photo a day challenge: Strangely
Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Tree Bud
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #41
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The buds are coming!
Or…more accurately…the buds keep coming. Every walk in the woods reveals a new set of leaves or flowers in the making. Hanging somewhat precariously from tree branches both high and low.
I no longer wonder too much about what kind of tree they originate from.
Right now…this stage of its life…is where the beauty lies.
No matter what happens next.
Stay-at-Home Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day in the age of coronavirus has taken on a different shade…
Even before this new 2020 reality hit us between the eyes, Mother’s Day was sometimes lonely. Empty nesters like me missed our adult children more than usual. Memories of sweet smiles and shouts of Happy Mother’s Day Mommy, followed by hugs, a homemade card and when older…perhaps breakfast in bed.
Who knew back then how fleeting those times really were? I just relished the moments as they happened.
My adult children weren’t always able to make the trip back to our family home for Mother’s Day – although they often tried and succeeded (probably because my birthday often overlapped!). This year – with all the unknowns and fears hanging over us – it seemed even harder to be apart. Perhaps also because there was no choice in the matter. FaceTime of course helped, but there’s nothing like an in-person hug.
During a long ago trip to San Diego, California, I bought a print made by Sally Huss, a local artist. It grabbed my heart at the time. My children were still teenagers. And I thought…yessss….
Today it has taken on a whole added perspective and an even bigger YESSSS…
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
One day…just in the way
Sprinkled
Double inspiration this week…
Lens-Artists Challenge #95: All Wet
I hope you’ve enjoyed my departure from the everyday challenges of our COVID-19 world, and that you too have some archived wet images to share.
V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #95: What a Child Knows
This week, let’s tune into the wisdom of children, or look inside to reconnect with our inner child and innate wisdom.
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If you own a home…with a yard…you often end up with a lawn that gets a bit finicky every now and then, especially in the summer.
In other words it gets crunchy in places.
Back in the days of such situations…when rain became elusive, we dragged out the green 25 foot garden hose and attached our sturdy “oscillating” lawn sprinkler. It needed to be positioned just right – in order to direct the much needed drink of water to the thirsty spots on our lawn. This took patience.
You also had to calculate exactly when to dash out of the way to re-position the sprinkler when necessary.
No sense in soaking yourself, the driveway or creating a river into the street.
Just the grass needed to get…All Wet…
With special attention paid to the Brown Spots.
Children meet up with a lawn sprinkler…and it’s a whole different story.
Never mind the grass. Or crunchiness. Who cares about brown spots? They sure don’t.
Water shooting high into the air out of a rotating metal bar with holes in it…is not about soaking the grass. Not at all.
It is really just a mechanism designed to get them all wet and cooled off in the hot summer sun.
Including a variety of delightful shenanigans…
Enjoying every sunlit moment.
They know.
Wordless Wednesday
Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Dandelion!
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #40
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As my late father-in-law used to say…
There is no such thing as a weed!
Keep in mind that his life’s work was a business that involved searching deep in the woods – spade or hook in hand – digging up and collecting a wide variety of wildflowers and plants. Which he shipped across the country and overseas. I worked for him one summer while I was dating his son, my future husband. It was back breaking hard work. Under a cloud of bug spray, I was determined to keep up. I had no idea what plant was what. But my father-in-law did and I was continually impressed at his expertise and memory.
So if there’s no such thing as a weed, then why all the weed killers for sale in hernia busting bags at the garden supply store…that happen to include “dandelion” on the list of what gets eliminated?
Is it because dandelions sprout up on their own…uncontrolled…independent…not easily contained in a neat boxed off garden bed? A splash of yellow appearing uninvited in the middle of an otherwise well tended green lawn?
They look like flowers to me.
I used to enjoy the grubby handfuls of dandelions my smiling young children would bring to the kitchen door. Carefully collected from various surprise appearances throughout our half acre…Mommy these are for you!
Yesterday, I spotted a dandelion that survived the condo association’s weed killing efforts.
It was all alone in the sunshine.
Three cheers!
Where did all the flour go?
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Touching
…post anything that stimulates or delights your sense of touch.
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Fun fact – the grocery stores may run out of regular plain wheat flour, but around here they don’t run out of gluten free flour!
People may be desperate to bake, but lucky for me, apparently not that desperate.
So, armed with “Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour” and a multitude of other ingredients, I tackled a complicated – but exceptionally delicious – corn muffin recipe this past week.
Since being diagnosed with celiac disease in 2009, my expectations for success in baking have nosedived…using recipes with as few steps as possible. However I made an exception after my daughter introduced these muffins to me several years ago. I was hooked.
They do have a strange expensive ingredient…Crème Fraîche…which can take a bit of searching in the dairy aisle. The container I had bought last month was still sitting in the refrigerator…its expiration date fast approaching.
And it proved to be what moved me to action as the rain poured outside and the light was low.
Having-something-to-use-up is a powerful motivator.
Baking kept my mind off the latest surreal news of the day…with delicious results.
Lens-Artists Challenge: At Home
Lens-Artists Challenge #94: At Home
Due to the lockdown, we are spending more time at home. But, hopefully this isn’t limiting our interest in photographing. This week, we invite you to share photos taken at home.
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I am still getting used to “home” as it exists today. Although…after 3 years, I should be well on my way.
But when you’ve lived in one house for over 36 years – the greater part of your adult life – I’ve discovered it’s an ongoing adjustment after you pack up and downsize to a condo.
These long stretched out days…sitting at the kitchen table with my humongous mug of coffee every morning…I am comforted to notice bits from my old life still close by…
The vinyl records from way back (and that’s just half of the collection). The lamp that was a wedding present from dear family friends. The 42 year old philodendron – originally a wedding gift from my college roommate…a botany major.
Family pictures. Always family pictures. Oh…and a Lego character saved and resurrected from my son’s collection. Our grandson fell in love with “Astronaut” during his last visit, so we leave it on display for FaceTime. Ready and waiting to see him again.
Glancing behind me, the door to my “office” is open – my late mother-in-law’s antique chair tucked in the corner.
At the far end of the table… my mind clearing puzzle remains stretched out waiting to be finished.
All here at home.
Wordless Wednesday
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 