Sight-savors

I suppose we all have pictures in a box in our heads of things we like to see from time to time, so that even when we don't actually see them, we know immediately what they look like because we can simply open our memory box.

I got to thinking about some of my 'sight-savors', and wondering if you had some that are the same as mine, and if not, what yours are.  I'm hoping today you will take a minute or two and think about some of your favorites, and perhaps even see one today.

Since I'm preparing new illustrations this week at work, I've been going through a lot of my computer 'clip art', and that art in turn, made me open the picture box in my head with ideas I might be able to use for future illustrations.

Last night I was looking for pictures of Cardinals.  I found a lot, but it is difficult and time consuming to try to figure out which ones are actually 'free' to use, and which ones could get me into trouble because of copyright and trademark infringement.  So, I thought maybe I should choose a different bird, and that in turn, brought to mind one of my favorite 'sight savors'.

A chick-a-dee on a Deodar branch.

And, that  opened a flood-gate.

There's those 'Life-Savor' books at Christmas time.
A spider's web bedecked in diamond dew drops.
A drop of rain in the center of a lupine leaf.

A maple key, helicoptering to the ground.
A brilliant orange sun plunging into the ocean at sunset.
A full moon stuck to a black, velvet sky.

A frosty diamond necklace outlining an autumn leaf.
A double rainbow after a summer shower.
Fireflies twinkling, dancing, in the back yard on a warm August night.

Baskets heaped with all kinds of pine cones.

The first purple crocus each spring.

Oh, I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture, and I know you must have a long list of your own.  So, today I'm going to think hard about my 'sight savors', and be as creative as I can with the resources I have on hand.  Sometimes I think I make my work a lot harder than it needs to be.

“I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden