Lens-Artists: My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things is the subject of Lens-Artists’ photo challenge this week. I love cats, especially my sweet tortie Hazel. I love flowers and enjoy taking good photos of them. There is plenty of this subject matter at Chicago Botanic Gardens! This is their May foxglove display. My favorite thing in the world is traveling, […]

CFFC: Vibrant Seasons

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge has a series about colors. This week is vibrant colors. Every season of the year has its vibrancy. Autumn, of course, offers the most striking display of vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. Winter has its own vibrancy: the bright lights and colors of Christmas and the sun shining on fresh fallen […]

CFFC: Sunrise, Sunset

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is sunrises/sunsets/night photos. Africa is a great place for sunrises and sunsets! Even on the plane, which arrived at Kilimanjaro after dark, I captured a pretty sunset: Sunset over Tarangire National Park, taken with Samsung Galaxy 7: That same sunset (this is classic!) taken with my camera, Sony 380:One […]

Cee’s SYW: on travel, tolerance, nature, and cheating

Cee’s questions this week in her Share Your World challenge were inspiring to me, so I am participating (and wish I did more often, because her questions are often thought-provoking and leading to revealing something of ourselves). If you haven’t Shared Your World, head over to the link above and write something about yourself! If […]

A Photo a Week Challenge: Jewel Colors

Nancy Merrill has a Photo a Week Challenge with a theme this week of jewel colors. Sea and sky – sapphire, pearl/mother of pearl, lapis lazuli Décor on a cruise ship – Sapphire, amethyst, ruby, beryl, gypsum, peridot Chicago at night – turquoise, sapphire, onyx Chihuly detail – ruby, sapphire, amethyst, topaz, peridot, garnet, carnelian, […]

WPC: Making the Temporary Permanent

The Weekly Photo Challenge theme this week is Temporary. Nature’s beauty has an element of permanence, in that there is always beauty to appreciate at any time of year and the fact that the seasons come and go and nature “repeats itself.” Still, in spite of this repetition, none of nature’s beauties are ever exactly […]

Sunday Trees – Monterey Peninsula

First, congratulations to Becca on her 6th anniversary of Sunday Trees. Second, this is my first time participating in this challenge, although I am fascinated by trees and have a huge archive of pictures of trees! But for today, I decided to feature the trees (and other sights) along the 17 mile drive on Monterey […]

Rio de Janeiro: Sugarloaf

November 27, 2016 Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar in Portuguese) is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Rio. It has become a tradition for me to go up to the top and watch the sun set on my last evening in Rio. I look down on this beautiful city and am filled with a […]

WPC: Transient

The sky is constantly changing as clouds move across it, rain falls from it, the sun rises and sets, and sometimes rainbows form. Rainbows are special because they are transient, especially double rainbows! On our Dakotas trip in May,, Dale and I were returning to South Dakota after making a side trip to Devil’s Tower […]

Pictures at a wayside

Last weekend, after our four days in St. Paul, Minnesota, my sister, her friend, her daughter and I made the long drive home back to the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. It’s about a 5 1/2 hour drive if you drive straight through, with no stops. Of course, that would be nearly impossible for most people, […]