The last rose of the day is a “Royal Sunset” in the sunset, A lucky shot, another small instance of good fortune in what’s been (so far) an unreasonably lucky life.

Sunlit Royal Sunset rose blossom

Well perhaps not sunset exactly, but after supper last Sunday, a narrow shaft of slanting sun illuminated the blossom and not much around it. I had the 21mm wide-angle on but there wasn’t time to fiddle with lenses, I just threw the camera on all-auto and pointed and shot. Lucky, I said.

Lucky, You Say? · In spades. My family is mostly free of both insanity and cancer and we mostly like each other, all of which puts us in a small minority of families. I drifted through life without working very hard at anything until I stumbled into work that I loved and have been well-paid for it. My kids are tractable and healthy. I live in a nice part of a nice city. I get to travel to interesting places and meet interesting people. I get along well with my wife of twelve years. I get to tell stories to the world, and some people like them.

And sometimes a sunbeam catches a rose when there’s a camera handy.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t shake my head in amazement at how well things have worked out so far. If I were a character in a play by Sophocles the outlook would be grim.



Contributions

Comment feed for ongoing:Comments feed

From: Pat Patterson (Jul 04 2008, at 23:31)

I know the feeling, Tim. Back when the UK National Lottery started, a common question was "Are you playing the lottery?". I used to answer "I have a beautiful wife and a job that I love. I already won!"

[link]

From: Carolyn A. Colborn (Jul 06 2008, at 07:39)

It was your rose on 7/2/2007 that first enticed me to comment on Ongoing, It is your roses, your cats, and your comments on music that helped tame my stage fright from commenting on your (or anyone else's) blog and keep me coming back.

I admire the way you honor your family (I am in that small minority, too) and you make me laugh, Mr. Honorary Plant Snob!

Sun is lucky to have you, and I, for one, am lucky to have found Ongoing.

[link]

From: Stuart Marks (Jul 07 2008, at 20:15)

Most excellent. Perhaps a certain amount of luck is involved, but I think you underestimate your own involvement. (1) You had the camera at hand, ready with memory, charged batteries, etc. (2) You noticed the scene and decided to point the camera in the right direction, frame the image, and take the picture. (3) You recognized the importance of timeliness and decided to shoot on auto instead of spending time fiddling with camera settings.

"Chance favors the prepared mind." -- Pasteur

[link]

From: Roy Schestowitz (Jul 08 2008, at 08:41)

Nice shots. The photos make your feed fun!

[link]

author · Dad
colophon · rights

July 04, 2008
· Arts (11 fragments)
· · Photos (980 more)

By .

The opinions expressed here
are my own, and no other party
necessarily agrees with them.

A full disclosure of my
professional interests is
on the author page.

I’m on Mastodon!