Category Archives: Nature

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

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The photo challenge for this week?  Escape.   So many associations….especially if you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.  With whom would you plan an escape?  I planned one with my oldest daughter yesterday.   It was the only day I wasn’t scheduled to work in a museum this week, and she had just finished her last paper for her Master’s degree in Linguistics, so we decided to spend the day together celebrating Mother’s Day and her Graduation all at once.  We planned to go to the Schlitz Audubon Center and play on the beach, but it was rainy and cold.  Change of plans…

Escape can be running away; it can be freedom from entrapment; or it can be an egress or way of going forth, like helium from a balloon.  A linguistics student might tell you the etymology of the word and how it relates to “escapade” and “vomitorium” (think “fire escape”)….which is why I recommend taking a linguist with you when you go for your weekly challenge photo shoot!  Think of the interpretations that might open up for you!  For example: in botany, a plant that becomes established in the wild outside of the area of cultivation is called an escape.  (I have lots of botanical examples!)  And all of us with computers know the little key in the upper left marked “Esc”.   And birthing my daughter might be another example of escape as well…but maybe that’s a bit too graphic!  (it was 28 years ago; no digital photos of that, lucky for you!)  Here, then, are some of my shots of that marvelous day spent with my brilliant companion, Susan:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

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This week’s photo challenge theme is Pattern.  Visually, this is a very strong subject in photography and has been illustrated in countless dramatic and stunning ways by much more talented artists than I.  But what an interesting philosophical theme as well!  Are patterns created by humans, or are they natural?  Humans have a special knack for identifying and arranging patterns as well as re-creating, extending, and imposing them on all kinds of things.  Is that a function of our orderly brains, our consciousness?  Of course, there are also examples of patterns in nature….but, again, the concept of ‘pattern’ is something we invented.  It wasn’t as if a DNA string said to itself, “I think I’ll create a pattern.”  It was a human who saw what was in front of him/her and said, “Eureka!  A pattern!”  So, pattern…is it a real phenomenon or a construct of our consciousness?  Discuss.  (or just look at the pictures!)

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

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The mouth-watering prompt of this week’s photo challenge depicts a plate of cheeses from Italy with a pool of honey in the center.  “Why aren’t we living in Italy?” Steve asked me just a few weeks ago.  Good question.  No good answer.  But this post is not about cheese, or Italy, or even honey, but about angle and perspective.  “Share a photo of a subject which you shot from directly above.”  I have a new batch of shots from our hike along the Ice Age trail, so I looked through to find one which would be up to this challenge.  Aha!  Here it is:

from above

I remember how any bridge on a trail hike would be an opportunity to play “Pooh sticks” when I was a kid.  Just like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, my sisters and I would choose a likely twig to toss into the water on the upstream side of the bridge.  Then we’d wheel around to see whose stick came out first on the downstream side.  This log wasn’t about to budge from its place, but I thought of those childhood adventures with my sisters and my dad nevertheless — tromping the woods in the early spring, greeting the season of Jack-in-the-Pulpit and Mayapples and violets, and playing ‘bridge’ games.  Here’s another one: you pretend you are the troll under the bridge and the passersby overhead are the Billy Goats Gruff.  Believe it or not, I played that one on my first date with Steve.  We were hiking…and there was a bridge…and I just couldn’t help myself.  “Who’s that trip-tropping over my bridge!!!” I bellowed.  Yeah.  I guess he found it endearing in some way, because we’re still together 4 and a half years later.  Good thing. 

Sunshine comes From Above, and for that I am always grateful.  Stay playful, stay young at heart, and enjoy Spring!   

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

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COLOR!  Wow.  Great photo subject!  It is now April, and color is slowly returning to the palette of the Wisconsin landscape.  Lawns are still brown and dormant, but the little Scilla Siberica is pushing up bright green and blue in my garden.  Hooray!  I’ve been posting black and white photos for months.  It’s time for a change!  I am definitely agreeable to embracing the rainbow…and you can take that as a political statement, too, if you’d like. 

Emily’s ukelele
scilla siberica

Happy April, everyone!  And Happy Birthday to my son, Joshua – thanks for making my life more colorful!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense

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The challenge for this week is Future Tense.  I admit, thinking about the future often makes me tense, anxious, sometimes panicky.  I have a vivid imagination and a lot of irrational fears.  And I’m working on breathing, living in the present moment, all those Buddhist practices that address those thought patterns that Western Pragmatism put into my head.   The OMG! your children, your finances, your health, your retirement….you must have a PLAN for the future, you must be PREPARED, if you’re not anxious, you obviously haven’t grasped the situation!!!!  There are DANGERS out there in life!   

Do you think life is something to be feared?  Do you think life is a wonderful adventure, naturally unfolding, peaceful and harmonious and without judgment?  How do you want to live your life?  You have a choice. 

path to the dark side

The Illuminating Blogger Award

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light bulb concept

A new-found kindred spirit in the blogosphere has nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award.  I’ll allow her to introduce herself from the description on her About page:

“Sally W. Donatello is an educator, photographer and writer. Until recently she worked at Special Collections Department in the University of Delaware Library. Her interests are eclectic, but her passions focus on art, gardening, human nature, nature and reading. Mostly, she prides herself in being a lifelong learner.”

Typically on a Friday, I would be posting a Weekly Photo Challenge entry, but this week, the prompt is Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood…and I don’t have an iPhone.  But Sally recently began her own iPhoneography challenge for Mondays, so check out her stuff!

(in case you haven’t caught on, all the underlined bits are links to those places. :) )

Now, I’m going to share one random thing about myself and then nominate some others for this award.  Here goes:

As a fellow lifelong learner with Sally, I am thrilled to have learned a new word this year.  Phenology.   Spell check hasn’t even learned this word!  Phenology is “the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors”.   Aldo Leopold, a Wisconsin naturalist and hero of mine, took this study quite seriously.  I’ve been going to naturalist classes at the UW Madison (where Leopold taught) Arboretum for the last few months, and at every class break, the hostess has asked the group if they have any phenology to report.  Well, today, I have field notes that I can share at the next class.  I heard the first red-winged blackbird of this year singing his territorial song!  I was thrilled.  There’s something about the liquid melody of this bird that just makes my spirit soar.  The sun is shining brightly on the piled up snow.   The days are longer and all my photo sensors are doing a happy dance…I feel dazzled as a Tahoe skier, except without the raccoon face tan.  Temperatures are inching up well past the freezing mark, and we’re told to expect rain this weekend.  Yipee! 

Maybe that’s not so random.  It may be integral.  I love nature; I love sunshine; I love being outside.  How about this?  I had a job interview at the US Postal Service yesterday.  Yeah, that’s pretty random.  I have another interview, coming up next week, at Discovery World museum.  I think that one would be a better fit for me.  Okay, on to the nominees for Illuminating Blogger.

I’m not sure if these fine people accept blog awards, so I offer these nominations simply out of my own appreciation for the enrichment they have brought to my experience.  Any response is entirely up to them. 

Interesting Literature.

Jose of JoseRaSan66. I don’t read Spanish, so I miss a lot, but I do love photography and gain on that account.

Jamie Dedes of The Poet By Day 

I’m supposed to share 5, but I’ve only added 3 blogs to my follow list since the last time I gave out awards.  Instead, I’ll share a photo of my neighborhood.

neighborhood

Yup, that’s my car at the bottom of the shot.  But today, a red-winged blackbird sang!  I am illuminated, lit up all around.