Marie at 1 Write Way

Lens-Artists Challenge #304 – Behind

June 17th, 2024
Photo taken about 10 years ago when Maxine (on the left) and Junior (on the right) were still indoor-outdoor kitties and what is now our garden was filled with skinny pine trees.

This week’s Lens-Artist Challenge is hosted by Ritva who encourages us to consider what is behind the subjects of our photography.

Whether it’s a serene landscape, a bustling city street, or a simple studio backdrop, the background influences the mood and message of the image.

I drifted back several years as I looked for photos that I thought would best meet this week’s challenge. As Ritva skillfully shows, there are seemingly endless ways in which background can enhance or even be the subject of our lens.

The next few images were taken in October 2013 during a visit to my childhood home. The light from the setting sun drew my eye to trees that, at any other time, would simply be background, not a focus of my lens.

In the next photo, the white house (on the right) was my childhood home; the other, a house where I spent an inordinate amount of time watching TV with the grandfatherly man who lived there. Both houses are now gone, demolished because of a flood. You can’t see in this photo, but both houses had “Condemned” and “No Trepassing” signs on them.

While it looks like the foreground in the above photo is a wide expanse of lawn, it is in fact a field. When I was a teenager, I worked summers at a cafeteria. On Sundays I worked 7 am to 3 pm, and when I started my mother’s car on Sunday morning, dozens of bunnies jumped at the sound and hopped around in a panic. It was a great way to start my day.

Sometimes to make a subject stand out, you need to add background, like my husband’s hand. I credit Golden Silk spiders with helping me (mostly) get over my spider phobia. While these spiders are quite large, they are also shy and more likely to skittle away from you than toward you.

I feel like I’m digressing from Ritva’s challenge because I seem to be focused on backgrounds that are the subject of my lens. Case in point: Sunrise over a fishing pier at Safety Harbor, Florida.

No, wait … here’s one where a background of neutral colors helps to make my pink yoga mat pop (never mind the blue urn at the bottom corner trying to steal the show). This was taken in August 2017, at an Airbnb in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Here’s an example of an almost monochromatic photo. From a distance, I might not have spotted the alligator given how well it was blending in with the water and lily pads.

Finally, this post would not be complete without a photo or two of a dragonfly. My husband has placed several bamboo poles around our house, and the dragonflies love using them as hunting perches.

Besides attracting dragon- and damselflies, the poles have enabled me to photograph these delightful insects at my leisure. Yes, they fly off frequently to snatch a snack, but they just as quickly come back to the pole.

In the following photo, I blurred the background so I would capture more detail of the dragonfly.

Many thanks to Donna of Wind Kisses who challenged us to think about and illustrate our conceptions of “Connections.” The responses to her challenge were wonderful and demonstrated just how connected we are to each other and to nature.

Please check out Ritva’s post for inspiration for this week’s challenge. If you choose to participate, don’t forget to use the “Lens-Artists” tag so you can be found in the Reader.

Next week, Egídio will be our host. Check in with him at Through Brazilian Eyes on Saturday at 12 noon (EDT in the USA). Please see this page to learn more about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history.

Without further adieu, I give you Raji and his impersonation of a Meerkat.

Thank you for reading! Stay safe and stay well.
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Lens-Artists Challenge #303 – Connections

June 11th, 2024
This week Donna from Wind Kisses challenges us to find connections using photographs.

Let’s photograph connections this week. Are you interested in the intricacy of mosaic art, or how the strings of a marionette bring it to life? How about railroads, rivers and bridges connecting spaces and places? Personally, I can’t have bacon without eggs, or paper without a pen. And it is impossible to ignore interactions of people connecting with each other and the world around them.

I’ve thought long and hard about this challenge, and I might (I said, might) step outside my comfort zone to meet it. Donna’s post is truly inspiring, expanding the idea of connections beyond what I usually consider the word to mean. And that’s a good thing.

Of course, I see connections in Nature, such as how my (finally) blooming Indian Blanket plant follows the rotation of the sun.

Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, I rotate the pot wherein this plant currently resides. It sits on my deck, and I see it through my window while I’m sitting at my desk working. The plant keeps me connected to the outside world just by being available to me visually.

Now, this might sound strange, but I feel connected to myself when I work with fiber, whether it be knitting or weaving. When I was about 9 or 10, I taught myself (not very well) to knit, and so knitting is part of who I am. I’ve used my knitting to connect me to others. Weaving came to me later in life at a private college where I was floundering. I was very unhappy at that college until I signed up for a weaving course. Long story short: the class had such an impact on me that I elected to take my tuition money and buy a loom rather than continue at the college.

I wove a few things but not very well and eventually sold my loom to a friend. Fast-forward a few decades and I yearned to weave again so I bought a modest 20-inch rigid heddle loom. My first project:

I wove this scarf with wool and alpaca yarns meant for knitting socks. Needless to say, weaving the scarf went a lot faster than knitting socks would have. Still, I made mistakes, wasted a bunch of yarn, but … I wear it. I love it. And the process itself connected me all the way back–40-some years–to when I first learned to weave.

I try to connect myself to the environment by upcycling and recycling. From a poster on a Facebook group I was in, I got the idea to cut up all our old t-shirts. Some were so worn that I knew they would only end up in a landfill if I gave them to Goodwill. I used a rotary cutter to slice through the shirts, tied the ends together, and then rolled the strips into balls. A weaving project was born.

I wove the above with no real end in mind. I just wanted to practice weaving. At worst, whatever I made could be used as a cat blanket. Then I wove another piece, only this time I untied the strips as I went, making the weaving process more meditative, connecting more closely with the threads and fabric.

This work I do with my hands often connects me to other people. I can’t wear all the scarves, shawls, socks, and potholders that I make. Sometimes I work with a special person in mind.

I knitted this blanket (above) for my mom. She’s no longer here and the blanket is with someone else now, but I still remember her saying that she loved it.

Connections.

I grew up among women. My mom and my two sisters, my aunts. My uncles were around but disinterested in a pouty-faced little kid.

Out of the seven sisters, only one is left, my Aunt Orvetta, the blonde in the middle. My mother sits to my aunt’s right. I look at photos like this and pine for the days when connections could be made with a letter or a phone call or a visit. Now the connections are made through memory.

I am so grateful for how photography, over so many years, has helped me stay connected to my family. So many of them have died, but when I see photos like the one above, I can almost hear their laughter.

Many thanks to Donna for this thoughtful and expansive challenge. If you choose to participate in this week’s challenge, take Donna’s words to heart:

Have you ever thought about how photography connects the world? Nobody sees the world exactly the same way you see it, and our impressions are as unique we are. How you interpret this week’s challenge is up to you.

Please include the Lens-Artists tag and/or link in the comments so we can find you.

Also, thanks to John for last week’s challenge, AI. What fun that was! Participating in John’s challenge helped me feel a bit less intimidated by AI, and I really enjoyed the contributions and conversations around it.

Ritva will host next week’s challenge starting Saturday 12:00 EST. Visit her site and get ready to be inspired.

Interested in knowing more about the Lens-Artists challenge? Click here for more information.

If you’ve read this far, here’s your reward.

Fat cat sleeping.
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Lens-Artists Challenge #302 – Artificial Intelligence and Photography

June 3rd, 2024
In this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, John of Journeys with JohnBo asks us to consider the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in photography, if it has any role. Specifically:

The question for today is to what extent AI makes the work something other than photography and at what point should it be identified as such.

Initially I thought I’d pass on this challenge. I already have a disdain for AI in how grifters have been using it to flood markets such as Amazon with AI-generated “garbage ebooks.” (See the Constance Grady’s article on this subject here.)

But after reading a few responses to John’s challenges, I saw that AI could be fun, simply fun, to use. And if people are honest about their use of AI, particularly in photography and writing, then at least we can see how it might function as a tool.

John’s challenge also stimulated discussion about what kind of post-editing photographers might use. I have not read every response to the challenge, but it seems that most of the photographers are like me: for example, I might crop a photo for a better close-up of my subject, or I might brighten the colors if the image seems murky. What I want to do in post-editing is try to help the viewer see what I saw with my naked eye, as close to Nature as possible. I don’t discuss post-editing, but if I was to do more, like, for example, take two photos and superimpose them, then of course, I would acknowledge that.

A photo of Raji superimposed on a photo taken at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

Did you know that WordPress has an AI Assistant? If you use Block Editor (which generally I don’t), about halfway down the right-hand sidebar under “Post,” you’ll see AI Assistant and an option to create an AI Featured Image. (Many thanks to Donna of Wind Kisses for alerting me to this feature.) I created the below image using the words “orange cat on beach” and saved it to my photos for upload.

AI-generated image of orange cat on beach.

Looking at some AI-generated images shared by the Lens-Artists team, I started to think about book cover designs. When I needed a cover for my short story “Love Me Tender,” I went to Canva which I had used to create cards. The hardest part about self-publishing my story was finding a book cover I liked. Many of the images offered by Canva are free and require no attribution, but Canva requires a subscription if you want to edit an image.

So what about AI? Thinking about my novel Clemency, I decided to see what AI could provide me. The central character in Clemency is a young woman who has been convicted of killing her live-in boyfriend. The setting for much of the novel is a small coastal town that has seen better days. The opening scenes include the young woman appearing bloodied and carrying a knife.

With that info, what kind of cover could AI generate? I provided the text: “young woman in shorts and a bloody t-shirt standing on a beach at night.” (Note: all the following images are AI-generated unless otherwise noted.)

Ah … no. This woman doesn’t look like she’s in any kind of danger or distress. Maybe I need fewer words. How about “young woman, bloody t-shirt standing on a beach at night.”

Oh, come on! Either the shirt is drenched in blood or AI thinks I mean blood-red. Determined to make AI work for me, I continued with various prompts until I got to these two.

I’d be tempted to go with the first one because that’s obviously blood on the woman’s shirt, but I don’t want her facing the camera. In my mind, that is not what the main character looks like. Besides, there’s something incongruous about an bloody shirt on an otherwise unharmed woman. While the second image doesn’t show the kind of bloody shirt I want, I can see blood on the woman’s arm. She also looks vulnerable.

For novels, I usually prefer book cover designs that are drawings or paintings, not photographs. Let’s see if AI can help me with that. So I asked for an “illustration of a young woman on a beach at night.” Just keeping it simple.

Eye roll. I’m about ready to give up. Never mind the two or three moons, but the woman has three arms. I could lose readers with this one.

One last try: “illustration of the back of a young woman wearing a bloody shirt holding a steak knife on a beach at night.”

I give up.

I have other alternatives, one of which would be to take photographs of a beach near me and then run the best photograph through filters until I get the image I want. If I’m lucky, maybe there’ll be a young woman at the beach wearing a bloody shirt and holding a steak knife.

Many thanks to John for this fascinating challenge. I encourage you all to give the WordPress AI Assistant a try if you haven’t already. Just be honest and have fun.

If you decide to play, please be sure to link back to John’s original post and include Lens-Artists in your tags so you can be found. If you’d like to participate in the challenge responses each week but aren’t sure how to get started, please check here. A big thank-you to Sofia for the lovely challenge to go Floral last week. Y’all know I love any opportunity to show off my flowers.

I leave you with a real photo, no AI used.

A boy and his brush.
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Lens-Artists Challenge #301 – Floral

May 28th, 2024
This week, Sofia at Photographias invites us to “go Floral”: Let’s see Nature in all its glory and enjoy this beautiful time of the year. Let’s find different angles, play with post editing, get closer or further afield, find strange and unknown flowers and if you want to get some flower friends on the shot, that is allowed too. But mainly, have fun and look for the awesomeness that is all around us.

I am all about having fun when it comes to flowers and photography. For this challenge, I’m focusing on the flowers in my gardens.

First up, roses. Small, pink roses that were gifted to me in 1997 by a friend who was moving to Australia. I’ve come to call them “Kay’s roses” since no one can figure out exactly what they are, and because I always think of my friend Kay when I see the roses blooming.

The next two photos are of Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum) taken roughly three weeks apart. I thought this plant had died from the freezes we had over the winter. But, thankfully, it’s a hardy plant.

The next three photos are of Bolivian Salvia (Salvia oxyphora). A couple of years ago, I had stopped to admire and photograph a large bush of these flowers at a neighbor’s house. The neighbor came out and offered me a “stalk” (it was at least two feet tall) that I then had to carry three blocks home because I was on foot. I planted the stalk in a pot and the blooms soon fell off. My instincts told me it would be happier in the ground than in a pot, so the following spring, I planted it in my little garden around our mailbox. It did not bloom at all last year, although it start to self-propagate. This year, to my delight, it’s blooming in earnest.

This next fun little flower is known to some as Batchelor Button or Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa). Another plant that I thought I had lost to winter freezes, but, obviously, it’s doing quite well right now. It seems to enjoy the light on our patio. Dragonflies seem to enjoy using this flower as a perch.

Who would not recognize a Gerbera Daisy aka Barberton Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)? It’s another flowering plant that is flourishing on our patio.

I love the pink and orange of this Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). I bought this plant a few years ago and while in a pot, it rarely produced more than one bloom. Planted in our garden, it’s now sporting a couple of blooms and a few buds.

Last but not least, this morning (this very morning of May 28, 2024), our Scarlet Rosemallow (Hibiscus coccineus) greeted me with two blooms. These flowers open and close often within a day or two so I wasted no time in capturing the moment. As you can see, though, we expect a few more blooms soon.

I do love challenges like this as I’m often taking photos of flowering plants (even at garden centers).

Last week, Ann-Christine challenged us to think in terms of Delicate, setting the challenge with her wonderful photos from Japan. It was great fun to see all the different interpretations of that deceptively simple word.

If you’re interested in participating in this week’s Lens-Artist, please remember to link back to Sofia’s original post and to include Lens-Artists as a tag so others can find you. If you want to learn more about the Lens-Artists challenges, please see Johnbo’s post.

Thank you for reading! Here’s a photo of Raji in action, playing with a shoelace.
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How I Self-Published a Short Story

May 24th, 2024
Recently a friend asked me to write about my experience with BookFunnel. This post will go beyond that since my experience is tethered to the publication of my short story, Love Me Tender. (For background on the story itself, read my post, Mother’s Day: Remembering My Mom and A Story to Give Away.)

Please note that the links provided in this post are not affiliate links; that is, I won’t get a commission or other compensation if you click on them.

I decided to self-publish Love Me Tender for two reasons: (1) the story is so personal that I simply didn’t want to deal with rejections any more; and (2) I wanted to test the waters of self-publication. I’ll be 67 next month and, although I’ve had a few publications over the years, I no longer expect or hope to become a traditionally published author. Time is running out. If I want to be read, I’ll need to do the publishing myself.

But how?

Vellum

I did not want to work with Amazon, not for a short story anyway, and I wasn’t interested in learning how to do book design. Whatever I did, it had to be easy-peasy. I did a little online research (this article by Parrydox was particularly informative) and settled on Vellum software for creating ebooks and paperbacks. Two things sold me on Vellum: (1) the ability to set up and view my short story in ebook form before buying the software; and (2) the possible ease in uploading my story to stores such as Amazon. I say “possible” because I haven’t yet used that feature of the software. Early days.

So I formatted, revised, and reformatted my story using Vellum and generated several different formats. Vellum essentially held my hand the whole way.

Now what? How am I going to get my story into the hands of readers, or at least their electronic devices?

BookFunnel

I recalled getting emails from authors who needed ARC reviewers, and that most of them used BookFunnel to provide the ARC. So I went to BookFunnel. For a $20 annual subscription, I was able to upload the required ebook and print formats to make my story available–for free–to readers. I tested it and, frankly, it’s kind of cool to see my short story on my Kindle.

BookFunnel does offer more than just a place to pick up a free ebook. You can require readers to provide their email addresses and develop a subscriber list. And BookFunnel has its own “bookstore.” But, again, early days. If I decide to self-publish my novels, it might well be worth using more of BookFunnel’s services.

Now, what about readers who don’t use electronic devices to read? For me, there’s still nothing like holding a printed book in my hand. I tried formatting in Word, thinking I could print a few copies myself.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Lulu

Then I remembered Lulu. No, not the singer.

I mean, Lulu, the online self-publishing book and ebook company. I had heard of Lulu through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) years ago. Lulu held my hand as I uploaded my print file and reformatted the cover design to fit its specifications. I’ve since ordered several copies of my story to mail to family. It was not cheap but it was worth it. Lulu also has a bookstore and, holding my hand again, I was able to add my story to their bookstore in case anyone wanted to purchased a copy.

I could price my story as I wanted as long as the price was above Lulu’s printing costs. I have no interest in making money off Love Me Tender so I set the retail price at a few cents over the printing costs.

