Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines
BeckyB’s Squares Challenge: Squareodds
Mother Nature surprised me with another winter masterpiece recently. A snowstorm overnight and the next day…a unique work of art. Lines and more lines!
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Feet or Paws
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Fences and Gates
Six Word Saturday
Two best buds
Wait their turns
To slam that ball
Baseball is back
Inspired by Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Pairs
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The sun finally started showing up in my living room recently. I was most grateful…and out came the camera. As well as, of course, the deck chairs. More specifically a pair of Adirondack chairs…souvenirs from a long ago trip to Coronado, California. They remind me of the beach. Somewhere there is a mini jelly jar full of sand that also made the trip back home.
These days, this pair of chairs has to settle for a view out the window in snow covered New Hampshire. As do I.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Close Ups
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Bright and colorful Autumn leaves get all the attention…all the clicks from photographers. I should know – I’m one of those photographers.
But what about leaves like this one? Not so bright. Not so colorful. Often passed by…unnoticed.
However, I admired the fact that its drab imperfect self was still hanging on, even if just barely. That alone captured my attention.
I think black and white does it justice – outlining a road map of its journey since budding out in the Spring.
A survivor after all.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Any Kind of Seating
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A few months ago, in that sliver of time between the pandemic’s summer lull and the current surge, I took care of a few neglected health care appointments. I had not been to these two facilities in at least a year.
What a difference a year…and a pandemic…can make.
The waiting areas were stark and impersonal. I totally understand why, but it was still a shock to see the rooms stripped bare of anything welcoming. No magazines. No brochures. Just warning signs everywhere.
Even though I did appreciate the vases of fake flowers attempting to add a sense of normalcy, I couldn’t shake the surreal vibe in the air.
However, I did avoid the time-out chair in the corner. It felt too much like we were all being punished. A tad bit too creepy for me.
Behind one sturdy fence lies a river
Rising and falling with every tide
Each day the moon is relied on
Nature carrying us along for the ride
I took a break from a long walk in our local park recently and took a seat…alone…on the memorial bench we had donated to honor my in-laws. My view was interrupted by the metal fence separating me from the river beyond. But I knew what was there.
Bordering trees and plant life often double as reflections on the water’s surface. River banks are exposed when the tide is low and disappear when the tide is high. There is something strangely calming and comforting about this. The predictable pull of the moon. An ebb and flow of the changing seasons and time of day.
Nature at its finest with a lesson at its core.
It was hot as blazes the day I took this photo. What did I expect for July? Exactly what happens every July.
I hold out hope upon hope that a predictable life will return someday.
When we get to the other side.
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BeckyB JulySquares: Perspectives
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Back of things
SixWordSaturday
V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #105: Quotation
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Close ups or macro
…photos needs to be black and white, desaturated, sepia (brown tones) or selective color.
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I rescued this acorn during a macro photo shoot sometime last year. I spied it lying among its fellow acorns…which were scattered in heaps on the ground – most capless – or broken all together. Random caps everywhere. Crunched underfoot by humans like me. Somehow one had remained unscathed.
I brought the survivor home, where it has been resting safely and comfortably on my bookshelf ever since.
Today it was time for some fresh air, as I was inspired by Cee’s challenge this week.
I’m happy to report it didn’t fall off the railing of my tiny deck and get lost in the grass 2 floors below. If it had, one of the hundreds (well maybe not hundreds, but close…) of squirrels would surely have snatched it away before I made it down the stairs for a rescue.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Benches
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There is a public park in my town which borders a tidal river. The grassy expanse is dotted with flowers, enormous trees and “Memorial Benches.” All of the benches (numbering well over 50) have been donated by citizens in remembrance of family members. Many of the original benches were made of wood (newer ones are made of composite material or granite) and have long since started disintegrating. The stain is peeling away. The wood is starting to rot. But the messages…inscribed into the backs…are still legible.
One of these benches has always caught my eye. I don’t know who donated it or when. But I always pause and reflect…thinking of my friends who have faced this cruel disease. And especially my one friend who didn’t make it.
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 