Monday, August 18, 2008

Insomnia and Owls

I was up all night again. le Sigh. This happens a lot. I'm usually too out of it to go try and shoot any horizontal light photography at dawn but I actually remembered this morning. However, we've had rain (woot woot!) and it's overcast. But the radar was clear so out I went thinking there might be a magical break in the clouds to give me a great sky shot or two. Well, it stayed overcast. But that was okay. I followed this guy around the cemetery and wished I had a telephoto lens for my camera the whole time. His eyes are SO beautiful! Click the images to see them bigger and better!




This old "marble" headstone is my favorite one in the cemetery. Whatever was placed in the center of the marbles is long gone and I can't tell you how curious I am about what had been there. Whatever is inscribed on the front of the headstone is very faint and hard to read but I think I'll go back soon and write it down so it isn't lost forever.

I've Shot This Headstone Before. There is a lovely older man in Brackettville who gets around on foot, is always wearing pointy cowboy boots, and knows everybody's name. I only know him as Chapo and don't know anything at all about him except for what he told me one day. All he usually says to me is, "Hey Geeeneeee!" So I was surprised when he stopped me once and wanted to tell me something. He said that when he was a boy he used to play marbles in what is now my yard. This delighted me as I've found many handmade marbles in the yard over the years and my husband has found several underneath our pier and beam house. I need to remember to take some of them to Chapo! I love to think that some of these marbles may have been his. This headstone always makes me think of dear Chapo as a little one shooting marbles with his friends.

I believe the deceased passed in 1934 which would be about the time that Chapo was a young boy.

It's touching to me that whoever put this up obviously had very little money for the kind of headstone they might have liked to honor their loved one with. So they made up for lack of money with creativity. This headstone shows a lot of love.

2 comments:

Jean Levert Hood said...

This is a fantastic owl show Genie! I have never been able to get that close to one, and seeing them only at dusk hasn't been too helpful either!

Love the story about Chapo and the marbles, and the lovely headstone. Wonderful.

Genie said...

Hi Jean! Thanks! I wasn't too very close, actually, but this camera has a better zoom than my old one. Poor guy, I followed him for quite some time, he wouldn't let me get very close. He just kept taking off and going to another tree. I think I was keeping him from going to sleep. I was thrilled to see one, I only ever hear them.

Do you know Chapo?