Weekly Photo Challenge

the subject from Gitarezan is:

“Round and Round”

 

© Round and round is the shape of the path we travel. 

 

 

Firmly, resolutely round, like ripened seasons, effecting us with heat and cold, sunshine and rain; we effect each other by mapping our positions as daily routine. 

 

 

Each one of us, a small functioning planet,

 

 

living our seasons, with circular clockwise ticking in early mornings

 

 

to counter clockwise at night until the body dependably, dutifully finds rest. 

 

 

Following paths we set for ourselves, with our own two feet we meet ourselves coming and going.  Young and old, we travel round and round with tickets purchased eons ago from genetically claimed ancestors who traveled similarly, round and round. 

 

 

And the seasons cycle from Winter to Spring, from Spring to Summer and the Summer, to the Autumn of our lives.

 

 

Be well and thank you always for your comments,

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

the subject from PhotoGraphics is:

“At the Shopping Mall”

I am not an avid shopper.  There was a time I enjoyed the thrill of the chase, of the elusive, perfect buy.  Shopping gets old when the walking wears you out before you empty your wallet and recreational shopping has never been a pleasure.  I have a shopping strategy/preference.  Instead of spending money, I spend time making observations of the people, who are out and about, doing their shopping.  

I am surrounded by shopping malls.  From strip malls to glassed in blocks of weather proof stores, shopping is never far away.  I can spend, if I choose to, any amount of money for product but my fun is viewing the money spenders through the observant eye of my camera.

Most of my photos were taken quickly and some in poor weather so excuse a bit of poor quality.

My “At the Shopping Mall”
Photo Discoveries

I have discovered some people, no matter what their age, will shop in the rain.

 

And for some, shopping involves a lot of hard work.

 

Shopping

is often

a family oriented affair

 

 for food, clothing or otherwise.

 

I have discovered, when you treat them right, husbands will do anything for you, including your shopping.

 

I discovered a long time ago, I like to shop for kitchen and bath items 

but I enjoy shopping the most for a good meal.  I have discovered ten times the shopping fun, enjoying a nice meal.   

 

My best discovery for a day “at the shopping mall”, a face with a smile like this!  I have discovered, a good meal served by a fetching young waiter, who relates to you so pleasantly you forget the chores of the shopping, is the very best part of shopping.  It can, in fact, turn a tiresome day into a golden experience. 

 

Have a super week and thank you always for your comments.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

the subject from Ruth from Ohio is:

“Your Guilty Pleasures”

Having thought about this topic for a while, my conclusion is “my guilty pleasures” modify with age.  As a teenager I loved makeup,clothing and roller skating.  As a young woman I traded the roller skating for young men.  As a married woman with children my interests gravitated toward home and family.  As a senior, my interests are purely for the love of being entertained. 

My guilty pleasures include, the pleasure of eating out, movies, my computer and digital photography.  I’ll concentrate my photos on Eating Out as my guilty pleasure.  I never grow tired of good food.

My Photos/Graphics

My collage indicates our food tastes are varied.  Some of the food spots pictured, discovered on trips, called to us with cute exteriors.  I do have prerequisites and have made some mistakes with some stops we have made i.e lousy food or poor service.  My preference is clean tables and rest areas, tasty food, affordable and nice atmosphere if we have time.  For a change of pace we carry out, for picnic lunches at the lake, or take it home unless we are on the road and can’t do otherwise. 

(A list of the restaurants in the above image left to right top to bottom:  El Picante Mexican, The Hen House Country style, Charlie Baz’l's for Karaoke plus more professional entertainment, lots of sports television (probably 50 plus big screens), and food, Bob Evans great home cooking with nice people waiting on you and if you go after rush hour, a nice place to sit a while, Applebee’s, McDonalds and hiding as a background to all of it the Village Ice Cream Parlor, a spot we enjoy going to for ice cream sodas, in Lebanon, Ohio.)

 

Everyone recognizes McDonalds.  We don’t eat here often but they do come in handy on trips as I find them to be clean and consistent.  I love McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin for breakfast, ordering it with two slices of sausage , a slice of FRESH Onion, a slice of FRESH Tomato and sometimes an egg and don’t forget the glass of orange juice.  It’s tasty.

 

Bob Evans restaurants originate from Ohio where they have a wonderful farm.  The restaurants are laid back spots with a good cup of coffee.  Their sausage rolls are in the markets  and the company’s Internet map shows the restaurants in 20 states.  They have a very good menu and a pleasant arrangement so we enjoy sitting inside to eat.  The rooms and seating are clean, the help congenial, the food very good, the price affordable and they decorate for whatever is current.  We enjoy it.

 

The Antique Peddlers is a lovely little eating place and our favorite type of spot to eat and relax.  We have discovered a few others I don’t have photos of, yet.  The Antique store sits in the rear and the restaurant is up front, the building sitting right on a corner.  They have a garden where all the vegetables they use are grown and the food is prepared, on site, in their own little kitchen.  It’s very clean, extremely quaint, small, which I like, and the food is very good leaning toward vegetarian.  Another plus, it’s a fun place to bring company.

 

This is the inside and we usually sit looking across this glass topped table and sometimes in another small room with booths.  The bay window at the left in the previous image is the window behind the hanging plant.  This is our type of place, cozy, lovely to look at, good food, laid back atmosphere, nice people serving you and we can afford to eat. 

There you have it, I’m guilty pleasured as sin when it comes to enjoying good food out and the little getaway it provides.  We enjoy a picnic too, so we grab carry out on some of our nice days from McDonalds or ??? and go to the lake and sit watching the fishermen and the ducks. 

Now I have confessed, 
have a super week and thanks always for your comments.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

the subject from Gitarezan is:

“Magazine Covers”

I had fun with this one. 

My magazine covers

One of my favorite books is James Michener’s “Chesapeake”.  I love the geese and the book made me love them even more so a magazine for them and their other webbed relatives, “Duck Duck Goose”.

 

This is my sister’s cat and it’s a real ham so deserves to be on a magazine cover.  I could fill the magazines pages with photos I have taken of it.

 

This is Skipper, also my sister’s and her husbands pet.  He was a much loved dog who was laid to rest only a week or so ago.  He is greatly missed as he was the best dog they ever had.  There was a lot of upset at his demise.

 

There is a lot of strange and violent weather going around the globe.  I think the temps may be about normal here but we are getting a good amount of rain.  We had flooding in April and the lake hasn’t gone back into its banks.  I think it will be back up after this rain.  If you aren’t aware of the cyclone in the country of Myanmar they look to having lost over 100,000 people because of it and many homeless, without food, electric or bare necessities.  Please dig into your pockets a little to donate and be sure to donate to organizations you can trust.  We use the Red Cross.  Click Here for the American Red Cross and Myanmar information.   

As usual I could play more with my photos but you have to stop somewhere. 

 

Have a great week, count your blessings and thanks always for your comments,

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

the subject from LadyLioness1973 is:

“How Was Your Holiday”

Holidays, for us, are always good.  We combine the location, good Food, Family and Fun to create the holiday we want .  We love eating out or eating in, playing board games while visiting or watching movies quietly with a fire in the fireplace.  Whether the whole family or just the two of us we find ways to enjoy holidays or vacation time.  Our vacation time always falls on the Christmas holiday.  We usually have two weeks of time to spend celebrating the Christmas season through to and including the New Year.  Our vacation time takes us away from the normal at home weeks.  We have spent many vacation holidays in Virginia or Florida on the beaches and quite a few in our Western states of California but I’m posting photos which cover a little of all of what we call “Holidays”.

My Photos

Never without my camera I carry it into shops if allowed to take photos.  This image was taken in this beautiful year round Christmas shop in West Virginia, USA.  It is only a few miles off the beaten path on our trip to or from Virginia.  The shop carries some of the finest Christmas decor.  I always add to my ornament collection when we stop here.

 

Waiting for Santa is what is going on in this image.  I love taking photos of my daughter’s pets when we are visiting.  They can be the best of models and I think I may have taken hundreds of shots of them. 

 

This particular Easter found John and I alone but not without things to do or places to go.  The day was beautiful and there were many photo opportunities.  This image taken at the Spring Grove Cemetery, a magnificent spot for any occasion.

 

Birthday cake and coffee at Starbucks.  John enjoys their coffee so for us its a good place to celebrate and we don’t end up with left over cake needing to be eaten.

 

It’s the 4th of July and we are taking photos locally at the parks and memorials.  This memorial site is in Montgomery, Ohio.

 

Our holiday/vacation time fell in the latter part of September into October in the year this photo was taken.  This Florist stand is in Virginia and we are visiting my daughter and have planned some Halloween pumpkin carving as it is nearly Halloween (Halloween is not a holiday, only a day of fun but we were on holiday/vacation on this particular trip.  This particular holiday/vacation happened to fall at the time of the year).  The Florist shop had outdoors the nicest mum plants I have ever seen, fresh, perfect, beautiful with not a single bud broken from stems so I had to take a lot of photos of their beautiful display which is of a type you see here for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

 

A different photo of the same nursery with my granddaughter Eden layered to the image carving a pumpkin I carried to Virginia from Ohio for the carving occassion.  The carved pumpkin hanging on the back wall is a layer of her finished pumpkin.  Both layers are lifted from other photos I took during the same vacation week.

 

Thanksgiving at a state park in Illinois.  We had a large group and it was so nice not to have to cook or wash dishes.  The dining area was lovely, the food tasty and the company entertaining.  What more could you ask for on a holiday.

These images are of course only a sampling of the many I take.  Many are good, a lot are terrible but I snap away and I play with a lot of them in Paint Shop Pro. 

Have a great week and always great holidays.

Keep on taking those photos and
thanks always for your comments.