https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/14/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-may-14-2017/
For Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge
An OddBall Slideshow!
Gosh that was fun to pick out those weirdo photos with no category to fit into!
Thanks Cee.
Category: Collections
Reflecting for WPC 5/10/17
Reflecting
Earth for WPC 4/18/17
What an Earth Day morning I’ve had…nothing short of miraculous!!
I apparently woke myself up before daylight fretting about how I could respond to the WordPress Photo Challenge this week. The topic this week is Earth, perfect given today is such a special day, but overwhelming in it’s vast and endless possibilities. As is often the case, I just can’t choose one picture! So here is a photo journal in honor of Earth Day.
I love photographing plant life!
I am thrilled with landscape shots, especially mountains
Sunrise and sunset are, in my opinion, Natures purest art form, and it’s a brand new canvas every day!
I love animals, especially birds.
Don’t even get me started on water. Ahh, the ocean…
All of these things seem to capture Earth for me…
I thought I might do this post about the pair of Bald Eagles that have been hanging out in my tree for the last 3 weeks. They were there with me this morning for 2 hours during a stunning Earth Day sunrise…
But, I have been collecting photos in a particular and slightly odd category for quite a while, just waiting for the right “topic” to inspire me to post some of them. Today seems like the day.
Contrails
It started with a very powerful waking dream one afternoon. In my non-chemically altered state (I promise) I became a native inhabitant of the Northwest, maybe 200 years ago. Here’s what I dreamed.
One day I was simply enjoying the afternoon sky when all of a sudden I saw a strange narrow white cloud, shooting a perfect line across the bright blue expanse. It was moving rapidly and though quite pointed at the front end, it spread out into thicker rows of tiny clouds, all in a straight-ish line. I thought this must be a special message from Father Sky and wondered if I was supposed to find a man to interpret. And then I knew…Father Sky and Mother Earth were one in the same…both identically important and equally powerful. Even more significant, that one could not provide it’s individual sustenance to and for EARTH without the other. Different, but equal. Differing, but the same. Separate, but connected.
When I shook myself out of my revery, all I could think of was that Contrails did not exist back then and if one had streaked across the sky, how in the world would it have been explained by any who had witnessed one? Can you imagine? What would you have thought???
Maybe this doesn’t seem like an Earth Day post to you but there you have it.
Happy Earth Day to all and don’t give up.
Atop by ChosenPerspectives
Ambience for WPC
Ahh, to be thirteen again…and to be given complete freedom to decorate my own room. My Dad did that for me so I painted my room white and then, with a pencil, traced circles around plates, cups, and saucers all over my walls. I filled them in with pastel pink, yellow and blue enamel paint. (I also made striped curtains in the same colors.) I loved my room. It was such a peaceful haven in an otherwise tumultuous household. I could shift my mood by closing my door and immersing myself in the ambience I had been allowed to create.
When my son and grandsons moved back in with me I really wanted the boys to feel at home and so of course, passed on the traditional “freedom” to decorate their space.
Here’s a slideshow of how the oldest (13) chose to set up his room. It is filled with the dichotomies of his age and individual personality. I LOVE it! Enjoy the song below while viewing the show. (It reminds me of my Junior High/High school boyfriend, David Taylor!)
My first reaction to some of his belongings was apprehension. His Dad (my son) was never allowed weapons of any kind, not even toy guns. That really backfired as a parenting stance. But I am not too worried about my grandson. His “weapons” are mostly decorative, and are nicely balanced with his other collections (Pez dispensers, sports stuff, art, guitars, etc.)
Oh and his “stuffies”, many from his babyhood.
My grandson posed in this photo…can you see him?
Before Santa Season Ceases
These are from my friend Michelle’s collection of amazing Santa’s.
(Michelle is the Candy Artist!)
a few words about yesterday’s calorie filled Wordless Wednesday
If you saw yesterday’s post,
Another Wordless Wednesday slide show 12-21-16 (warning-VERY fattening!)
then you know my generous friend Michelle has to be one of the world’s best Grandma’s! What she does for her kids and grandkids is amazing!
The photos I posted yesterday are all Christmas decorations. She’s been doing this a while and creates a new one every year. Her rule is they have to be made with primarily “sweets”. So every eyeball, ear, rooftop, face, gown, hand, etc. is made from an edible treat. (NOT that they are eaten!!! Who would DARE after all her work?) Her display grows and grows and I am in complete awe of her dedication to surprising those kids with each new contribution.
This Santa is made from marshmallows, licorice and get this…That pink face is BUBBLE GUM. She had to chew it up for the right consistency!
When she did Frozen one year for the girls (above), of course then she had to do R2D2 for the boys next. (below)
The Fairy House is my favorite. It is this years production! (below)
This one even has a picnic outside and a Fairy inside and a flickering light (for firelight)!
The time it must have taken to attach every single gumdrop, orange slice, M and M, tic tac, jelly bean, Gummy worms, and peppermints, well, I think it’s a wonder. (That is a very small list of examples. She’s always on the lookout for candies that will work in her creations.)
I’m hoping Michelle will comment (and correct any mistakes I’ve made) and give us all more information about this love-filled “hobby” of hers!
What lucky grandchildren!!
Another Wordless Wednesday slide show 12-21-16 (warning-VERY fattening!)
EXPLANATION to follow on Talking Thursday (I just made that up!)
Relax by ChosenPerspectives for WPC
Two slideshows to facilitate the theme…hope they work for you…..
Here are my contributions….
WAIT! I just took a bathroom break while writing this post and look what I found!
But if I really want to relax, it has to be in the presence of one of the following…
To me Sunsets are Holy…to the degree that it feels sinful to not freeze in my tracks to witness and appreciate the statement being made by that which is unfathomably bigger than me…
Tiny by chosenperspectives
I’m supposed to write about Tiny but I’m much better off showing you how Tiny figures into my life!
I am an addicted collector and I think I figured out very young that if I collected tiny things, I would have room for MORE of them than if I collected, oh, say CARS! I am also a Psychotherapist and I know a hobby like this, that originates in childhood and borders on obsession, has a lot more backstory to it than I can possibly fit into one Post. But think about words like scarcity, control, abuse and isolation.
AND, my collections were the one thing I never had to share, give up or pass on to my younger sisters.
It started with Cobalt glass. I wrote about that here:
Then I got hooked on glass animals and saved babysitting money to buy a new one every few months. My best finds were at the Hobby Shop or at the San Diego Zoo, where you could actually watch the glass artist make tiny lions, tigers or bears…oh my.
This is a truly tiny sample of my animals collection. Most of the other hundreds have been recently wrapped up and packed away due to our huge household downsizing project. My animals are mostly blown glass, bone china or carved marble.
Somewhere in my adolescence, I discovered little wooden trains. They are also packed away but I did find this one photo.
I think I have more trains than anything else but when we got our youngest cats, the trains had to be put away also…not that I minded them playing with the trains, but Lucy, the miracle kitten, had a little bit of the disease called Pica and would eat bits off the trains..wheels, smokestacks, etc. She has also eaten my camera strap, three times. Almost all the trains are wooden and very small but for my birthday one year my best friend found (and hand-painted for me) the world’s SMALLEST TRAIN!! It is metal. Here’s a photo.
I am going to stop pretty soon now, even though I could go on and on. See, I also collect shells, socks, fans, concert ticket stubs, photographs, vintage Christmas Cards, and some might even say BUGS, but if you have seen them here before, you know they are anything but TINY! I do have one more thing to show you though, mainly because it is my favorite Tiny Ensemble.
