Inspired by Lens-Artists Challenge #86: Change Your Perspective
…we invite you to break the habit of shooting photos at eye-level and change your perspective. Instead, show us your photographs taken from a variety of perspectives–by getting down low, by looking up at the subject or looking down, or walking around the subject.
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This past Sunday – sunny but cold – seemed a perfect opportunity for a walk on the beach. The bright afternoon sun enhanced the perspective potential for this challenge…and I am always chasing the light.
It didn’t disappoint.
Along the walkway bordering the beach is a shelter that covers several lines of benches. The sun lit it up with lines as well.
Catching my eye from one side…
At first…one side
A bit less eye-catching from the other side…
And then the other side…
Venturing underneath and looking up…
Taking a look up…
…revealed an entirely different display.
I continued walking down the boulevard…but before turning around to head back to my car, I glanced up.
Apparently two seagulls took it upon themselves to be on the lookout atop a light pole.
Inspired by Fandango’s Friday Flashback: February 28
Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year….Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year?
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This post is from February 28, 2018. It is the first “full length” post I had done on this blog. I had not yet tried including photos.
I may need to write an update on stuff at some point. It is starting to accumulate again. 😮
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downsizing and stuff – part 1 – the nest
Many of us are:
thinking about downsizing.
talking about downsizing.
reading articles about how to downsize.
going through stuff wondering “where did this come from?” as if it had snuck in when we weren’t looking. Or better yet “why did I buy this?” and having no answer to “why did I keep 6 shovels or this roll of ‘perfectly good’ rug scrap for 30 years?” [My favorite – “I swear these hangers are reproducing overnight. I keep finding more.”]
purging piles of stuff or at least trying to.
And what is stuff? Well, everything is stuff. The hardest stuff to deal with….are those once precious belongings or mementos and, yes, diaries and journals that we hold on to for….”later.” Boxes and bags gathering dust in remote corners of houses and apartments and basements and attics; the stacks increasing year by year. The packing tape yellowed, cracking & falling off. This process is often jump started when adult children move out. Really move out.
The thing is…the term “empty nest” is misleading. The nest is not empty when the kids who inhabited said nest leave all their stuff behind…crammed in the nest they flew out of. Hmmm… That is not helpful. A good friend of mine suggested Rubbermaid storage totes. “Put all their stuff in those totes. Let them come get them.” I knew we could never downsize with buckets of toys, sports cards, dolls, stuffed animals, books, clothing, magazines, saved schoolwork, etc. The Molly doll that my daughter saved up money for? — upside down in one of those buckets, glasses askew. That didn’t seem right. She once had a seat at our Thanksgiving table. Sigh. Well, the kids flew the nest and and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Back to stuff. The solution to getting rid of the kids’ stuff ending up being fairly simple. I offered to ship it all to them via a pod. They could put it in storage where they lived (400 miles away in a major city). Panic ensued. “We don’t have room. Wait. WAIT.” They arrived a few months later, sorted through (most of) it, pared it down and rented their own storage unit nearby – a vastly cheaper alternative. It’s been 4 years and Molly remains safe and sound and upside down a few miles away. She is surrounded by 10,000+ carefully catalogued sports cards, a dog-eared collection of Babysitter Club paperbacks, and much more. Sorry Molly.
Adult children these days (when did I get old enough to say “these days”?)….do not want their parents’ (free!) old furniture or dishes or silverware. Ew. Old brown furniture. Ew again. No sentimental attachment to the kitchen table where one made earrings out of Cheerios? Or displayed the college acceptance letters? Or spread out racks for cooling Christmas cookies? They politely decline. I am not sure what the deal is there; but it is comforting to have this ice breaker discussion with any downsized empty nester. I am not alone. Look in any Goodwill, Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity Restore facility – it is packed with old brown furniture that baby boomers have donated. Their kids don’t want it. An antique dealer I spoke to about this phenomenon snorted “all they want is that cheap Ikea stuff.”
The most extraordinary thing about writing is that when you’ve struck the right vein, tiredness goes. It must be an effort, thinking wrong.
