Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge Week 26 – 2015 Flip Flop Flower Pot Stands

Stopping by the supermarket yesterday I breezed past the various outdoor flowers and plants ubiquitous this time of year. My eyes fell upon a lovely, light pink rose-bush which I imagined would look pretty on my doorstep but it was the new item “standing” next to it that caused me to pause.  Flip Flop planters! Three words immediately came to mind “Cee’s Oddball Challenge.” This strange yet captivating piece bore a resemblance to something in my past that I could not immediately conjure. After a few laps around the market the memory materialized.  The leg lamp.  It reminded me of that one-of a kind, leg lamp from the classic holiday movie “A Christmas Story” which the father won in a contest and prominently displayed in his living room window. Passing the whimsical planters once again on my way out of the store,  I silently commended the artist on his/her creativity inaward   the matching pedicure polish…

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/06/28/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-26/

Daily Post Photo Challenge “Vivid”

viv1It always draws controversy. I recall a neighbor glancing at the painting with the discerning eye of a collector remarking, “How in-ter-esting!” Love it or hate it, it hangs on my bedroom wall. This vivid, lively swirl of jade green, orange and blue with the upside down heart (my interpretation) The painting that brings the memory of my father closer to me than well, many memories themselves.  He loved this painting.  Just glancing at it brings him close to me again. We never knew where he bought it or who the artist.  Likely, one of this beloved auctions or tag sales.   They say scent is the strongest indicator of a memory yet for me, the visual of this painting is like going home, vividly.

The vividness of a garden flower in bloom

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Every August we spend a week at a fly fishing club in Vermont for our family vacation. As our sons grow, we also enjoy the ritual of a new sweatshirt purchased at summer’s end for the upcoming Fall school year, compliments of Shaw’s General store.   This past summer’s choice was a vivid yellow. I love the way it appears against the backdrop of the lake and a sunburned nose.oviv

 

 

 

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Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Animals

Caught Red Handed

lolly Our Toy Fox Terrier found her way into my son’s halloween candy bag and helped herself to the sweetest treat in the loot. I love the expression on her face when she was uncovered.
animal A dolphin and a boy share a smile. A turtle emerging from the depths. A camel in transit on the NJ Turnpike. Our backyard pheasant taking a stroll…

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/06/04/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-animals/

Weekly Photo Challenge – “On The Way”

On the way down the front porch steps to fetch the morning paper  I encounter a trail of pink petals, damp, fragrant and delicate. Compliments of our kindly dogwood tree, unable to hold onto their fleeting beauty during a fierce wind storm the night before.

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/on-the-way/


Daily Post Photo Challenge “Enveloped”

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Enveloped in … a cozy blanket …Cookie the hamster in my son’s gentle hand …a field of spring flowers …a favorite tree

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/enveloped/

ONE WORD PHOTO CHALLENGE – CLOUDY

  “Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Peek A Blue Sky

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Window of Clouds

 

http://jennifernicholewells.com/2015/05/12/one-word-photo-challenge-cloudy/

The Intricacy of Tying Flies

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My husband was first introduced to the sport of fly-fishing as a boy while visiting his aunt at the fittingly named “Trout Club.” From the moment he first cast, he was hooked.  I never tire of watching him as the line weaves back and forth in flight, landing effortlessly on the water, mimicking a may fly touching down.  He began to tie his own flies shortly after, a true craft in itself, fascinating to watch. 

When my son was in third grade, he had a special teacher who was a fly fisherman.  I asked my husband to make him a home-made fly as a teacher gift and my son presented it to him at the end of the year in a tidy white box.  A gift from the heart.  

The design of feathers, combined with precise tying and gluing make this a hobby of precision.  The result, when examined is indeed intricate in design.  I have photographed below a series of flies, both store-bought and home-made for this week’s challenge.

“Fishing is the chance to wash one’s soul with pure air. It brings meekness and inspiration, reduces our egoism, soothes our troubles and shames our wickedness. It is discipline in the equality of men–for all men are equal before fish.”

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 “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.”  

fly2 An angler’s vest and ties of course

Quotes by Herbert Hoover, an avid fisherman

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/intricate/

 

Daily Post Photo Challenge Motion

camelEgypt? No, New Jersey. While driving to my son’s dive meet one morning on the hectic and well-traveled Jersey Turnpike,  I nonchalantly glanced to my right and saw this incredible beast being transported in a trailer, its woolly locks blowing in the wind.  The creature and I made eye contact and my heart ached to think it might be heading for a circus or some other place far the opposite of greener pastures.  Snapping this photo through my car window I said a little prayer that the camel was en route to a lovely farm somewhere far from here, where it would recover from its journey in a shaded field.

 

Poetry in Motion – Waterfall

water

On the count of three…

jump

Motion in action

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/motion/

Daily Post Word Challenge – Early Bird

“Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, with charm of earliest birds”   John Milton

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Dawn of Christmas Morning 2014

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Our beautiful resident pheasant. He graced us with his presence, early morning, for over three years. Then one day, came no more…To learn more about the bird, please read my short tribute “Ode to a Pheasant” https://nynkblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/ode-to-a-pheasant/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/early-bird/

Daily Post Photo Challenge – Blur

gramercy

For my fiftieth birthday, my husband planned a small get together in the city with six of our closest friends. We started the night out at a mixology bar with an outdoor garden then stayed overnight at The Inn At Irving Place, a true oasis in the lovely Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan.  The next morning, I snapped this photo from the window of my taxi as we pulled away. The trees were captured in a blur, much like the fleeting night – but I still love this photograph for the memory of my celebration and the beauty of my favorite city neighborhood.

 

Nothing quite like the fun of “Extreme Dodge ball” among brothers, played at an indoor gym/trampoline park. That is, until someone gets hit with just a little too much force.

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                                              A forward somersault executed “en blur”

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