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The city of Woodbine is the county seat of Camden County in the state of Georgia (USA). The US Census of 2020 counted a little over a thousand residents. The town is located on the shore of the Satilla River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Waterfront Park which is the location of the annual Crawfish Festival, is located on the Satilla and includes a boat launch and the beginning of the Woodbine Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk is a boardwalk that winds along the edge of the river, under the US Highway 17 Bridge and connects with the Rails to Trails where the railroad crossed the river years ago.

The Woodbine Riverwalk is also a part of the East Coast Greenway, the Coastal Georgia Greenway, and the Rails to Trails Conservancy.

Walking along the boardwalk is a peaceful experience. With the river on one side and marshland on the other you are likely to see several different species of birds. There are informative signs along the way and a bench about halfway from one end to the other if you decide to rest while enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.

The view in today’s featured photograph was taken with the bridge and Rails to Trails connection behind me and the boat launch and waterfront park ahead.

We didn’t set out to visit the park and boardwalk when we visited Woodbine. Actually, we didn’t know it even existed. We saw a sign for the park as we drove along Highway 17 and decided to see what the park had to offer. Turning off the highway to explore turned out to be an enjoyable experience.

When have you “turned off the highway to explore” in life, either literally or figuratively? Be sure and share those experiences in the comment section. Let us know if those experiences were enjoyable or perhaps a lesson about life.

Before joining Fine Art America I hadn’t thought of everyday infrastructure items as being art. But Industrial Art, as it’s called, seems to be very popular. Hotel rooms and lobbies tend to display many photographs of old, wood or rusty metal items.

I suppose there’s a touch of nostalgia that makes such art in vogue. Modern electronics and digital life fill our days to the point that we might see non-digital material items as a soothing change.

My challenge image this week was a photograph taken in Charleston, South Carolina (USA). During last year’s visit there I photographed several meter box covers and processed one of the water meter box lids this week. I also captured images of sewer covers and gas meter lids. I will be processing those photographs at a later time.

I was looking down at the streets and sidewalks after I became frustrated with the white and gray skies and dormant trees and shrubs that I had photographed when attempting to capture interesting architecture.

In hindsight those uninteresting skies and dead looking branches provided me with many industrial type images.

Does this sound a little like life itself?

Can our frustrations actually be opportunities in disguise?

I set out on that road trip hoping to “go with the flow” and was disappointed with myself for being frustrated and upset at the beginning of the trip when we encountered rain and dreary weather.

However, I can look back and see that I was successful with going with the flow where my photography was concerned. I had used my frustration with the weather to take advantage of the opportunity to capture Industrial images that did not include the sky and were actually enhanced by being wet from the recent rains.

Real success will come when I learn to see my frustrations as opportunities on a daily basis.

Have you become successful at doing that?

Please share in the comment section. Thanks.

How many of you have a button collection? Maybe you have a button jar or box?

I’m not sure why I keep all those extra buttons that come with shirts and blouses but I do. Those buttons are sent with your garment so you will have a matching one if any buttons come loose and fall off of your shirt.

How many times has that happened and you actually lost the loose button, not knowing where it fell off?

The best that I can remember, that has never happened to me – so why do I still save those buttons?

Did your mother or grandmother have a button collection?

Was there a cigar box or mason jar full of assorted buttons of different colors and sizes in their homes?

Did you ever see your mom or grandma pour out those buttons, looking for just the right size or color to match whatever garment they were repairing?

Have YOU ever raked through a pile of buttons to find the right one to sew on a garment that was missing one?

I believe that I’ve viewed more art made with buttons than seeing someone sewing them on a garment!

My button collection is rather small, containing only a few more than what’s shown in the photograph accompanying this post. I must admit that I was tempted, before throwing out a worn out blouse, to cut the buttons off of that blouse.
The temptation passed when I realized I hadn’t replaced a missing button in years and the idea that I would use them for artwork was slim to none.

But slim chance showed up when I entered the Art Challenge with Buttons as a theme. That small button collection was featured in two different photographs of that three day challenge.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll throw out those few buttons. Or maybe I won’t.

After all, I can’t say for sure that I won’t need any of those extra buttons ever again….or my key collection, my wine cork collection, my seashell collection……….

Last November I wrote a blog post titled In Your Own Backyard. It was basically about finding beauty where you are as opposed to going out looking for it. This week I learned that lesson again but it was out our front door this time.

We had an entire week of warm, sunny days after months of cold weather. The Stella D’Oro Daylilies that are planted along the front sidewalk woke up from their winter nap and produced a healthy mound of deep green leaves.

A sudden spring shower left raindrops resting on those green leaves as they arched over each other. The clouds moved eastward and the sky became brighter. The afternoon light was then reflected in those raindrops.

What was actually drops of water appeared as shiny jewels, diamonds perhaps. Diamonds sprinkled and dropped on the new growth of those daylilies.

The sight of those shiny raindrops evoked a feeling of hope. Gone was the dread of another cold gray day and in it’s place was the anticipation of warmer, sunnier days ahead.

I had only to look out our front door to find nature at its best producing a beautiful sight. No travel required, only a willingness to see the beauty around me in everyday objects.

What have you witnessed or felt this past week in or around your own home that you found beautiful?

Please feel free to share your experience in the comment section as I have shared my experience in this post.

This week’s image was a photograph taken in Charleston South Carolina (USA). My sister is on a river cruise on the southeastern coast of the United States and boarded her ship in Charleston, South Carolina. Her cruise reminded me that I had visited Charleston early last year and had taken hundreds of photographs around the city.

Most of the photographs that I took in Charleston were not ones that I wanted to process and post because of the weather and season. Many of the historic or architecturally interesting buildings were behind bare branches. Those branches spoiled the view in my opinion. The skies were white and boring because it had been raining for days.

However, when I was going back through those photographs I saw the Brown Dog Deli sign. That name struck a chord with me, so to speak.

For over a year, soon after I moved to Florence, Alabama (USA), I had fostered dogs for an animal rescue out of Massachusetts. The non-profit rescue was called Brown Dog Rescue. The deli in Charleston is not affiliated with the rescue in Massachusetts but it sure brought back some fond memories when I saw that sign.

Brown Dog Rescue pulls dogs and cats from southern shelters, finds them temporary fosters homes, provides vetting and then arranges for transport to a quarantine facility in Massachusetts. From there the animals either go to their new adoptive homes or are fostered in that area until permanent homes can be found for them.

My experience with fostering was a positive one that lasted until we experienced a foster fail. For those who are not familiar with that phrase, a foster fail is when you foster an animal and then decide to adopt that same animal.

I am no longer fostering dogs through our local shelter or through Brown Dog Rescue. I do, however, support their efforts in other ways. For example if you purchase anything from my Going To The Dogs Collection, 100% of my markup is donated to Chloe’s fund (a fund that provides life saving treatment and surgeries for shelter animals in the Lauderdale, Florence Alabama area).

Shelters and rescues all over the nation are over capacity and begging for help to save the lives of these animals. If you are unable at this time to adopt then fostering is an awesome alternative. Shelter animals cannot go to rescues unless they are fostered first to see what their true temperament and personalities are when living in a home environment.

If you love animals please consider adopting or fostering a cat or dog from your local shelter or rescue organization.

The Shoals is a nickname for the area on the Tennessee River that includes Florence, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia and Sheffield Alabama. This week’s challenge image was taken at the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa. The water feature in the image is one of many features you will find when staying or visiting the hotel.

The Marriott Shoals Hotel and Resort is also where the Renaissance Tower is located. That tower contains the 360 Grille, a revolving restaurant at the top of the tower that provides a 360 degree view of the area. You can find a photograph of the tower in the Alabama Collection on my site.

Lush green plants border a small pond with active water jets, creating a peaceful scene in an outdoor setting. A stone wall and metal railing add structure to the tranquil water feature set among a backdrop of trees and foliage.

I took the photograph after visiting the restaurant as we celebrated our anniversary. We walked around the property after our meal and enjoyed the warm late spring weather, the sound of the water jets and the soothing green foliage surrounding the bubbly pond.

Much of the United States is still in the grip of winter as I type out this post. I’m hoping that today’s featured image will warm your spirit as you look forward to milder, sunnier days ahead.

As always your comments are welcomed and encouraged.

This past weekend my husband gave me a birthday party in our former hometown which is also my “Happy Place”. I invited my girlfriends who live in different parts of the country. Three girlfriends drove several hours through three states and one flew in because it was too far to drive.

The lady who took a plane was a girlfriend that had taken a road trip with me the year before. She had flown into a city an hour away from where we are living and I drove to that city to pick her up. From there we embarked on our journey.

I have actually written several blog posts about that road trip and spending time with her this past weekend brought back many memories of the time we spent together.

The first major stop for us was Charleston, South Carolina (USA). The first day or two was damp and dreary and I was not enjoying the city at all. I did, however, get many photographs as we walked around the riverfront area of Charleston.

Today’s featured image is one of the photographs that I took on the day after it had rained. We were having trouble walking on the cobblestones as we crossed from one side of the street to the other and I decided to stop in the middle of the street and snap a few captures of the cobblestone surface.

Cobblestones have been used to pave streets for centuries. Cobble is a term for the size of stones that are used in architecture. They were originally laid in sand which helps with drainage. Those stone roads were much easier to navigate than dirt roads. However, because the stones are not all uniform roads were eventually paved with setts, uniformly quarried granite ((also called Belgian block).

Cobblestone streets can be noisy as horse carriages and motor vehicles drive over them. Although some people see this as a disadvantage, the noise can warn pedestrians of approaching traffic.

These stone paved streets can still be found in many of our older cities in North America, mainly in the historic sections, but are more abundant in Europe.

Our visit to Charleston took place in February as winter was winding down and spring was not far off. You can see brown and orange leaves scattered among the cobblestones with what looks like a pile of them in the upper left hand corner of the image. It appears that asphalt has been put between these stones, possibly covering an original layer of sand. I would think that the asphalt would help stabilize the stones now that heavy modern vehicles are driving on that street.

Do any of my readers drive over cobblestone streets on a regular basis? Please tell us what that’s like always bumping noisily along on those stones.

This week’s post highlights the cute train tanker car in Saint Marys, Georgia.

The tanker car was permanently parked behind the former train station. The front of the tanker had been painted to resemble a face with eyes that included eyelashes and eyebrows and large pink lips. A red bow and one single blonde curl were painted on the forehead area. At the base of the “face” was a sign that read, “I’M LOOKING FOR LOVE” and the two Os in the word looking are painted like eyes.

It was that face painted tanker car that prompted me to get out of the vehicle to take photographs as we entered the small charming city. As I walked back behind the building to photograph the tanker I found many small areas that had been set up with Halloween decorations.

None of the vignettes, however were as cute or inviting as that tanker car.

I couldn’t help but wonder who came up with the idea of painting a face on the front of that car? Did someone see the rounded front on that car and imagine a face? Did someone see something similar on their travels and came home to plant that same idea right there in Saint Marys?

None of that really matters. What matters is that the face painted train tanker car made me smile. It enticed me to get out of my vehicle and walk around. It prompted me to smile with a wide eyed look of enjoyment at what I was viewing.

Looking for love in Georgia? I certainly found it in Saint Marys, Georgia, a small coastal city built on the banks of the St. Marys River. You just might, too!

Comments are welcomed!

In last week’s blog I told about a Saturn Sky automobile that had a Ferrari emblem on the hood and elsewhere. This week’s image was a photograph that was taken of the Saturn’s front wheel and tire. There is a Ferrari emblem on the wheel and a Ferrari sticker on the brake behind the wheel.

Someone who was not familiar with the Ferrari brand may have initially thought that the impersonating Saturn was the more expensive Italian sports car. But it wasn’t. And learning more about those two automobiles exposed the impostor for what it was.

This reminds me not to judge people by their appearance. I need to become more familiar with a person before I decide if they are genuine or not.

Often women, especially, are judged by their looks. Their appearance is judged by their make-up, or lack thereof, name brand clothing and accessories or hairstyle.

But is that fair? Is a woman who wears name brand clothing and accessories, keeps a neat hairstyle and sports perfect make-up really more genuine in their lives as a woman who rarely or never wears make-up, name brand clothing or stylish hairdos?

The argument has been made before that the well kept/made up woman is just practicing self care. She has a high enough opinion of herself to take the time, money and effort to make herself as presentable as possible. She also feels better about herself when she’s “sporting her Sunday best”, so to speak.

But what about that woman who never or rarely gets “made up”? Is it possible that she has just as high of an opinion of herself? Is it possible that there are other issues at play? Maybe she’s very chemically sensitive and her skin actually looks and feels better without make up. Maybe she doesn’t see the benefit in those brand names. Maybe she has more important financial priorities in her life than expensive clothing.

This week’s image of that Saturn Sky gave a clue to it’s impersonation. Looking closely at the image we can see that the Ferrari brand logo on the car’s brake is actually a sticker. The bottom edge of the sticker is wrinkled up and torn.

This image is a reminder to me that before I make any judgments about a person I need to become more familiar with them. Get to know them better. Their outside appearance may not reflect at all how genuine a person they may or may not be.

That’s a lesson that many of our parents tried to teach us as we were growing up and today’s image and blog post can nudge us to remember that lesson.


Comments are always welcome and encouraged.

The image that I posted for this week’s challenge was what I thought was a photograph of a Ferrari. I’m not familiar with expensive automobiles so I was fascinated that a Ferrari would be parked in a Golden Corral parking lot.

After taking several photographs with my cell phone we went home and I promptly forgot about those photos until I uploaded them to my computer.

Imagine my surprise when I started researching Ferraris to learn which model this particular car might be and discovered that the car with the Ferrari emblems that I had photographed was actually a General Motors Saturn Sky!

The owner of the car had replaced all of the Saturn emblems with Ferrari emblems. A real auto aficionado would most likely have known immediately that the Saturn was not a Ferrari and I bet the owner had many a laugh watching people photographing his car thinking that it was an expensive luxury sports car built in Italy.

Knock off luxury goods are all around us. Purses, shoes, cars and electronics often have a luxury brand name or emblem on them. How often are we fooled by those emblems? Having that emblem does not necessarily mean that the object is “the real thing” with the high quality that the name brand promises. We need to look at all aspects of the object to determine if it is genuine or an impostor.

Could my experience with the Ferrari Impostor possibly be a life lesson on a deeper level?

I’ll let you chew on that food for thought while I process another photograph of the Impostor!

The challenge image that I posted this week was taken in the morning after a winter storm a few weeks ago. There are only a few items in the photograph but it seems that there is actually as much or more to see or wonder about than many photographs that are full of detail.

One of my fellow Fine Art America members commented about the footprints in the snow that are barely visible in the background. She was intrigued wondering who those footprints belonged to and what was that person doing walking in that snow. Where were they going?

It turns out that in this particular case, less is more. Would my fellow photographer have noticed those footprints if there had been more detail in the image? Would the photograph have been as thought provoking?

Thinking about this made me wonder how much we might miss in life when our lives are so full and busy that there’s no time to really stop, look and wonder about what is right in front of us.

The popular Tiny House movement is about downsizing. Downsizing and de-cluttering systems are about living a simpler life. A life with less “stuff”, less rushing around and less stress.

Would you find it less stressful to live by the motto Less Is More?

Would having less material items help you to lead a more relaxed life?

Would having more time to spend with family, friends or in nature lead you to a less stressful life?

Would living with less bring you more?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Many of you who read my blogs know that I am participating in a Weekly Art Challenge (Theme: The World Outside). This week I also participated in a three day challenge (Theme: Buttons).

Even those who know me but don’t read my blogs know that I recently purchased a new laptop.

For the past several weeks I have had a double dose of laptops, photo manipulating software and both Windows 7 and 11. I have worked on both laptops, sometimes at the same time. I’ve used more than one software program on the same image. I have gone back and worth from W7 to W11. I have yet to find everything in W11 that I like to use in W7.

Two laptops. Two operating system versions. Two challenges.

Double Dose this week!

What is pareidolia? It is the tendency to see faces and other objects in patterns or photographs. Rorschach’s inkblot test is based on this tendency.

It’s usually caused by the way light shines or reflects off of objects such as rocks, although it can also be caused by the actual shape of an object such as a cloud.

I experienced this tendency recently when I photographed a patch of ice on grass after a recent winter storm.

Northern Alabama, where we presently live, experienced a winter storm in January 2024 that produced a mix of snow and ice from sleet, freezing rain and snow. Although the temperatures stayed well below freezing for nearly a week, some of the frozen precipitation melted when the sun came out a day after the storm. The result was an abstracted, uneven layer of ice as that melted mix refroze.

The photograph that I took was a close up of that layer of ice sitting on top of the dormant grass. Light hitting the higher portions of ice made tiny sparkles as though a million diamonds had been scattered on the ground.

Enlarging the photograph revealed images within this shiny mass that resembled eyes looking out from the ice. Even without magnification you can spot the largest of these eyes towards the upper left side of the image as it is very blue with a sparkle shining within it.

How fun to end up with an image of ice that can also be considered and used as a puzzle. Instead of finding Waldo you can count how many eyes you find in the image!

Do you tend to see faces and eyes in nature? Please feel free to share your own experiences in the comment section.

Although the sun does not shine as often or as bright during the winter here in the Northern Hemisphere as it does in the other seasons, there are clear days when the sun shines all day. In the middle of the day the shadows caused by interrupted sunbeams are often longer and more pronounced in winter, much like early morning and late evening shadows during other seasons. This is because the sun sits lower in the sky during the winter when it’s position is much further south.

This was very true after the most recent ice and snow storm that blanketed much of the United States with frozen precipitation. Shadows appeared as long or distorted reflections even during the middle of the day.

One of the photographs that was taken from our back patio was the image of a fence shadow on uneven ice covered snow. Winds during the storm caused the snow to pile up higher in some areas than others.

A straight, rigid fence made up of rectangular sections appeared as a curved item in the shadow that was cast on those snow drifts.

The shadows softened the hard edges of the slots that made up the very top of the fence. The top portion of the fence that is straight and rigid appeared as a curved edge, much like a ribbon being waved in the air.

As I reflected on that photograph, I thought about how we view and relate to weather events.

Some people will see winter as an uncomfortable, inconvenient season. Others may view winter as a time to slow down, reflect on the past year and rest up for the more active seasons ahead.

How do you see cold, sometimes icy winter weather?

Is winter weather an inconvenience that you endure as a chore or embrace as a challenge.

Do dormant trees look dead to you or do you view them as a season of rest?

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

It was Autumn. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years came and went. Then Winter arrived with a vengeance!

Today’s featured image shows a small buildup of snow on an outdoor resin chair seat. That little bit of snow when the first flakes fell was a deceptive image of what was to come. Unlike my photograph that turned an old resin chair into a patterned abstract piece of art when the arms and back of the chair were cropped out, our beautiful snowfall turned into an icy headache and sometimes dangerous situation.

Here in Northwestern Alabama we experience mild winter snowstorms. We’ve lived here for several years and every year we get a little more snow with these storms.

This year, however, we were slammed with a wintry mix of sleet, freezing rain and snow. To make matters worse we also had an arctic blast of air that continued for days. There were at least four days and nights in a row that the outside temperature stayed below the freezing point.

The sleet and freezing rain laid a slippery layer of ice that was promptly covered with snow. More sleet beat down that layer of snow giving the appearance of a shallow snowfall. How deceptive was that appearance! That shallow looking snowfall was actually a mix of snow and ice particles.

That beautiful looking wintry mix was treacherous on the highways and sidewalks. Luckily most people stayed home and off of the roads.

Then came a gorgeous sunny day. How unusual to see snow and ice melting, liquid dripping from car hoods and fences, even though the temperature is still below freezing. How does that work?

The problem with that sunny day melting the snow and ice was the effects after sundown. That melting produced puddles of water that refroze after sunset. The roads turned into highways of ice.

The first two or three days of this winter weather was a quiet period on the four lane highway in front of our apartment complex. The next two days showed us a very different sight as we witnessed cars and semi-trucks sliding backwards while trying to navigate an icy incline on that section of the road.

Northwestern Alabama is no stranger to snow but it is not normal to have this arctic blast accompanied by sleet, freezing rain and snow all at the same time and lasting for more than a day or two.

As cold and miserable as it has been it’s been a time of reflection about the many blessings many of us have received during this white, winter weather. Our power has stayed on during this mess which provided us with heat and an indoor means of preparing and cooking food.

We will survive this storm of inconveniences just as we have survived the many other storms that we’ve encountered in life, many of which were much worse in the final consequences. After all, humans appear to be a very resilient species!

Please feel free to share in the comment section your experiences with the storms you have encountered and how you handled those storms.

I found this brown, weathered oak leaf leaning against the concrete splash block at the end of a downspout.

Autumn has passed and winter is well underway. But this leaf, left over from the autumn breezes, cannot travel with the wind any longer as it’s stem is stuck in the golden, dormant grass.

A large portion of the United States gets stuck between seasons often. There are jokes that circulate the social media sites stating something to the effect that people can experience all four seasons in one day or if you don’t like the weather (too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry) you only have to wait a day and the weather will be the complete opposite.

Do you ever feel that you, too, are stuck between seasons?

Do you ever feel like you are stuck emotionally? Perhaps you’ve had some type of trauma in your life that is difficult to accept or work through.

What about spiritually? Perhaps you don’t feel like you are maturing in your spiritual life and feel stuck where you are presently.

This weathered oak leaf will eventually be freed by a strong gust of wind during a winter storm. This wind will be stronger than the slender stem that is becoming more brittle each day.

I would guess that most of us have found ourselves stuck somewhere in life between the past and the future. Thankfully, just as that leaf will eventually fly away into winter, we usually find a way to move on or seek help in getting to that point.

Any thoughts you may have on this issue can be shared in the comment section and are welcomed.

This week’s blog post will highlight one of my favorite photographs taken at the Official Alabama Renaissance Faire 2023.

The festival was set up in downtown Florence in Wilson Park. Several areas were designated as music venues and several different musicians rotated in and out of these areas throughout the festival.

We walked up to one of these areas and found this gentleman playing his harp, a classical stringed instrument made of wood. Soft melodies emanated from the harp as his fingers plucked at the strings which are positioned in incrementally longer lengths as they near the far end of the harp.

At the top of the innermost piece of wood, there was an opening in the shape of a heart. Several of the strings were red and the others were either blue, white or black. His blue tunic coordinated nicely with the two toned wood instrument.

This experience provided a peaceful moment while we watched his hands delicately moving over the taut strings as the harp produced a soothing sound. The soft music was a welcomed change from the noise of the hustle and bustle of the festival.

Have you been to a Renaissance Faire? If so, please share your experiences in the comment section.

My favorite Christmas tradition from my childhood was riding around looking at Christmas Light displays. This year we spent time riding around a few neighborhoods in Muscle Shoals, Alabama (USA) on Christmas Eve viewing lights, blow up characters and other holiday decorations.

Looking over the photographs I took that evening reminded of a blog post that I wrote a couple of years ago about this very activity that produces such special memories. I am going to re-post that writing for this weeks blog.

Previously posted on Kathy From KeppenArt in December 16, 2021:

My Favorite Holiday Tradition
It’s the third week in December. Christmas is almost a week away. It’s cold outside. Freezing actually. Snow covers everything in sight except the highways that have been cleared.

As children we can’t wait for Daddy to get home from work around dusk. Tonight is the night he’s promised to take us to see outdoor Christmas decorations.

We are too excited about our annual outing to be hungry. But we aren’t going anywhere until we sit down for the evening meal.

After eating and helping to clean up the kitchen we grab our coats and head for the garage. Climbing into the family car we imagine how many roads we’ll travel this evening.

Every December my father would ask his co-workers who lived in the villages and small towns around us where the best outdoor decorations were located in their neighborhoods. As we drove the rural highways, pulling off the main roads into small communities, he would tell Mother which of his co-workers lived on that road.

I never paid any attention to their conversations. My mind was too occupied with what I could see out of that back window. This was before blow up Santas and store bought wire skeletons covered with lights in the shape of reindeer or angels.

There were occasional displays of lighted plywood pieces cut and painted as snowmen or angels but the majority of the decorations consisted of large colored bulbs strung along the roof lines and decorating outdoor evergreen trees in people’s front yards.

We grew up and moved away. But we tried to time our vacations to visit my parents at Christmas. By then Wheeling, WVA (driving distance from my parents’ home) had started putting on a Festival Of Lights. There are lighted displays of all kinds on over 300 acres along the six mile drive through the park. Some years I would take photographs but most years I just sat awe struck admiring all the wonderful displays and thankful that our holiday tradition continued.

My parents have passed away. We’ve visited lighted displays in other cities. But nothing compares to those freezing cold nights, wrapped up in big coats, mittens and boots, sitting in the back seat of the family car with our noses pressed against the window glass and the sight of Christmas lights being reflected in our childhood faces.

Feel free to share your favorite Christmas traditions in the comment section!

The new laptop arrived a day later than expected but it was delivered, unpacked, plugged in, turned on, connected to the net and registered.

Several people told me how great a machine it is (I’m typing on it now) and that it would last me many years (it better!).

The flashing lights on the keyboard almost drove me nuts until I was able to find out where to turn them off. Disco was 50 years ago people! As much as I loved it then out dancing it doesn’t belong on my keyboard.

Both laptops have been set up and on at the same time while learning how to navigate Windows 11. I found the User Manual online on the old machine and read it while poking around the new machine. That was very handy.

I also used my previous laptop to process this week’s Challenge Image. But I’m using the new laptop and a new Writing program to type out this blog post. Remember me saying last week that I was frugal (AKA cheap)? Well, I didn’t want to give Microsoft anymore money for their Word program so I researched the free ones and downloaded LibreOffice. Time will tell if it’s comparable to MS Word.

I also downloaded GIMP, a free photo software whose interface looks like the Corel software that I have on the old machine. It looks similar but that’s as far as it goes. I have yet to dive into that to compare.

Adobe Reader has been downloaded and installed enabling me to read the pdf file I made of this blog entry!

There are still many issues awaiting my attention (for example, why this laptop doesn’t recognize my printer) but those challenges will have to wait. The hubby will be off work for almost two weeks and that’s enough frustration to contend with during the holidays! He normally works 10 hours a day with a two hour commute. Having him here 24/7 for 12-13 days will be a big adjustment to my schedule.

If you are reading this post then I was successful in saving this document in a way that I can copy or upload it to my Blog Site like I did with MS Word. If not, well, if not then you won’t be reading this!

I wish for all of you a safe and meaningful holiday. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Kathy

As I write this post, I am waiting for FedEx to deliver my new laptop. It was ordered a few days ago after literally years of research, confusion and indecision.

The laptop I’m using now is over 10 years old. It is almost full of programs, documents, videos and photographs causing it to slow down, and because it has the Windows 7 operating system which no longer has any support or updates, the system gets a little wonky sometimes.

Watching videos, reels or movies will be without sound as the audio will only play for about 30 seconds before it goes silent.

Although it’s great to have choices I’ve found that there are simply too many when it comes to any electronic device. Computers, laptops, tablets, and phones each have a zillion models. Those in the know advise people to find a computer store locally or online and build your own. It’s supposedly less expensive and you get exactly what you want or need.

The problem with building your own computer or laptop is that you need to have some knowledge of the different components. If you have little to no knowledge of the components that make up a computer how do you know which components you even need?

After finally making a decision, picking out a new laptop and ordering it I spent that night tossing and turning. My mind would race from one thing to another.

For example, I’m very frugal (AKA Cheap) and I started worrying about how much it is going to cost me to purchase new software for the new laptop. Windows 11 will be installed already but what about Word, Excel (which I’ve NEVER used), Adobe Acrobat? Will my iTunes migrate over and how do I do that?

Also, this new laptop does not have a DVD burner/player like my present one. I had asked for and received one for Christmas last year but it’s hooked up to the television that’s across the room from my desk. Are they both equipped with Blue Ray and will that keep me from physically moving the player and trying to find room on my desk for it? And what about the photographs on my camera? This new laptop does not have memory card slot. Why didn’t I order a card reader when I ordered the laptop? I prefer using a mouse so I probably should have ordered a new wireless mouse, too! While I was finally ordering a new laptop why didn’t I also order a new Solid State External Hard Drive since my older one is getting full and probably nearing the end of it’s life expectancy…too many shoulda, woulda, couldas to get much sleep!

Concerns like the ones in the previous two paragraphs haunted me the entire night and filled me full of anxiety carrying into the next day.

It’s probably going to cost me a lot more money than just the cost of the laptop but I hope that it will be worth it. After all, I treat electronics like vehicles – I use/drive them until they either die or nickel and dime me to no end. I have certainly gotten my money’s worth out of this present laptop and it will still be used to some extent.

Interestingly I wrote 673 words of this post, hit Save As and two windows opened up at the same time. One window was the Save As window but everything was grayed out. The second window that had opened was the “This program has stopped working and Microsoft is looking for a solution” message!

Long story short: I had to Restart my laptop (Task Manager would not close the Word program). Luckily, the program had autosaved part of the post, although the saved document was short about 100 words.

Talk about anxiety!

Do you have anxiety about choosing, purchasing and learning about new electronics, appliances or vehicles? If so please share your own anxious experiences in the comment section.

Today’s post is about one of my favorite images, Nature’s Watercolor. We have a 16 x 20 canvas printed with today’s featured image hanging in a bedroom in our apartment and last week end this same image sold twice in a Christmas Market in Florence, Alabama (USA) as matted prints.

Not only am I drawn to the muted, serene colors in this image but I also remember capturing the scene during one of our boat rides on the Jourdan River in Hancock County Mississippi. The Jourdan is a tidal river along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and its brackish waters flow first into the Bay of Saint Louis and then into the Gulf of Mexico.

Spending time on the bleached white sandbars along the Jourdan River was one of my favorite things about living in Bay Saint Louis and boating on that river. There are several bridges that cross the river including one that carries traffic on Interstate 10.

The actual support posts for this bridge can be seen in the upper left of the photograph with water reflections running in between them. The pink and gray colored posts running through the middle of the photograph are reflections on the surface of the water of the real support posts.

This photograph was taken shortly after sunset allowing the soft muted colors of the sunset’s afterglow to be reflected from the sky to the water’s surface.

The resulting image projects a rather abstract picture with soft muted colors resulting in a serene scene resembling a watercolor painting. All of this beauty was created naturally and I was blessed to view it and preserve it for others to enjoy.

When I suggested that we visit the Official Alabama Renaissance Faire my husband asked me what to expect. Neither of us had ever been to one of these festivals but I had seen images on television and in print. Thinking that I knew what these fairs were all about I told him that the exhibits and characters would be representative of ages past (mostly the 1300s or1400s through the 1600s).

After entering Wilson Park in downtown Florence, Alabama we came upon the main stage area where characters were dressed as this year’s Queen, Queen Consort and Royal Steward and Herald. The Queens were seated while eating a snack. The Royal Steward stood watch over the two of them.

We passed the stage area and strolled through the park passing vendors, demonstrations and costumed characters.

There were Blacksmiths demonstrating their work, musicians, Belly Dancers and an entire block of food vendors lined up on one of the streets surrounding the park.

Almost reaching the food vendors we saw a booth where the vendors were selling pointy ears. We had already passed several visitors trying to put them on over their own ears. My husband turned to me and said, “What’s with the ears?”

It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but I had to tell him that I didn’t know. Then I saw the Fairies! Two costumed young ladies dressed up as fairies and yes, they were wearing those pointy ears.

Would you dress up as a fairy and wear those pointy ears if you were attending a Renaissance Faire? Please answer in the comment section.

Today’s blog post is the second in a series about our visit to the 2023 Alabama Renaissance Faire. Last week’s post was about the gentleman portraying the Italian astronomer Galileo. This week’s post is about a gentleman acting as a wizard. Or perhaps he is an actual wizard?

When researching the history of wizards I came across more than one image of this same gentleman. At first I thought it might be different men but wearing the same costume. But it seems that this man can be recognized by his gaze as well as his costume. That’s why I wondered if this man is an excellent actor or an actual wizard.

Just what is a wizard? There are many synonyms for the word as well as several definitions. Dictionaries agree on the most common definitions of a magician or sorcerer or a person of amazing skill or accomplishment. Synonyms include medium, fortuneteller, occultist, seer, witch, warlock, as well as magician and sorcerer.

Let’s consider the definitions and synonyms that pertain to the Renaissance period in history.

Before the Renaissance, which is generally described between the 14th and 17th Centuries, magic was considered witchcraft and had a very negative connotation. However, during the 15th and 16th Centuries attitudes and beliefs about magic were changing.

This attitude change can be realized in the writings of the time. In Medieval times magic was written about mainly as fantasies and fictional activities. However, during the Renaissance magic was seen and written about as a more complex issue that could explain things that science could not, a form of hidden knowledge that could be found in rituals and writings.

A few authors that highlight this change in attitude include C.S. Lewis, Spencer, Chapman and even Shakespeare. Pico della Mirandola, an Italian nobleman and philosopher, studied under a Rabbi who insisted that the study of magic was an important stage in one’s intellectual and spiritual education.

Do crystals have magical powers as the wizard believes when he holds it out for me to view? Will his hooded cape protect him from the evil that may exist where he ventures? Is he a real magician or an actor costumed as a Renaissance Wizard?

I don’t know what the answers are to the questions above. What I do know is that this gentleman spotted me taking pictures at the Renaissance Faire in Florence, Alabama and struck a pose. He then held that pose until I put my camera down at which time he turned and slowly walked off.

There will be a few more blog entries about our visit to the Alabama Renaissance Faire in the coming weeks. Be sure to bookmark this site to read those entries and find links to the accompanying images.

Be sure and share you Renaissance Faire experiences in the comment section.

The official Alabama Renaissance Faire is held each October in Florence, Alabama (USA). The city was named after Florence, Italy, considered one of the cultural centers of the historic Renaissance period and where many believe the Renaissance Period actually began.

In the summer of 1987 city leaders and educators in the Alabama city planned the first festival to take place during the school year as an educational fair. It was the next year that the State Senate and House passed a bill that designated Florence as the state’s official renaissance fair city.

The fair was originally to showcase the Italian Renaissance culture but has since become a festival like many other Renaissance Fairs that includes Scottish, English and Modern Sci-Fi elements.

One of the first costumed characters that we met when we attended this year’s fair recently was the gentleman dressed as Galileo, an Italian astronomer, engineer and physicist born in 1564.

Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine but soon changed his study to mathematics. Although he never finished his degree he was chair of mathematics at two different universities.

He revolutionized both astronomy and biology with his inventions that included compasses and improved telescopes with balances as well as microscopes. He also discovered several celestial bodies.

Galileo led an interesting and controversial life. In 1633 he was summoned before the Roman Inquisition and lived the last nine years of his life under house arrest.

This modern Galileo may have been the first character that stopped and posed for me but he certainly wasn’t the last. The people who dress up and roam around Wilson Park during the festival seem to enjoy playing their part and are more than happy to stop and pose whenever they spy someone with a camera!

Continue to visit my blogs and web site in the coming weeks to view and learn about several other characters that I photographed that day.

Have you attended a Renaissance Faire in your hometown or other city? If so, please use the comment section to share your experience.

Technically we don’t have a backyard. We live in an apartment complex and have a back patio. Beyond the patio is a narrow area of grass and then a privacy fence. Beyond the fence there is a vacant field and a wooded area on two sides of that field.

The image that I posted this week for the 52 Week Art Challenge (Theme: The World Outside) was a photograph of an American Sycamore tree that grows along the wooded area at the end of the vacant field beyond the privacy fence. I had previously posted a photograph of that tree with snow covering its branches. This week the tree’s leaves had turned yellow and reddish orange as the cooler weather brought fall colors to many trees and shrubs in the area.

One of the meteorologists on the weather channel had stated that the fall colors in New England were muted this year. People who planned their vacation to view or photograph New England’s famous autumn foliage were disappointed that the changing leaves were not a brilliant show this year.

We found muted colors among the mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina last week, too. A trip to visit family took us up and over the Appalachian Mountain range in those states and although trees were sporting fall colors the hues were muted rather than the usual bright shades. Like those vacationers in New England I had hoped to capture many photographs of trees full of brilliantly colored leaves.

Once again, as is true very often in life, I only had to look in my own backyard (poetically speaking) to find brilliantly colored leaves on an American Sycamore tree!

How often have you searched far and wide for beauty or excitement to end up finding what you were looking for right in your own backyard?

Please feel free to share that experience in the comment section below.

As many of you already know, the past few weeks have found me experimenting with different settings on my camera. You also know that it has been a frustrating experience for me.

However, even though I will need to continue to experiment, practice and learn if I want to get good results “straight out of the camera”, there are many times that I can get acceptable results with software processing and manipulation.

This became clear to me as I uploaded the photographs that were taken in September of my neighbors Starfish Flower into my photography software program. Those photos were taken on different days over a period of two weeks. Many photos were taken with different settings, with different lighting and in different weather conditions.

I went through all of the photographs and culled the very dark or blurry ones out of the mix deleting them instantly. After picking out six photos that looked decent I started processing them.

I found that some of those images only needed a little contrast to make them more appealing. All of them needed to be cropped, some more than others.

In the end I was left with six images that were inserted into a collage that was not only acceptable but gave me good results.

Now, if only I can remember this when I’m experimenting then my frustration might be at a much lower level.

Please comment and share a time when you learned not to get frustrated because you remembered that the end result was going to be a good one.

While taking photographs of the sky on a partly cloudy day, I started seeing mystical creatures being formed!

This was not the first time that I have witnessed animals appearing in the sky disguised as clouds.

Going through my photography archives, especially the oldest CDs there are hundreds of pictures of the sky with clouds. These are photos that were taken in adulthood.

Evidently I have not outgrown the practice of looking up, noticing and studying cloud formations. Actually I hope I never do outgrow that habit.

Pareidolia is the scientific name for seeing or hearing objects or words in patterns or images that aren’t really there. For example, seeing animals or faces in clouds, on rocks or other material objects is pareidolia. It can also mean hearing messages in musical compositions.

This phenomenon has been seen and written about in art. Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his notebooks that it would be a useful device for painters. Salvador Dali intentionally used pareidolia in his works, more often than not using faces.

In architecture, building details have been designed to cast shadows that will resemble people or animals, such as several mosques in Turkey.

The Shroud Of Turin is likely the most famous example of pareidolia known around the world. Not only does the shroud have the image of the crucified Jesus Christ but words and symbols have also been seen on the shroud as it has been studied.

Pareidolia has even found itself in literature. Hamlet has a conversation with Polonius about what he saw in the clouds. Was it a camel, a weasel or a whale?

Pareidolia. A scientific word. A scientific explanation for the phenomenon of seeing or hearing objects in or on other objects.

Honestly, I only want to believe it’s the best of our imagination and I’m glad that my imagination is still as strong when I gaze up at the sky as it was in my childhood.

Has adulthood weakened that childhood practice of imagining in your life or is your imagination as strong as ever? Be sure and share the answer to that question in the comment section.

Week Six of the 52 week Art Challenge (The World Outside) contained an image of a morning sky. We live on a hill surrounded by tall trees. Our sunrise is actually about 45 minutes to an hour later than the official sunrise. The morning the photograph was taken for Week 6 was cloudy but not total clouds covering the entire sky. The clouds were thick and dark in the middle and hanging around the horizon.

As the sun was rising above the tree tops, the clouds were covering the actual orb but bright light was escaping around the edges of the clouds and into the spaces between them.

The scene was very dramatic and the camera was able to record the drama.

One of my fellow Fine Art America members stated that the image held a motivational message: every cloud has a silver lining.

I didn’t think of that when I was capturing the scene or even when I was lightly processing the photograph. I could only see the beauty and drama that unfolded that morning.

I am not a morning person. So it really was a “silver lining” that I was up and dressed and outside with my camera while witnessing such an amazing sight. Capturing that scene with my camera allows me to experience that beauty many times over as well as being able to share that awesome morning sky with others.

Be sure to comment and share your “clouds with a silver lining”.

Last week I talked about experimenting with my camera but not using a notebook to write down the different settings I was using. I have been taking pictures for the One Image A Week For 52 Weeks Personal Art Challenge that was using the theme The World Outside.

This week I also participated in a three day challenge in which the theme was Bread. All of the photographs for that challenge were taken indoors. I was able to write down the different settings I used without having to lug around a notebook because there was paper and pencil right there on my desk!

Having access to paper and pencil did not, however, make those photo sessions any less frustrating. The desired effect in changing the depth of field without adding noise (like grainy film) and getting the light exposure right all at the same time still eludes me.

The good part of this short challenge was the bread! There’s very little bread bought and eaten in our place even though it’s one of my husband’s favorite foods. You can image how elated he was when we went grocery shopping and I visited the deli to buy three different types of bread. He was so appreciative that he picked up some Baklava for me before we left that department.

I’m sure we both gained an extra pound or two this week eating a loaf of Banana Nut Bread, a French Baguette, Cornbread and of course the Baklava!

Considering the frustration of the completed challenge, each pound I may have gained is worth every single bite of that Baklava.

Your thoughts are always welcomed and encouraged if you’d like to comment.

If you have been following my blog posts about the 52 Week Personal Art Challenge you may remember the notebook suggestion. The suggestion was to carry a notebook and write down what camera settings you are using when learning how to use the camera off the Auto program.

In the past I would often take a quick shot of the ground when changing from one setting to the next. Since I wanted to try more than two settings and my camera was on a tripod I decided to put my hand in front of the lens and take a shot of that. Keeping my changes in order from Macro (close-up) to the Program mode to the Aperture mode and back to the beginning Macro mode I thought that I would be able to know what setting I had used when looking at the thumbnails on my computer. It was a matter of always using the same order of settings.

However, I also experimented with the focus and totally forgot when and how I had changed those settings!

Did I get any photographs that I could process and upload? Yes.

Did I get many more photographs that were pure crap to be deleted immediately? Yes.

Did I learn anything from this week’s experimenting? Yes.

Lesson learned: take a notebook and write down when you change settings of any kind if you want to learn what settings work under certain circumstances (like lighting or wind, etc.).

Because, believe me, there is no way to remember what settings you’ve used on all 100+ photos that are taken each day with seven days in a week!

Until next week enjoy another Hibiscus image featured in today’s post.

Be sure to comment below with any thoughts or suggestions.

As this new-year long art challenge continues, so does my experimenting and learning about the different settings on my camera.

I’ve been very frustrated that I have a single lens reflex camera with two lenses and an array of settings and I still see better photographs online that have been taken with phone cameras compared to many of my photographs.

Having said that, I do realize that quite a few of those photographs taken with a phone may look fantastic on social media but may not have the quality to look as good when printed in a larger size.

Realizing that to get the most of my camera I must learn how to use many of its settings, I have been reading through the manual and getting off the Auto Setting.

One of the more experienced photographers on Fine Art America suggested taking a notebook and writing down the way that you program the camera before taking a few pictures, change the settings, write down what your changes were and take a few more pictures to compare.

Well, reading the manual to learn how to use my camera in varying situations is like trying to translate a foreign language that I’ve never spoken!

Likewise, taking a notebook and pencil is something else to stick in my pocket or remember to use before pushing that shutter button.

This morning I set out with my new tripod, my camera, two lenses and my reading glasses. There was no notebook or pencil so I’m really not sure how much “learning” there was but I did get a couple of nice captures out of almost 100 shots. I even tried putting the camera in manual focus mode. That worked out good for my flower shots but was a bust for my caterpillar to cocoon captures.

After deleting half of the photographs that were taken this morning I then chose one to process and upload for this week’s challenge image. That image is today’s featured image for this blog post.

Tomorrow morning starts Week Four of this 52 week challenge and presents another week of opportunity to experiment, practice and learn.

Please feel welcome to comment or discuss in the section below.

There are pros and cons to using a tripod in photography but there are times when it’s absolutely necessary to produce the type of image desired.

Several weeks ago I bought a new tripod. This is the third tripod I have owned. They are/were all inexpensive tripods purchased at a big box store.

People who know me, especially those who have known me for many years, know that I am frugal. Okay, I’m cheap!

Keeping up with the Jones or always buying brand name items has never been important to me. I was so excited to get my first transistor radio. I didn’t care that it wasn’t one of those expensive name brand ones that were all the rage. I was just excited to have ANY small, portable radio.

Saving money and putting emphasis on value is part of who I am and have always been. Yes, you get what you pay for – most of the time. However, sometimes when you purchase an expensive name brand item you are really paying for that name, not necessarily for a better quality product.

Also it’s important to consider how much and what type of usage an item will get before deciding on how much you are willing to spend and whether or not that big name will survive the conditions.

In regards to camera tripods there are also other considerations. For one example, the less expensive tripods and especially the very cheap ones are lighter in weight than most of the more expensive ones. That issue becomes even more important to me as I get older. I am probably not going to haul around a heavy, albeit quality tripod.

Those are the reasons why I have been buying inexpensive tripods from that big box store. Those nice, high quality, expensive tripods would have been heavier to carry and would not have survived my usage.

Take for example my first tripod. I left it sitting in the driveway while I went inside to unload the photographs on the memory card into my computer. I forgot to go back outside and put the tripod up before any vehicles drove into the driveway.

Thank goodness I had to take the camera off of the tripod to get to the memory card. My camera was sitting there on my desk when my tripod was run over by the truck that backed down the drive. Running over even an expensive tripod with a pick-up truck is going to cause unrepairable damage.

Traveling with my second tripod was also a disaster. Loaded flat onto the bed of a pick-up put the tripod in a position to have heavy items stacked on top. Another unrepairable damage issue on tripod Number Two.

That brings us to today’s featured image and Tripod Number Three. Without this new inexpensive tripod the images that I captured this week of hummingbirds would not have been clear or acceptable to post. I took many photographs, processed several and even used the three that I posted online to make a photo collage which is also posted on my site.

Money well spent and an intact tripod that can used again.

Well, until the next mishap!

Thoughts and comments are always welcome and encouraged.

Are you a worrier?

Do storms cause you stress?

Are those weather storms or issues in life that we metaphorically call storms that might cause you stress?

Unfortunately I tend to be a worrier and even the smallest life issue can cause me stress.

Last year I decided to participate in the Personal Art Challenge on Fine Art America that required a new work of art to be created and posted every single day. Normally that type of pressure would have caused me a lot of stress. But there were stress-reducing elements to the challenge.

In that challenge I could take off a maximum of 30 days for illness, travel or for any reason really. Those days could be consecutive or not, my choice. I could also use a different theme and a different medium any of those days. For example one day could be a digital creation of a snowman, the day after that could be a photograph of an indoor still life and the third day could be an abstract or even a hand drawn image. My choice every day of the medium I wanted to use and the subject matter of my image.

This week, after worrying and stressing over the terms of a new challenge, I signed up for another year long but very different one.

This new challenge only requires one image per week. We have an entire week to create that image. The caveat, however, is that we must use the same medium the entire 52 weeks. That’s right. No changing from photography to painting or drawing to digital. The medium we choose to use for Week One is the medium we will have to use the entire year.

It gets even more restrictive as there is only one theme the entire 52 weeks. The theme is The World Outside.

Now, all of you who know me know that I am basically an outdoor lover…as long as it’s warm or hot outside! I have also become quite the hermit not venturing out of this apartment complex. I suspect that I will be here in Northern Alabama in this complex throughout another winter and it will be anything but warm or interesting outside the majority of this winter.

I wanted to join the challenge but worried about weather and always having to produce an acceptable photograph that would be interesting. I stressed over not having the confidence to post acceptable traditional artworks, that is painting or hand drawing, every single week.

This new art challenge has presented itself at a time when I have also been struggling with faith concerning my future. A challenge to take place in the coming year, “the future”, and my concern, worry and stress about my faith in the future happening at the same time.

Co-incidence? I think not!

I invite you to follow me in the next 52 weeks as I look for eternal hope in the future by photographing The Outside World as I see it around me wherever I happen to be.

Join me as I learn to have more faith in my future, more faith in my photographer’s eye and more faith in my ability to be vulnerable to show you even the crappiest of my creations if I experience an entire “off” week.

Kathy is not in the Kathy From KeppenArt office this week.

Be sure and watch for a new blog post next week!

In last week’s blog post I talked about salt being used as currency in different parts of the world since ancient times. The featured image for that post was one that I had created for a Fine Art America Personal Art Challenge with the theme being Wealth.

Today’s featured image was also created for that challenge. This image depicts many small seashells piled up on a beach with a framed inset showing a zoomed in view of several different types of seashells.

Shell money has been used by native peoples all over the world as currency. Archaeologists believe that shell money could have been in use as early as 1200 B.C.

Although they are not as common today there are still countries that use particular shells as currency, including Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The Monetaria moneta, also known as the money cowry, these small sea snail species were extensively used as currency in various countries in Africa, Australia and Asia.

In many areas of the world seashells were used to make jewelry that was then traded or bartered as a form of currency, including the Eastern United States when jewelry called wampum was traded between the Native Americans and the European settlers.

I certainly feel wealthy when I am standing on a pile of seashells at the beach. Not because those shells are worth money but because being on the shore of an ocean, surrounded by sand, seashells, dune grasses and the sound of breaking waves informs my brain that I am at peace in my happy place.

What makes you feel wealthy?

Do owning many or expensive material possessions make you feel wealthy?

Are there locations that make you feel wealthy when you are there?

Please feel free to share the answers to those questions in the comment section.

I participated in yet another personal art challenge on Fine Art America this past weekend. The theme for this challenge was Wealth as stated in the challenge discussion: Images should portray wealth in some format. How is up to you.

There were many definitions both online and in the challenge as artists were interpreting the concept. I used these definitions for the three images I created:

An abundance of valuable material possessions or resources; riches.
The state of being rich; affluence.
Goods and resources having value in terms of exchange or use.

I researched various forms of currency using the first and last definition above.

There were the obvious concepts of money, health, spirituality and family but the most creative concept and title the first day was an image of an overgrown plot of land called “A Wealth Of Weeds”. How creative to think of weeds as wealth!

What comes to your mind when you hear the word Wealth?

Do you also think of things in abundance?

What is wealth to you?

Feel free to share your definition and thoughts on this theme by commenting below.

At the end of June I wrote about the Dog Days of Summer. The last sentence of that post was: Let’s hope that this year’s Dog Days are short lived and people around the world are able to find relief from the heat until those stars realign and cooler temperatures arrive.

Well, this year’s Dog Days have not been short lived and people around the world have struggled to find relief from the heat.

For years my husband and I would beat the heat by taking a boat on whatever river was close to us at the time and find sandbars to hang out on. Sometimes we fished but mostly we picnicked, listened to music and relaxed.

The rivers that we frequented were often wild, spring fed rivers with cold water even on the hottest days of the summer. Too hot even in the shade? Take a dip in the river and allow that cold water to cool your hot skin.

Shade. A valuable commodity on a reflective, white sandbar. Large summer umbrellas were always stashed in the boat for such outings.

This year we don’t have those white sand, cold water rivers nearby. We will beat the heat by staying inside in the air conditioning whenever possible.

How have you dealt with this year’s oppressive heat waves and how has that differed from former heat waves that you have lived through?

Please feel free to comment below and share your Dog Day experiences.

How do you choose a new hometown?

Maybe you are moving out of your parent’s home and want to relocate to a different city or state or even country.

Maybe you are starting a new life or career and want to do that somewhere different than where we are currently living.

Maybe you are retiring and want to move somewhere that is not dictated by your job location.

Where would you go?

How would you decide where to go?

My husband will be retiring next year and we have been discussing the location of our future home. We have moved around the southeastern United States for the past forty plus years, from Virginia to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and several locations in between. All of our “new” hometowns were dictated by my husband’s work. We made those moves in order for him to advance in his chosen career.

This next move will be very different. Our choice will be dictated by criteria other than employment opportunities.

What factors would you need to consider if you were in a position to choose a new hometown?

Would finances and the cost of living be your only concern?

Would you need to consider how far your new hometown is from other family members?

Would you choose your new hometown on the basis of weather?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and let us know (1) if you have chosen a new hometown before and how you chose that location or (2) if you are considering a move now and what criteria you are using to make that decision.

We were visiting St. Mary’s, Georgia (USA), a small coastal town on the St. Mary’s River. The river separates the states of Georgia and Florida in the Southeastern United States.

Although it was late spring the sun was high in the sky and had heated the asphalt paving on the streets and parking lots.

I had been taking pictures in a riverfront park and was walking back to the pier where my husband was watching boats come and go.

I don’t know why I looked down at the ground as I approached a recreational vehicle but when I did I spotted this wad of chewing gum stuck to a tire.

There was no way for me to know how long the sticky gum had been on the pavement or how long ago the vehicle ran over the gum. But as heavy as the vehicle was, when its tire rolled over that wad, the gum refused to give up its hold on the pavement even though it also stuck to the tire.

The gum between the tire and pavement had a string like appearance and for some reason it fascinated me. I captured three shots of the scene and walked off to meet the hubby, grateful that I had not stepped on a wad of sticky chewing gum.

Had I stepped in chewing gum that was as sticky as the gum on the tire, I would have literally found myself in a sticky situation. However, sometimes we can find ourselves in what we call a sticky situation when in reality our situation does not literally involve sticky or gummy substances.

What situations have you found yourself in that was a sticky situation?

Did it literally involve chewing gum, some other sticky candy or glue? Or was your sticky situation one that was difficult to deal with but not literally sticky?

Please feel free to comment and share one of your sticky situations, whatever that means to you.

Earlier this year during the first week of May, my husband and I were in southern Georgia (USA). Georgia is known as the Peach State and those fruits were coming into season while we were there.

We knew there were several farm and produce stands in an unincorporated community not that far from my husband’s hometown where we were visiting.

It had been years since we had visited Barney and we were excited to go purchase some fresh peaches to eat and to share with our Alabama neighbors when we arrived back in Florence later in the week.

Although there are several farms with retail stands in that area, we stopped at the first one on our route, which was the Burton Brooks Orchards.

What a feast for our senses!

There were antique farm implements, cars, trucks and other memorabilia from the past. An old covered wagon was placed in a grassy area next to the road and the canvas cover of the wagon was painted in bright peach colors advertising the orchard.

The smell of fresh peaches, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables filled our sinuses with the seasonal odors of a summer garden.

However, the old fashioned churned ice cream was absolutely the highlight of our visit. Awesomely scrumptious peach ice cream. Chunks of real fruit in a mix of natural ingredients reminded us of long, hot summer days whose evenings sometimes included that favorite summer treat of homemade ice cream.

Local farm stands and urban farmers markets are treasure troves of regional culture. They are filled with not only fresh produce but also local jams, jellies, handmade quilts and other items you won’t necessarily find on Amazon.

Have you been to a local market recently?

Were there items there in addition to the fresh produce?

Do you stop at these local venues when you are traveling?

Be sure and share your experiences in the comment section.

In the image featured with this post we see a small statue sitting on top of a refrigerator and in front of the upper cabinets in a kitchen. The statue is made to look like a large, jolly cook. He wears a chef’s hat, an apron in a black and white checkered pattern and large, black shoes.

The statue chef is holding what appears to be an iron skillet. Kitchen Is Closed is written on the interior of the black skillet with white chalk.

This chef statue actually sits on top of the refrigerator in our apartment. It was given to my husband as a gift for completing a program at a local café.

I had written Kitchen Is Closed to indicate that I was not cooking one particular evening. However, the words written in chalk were never erased.

Normally, leaving those words on that skillet would indicate that I was retired from my domestic engineering work, on vacation or simply taking a break from cooking.

However, I have actually cooked more in the past few years than I had in all the other years prior to the appearance of that statue.

Since I am not particularly a good cook and it is not something that I enjoy, it may be time to retire from cooking.

Maybe tomorrow I will take the chef statue down from the top of the refrigerator and set him on the kitchen counter and truly “close down” our kitchen!

Please feel free to share your kitchen or cooking stories in the comment section below.

What we see in the image accompanying this blog post are two dogs sleeping in the sun. One of the dogs is taking advantage of a pool float that provided cushioning from the hard gravel surface.

There are beach towels and a lounging chair in the background which suggests that the dogs are in an area that contains a swimming pool. The dog on the pool float is actually wet from being in the pool and is napping as she dries her fur in the sunshine.

In researching the dates for the “dog days of summer” I found similar but sometimes conflicting information. Generally the dog days are in July and August.

July 3 to August 11 was stated in several articles however those articles also admitted that those dates can vary.

Other sites that I visited stated that the period known as dog days could last anywhere from 40 to 60 days. Every article I read agreed that it is traditionally the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

They all agreed that the history of when dog days appeared was tied to the location of the stars, particularly Sirius, the Dog Star.

This blog entry is being written the last week of June, only a few days before that July 3 start of Dog Days.

This year (2023) the start of Dog Days appears to be a global heat wave. The United States, Europe and SW Asia are all having unusually and sometimes deadly high temperatures during this period. People worldwide are trying to find ways to deal with the sweltering heat.

Let’s hope that this year’s Dog Days are short lived and people around the world are able to find relief from the heat until those stars realign and cooler temperatures arrive.

Please feel free to share in the comment section below how you deal with heat waves and the Dog Days of Summer.

This Tawny Daylily, sometimes considered an invasive plant, is waiting to be pollinated. Its stamens are reaching upwards, waiting for the wind or insects to complete the process.

Over the years, this particular patch of flowers was transplanted from our home in GA to our home in VA to my parent’s home in Ohio and finally to our home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast!

As I look at the stamens reaching for the sky I think about how we reach for our goals.

Are our goals the same as those of this flower to physically reproduce?

Or are our goals of a spiritual nature? A goal to reach upward for guidance, discernment or in praise?

Are you reaching upward?

What are you reaching for?

Please share in the comment section below.

Today’s featured image is a photograph that was taken from a boat on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, Mississippi (USA). A quote from Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher, was added to the image.

From the river we are looking at marsh grasses that line the point where the river meets land. As the land becomes more solid a line of Oak Trees rise above the ground. A hazy atmosphere surrounds the partially leafed branches. The entire scene is a mix of dark gray land and plants and pinkish hues from the ground upward into the sky.

The quote from Thoreau states, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

What do you see when you look at this image?

Do you see morning spring fog or summer evening humidity?
Do you see atmospheric moisture or lingering smoke from a river marsh fire?
Do you see somewhere dark and eerie or a quiet and peaceful place?

What about your own view today?

Are you only looking around you or are you actually seeing your environment?

What do you see when looking at your surrounding environment?

Do you see an angry sky full of dark clouds or a much needed rainstorm approaching?
Do you see a hot, scorching sun or a bright, sunny day?

Thoreau’s words remind me that what matters more is how I interpret my environment, not just what objects in my environment are in my view.

What do Thoreau’s words mean to you? Your explanation in the comment section is very welcomed and encouraged.

I participated in a new art challenge this week. The challenge was to write a description, story or poem about the subject, Paintbrush.

I chose to write a poem. After completing the challenge I decided to create an image to go along with that poem.

The image was a photograph of many artists’ paintbrushes in a glass. To accentuate the brushes, the photograph was manipulated in software to eliminate all of the background and color in the photograph and the edges of the remaining elements were abstracted.

The poem:

When will she come back?
When will she wrap those slender fingers around my wooden body?
When will she relieve the pain in my far end after resting my entire weight on that single point for so long?

Now. She comes now.
Oh great relief as she wraps her fingers around my body and lifts me out of the glass where I’ve been waiting patiently for her.
Now. She dips my fine hair in cool water before dipping those hairs in glorious color.
Oh what great joy as she uses my hair to spread those wonderful colors on the blank canvas.
Now. She gently swishes my colored hairs in the cleansing warm water.
Oh how soothing that clean warm water feels.

Wait. She plops me, far end down, into the glass jar that many of us occupy.
Wait. That’s what we do.
Wait. We wait until the muse hits her once again and she rescues us from boredom.

*Your comments are always welcomed and encouraged!

Today’s blog post reminds us to focus on the calmness in life.

This is the description for the Focus On Blue Skies image:

A pair of eyeglasses on a desk is reflecting a window across the room. The focus is on the blue sky showing through the window.

Sitting at a desk working can be boring or stressful but focusing on that blue sky can be soothing and energizing at the same time since a blue sky represents good weather and therefore a pleasant day.

Being in nature or concentrating on it has a calming effect on our minds and bodies and calming ourselves can be energizing as it releases the energy that stress has bound up in our bodies.

The next time you are working and feel stressed out or bored it would be smart to take a break. Concentrate on those calming blue skies or go out into nature and feel your stress and boredom floating away.

Please feel free to share a time when viewing blue skies gave you a sense of calm.

My husband really likes Chinese food and I get tired of cooking, so about once a week he brings home Chinese takeout for supper.

It’s an American tradition to end your Chinese meal with a fortune cookie, a crisp and sugary cookie wafer with a “fortune” inside. These fortunes are usually aphorisms (a statement of general truth or principle handed down from earlier generations).

Sometimes we laugh at our fortunes and sometimes they cause us to think more deeply about what it written on that little strip of white paper.

For example, my first reaction to this week’s fortune was a hearty laugh out loud moment. But after reading it to my husband we both ended up wrinkling our brow in an outward sign that we were mulling over this piece of wisdom more seriously.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

Wow! If you think deeply on that statement it’s pretty profound.

What issue, problem or chore is so important in your life that you would want to make sure that the issue or chore is completed and the problem solved?

Are any of our chores or jobs important enough that we would not want to leave anything unfinished when our life is over?

Are there any problems in our life that we would not want to leave unsolved?

Those questions have been churning around my brain for several days now. I don’t think there’s one single chore or job that would hurt anyone or matter at all if I left it undone and I’m pretty sure none of my problems will matter since I won’t be here to stress over them!

What are your thoughts on this recent “fortune”? Please feel free to comment below.

The grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence).

How many times in your life have you heard that idiom?

What does it mean?

Is it true?

If you take that idiom literally it might be true. A former neighbor and I would complement each other on our lawns. One day as I stood on his back porch I realized that our lawn did actually look greener than his. But I knew that when I stood on our back porch his lawn always looked greener than ours!

I realized that the effect on one lawn looking greener than the other had everything to do with perspective. We were looking at each other’s lawn at an angle because our lawns sloped downward to the property lines. The light was hitting the grass at a different angle when I viewed his lawn from our porch than when I viewed our lawn from our porch…and vice versa!

But was the grass really greener or did it only appear to be so?

Let’s look at the idiom from another viewpoint. Instead of taking the saying literally, think of it as an expression of envy, which was the original intent of the statement.

Someone else’s job, house, car or life may seem better than your own because all you see of the other person’s life or possessions are the positives. You envy them for having such a nice house/car/job/life.

For example the other person’s house may look more expensive than yours and you may be envious that your house doesn’t look that nice. But what you may not know is that the inside of their house things are falling apart. If they saw the inside of your nicely maintained house they may be envious of you and think that your house was nicer than their own.

When we say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, what we are really saying is that other people seem to be in a better situation in life than we are.

Remember, however, that things are not always as they appear and the reality is that their life may not be as good as it seems.

Once again I’m reminded that “Life is a matter of perspective.” And sometimes our perspectives are not even based in reality.

Something to think about in the days ahead.

Please feel free to comment.

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the beach.

Sun, sand and surf are important elements of my happy place.

I love the rhythmic sound of ocean waves, the feel of warm sun on my face and soft sand under my bare feet.

Last week I was blessed to visit Amelia Island, Florida (USA), the home of Fernandina Beach, one of the country’s oldest cities.

We had very little beach time while on the island but I made sure to soak up as much ambience as possible!

The day we visited was the last day of an entire week of wind advisories. The Atlantic Ocean was actually relatively calm considering the wind speeds that had persisted the entire week. But the sound and sight of even mild waves was food for my soul.

As I walked along I was very conscience of the damp sand underfoot. The warmth of the sun was penetrating my bones and warming my spirit. I came upon several small piles of seashells that had washed ashore and found myself visually pouring over the treasures at my feet.

At one point I stopped surveying the seashells and stood still facing the ocean. The wind made a mess of my hair and sand stung my legs as it was blown around in a strong gust of wind.

Not one second of that discomfort mattered. I was in my happy place, being fully mindful, warmed by the sun and refreshed by the sounds and sights of the sea.

Walking back to the lifeguard station I tucked a few seashells in my pocket.

As I reached the beach access point, my pocket now held physical seaside treasures to be taken back to northern Alabama. My mind and spirit held memories of the sights and sounds of that sunny beach. Those memories and seashells enable me to revisit this special place, even if that visit is only in my mind.

Please share your happy place experiences in the comment section.

A nap is basically a short period of sleep in addition to the normal nocturnal long(er) period of sleep. They usually take place during the day.

Thousands of studies have been done on napping. The results that I found while researching Naps were varied and contradictory, such as:

Naps are good for us.

Naps are not good for us.

The length of the nap determines whether it was good for your health or not.

The length of the nap has no bearing on our health.

The photograph above is of our former dog Cookie and was taken on a winter afternoon. There was a window next to her that faced south. For a short period of time each day, the sun would cover the bottom corner of the bed where she was napping. It was not unusual for me to find Cookie curled up napping in that spot.

Have you ever heard of taking a cat nap? Cats, like dogs, take short naps to refresh and reset their energy level. That is why a short, daytime sleep is sometimes called a cat nap.

I have been napping recently. I don’t nap every day or for the same length of time. But I have noticed that the longer I nap the more likely I am to feel groggy when waking up. However, naps less than an hour can leave me feeling just as drained of energy as before the nap.

For me, it seems that there is a “sweet spot” in napping that determines whether or not it refreshed my energy level.

Do you nap?

Do you feel better after you take a nap or do you feel groggy when waking from your nap?

Does the length of time of your nap determine whether you wake up groggy or refreshed?

Please feel free to share your napping experiences or habits in the comment section while I go take a nap!

We are two days away from Earth Day as I write this post. This year (2023) marks 53 years that this environmentally aware holiday has been celebrated.

Most articles cite one particular man for the founding of Earth Day but research shows that there were several people that led the environmental movement that eventually helped create Earth Day and several more persons who were instrumental in establishing the movement nationally as well as internationally.

The first official Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. Because the movement was originally called Campus Teach-Ins, the date was chosen because it was between Spring Break and Final Exams for most colleges.

By 1990 Earth Day had gone global and was recognized in 141 countries. The year 2000 found Earth Day in the digital age of social media and saw 180 countries participating.

Fifty years of global environmental awareness was celebrated in 2020 with approximately 200 countries celebrating Earth Day.

There are some countries that celebrate Earth Day on the Spring Equinox and many countries have adopted an entire week of activities during Earth Week.

What events and activities are scheduled in your community?

Are there events taking place in a week long celebration?

Will you be involved in any clean-up projects in your town?

Please share your Earth Day activities in the comment section and inspire others to take action wherever and whenever they can to help sustain nature and our environment for generations to come.

Some of you who keep up with my blog posts will remember that earlier this year I embarked on a road trip to scout out possible retirement locations.

The last possible retirement city that my friend and I visited was St. Marys, Georgia (USA). When we were still in South Carolina, we met a lady who had moved to St. Marys and insisted that we check out that area.

Walking around the historic riverfront area we found friendly people, dog friendly establishments and many restored homes and inns.

Although I photographed several churches, my favorite was the First Presbyterian Church.

The church was built in 1808. It is the second oldest church in the state of Georgia and the state’s oldest building in continuous use as a church. The first pastor was ordained and installed in June 1822.

On December 20, 1828, the church was incorporated under the name of the Independent Presbyterian Church of St. Marys.

On December 5, 1832, The Independent Church was incorporated as the First Presbyterian Church of St. Marys in the Georgia Presbytery.

A photograph inside the building shows a flat front to the church with the stairs angled down to the left side. A plaque on the photograph states that the picture was taken prior to 1898. A little research found that the photograph was actually showing a back entrance to a gallery for the enslaved.

In December 1956, a fire destroyed the original east side entrance. The church was restored with wood as old as the original church and rededicated within a few months of the fire.

Today the First Presbyterian Church of St. Marys, Georgia is admired both for its architecture and its members’ determination and faith to preserve the building for future parishioners.

Interestingly, the lady who first insisted we check out St. Marys is a member of this church and I spoke with her briefly as she left service the Sunday morning that I was taking photographs of the church.

I look forward to a return trip to this charming city in the near future to introduce my husband to this city as a possible retirement location. We will be driving past this historic structure as we slowly cruise into town.

Be sure and leave a comment and/or suggestions if you have visited or lived in the St. Marys area.

Today’s post is similar to my Maundy Thursday post that I wrote and posted last year. The image however, is different and depicts the preparation for the Holy Day remembrance.

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter Sunday. It is a remembrance of the Last Supper, the final Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples.

The word maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means command or commandment.

Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment that evening. That was to love one another in the agape way of loving. Agape, a Greek word for a particular type of love, is a spiritual type of love, not love that comes from any emotion.

Two things that Jesus did that evening have become traditions on Maundy Thursday. The breaking of bread and drinking wine to remember his sacrifice for mankind is now practiced as Holy Communion and is a major activity in Maundy Thursday services.

Jesus also humbled himself and washed his disciples’ feet as an example of Agape. Foot washing is often another tradition that is practiced at Maundy Thursday services.

My hope is that this image will be a thought provoking scene for each of us that will result in Agape Love towards one another.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, participating in the Personal Art Challenge with a Reflection theme, I also did some reflecting about life.

One of the images that I created was a reflection of a tulip bloom. My desire was to create a water reflection of that bloom using photo software.

Well, that didn’t work out. Hours later I had not been successful in learning how to make a water reflection out of a non-water photograph. I did, however, learn how to create the illusion of that tulip bloom being reflected as if it was lying on a mirror.

How many times in life have we planned to do something in a certain way, or we planned to take a specific route and things just did not work out the way we had planned.

With a combination of hope and perseverance I was able to create a reflection image. It wasn’t the image that I had set out to create, but it was an acceptable image and I learned a few new software settings while trying to create my original planned image.

Wouldn’t you agree that we could compare that to other life challenges?

Often things don’t work out as we had planned but if we approach our challenges in life hoping for success (however success may look) and we persevere until we get an acceptable result, we may discover that we are successful even when success is defined differently than we thought it would be!

Here’s hoping that each of you reading this will tackle any challenge that appears on your path in life, with the most positive attitude to persevere and eventually find yourselves successful in whatever way matters most!

Comments and shared experiences are always welcome and encouraged.

This week the Personal Art Challenge on Fine Art America is all about reflections. The goal is to post new artwork each day and the art has to have a reflection showing in the image.

The whole object of these challenges is to stretch our creativity, discipline and skill. Last year’s 365 Challenge stretched my creativity and discipline to produce and post new work every single day of the year. I’m using these shorter challenges to stretch my creativity and skill.

Photographers are allowed to use photographs that were taken at an earlier time as long as all of the processing work is done on the challenge day. In past challenges I have used a combination of older photographs that I had never processed (straight out of the camera, not cropped, not cloned to clean up dust, etc.) and some new photographs that were taken specifically for the challenge.

For the Reflection Challenge this week I decided to that I would be taking new photographs each day showing some type of reflection. Because of the poor lighting in the apartment that we live in, getting good results has been the challenge for me.

So far I have taken hundreds of pictures to get three “good” ones. I have taken pictures looking into a mirror, laying jewelry on top of a mirror and propping up a small mirror with my subject in front of it.

I’ve used all types of lighting available to me including the flash on the camera, overhead lighting and placing my subjects directly in front of north facing windows, the largest and most accessible ones here.

During these last three days I have not only been taking, processing and posting images with physical reflections but I have also been “reflecting” on life challenges that I have and am facing.

As I am writing and posting this week’s blog I face two more days to complete this present art challenge. Who knows how many more days I face to complete all the life challenges before me.

Reflecting on past victories over life’s challenges, I am sure to meet new ones, in my artwork and life in general.

However, it is time to stop reflecting and meet life’s challenges head-on!

You are encouraged to share your thoughts on any challenges you may be facing. Your comments are always welcomed.

Today’s blog post is going to be about one of my recent images that was created for a Personal Art Challenge on Fine Art America (Theme: Kitchen). Some of you may have already seen this image and read the description. For those of you who haven't the description is below and a full size version of the image can be viewed by clicking on the More Information tab.


A red eye flight is an airplane trip that leaves at night and arrives in the morning. These night time flights are named because many passengers who cannot sleep on a plane arrive at their destinations with dry, red eyes.

The Red Eye is also known as eyes can appear red when camera flashes are used and pointed directly at the person’s face.

However, neither of these definitions pertain to this image. The title to this image is a play on words.

The photograph was taken of a stove eye as it was heated to it’s highest temperature. When heating stove eyes to high temperatures their normally black coils glow red, much like red glowing embers from a campfire.

You can also see that this stove has a black metal top and the eye is surrounded by a silver looking metal. There is a metal pan under the coiled eye to catch any spills from pots that may boil over.

In the middle of the metal pan under the coiled eye is a circular opening. In the case of this particular eye that open circle allows excess heat to escape when the oven is turned on.



That image was the final one of that particular challenge. Stay tuned next week as I participate in yet another Art Challenge with a new theme (Reflections).

Your comments are always welcome and encouraged.

There is a five day personal art challenge on Fine Art America this week with a Kitchen Theme. In the past I participated in a similar challenge but that one was for Macro images from the kitchen. This week’s challenge did not have to be close up images.

Going through my external hard drive and old CDs I found several photographs of outdoor kitchens that we have designed and used in the past. I have been working on cleaning up those old files for this week’s challenge.

At present we are living in an apartment and our outdoor kitchen consists of a long fold up table (similar to those old school cafeteria tables) and a gas grill set up on a concrete patio. A very simple space. Food is prepared inside then taken out to the grill.

That’s a far cry from any of our previous outside food prep and cooking stations. We have had fully plumbed sinks with attached drain boards for food prep and cleanup in all of the outdoor kitchens at homes that we owned. We had a gas fired smoker, as well as a grill in one of those kitchens. And a table or counter was a must to facilitate meal prep.

As I work on the art challenge this week, I am also churning ideas around in my head for our next home and how we might design and build an outdoor kitchen for that location. The design phase is always the most fun part of any building project that we undertake.

Do you have an outdoor space for preparing and cooking food?

How elaborate is or was your outdoor kitchen?

Have you used a porch, patio or deck as the location for your outside meal prep station?

Be sure and use the comment space to share descriptions of your outdoor kitchen spaces that are real or imagined.

Last week’s post described the famous Pineapple Fountain in the Joe Riley Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina (USA). This week I’ll describe and show you the Jet Fountain.

The multi-spray jet fountain in Joe Riley Park is located at the waterfront end of Vendue Range (Street) and is at the entrance to Joe Riley Waterfront Park.

Seven steps above street level, this fountain sprays water out of 15 individual, evenly spaced jet spouts arranged in a circle.

Multi-hued tiles surround the middle circular trough where excess water from the jet sprays overflows onto the tiles.

The result of the water’s action provides for a cool, splash pad as relief from the summer heat.

It was getting dark on a cool evening when I was there, but I could imagine that the fountain would be full of children joyfully running in and out of the fountain during a hot and humid summer day.

Please comment if you have been to this fountain and let us know if it was full of children, or maybe even adults, finding relief from the summer’s heat.

In today’s blog post I will highlight one of two fountains found in Joe Riley Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina (USA). Although these photographs were taken under less than ideal weather conditions, they will still give you an idea of the beauty and community asset that they fulfill.

The first fountain I saw and photographed was the famous Pineapple Fountain. This one has been publicly photographed thousands of times from every angle, mostly with the waterfront behind the fountain. That wasn’t working for me on this particular day. The white skies from a cloudy, humid day made the fountain look like a silhouette, even when adjusting my camera’s setting. I wanted to show the details on each level of the fountain and the best way to do that was to put the waterfront behind me and the City Gallery behind the fountain.

There are still white skies showing in the images but the details can be seen on the fountain at this angle.

As I described this fountain on my site:

The top of the fountain is in the shape of the leaves sprouting out of a pineapple. Shapes representing the outside of a ripe pineapple wrap around each level of the fountain.

On the inside of the lowest level are several steps. The sign next to the fountain informs visitors that it is permissible to cool off in the fountain as long as you stay only on the first two steps.

The pineapple is Charleston's symbol of hospitality, as it is in other areas of the southern United States.

It originally was a symbol of wealth since the fruit had to be imported from tropical climates of the world where it took a long time for the plant to produce fruit.

At first the fruit was used as a decoration and could even be rented.

As people became more affluent they would serve their guests the sweet, ripe fruit as a sign of hospitality.

There are numerous pineapple symbols strewn throughout Charleston, both on commercial buildings as well as residences.

Have you visited this historic city and wandered through the waterfront park? If so, please comment and let us know what you enjoyed about the location.

My recent adventure contained more good than bad and I can now look back and laugh at some of the events.

The Bad was the mistakes made and the uneasy, frustrating emotions churning in my spirit.

The Good was the Blessings of safe travel and the people that we met along the way.

The Humorous, as is true in much of life, was not so humorous at the time but happenings that we have laughed about since getting back to Alabama.

If you have been following my blog posts concerning this trip then you might remember that we experienced different hotel brands and conditions. The first hotel was a new brand for a major hotel chain. Neither of us had stayed at that particular brand before but I chose it because it was new (hopefully clean and up to date) and less expensive than the brand that I usually choose.

As I stepped into the lobby I noticed a very contemporary décor along with a pool table. The chairs and lighting were very different than any other hotel that I had seen.

The room did not have a closet. Hooks on the walls were provided for hanging clothes. There were no dressers for those who prefer to unpack, only a bench with a shelf underneath. There was a small dorm size refrigerator but no microwave or coffee maker. Those items were provided in the snack/breakfast area of the lobby.

USB and electrical plugs were at every chair, seating area and table. Those plugs were everywhere!

After explaining to me, in a negative tone of voice with accompanying facial gestures, that this new hotel brand was built and designed specifically for millennials, my travel buddy proceeded to fill each of the USB plugs in our room with her electronic devices! It will be a long time before she lives that down.

Something else that you may remember from a recent blog was the fact that I was going to try my best to “go with the flow”, especially by following the GPS on my travel buddy’s phone. No printed maps were to be used on this trip.

My friend sat patiently as I yelled, “NO, NO, NO!” more than once as the woman’s voice in her phone would say, “At the next traffic light turn right onto Jim Bob’s Lane” or some similar back, county road that I’m sure is not on any known printed map.

On our last travel day that voice wanted me to take yet another county road to get onto the main US highway I was seeking. This turn off was also at an intersection where I would be able to get onto the interstate for a few miles to get to that main road. I chose the interstate. After all, we would only have to drive on that busy, four lane interstate for a few miles and at this point in our journey I had seen enough of America’s back roads.

Well, I missed the right exit, took the next one and had trouble finding my way back to the main highway that I wanted to take. Pulling my old, well-worn atlas from the back seat I became oriented and found our way back to the point where I could reach the highway I was seeking.

After arriving at my original starting point in Florence, we went to dinner and got a good night’s sleep. The next day I decided that I would take my friend to a few tourist attractions around the area.

One of the attractions was only 14 miles from our apartment building and I had been to that attraction before. But I had driven there one way and returned a different way. So I checked the directions online but did not print them out. There were only two different roads that we would be taking. That amounted to only one turn before we would be arriving at the destination.

Yep, I missed that turn. Who can guess how we got back on track in the middle of the woods on narrow county roads?

The voice from my friend’s phone!

My recent adventure took me well beyond the range of my comfort zone and certainly contained The Good, the Bad and the Humorous.

I am very thankful that we can now laugh as we tell of our mishaps or mistakes.

Be sure and check out KeppenArt in the coming weeks for images of our adventure from Georgetown, South Carolina to St. Marys, Georgia as we scouted around for a possible retirement location. Choosing and then processing photographs to post will take some time as I settle back into my comfortable, hermit-like routine – until my next adventure!

Comments are always encouraged and very much welcomed.

I am writing this post on the 11th day of this present travel adventure. Some days I went with the flow easily and other days I felt like I was drowning, thrashing around and screaming for help (metaphorically speaking).

My friend and navigator has been fired multiple times, most recently for not cleaning the windshield at a gas stop as she promised. The truth is that we both forgot to do that until we were once again on our way!

We’ve experienced clean hotels that provided good breakfast fare along with old, run down properties and poor breakfast choices, paying about the same for either condition.

We’ve had several close calls, accident wise, as well as witnessing multiple major vehicle crashes.

I managed to use available wifi to access the internet when needed so that I could write and post my blogs from my trusty laptop instead of my phone.

I’ve taken thousands of photographs even though most days produced the dreaded white skies. On two occasions I even forgot to grab my camera as we rushed out the door, late for appointments.

Making our way back to our original destination finds us stopping along the way to visit old friends and family. By the time this blog entry posts we will be on the last leg of this journey.

Sleep deprived with aching muscles, we’re ready to kick back, relax, and reflect on the events that have transpired.
There will be photos posted of water views and old, southern architecture in the weeks to come. Be sure to bookmark KeppenArt (https://kathy-mcclellan.pixels.com/galleries.html ) so you can enjoy the same sights that we have viewed along the way as I go through all those images, processing and uploading them to my site.

Remember: Comments are always welcome and encouraged!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, I am on a new adventure in the form of a road trip. This new adventure includes learning to “go with the flow” and to trust the process, so to speak.

I am extremely anxious about living on my phone (all internet/GPS/business). I want a laptop or computer with an easy to see screen, a keyboard and a paper map or printed directions.

My travel buddy, who travels extensively, has learned to navigate life (and highways) with her phone. Because she has more experience traveling I decided to trust her as my navigator on the road. I did not google and print off directions before leaving home and although my road atlas stayed in the Jeep it stayed in the back, out of sight. She told me she was proud of me.

Well, trusting the GPS voice commands with only turn by turn directions at pretty much the last minute, and going with the flow – that trust lasted about two hours of a 4-5 hour trip our first day.

My first concern came when we left the Federal and State Highways for county roads. The more rural the roads we were directed to take the more anxious I became. When we ended up on a narrow, poorly paved county road with dogs dangerously close to or on the road, I questioned the directions and pretty much exploded when I learned that after all these narrow country roads her GPS would be taking us through Atlanta on interstates after all! That was my only request, that I not have to drive through Atlanta.

After a few minutes of my nasty ranting to let a little tension escape, she wasn’t so proud of me! I promptly fired her as my navigator. She was reinstated to that position only after she rerouted us to avoid the city.

The first pit stop we made was a disaster! The pumps would not take a credit card, the cashier could not turn on the pump for me to fill up because I could not give her a specific dollar amount and the bathrooms were out of order

The second stop provided us a chance to gas up but once again no working bathroom. Our next attempt at taking a pit stop was at a fast food restaurant where we found a locked door and a sign stating drive through service only. It took us hours to finally find an open bathroom.

Did I mention that it rained off and on as we drove?

Did I mention that we had more than one “almost” accident?

Did I mention that so far this post covered only about 5 hours of day one of a 10-14 day adventure?

When all was said and done we arrived at our first destination safe and sound.

Yes, we were both still alive and sane.

After visiting with a dear friend the next morning we were off to our next destination. We would be staying at new hotel, a brand that neither of us had any experience with.

The second day brought on new, very real concerns but some of those concerns were handled by a hotel manager before check in was completed.

We both loved this “new” hotel with no carpet in the rooms and walk in showers. No coffee or microwave in the rooms was an inconvenience (those items were only available in the large lobby on the ground level) but no guest computer to use was more than an inconvenience for me. How in the world was I going to write and post my blog using only my phone?

If this blog entry gets posted on my usual Thursday Blog post (Feb. 4th, 2023) then I have somehow managed to overcome that obstacle and you can look forward to more updates about this particular adventure!

Please feel free to comment below.

I am about to embark on another adventure. I will be traveling in the foreseeable future with a dear friend that I’ve known for quite some time. This will be a 1500 mile road trip.

We are going to visit a few places in South Carolina. I’ve only been to that state as I traveled through. This will be the first time I’ve actually stopped and visited.

Of course I will be taking photographs when I can. Some of those photographs will be uploaded to my art site, some to Facebook and some of them will be deleted, never to be seen again.

As I write this post, a storm is approaching from the western states, the forecast for our travels is for cold temperatures, however, those temperatures will be warmer than the towns we are leaving behind.

I’m already getting anxious about the driving. We’re mapping out a route that avoids driving through or around Atlanta and we may even stay off of interstates entirely.

Yes, taking US and State Highways may take longer but will provide a more peaceful trip. We will get to see more than pavement, pine forests and billboards.

We’ll get to see America!

Stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks. Meanwhile please feel free to comment below.

Some of us see the entire world in black and white.

Some of us see a world of color.

I’m not talking about literally seeing only black and white. As I understand it even people who are “color blind” actually see some color.
I’m talking about our perception of life.

For some people it’s all or nothing. My way or the highway. Right or wrong. Good or bad. There’s no in-between.

For others life is about all the shades of gray in between the black and white and even more colors outside of that limited view.

Where is your perspective in life?

Do you only see life issues as right or wrong?

Is everything good or bad with no combination of the two?

Can you answer every question with a yes or no?

Or do you see the same decision as right in one instance but wrong in another?

Is there a combination of good and bad in everything?

Can you struggle sometimes to only answer with a yes or no?

My view of life is mostly in bold, vivid colors. However, sometimes issues seem a little “gray” and occasionally even black and white. No question, it’s either yes or no at times.

Where is your perception of life on this scale?

Is everything black and white for you? Right or wrong? Good or bad

Is it always your way or the highway or do you sometimes compromise?

I would guess that most of us see life as a world of color but sometimes we can only view the black and white in a situation, that none of us are all one way or the other.

What do you think about this?

As always, your comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Do you see faces in inanimate objects? 

Do you see the shape of animals in cloud formations?

Maybe you see a face on a rock with “eyes” like the Wall Of Faces that I wrote about earlier.

This perception, along with hearing hidden messages in music, is called pareidolia.

Pareidolia has been used by humans for eons. It has even helped protect mankind from predators. 

You thought you saw eyes in that bush and took off? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t but if there was really a lion in that bush stalking you, you just saved your own life by taking off.

Women are more likely to have this perception. It is believed that the reason is that they are more in tune with human emotion.

People who are neurotic or depressed are also more likely to experience pareidolia. They seem to be on high alert for danger and are therefore more likely to see things that aren’t as real as perceived.

There are examples of this phenomenon in art, architecture, religion, medical education and computer vision.

The next time you look up in the sky and see the shape of your puppy dog, or you look down at a rock mulched planting bed and see the a face on one of those rocks smiling at you, remember that you are not going crazy and that your perception is perfectly normal.

When this happens you can know that pareidolia has helped mankind survive and thrive and will continue to do so for as long as mankind exists!

Comments are encouraged and welcomed!

Better late than never is one of the oldest English idioms. It emphasizes the importance of finishing a project even if it’s finished later than the original deadline.

Well, today that is true of my weekly blog!

As I was thinking about this idiom and what I could say about it I wondered how often it’s true and how often it may be very untrue.
The examples I thought of today all dealt with extreme situations.

A sick or injured person or pet needs to get help as quickly as possible. A delay could result in disaster or even death.

A delay in going to see a loved one who is fatally ill could mean that you are “too late” to see or talk with that person. In that case, late is NOT better and it’s actually the NEVER part!

However, this idiom is almost always used in less dire circumstances, like this blog being posted late. Or a student being late turning in a paper or project.

Sometimes, however, it’s not true even for the example of a student being late with a project. The teacher could refuse to accept the overdue project which, for the student, would mean it was NOT better late!

Are you ever late completing projects or chores?

Are you late often?

Does it matter if you are later than the original deadline?

I suspect it depends on the project or chore. Would you agree with that statement?

Writing and posting my weekly blog on time is important as a matter of discipline. But I don’t believe that anyone is going to suffer if it’s a half a day late.

Even my self-diagnosed OCD self will get over it and go on to the next project!


You are encouraged to comment on this and any of my other blog posts.

Do you wonder who lives in that blue house?

Or the RV parked in the Mobile Home Park?

Do you pass by any building without a visible sign or purpose and wonder what goes on inside that structure?

Not that long ago we were passing through Eufaula, Alabama, a town that is full of gorgeous architecture.

A metal sided commercial building caught my eye as we sat at a red light and I snapped a photograph of the second story.

The building was a simple rectangular shape without any distinguishing features.

The lone window in the second story fascinated me. A window air conditioner hung out of the left side of the aluminum framed window.

Simple mini blinds were lowered to cover the entire window, as a shield from the afternoon heat.

There, between the glass and the blinds sat two succulent plants looking healthy and happy to be soaking up the sunshine.

I wondered if that window belonged to an upstairs office or apartment.

Did someone live there or was it a place of employment?

If it was an apartment, was it occupied by the building’s owner, the owner’s employee or someone that wasn’t at all related to the downstairs business?

The window was not giving me any clue as to the purpose of that second story.

The light changed, we went on our way and stopped a few blocks later at another traffic light. My mind was now on other buildings that surrounded us.

I forgot about that mysterious second story window until I downloaded photographs from my camera to my computer.

My curious mind, once again, wondered about that second story.

Unless I visit Eufaula, Alabama and inquire about that particular building I can only wonder what transpires behind those simple, light blocking blinds.

Comments are always welcome and encouraged.

Wind chill is the term used to measure what the outside temperature actually feels like to a human body when air (wind) blows on exposed skin.

Everyone who knows me knows that I have a really hard time dealing with cold temperatures. As the SM meme says, “I was not made for winter.” That cold north wind causing low wind chill temperatures is the most brutal slap in my face during winter.

Even as a child I was always the first one to go inside when all the neighborhood kids stayed outside sledding and building snowmen. If I didn’t go willingly my mom made me come in because my lips were turning blue.

It seems to be normal for intolerance for cold to get worse as we age. If that’s true then I am completely normal!

This year I wanted to spend Christmas with family and that meant traveling. Traveling to colder destinations. Or so I thought.

It turns out that the forecast for Florence, Alabama where we live right now is calling for dangerously cold weather the day after we plan to travel. It is forecast to be colder here than any of the family locations that we would be visiting.

Not only will the temperatures be well below freezing (the HIGH is forecast to be 18F and the low 9F) but the wind chill is expected to go as low as -15F. That’s 15 degrees LOWER than zero!

Meteorologists are warning that frostbite and hypothermia could be a real possibility if you are outside.

I realize that some areas of our country experience that and even colder temperatures during winter but that’s just about the coldest winter air that I have ever experienced, and that’s probably true for most people living in this area.

Thank Goodness we are able to get the heck out of Dodge, so to speak.

For all of you who will be in the grips of old man winter, traveling through snow and ice or flying with delays and cancellations, I wish for you safe travel mercies.

For those of you who will be staying home and inside I wish for you a warm, crackling fire or continued power to fuel your furnace or heat pump.

I am hoping the same for us this week end!

Comments are always welcome and encouraged.

Did you know that there are hundreds of holidays in the month of December? Some holidays are religious, some national, some are monthly, weekly or daily holidays and many of these are “official” holidays, such as Christmas and Hanukkah.

There are public relations firms, companies and web sites that specialize in gathering information on international holidays. They can help you plan your celebration with a list of appropriate foods, decorations and even the history of your particular holiday.

This blog is being written and posted on December 15th. According to a couple of such sites there are at least 7 different holidays on December 15th alone. According to another site there are 17 monthly “Observances” in December and 11 different weekly Observances this month. That site states that there are a total of 190 holidays to celebrate in December.

That’s a whole lot of celebrations in one month! No wonder so many people are completely exhausted by January 1st (not to mention New Year’s Eve celebrations that can last for 12-24 hours).

Do you celebrate any of these holidays?

How many of these holidays do you celebrate?

Do you only celebrate the “official” holidays, such as Christmas for example?

Do you ever celebrate a daily “Special Interest” holiday such as National Wear Your Pearls Day (December 15)?

Did you know that there was even a holiday specifically for wearing your pearls?

You can wish me any “Happy/Merry/Season’s Greetings” that you want. I will smile and wish you the same. Celebrating life can be contagious. Let’s all spread the excitement of the Holiday Season around as much as possible and let’s all be grateful for others who wish to spread their joy around, even if it’s not your celebrated holiday.

Happy Holidays to each of you this month and always.

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

There is a community garden on the Mississippi Gulf Coast affectionately called The Nourishing Place. It is Ruth’s Roots in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Before Hurricane Katrina the land where this garden is located was a business called The Cakery, run by baker Ruth Thompson. Katrina destroyed the business and after Mrs. Thompson passed away Jim Thompson donated the empty lot for a community garden. It was named in her honor.

A non-profit was formed and Ruth’s Roots was developed as a “nourishing place” for residents and visitors alike.

Volunteers have spent countless hours building, erecting, planting, feeding, watering and taking care of this special place.

We visited the garden on a recent visit to our former home town and were delighted by the many attractions.

When approaching Ruth’s Roots the first thing you notice are the wooden fence boards. Each board is painted with a different design. Residents were asked to adopt and then paint an individual board in their own style. It made an extremely colorful entrance.

Once inside you can walk along the “yellow brick road” (painted on the old concrete slab) that leads to a circular area featuring a painted portrait of Mrs. Ruth surrounded by butterflies. Or you can choose to mosey along the edges of the garden at your leisure.

When you first enter the garden you are presented with three libraries. There are two lending libraries, one provides books for adults and another makes sure that there is reading material for children. A Seed Library provides flower and vegetable seeds for residents to plant in their own gardens.

The interior of the garden, like the fencing out front, is a feast of color. Raised beds on either side of the yellow brick road contain flowers and vegetables. Artwork, both two and three dimensional pieces, can be found throughout Ruth’s Roots.

A chicken coup makes egg donations to a local non-profit café possible. A butterfly house provides a safe haven for monarch butterfly caterpillars and chrysalis. There is a Buddha statue watching over a peaceful koi pond and a chess and checkers table made from a stone slab.

A large wooden deck under the oak trees provides a cool, shady spot to rest or visit.

I’m sure we missed seeing all that the garden has to offer during our short visit and the seasonal displays will no doubt be completely different when we return. That’s the beauty of any garden - seasonal changes that accompany weather patterns.

I took quite a few photographs as we enjoyed the sounds of the waterfall at the koi pond and the various birds singing. Many of those pictures are being processed and uploaded on my web site this month if you would like to experience a virtual visit to the garden. They will be found in the Mississippi Collection.

Ruth’s Roots, a community garden is first of all a delight for the residents of Bay St. Louis and secondly a must stop for any tourist to that artsy beach town.

Comments are always welcome and encouraged!

Casino hopping is a popular activity along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, especially when it’s cold and wet outside.

During our recent stay on the coast, we only had sunlight on one day out of four. Three of those four days found us visiting two different casinos in two different towns.

Casinos are full of shiny, blinking lights and bells, whistles and other obnoxious noises from the hundreds of slot machines.

Of course I gambled while there but I also spent time looking up at the various chandeliers and light fixtures and capturing a few of those objects with my cell phone camera.

Each fixture was different from the others but all had something in common. Glitz and Glamour. Some lights were not glitzy but had a particular air of glamour about them. Others screamed Glitz and Bling. I was fascinated with them all.

Although we had lived on the coast for almost twenty years and frequented the casinos while living there, you would have thought that I was seeing that décor for the first time. There I was sitting at a video poker machine with my gaze on the ceiling. I must have looked like a first time visitor whipping that phone out!

Lighting is one of the items in decorating and design that can set the mood for any space. It stands to reason then that a casino would want the mood to be showy and over the top. Expensive and glamorous. 

That’s what I found at those two casinos. Glamorous lighting and expensive play time!

Comments are always welcome and encouraged.

I am writing this post the day before Thanksgiving (in the USA) as I think about how blessed I am.

I may not have everything I want but I have more than everything I need.

I am not homeless. Our apartment is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer and our neighbors are all friendly, helpful people.

I may have been called clothes poor but the truth is that I have enough clothes to cover my body and provide protection from the elements.

I have more than enough to eat and can choose any food that I desire to purchase and cook.

Actually, I have enough resources to eat out as often as I like if I don’t feel like cooking. Now, that’s a blessing to those of us who do not enjoy cooking!

My husband is still able to work every day and his salary pays for our lifestyle (rent, utilities, groceries, clothing, vacations, etc.) so I can work outside of the home or not – my choice.

I am relatively healthy and do not need to take any drugs, only a few vitamin and mineral supplements to compliment my diet.

I have family and friends who love and care about me.

I can rant and rave about what I don’t have or what I cannot do but the truth is that I know how blessed I really am!

It really is amazing how much we can find to be thankful for regardless of our situation. All we have to do is stop and remember what we have, what obstacles we have overcome and the many times in our past that we’ve triumphed over adversity.

Travel mercies going out to all who will be traveling this week end. I sincerely hope that each of you reading this will have a grateful, joyful Thanksgiving.

Comments are always welcome and encouraged.

I’ve made several posts recently about an adventure I undertook in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee. This week I’m south of those foothills and am on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

It is cold. It is cold in Alabama and it is cold in Mississippi! We drove seven hours in the warm, late fall sun, arriving at our Mississippi rental house shortly before dusk. By the time we had dinner it was dark. By the time we finished buying supplies for our stay on the coast it was pouring rain in a thunderstorm with nearly gale force winds.

After a night of lightning, thunder, pounding rain and noises from windblown objects, we woke up to a cold, damp morning. A blustery north wind kept outdoor activities off our list. Watching the waves on the Bay Of Saint Louis as a Small Craft Advisory was in effect meant viewing dancing water with no boats in sight. But breaking bread with seldom seen friends, sharing a beer or glass of wine while we caught up on each other’s lives warmed our spirits.

Watching the waves on the Bay Of Saint Louis as a Small Craft Advisory was in effect meant viewing dancing water with no boats in sight.

Yes. It’s cold on the coast, hundreds of miles south of those northern Alabama foothills. But it’s not as cold, the cold will not last as long, and breaking bread with friends in the warm, diffused light of a beach house cannot be beat!

As always comments are welcome and encouraged.

In last week’s blog I wrote about The Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall, also known as Tom’s Wall that is a few miles out of Florence, Alabama (USA). The wall was built by Tom Hendrix as a memorial to his great-great grandmother who was one of thousands of Indians that the US Government relocated and her journey from the reservation in Oklahoma back to the Singing River (the Tennessee River at Florence).

In this post I will highlight one section of the wall that I found hauntingly intriguing when photographing it. I later learned the story behind this section that I am calling the Wall Of Faces.

The Wall Of Faces is a ten foot section of the Wichahpi Stone Wall. It is filled with limestone river rocks. Years of erosion have left holes in those rocks and the results are many stones that look like faces.

Members of the Lakota Indians visited Mr. Hendrix and modified this section of wall. The told him that all bad things come out of the west, so they positioned the rock faces facing west, saying they would protect Te-lah-ney’s Wall.

Mr. Hendrix placed a stone bench opposite the stone faces so that one can sit, see and study the stone faces. Some people have found them a little eerie while others have seen them as a humorous addition to the wall.

I didn’t sit and study these faces but I did take photographs of several individual stones. At the time of my visit, I didn’t know the reason they had been put in the wall. I only knew that I found them to be very fascinating.

I plan to make a return visit to Tom’s Wall. Maybe I’ll sit across from those faces next time and think about their purpose.

As always comments are welcome and encouraged.

In last week’s blog I told you that I went to the Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall, also known as Tom’s Wall as the last stop on my solo adventure along the Natchez Trace Parkway.

The Parkway runs along part of the trail that the Indians were forced to take when the US government decided to relocate southeastern Indian tribes in the 1830s to land west of the Mississippi. There is a 50 MPH speed limit and the right of way for bicycles and wildlife is to be observed.

The Commemorative Stone Wall is known as Tom’s Wall because it was built by Tom Hendrix over a period of 30 years. Mr. Hendrix built the wall as a memorial to his great-great grandmother Te-lay-nay, a healer from the Yuchi Indian tribe which was settled near Florence, Alabama and the Tennessee River, also called The Singing River. His grandmother told him of Te-lay-nays story of relocation to Oklahoma many times when he was a child and he wanted to make sure her story was told over and over. When he was alive, Mr. Hendrix met visitors at the entrance and told them his great-great grandmother’s story as they prepared to wander along the wall. It is said that each stone was another step in Te-lay-nay’s journey.

As you enter the property there is a private drive that goes to a house that was Mr. Hendrix’s home. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 83 but his son continues the tradition of allowing guests to visit the wall.

Off to your left at the entrance, is a circular wall called Ishatae or the quiet place. This wall is built with four levels representing the circle of life: birth, life, death and rebirth.

Off to the left of the quiet circle is a straight path flanked by thick stone walls. At the end of that straight path is a stone bench that can be used to sit while resting, praying or simply listening.

This straight path represents Te-lay-nay’s exile to Oklahoma. A straight forward march to a reservation.

There is another path on the other side of the quiet place that curves and meanders and represents her five year travel alone back to The Singing River. I left all but the entrance to that path for another visit.

The entire wall, if straightened out would be 6,600 feet long. It is the longest un-mortared wall in the United States. Mr. Hendrix kept track of the equipment needed to build the wall. He stated that building the wall “wore out three trucks, 22 wheelbarrows, 3,800 pairs of gloves, three dogs and one old man”. He also wrote a book titled If The Legends Fade. For more information about the book and how to order, go to: ifthelegendsfade.net.

Visitors from around the world have come to the wall and they brought their own stones and memorial pieces. Seashells, coins, beads and other items can be found in holes and crevices in the wall.

I was very humbled by the magnitude of that wall and the time and energy that it took to build it. I fully intend to go back to that wall and explore the curved, meandering section. Until then please feel free to comment on today’s post.

I wanted to explore part of the Natchez Trace Parkway this week but didn’t have anyone to go with me. The Parkway runs through mixed wood forests and I wanted to see if the trees were changing colors for autumn before the wind and rain that was expected the next day emptied the tree canopy of leaves.

I am not one to take off by myself. I have done it before and I have even driven hundreds of miles alone in the past, but not often and not in the last several years. I normally do not enjoy solo adventures.

My original plan was to leave early in the morning, drive towards Tennessee and stop at an attraction called Tom’s Wall (Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall).

I hesitated when I found out I would have to go alone. I spent some time online, checking email, my site, FAA/Pixels discussions and the weather. Every minute that passed took me that much closer to lunch time and a decision to stay home.

Finally, I made myself get up from the computer, grabbed my camera, purse and some water and out the door I went.

It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining and only a slight breeze as I started out. I had no problem getting to the Parkway but missed the road to view the wall. That was not a problem as I knew that I could stop there on the way back.

I ended up stopping several times to take pictures and to simply enjoy the sound of birds and rushing water as creeks flowed over the rocky creek beds. When I got to Collinwood, Tennessee I left the parkway to stop at the Wayne County Visitors Center. Unfortunately the center was closed but it was a great location to snap a photograph or two of their emergency siren.

Getting back in the Jeep I drove a block further and parked. I wanted to walk around until I had a clear sight path to their freshly painted water tower. As I was getting back in the Jeep the earsplitting siren went off to announce the noon hour.

Collinwood is a small, sparsely populated town. I only saw one restaurant with two cars in front. I decided that if the locals were not flocking to that eatery it may not be the best place to stop. In hindsight I should have either taken food with me or bought snacks at the local dollar store.

Getting back on the parkway I headed south, going back towards Florence, Alabama where I had started. I did find Tom’s Wall, stopped and spent a short time taking photographs there and texting two photos to my sister who is a rock hound. I knew she would love that place.

By the time I left the commemorative wall the wind had picked up and was blowing leaves everywhere. Although the color was not as vibrant as I had hoped it was still a pleasant, fall scene along the parkway.

It was a nice way to spend a gorgeous day enjoying God’s natural beauty and I found that I didn’t mind being by myself.

I did, however, mind being so hungry! Note to self: take food next time!

As always comments are welcome and encouraged.

Tis the season for Pumpkin Spice!

But wait – what exactly is pumpkin spice?

Originally it was called pumpkin pie spice and was a combination of 4-9 spices used when making pumpkin pie. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves are the most common spices in the mix. There are recipes in a cookbook reprinted from 1798 that gave two choices of spice combinations for “pompkin” pie.

In the 1930s spice companies started selling mixtures enabling consumers to buy one mix instead of several individual spices. One company sold a mix of nine spices while another company’s mix, still available today, uses four spices.
Then, several decades ago the pumpkin spice taste and/or aroma was added to just about anything and everything you could think of. Candles, wax warmers, coffee, candy, you name it and you can buy it with a pumpkin spice taste or smell.

The spices that make up pumpkin spice mix are considered “warming” spices. How appropriate that these spices are used extensively during the fall season when the temperatures fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Consuming these spices warms us up inside and the aroma of this mix of spices warms us emotionally, as we anticipate the holiday season to come.

Last year in October I participated in a Seven Day Samhain/Halloween Challenge. That is when The Spice Family was created. Using digital tools I drew pumpkins with different features, such as their stems and lips, in able to distinguish one pumpkin family member from another. I introduced different ones each day as an individual, pairs, siblings, parents, entire family, pets and finally pumpkin pies!

What a fun challenge that was. This year I have been entering some of those images in contests on Fine Art America. With each image I add to a contest, I remember how much I enjoyed the challenge of creating The Spice Family.

Order your Pumpkin Spice Latte if that’s your thing or put a pumpkin spice wax cube in your warmer. Meanwhile, I’ll use essential oils in my diffusers that will provide the pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, holiday aroma and I’ll enjoy allowing that smell to warm me up as the outside temperatures cool down.

As always comments are welcome!

We have traveled more than usual this year. Our overnight accommodations have been in a private waterfront home and 3 or 4 star hotels in small towns, one in the north and one in the south (USA locations) but both owned by international hotel chains.

One stay this past year was in a Boutique Hotel in a small, southern town. The accommodations were as different from the internationally owned hotels as was the décor in the private, waterfront home.

Soft coastal colors, a few nautical features and cozy, comfortable furniture filled the private home. In the Boutique Hotel, the décor and design paid homage to the building’s early twentieth century beginning.

The “regular” hotels provide some consistency, most serve at least a minimal breakfast and other amenities (pool/gym/laundry) that most boutique hotels do not provide.

If you are spending most of your time in your overnight/vacation room asleep then the décor is not going to be the most important feature. A comfortable bed and pillows will be number one priority. A quiet environment is second.

So far this year our overnight accommodations have been very different but relatively quiet and comfortable. I’ve actually enjoyed the change of (décor) scenery from one trip to the next.

Have you stayed in different overnight accommodations?

Do you prefer a particular type of hotel or rental?

Does the décor matter very much to you?

As always comments are welcome!

I’ve heard people say they needed a vacation from their vacation.

Have you ever felt that way?

I can actually remember a time when I would travel to visit family or take a vacation and go to work the day after I got home. I may not have completely unpacked for several days, but I got up and resumed my usual routine the morning after.

Not so much anymore!

Traveling now wears me out. It can be travel to a long awaited destination, a visit with family in another state or a trip to stay with a friend who lives in another town.

I can understand the long road trips filled with non-stop activity but even laid back visits with friends will warrant at least one day of catch up rest when I get back from that visit.

I’m not sure that “aging” is the only reason for this travel fatigue. Or maybe I just don’t want to face that! I’m sure eating more fast food and/or junk food when traveling contributes to the lack of energy, but if that’s all it was I would have suffered even more when I was younger and not as concerned with healthy eating. Maybe it’s a combination of those two reasons.

I would love for some of you to comment below and let me know if you experience this phenomenon and what you perceive is the reason for it, at least in your life.

Many of you have read my blog post and subsequent mentions of The Old Church At Freeport. Just as I saw that church many times before we decided to stop and photograph it, we have driven by many other historic structures without stopping to document their state of disrepair or renovation.

We’re almost always on a long road trip to see family and too anxious to get to our destination to take the time to stop for photographs.

This past weekend I was concerned enough about a deteriorating house that I rolled my window down and photographed the building as we slowly drove by. It didn’t matter that the image was probably not going to be “fine art” since it was taken out of a moving vehicle and might be very blurry. The purpose was to document the structure before it was gone.

Brian Brown, a photographer who documents Georgia history was the only source of information on the house that I could find online. Every other photograph with a description of the house was a copy of his research.

This is from a post on his site:

“Variously known locally as the Muse-Dews-Gay-Martin-Blaskow House, this structure, which has been enlarged and improved during its long history, was originally built by a Baptist minister known as “Uncle Tommy” Muse for use as the dormitory of the Baptist Female College of Southwest Georgia. The school was also known as the Cuthbert Female College. It operated until 1863 and was briefly reopened a few times into the 1870s. By the 1880s the property was given to the state and from then on was used for private residences.”

(https://vanishinggeorgia.com/category/cuthbert-ga/page/3/)

Besides two photographs of his own, Brian shared three other photos of the house when it was a home in the 1960s and 70s. Those photographs were sent to him by an occupant’s niece.

This building now has roof damage that looks like a large tree may have fallen on it or there may have been a fire in the second story perhaps. It’s a fact that allowing water into the house will surely destroy it.

How could such a historical structure not have the backing of a city, county, state or other historical organization for preservation?

I’m glad I captured this house in a photo when I did. Although we travel through that town an average of once a year, there is no guarantee that the building will be there the next time we drive by. If that is the case I will not have to say, “I wish I had taken a photograph of that house when I had the chance.”

Remember that comments are always welcome!

A few months ago I wrote about attending a high school reunion in Ohio. Soon we will be attending another one, this time in Georgia.

I had no input in the planning of the Ohio reunion whereas I’ve been on an informal planning committee for the one in Georgia.

I had no expectations this summer attending the first reunion. Because I had help in planning the upcoming reunion in Georgia I have many expectations.

I know better! Having expectations can set you up for disappointments if your expectations are not met. You can be pleasantly surprised at anything and everything if you have no expectations.

Have you attended any high school or college reunions?

Did you have any expectations before you went?

Did you enjoy the reunion?

If you didn’t enjoy your reunion, was it because you had expectations that were not met?

We could apply this concept of expecting events to unfold in a certain manner to many other issues in life.

We can expect the best in life or we can expect nothing and be surprised at what unfolds.

I am choosing to expect the best – or nothing!

As always your comments and/or answers to the questions above are welcomed!

Back in January I posted a photograph for Day 27 of the 365 Day Art Challenge and titled it Thankful Thursday. I decided to use at least part of the description for my blog post today which is another Thursday.

The description for the image included these statements:

“On this Thursday I am thankful that I can see and that God has shown me, and continues to show me, the beauty all around me.

Even in winter when the deciduous trees are barren and bland, a colorful sunset can provide a gorgeous background making the bare branches appear as natural sculptures. Even the softest of pinks mixed in with the blue and white of the evening sky will accent the silhouette of the trees' forms.”

Once again on this Thursday I am still thankful for the beauty I see in nature and also the fact that I can physically see that beauty.

I am also thankful for those of you who read, comment and support my blog posts, today and every week.

Thank you to each of you.

What are you thankful for today?

Is there anything in particular that you are thankful for?

My three particulars or “biggies” are being thankful that I can walk and see and breathe!

What are the things that you are most thankful for (your “biggies”)?

Comments are always welcomed!

You forgot to watch that television show that you like. You forgot it was on at that particular time.

That’s okay. It’s not important.

You forgot to pick up chips for your lunch tomorrow.

That’s okay. It’s not important.

You didn’t get the rug vacuumed today.

That’s okay. It’s not important.

Photography is capturing a moment in time that will never be repeated exactly the same.

Doesn’t that make every moment important?

How do you decide what’s important and what isn’t?

Do you “sweat the small stuff”?

Isn’t the small stuff important?

How important?

Are there degrees of importance?

What about this: “Will it matter five years from now?

If not, then it’s not important.”

Is that statement true?

Doesn’t everything we do and every decision we make affect the outcome of our lives five years from now?

If that’s true then isn’t everything important?

Now that I’ve provided enough food for thought to last through the coming week end, I think I’ll go do something frivolous.

That’s okay. It’s not important!

Have you ever been told or heard the saying that you never know how your actions/words/art may affect someone else?

Part of that saying is true. Part of it is not.

Never is the part that is not true because sometimes we do find out how our actions, words or art has affected someone else.

Comments on my photography and blogs are examples of finding out how my online images and words affect others. Those comments often tell me how people have been moved with memories or emotions when reading or viewing my work.

Recently, I have received several comments on one of my former blogs about a church that I had photographed and made the subject of a blog post. Interestingly enough, one comment on that blog was made a year after the blog was posted and a couple of weeks after I had revisited that area and photographed several more old churches on the same highway.

Last week I uploaded an image for the 365 Art Challenge in which I am participating and a friend commented about a family memory they had about that particular building.

Other comments have informed me of memories that my blogs or images have induced that are not even about the actual place or image, but those particular images or words invoked an emotion that touched on their memory.

My hope is that what I post online (as well as what I do and say in person) will affect people in a kind, positive way.

I realize that I have not always been the kindness person or even a positive one and that none of us are 100% of the time.
But as long as there is breath there is hope.

Hope seems to be the subject of many of my blogs.

I hope you don’t mind!

Comments are welcomed!

On our recent road trip to Ohio we stopped along a rural US Highway and I took photographs of several old churches.

Some of you may remember my blog on The Old Church At Freeport. The churches that I shot on this last trip are located on that same highway.

What was my fascination with these old churches? Probably the fact that they have survived in spite of declining members and maintenance money.

At least two of the churches that I have photographed along that road are no longer in service, one of them being that old church at Freeport. One of the churches was listed in the regional organization as having only 70 members. That doesn’t seem like a lot of financial support for maintaining older buildings. Utilities and insurance on uninsulated frame buildings in a rural area could be outrageously high. And the fewer members there are to share those expenses the higher cost to each member.

I doubt converting any of these churches into other uses would be successful because of their location. There doesn’t seem to be enough of a customer base for shops, restaurants or multi-family dwellings among these farms and country homes.

Yet, somehow, these churches survive. For the most part they are maintained. Worn out shingles have been replaced with metal roofs. You know the utilities are hooked up when you see those electric candles light up in the windows at dusk.

Those signs of maintenance spell out hope to me.

Hope that those churches will survive another decade or more.

Hope that those members will keep the faith and continue to gather together for worship.

Hope that the area itself will survive and even thrive.

Hope. A powerful force. A force given to me by the faithful members of those old surviving churches.

There is a television show called Buried Alive. It is about people who are buried in their possessions. Some people started out collecting dolls or books or something that might have increased in value. Some people started collecting clothes or other items.

Everyone whose story I’ve watched, however, has one thing in common. Their collecting became out of control after (or as a result of) a traumatic incident in their life. Obviously the show documents the extreme hoarders since most viewers are shocked or fascinated that hoarding could reach such outrageous states.

Occasionally I wonder, “When does collecting become hoarding?”

Is it only when you refuse to sell, give away or otherwise get rid of what you are collecting?

Is it only when you have no more room to store those items that you have been collecting?

Is it when your collection becomes an obsession?

Or is it only when your collection becomes your number one priority in life, isolating you from your family, friends and community or when it becomes unsanitary?

Hoarding is generally defined or thought of as obsessively collecting something that is unnecessary and not needed.

I have collected many items at different times in my life. Stamps, coins, rocks, candles, vases, seashells and wine corks among other items. At the present time I still have the wine cork collection and it fills up a two gallon plastic bag. I wouldn’t call that a hoard, would you?

Okay, I confess that those wine corks are not needed. Oh wait, I needed them to create artwork (alphabet letters then alphabet letter words!). Doesn’t that count as a collection as opposed to a hoard?

Do you have any collections?

Are you obsessive about your collections?

Would you consider your collections a hoard?

I believe that asking yourself if your collections are hoards is most likely a good sign that they are not.

I don’t think that any of my collections have ever been a hoard and hopefully I will never become a hoarder, buried alive in my collections.

I will, however, most likely always have at least one “collection” of something that I feel is necessary, valuable or even delightful to me!

When you are traveling do you pay any attention to the billboards along the highway? Do you only look at them when you are hungry and trying to find a good restaurant ahead? Are you only noticing the billboards that advertise the next gas stop?

Fine Art America is hosting their annual Billboard Art Contest. Twenty winners will have their artwork displayed on billboards throughout the United States.

I entered last year and received enough votes on one of my submissions to qualify for a free shirt. I have entered again this year and am hoping to do the same if not better than last year.

When wondering which of my images to submit I thought about road trips that we have made and which billboards have caught my attention. Colorful images are an obvious choice. Unique or out of the ordinary also holds my view.

Thinking about my own experiences with road trips I’m convinced that my image titled Lips is the eye catching, colorful image that will make a passenger smile as it holds their attention to see what the image is advertising (which is art of course!).

If you are so inclined I would appreciate any and all votes for my entry. You can also purchase a print or greeting card with that same image. Purchasing and mailing one of those greeting cards is a way to send a smile to someone special.

Voting is by FAA/Pixels members. If you only want to vote in contests (this one and others) and purchase artwork or products but not upload images, you can join (for free) as a Buyer or Collector.

A special thank you to those of you who have already voted for my image and those who will be doing so soon!
You can vote for my image here: https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest-2022.html?tab=vote&artworkid=42764750

You can also click on the box that says Click Here For More Information to vote.

I spent this past weekend in Ohio. Six out of the last seven art challenge images were taken in that state.

Going there to a class reunion meant that I would be reminiscing with former classmates about our shared past experiences. I was also remembering former vacations, visits and family as we drove familiar roads and highways during our stay.

The foothills of the Appalachian Mountains consist of steep hills, deep valleys and curvy back country roads. Many of the same houses and farms lined those roads as they have for a century or more. I could remember things that my parents said about many of those places and their owners as we drove by.

In the villages and cities the sight of churches, schools and businesses were a blast from the past as they had been there since my childhood days.

There were, however, sights that were not there during my childhood days but were very much there in the present. Instead of raped, mined hillsides and coal trucks there are now fracking gas and oil wells, refineries and tanker trucks. Honestly I am not sure which is worse for the environment or the ruining of the gorgeous, natural scenery.

Thank goodness there are still those beautiful mixed hardwood forests covering those hillsides and rocky, babbling creeks running through the valleys. We normally visit family there during the winter holidays. It was refreshing to visit when the deciduous trees were leafed out in all their glorious shades of green.

I took over a thousand photographs during my visit. Many of them that were taken through the Jeep’s windows will be deleted. But even some of those will be processed and uploaded as photojournalism images. Reminders of the present that someday will be the past.

Past and Present. That’s where I lived for several days this past week end!

Think of all the many paintings, drawings and photographs of hands that you have seen.

Wedding photos with hands wearing the wedding rings.

An older person’s hand holding a child’s hand.

Holding a dying parent’s hand.

Poems, blogs and articles are often accompanied by an image of an elderly hand. Wrinkled with age spots that hand represents years of service.

What about your feet?

Do you see as many images of feet as you do hands?

Do you read as many poems, blogs and articles about feet as you do about hands?

Several of my art challenge photographs this past week or two have involved feet, both humans and canines.

Think about your feet and their service just as you might think about how your hands serve you.

You can’t keep your balance without your feet.

You can’t stand straight and still without your feet.

You can’t walk without your feet.

Even with the pain from bunions, ingrown toenails or plantar fasciitis our feet serve us by enabling us to stand without falling over, to walk and sometimes even to run.

Let’s not “drag our feet” but instead “jump in with both feet” when it comes to “putting our best foot forward”.

Remember to keep “both feet on the ground” without letting “the grass grow under your feet”.

Lastly, “think fast on your feet” and “sweep someone off their feet” with kindness in order to then relax when you finally “put your feet up”!

Last week I wrote about looking forward. This week I spent a little time looking backwards.

I participated in a three day art challenge with the theme being Books. I chose two baby books and a wedding album to photograph and write about.

The baby book that was photographed on Day One belonged to a woman who is married to the man whose baby book was photographed on Day Two. Since this couple had no children there were no other baby books to photograph. Their wedding album seemed to be the next logical book to highlight.

In photographing these books I was bound to think about the past. How could I not think about these people? Their pictures and baby books told the stories of their first months.

What those baby books did not tell was how these two came to know each other and then marry. Questions not answered in any of the three books.

Sometimes we wonder about the past. Sometimes we study it.

History is the study of the past. Events that have taken place before today, sometimes long before.

How often do you think about the past?

Do you think more about your own past or history in general?

Do you wonder how people lived in the past or how famous couples in history may have met?

Do you wonder how your ancestors met?

It was thought provoking to go through those three books, arrange their contents before photographing them and then write descriptions for those images.

I looked backwards. I created three images to complete that art challenge.

And then I looked forward to completing another 365 Challenge image!

Two of the images that I processed this week had the words Looking Forward in the title. The images were photographs looking towards the front or bow of two different ships.

Thinking about those titles led to thinking about looking forward in life. We are advised not to look backwards towards the past but to keep our focus on the present.

What about the future? Isn’t looking forward in life about focusing on the future?

Do you most often focus on the present or the future?

If your focus is on the future more often than the past or present, how far into the future is your focus?

Are you focusing on this afternoon? This evening? Tonight?

Is your future tomorrow? Next week? Next month or next year?

How far ahead are you looking when you are looking forward?

Are there events that you are “looking forward” to attending?

Are there people that you are “looking forward” to seeing?

I am “looking forward” to getting this blog post online and ready for you to read and ponder!

Remember, you can leave me a comment to answer any or all of the above questions or to let me know if my images or my words have inspired or encouraged you in any way.

There are many parts to the Art Challenges on Fine Art America hosted by Abbie Shores. One major part of the challenge is to create new work each day. Many obstacles can pop up along the way such as computer crashes, no internet connection, or even illness. However, another part of the challenge is to be creative. To think outside the box.

Aircraft was the theme for one of the Art Challenges that I participated in last month. Many airplanes and helicopters were being posted. I had posted one of each of those during the three day challenge. I decided to think about aircraft a bit differently on one of the days. Today’s blog post is about that image and its backstory.



Sailboat In The Sky by Kathy K. McClellan is a photographic image created for Day One of Challenge 20 (Theme: Aircraft).

Picture it: It was the year 2008. Three adult humans and one young canine in an empty field. All three individuals had lost a lifetime of possessions in a natural disaster only a few years before.

It was a clear day with no clouds in sight when all of a sudden one of the humans started running wildly holding a nylon sailboat overhead. Within seconds the wind caught the ancestral aircraft and lifted it higher and higher.

There they were. Poor as a church mouse but rich as royalty as the flying sailboat brought simple, childhood joy into their lives, even if only for a few minutes on that clear, sunny day.

A Sailboat In The Sky. A source of joy and wonderment on a clear but windy day.



When was the last time you had an obstacle try to prevent you from meeting a challenge in life?

Did you think outside the box to meet that challenge?

Did thinking differently, outside the box, help you to meet the challenge?

My hope is that each of us will meet our life challenges head on and successfully complete those challenges even when we need to change our way of thinking and get creative with our solutions to overcoming those challenges.

Full size image can be found here: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sailboat-in-the-sky-kathy-k-mcclellan.html

Several of the personal art challenges that I am participating in have had the reoccurring subject of gardening. This most recent theme was umbrellas and boots suggesting that the garden had gotten much needed rain.

The image I created this morning for that challenge was titled Rainy Day Blues. There are people who get “the blues” when there are extending days of rain. It’s not actually the rain that causes the depressed state of mind but the lack of sunshine.

This morning the sun was shining. Most of the time sunny days are good days for me. Therefore, I set about trying to execute an idea I had for this challenge.

Well, that idea didn’t work. It really was a cute, fun idea but I could not seem to complete it properly.

I changed gears and tried another idea.

Nope. That idea didn’t work either.

By this time the sun was heating up the atmosphere as well as my brain and frustration set in. It didn’t help that emotionally I was dealing with several other life frustrations.

Eventually I succeeded in creating an image that appeared to be pleasing to at least a few other artists .

I am obviously not satisfied with it because it didn’t come together as I had planned (common concept: the best laid plans…).

Have you ever experienced the rainy day blues?

Emotionally, when it rains does it pour (another common concept)?

Do you ever have the rainy day blues when it isn’t even raining?

I was having the rainy day blues on a sunny day and those blues were pouring in!

Thank goodness I knew that this too shall pass.

A full sized image with description can be found here: https://kathy-mcclellan.pixels.com/featured/rainy-day-blues-kathy-k-mcclellan.html

It’s official! It is Summer.

Hot Weather – Strong Sunlight – Warm Evenings

I love all of those things. I will even put up with the bugs that come with summer.

The first day of summer is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere where I live. How funny that the second day of summer actually means that each day gets shorter with fewer hours of sun and yet I still get so excited about the summer season.

When I lived in the “deep south” I would get excited about spring. Spring meant that each successive day was longer and warmer than the last. Spring meant that we were on the way to summer, my favorite season.

But now that I am living in the foothills of the mountains Spring means a transition to warmer weather but not quite out of winter. Nights are still chilly if not downright cold sometimes. The sun is working its way north and the days are getting longer but the atmosphere is not warming up as quickly as it does in the flat lands of the deep south.

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy according to Janice Joplin.

Vacations, picnics, and trips to the beach. Suntans, fireflies and blooming flowers.

What’s not to love?

Let’s all get excited about summer, get out into the great outdoors and live this year’s warm weather season to the fullest!

The most gorgeous, amazing sunsets that I have ever seen were in the Cedar Point area of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Cedar Point is a piece of land that juts out into the Bay of Saint Louis, a shallow bay that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Not long ago I heard on a weather program that pink skies were rare and an anomaly.

What?

The minute I heard that statement I thought to myself, “They have never seen a Cedar Point sunset.”

It’s actually the afterglow, the minutes after the sun has slipped below the horizon when you get the most dramatic colors in the sky. Sometimes those colors are reflected in water, glass or other shiny objects such as the side of a clean vehicle.

I was going through my photo archives this week looking for reflection photographs to post in the 365 Challenge (a personal art challenge posting new work every day in 2022). More often than not my sunset/afterglow photographs had various shades of pink in the sky.

Let’s give the “expert” who reported pink skies as a rarity the benefit of the doubt. Possibly that person meant pink skies that are not related to sunsets are rarities.

Pink skies:

Amazing? Yes.

Awesome? Yes.

A rarity? Not in my life and hopefully not in yours!

When we think of the word eulogy we generally think of a funeral. But did you know that a eulogy could be written or read about a living person? Or even a place or thing?

The simplest definition that I found for the word eulogy was high praise.

A longer definition is a brief article or speech praising a person, place or thing that can be given at a funeral, an anniversary, or a birthday.

Have you read or heard of people writing their own eulogy?

What about your own funeral eulogy?

Have you given it any thought?

Would you consider writing your own?

What would you say about yourself?

Would it be easy to give yourself “high praise”?

Food for thought folks!

One of the Fine Art America Challenges that I am participating in uses Bedroom as its theme. My first image of three this week for that challenge was titled Sweet Dreams.

A few days before the challenge started another artist discussed dreams in our forum. That artist relayed a few details about a dream they had the night before. You can see why dreams have been on my mind lately.

We have read or been told that dreams are our sub conscience revealing something to us. Or that it’s our minds working out a solution to a problem that may be concerning to us. We also can read many other explanations about why we dream and what symbols there are in our dreams.

Not everyone remembers their dreams and sometimes we can remember one dream but not another. I tend to remember my dreams more now than I did in the past but if I don’t write it down within the first few minutes of waking then it’s lost in the halls of memory, possibly forever. My mother had a stack of notebooks beside her bed that she used to write down her dreams upon waking.

I don’t know the meaning of most of my dreams but I do know that the ones that I remember the most detail about are the ones that deal with something that I’ve read or experienced the day or evening before the dream. My most vivid dreams are those that involve people or places that I have read or talked about in the hours before bedtime.

Do you remember your dreams?

Do you write them down?

Do you think about what they might mean?

Do you have sweet dreams or nightmares?

Oh my! Nightmares. Another topic for another day.

Today I wish each of you sweet dreams and remembrance of those precious thoughts that swirled around your sub conscience until they surfaced for you to enjoy them.

I participated in another art challenge this week and the theme of the challenge was Fire. Since I love campfires I had plenty of photographs to process for the challenge and I did that for two of the three days of the challenge. My image for one of those days was a digital drawing.

However, as I looked through my archives of fire images I saw more than campfire photographs. I saw photographs that I had taken of marsh fires across the Bay from where we had lived as well as large brush fires that we had tended when we burned either Hurricane Katrina downed trees or large branches when we or the neighbors trimmed up trees on our properties.

The images of those brush fires brought back many memories. I could identify the very events that preceded each of those photographs.

One such image is a very large brush fire that we burned on our neighbors property. His property consisted of four city lots. A house had once stood in the middle of those lots and that was his official burn spot. After spending a day or two trimming up the trees on the back line of his property he sat back and watched my husband tend to the big fire.

This burn took place during the first week of January and it was a particularly cold night. That made it an appropriate night for a big, warm burn. When we first started the fire our canine fur baby kept a watch for rodents that may have used the pile for cover the night before and was now fleeing the burning pile.

As the fire burned down my husband raked burning coals and stray branches to the middle of the fire. Our neighbor sat a short distance away enjoying a beer or two and supervising the burn.

I remember that night well. There were actually ten of us altogether. We stayed warm not only with the heat from the fire but also with the joy and laughter of friendships shared.

There were many nights on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that I sat around a fire pit alone, watching flames and soaking up the heat while deep in thought. But those neighborhood burn pile fires, with the comradery of friends, are what I miss the most.

I recently posted several photographs of a log cabin. The cabin was built over 200 years ago in Tuscumbia, Alabama beside what was once Jackson’s Military Road.

The road took people from Nashville to New Orleans, was 483 miles long and a 17 day trip. Cabins and sheds were built along the way to accommodate travelers’ needs.

One such cabin was the Cold Water Stagecoach Stop, built right above the Big Spring around which Tuscumbia (formerly Cold Water) was formed.

Can you image building a house today and it lasting over 200 years? Even with meticulous maintenance, I doubt that our modern day designs and codes would enable a house to last that long.

I’ve read articles and have seen photographs of lumber from hundreds of years ago compared to today’s lumber. We are harvesting trees for lumber after 20 years instead of milling lumber from trees that were hundreds of years old. The difference is clearly seen in the density of the wood and the denser the wood, the stronger it is and the longer it will last.

We talked to a builder long ago about building a log cabin. Our cabin would have arrived as a kit and the builder would have put it together. I often wondered how long that cabin would have survived. The round logs that we had chosen were not coming from trees that were hundreds of years old. But would the fact that the building was made from logs and not milled lumber have made a difference in its longevity?

I don’t know the answer to that question. I am, however, fascinated that some of those log cabins from America’s earliest days have survived, some with little to no maintenance over the years. Some of them have even been picked up and moved, as the Cold Water Stagecoach Stop was moved across the road from its original location

My tastes have changed over time and I no longer wish to live in a log cabin. But I still respect the work, craftsmanship and longevity of those early buildings.

Read my personal blog here: https://ourartsmagazine.com/kathykmcclellan/2022/05/12/shake-it-out/

As I was researching for today’s post I was reading several sites about idioms. My mind was all over the place trying to decide the direction of this piece, using idioms as the subject.

I could make a list of idioms and their meanings as many other sites have done.

I could pick out one idiom and write about it.

I could pick out several idioms and compare their similarities.

I could ditch the idiom idea all together.

How in the world was I going to decide what direction to take for today’s post?

It then dawned on me that life, in some ways, is much like writing this blog post. Everyday there are decisions to make. How do you decide what to wear that day? What meal to prepare, cook and serve that day? What medical decision to make?

Do you research, make a pro and con list or roll the dice?

Did you catch that? Pun intended!

In my own life I do all three of those things when I am faced with a decision that I need to make.

I don’t do research for every decision every time. My goodness it’s hard enough to decide what to serve as a meal every day, day in and day out without doing research (looking up new recipes) for each meal. But sometimes I do actually look up new recipes.

For some decisions I make a pros and cons list. But, once again, I don’t do that for every decision.

Occasionally I roll the dice. I simply make a decision. Right or wrong. Good or bad. I simply decide one way or the other and hope for the best.

Is your decision making similar to mine?

Is one way of deciding better than another?

Is the method totally dependent on the type of decision to be made?

Did I decide to change directions of today’s post from my original plan?

I sure did.

I hope every decision you make today is as easy as my decision to “roll the dice” and “change lanes” on today’s blog subject!

What does it mean to play hooky?

What does hooky mean?

Hooky: Absent from school or work without an excuse, without permission or for a frivolous reason.

Hooky: To not go to school or work or to purposely miss an appointment.

Have you ever played hooky?

Did you play hooky from school, from work or both?

Are you reading this blog post because you are online while playing hooky?

I wonder if I could play hooky from any of today’s obligations?

I will not be playing hooky from my dental appointment.

I hope not to be playing hooky from the 2022 Journal Art Challenge.

Would it be okay with you if I played hooky today and didn’t upload a blog post?

Well, just in case it would not be okay with you for me to play hooky, I will upload this post!

How many of you consume a healthy diet?

Maybe I should first define what constitutes a healthy diet.

The problem is that different so called experts have different opinions on what a healthy diet actually is!

During the 1990s the Atkins Diet was very popular. Lots of protein. Recently quite a few people are following the Keto Diet. Aren’t those diets similar?

There’s the no fat, no oil diet that’s supposed to be good for your heart.

How about all raw food, meat included.

Cook your meat but eat your veggies raw?

What about all Vegan?

Or maybe Vegetarian?

Don’t forget the Mediterranean Diet.

In researching the lymphatic system and how to clean or clear it, I ran across a doctor that thinks we should eat mostly fruit (80%) with green leafy vegetables (20%).

Are you confused yet?

My opinion, for what it’s worth knowing that you didn’t ask for it (!), is that eating mostly fresh, raw fruits and vegetables is sound advice. Why? Well, in my opinion, that’s “real food”. Food that hasn’t been modified or processed has more nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other necessary ingredients for good health) than cooked or processed food.

But I also think that moderation in other foods that are eliminated in some of these diets is important for variety and supplying nutrients that may be missing or lessened in only eating fruits and vegetables.

I’m not sure that a diet that never includes fats or oils is actually that healthy in the long run. I feel the same way about diets that eliminate meat altogether. And this opinion is coming from someone who has never been a big meat eater.

I have always been interested in good nutrition thanks to my mother who was also interested in serving her family nutritious meals. I took a nutrition class in college years ago and have researched nutrition constantly since that class.

One thing I’ve learned is to pay attention to your body. It will usually let you know if your diet is right for you. Feeling sluggish, bloated, having headaches or tummy aches? Maybe it’s your diet.

Remember the saying, “You are what you eat.”? There seems to be much truth in that saying.

Another thing I’ve learned is that a diet that’s right for you may not be right for me. Our body chemistries may not be the same and may require different nutrients or varying amounts of those nutrients.

Age, general health and seasonal changes in weather can also dictate which foods are best for each of us.

You can read and learn from nutritional experts which foods supply which nutrients and then experiment to find what works best for you.

Pay attention to what makes you feel vibrant and healthy and then consume those foods that are nourishing to YOU.

In my opinion, that’s the best we can do to eat “a healthy diet”.

What is Maundy Thursday?

Where did the word Maundy come from and what does it mean?

What are the two most common traditions of Maundy Thursday?

These are questions that I wanted to answer as I prepared to write this week’s blog post.

As a Christian I knew that Maundy Thursday was the day before Good Friday, part of Holy Week ahead of Easter Sunday.

I didn’t, however, know the definition of Maundy or why it was used to describe Holy Thursday. I now know that it comes from the Latin word mandatum meaning command or commandment.

But what does command or commandment have to do with Holy Thursday?

The Thursday before Easter Sunday was the day of the Last Supper. This was part of the Passover and the last meal that Jesus would have with his disciples before his death. During the evening Jesus gave his disciples a new command to love one another.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34

The type of love that Jesus was talking about is called Agape (Greek word for a particular type of love). Agape is not an emotional type of love but one of action where we are free to choose or reject. It is a spiritual love.

Jesus showed his disciples agape by example after their meal by washing the disciples’ feet. The washing of their feet was an act of service. The teacher or head of the group humbled himself to serve those who were following him.

Jesus also gave his disciples a commandment to remember him, his suffering on mankind’s behalf, his death and resurrection as he broke bread with them. The breaking of bread and drinking of wine as he instructed them is the basis of Holy Communion.

The two most common traditions that are recognized on Maundy Thursday come from that last supper. Those traditions are the taking of Holy Communion and the washing of each other’s feet.

Not all companies or businesses recognize Good Friday as a paid holiday and I suspect almost none recognize Maundy Thursday as such. But it is an important part of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday.

I would like to close this week’s blog post by wishing each of you an introspective, joyous Holy Weekend.

Confucius said, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

What a lovely quote.

I used that quote on a photograph of a crab. Cute. That image even won first place recently in a Fine Art America contest.

In the description of the image I asked the following questions:

Everything has beauty. Does it? What is it about this crab that has beauty?
What about life around us? How often do we really see the beauty in everything?

I wrote that description and asked those questions as an inspiration to see more beauty in the everyday world around us. Noble intent.

But, really – does everything have beauty?

Is beauty, like art, in the eye of the beholder?

What about garbage? Does it have beauty

What about clutter? Does it have beauty?

What about war? Does it have beauty?

Everything has beauty...

Inspiration, true statement or motivational quote?

Food for thought.

If we told my Mother something unusual she would ask, “How do you know that?” She was not questioning the validity of what we were saying, she was only curious about all things.

Sometimes when I am doing research online I will silently ask that same question. For example, a recent image creation needed research for the accompanying description.

I was researching National Pencil Day and was listing a few fun facts about pencils in the description with the image when I had to ask, “How do they know that?”

The fun fact that I was questioning was this: You can draw a line up to 45 miles long with one pencil.

Seriously, how did anyone come to that conclusion?

Did someone literally draw a line on something until the graphite gave out and then measured the line?

What in the world would you use to draw a line that long and then be able to measure it?

Would you only draw lines on paper and then add up the length of all the lines that you had just drawn?

Is there some type of computation that states how many lines of a particular length a certain measurement of graphite would be able to draw?

Is so, how was that computation determined?

Do you also wonder how do you (or they) know that?

Do any of you that are reading this have any other suggestions that would explain the pencil fun fact?

If so, please share in the comment section below and enlighten the rest of us curious folks!

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This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed and encouraged! Or use this address directly: https://ourartsmagazine.com/kathykmcclellan/2021/10/21/daddys-cup/

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This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. It's all about imagination. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. Food For Thought. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcome!

This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. It's about one of my images and changing times. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. It's a personal reflection on Memorial Day. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt has been posted. It's all about memories. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

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This weeks Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is about my Travel Buddy. It can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information. Comments are welcomed!

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Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is about a change coming in April. The post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt features a new image. The post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt explains the background of one of the images in my Photojournalism Collection.
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Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt was originally written by using a subject suggested by Abbie Shores. The post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

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Today's New Blog Post is called Survivors and has an image of hurricane survivors after losing their home and almost everything but the clothes on their backs. The blog post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is about something that belonged to my late mother. The blog post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt features one of my Fun Images. The blog post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is titled Miserable Weather which is something that the United States has seen quite a bit of this past season.

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Today's New Blog Post is dedicated to my dear departed friend Diane. Although we lived two streets apart we didn't meet know each other until another neighbor introduced us after Hurricane Katrina. We became good friends and I miss her.

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Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is titled Overthinking. The blog post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is titled The Sanitation Department. The blog post can be viewed by first clicking on the title and then clicking on the box that says Click Here For More Information.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt was originally published in Our Arts Magazine on January 12, 2018.

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I hope you have a wonderful day filled with words on a sign that make you laugh!

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Cookie was my "Baby Girlfriend". Today's post is how she came to be my constant companion.

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt features an historic photograph.

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Happy Fishing Everyone!

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is about something called a God Wink.

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I hope each of you recognize your God Wink for today!

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is a humorous piece on our current wintry weather.

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You might find yourself singing the post!

The Blog Post for Feb. 19 dealt with the recent wintry weather in the United States. Many states, even southern ones experienced not only ice storms and snow but many days in a row of power outages amid sub-freezing temperatures.

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Stay warm everyone!

My Blog Post for Feb.17th explained my image collection titled Going To The Dogs and Chloe's Fund.

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Have a tail wagging day y'all!

Today's New Blog Post on Kathy From KeppenArt is fitting for this Winter Storm Weather Day!

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Stay warm and safe on this freezing winter day.

Today's New Blog Post will make you think.....or not!

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Enjoy!

Today's Blog Subject was one of Our Arts Magazine's Writing Skills Task Subjects: Ladders

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Thanks for visiting!

Our Arts Magazine owner Abbie Shores has graciously made it possible for members of the online magazine to set up their own blog sites. As I am in and out of OAM to post subjects and ideas for writing I decided to set up one of those sites.

Now my blogs will be published on that site with the link(s) posted here.

Thank you to all who take time out of their busy schedule to read and comment on my blog posts.

June 14th, 2015

This year is almost over! We are half way through 2015 and I am reflecting on the past six months.

Winter and Cold Winds

Winter has always meant cold to me. Windy, bone chilling cold.

Forget the advice of layering to stay warm. You can only put on so many clothes before you restrict movement. Just watch a toddler bundled up in a snow suit. We've all laughed or giggled when seeing that cute two year old staggering around and maybe even toppling, his fall being softened by a powdery drift. And then there's the struggle to get back up without being able to bend his knees or elbows so he just sort of rolls around.

Are you picturing it? Didn't you at least smile?

An Arctic Blast of 25-30mph sustained north winds, barreling across two miles of open water is bone chilling cold. The lack of resistance tends to cause an increase in the wind's speed and strength.
Forget about the water moderating the surrounding temperatures. That wind is whizzing along over the bay too quickly to pick up any warmth coming off that water.

You walk outside and it hits you in the face. Bone chilling, cold wind. Piercing through your skin then numbing it.

That's when I want to bundle up in a warm, insulating winter suit --- and not go outside again until spring.

Seriously.

No.really. That's how I feel in the winter. A Winter Hermit not wanting to come out from under the covers.

For some people cold is painful both physically and mentally. Physical ailments can include back pain from shivering and joint stiffness and pain. Mental ailments include depression and frustration.

Do you experience winter as bone chilling cold and a painful season?

Was this past winter any different for you than past winters?

For me this past winter was as cold as ever. It was as windy as ever. But it was different. It was painful but different. There was grief, frustration and depression. But it wasn't the same as past winters. The desire to bundle up in bed for months was overpowered by blessings and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude DOES make a difference. It made a difference this winter.

This past winter brought love, encouragement, validation, and opportunities into my life and I am very grateful.

And now it's spring. It's almost summer. It's warm. It is even getting downright hot!

The cold floor on my bare feet is refreshing instead of chilling.

And I, for one, am grateful for that.

December 2014

Starting in October I was viewing many images of fall color from all over the country but I was not witnessing it firsthand. Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast we didn't start seeing any fall color coast wide until the middle of November. And yet we had three freezes during autumn, one of them being a hard freeze. The brightest foliage color was just emerging right before that hard freeze and then the best colors turned a dull brown. I guess you could say that fall fell.

It feels like the season has fallen in more ways than one. One of my news releases stated that I was wearing two hats. Well, the truth is that I wear many hats. I am a daughter, sister, cousin, friend, girlfriend, sister-in-law, aunt, wife, daughter-in-law, great aunt, photographer and most importantly a child of God.

When I tried to write a new bio for my website, I was thinking about how many work hats I have worn in my 29+ years on earth. My work hats have been that of a waitress, salesperson (retail, advertising, mobile homes and more), Dental Assistant, Dental Hygienist, Youth Group Director, Realtor, Custodian and Photographer. That's a lot of hats to wear considering many of those hats were and are worn at the same time. Whew! Just thinking about wearing all those hats can make you feel like you are in the Autumn Season of life.

Just like the turning leaves fall off the trees, one of my work hats fell off during this season. I made the decision this fall to put my real estate license on an inactive status. That will leave me more time, money and energy to spend on my photography. My artwork is no longer just a hobby. It is my new career. I know it will take time and relentless effort to become successful (financially) but I am willing to put in that effort because it is the one career path for me that is very emotionally and spiritually rewarding.

Fall is a whisper away anytime from the official beginning of autumn at the end of September to the middle of January. Even when the calendar says it is winter, fall peeks in from time to time with warm sunny days. Until the middle of January. And then it's winter.

Fall fell. Changes took place. Life goes on.

What's next? Winter!

Stay tuned to read about our Mississippi Gulf Coast Winter in my next blog.
Until then, stay warm, well and full of wonder at everything God has for us to experience in nature.

September 2014

We've all heard the saying that time flies when you're having a good time. That saying is partially right. But sometimes time flies even when you're not having a good time. Grieving is not having a good time.

My mother said that the older you get the faster time flies. My mother's words were totally right. Imagine that..admitting that your mother was 100% right. Big smile on my face right now.

We thought the winter would never end but spring came and went and then in an instant it was summer. We left Ohio in May, just as spring rushed in, full speed ahead. Happy Acres was awash with apple blossoms, lilacs and violets. We left in the midst of spring and came home to our southern summer.

But now it's over. Where did this summer go?

The commercial end of summer was Labor Day Week End. The meteorological end of summer is still two weeks away. But we don't need a calendar or a Labor Day sales paper to know that autumn is visibly right around the corner. All we have to do is look around us and notice what is happening in nature.

Dog days are over. We are still having oppressive heat during the day and the nights are humid. But the deciduous trees are already showing signs of color. A few Pelicans have come back to the Bay, cruising for food, perching on old pier posts to dry out and survey the meal situation. They will spend the winter in the Bay, bayous and marshes and will once again move out front to the sandy shore at the beach next spring. The dragonflies swarmed in August then virtually disappeared. I even saw two love bugs on the first day of September, one of the two months of the year that they swarm. These are all signs of the coming colder weather that nature shows us.

Both of my parents had a love of nature. They both gardened. They were good gardeners. They worked hard at it but didn't view their work as a chore. What I saw was two people working for the pleasure and beauty of gardening. We enjoyed delicious food grown in the vegetable garden and on the fruit trees and canned, frozen and cooked at home. There was greenery around the property even in the dead of winter from the purposefully planted Blue Spruce and spring through fall found Happy Acres awash with blooms.

I used to be a gardener. I haven't done that in many years, though. When we rebuilt and landscaped our property after Hurricane Katrina, we planted tree and shrub beds mulched with river rock. The only flowers growing on the property were crinum lilies that originally came from my mother-in-law's property and had survived the storm. No organically mulched flower beds like the ones I had planted and tended everywhere we've lived. No vegetables or fruit trees.

We have lived in different areas of the country over the years and we had collected flowers and shrubs from all of these areas. We would swap plants with my parents whenever we would visit. When I went back to Ohio in June to attend the auction of my mother's property, we dug up a few day lilies and brought them back to Mississippi. They were daylilies that I had previously brought from our property in Virginia and they had thrived under my mother's green thumb. When we dug them up the bloom stalks had just emerged. Re-planting didn't take place for many days and the plants were showing signs of extreme stress. But those blooms insisted on living even when the foliage dried up and died. And they bloomed. New foliage grew and new blooms opened.

What a blessing God bestowed on me through my parents love of nature and expertise in gardening. My outdoor plants have received better care this summer and my spirit is being healed by caring for them. I am not looking at nature through the lens of my camera as much as I am soaking it all into my inner being. There will be time to take photographs after I take care of more pressing needs. And even if there isn't time later to snap up photographs then I did what was most important these past few months.

Fall is right around the corner and it will provide different opportunities than these past three seasons of this year for both my personal and professional life.

Let's hope I don't go crazy again!

June 2014

Spring came.

My mother died.

I went a little crazy.

Just about the time the daffodils bloomed with a vengeance, the grass turned green and grew towards the sun and the lilac bushes budded out, my mother passed away. She missed it. She missed the warmth of the sun on her skin. She missed the smell of the freshly turned field up the hill from her house. She missed the fragrance and beauty of the lilac bushes in full bloom and a lonely tulip next to the porch bravely saluting spring.

I didn't miss it. I soaked it up like I never have before. I lived on that property for three years when I was a teenager before we moved south. I have never liked the house. I hate that house. But it is the most gorgeous piece of God's earth in that part of Ohio. The geography as well as the plantings on that property clearly show the difference of the four seasons, as opposed to our southern slip from one season to the next. I love that property. I have always loved that property. I had forgotten how beautiful it is there.

The day after my mother died we cleaned house, put the leaf in the dining room table, the dining chairs in the living room and a bright white fancy tablecloth on the now extended table. We were ready for visitors. There was plenty of seating in the living room with a side or coffee table next to each chair so guests could set down a cup of coffee or glass of tea. There was plenty of room on the dining table for the food we assumed would be brought in. And I went a little crazy insisting on a freshly scrubbed kitchen floor to welcome everyone who would be entering from the back door, which is the main entry in my mother's old country house.

As I was picking daffodils to fill every vase I could find I discovered that Mother had several small patches of coral colored daffodils. Coral pink was one of her favorite colors. I lovingly filled the smallest but prettiest vase with those daffodils and set them in a prominent place on the dining room table.

The house was ready. We were not. Several of us went shopping, trying to find the right outfit for the viewings, the funeral and for Easter dinner, too. Most of us were there from other states. We had left our homes the month before with winter clothing. Spring brought warm days but the nights were still cold. Our outfits would need to serve us for both situations.

My mother died during Holy Week. Her funeral was not able to take place until after Easter. I had told my nieces when we were shopping and when we had been looking at her jewelry that I didn't do pink. But I went a little crazy. I wore one of my mother's short sleeved sweaters, her jacket and her earrings on Easter Sunday. All in pink. I wore her pink possessions in her honor and it turned out just fine. It seems I look okay in pink---even when I'm a little crazy.

The day after my mother died, two of her best friends came by with food. It was delicious and didn't last long. We were staying there at the house and family was thankfully, always coming and going. Except for two more dishes brought in by a family member that's all the food that was brought in. And except for neighbors and family there were no visitors. All the cleaning and preparations for guests were in vain. In hindsight it seems that most of the cleaning, splitting up, organizing and boxing up of possessions was mostly done in vain.

It makes me think about how much of what we do in life might be in vain. And that makes me a little crazy!

After Mother's funeral we tried to go through a lifetime of possessions, including a zillion photographs and news clippings. My mother saved them all. At first I was excited to see pictures I had sent her that I had lost in Hurricane Katrina and I put them aside to take home with me. But as the pile grew I was beginning to feel burdened. That feeling was overshadowed as I went further back in time and found photographs of my parents that I had never seen. Photographs of them in their teens and some of them as children. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be taking those pictures home to pour over while thinking about them and to scan and save for future generations.

The feeling of being burden didn't take long to return. Have you ever tried to sort through a pile of photographs for family members---a pile that was over eighty years in the making? There's a pile labeled children, grandchildren, mom, dad and the largest pile labeled multiples. Those are the pictures with two or more different people in them---the ones that would need to be copied or scanned so each person in the picture can have a copy of that photo. The more we separated photos the larger that pile became. The larger that pile became the more overwhelmed I became since I was the one who volunteered to be in charge of all the photographs. I was also the one staying at the house so I chose to be the one responsible for cleaning up, organizing and boxing up possessions. And because I am the only Realtor® in the family I was in charge of deciding how to market and sell the house and possessions. I'm afraid I took the easiest and quickest way by agreeing to an auction. I'm not sure it was the best decision but I can understand why I did that. I was on information, emotion and physical overload. I went a little crazy.

Going through my parents possessions felt like going through the debris fields after Katrina. At first it is amazing. Look! That survived. Look! I remember that from my childhood. But just like going through the debris field after the hurricane, going through a lifetime of saved possessions can begin to gnaw away at your sanity and sense of reality. We packed up and shipped things home and then filled my Jeep with more things. It didn't take long after getting home and trying to find space for all of those things before I realized that I had kept too many keepsakes. Now our house, as well as my mind was cluttered.

Spring arrived and took over the never ending winter.

We came home.

And it was summer.

All the trees that were barren when we left were completely leafed out. The spring flowers were gone and summer blooms were taking their place. In the time it took to drive a thousand miles everything was different. Everything--the season, the geography and the way of life. There was too much change in such a short span of time for me to be completely sane and normal.

I am still a little crazy.

March 2014

It's been quite a while since I've blogged. Life has gotten in the way and internet access is limited for me at this time.

The calendar says it's spring but it still feels like winter, both weather wise and emotionally. My mother is not well and never will be. It's still cold and it has even snowed here three times in the last few weeks. I've said this before: that I think God wants to remind me where I've come from and how blessed I am that HE put me in the south!

We are staying at my mother's house while visiting, 1000 miles away from our home, as we try to make a plan for her comfort. She has spring bulbs planted around the property and the ones along the house by the porch have been up through the mulch since we first arrived, several weeks ago. There are now flower buds showing. But three times in the past few weeks those green shoots were pushing up through snow.

Everything looks dead. The grass here is still dormant. The trees here are still barren. I imagine that there are at least leaf buds on many of the trees at home.

Everything looks old. Old schools. Old businesses. Old buildings. Old houses. Old people in the mirror!

There is a natural sequence to life. As babies we are helpless and need others to provide for our every need. Then as we grow and mature we learn to do more and more for ourselves and for others as well. As adults, our bodies and minds, wind down and sometimes wear out. And sometimes, even as adults, we need others to provide for our every need.

Babies don't realize that they need so much help from others because it's all they've ever known. But adults have known what it is like to take care of themselves and others. That's probably one thing that makes it so hard to age, to be elderly, possibly frail, weak and maybe even sickly. For some people it is more than they can handle --- to admit that they can't care for themselves.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. What the hell happened! It hasn't been that long ago that I was still a fine looking woman. The transformation has been too quick. I've gone from wrinkle free to full of wrinkles in a few short years. If that is what's happening on the outside then that aging must also be taking it's toll on the inside, too. Just like my mother.

I have been told I am in that season of life where classmates, as well as parents, are dying. I don't like this season very much. It's too much like winter. Cold. Barren. Cold.

However, the good news is that even in this barren coldness I have seen beauty. I have been documenting some of it with photographs. I have also been documenting my mother's good days with photographs to share with family and friends.

And what about our dog, Cookie? She is also getting older. And she has made this trip to the never ending winter with us. But she has been on vacation. An adventure of sorts. She has seen her first deer, cow, ground mole and snow. She doesn't like snow very much, actually she doesn't like snow at all. (Smile)

Cookie has kept us entertained and laughing. We have been blessed to watch her amazement of and reactions to these new creatures. She has also visited with Grandma in the rehab center. She growled at the nurses----not a wise thing to do, Cookie (Smile). But she has overwhelmed my mother with doggy sugar. What a blessing she has been in the past few weeks. Not once has she been a burden during this trip.

As I watch my frail mother sleeping, I think about these things.

I will try to keep my followers (all two or three of you!) updated again, at least by the end of this season---if it ever springs! Stay tuned..........

December 31, 2013

It is almost a new year. A photography business started but not completely formed. New directions. New demands of time and energy. What will 2014 bring? It's a surprise! Stay tuned and we'll all find out as the new year unfolds before us............

January 4, 2014
With the help of a kind, patient nephew one more step has been completed in this new adventure. Thanks, Bruce!

January 19, 2014
The more things change the more they stay the same is an old saying that is true in some respects. But the changes at our home in the last two months are bringing even more changes than we expected.

I started the legal aspect of my photo business late last summer by forming my LLC and joining FAA. Plans were to devote all, if not most, of my time, money and energy to this new venture in 2014.

I have been taking pictures on and off since I was a teen but I started taking thousands of shots in the past several years after buying a digital camera. I bought the point and shoot camera because I became a Realtor® and needed to take pictures of my listings. I soon realized that God knew I would spend the money on a new camera and computer for my new career. In the process He re-sparked my passion for photography.

About a year into my new career I made the statement that I would quit real estate when I sold my first picture. Well, it didn't exactly happen like that. For several years I was focused on real estate and treated my photography as my hobby. All of my career plans changed in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina blew through, destroying our home and community. The majority of my time and energy was focused, first on survival and then on rebuilding our home and lives. All the while I was still taking pictures. It was a way to share my experience with my family and friends.

In 2013 real estate was basically "dead in the water" for me and I decided that I would devote 2014 to getting serious about a photography business. That all changed at the beginning of December when my husband was permanently laid off from his job. The plan of going inactive in real estate turned into joining a more active real estate firm and the plan to buy a more professional camera has been put on hold.

I have decided not to let that discourage me. I will continue to go through my files and upload the pictures that I have already taken. Ones that I like, the ones that friends and family have admired and maybe a few that I feel might appeal to others.

Okay.....I've started. Stay tuned!

November 2015

Did You Fall Back?

Daylight Savings Time.
Spring Forward or Fall Back.

Our clocks Fell Back an hour recently but what about our schedules? Do you feel like you have fallen back on your deadlines this year? I know I did.

I have been writing my blog seasonally but I haven't written a Spring into Summer or Summer into Fall blog. It's been a busy year with new opportunities and new challenges. And I have fallen behind!

Some people have already finished their Christmas shopping and I have not even started. My goal this year is to buy products Made In USA from people I know.

I bet each of you know at least one person, that has a small business that provides a service or product that someone on your list would be thrilled to receive. And many of those products are Made In USA.

Maybe you have a teenage daughter or granddaughter who loves make up. You can order from the neighbor who sells beauty products for example.

Got a reader on your list? Go to Amazon and type in Roberta Byram. She has two inspirational books you can purchase for that reader.

Got an outdoor lover on your list? Check out www.17sierragear.com for the most amazing hammocks and support a couple of veterans at the same time with your purchase.

Do you have someone on your list that needs a tote bag to be used as a travel bag, beach bag or stylish, reusable shopping bag? You will have hundreds of image choices for tote bags at www.keppenart.com or www.bertsworks.com.

Paper, canvas, acrylic, metal prints, greeting cards and more can also be purchased on either of those two sites. You will find thousands of choices for someone special on your list.

For those of you who are or will be on the Mississippi Coast or in the New Orleans area, you can save by purchasing some of my local inventory. Contact me to find out what images are available matted, printed on tote bags, metal and acrylic or as greeting cards. I have items that can be picked up locally saving you time and shipping charges.

I am challenging each of you to spend wisely this year when you buy Christmas presents. Purchase your gifts locally or online from people you know.

The importance of supporting each other: PRICELESS!

As this season flows into the next one I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragement and I encourage all of you to live, laugh and love your way through this thing called life.