Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is ending its series exploring color this week, with the theme 4 or more colors in one photo!
Holiday lights
Farmers’ Market
At the library
Gardens
At the zoo
Immersive Van Gogh
CFFC: Kaleidoscope
children
CFFC: Males & Females
More comparisons this week for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge! This week it’s males vs females. But I am going to make it females (first) vs males (second)!
Lions – I’m not lyin’! (Ngorongoro, Tanzania)
Maasai people – in a village
French people with dogs by the sea in Normandy
Mallard ducks
Ancient Egyptians: Queen Nefertari and King Ramses II
Selfies: Amsterdam
Two people making funny faces & wearing glasses: father and daughter
Artwork by American artist Charles White: Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep (1956); Harvest Talk (1953)
Children laughing: Chicago Botanic Garden
Just One Person … and Many Ducks (Sweden)
We took our first cruise in 2015, on the Baltic Sea, stopping at interesting historic ports, such as Tallinn, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as some of the major Scandinavian capitals. I captured this wonderful scene in the town of Sigtuna, Sweden, which has a renowned boarding school and is often a destination for church retreats. The name of Sigtuna comes from an old English word for town (tuna), which was originally a Viking word.
After a wonderful lunch and a tour of the historic parts of town, learning about runic stones and mythology, visiting a 13th century church, and seeing a scary-looking contraption that was put on people who were jailed for drunkenness at the Town Hall, we were free to walk around on our own. We strolled down the street with lots of souvenir shops. Then we headed down to the lake on a sloping street past picturesque houses (some quite large) with pretty gardens. Along the lake was a park, including a spiral path with a faux runic stone in the middle, a miniature golf course that used tiny versions of local buildings for the holes, and many ducks who hoped for tidbits from an old couple sitting on a bench. There were lots of ducks in the lake as well, and this little girl on the lake shore trying to attract them. She was the picture of innocence and inquisitiveness of childhood and I loved her black hat! She is just one person (with many ducks!) in Sigtuna.
Here is a gallery of photos taken in Sigtuna.
A runic stone was used in building this old church. 
St. Olav, built in 12th century. Remains of another church have been excavated beneath it. 
St. Olav, interior 
church graveyard 
Town Hall 
Shopping street 
The iron collar at left was put on the necks of drunks who were brought in to the jail. 
Ducks hoping for handouts from an elderly couple in the park 
The park on the lake
Joy With Kids
Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy this week has the theme Let a kid decorate. I’m not around kids much anymore, so I went into my archives from my years of teaching. Since my language arts students were all of Mexican & Central American origin, we celebrated the Day of the Dead on the day after Halloween. In the school year 2009-10, the fifth grade classes made posters – they cut out skeletons and then, as a class, they had to decide on a scene and place their skeletons in the scene. When they were finished, we decorated the halls with them.
Below are their final products!
This restaurant scene was created by Ms. Strachn’s third grade class.
This class had their skeletons go to the beach!
This class’s theme was having fun at the cemetery! (4th grade) I only did this activity in the classrooms of my students.
Skydiving skeletons (5th grade)
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Simplicity
Lens-Artists’ challenge this week has the theme simplicity. P.A. Moed says: As the coronavirus pandemic spreads and intensifies, many of us around the world are spending a lot of time at home, following governmental regulations to shelter in place. More and more of us feel like we’re returning to a simpler time–cooking our own meals, playing board games, reading (and re-reading) the classics, cleaning the house, and taking up hobbies like knitting, sewing, and gardening. For me, this time also highlights the value of simplicity.
I feel as P.A. Moed does – I find pleasure in the simple things of life. After all, I have plenty of time to look for things that I might not otherwise notice. Most of these simple things are the beauty of nature.
For example, I delight in the simplicity of a sunset, like this one in January:
the simplicity of a stand of birch trees in winter:
the simple pleasures of childhood:
the simple beauty of daffodils about to fully bloom, a sign that spring is really here:
the quiet and simple beauty of a swan resting at the edge of a pond:
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Future
Lens-Artists’ Photo Challenge this week is to depict the topic of future. How can I take photos of something that hasn’t happened yet? Of course, that is impossible, but I can photograph potential and anticipation: the changing of seasons, children growing up, construction sites where buildings are being built on their current foundations.
