Cee’s fun Foto challenge continues with a color theme. This week is dark red including maroon and burgundy.
CFFC: Dark Red
October Kinda Square
Hurray! Becky’s back with another of her month of square challenges! This month the theme is kind (or a word containing the word kind). To get us started, here are Becky’s suggestions:
Here are some ideas you may wish to consider:
- Something of the kind (similar to something or even a carbon copy)
- Our imagination kindled (inspire us!)
- Of its kind (a unique object or an example of something such as a flower or bird)
- Two of a Kind (or one, or three or multiple!)
- Kindred spirits (kindness in action or photographs of people)
- Take kindly to (something you like)
Today Dale and I went out to the western suburbs and visited a park in St. Charles with a lot of unusual sculptures. These sculptures are truly “one of a kind” or “kinda weird!”
The Changing Seasons: September 2020 – Beauty and Weirdness
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).
CFFC: Touching
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is on a series exploring the senses. This week it is the sense of touch.
Touching each other is something many people miss during this pandemic, where we are told to stay 6 feet away from others and not to touch our face! In fact, handshaking as a form of greeting someone may become a thing of the past.
Touching, or petting, our furry friends is one of the ways we communicate with them, and it is something that they generally like. This touching is pleasurable for both human and animal.
We are touched by raindrops that fall on our heads when we pass under a tree just after a rain shower.
Just as we find out it is raining when the raindrops touch us, we are also touched by the wind, the sun’s heat, or the cold of winter.
Animals and people touch to show love for each other.
Romantic love:
Sisterly love:
Old friends coming together:
Sometimes we want to touch something because of its texture.
Dutch Goes the Photo: Trees
Jansenphoto’s Dutch Goes the Photo has a Tuesday challenge and the topic is trees.
CFFC: Winter Scenes
Sometimes it snows here in winter; sometimes it doesn’t. But it always gets cold! Fall, winter and spring can be unpredictable! Here are some of my favorite winter photos, posted for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – winter scenes.
This is our new house on Halloween – our first major snowfall of the year (that day and in early November were the biggest snows we’ve had this winter, until today!)
Flower pot covered in ice, with tree reflected in it
This was taken a few years ago from our front porch during a snowstorm.
The maple tree behind our house, its branches tinged with snow
Taken from our front porch in Des Plaines after a nighttime snowfall.
Sometimes the ground just gets covered with frost, like these leaves and grass in January.
Pretty snow scenes at Prairie Lakes Park in Des Plaines.
Usually in March, the snow starts to melt. But we can’t be complacent – April has been known to produce some unexpected snowstorms! (Somewhere there’s a photo of my tulips coming up with snow on the ground around them!)
After a long winter, one of our gardens looked like this early last March.
January Square 7: Holiday Lights
More holiday lights for Becky’s January Square challenge! This was taken at North School Park in Arlington Heights (a few other, non-square photos of the same place follow!), which every year has an impressive holiday light display. The first photo is of a rotating display to represent a couple dancing.
CFFC: Mostly Monochrome
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge continues with the theme of colors. This week the topic is basically one color or hue.
This photo was not shot nor edited black & white. The trees and clouds actually looked like this on a spring day in northern Wisconsin.
Turtles at The Grove visitors’ center, Mt. Prospect, IL
Chinese Reconciliation Park, Tacoma, WA
Point Defiance Park, Tacoma
Passau, Germany
Wine pressing tanks, Morwald Winery, Austria
Modern clock, Cologne, Germany
Kinderdijk, Netherlands
Cologne Cathedral, Germany
Miniature show “Whimsical Wonderland,” Elk Grove Village, IL
Flowers, Des Plaines, IL
Some animals are the color they are to blend in with their environment, such as hyraxes who hide among the rocks where they live, mongoose who inhabit giant anthills, and even a hippo with just its eyes & ears above the water. (All photos taken in Tanzania.)
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
One Word Sunday: Overlap
Travel with Intent has a photo challenge, One Word Sunday, and this week the topic is overlap.
Overlapping turtles – at this nature preserve, the main visitor center is undergoing renovation, so the small animals are now confined to a much smaller space until the work is complete.
Overlapping bricks – Tacoma, WA Chinese Reconciliation Park
Overlapping flowers
Overlapping coral – Brookfield Zoo
CFFC: Pastel Colors
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge continues with her color series – this week it is pastel colors.
Some flowers are bright, while others have muted colors. Most marigolds are bright, but these are soft yellow and white.
Dahlias come in all colors – some are bright, some are light.
Artists experiment with all kinds of color schemes. These are some pastel colors in artwork.
Pastels in sculptures
Pastel buildings – Passau, Germany
