August's Postcards of the Month

The lowly Day Lily.

Well, these were my inspiration, gazed upon from my afternoon perch on the deck.  

But none of my photos really did justice to the brilliant contrast 

of the orange flowers against the dark woods...

Prototypes*

From top left clockwise: I liked the first one, but thought it was too dark; 

really didn't like the second one (mud!); sort of liked the third one; 

just tried a fourth version to see if the orange rice paper might work for the Day Lilies (no).

I ultimately decided to lose the green 'lace' paper (grass), as well as the music.

The Fixin's (+/-)

The Steps

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 - It did seem a shame to cover up the beautiful green marbled paper,

but the black 'lace' papers created the effect I was after.

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17 - Ha!  I forgot to take a photo of this step,
so I copied and then tried to 'erase' the first flower in the next step.

Step 18 - Here come the flowers!**

Step 19

Step 20

Step 21

Step 22

Step 23

Step 24

Step 25

Step 26

Step 27

Step 28

Step 29

Step 30

Step 31

Step 32

Step 33

Step 34 - I hadn't liked the harsh black/green line,
so I mitigated w/some small strips of (the less fiber-y) black 'lace' paper.

Step 35

Step 36 - It just needed a Dragonfly.

Panel of 21 of August's postcards

Fin.

*See Addendum I, below.
**I laid out sets of 8 flowers for the 21 cards:

Addendum I

When I was working on the prototypes, instead of Day Lilies,

I'd considered a different lily homage.

These beautiful ornamental/oriental/Asiatic lilies spring from bulbs that were a wedding gift from, Marianne, a dear old family friend.

This old photo (summer of 1955) shows l-r: 

my mother, me, Marianne, my cousin, Leslie, my Aunt Nancy; 

taken outside my grandfather's old farmhouse in our beloved Nelson, NH, 

which was Marianne's home town.  

Even though Marianne no longer lives in Nelson, 

these lilies always feel to me like they are a piece of Nelson.

Which what I tell my mother, when I bring her lilies from these plants every summer.  :)  

I planted the primary-colored lilies on one side of the deck, 

and these white and pink ones - which exude the most intoxicating scents!

- on the other side of the deck.

Addendum II

Follow-up to July's frogs!

I discovered that I also have this frog pot-holder!  

AND!

I got to visit with my young friend, Henry, the other day, and what appeared?!

  Henry gave this emerald beauty a little shower to cool it off. 

Something really impressed me while I was visiting with Henry:  

We hadn't seen each other since late February - when Henry was not quite 2 years old yet,

when he'd come to visit on a day when 'our' Barred Owl graced us with an appearance. 

So when we saw each other recently, we hadn't seen each other in @ 6 months.  

But!  

A few minutes into our visit, Henry was standing near me, 

and quietly started  talking about THE OWL!!!  

What a remarkable young fella!  :) 

Apologies for such abbreviated notes, this month!  I've been in some nasty electronics' vortex for several weeks, which has been a huge time/energy suck.  :/  I know I actually had some specific musings this month, but I lost track amidst all the frustration!