Merry Christmas Xanga

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

“What Christmas Means to Me“

Suggested by:

Stixandstonz

 

 

Christ in Christmas,

 

 

 

Family,

 

 

 

Good food,

 

 

Prayerful thoughts and celebration.  Mitch is in Afganistan this year.  I say a little prayer every day for Mitch and the troops.  Every Christmas candle is a prayer.

 

 

 

A warm fire,

 

 

 

My honey,

 

 

 

Home and a hot cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Xanga and the happiest of New Years.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

This weeks Challenge

“Childhood Memories“

Suggested by:

jbphotography

 

 

#1- this challenge is probably one of the best ones anyone has offered.  It’s been a hard challenge for me because I have very little really interesting or colorful to post.  The above is the house I grew up in.  It’s changed a lot.  Besides getting older, trees I knew well are missing, the color isn’t the same, the old porch is closed in (probably giving a lot more living space to owners) and mom’s flowerbed is long gone.  There are a lot of memories in the house.  I used to roller skate in the street and on the sidewalk running to the left and a lot of my blood was spilled on the hill headed toward the park on the right.  The blood in itself brings a lot of memories back.  I remember the doctor visit, the stitches and the kids outside the window after I came back home.  It was my head that was split by a flying swing on the swing set in the park.  I’m not sure if I am dumber or smarter after the incident.

 

 

 

#2- You have seen photos of this tree before.  It grows in the park down the hill from my house and it’s the only thing I remember, left in this park.  Everything else familiar stands on the streets running horizontally and vertically to it.  All homes, and I can tell you the names of the people who lived in them then.  I still know where every rabbit cage, chicken coop and grape arbor was.  And there was a culvert I used to climb through, now covered with dirt.  It was much more fun then, meaning 55 to 60 years ago.

 

 

 

#3- This is the White Castle Menu and definitely not the one I grew up with, not the spot, the building nor the food variety.  The hamburgers have not changed, they still, if you eat too many, guarantee a bit of indigestion but we eat them somewhat regularly.  Moderation is the key and to be honest, I love the taste.  When mom said we would have White Castles for a meal, we thought we had died and gone to heaven.  I love the double cheeseburger and I can eat a max of two (these burgers are not huge in case anyone is wondering per my appetite).  For  White Castle Hamburgers, follow the link.  

 

 

 

#4- I went to school here (Reading Public School) from kindergarten through high school graduation.  We walked the distance, which wasn’t far, about 10 blocks from home.  I spent many a day with my neck craned backward and upward, looking at the blue sky as I walked, to and from school.  I think my love of clouds and airplanes began on those walks.  The school I started in (I was in this buiding from Kindergarten through the 4th grade) is no longer there.  I remember it, and and its cloak rooms, and steps to other floors, and being torn down, quite well, to make way for the new.  One of the janitors knew I was interested in fossils and gave me some, found during the digging.  I had them well into being grown, but the rock collection they were part of has now disappeared.  This school system had/has a good educational program and a good program for gym, but it didn’t have a pool, something so many schools have.  One thing I loved they did have, two very nice auditoriums and 2 stage.  The school system regularly brought shows into its auditoriums, live and movies.  I have never forgotten one of the movies, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” dated 1954.  I added it to my collection of DVD a few years ago.  From the date of the movie, I believe movies were very current when shown at school, something I find interesting. It cost us a quarter to see the shows, and my husband says it was probably equal to $2.50 now.  Hearing the amount makes me know it was a lot of money for mom to hand us, but she always found the money for the shows. 

 

 

 

#5- One of the things I regret in the home we live in is, I can’t see sunsets or sunrise.  My house faces north and south and if I’m desperate to see a sunrise, I must go out into the street early mornings.  This particular sunset is photographed from the hill above the house I grew up in.  It’s windows faced east and west and so every sunset that ever happened, when I lived there, was seen from the upstairs windows and the glow could be seen from those downstairs.  Sunsets are probably my most vivid of memories and this scene, if the resolution were good, and we could move forward to look over the hill, toward the sunset, we would look down on my house.  I also did a lot of sled riding from the top of this hill.  My photos, though few and not so exciting, are very nostalgic for me. 

 

Thanks always for your comments.

Have a great week and keep on taking those photos.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

This weeks Challenge

“Your Name in Nature“

Suggested by:

Ataris822

 

I modified the challenge. 

As this is not a contest, when the challenge is prohibitive to my accomplishing it, I change the rules.

 

“Things in Nature
(I hope others)
relate my name to.”

 

 

My Photos

 

 

 

Courageous

 

 

Intelligent

 

 

Determined

 

 

Resourceful

 

 

Entertaining

 

 

Appreciative

 

 

 

Have a great week.  Thanks always for your comments and
Keep on taking those photos.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

This weeks Challenge suggested by:
JPPhotography

 

 “Unexpected Treasures”

 

I love color / colour.  My most treasured images are filled with it.  My unexpected shots, images that happen out of the blue may or may not be, but to be treasured they have something, a quality, to cause them to be “Treasured”. 

 

A few of my images,

Treasured, YES,

Unexpected, DEFINITELY

 

 

#1  This cat is fast becoming treasured for several reasons.  First, it’s very smart.  It wheedled its way into our pocketbook to feed it and now it has wheedled its way into our house.  It’s fast becoming an expensive treasure as its shots, worming, de-fleaing and spay is a pretty big bank account.  Add in the toys and the bed and a toll on my sleep.  Its personality is maturing nicely, it isn’t as skinny, it knows how to ask to be let in and out and to be fed or to be petted and it allows us to live here.  It was most definitely an “Unexpected but Treasured” addition to our home.

 

 

 

#2  This “Unexpected Treasure” is one of a series I snapped on the way home from Rockford, Illinois in July, 2008.  The sunset is what my rear view mirror sees reflected in the side of our car. 

 

 

 

#3  I love a redhead and this beautiful family came to the lake to spend time together with a picnic on the water.  She is lovely and the children are beautiful, a perfect ”Unexpected Treasure”. 

 

 

 

#4  This was a definite unexpected.  We were out for dinner and after the fact, I took some images working with no flash but changing light settings.  I really liked what happened in this image.  Just a building is what I was thinking, but it came out as an “Unexpected Treasure”. 

 

 

 

#5  Another image from Rockford/Loves Park, Illinois, July of this year.  I had seen Turkeys on past visits but this trip, we went on a hunt, a photographic hunt and this “Unexpected Treasure”, one out of many, was on the hoof. 

 

 

 

#6  This image was taken only this Thanksgiving weekend, near an eating place we enjoy.  I am sure the wreck was unexpected but as it was raining, not all that surprising.  It was an unexpected opportunity for my photographic curiosities, but I hesitate calling it a treasured moment.

 

 

 

#7  The fact this image turned out at all was totally unexpected.  It was taken while driving at a pretty good clip on the expressway from Rockford to Cincinnati.  I saw the fun colors out of the corner of my eye as I was concentrating on other things.  I lifted, aimed and snapped and It came out quite well.  It was a nearly missed, fun and “Unexpected Treasure”.  

 

If there is one thing I have learned about photos, you can’t catch them all.  You have to leave some “Unexpected Treasures” for others to shoot at, photographically speaking.  There have been many I missed for others to take advantage of with their cameras.  Many images lie beautifully in wait, in Xanga entries for the thought, “I wish I had taken that one.”   

 

 

Have a super week.

Keep on taking those photos and

thanks always for your comments.