a forgiving light

[OT from cottage renovations]

it's gotten to where the first thing I notice about a day is the quality of its light.  yesterday morning's was soft, yet clear enough to fill the place with a light more direct than diffuse.  it seemed particularly well suited for the wild hydrangea sitting in the side yard to the N of the 1970s addition.  it (the plant) has always been somewhat marginal and I'm hoping it will do better once the structure is removed, if it can survive the process. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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Bittersweet Cottage garden

Hydrangea arborescens

but back to the light: it made all the difference for this image, whose technical flaws would have made it a candidate for speedy deletion in a first or second pass through the downloads.  though still not good enough for, say, the calendar project, I found that thanks to the quality of the light I sort of liked it anyway.