pure white

Inspired by Pip over at Capturing Beauty, I’m presenting you with a week’s worth of photos.  His theme for the month of January is the purity of white.

I was so glad to see “pure white” as a theme instead of snow, ice, and frost.  Finally, something in which those of us who have yet to see a snowflake can participate.  I started with my bathroom towel hanging in the path of a ray of pale, early morning sun.

Here’s the stuff that keeps those towels so nice and white.  And yes, sadly, in spite of being very motivated to make changes on behalf of the environment — and on behalf of me and all the other people and animals I love, since you can’t separate us — I have not yet quit using bleach.

Not only am I a borderline hippie, but like many actual hippies I am still a renter, and that means no clotheslines allowed.  So until I can naturally whiten my linens out in a blast of sunshine (and believe me, I can’t wait for that day), bleach it is.

I thought I was being pretty persuasive to get the landlord to agree to a garden — and then to let us keep the garden when he saw it taking up portions of the front yard, half the back, and a chunk of the side yard that doesn’t technically seem to belong to this unit.  So I’m not about to push my luck begging for a clothesline.

Well, not yet.

Some of the whites were not as pure as they’d looked to my naked eye.  A sort of bluish smudge had developed on the side of this seashell. It had lain in a decorative bowl for ages with two edges lifted up to catch the dust.

The plain white rice turned out to be not so plain or so white when its container was placed on the window ledge for better light.  It lit up like a tiny sunset in a jar, and previously hidden details within the grains were revealed.

Nothing is quite so pure as an eggshell’s white.  But having spent the summer with truly free-range* eggs in a range of colors and sizes, some of them pale blue, green, and pink, not to mention many different browns and tans, and many of those with a smattering of freckles, I find the cartons of grocery store eggs rather washed out and monotonous.

I had too much fun playing with the photos of whipped cream on my photo editing software.  Not having had too much (read: any) experience with photo editing, I can easily amuse myself with the special effects function.  This dreamy creamscape has been rendered black & white, then given a glow, then a soft focus.

Here is what the whipped cream looked like without all the fancy editing.  See, it’s not really pure white, either.  It’s… cream.

The funny thing about photographing whipped cream was, well, it kept melting into the hot chocolate.  And so I kept adding more, and finally, when the mug was almost overflowing, I stopped shooting.

And then someone had to drink all that delicious, creamy hot chocolate.

Oh, and F. was not at home.

Darn.

These photos are further evidence of my efforts to stay Creative Every Day in 2010.  I’m having such fun so far, and there’s still plenty of days in the year left for you to join in on Leah Piken Kolidas’ brilliant artist-brainchild blog party.

*How free-range were these chickens, you ask?

Well, the first time we pulled up to the farm, one of the Araucana roosters was hightailing it across the road to try and make it with the hens over there.  He shot by our feet so fast that I only had a split second to exclaim to F., “Oh my God, he’s gorgeous, I want one!”  (I have serious fowl lust, especially for heritage breeds.  Some of them are like eye candy to me.)

Farmer Bill (yes, his actual name) was rolling his eyes and saying someone was about ready for the stewpot, with his female-chasing adolescent antics that made trouble with the neighbor.

But even some of the chickens could handily jump a low spot in their fencing and wander in the nearby organic pasture and some parts of the vegetable plot.  (Bill says they’re pretty good for pest control in every crop but lettuces.)

And for those lazybones or young ‘uns who stayed in the perimeter of the fence, well, there was plenty of grass and bugs and grubs and grains for all.