Weekly Photo Challenge: Look Up

I have been sorry that I didn’t create a collage for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Look Up ever since that July 2016 week came and went. I’ve decided that it’s never too late so am going to do it now!

(You can hover the cursor over the photos to see where they were taken. Click anywhere on the gallery to enlarge them.)

Seattle

Chicago

Seattle

India

India- on the wall

Seattle

Fremont Troll- Seattle

Weekly Photo Challenge: Edge 2

When I saw Kathie’s WPC Edge photo on ChosenPerspectives this morning, it reminded me of an experience of my own.

One day, when my son was a young driver, he came home and parked the car in the driveway. Even though that was a frequent occurence, this time he forgot to pull up the parking break before he got out of the car. Our driveway is on a hill so the car rolled down the driveway and over the four-foot retaining wall at the end. It stopped at a two-foot statue of Buddha.

What I remember most about this incident is that I didn’t “lose it.” It has been a parenting moment that I have felt proud of ever since. At least in my memory, I stayed very calm. I felt relieved that my son wasn’t hurt and knew he would learn from the experience. I promptly called a tow truck and had the car pulled up. I don’t believe there was even any damage to the car. I remember thanking the Buddha statue for stopping the rolling car.

I took this photo with a Polaroid camera. As I look at it now, it occurs to me that this incident may be why the trees in that area bend to the left. I’ve always thought it was because they were stretching towards a sunnier part of the yard!

Edge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Edge

I wandered around Lincoln Park this morning looking for shots I could take for this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Edge. I took so many interesting photos and wasn’t certain which I would use for the Edge challenge.

Then, just before I left the park, a tree stump caught my eye. I knew I had found my subject! That stump contained so many different types of edges.

And here is a view of the stump as a whole.

Edge

A Glimpse of My Life as a College Freshman (1966-67)

When I was writing Sixty-Eight Years of Hair, I poured through my scrapbooks and photograph albums. This week I went back and looked through the college scrapbook again. I found it primarily focused on the non-academic part of my freshman year of college.

There were two letters I had written my parents and a letter one of my classmate’s mother had written my mother about me in the scrapbook. Looking at the photos and reading the letters was like standing in front of a mirror, one which reflected that year of my life. Continue reading “A Glimpse of My Life as a College Freshman (1966-67)” →

My “Frame” Adventure

When I walked into Seattle’s Lincoln Park for my Tai Chi class yesterday, a dark green tree caught my eye. (It looked MUCH bigger in reality than it does in the photograph.) I wondered if the tree might be a possible subject for this week’s The Daily Post challenge- Weekly Photo Challenge: Frame. After the class, I returned to that area to take a photo and see what was on the other side of the foliage.

What I discovered when I walked into the foliage was that the dark green wasn’t from a single tree, it was from many. And there was indeed a frame. The frame made a complete circle, a circle that included the dark green foliage as well as the leaves from many trees that had lighter leaves.

Walking inside the frame was like walking through a magical land.

Soon, I noticed that there was a frame within the frame. It was comprised of a group of trees surrounding a pile of raked-up needles, branches and leaves which in turn were framed by the green foliage on the perimeter.

I continued to walk the magical land. Moments later, I found another frame in a frame. This time it was a tree that was being framed by other trees.

And then I saw another tall tree that was framed by smaller trees.

After leaving that segment, I saw a sight that took my breath away. I felt like I was viewing the Mother/Father/Guardian of the whole area. It stood like a giant, towering above all of the other trees.

(As I write this post and remember the experience, I think that the name Guardian fits the best.)

My journey had come to its end. I looked around the magical land, feeling very grateful for this blessed adventure.

After walking out of the outer frame, I turned around and saw that the Guardian itself was framed by the greenery.

I gave thanks to the Guardian.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rare

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge is to share a photo of something rare. I believe that the microscopic nature photos I have been sharing on my blog are rare. This is one I took yesterday of the center of an Echinacea flower.

Photo Journal of a Snail’s Adventure

Last week, when I removed an overgrown chive plant from my garden, I discovered it had been covering two snails. One appeared to be missing a big part of its shell and mucous was pouring out of that area. It looked like the other snail was eating the mucous. When I separated them, the wounded one didn’t move but the other one did. I followed its movement taking photographs along the way.

Notice in the photos below that the snail is approaching a crevice in the piece of concrete.

Wow!

Turning to the right.

And then pulling his shell up.

He has almost made it to the top.

Success!

As I continued to watch, I decided to follow him by video.

You are about to enter a snail’s world. [The snail you see at the very end of the first video is the wounded snail. The snail from the photographs above is the star of the first video (47 seconds) and all of the second one (2.59 minutes).]

I thought he was headed in a particular direction but I was wrong!

After about 20 minutes, the wounded snail began to show signs of life. In time it started on its own journey. So was it really wounded? If not, had they been mating?

I looked for information and videos on snail mating but nothing that was described or shown looked like what I had seen. There is so much I don’t know. I appreciate the glimpse into the wonders of nature that this experience has given me.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fun (for me!)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning

I enjoy looking at this succulent in the morning and then following it throughout the day.

Morning

Midday

Late afternoon

(I think I will go pick off the dried up flowers. Nothing like a photo to make the work that needs to be done in the garden obvious.)

Saying that made me I realize I should look at these flowers even closer, so I picked one of the flowers and took some microscopic views.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning

Weekly Photo Challenge: Narrow

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge reminded me of a microscopic photo I took yesterday. It is a picture of an avocado but it looks a bit like a pastry to me; one with a (narrow) crust covered by a (narrow) layer of chocolate!

avocado

Weekly Photo Challenge: Cherry on Top

In the empty lot behind my house there is a four-foot-high mound of yard waste. When I walked down the hill into that lot yesterday, I discovered that mound, and most of the property, is now covered by morning glory vines. I was even more surprised to see two dahlia plants coming out of the top of the mound!

Seeing the flowers reminded me of this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Cherry on Top. The directions: “This week, share a photo of a detail that makes a good thing even better.” The mound of yard waste is turning into compost, so that is a good thing. And seeing the dahlia plants growing from the top of the yard-waste was like seeing a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae!