Cee’s series featuring other challenges this week has the theme Which Way. This challenge includes streets, walkways, waterways – any “way” on which people travel.
Winter, spring, summer or fall – there’s always something interesting to experience on roads and sidewalks in every season.
Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge this week is to find a subject in a photo she posted. Here it is:
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What follows are photos from my archives that fit the topic.
Boots
Fall foliage
Purple
Mother/Mom (who is wearing purple!)
Bicycle
I picked an October 20 from my blog archives. I am featuring them here for Becky’s Past Squares (or SquarePast?) today. The photos below are from two posts on Oct. 20, 2016.
For Thursday Doors that week, I posted doors of houses in Des Plaines. I have selected the ones that are most seasonal.
The other post I did that day was for Cee’s weekly Fun Foto Challenge. Her topic was vibrant colors. This is, coincidentally, the topic of Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week. These photos were taken on a trip to Texas, where we visited the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Here are some new questions for the season from Melanie’s Share Your World.
Are you easily frightened or startled?
Yes, sort of. I am startled when my husband sneaks up on me – he walks as softly ass a cat! Sudden loud noises like thunder really close by also scare me. For some reason, spiders and other arachnids don’t scare me at all. I let them crawl around my house and catch insects, but I draw the line at my personal space! (No spiders in my bed please!)
(Purely whimsical supposition. Suspend disbelief for a bit)
If you were a ghost, what location do you think you would haunt? Is it the same or different from the location you’d want to haunt? Wherever DJT happens to be – I’d follow him around the country to all his rallies! I would never leave him in peace until he dies.
What do you see in your mind’s eye when you close your eyes? (I know somebody will answer ‘the inside of my eyelids”, so I took the temptation away by answering that first! Feel free to use that answer if you like though, or pass. It’s ALL good!) I usually see undulating patterns, or the light in the vicinity that I just saw with open eyes. The patterns are sometimes really cool.
If a Semi (Big Rig in Americanese) (lorry or trolley over the pond) were about to smash into a crowd, and you could divert the vehicle’s course to hit only one person, would you? How would you decide who would become the victim? See my answer above about whom I would haunt. In real life, I don’t wish death on anybody, but sometimes I do wish certain people would die – soon – of natural causes!
GRATITUDE SECTION
Please feel free to share what makes you feel warm and cozy when the wind blows cold? Alternatively (for those on the other side of the world), what makes you feel relaxed and comfortable when the thermometer starts rising?
Fuzzy slippers, hot chocolate and warm popcorn, my cat’s warmth.
It hasn’t gotten very cold yet, although some nights have been in the 40s. The temperatures these last few days are about 10 degrees F above normal. That is something I’m grateful for: sunny, warm (not hot) days that last well into autumn.
Cee has begun a series on colors for her Fun Foto Challenge, and this week the topic is orange.
When I think of orange flowers, marigolds, lilies, and zinnias come to mind.
There is also the fruit, as in this still life.
Another edible orange is the pumpkin.
And speaking of pumpkins, I’m reminded of Halloween.
Halloween takes place in autumn, and what can be more autumnal than trees bursting with color?
Beautiful sunsets almost always contain orange.
One year, I had my toenails painted orange! (Those are my toes on the left. My niece decided on black!)
Does this double couch look comfortable? I wonder how would people socialize with this back to back seating.
And there is always orange in art, in this case, glass art!
One of our neighbors has had a very nice garden in front of his house all spring and summer; recently he added some pumpkins for autumn.
What’s the tallest building you’ve been to the top of? Sears Tower (now officially Willis Tower, but Chicagoans still call it Sears Tower) – 104 floors! I went up by elevator but my 78-year-old brother-in-law climbs the stairs to the top once a year! Amazing!
What do you do to keep fit?
Not enough, especially now with Covid + cold weather. I try to walk every day or most days. I try to get to the fitness center as often as allowed (3 days a week, 1/2 hour a day) and usually choose the stationary bike. I’m starting a new fitness program from New Zealand (called “Otago”) tomorrow for “older adults” to help with balance and reduce risk of falling. It has several types of exercises to be done each day.
What’s your jack-o-lantern carved to look like?
I haven’t carved one in several years, for three reasons:
1. I’m really lousy at this and usually just was able to carve a rudimentary face with triangular eyes and smiling mouth with a couple of teeth sticking out.