So, in a nutshell:
1. Vellum.pub to create the ebook and paperback formats
2. BookFunnel.com to provide the formats to readers for free
3. Lulu.com to provide printed copies at cost.
Since the publication of my short story on Mother’s Day, 15 copies have been downloaded from BookFunnel. More than I expected since the only “marketing” I’ve done is through this blog and a couple of social media sites.

The responses from friends and family have been both gratifying and validating. If Love Me Tender is all I ever publish, I can be happy with that.

Early days.

So, dear Reader, have you self-published? What was your experience like, as far as getting your work into the world?

Do you think I was trying to make it too easy on myself? Be honest.

Any thoughts about making one’s ebooks available for free? On some platforms, there is endless (i.e., ad nauseam) discussions about why we writers should be paid for every single word we write. I understand that if writing is your livelihood, but if it isn’t … .

Thank you for reading. I leave you with an oldie-but-goodie of Junior (RIP).
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Lens-Artist Challenge #300 – Delicate

May 20th, 2024
This week’s Lens-Artist Challenge is all about Delicate, hosted by Ann-Christine at Leya . Reading a few of the responses to her challenge has been inspiring. The challenge is simple:

What is delicate to you? Feel free to use it in any meaning: exquisite, fragile, subtle, elegant…etc.

Sometimes I feel I see delicacy everywhere. Clouds appear delicate with their soft, fluffy forms.

Several weeks ago, these tussock moth caterpillars decided to hang out on the siding of our house. They seem so delicate that I’d be hesitant to touch them, which is a good thing because their “fur” can be irritating to human skin.

I believe I featured this little guy on my blog sometime ago. I think he’s a perfect candidate for this challenge, as he tries to maintain his grip on the lip of a large planter.

Butterflies are a natural example of nature’s delicacy, or fragility.

Finally, a photo that I had been wanting to share for a long time. While some might not see the alligator as a “delicate” creature, I do. Despite the facts that they can live to a ripe old age, and that they have been around seemingly for eternity, their habitat (and thus their existence) is always prey to that delicate balance between the needs of Nature and the wants of humans.

Although I was using the zoom on my iPhone camera, I was closer to this mama than I would normally allow myself. She was in the water and I was on a bridge, leaning over the railing, so I figure I had time to get away if needed. If she had been on land with her babies, we wouldn’t have even stopped. She had five babies with her, and I want to believe that she knew I meant no harm. The photo doesn’t do justice to actually being there. It felt like a gift, being to view this mother with her little ones.

I was so glad they were in the water.

Can a cat be delicate? Maybe not these two.

If you choose to participate in this challenge, you might be careful of using flowers as next week Sofia will go Floral.

Please remember to use the Lens-Artist tag if you are participating, and to link to Ann-Christine’s original post.

Thank you and be well!
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Mother’s Day: Remembering My Mom and A Story to Give Away

May 12th, 2024
This is my first Mother’s Day without my mom. I don’t grieve my loss of her as much as I first did, but I miss her. She was 99, just over a month shy of turning 100, and she was done with life. She wanted to go, and it would be cruel of me to wish that she hadn’t. Instead, I’m grateful that she lived long enough for us to finally get along with each other.

I am my mom’s youngest, and I was unexpected. I often felt unwanted as well, being that my birth and childhood seemed to coincide with my father’s decline into mental illness. When I was quite young, I was intimdated by my mother. She had a strong personality, and she didn’t seem to care how deeply her words might cut.

When I became a teenager and then a young adult, we were like oil and water. She’d argue that she just wanted to be friends with me, protect me from the dangers of the world. I’d argue that I needed to make mistakes. I needed to be on my own.

But there were other times. I confided in her when my boyfriend stood me up again, or when I found out that a different boyfriend had been cheating on me. When she couldn’t talk me out of moving to California, she took me with her to AAA and got me all the maps I’d need to find my way.

There were times in my life when I thought I wouldn’t miss her once she was gone. It was easy to feel that way while she was alive, and we spent most of our time arguing.

After her second husband died, and she was living on her own for the first time in her life, she changed. She mellowed. Live and let live. Other than the occasional admonishment to remember my brother’s birthday, we got along. She’d talk about birds mostly, or playing the slot machines at the casino, or getting her hair done, or going berry picking, or going to lunch with my sister and a few nieces. She’d talk about my sisters or the grandkids or her remaining siblings. Mostly she’d talk about herself.

As the years went by, we had more frequent but brief conversations. She tired easily. And after her daughters had died, she cried a lot.

In the spring of 1992, I wrote the first draft of a short story for a writing workshop led by Jerome Stern. I have spent the better part of my writing life trying to sort out my parents’ relationship and to see my parents as individuals, separate from me.

My mom and dad when they were so young.

I wasn’t privy to their intimate moments, their lives before I showed up, and even after I was born, I was shielded from knowing too many details. So I had to turn to fiction to help myself understand what their lives might have been like.

The result is “Love Me Tender.” My story is available through BookFunnel. You can download your preferred reading format through this link: Love Me Tender.

Here’s a brief description:

Sometimes we love someone we can’t help, beyond loving them. Irene Newkirk loves her husband but his mental illness continues to worsen despite hospital stays and treatments and Irene’s desperate efforts to keep her family whole. Love Me Tender tells the story of a few hours in Irene’s life as she comes to grips with the fact that her husband won’t be coming home again.

Again, this story is free to read, unless you want a print copy which is available at Lulu.

My story is not available through Amazon or any other outlet but BookFunnel and Lulu.

Thank you!
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Five Things in Passing

April 24th, 2024
Writing

I am still writing, just privately and inconsistently. I didn’t write at all while we were on our Eclipse trip and then not for a few days after we returned. And I was fine with that. And then I started again, reminding myself of all the things I do outside of writing so I wouldn’t be surprised when sometimes I forget to write.

In the midst of all this, I finalized a short story that I plan to make available for free. I started the story in 1992 in a writing workshop with Jerome Stern. Although it is fiction, I had my parents in mind while I wrote it. Now that they are both deceased, I feel I can share the story now. I want to release it on Mother’s Day. Wish me well.

Creativity

I’ve been making potholders again, a few to gift to friends for upcoming special occasions. The rest will pile up until I can figure out what to do with them. I’ve also been knitting a pair of socks but I put those aside in order to knit a scarf. I bought this kit in Spruce –Bennet Bandana–from a shop in Thomasville, GA. It was a perfect knitting project for our trip: simple to knit, simple to stow in my bag. I could have brought the socks, but … well, I wanted a break from them.

Garden

When we got back from San Antonio, I was thrilled to find that our Bugleweed plant was straight-up blooming.

Bugleweed in our side yard.

Even more exciting, a small plant I had recently bought, and promptly forgot the name of, also started to bloom. Thankfully, I remembered to include the tag the plant came with: Fringed Campion.

The first bud of my Fringled Campion

Bloom in Portrait mode.

It’s blooming!

Grief

As Mother’s Day approaches, my mood is shifting downward. I know I’m adding to my stress by my plan to release a short story, but what else should I do? It will be my first Mother’s Day without my mom. How else can I honor her and my memory of her? And my sister Shirley. Almost two years she’s been gone and yet my heart still twists in pain when I see the Mother’s Day cards that I would have bought for her. There’s no getting over this kind of loss.

Cats

But for our cats, I’d be in a sorrier state. This guy here … we are now calling him Snugglebunny. He snuggled up to me all on his own. I’m so glad I was able to snap a picture and record the event.
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Playing Peek-A-Boo With the Sun

April 10th, 2024
Many if not most of you in the U.S. might have had the pleasure of viewing a partial solar eclipse. If you were really lucky, you saw the total solar eclipse. We were not lucky.

After successfully viewing a total solar eclipse in Casper, Wyoming, in 2017, we wanted to do it again but this time, we wanted to leave the planning to someone else. A few years ago, my husband signed us up with a tour group that planned to view the total solar eclipse near San Antonio, Texas. Let me say at the outset that Twilight Tours was great. They took care of the hotel arrangements, food, and transportation to and from the viewing site in Uvalde. There were upwards of 400 people on the tour, but it went smoothly. Except for the eclipse itself.

As late as the evening before, we all remained hopeful that the clouds that were predicted to bump up against the Texas coastline would break up, giving us at least some opportunities to view this amazing event.

