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CFFC: Orange

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!

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Weekend Sky: Late Winter Sunset

This is my first time participating in Hammad Rais’s Weekend Sky challenge!

It’s been a bit difficult to capture the sunset where we live – our house faces north and a row of houses blocks the western sky. But before Daylight Savings started, I would take walks in the late afternoon and sometimes be lucky to capture a beautiful sunset. These were taken on March 5, when the ponds were still partially frozen and remnants of February snows still remained.

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Loving S Words

Catch-up time for Paula’s February Month of Love challenge!

And what do you know?? All my loves for this post start with the letter S, which is the subject of /Lens-Artists Photo Challenge!

Feb. 23: I love…sunsets (and sunrises, although I’m hardly ever awake for those! 🙂 ).

Somewhere at sea
The wires are unfortunately visible, but I like this sunset against Chicago’s skyscrapers.
I took this on a walk a few days ago – it’s not quite sunset, but the sun is low in the sky, casting shadows from the tree.
Icicles glow orange and golden in the sunset.
Sunset from an airplane
Sunset in Tanzania
Both of these were taken on our community’s campus, featuring West Lake – the first is in winter, and I was trying to capture the reflection of the sunset on a sheen of ice; the second was taken on a summer evening near the same location.

Feb. 24: I love…spring! I already included summer as one of my loves, but the spring is special too, because it is the season of hope and anticipation. The cycle of life begins, emerging from winter snow and cold, producing new life in flora and fauna. Last spring, I took photos of my daffodils on the side of my house in March, from shoots to blooms.

Fruit trees bloom.
  • Siberian squill
  • Moss phlox
  • tulips
  • Columbine
  • Pine
Flowers and pine cones in May
And my garden was newly planted.
Mamas & chicks, and a frequent visitor

Feb. 25: I love…singing. I never had good manual dexterity to play an instrument but I’ve always loved to sing. When I was a young adult and needed a spiritual outlet, I turned to singing by joining a community choir. After moving to Des Plaines, I joined the choir at First Congregational Church and still participate in that! It’s rather hard during the pandemic to do group singing, but we use Zoom and a music software called Upbeat to practice and then record the pieces we sing. So I’d like to end with a song about singing (with a virtual choir that may also use Upbeat software!):

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The Hunt for Joy: Making a Rainbow

Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy is in its 18th week and the theme for this week is Make Your Own Rainbow.

I love to draw and occasionally paint. I also enjoy coloring books. Here are two coloring pages I did. The first is called “Rainbow Wheel Mandala,” done with markers. The second is “Rainbow Tessellation,” done with gel pens.

Some of my other artwork: The first is called “Arizona Desert,” which I painted with acrylics; the second is untitled, drawn with charcoal pencils.

As bloggers who follow me know, I do a lot of photography also. These photos I took in various places at various times.

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Gay pride at Solstice Parade, Seattle

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Colorful scene in Regensburg, Germany

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This colorful Tanzanian bird is called lilac-breasted roller, and it really does seem to have every color of the rainbow!

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Sunset over North Atlantic Ocean

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A real rainbow, South Dakota. We should have stopped and hiked over that field to the end of the rainbow to see if there was a pot of gold! 😉

 

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge & CFFC: Eye Candy

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week begins a series exploring the five senses. This week is sight. She says: As the saying goes, a picture worth a thousand words. Think of photos you can take or have already taken that remind you of a fabulous sight. I like to call it “Eye Candy”. Several of the photos I picked out are of animals, which is conveniently the topic of Dutch Goes the Photo’s Tuesday Photo Challenge.

A romantic couple: Swans make a “heart” after mating, in one of our community ponds.
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Cheetah mom and cub frolic in Tanzania:
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After watching these two gamboling for about half an hour, I decided the cheetah is now my favorite wild animal!SONY DSC
In a close second place are these adorable genets, who reside at Ndutu Safari Lodge.  They looked down at us with such curious faces, and sat up there so quietly observing the humans down below.
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My youngest “grandcat” Freddie – how can I help falling in love with this guy??
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Here is my own beautiful cat, Hazel! This is an early photo of her, but it has always been my favorite.
This is a beautiful picture of Hazel!
This is a more recent photo of her, taken in our new house.
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I guess it’s clear that I just love cats in general! (Genets are not cats, but they sort of look like cats.)

More eye candy is to be found in the beauty of nature.

A sunset in Tanzania
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Cathedral Rock as seen from the campus of Verde Valley School, Sedona, Arizona DSCF2997
Flowers: at Chicago Botanic Gardens
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Dahlia at Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, WADSC02442
I love to look at beautiful works of humankind as well.

In St. Matthias Church, Budapest
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If I had to lose either my sight or my hearing, I think I would choose being deaf than missing out on the beauties of our world.

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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:
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the simplicity of a stand of birch trees in winter:
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the simple pleasures of childhood:
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the simple beauty of daffodils about to fully bloom, a sign that spring is really here:
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the quiet and simple beauty of a swan resting at the edge of a pond:
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CB&WPC: I’ve Looked At Clouds

Cee’s black & White Photo Challenge this week has the topic clouds. This is an interesting topic, because one of the things that makes cloud pictures spectacular is color – especially sunsets. I tried and rejected several photos because they just didn’t have appeal without the color. Others, however, look even more dramatic in black & white! So here’s what I chose.

I’ll start with clouds seen from above (through an airplane window).
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I got some dramatic sunset photos in black & white when I looked for strong contrasts between the clouds and the sky.
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The variety of the shapes of the clouds makes this an interesting photo in black & white.

2-6 sunset from our room at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge (2)
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Sometimes, what attracts me to take photos of clouds is the variety of shapes. It can be especially dramatic in the wide open spaces on the prairies of North Dakota…
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…or a sunburst over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
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More subtle effects over the pond on the campus of our community.
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In this photo, the clouds are reflected in the rippled surface of the water.
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Sometimes, instead of a prairie, a dramatic landscape – such as majestic mountains – enhances the photo, offering a dramatic contrast between land and sky.
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The official title of the following song is Both Sides Now. But this is a pretty rendition with ethereal moving clouds. Although the song was written by Joni Mitchell, who sings it here, it was first recorded by Judy Collins, which was the first version of it I heard.