Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines BeckyB’s Squares Challenge: Squareodds
Odd Lines in the Snow January 31, 2022
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!
BeckyB’s 2021 October Squares Challenge – PastSquares
Wednesday Window
Song Lines
Tree Lines
Ponding Lines
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.
I never did…until I toured the Ticonderoga steamship at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont this past summer. The stairway between the upper and lower decks is covered with rubber tiles…each stair its own puzzle.
Pumpkins are everywhere this month…so I am including a few in BeckyB’s October lines & squares challenge. It seems appropriate.
Of course I could also include pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies and so on and so forth. But instead, I decided on the natural route. The “pumpkin/pumpkin spice” flavor popping up on store shelves has very little to do with an actual pumpkin anyway…and is more about cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg. A delicious combination no matter what you call it.
As a retired dietitian, I must add…a pumpkin (technically a fruit, but masquerading as a vegetable) is quite nutritious – full of Vitamin A, fiber and other fun micronutrients.
Last but not least…
Let’s not forget: pumpkins are multi-purpose.
If not cooked into various yummy treats, there is always the carving-into-scary-faces route.