2. My son is grown and moved out, and I’m retired from teaching, so there’s no incentive to do it. My husband has no interest.
3. When I used to put jack-o-lanterns on my front porch, either the squirrels got them or kids who had a thing about “smashing pumpkins” (isn’t there even a rock group with that name?) would steal them and smash them in the street.
Do you have hope or have you lost it?
Bad day to ask (Monday, although I posted this Tuesday) – it has been a very depressing day in the news. On days like this, my heart feels heavy and I feel completely hopeless. Normally, I am fairly positive about life.
*The U.S. Supreme Court now has a conservative majority of 6-3 thanks to the hypocrisy of the Republican Senate who pushed through Trump’s ultra-right-wing nominee one week before the election, when people have already been voting early all over the country. The Supreme Court is so politicized now, it’s no longer functioning as a “check” on the other branches of government!
*Cases will be coming before this Supreme Court within weeks that may possibly take us backward by making abortion illegal and repealing the best health care system we’ve ever had (ACA, also known as “Obamacare”) with nothing to replace it and people dying every day from coronavirus.
*Another fallout from this is the increased possibility of an election decided by the Supreme Court in Trump’s favor. If the presidential election is close, if Biden wins by a small margin, Trump will surely intervene to contest the results. He’s been saying for weeks that the “Supreme Court will decide the election!” He’s polling at 43-45% nationally, way too high for comfort, in my opinion. If the Democrats don’t win a majority in the Senate, it won’t matter if Biden is elected president – they will block every legislation from the House and override the president’s veto on their (Republicans’) legislation. On the other hand, if the Dems take the Senate, they will play hardball with the GOP in the Senate and with Trump if he is (God forbid) reelected. There are several Senate races that are very close and it is possible the Democrats will win, but they also have to retain every seat they currently hold!
*Today or yesterday Trump signed an executive order in which loyalty will be considered when deciding whether to hire applicants for federal government jobs. Disloyalty will be cause for dismissal. An official from some obscure government agency quit today because of this, and wrote a letter which was released to the press stating his reason for quitting. We are moving dangerously close to a dictatorship.
*Then there’s the new spike in coronavirus cases, which seems to be happening everywhere, but in this country especially. Today it was announced officially that the Trump administration’s policy toward Covid-19 is to do nothing to stop or curb it, and just wait for a vaccine. Trump has been lying about that too, saying the vaccine will be available “in a matter of a few weeks.” He’s also saying “we’re turning the corner” when there are more cases than ever and some hospitals’ ICUs are filled to capacity.
*Due to the spike in cases in our area, the governor has imposed new restrictions, including no more indoor dining at restaurants. This is sad for me because weekly lunches with friends have been my only chance to see them and I looked forward to it every week. I’m not saying the governor was wrong to do this, but it is hard especially now that the weather is getting colder.
*It snowed today, earlier even than last year when we had snow on Halloween. It quickly melted, but I had to get out my winter coats, which turned out to have been mildewed during their storage in a bag at the top of my closet! Meteorologists are predicting lower than normal temperatures in the next couple of weeks, with a few days respite in between.
GRATITUDE QUESTION:
Feel free to share something you’re grateful for! Images and photos or poems, essays or free writing (stream of consciousness) pieces are all acceptable! AND you don’t have to do this part, it’s always optional!
Two things!
1. Some former art teachers are forming an art class, mostly people from our art class that was discontinued last spring. It starts tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to it!
2. The fall colors have been very beautiful this year, much better than the last few years. Here are a few photos I have taken on our campus recently:
This isn’t really a flower, but it’s an autumnal plant growing along the shore of our West Lake, where plants are just left to grow wild. I don’t know the name of it either, but when I spotted it, I stopped to examine it, and finding it interesting, I photographed it! It has a seed pod that resembles a pine cone growing on it.
Closer:
Close-up of its seeds:
If anyone can tell me the name of this plant, I’d appreciate it!
Posted for Cee’s FOTD 10/1/20.
I guess I’m a bit late on this one, but here it is anyway – Lens-Artists Photo Challenge of the season of autumn.
Autumn means…
Fall colors
and even some flowers
Halloween
And my favorite: family time at Thanksgiving
Wanderlust & Wonderment 