Weekly Photo Challenge: Time

Speaking of time…I’m about to run out of it on this challenge (that was posted last Friday).

My submission for this Weekly Photo Challenge is the Tower of David at the wall of Old Jerusalem. I took this photo a few years ago on a friend’s old borrowed digital camera. I was walking quickly in the rain under my hood around the outer wall (you can see the raindrops refracted in the light in the photo) when I looked up and realized how welcoming the warm yellow light appeared cast against the natural stone and its twilight setting. I couldn’t help but wonder how this same setting would’ve looked centuries ago, with dancing flames providing that same evening light.

 

Extraordinary Sunrise: Fire on the Mountain

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “(Extra)ordinary.”

I’ll admit it. When I step out onto my front porch each morning, I have a beautiful view. It’s the main amenity that drew me to this home. And I know when I look to my right each and every early morning, I’m going to see the sun crest over the dip in the foothills in some form or another. In that respect, it’s an ordinary, daily event in my life.

Yet some glorious mornings, Mr. Sun wishes to attract my undivided attention more intensely than others. On this particular morning, I have to say, his show was stop-in-my-tracks spectacular. He truly dazzled me.

Fire on the Mountain

What extraordinary thing (or person) managed to catch your eye today that (who) you might otherwise have missed?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle

The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge is to share twinkling lights.

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Here’s our new Christmas tree that we did simply in my favorite theme of all – Nature.
And though Nature comes equipped with her own set of twinkling lights which are much more impressive than these, I hope my tree gives a nod to my love of her gift of starry nights.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gone but Not Forgotten

This week’s Daily Post challenge was to show something that was lost, but not forgotten.

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I can’t help but think that portraits so often provide meaning of a lost past that keeps us from forgetting the people, the period, the places, the passion of another time.

That being said, I’ve included a photo I snapped from an old digital camera that I took to the Holy Land with me.
This is the Matriarch portion of the mosaic rug in the living area of a mansion in Zippori (Sepphoris/Tzipori), in the Galilee region of Israel. I left it unedited, rather than attempting to enhance any of the faded colors from centuries of lasting wear.
Somehow, I just appreciate it more that way.

The woman in this portrait is sometimes referenced as the Mona Lisa of Galilee.
I’m sure she holds her own set of stories and secrets behind those eyes.

Yet, to tell you the truth, I’m much more intrigued with the mosaic artists who could’ve put such a tedious & long-lasting portrait together.

Walking on Water

Last week, we were up on Bays Mountain in northeast Tennessee, hiking around the reservoir.

Much to my chagrin (which didn’t last long because I was enjoying the crisp air & colorful beauty too much), I didn’t have my Nikon with me.

Regardless, I happen to live in this wonderful technological age where I can pull an i-magic box from my back pocket and still share some of my glimpses with others. (All are unedited phonography.)

Here was the first event that pulled me to the water’s edge.

Because of the loss of resolution in my zoom function, my i-art looks a little Monet-ish.
But those of you who remember the Tennessee artist Ben Hampton will appreciate that I’ve added some of his artistic flair (a piece of wildlife that blends into the imagery). Did you spot it right off the bat? (No, sorry,didn’t mean to mislead you – it’s NOT a bat…)

A coot in the lily pads

Here’s a broader view of the lily pads with brighter fall plumage on the opposite bank’s trees than on our silly little coot.

And here’s our first crossing over the reservoir. It was awesome to walk across a field of lily pads!

Here are a couple of other great shots of crossing more lily pad mines – exploding with fall’s magnificence!

On the way out, we spotted a funky little fungus (or maybe just a fun guy – get it? Fungi. If you pronounce it with the j sound, you won’t get it…) He’d artistically blanketed himself with contrasting & complementary colors for his photo op.

More proof that nature has great taste! (No, um, I wouldn’t suggest eating him.)

Falling for fall again, -jody

Refocusing on Perfection (and other less haughty goals)

Knowing how inconsistent I’ve been in the blogging community this year, I thought I’d better try to get my creative cap back on – even if I’ve managed to lose all of my writing communities and what little bit of interest I might have gained from blogging friends that I appear to have “dumped.”

I had gotten so deep into an intense scientific style of writing, in finishing out my dissertation, that my creativity (and time) felt otherwise pushed to the edge. So, here’s a warm up, as I’m hoping to get back to my other writing projects soon that have gathered lots of dust on the shelf.

