Last year I planted strawberries (transplanted from my former garden) in back of our new house. This year, the plants have spread and are blooming! Whether or not we’ll get strawberries remains to be seen, but meanwhile, these pretty little white flowers hold the promise of delicious fruit!
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.
Marilyn Armstrong of Serendipity Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth has taken over a monthly challenge called The Changing Seasons.
The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge where bloggers around the world share what’s been happening in their month. To join in, you can either:
1. post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month. Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
or
2. post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month. Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
In either case, tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them. One thing that won’t change though. Include a ping-back to Marilyn’s post, and she will update it with links to everyone else’s.
Marilyn says, “For those of us who have participating in this challenge for years … since the first years when Baron Guzman ran the challenge, I think we have our own style on how to make this work. I could never use a single picture. I’m too indecisive. Especially given the rapidly changing climate we are experiencing, I think this is an important challenge.” Ditto for me about indecisiveness! So here’s my September photo gallery: Visits to kitschy or pretty places in our area (because we can’t travel), flowers, and season changes were the things that characterized September 2020.
Recycling styrofoam at Dart Co. in Aurora; sculpture called “Solitude”; Mr. Eggwards (Humpty Dumpty doppelganger); sunflowers at Cantigny estate in Wheaton; Tribune magnate McCormick’s house at Cantigny; outdoor BBQ stove at my niece’s house in Evanston; 4 silos surrounding Inverness Town Hall; Black Lives Matter billboard (a little bit of sanity in an area full of Trump signs on lawns); all that’s left of a factory in Grayslake, now in the middle of a park; kitschy Egyptian copies of statues & pyramid in Wadsworth, officially known as “Gold Pyramid House” (the pyramid isn’t gold right now because they had a fire); hibiscus flower after rain; rare red flower called “cardinal flower” (it disappeared within a day or two); zinnias in my garden; mini petunias in my garden; tree branches on the campus of our community; katydid (I feel an affinity – we share a name!); sunset in a nearby suburb; another sunset in a nearby suburb; West Lake (pond on the campus here) with its many ducks – most of them young adults (a few months ago most of them were ducklings).
I thought the daisies in my garden were finished blooming but the other day I noticed a new daisy about to bloom!
For Cee’s FOTD 6/7/20, I am posting a zinnia from my garden.
I saw two beautiful geranium plants at the plant store, and bought them – I’d never seen a two-colored geranium before. I planted this one in my plot in the community garden.
In this one, you can see another budding flower underneath!
Cee’s FOTD 5/25/20
Tulips from my former garden in Des Plaines, in full bloom right now!
Cee’s FOTD: 5/21/20
I don’t know the name of these flowers – I took these photos in the rain yesterday when we visited our house (which we’re now renting to daughter & son-in-law) and I noticed these yellow flowers on a plant I had planted last year in the garden. I had never seen the flowers on it before!
Cee’s FOTD 5/19/20
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge continues exploring the senses; this week it is tasting.
We have 5 basic type of tastes registered by our taste buds: bitter, salty, sour, sweet and savory. Sometimes fat is considered a 6th taste.
The American diet contains a lot of processed foods, which add salt to them – salt is a preservative. So we eat too much salt, as well as fat and sweets. High-salt diets can cause fluid to build up in your body, especially if you have a heart condition like I do. A tell-tale sign is swollen ankles but also lots of coughing, the result of fluid build-up in the lungs. That is why I try to maintain a low-salt diet.
If we would stick to “real” food, that is, food provided to us by nature, we would be a lot healthier.
Garden tomatoes: Fresh tomatoes always taste the best! (citrusy: sour, also savory)
Baclava – Vienna’s Naschmarkt (sweet – taste of honey)
Vegetables and fruit for sale at Vienna’s Naschmarkt (mostly savory, some bitter)
sweet & savory fruits!
Breads in Israel – most breads are put in the salty category, but some, like pita bread, are classified as savory
In Egypt, I fell in love with Middle Eastern food!!
We had a home-hosted dinner at the home of an Egyptian family in Luxor.
We also had a five-day cruise on the Nile on our own private boat with excellent chefs! Rice and peppers – definitely savory!
A whole fish! – Nile perch (savory, salty also)
A New Year’s cake (oh so sweet!)
Spices for sale at an Egyptian market – spices add flavor or heat to a dish, and some can be bitter.
I don’t normally take pictures of food (except when traveling), but sometimes I can’t resist, like this savory shrimp appetizer at a restaurant!
Holiday cookies from my church’s annual “cookie walk!” (Totally bad-for-you sweet, but the holidays are a time for celebrating!! Eat these in moderation!)
I will end where I started – with fresh grown vegetables, from a local farmers’ market.
Here is a collection of red roses in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Here’s my brother-in-law’s quartet serenading (actually, this was a photo opp after they did the serenade!) a couple during dinner tonight. When they do singing valentines, they always give the lady a red rose!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Wanderlust & Wonderment 