Category: Bizarre behavior

Lens–Artists Photo Challenge #103–Surprise (Day 116 of being “grounded”

What a delightful challenge for this starting-to-seem-endless, cooped-up time. It comes from:

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/lens-artists-photo-challenge-103-surprise/

I am especially blessed these days by my father’s powerful teaching and modeling. His most strongly held spiritual belief was that boredom was a sin, and an insult to Mother Nature. He taught us to always look for that big surprise. He believed we were constantly surrounded by miracles and could find one anywhere, anytime.

Nothing cancels out boredom better than a miracle.

Being trapped in my rooms for so long has been mostly OK because of this exact philosophy. But I have to admit, I almost get to the point of boredom sometimes. When I find myself feeling that, I know it’s time to get outside. Even if just in my country-like, suburban neighborhood. Rain or shine, day or night, peopled or not, the miracles abound.

Here are some recent Surprises!!!

First, water, early morning sunlight, and shadows…a great combination for surprising beauty.

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Next, the bunnies are still around, which means the Coyotes, Owls and Hawks are probably well-fed elsewhere…for now.

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Surprise! The baby Apple Tree has its first baby apples!

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Next, very early sunlight sometimes messes with my mind. At first I thought these lovely plants had been attacked by some strange blight, only to discover on closer examination, was surprised to see it was the sun slipping through the cracks in the fence!

 

I love experimenting with things that close-up, are mysteries….but a step back reveals the origin of the surprise.

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And this one surprised me because I didn’t notice until writing this post, the shadow, light and colors from the Hummingbird feeder look remarkably like a Hummingbird!!

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And lastly, though I’m not sure it will actually work to post this, I had a long-awaited surprise just this morning.

I love my local crows and have been feeding them everyday for many years now. I wait each year for early summer, hoping to capture the Teenage crow “Feed Me!!” phenomenon.

They put on quite the show for me today!! The video is long-ish, and kind of bumpy, but if you listen closely, you’ll hear the reason for the camera jerks.

 

You can hear Miss Lucy, purring her competitive little heart out, and see the results of her head-butting my camera.

What a wonderful, surprising challenge today!!

 

Go here to see others’ creative interpretations of “Surprise”!

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/lens-artists-photo-challenge-103-surprise/

Photo a Week Challenge-7/19/19 Twisted!

I LOVE this word. Now to find some photos to represent such a fun topic!

First, the definitions of the word…

 

Does it mean warped, as in “unpleasant or unhealthily abnormal thinking”?

Like my best friend’s idea of ART?

 

Or twisted, like…

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James still has toys at 71 years old…

 

 

Or maybe twisted, as the following are some of my favorite photos?

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Don’t worry, he’s not hurt…just “resting and looking at the view”.
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My hair stylist of 30 years, tracking my recent hair loss…yikes!

 

 

Or maybe it’s just that other definition of twisted…

“forced out of its natural or proper shape; crumpled”

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Anyway, I had fun in a twisted way…

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/07/18/a-photo-a-week-challenge-twisted/

An Almost X-rated post…

My poor Primroses are so confused…

 

All I can think of is the old Woody Allen movie “Everything you Always Wanted to Know about Sex”, where Woody, standing at the front of the line of about to “escape” sperm, shouts a warning to all the others,

“Go back, go back! It’s just a hand job!”  Or something like that.

 

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It’s late November and 30 degrees here!!!!

“Go back, go back, my Sweet Primroses!! It’s a Weather TRICK!! It’s not even close to Spring yet!!!”

 

A Photo a Week Challenge 9/21/18 theme Movement!

Posted these recently for the theme of “action” but it was so delightful watching these two “flower girls” burn off some energy waiting for the dang wedding to start, I thought I’d share them again for movement.

https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/09/02/lens-artist-photo-challenge-9-1-18-action/

I made the mistake of looking further in my files and found this…

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And this…(not a very clear shot but I have waited for YEARS to see one of our wild turkeys fly!!)

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But then I remembered the wonderful train trip we took from Seattle to San Diego…

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Can’t stop now. This challenge had stimulated some serious movement in me!

Next, I found this,,,

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Normally quite docile, this batch of my bugs is very fast moving and cleaning their home has become a two person job. James has to watch them while I refresh their terrarium!

They usually just wait patiently on the screen lid while I clean, except when..and I’m not making this up…I play Pink Floyd. Then they line up like these guys, and no kidding, will sway in time with the music. Little line dancing Extasotoma’s!! (One time I even tried posting a video of this dancing phenomenon on YouTube. Hey, I thought it was cute. But was turned away because I didn’t have the rights to Comfortably Numb. I didn’t know. It was just playing on Pandora while I was cleaning.)

And then there is the movement you don’t want to see!!

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Or lastly (honest,) the movement that absolutely CANNOT happen!!!

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There’s my submission for this topic, Movement!

 

I had fun!

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/a-photo-a-week-challenge-ready-set-action/#respond

ChosenPerspectives on Twisted for WPC 5/23/18

Twisted

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My life is full of Art, but it is also full of artists who define “art” very differently from me.

My best friend is an expert, having studied and collected art for most of his life. He is also a very talented artist in his own right. We’ve had an ongoing debate for more than 40 years about what actually qualifies as art and who gets to define it. I know we are not alone in this disagreement.

I found the following online at:

https://www.performingarts.vt.edu/blog/view/defining-art-in-one-sentence-or-less

“The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines art as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.” My own definition of art is the sharing of one’s inner thoughts, feelings, emotions, visions, and struggles through multiple mediums.” 

Wondering what all this has to do with “twisted”?

I think his choice of art is twisted…and I’m sure he thinks mine is invalidly defined as art in the first place.

The photo at the top of this post is a gift my best friend gave me many years ago. I’m sure it was expensive and to many, would be defined as art.

I just think it’s twisted.

He actually spent money on that piece for me, where as I bought myself these pieces.

 

 

Here are some more examples of “art” in his home and “art” in mine.

 

 

His is on the left, mine on the right

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His choice on top

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My choice is “twisted” artwork from my grandson, at 9 and then 11 years old.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying my best friend is twisted. As a matter of fact, here is my newest absolute favorite piece of art, ironically, a gift from him. Not my chosen “style” by any means but he knew how moved I would be by this piece!

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I, on the other hand, by the definition of many, am quite happily Twisted.

Here’s proof:

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I mean, who runs for their camera before rescuing the cat stuck in the speaker cabinet???

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And who focuses on the body of the dragonfly, rather than on the beautiful flowers?
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And who becomes obsessed with their new phone camera’s macro feature when accidentally shooting her sweat-pant leg?
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And who screeches her car to a halt to snap a photo of the shadow of windshield water on her dashboard?
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Who thinks the frosting stain on the cake box is the equivalent of a Jesus face on burnt toast?
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And who in the world photographs fungus??

I do, that’s who. So I will now officially, and gladly accept the adjective of TWISTED!

I am in great company, as you know if you have ever read The Shameful Sheep or Jennifer Day at The Iconophile, two of my favorite bloggers.

I really felt it while I was going through all kinds of contortions trying to photograph my friend’s art, including, taking his series called “the 7 deadly sins” into a dark closet to eliminate some of the reflection. Didn’t work, and besides, too creepy! This is as good as I could get.

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This is a seriously twisted series and the photos are lousy!

It’s not just about art though.

Just the other day, a newish friend, while I was introducing him to my Bugs, asked me if I realized just how twisted it was for me to be this enthusiastic about them.

He has no idea. Even I know it is completely torqued to set up the photo shoots I have with my bugs.

Witness these, as examples…

 

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I won’t even get started on the debate we have about Photography as ART!!

Anyway, I know this is a long post, with a lot of photos, but the topic and the recent Daily Post announcement inspired me to do less censoring than I usually apply to my weekly photo challenge entry.

I’ll end on this note.

Initially, I was of like mind with many other contributors this week. I immediately thought of these things:

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But then I allowed the word to take me on this unexpected journey.

For that, I wish to express deep gratitude to The Daily Press for your regular inspiration for so many posts!! I will really miss you.

Sincerely,

ChosenPerspectives

 

PS I have received many Twisted gifts over the years from other twisted folks. Here are a couple involving antlers…yikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ChosenPerspectives for WPC 4/4/18 Smile

Smile

OK, so when we are in the mountains, I get up very early every morning so that I can watch the sunrise. I love to hear (sometimes see) the marauding Wild Turkeys AND any other wild life passing through that early (deer, moose, coyote, bull frogs, various seed eating birds, etc.)

I sit on the porch swing under a glass roof so I can be there in any weather. This event starts my days with a smile.

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the swing is the white strip right below and slightly left of the chimney

This is what I see from my protected seat.

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in better weather, the view extends to the mountains

So, I’m all bundled up yesterday, mug of hot coffee warming my hands and I hear a scuffling sound over the edge, just past the rapidly growing daffodils. I get up to investigate and hear it what I see.

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this is a container of bird seed! 

Uh oh. I realize now what the scuffling sound was. A Squirrel, our primary nemesis here (other than the Flickers that are relentlessly eating our HOUSE!) has somehow gotten the lid off the container.

Though we have finally found a system using Slinky’s to keep him off the bird feeders, STILL he finds this way to torment James, who really wants to resort to the BB Gun. So far, I won’t let him.

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BRAZEN fellow, this guy!!

I chase him off before J. can get his weapon, and bring the seed container up to the porch where we have collected a pile of stuff to take to Goodwill. Now the seed is right next to me, within arm’s reach should our invader dare to approach!

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Next, I see the squirrel return to the place where the container had been…and he is completely stumped. He knows it was right there just minutes before. He sniffs around frantically and this next thing, I wish I had thought to video tape. He stops, slowly turns and points his angry beady little eyes directly at ME, up on the porch. We stay frozen, in this stand off for long seconds! That GLARE!! (You will never convince me that rodents can’t THINK.)

The squirrel scampers off, disgusted, and after a quick trip inside for more coffee, I return to sitting on my swing, peaceful morning again, at last.

But no, I come back outside to this!!!

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In the short time it took me to go inside, this little guy (and several members of his clan) have shown up and eaten a HOLE in the side of the seed container. It is now leaking birdseed for them to chow down on!!!

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The irritation came first but then I could not prevent the huge SMILE!