Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Edges and Ledges
Wordless Wednesday
Tag: CFFC
Wordless Wednesday
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Birds
Happy New Year….
Thoughts…hopes…for 2022…
Art by Melinda Matzell
I was searching through a box of notecards yesterday, looking for something suitable for writing thank you notes when I found this beautiful postcard wedged between 2 envelopes. I had bought it many years ago (probably while on vacation), tucked it away and forgot about it. Somehow it had made its way out of the postcard section and ended up with the notecards. Mmmm…Why was that?
The older I get, the less I believe in coincidences. These days I am always hoping there is a reason for why something is out of place or not quite right or not as it has always been. If there is a reason, there might be a solution. The curse of a fix-it mentality.
So, I took the brand new unsent postcard out of the box and read it. And read it again. And again. I found it to be a comfort…on January 1st…when everyone is saying Happy New Year.
Let’s make that happen.
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Four Colors or More
Walking in the Woods
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sand or Dirt
Which Way photo challenge
I escaped out the back door last week and headed to my favorite sanctuary of sorts. Which way to go? Down the path into “my woods” of course. At this time of year, I am blessed with a soft carpet of leaves to welcome me. The CFFC “sand or dirt” would obviously easily be found somewhere along the way.
First I checked in on my crooked tree – phew – still hanging on after all these (3) years.
As I walked deeper into the woods, I looked down and spotted a section of the path where many leaves had blown away. Aha! Sand and/or dirt! Plus a few of nature’s odds and ends.
At the end of the path, where it eventually ends near the parking lot of a local business, I came upon a pile of dirt. A huge pile. But it was more than dirt, it was a repository of refuse that had been pushed into a pile – widening the path to allow for a truck to pass through. Knocking down small trees in the process. I had seen it there before over the past several years, but it’s gotten much bigger – at least 4 feet high now. Yard waste, construction debris and who knows what else. A mountain of a stain on this beautiful landscape. I stepped into this mess for a few photos.
One showed life. One not so much.
Winter White
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!
Fandango’s Flashback Friday: April 9
Fandango’s Flashback Friday: April 9
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?
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This post was published April 9, 2019 as an entry to a Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. A year later – at the beginning of the pandemic – I was back to watching the nightly news. It was my only connection in real time to what was going on. And that what was literally a matter of life and death around the world. The horror of what unfolded – and I won’t summarize here as I (and probably many of you) don’t need to revisit those images. Now, in 2021, I still watch the news and maintain the hope that I will begin to see less negative and more positive. That has not happened although vaccination sites and listings of how many people got “shots in arms” is often the lead story. I’ll take that as a positive, although there is a still a long way to go. One thing hasn’t changed…I am still looking for kindness to get more than 2 minutes at the end of a broadcast.
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Path
If you stop to be kind you must swerve often from your path.
Mary Webb
I have stopped watching the nightly news. Which is totally unlike me. Usually wanting to know…What Is Going On. The importance of being informed and up-to-date was always at the top of my list. Part of being a responsible citizen.
It seems to me there used to be more balance. The good and the evil. The positive and the negative. Now all I do is wince. Our leaders fighting. Shouting. Accusing. Deaf to the voices of reason…or fairness…or empathy. Especially empathy. Unwilling to even pause and consider a different path.
Nightly Breaking News punches story after story. Announcements line up in 10 second sound bites. Assault…Abuse…Cheating…Lying…. Young child missing…young child found in a shallow grave. Inconsolable parent. Another shooting. Blurry security camera video. One more senseless loss of a sister, a brother.
The news anchor drones on, his face barely changing expression. Night after night.
Rarely would I see kindness…until the final 2 minutes of the broadcast. Showcasing an act of generosity. Compassion. Selflessness.
Good to know there are people still out there…
On a different path.
They deserve more than two minutes of air time.
Collateral damage caught in the sun
What happened to this poor tree? What is the story? I noticed it right away – close to the edge of my walking path last month. Since all the trees had dropped their leaves, this one’s wounds were clearly visible. No longer hidden from view. Layers of bark stripped away.
I suspect it just happened to be in the way of a town or utility company brush clearing project. Left damaged and forgotten. A sad sight.
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bark
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White or Cream Colors
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White or cream colors
Cee’s Flower of the Day
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It isn’t often that white flowers get their deserved attention, so I am taking advantage of this challenge opportunity.
I am also grateful to focus on white (tinged with pink…) flowers rather than life and world events. Just not up to that at the moment.
Thank you Cee!
White tulips took center stage a few years ago in a Mother’s Day bouquet.
They also outlasted their yellow counterparts!
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pink and Yellow
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pink and Yellow
Cee’s Flower of the Day
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Now that Autumn is in full swing, pink and yellow don’t bloom from nearby neighborhood gardens anymore. However, during one of my many walks this summer, I thoroughly enjoyed the sight of these pink and yellow flowers.
Their name escapes me (or was never there to begin with…).
So I’ll just call these the Fun Flowers of the Day. 🙂 Unless someone can fill me in.
Happy Thursday everyone! Hang in there. Here’s hoping that the next time these flowers are in bloom, life will be back to the “normal” we used to know.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Aging Flowers
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge Special Request: Wilting, dead, or aging flowers and leaves.
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Unusual special request, but I understand it.
After all, beauty comes at all ages.
I found two examples.
Tulips – while wilting – took on a “life” of their own a few months ago. A different kind of beauty. One worth documenting.
A vine of leaves added a unique touch while weaving its way through a fence along the river’s edge. Stopped me in my tracks.
Still hanging on…
…and showing off.
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 