Virginia Woolf
Desk View February 26, 2020
Two years ago today I started posting on oneletterup.com. At first I just “practiced” and kept the blog private, as I built up courage to go public 2 months later on April 15. I began with my adventures in moving. The empty nest. Stories from childhood.
I had always been a “writer” since I first took pencil to paper in a diary at the age of 9. I put the word writer in quotes because I was in awe of real writers who crafted stories that transported me to exciting places. Writers of actual books! How could I call myself a writer too? A real writer. I could not possibly be in that league.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t help myself. I wrote letters. Cards. Notes. I kept journals. I took a writing class in college. Joined local writing groups. Attended a week long writing symposium at a university in 2007. I wrote story after story about my children’s childhood moments. When the details were fresh in my mind…I couldn’t help it…I just had to record the sweet magic I witnessed. I put together memory books and stories for family. In the 1990s I submitted stories to magazines. A few held on to them…we’ll see if we have a need for this…but ultimately no publication.
There was never enough time to make writing a top priority. Without feeling guilty that there were more important things I should be doing.
Until my husband and I moved from our house to this condo. Until my children were grown and independent. Until I retired from my consultant job in dietetics.
Until I had a room of my own.
Two years ago, I took the plunge and thought…why not? After all, I wasn’t getting any younger…or healthier.
A blog would be a place to write what I wanted. Try to ignore the inner critic. And see what happens.
I discovered the creative fun of writing challenges, photography challenges…and what has turned out to be the best part…
…Meeting and interacting with other bloggers. It is like being in a virtual writing (and photography!) group. I’ve learned so much from all of you.
My mission in February 2018 was to start writing and not look back.
So far…mission accomplished!
A big thank you to all my blogging friends for your support and encouragement, one letter Up
(aka Andrea 🙂)
Inspired by Lens-Artists Challenge #85: Treasure Hunt
This week we’re going on a Treasure Hunt! The challenge is to search for specific items – either from your archives or newly captured – from the list below. Extra credit items are a bit more challenging. Focus on quality over quantity and hit us with your best shot(s)!
Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall.
Extra Credit Items: An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image.
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A photo scavenger hunt!
This reminds me of party activities when I was a kid – going house to house asking for odd items. Like a feather or a paper clip. We also searched for items in the yard. The object of the game was to complete your collection before anyone else did.
For this challenge, I scavenged through my archives and found these photos.
A bird…painted on the side of a building in Burlington, Vermont.
A dog…missing his humans on Christmas Day in Washington, DC. (also substituting for a person in the “expressive portrait” category).
A waterfall…flowing in a park in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Guitars in the making at the Martin Guitar Factory…in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
Guitar Bodies in Rows
A fish at the entrance to a seascape…in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.
A sunset behind a mountain landscape. Boats settled in for the night…in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont.
While walking along a street in a Washington DC neighborhood last Friday, I passed by a line of trees with small prickly seed pods (?) hanging from the branches. I had never seen anything like it.
My 3 year old grandson thinks they are coconuts, but I have my doubts.
I look forward to the innumerable ways you can approach this theme!
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I have always been a numbers person. When I was in grade school, I made numbered lists of favorite books, colors, records…even friends. When something was numbered, it took on a distinctive degree of significance. And importance.
It was also a way to organize. I numbered all my 45s onto a corresponding divider matched up with their titles, all stored in a bright green case.
The importance of numbers became crystal clear when I started earning money in high school. I quickly realized that saving money – after earning it – was the ticket to the independence I had been craving since entering my teens.
Not surprisingly, my habit of keeping diaries and journals morphed into meticulous record keeping of money spent and money earned. This was back in the days of cash or check. I still have the record of every penny I spent in my last few years of college. Numbers paved the way to learning how to budget. This turned out to be a crucial skill a few years later when raising a family on a limited income.
But I didn’t know that back then.
In 1974 I was still living in a dormitory…on a meal plan paid for by my parents. Food was not a major expense, but other “essentials” added up.
Apparently record albums were a priority.
Numbers added up more significantly once I moved to an off campus apartment the following year…when a garbage can, spatulas and beer mugs took the place of record albums on my list of spending priorities.
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 