I read this morning that there are currently six generations of people alive today. The G.I. Generation was born in the years 1900-1924. This generation is disappearing, but a few of them are still living independently in our senior community!
My mother, born in 1917, sat in her empty apartment in 2009 contemplating her future – the last chapter of her life – as we, her children, packed up her possessions in preparation for her move to assisted living. The empty white walls and shelves represented the end of her independence. (She died at the end of 2014.)
The Traditionalists/Silent Generation was born during the Depression and World War II, 1925-1945. Baby Boomers, the largest generation, were born 1946-1964 (this is my generation).
Members of three generations – my husband, Dale, was born in 1944 and grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s. Behind him is me, born in 1952 – a Baby Boomer. In back, that smiling, handsome young man is my son, Jayme, born in 1985 – a Millennial, because his generation reached adulthood in the 21st century. Every one of us has a future to look forward to, although Dale takes it less for granted than Jayme. Dale and I look to the future as one of travel and pursuit of our own interests in our retirement years. Jayme – assuming he lives as long as we have – will see a very different world: one with altered climate, perhaps shortage of food and hopefully, a more enlightened government that invests in renewable energy. Will his health be compromised from smoking during his young adulthood? Will he quit before that? Will he find the love of his life, get married and have children? Will he publish a book of poems? I wonder about his future when I look at his face. HOPE is always a projection of the future!
Generation X is those born between 1965 and 1979. Millennials were born between 1980 and the late 1990s. Finally, Generation Z (because we don’t know what else to call them yet!) are the kids of today: born in the last years of the 20th century to the 2010s.
A member of Generation Z is filled with wonder and delight at the ducks around her. She hopefully can look forward to a long future ahead.
Mason (in lime green hoodie), holds his younger brother, Max, (my grand-nephew) as they watch fireworks over a lake in northern Wisconsin. I have already seen their future – this was taken in 2014, and Mason is no longer a child – he’s in high school, and Max, age 2 or 3 in this photo, is now a second grader.
Each of these generations had or have a future. The older ones have already fulfilled their potential – their hopes and dreams either completed or frustrated. The future they looked toward is now.
In the political arena, I see the youngest two generations as our hope for the future. These are the kids of Parkland High School, who are turning eighteen and have registered to vote; they are 18-year-olds all over the country who are signing up to vote fueled by the passion of their peers, peers such as the survivors of Parkland who saw their classmates gunned down at school, or such as Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old face of the movement to deal with climate change. We need their passion nowadays! We older folks can continue to march and protest Trumpism; we can show our concern for climate change and help in various ways. But it is really these younger people that carry us into the future.
Hope for future reflected in participants in a flash rally (including us – that’s me in the photo at left) in downtown Arlington Heights, that Robert Mueller would be allowed to do his job and discover damning information that would implicate Trump. What has Trump got to hide? Much of that is still to be uncovered – will the future bring us the full truth?
The future is my 50th high school reunion in June. Sedona, see you soon!
The future for an artist is an empty canvas.
Nature is a good place to look for the promise of the future.
I was taking a walk on a chilly (but not horribly cold) afternoon last week and took this photo of a tree rising out of a sheen of ice on a retention pond. Later, when I looked at it in large size on my computer, I noticed a lot of white specks on the branches and realized, the tree is budding already! This has been a very mild winter and plants have been fooled into thinking it’s almost spring. Already we see the future on this tree – a future of blossoms and green leaves.
All species are equipped to reproduce, so that their kinds will continue. Flowers have fertile interiors, filled with the pollen needed to spread its seeds. The flowers’ colors and fragrance are designed to attract insect species to spread their pollen. Few orchids are red, because bees cannot see that color. And flies prefer flowers that are brownish, resembling decay.
To look into the center of a flower is to see the future – or the promise of it!
Baby animals start out so small…
Our grandcat, Freddy, when he was still a kitten. Look at the hair in his ears – what breed was in this shelter kitten? Only the future would tell…Now he’s six months old with the bushy tail of a Maine coon cat!
and in the wild, their parents can only hope that their future includes reaching adulthood!
