I haven’t had the time to use my computer much less blog! I’m involved in so many things, I guess. That is why I am grouping my “odds” in subjects so I can post several at once, for Becky’s February Squares: SquareOdds.
Unfortunately, I can’t find my photo of a car with eyelashes, or it would be in here! But have you ever seen a VW in a tree? Maybe someone in Bethlehem (Israel) put it there to be considered “art”!
Baby car hitches a ride on mama car in some small Iowa town – they’re ready to go! Pretty spiffy, though!
An abandoned van in the desert along Route 66 between San Bernardino and Kingman.
I just had to take a photo of this ironic bumper sticker. It’s one of the best I’ve seen! Also this car has an odd number of bumper stick-ons! I don’t know who this car belonged to, but it was parked in the parking lot behind a high school in Sedona, Arizona.
Now here are some real oddities: outer space cars?? You will find them in Baker, California!
Here’s a side view of the above, although I could not make it square. Galaxy Peace Patrol? Sort of ironic that it is “armed” with missiles!
This is a picture of my absent car – it left a snowy outline of its space, because the driveway was shoveled around it. It’s an odd picture – I don’t know why I took it!
Artists who use sidewalks as their canvas know that their art is temporary. If you are lucky enough to see one of these 3D-looking masterpieces, it’s best to take a photo right then and there, because next week it could be gone! I have only myself encountered one of these sidewalk paintings – usually I see them online somewhere – so I was happy to find this one, which was done on the sidewalk in front of the Des Plaines Public Library last August. I have not seen it since, so I assume it was removed or washed away.
Only having this one sidewalk masterpiece to post on the Photographing Public Art Challenge, I looked in my archives for a few other works of “art” on the sidewalk.
I’m not quite sure what this was about (we were just walking by) but it covered an entire block in downtown Denver when we were there three years ago.
This may not be considered “art” but these intersection crossings in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, were eye-catching and clever.
Sometimes, sidewalk art is in the form of mosaics, like this one that we sat next to while listening to our guide outside the Church of the Beatitudes in Israel.
More famous are the mosaic tile sidewalks in Rio de Janeiro. This view is looking down from a bar on the top floor of a hotel in Copacabana.
It’s July and that means a new Square challenge from Becky! Also, this week the topic for Cee’s Black & White Photo challenge is trees! (I started this on July 1, but I got really busy and didn’t turn on my computer for 2 days.)
Here’s a date palm in Israel.
Not a square, but a funny sight – a skinny, tall evergreen squished between two fatter evergreens!
Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge this week is photos of water in nature, and Jez has an ongoing challenge in Water Water Everywhere. My contribution is WAT ER FA L L S
Bridges, paths & walkways, desert and mountain terrains, and national parks – these are some of the places to find interesting “ground.” Sometimes there is an added bonus: a lizard, a flower, or a butterfly, or something ugly, like trash. This challenge is a way to showcase the photos I don’t usually publish in other posts!
Chicago Botanic Gardens: bridges, paths, and walkways
Cuba Marsh Wildlife Preserve (Illinois): walkways and grassland
The Middle East (Egypt and Israel): Desert landscapes, markets and farms
Mountain and Southwest (USA) terrain: ground above & below the tree line and rocks at Rocky Mountain National Park; trails and paths at Bryce Canyon National Park
Lisa Coleman’s Bird Weekly photo challenge this week has the topic of birds perched up.
Crows on a roof, Arlington Heights, IllinoisWoodpecker, probably female (Arlington Heights, IL)What are these birds looking at?? (Masada, Israel)This superb starling gave me a penetrating look! (Serengeti, Tanzania)These guys were so well camouflaged, I almost didn’t see them! (Serengeti, Tanzania)Storks hang out in an acacia tree at sunset. (Serengeti, Tanzania)I’m sure I’ve posted these lovebirds before, but they’re so cute! (Ndutu, Tanzania)Hornbill in Arusha National Park, TanzaniaBlack & white ibis in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
Playing catch up again with Paula’s February Love Me challenge. I have just begun to realize that I should not make my categories too broad, or I will run out of topics!
Feb. 11: I love trees. Winter, spring, summer, and fall. I love trees during them all!
Feb. 12: is Lincoln’s birthday, which makes me think of another thing I love: history! One of the things I most like to do when traveling is to see historical places. I stood next to the Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau in Egypt and felt awed – that structure was built around 2500 BCE! It’s about 5000 years old and it is still standing! Until the Eiffel Tower was built, it was the tallest manmade structure in the world. I imagine the labor it took, moving huge blocks of stone to the site and placing them in exactly the right spot so the pyramid would not collapse. (Click on photos to see closer up.)
There are actually three large pyramids at Giza, and more at Saqqara and other places. The Great Pyramid, the first one built on this site, was conceived as the burial site for 4th Dynasty King Khufu. His two sons and successors, subsequently built their own funerary pyramids at Giza, but neither is as large as Khufu’s, although one of them was purposely built on a little higher land to make it seem taller! The pyramids are an achievement in mathematical calculation and are oriented toward north, the heavenly star of Sirius.
In Israel, visiting the places where Jesus himself had walked gave me goosebumps! (Click on photos to see full size)
Ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
Baptism in the Jordan River
Ruins of an ancient synagogue in Capernaum
The Way of the Cross in Old Jerusalem
On the Sea of Galilee
In Normandy, France, we visited the city of Bayeux where we visited the museum that displays the original Tapestry of Bayeux, which tells the story of William the Conqueror and the conquest of England. This tapestry was made by hand by many artisans in circa 1100 CE. This embroidered tapestry is 70 meters long! We could not photograph the original tapestry, which was very fragile, but I did take a few shots of replicas they had on display in the lobby.
More recent history is also interesting to me. In Normandy, we visited the D-Day beaches and Overlord Museum. At Omaha beach, we saw the vast American Cemetery where 9,387 soldiers who participated in the D-Day invasion and subsequent battle were buried.
Monument above Omaha Beach
German bunker
The American Cemetery
Stories of the heroes
Overlord Museum, which contains all kinds of battle equipment, including tanks, planes, trucks, etc. as well as stories of the men who fought on D-Day, June 6, 1944
Feb. 13: I love writing. I have always enjoyed writing, and when I was a kid, I wanted to be an author or a journalist someday. Alas, life takes many twists and turns and there is always the road not taken. Then I was going to write a novel and I did research to find out how to get an agent, sell a book to a publisher, etc., etc. and it was just too stressful for me! So now it’s just a hobby. I’ve been in and out of writing groups and I do keep a journal, which is not really a diary – it’s more my musings on whatever I’m thinking about or reading about. Sometimes these journal entries turn into stories or essays or even poems. I’ve written letters to my local newspaper, which generally get published within a week. And then, of course, there is this – my blog. I’m not as regular at it as I wish I were, but on the other hand, I have a lot of other interests that keep me busy too.
Actually, I am slowly working on a book, which I intend to self-publish through a POS. It’s about the ancestors on my dad’s mother’s side. I’ve written six chapters, which has been really interesting, because I come across things I wanted to know – I have questions about how things happened, so I do research and find out all kinds of things I never would have known about. I have great admiration for my ancestors, who emigrated to America in the early 1800s. Their journey was quite an adventure! I have laid this project aside for far too long, and should get back to it soon. And it even ties in with my love of history!!
Yikes! I have a few days to catch up for Paula’s February Love Me challenge! Here are 3 more, in no particular order…
Feb. 6: I love…ice cream! Even though it is winter, and quite cold here, I can’t resist the temptation of ice cream once in a while!
Ice cream in France
Feb. 7: I love…art. I love to visit art museums whenever I can as well as do my own artwork! I just finished the book Frida in America by Celia Stahr, a new biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo focusing on her years in the United States with her husband, Diego Rivera. While reading the book, I explored her artwork on line and, although I was quite familiar with her work, I discovered a lot of her paintings I hadn’t known about before. I also love mural art wherever I find it – and usually stop what I’m doing to take a picture!
Claude Monet, Bordighera, 1884, oil on canvas; exhibition at Chicago Art Institute, Oct. 2020
Two murals in Denver, Colorado (click on photo to see the entire image)My artwork: Painted Bunting, sharpie and pastels on construction paper, January 2020
Feb. 8: I love…traveling. Anyone who reads my blog even occasionally knows how traveling is absolutely the thing I love most to do! And while traveling, I engage in one of my favorite hobbies, photography, and when I come back, I engage in another favorite activity, writing (or blogging). Below is a gallery random sample of travel photos from 2018-2019. There are no travel photos from 2020 due to not being able to travel during the pandemic! I have two international trips booked for 2022 and hopefully we can do a road trip in the fall of this year.
Mosques have striped carpets where the worshippers line up to pray. (Cairo, Egypt)Blinds in a friend’s apartment (Des Plaines, IL)Stripes on steps (Des Plaines)Fences are striped. (Chicago Krisha Society)A fence with both stripes and checks – at The Church of All Nations in JerusalemBottle Tree Ranch near Victorville, California (one of the sites on Route 66)Seats in ancient amphitheatre in Caesrea Maritima, Israel Woven striped design on my bottle holder that I bought in Peru Beautiful inlaid (some of them checked) designs on small tables & other items in Aswan, EgyptStripes and Checks in a coloring book (photo modified)
Wanderlust & Wonderment 