Lantanas, a perennial in the verbena family, grew to bush size in California but grow into trees in Mexico, if not trimmed back. I love the variety of blooms in different stages on each plant.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/08/flower-of-the-day-july-8-2015-lilies/
You’ll just have to imagine the wind blowing–and you would have one colossal sand storm! These dunes are in Peru, Taken from the oasis shown in the aerial view.
http://jennifernicholewells.com/2015/07/07/one-word-photo-challenge-sandstorm/
The largest head is a portion of a larger sculpture that blew apart in the wood-fired kiln of my favorite pottery studio. The tall sculpture and plate are also by the same artists. The bowls are pre columbian, The glazed vase in back contemporary Colombian. The Frida/doe sculpture in front is a piece I bought unpainted from a Michoacan artist. I added the thorns. Its fragile antlers and legs have been broken off so many times as Yolanda dusted them that after my last repair job, I finally put it up too high for her to reach.
As I pulled into the upwardly inclined cobblestone road that leads up to my house, this herd of sheep came charging across the road. Luckily, my camera was close at hand. They streamed onto a vacant lot and as the rest grazed, one with illusions of grandeur sought out the highest hillock to become king of his own small mount.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/07/cees-fun-foto-challenge-more-than-5-items-2/
Revisioning a Life
I don’t know if it helps much to revision the past. I think we make decisions according to our background and our chemical makeup and genes and “knowing” that different choices might have contributed to your life turning out differently doesn’t necessarily mean that you would make different decisions even if you knew how they would play out.
When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be around people. I think this was primarily because I didn’t have a clear enough idea about what to do when I was alone. If I’d had art classes or someone who encouraged me to write stories when I was small, I might have developed a need for lots of time alone earlier. As it was, I started reading to fill out my days and nights, but even then, I probably would have traded in those books for more activity.
By the time I got to college, I was accustomed to “wasting” large amounts of time by doing nothing or by playing games, watching TV and listening to music. I had never been anyplace where there had been clubs and activities to join other than the band, choir and MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) of my junior high and high school years. I don’t know if it was lack of confidence or lack of interest that kept me from joining activities in college where I would have met more people, but I am quite sure that I had a small town inferiority complex that made me think people would probably not want to meet me.
Although in the dorm and around female friends I was outgoing and a leader of sorts, at mixers with fraternities, I was shy and held back. I didn’t go to the student union much–preferring the smoking room at our sorority house, playing bridge with the hashers and watching soap operas with the Lenzi twins–my partners in prevarication. Somehow I fell back on the lazy habits of my youth, even though I was now in an environment that provided more stimulating possibilities.
I see this tendency spreading like a stain throughout my life. Yes, I traveled all over the world, but once there, in an exotic or unfamiliar place, I didn’t necessarily make use of all the possibilities for socialization or discovery. Once again I fell back on nights spent alone, reading or puttering around the house. It wasn’t that I didn’t meet people and make friends. I gave dinner parties and big parties and went to the houses of friends. It was just that I also held back. Pulled out by friends, I would go, but if I had to make the decision myself, I would stay home.
Now that I am in my retirement years, I still feel this pull and push of life. If someone asks me to do anything, I do it. I have had a few big parties but in recent years I prefer dinner with one to four friends. The vast majority of my time, however, is spent alone, even though I know I could be busy every minute of the day with one or another social activity. I fill out my days with writing or, in month or two-month spurts, working in my art studio. I belong to three writing groups, two of which I go to regularly. The reading series I coordinated, I let die a natural death when the coffee house where we met closed. Others have urged me to resuscitate it, but i haven’t.
The reason I know I would probably not change my college habits even though I now know I should have been more active is because now that I am in possession of this knowledge, I still choose not to change. I am a social person who has an even bigger need for privacy and alone time, but now it is because I have two worthwhile activities with which to fill that alone time. Whether there is much value in what I produce is a moot point. I think we create in order to recreate our selves, in a way. It is a place where we have a power we grant to ourselves and perhaps in a way this is a success which, although unheralded by the world, creates a smaller world of our own where we can become whatever we want to be.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Revisionist History. Go back in time to an event you think could have played out differently for you. Let alternate history have its moment: tell us what could, would or should have happened?
Go HERE to see Cee’s flower of the day.
This may be my favorite poem of all I’ve read this year. Hope you enjoy it alsol!!!
Remember Me
What I imagine I will be remembered by
is probably in the past, my present more taken up by
remembering than by doing.
That energy to create a life seems worn out
so that rising and sorting piles of papers
seems an Everest to scale.
Who knew that we would wear out, too.
Prefer our deskchairs to the dance floor,
our own tables to the favorite gathering place?
We have dulled to pewter,
finest silver that we once were.
Once hatless, ratted and curled,
now we shield ourselves from the sun
with wider brims,
celebrate midnight in solitude,
go the way of civilizations
headed toward their end.
Today’s prompt: Don’t You Forget About Me: Imagine yourself at the end of your life. What sort of legacy will you leave? Describe the lasting effect you want to have on the world, after you’re gone.
Yes, it might be my carrot cake birthday cake–
but, I think it was probably the candle !!!!This candle was furnished by the bakery that made the cake. My friend who brought it to me said it came with a warning not to lean over the cake while she lit it! (This is what happens when you celebrate your birthday on the Fourth of July!!) Thanks, Audrey. It was the only fireworks i saw this Independence Day. In Mexico, where fireworks are set off every day of the year for one purpose or another: fiestas, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, Saints Days, elections, christenings, first communions, confirmations, church holidays, Day of the Dead–not one was set off for the Fourth of July!!! (Well, except in my dining room.)
For more oddball images, go HERE.
Bougainvillea
Unfortunately, this beauty is outside my wall on the front of my house where I really haven’t noticed it. This is my very favorite color of bougainvillea (bugambilias in Mexico) and it only stays orange like this when it is in bright sunlight for part of the day. When I planted it in Boulder Creek, CA, it always turned pink for lack of sunlight in the redwoods. I need to plant one in my back yard as well so I can see it every day.
To see other photographers’ flowers of the day go HERE.
Wow, there have really been a lot of door challenges in the past few months. Here are three “new” shots taken in Ajijic a few weeks ago.
This doorway had a huge pickup parked in front of it, which I cropped out but unfortunately, I also had to crop out the beautiful environment.
Here is the original photo.
I also did a posting of doors for Cee’s challenge a few weeks ago. Look HERE if you haven’t seen it before.
