amy drake / pictures

May 25

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From The Atlantic

A little about this section of the Cave Hill Cemetery from The Courier Journal:

On Monday, flags will be planted in front of roughly 6,100 Union soldiers and 228 Confederate soldiers buried at Cave Hill…

May 23

May 15

By the way, this is one of the cameras my buddy Paul gave me. This kind of generosity is just one of the reasons I’m hoping we can Help Paul.

amydrake:

I finally have something I collect! I’ve never been one for figurines or decoration themes (though somehow I have managed to amass a bunch of pitchers). But now that word is out that I like film cameras, a friend who works at an antique store is always on the lookout and people are giving them to me. Besides being free, I love the gift cameras because they come with stories and are attached to people I know.

This Canon AE-1 was a gift from my friend Paul Ash. He used it when he worked at the local newspaper. I would love to see some of those pictures - I need to go dig through the paper’s archives.

It’s nice having an AE-1 again.

(via stars-hit-the-horizon)

May 14

Help my friend Paul -

This is a bit off topic for a photo blog, but it’s important to me.

My friend Paul has been fighting cancer for seven years now. His doctor would like to try a promising new treatment that the VA doesn’t cover yet. If enough people kick in $10, he can get this treatment.

What do you say? $10 or whatever you can spare.

(Tumblr pals: Whether or not you can give, a reblog would be greatly appreciated.)

Apr 27

My peonies are blooming! I love them.

On a side note, because I live in northernmost Dixie, I get to tell stories like this one: Until I was in my late teens I thought there were two different plants - peonies and pineys (pronounced PIE-knees). Turns out my grandmother (who says peonies) and my great-grandmother (PIE-knees) were talking about the same thing (pictured above).