The viewing site was at the Uvalde County Arena, a fairplex that includes a rodeo arena, pavilion, and RV parking stations. It’s also across from the county jailhouse, pictured above.

As the day progressed, our hopes sank. In the above 180-degree panoramic view, you can see only a patch or two of blue sky.

For the rest of the afternoon, the sky stayed pretty much as it looked in the above photo. The clouds were moving quickly, though, and occasionally–especially right before totality, during totality, and just after–we got glimpses of the eclipse. I didn’t have a solar filter for my iPhone camera, but, in a way, I did get a photo of the total solar eclipse.

When the moon covered the sun, night fell. Outdoor lights came on, and the landscape became otherworldly. Above is another 180-degree panoramic of the site. Both the above and below photos were taken at 1:30 pm, give or take a few seconds.

Some might say our trip was a bust. In fact, a few days before we were set to leave, we seriously considered not going because of the dismal weather forecasted for San Antonio.

Our experience in seeing the total solar eclipse in 2017 will never be topped; at least, I can’t imagine a more exceptional experience. It was my first time, it was our wedding anniversary, and my husband got some amazing photos that day. (If you missed it, you can read about that experience in this post.)

While this experience wasn’t exceptional, it was nonetheless interesting, fun, and fascinating. The only thing(s) I really missed were our kitties.

Raji (ginger cat) and Wendy (Tortieco) in front of our windows.

Now, your turn: Did you see any of the eclipse? Would you rate our viewing as a bust or success? Have you ever invested in a trip only to not go, no matter the cost?
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Spring Has Sprung!

March 17th, 2024
Hello, everyone! Spring has arrived here in north Florida, a real feast for the eyes this year. We credit a few long, soaking rains for the abundance of color.

Magenta blooms from an azalea bush.

Close-up of a variegated pink azalea bloom.

Fat carpenter bee sucking nectar from a dark pink azalea flower.

White azalea flowers.

All together: magenta, pink, red, and white azalea flowers along our front yard.

Elsewhere in our gardens …

Bulbine with small yellow flowers and a bunch of buds.

Woodland pholx: a bushy plant with purple violet-like flowers.

Blue-eyed grass (grass with delicate blue flowers).

Pink sorrel, a type of groundcover with pink, violet-like flowers. Grows wild.

Columbine, a delicate plant with red flowers that hang like upside down tulips with yellow fronds.

Close-up of a native pink azalea, petals not yet fully open.

A bromeliad plant with several red and yellow buds poking upward.

A red buckeye bush (or tree, I hope) with small red flowers on top.

While color is bursting out all over in my little corner of the world, I’ve been busying myself with writing (more or less) and various handcrafts. I’ve knitted two pair of socks. One pair (not shown) is mostly purple. The pair below was not intended to be “mismatched.” I apparently drew from the wrong end of the yarn for one, but I really like how these turned out. I might do this kind of mistake on purpose next time.

A pair of feet clad in striped socks, colors ranging from yellow to green to red to purple.

I also sewed the bag in this photo, finally finding something to do with the fabric remnant I bought years ago. It’s called a 4-corner bag (designed by Cocoknits) and was super easy to make. I have a fetish for bags and am enjoying this one so much I might make more.

A bag made of light denim fabric with a muted flower pattern and leather straps.

Finally, we’ve done a grownup thing and bought new living room furniture. The cushions and springs of our old furniture were fairly shot after 15 years of wear and the upholstery fairly destroyed after 15 years of tear by our cats. Note: Do not buy tapestry-like upholstered furniture if you have cats.

View of a brown leather loveseat and a brown leather sofa in our living room.

Raji and Wendy were quite put out by the loss of their beloved oversized scratching posts. We eased their adjustment by installing window perches behind the loveseat. We also covered the loveseat with a little-used comforter to protect it from the sun and make it more comfortable for our cats should they desire to stretch out.

Raji (ginger cat) and Wendy (Tortieco) on their windowsill perches.

No one can say that we don’t try to do right by our kitties.

I hope all is well out there among my far-flung online community. My writing is going well enough for me. My writing course is taking a break (as scheduled) until April 1 when we’ll start Session Two with new prompts among other goodies. Life is going well for us.

We did the other grown-up thing with updating our Wills, Living Wills, and Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care. If I learned anything in the last couple of years, it’s that you don’t want to leave your loved ones guessing.
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