. Hoping they would burn off (yeah, right) in the next fifteen minutes I took my camera and positioned myself over the center of the street to wait. Hubby stopped way down on the shoulder of the overpass and pretended not to know me. The sky grew lighter, but I could tell there would be no sunrise over the mountain this day. I turned around to walk back and saw not one, but two patrol cars with their lights on stopped in front of me. I continued to walk toward them and held my camera up to show them I was harmless. An officer carefully got out the first car and waited for me.
Continued next posting.