stories, photographs, adventures…the next chapter
Becky B’s Squares Challenge: PastSquares
Cee’s Flower of the Day
This lively group of 10 tulips really wanted to be featured during the April 2021 bright squares challenge, but didn’t make the cut once they completely opened up.
In hindsight, it is obvious they would have been kinda perfect for past squares themes…such as flowers or circles or top or perspectives (who looks at tulips from above?). This month it’s way past time for their turn.
BeckyB’s 2021 October Squares Challenge – PastSquares
October 2019 was the second month I participated in Becky’s Squares Challenge. Taking a look back, I chose a few favorites to share once more…as we are challenged to do this month.
“Wednesday Window” was a shot taken at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. The museum is actually an amazing array (45 acres!) of 39 buildings, artifacts and gardens. I want to return once they are fully open again. Maybe next year. It is truly a photographer’s paradise.
“Song Lines” featured my first (and only) acoustic guitar…purchased in 1967 for $28. I learned simple chords to such classics as “Blowing in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Home on the Range” via group lessons taught by a local folksinger. My friend Wendy and I would sing (or some close facsimile to singing) with great gusto as I strummed the chords to “King of the Road” – our classic duo act. I made a cassette tape recording of this venture, which I still have and will never share in public. You’re welcome! My guitar has been on quite the journey since those days. My son used it in college for a class and returned it years later when we gave him a guitar for his birthday. It now rests comfortably in a closet…very close to antique status.
“Tree Lines” was taken in the woods behind my condo building. It’s always a new discovery of light playing with nature back there. My getaway. Time of day, of course, making all the difference.
Last but not least – and actually my favorite – is “Ponding Lines.” I found “my pond” along the path in those same woods near my building…partially hidden behind a wall of trees. I have followed the goings on there since moving here almost 5 years ago. It’s been a delightful privilege. I have to step carefully and push aside prickle vines and such…but the view doesn’t disappoint. Especially in October.
SixWordSaturday
BeckyB’s PastSquares
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You could hear the kids yelling up and down the block as those familiar.. and oh so repetitive…melodies grew louder and louder. Summer days and early evenings interrupted by the sounds of the approaching Ice cream man! Ice cream man!. Always shouted in double time…and always “man” because…well it was always a man. I hopefully imagine that in 2021, there are women driving as well.
My sister, brother and I must have had super sonic hearing because we were out the door or across the yard in seconds – quarters clutched in sweaty hands (if we were lucky enough to finagle them from Mom). We needed to make it to the curb before the truck went by. Chasing it down our suburban street was just not the same, although we took off after it whenever necessary.
It was always a Good Humor truck. My favorite ice cream bar was the one with the candy bar inside, but it cost more so I rarely bought it. Chocolate Eclair or Toasted Almond were my usual go-to choices.
The truck featured in this square photo was parked out of the way at the National Zoo in Washington, DC during a visit in 2019. Plugged in and keeping cold. When I saw it kinda tucked in under several trees, branches resting on its roof…I thought of all the times when the sights and sounds of a simple ice cream truck became the highlight of my day. A blast from the past.
Fandango’s Flashback Friday – October 1st
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. How about you? 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?
BeckyB’s Squares Challenge for October 2021 is PastSquares:
Join me this month celebrating the past four years of Squares. There are so many ways you can do this using the tag PastSquares. Here’s an overview of what I plan to do over the next thirty-one days;
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I am multi-tasking today. Flashback Friday “flashes back” to a post featuring an entry to a Squares challenge. Since the new October squares theme is Past Squares, this fits perfectly (I always pay attention to such coincidences). The year 2019 does feel like a galaxy far, far away…but I digress.
This post was published October 1st, 2019. I was fairly new to the square photo concept, but it was (and is!) a fun challenge. I guess I am still “experimenting” with my now 2 year old camera, as there is still so much to learn. Setting aside the time to do so is another challenge all on its own.
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Amber Waves…
October is here and along with it, a new squares challenge from Becky B: #lines&squares
For those interested, here are the guidelines…
The theme is #lines&squares, and your lines can be long, short, straight or curvy. They can also be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, perpendicular or even zig zag. There again perhaps you might prefer them intersecting, natural, singular or in stripes. As you may have gathered there are no line rules, as whatever your line everyone is welcome in square photographs!
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I am still experimenting with my new camera…macro, end-of-day light and whatever catches my eye. Thanks to the wonders of digital photography I feel free to capture as many images as I can. Even when the breeze just won’t stop…
BeckyB’s July Squares: Treesquare
Six Word Saturday
Today is the last day of Becky B’s July Treesquare challenge and I can’t let it end without including some of my favorite trees. Callery Pear Trees line the street into my condo development and bloom in bursts of white for only about a week every Spring. This photo was taken April 26, 2021. A yearly photo opportunity you can’t procrastinate about or else it’s too late and the petals fall…blanketing the grass below.
BeckyB’s July Squares: Treesquare
Photo a Week: Reflection
What is it about a Weeping Willow tree? I couldn’t take my eyes off of its massive, yet delicate presence the day I discovered it on the grounds of the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Branches reaching down…almost brushing the pond below. I don’t think I’ve even been in a more peaceful spot.
A painting come to life.
BeckyB’s July Squares: Treesquare
Becky B’s July Squares: Treesquare
Looks like stained glass…he said. Yeah, I guess it does. The color editing settings had a mind of their own yesterday…reminding me of the Ouija boards of years ago. My computer mouse just did its thing and when it was done, I thought…yes that’s it. The square tree I captured during a walk now looks a lot like my life these days. A study in hidden contrasts of dark and light…real and unreal. Bits of blue. Shots of red.
BeckyB’s July Squares: Treesquare
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White
BeckyB’s July Squares: Treesquare
In my part of the world it is summer. A hotter than normal summer from what the climate experts report.
I’ve never been one to look forward to the hot and humid, but it does seem worse than in years past…to me anyway. Growing up, my family never had air conditioning until we moved when I was 11. Until then, I spent “boiling” days (as I called them) outside in a kiddie pool or under the sprinkler or sitting next to a humming floor fan while watching cartoons or playing Monopoly with my sister. It was a round metal fan that you could sit on, cooling off your legs too. Hopefully without sticking your fingers inside. Now known as a “vintage floor fan,” it was back before finger-saving safety features became all the rage.
But I digress…this treesquare is obviously a winter photograph – post major snowstorm. I took this photo many years ago, as I liked the look of wet snow clinging to bare branches. It could be a challenge to capture the moment before winter sunshine made it disappear.
Before we know it…winter will creep back and this will be the scene outside many of our windows. No more hot and humid…which will be fine with me!
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 