I’m including a poem of dichotomy that played through my mind this morning, as well as a couple of images that were sitting on my iPhone (since I haven’t had time to get out and explore the trails with a decent camera in hand lately).

Okay, enough with the excuses…

Dichotomous Blaze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refocusing on Perfection
© jody love, 2014

My head rolled up slowly, my focus adjusting on you.
You were close – so very close.
You took my breath.
Our legs circled and entwined.
Your head turned away.
You sighed in contentment.
I closed my eyes and wondered.

In the vastness of this world
What were the chances of running into you?
I realized how perfect this all was.

 

My head snapped up sharply, my focus adjusting on you.
You were down the aisle – so far away.
You took my breath.
Our legs rotated in double-time.
Your head turned away.
I sighed in anguish.
I changed my path and wondered.

In the vastness of this world
What were the chances of running into you?
I realized this was all just…Perfect.

Evening Sunset in Bloom

Easter Eggs-travaganza Endowments

I’ve received a couple of pre-Easter eggstra surprises this past week that I thought I’d share in my brief eggscape from the evil grasp of Chapter V of my dissertation. (Speaking of eggs…Chapter IV may have fried my brain, but Chapter V is working to scramble it.)

My oldest son returned from a fun break with one of his buds out in Colorado. When I got home from work a few days ago, I had some almond-covered egg-like surprises waiting for me, all in need of taste-testing.

Then, this morning, when I went to water my fern (still well before daylight, as I perilously teetered on my lawn furniture to do so), I received quite the startle – when a mama bird nearly flew right into my face. She was probably madder than a wet, er, sparrow – um, robin? Not sure, except I was thankful she was not a blue jay or a mocking bird – or a hawk, come to think of it. Point being, she got the worst of the startle, as she flew off to fluff her doused feathers.

I knew what her overnight presence in that fern signaled. So while she was away, I carefully lowered it onto the deck for a closer inspection. I’ll bet you already know what I found. Considering the nest still looks cozy and dry, that confirms my suspicions about Mama Bird getting the brunt of my shower of insults. Bet those baby birds will never even appreciate her for it, either – until they one day have their own little eggs, keeping them captive & from going to the potty. Isn’t that pretty much what it means to be a mom?

The point of this messy message? Spring is here! I hope you’re getting eggs-cited for Easter to arrive! -j

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinity (and Beyond?)

The Daily Post offered up Infinite as the Weekly Photo Challenge.

I’m responding with a simple photo I grabbed by reaching around into my cycling jersey pocket & pulling out my iPhone (yes, while on the move) to depict the feeling I was experiencing at the moment – the one where I felt I could’ve ridden on forever into this crisp, beautiful late fall afternoon.

The sun’s rays casting shadows, the railroad tracks traveling off in one direction, crossed over by trailing power lines, with the bike trail curving away in a close-to-distant opposite direction, left my mind with an infinite number of possibilities in movement (beyond the likely blur caused by my own traveling motion in taking the image!). 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lions – I mean, Lines – to Patterns

Today’s pic is in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns.

In response, I couldn’t help but post a photo I snapped with my iPhone this weekend, where my son went to a school dance in which he and his friends were very well-patterned.

The theme for the dance was “Two by Two,” so you see the teen animals here, lined up & ready to board that ark! 🙂
My son is far left (sans giraffe mask) with his date and their friends. I want to brag on his lovely date’s talent with lines & patterns, as she actually hand-painted their giraffe shirts just for the occasion. Great work on her patterning skills, huh?

To learn more about the patterns of real giraffes, check out de Wets Wild.

And it’s apparently Giraffe Day among my blogging friends! Look at what Traveling Marla has to say about what giraffes have to say.

Word a Week Photo Challenge: Pretty (and Pressured) in Pink

Sue’s Word a Week Challenge this past week was PINK.

I knew where I wanted to go to meet it. But time and weather weren’t on my side.

I had to wait until a day when I could (a) actually get my walk in during the daylight (as most of them lately are late in the evening with the sun going down), and (b) not do it in the rain (as a few of them have been like that, as of late).

I was finally able to pull it off late yesterday afternoon, when I was in the pink as I walked our Greenway toward the Duck Refuge.

And there were several varied shades of pink along the way…

And I can’t help but add one I took last week:

Along with my favorite little bloom of all: