Category Archives: Nature

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinite

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Happy Columbus Day!  As it’s a federal holiday, United States Postal Service workers got a day off, so Steve & I went on a 7-mile hike on the Ice Age Trail around Holy Hill.  The air was crisp and sunny; the leaves were resplendent, and I couldn’t have been happier to be outside with my favorite trail partner.  We’ve missed this in our recent life and are making plans to change our lifestyle so that slow walks in nature are given priority again.  We talked about the process of awareness and making decisions.  We can do better.  This is an infinite process, but it’s not about the results; it’s about the journey.  The climb.  The progressiveness.  “Pointing the canoe” and paddling toward your values – like integrity.  I am dedicated to giving it my best shot.  And here’s my favorite of the day – very fitting for the theme, I think:

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Wordless Wednesday: Landscape Portraits

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Comments allowed and appreciated! (I’m still working on the “One Shot: Two Ways” idea.  I think I need to take the vertical shot from a lower angle and get something different in the foreground…”

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves

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Curves…

How many internet “news” headlines associate that word with female celebrities on the red carpet?  SOOOooo not my style of subject.

The curve ball?  The cosmic 2 by 4 upside the head?  Ah, yes.  That experience is one with which I am familiar.  I appreciate a good twist of fate/destiny/plot/philosophy.  I’ve been reading a 1917 copy of Best Russian Short Stories compiled by Thomas Seltzer.  Intense!  Revolutionary!  Profound!  I recommend The Shades, A Phantasy by Korolenko:  Socrates investigating the justice of religion, and for lighter fare, How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials by Saltykov: like Mark Twain satire, only Russian.

Visually, curves are naturally graceful.  Is there anything in nature that is completely straight?  I’ve thought about that several times, and the closest thing I can come up with is a pine needle.  Any other ideas out there?

So, here are some curves from my photo files:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

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I must be sharing some head space with Cheri at Word Press.  I’ve been thinking about ephemerals as I photographed the woodland wildflowers a few weeks ago.  An entire hillside was covered in trout lily, and I was excited at the prospect of seeing them all bloom at once.  I went back two weeks later to discover that I’d missed it. 

Fleeting.  Short life cycles.  Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of the first time I kissed my husband.  He died at the age of 47.  “It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts.”  That quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and my sister-in-law read it at Jim’s memorial.  Living, sentient beings change over time, rapidly or slowly doesn’t matter.  We are all impermanent.  Is that an aberration?  Or is that just the way it is?  Rage or accept as you will, the wheel turns, the cycle moves.

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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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