These are the words for Lost in Translation‘s October occasional Pick a Word photo challenge. We are free to choose any or all of the words. I chose them all.
LUNAR
VOLTE FACE
SOARING
REPOSING
IMPREGNABLE
Thursday Special Pick a Word
Thursday’s Special
Thursday Special: Pick a Word in August Y3 – Tanzania
Paula at Lost in Translation’s Thursday Special – Pick a Word in August Y3 is a challenge to find a photo representing each of the following words: fortified, chic, submerged, embodiment, and prehistoric. I found good examples of each in my photos of Tanzania.
fortified – this fence of nettles and thorny acacia branches fortifies a Maasai village from potential intruders (Tanzania)
chic: this male kori bustard shows off for his mate!
submerged: mother & baby hippos
embodiment – this reconstruction of “Lucy” is the embodiment of australopithecus afarensis, a distant ancestor of hominids, and the work archaeologists do to piece together fossilized remains to learn about the evolution of species. (Museum at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)
prehistoric: skull of homo habilis, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Thursday’s Special: The Blue Hour
Paula at Lost in Translation has a Thursday’s Special Photo Challenge. This week’s theme is the blue hour.
I love the “blue hour” at Navy Pier in Chicago, when all the neon lights are on and the Chicago skyline is silhouetted against the darkening sky. Everything is still visible but with a blue tinge.
Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word in November
Once a month for Thursday’s Special, Paula has a list of five words to choose from, or you can, like me, do them all!
dormant – my garden in winter
salubrious – At E+O Restaurant (Randhurst Village, Mt. Prospect, Illinois), they make a salad that is not only unique, it is delicious! The ingredients are: brussels sprouts, kale, minced shrimp, red onions, red cabbage, carrots, chilis, and sweet chili vinaigrette dressing. It is one of the most popular items on their menu and very salubrious!
influential – The French painter Paul Gauguin was influenced by several different sources, especially the years he lived in Polynesia. Another French artist,Paul Cézanne, was influential to Gauguin in this painting entitled Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cézanne.
earmarked – This little Beanie Baby donkey was earmarked for customers who supported the Democrats in the 2012 presidential election. His name is “Lefty.”
fun-loving – My brother-in-law sings in a barbershop chorus called The Arlingtones. They are a very fun-loving group! In June, they put on a very funny show tracing humankind from present to past.
In this number, my brother-in-law is the mermaid at the front of the boat!
Here my fun-loving brother-in-law is the guy wearing a red tunic and a wig!
Thursday’s Special: Fall
I am joining Paula’s Thursday Special weekly challenge with the theme of fall.
Yesterday, my hubby and I had a meeting to go to in Wheaton, a western suburb of Chicago, so beforehand we decided to take a walk at Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton. The forest preserve is part of the county’s larger forest preserve system with hiking/biking trails. 
Danada Equestrian Center offers lessons, camps, group tours and recreation year round. In the fall, they offer horse-drawn hayrides.
Partial view of the horse farm
From this view, you can see the barn in the distance.
Danada House is a facility of the DuPage County Forest Preserve and outside is a beautiful venue popular for weddings. In fact, a couple of our friends got married there three years ago, also in October, so some of the pictures in this post were taken in 2014, which had a much more colorful autumn than this year.
Danada House courtyard garden
The arch under which the bride & groom will stand to take their vows
In 2015, this topiary was added to commemorate Debonair, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby that year. A plaque tells us that Debonair was raised at Danada.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday for a walk in the woods!
We came to a map that showed the trails that go through the property. One led to Herrick Lake, and another led to Rice Lake. We decided to walk toward Rice Lake, a shorter walk and we didn’t want to get lost!
If we had continued walking, we would have reached the end of the trail, arriving at a major street. Instead, we turned around and headed back.
The site is open year round. To find out more about Danada, go to their web site here.
Wanderlust & Wonderment 