Click on photos to enlarge.
It took me two days to take all the ornaments off my tree to replace the light strings that had burned out and to replace the ornaments again! Hopefully the lights will last for another 5 years or so before I have to untrim the tree again. In January, we will cover it in plastic and restore it to its 11 month retirement in the laundry room. R.I.P. Xmas!!
for Cellpic Sunday
Snowfall
My breath leaves footprints on the window as I watch the fallen snow
holding as its prisoner all that lies below.
The wind shrieks out a warning for humans that might dare
to brave the ever-deepening drifts that they should beware
the captivating mounds of flakes that have drifted down
to spread blankets of reverie over the silent town.
For now, all problems frozen, covered up, put out of mind,
for how can we worry about that we cannot find?
The gale now howls release as it blows the snow away,
removing all that festers to return another day.
For the Sunday Whirl Wordle the words are:
human captivating drift fallen release now shrieks howl festers reverie breath prints
Johnbo, who is the creator of this “Winter” Challenge, lives in North Dakota and you can find his photos HERE. Since I grew up in South Dakota, I should have fabulous photos of snow that sometimes got so high that they dug a tunnel under it down main street with tunnels into the various stores. I remember one storm where the snowbanks around our house were so high that I could open the window of my second story bedroom and step out onto the snow! Later in my life I lived in Wyoming twice…first for 5 years and then again for 7 years, and although I have stories of snow, I don’t think I ever took any photos. What snow I experience now is when I visit Wyoming, so I”m off in search of possible snow shots there. Click on photos for captions and closer views.
The prompt for the Lens Artists Challenge is “Winter.”
A demonstration of the barro bruñido art of Tonala artists Angel Ortiz and his son Jose Angel Ortiz showed their incredible control and mastery of their art. The photo above is of Jose Angel executing his intricate artistry. Below are photos of father and son and their completed works. Some pieces can take two months to form, paint, burnish and fire. Click on the photos below to enlarge and see details..
For more information on these fine artists, go HERE.
In case you missed Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American yesterday, about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, as well as the Fascist strategies of Mussolini and Hitler, here is a link: .:https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-6-2024
Fascinating, as usual, although the parallels to what is happening in the U.S. today are chilling.
A spike at least 3 feet high grew straight up out of a large planter in my front garden. I had not a clue what it was. Certainlly not something I’d planted. I kept thinking I’d cut it down or move it but finally just directed it away from a sculpture it was growing directly in front of. It had no flowers or leaves and was not that attractive, but I was rather intrigued, wondering how tall it would grow. Then the other day I saw that it had pushed out blooms. I looked it up and learned that it is a variety of kalanchoe–one of my favorite flowering plants. I certainly have never seen one like this, however.
For Cee’s FOTD
Below is a photo of the Allamanda blanchetii flower. It isn’t a very good photo because of the position of the sun, but the ones I took with the seed pods yesterday vanished from my camera!! I’m just showing this so you can see what the seeds turn into.
For Cee’s FOTD
For Fibbing Friday the questions to answer are:
1. Who saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus? Not daddy, that’s for sure!!!
2. All I want for Christmas is for someone else to put the lights up on my tree.
3. Rockin’ around the chain gang.
4. How did Buttons get his name? From his master the tailor.
5. I wish it could be Saturday night in 1963 on a date with my high school boyfriend.
6. Last Christmas, I gave you Covid.
7. Who was the eighth dwarf? Mickey Rooney.
8. Why was Rudolph’s nose red? Minus zero degree temperatures.
9. Why didn’t Cinderella’s glass slipper crack? It was made of polycarbonate glass.
10. Who was the Frog Prince? Louis I de Bourbon
Please click on first photo to enlarge and see entire series.
This little solar-powered fountain floats along on the surface of my pool. Here it is in front of a bank of assorted flowers.
For Cee’s FOTD
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 