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
Last and First Photos
Bushboys World has a new challenge, to post the last photo taken in January. I actually haven’t taken any ‘real’ photos the last several days, just my artwork. So here’s the last photo I snapped of a drawing I did on Wednesday. I am practicing drawing portraits. This is of a little girl named Zia that we met in Luxor, Egypt in Dec. 2018.
After that, the next photo I took was today, of my son’s new (used) car. He bought this car from a friend a couple of months ago. It was the most expensive car he’s ever purchased, the newest (2017) and the first time he’s bought a Kia. Since he is away for awhile, we drove his car to our daughter’s house and parked it on the lawn. It isn’t safe to leave a car on a street in Chicago for more than a couple of weeks – someone might consider it abandoned! Either that, or someone will try to steal it. So here it sits in the suburbs, until he returns to drive it back home!
BOTD: Girl With Ducks
I took this photo in Sweden in 2015 and it’s one of my favorites! I saw this little girl at the edge of a lake, holding a leaf, fascinated by the ducks swimming nearby.
Posted for Granny Shot It’s BOTD 9/10/19.
Childhood: A Journey of Growing Up
We have recently moved and so I have been going through a lot of stuff stored in our old house, including photos I took of my son, Jayme, when he was a child (he is now 34). I am sharing some of my favorites of the ones I have scanned, for this week’s VJ’s Weekly Challenge #62: Child/Childhood.
1980s
Playing in a kiddie pool with a neighbor, on a hot summer day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1986
Fall 1986 – in a Janesville Wagon, at his Granny’s house in Janesville, Wisconsin
Faux pout on the pier (wearing an oversized Brewers cap!) – at our cottage on Upper Kaubashine Lake, Hazelhurst, Wisconsin, c. 1988
With his cousins
Jayme with his cousin Julia, at our cottage in northern Wisconsin, c.1989. These two were very best friends for years, and only drifted apart when we moved to Illinois and both of them grew older. Julia was just under 2 years older than Jayme.
1990s
Visiting a native village with cousins Leslie and Allie (that’s me as a much younger mom on the right!) – Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, c. 1992
Jayme with cousin Eric, feeding a deer at Jim Peck’s Wildlife, Minocqua, Wisconsin, c. 1993
With his stepdad, my husband, Dale, who is teaching him how to check the tires of his bike, Des Plaines, Illinois, 1996 or 1997.
2019
Jayme now, taken at his stepsister’s wedding in January 2019.
CFFC: Busy Hands
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week has the theme of HANDS. Looking through my photos, I found hands in various positions and engaging in various tasks – hands are seldom idle!
Some hands are meant to scare…
like on Halloween!
Sometimes hands are helpful, pointing out things of interest…
Hands demonstrate how to make things…
like this man showing us how to make papyrus. He owns a shop that sells paintings made on papyrus “paper.”
Some hands have painted fingernails.
Hands can be used as perspective to show how (in this case) deeply ancient Egyptians carved their images in rock.
Little hands are very busy! My grand-niece makes “buttered popcorn bagels”…
A 4-year old’s hands are always busy exploring! Here my grand-niece (the same one) tried on some big yellow gloves and held something in one of them.
Sometimes to get a photo of the inside of a flower, I have to hold it up…
Hands can spoil your photo when they reach up to take a photo and their shadow falls on your subject!
Sometimes hands are used for sacred acts…
such as prayer;
or when Mary Magdalene touched Jesus’ robe and felt the power of his spirit;
or when a man’s hands protected the children of the Warsaw Ghetto, while their hands could do nothing in their sadness and fear but hang at their sides.
Hands are essential in the evolution of the human species: they grasp tools, they work, they perform intricate surgery, they play music, they embrace, they pet animals*, they are used to show emotion, or to use sign language – they are used in all kinds of expression and communication. Without the development of our hands, we would not have evolved into who we are today.
*I wanted to include photos of hands petting my cat, Hazel, but she jumped on my computer, which I took to mean that I will have to create a separate post on my cat-centered blog of hands petting her!
Wanderlust & Wonderment 