Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 47

Beauty is all around!

The 47th episode of our weekly challenge dared you to explore the theme of Bloom. Again, there has been lots of creativity on display in your entries this week.

While most went very much the floral route with great success, as there were stunning images, poetry and prose, there were some interesting exceptions!

One of the early blooms in the Spring is the daffodil, which is even available along roads and ponds…

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Daffodil Time!

What struck me immediately about this leaf were the orthogonal lines working throughout; the color bands against the veins contrast one another.  The function and form come together in simple beauty.

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

This is another great set of images, posts and participation!  Thanks to each of you for taking the time and being creative!  Tomorrow we’re on to another week…

A Taste of Dutch

Echte Boter in Israel

One of the fun things of traveling is that you get these unexpected, little moments of joy all over the place.  I’m sure you’re familiar with those small moments that put a smile on your face for whatever reason…

As I sat down for a breakfast/lunch on my first day in Israel, one of these occurred in my travels…

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Real Butter!

Here’s the explanation: I’m sitting in a great 24×7 breakfast restaurant named Benedict in Herzliyah, Israel.  They serve wonderful bread with their breakfast and I grab the little package of butter to find out… It’s Dutch!  It even says Real Butter in Dutch on the wrapper.  Yes, I smiled when I noticed that 🙂

Long walks on the Beach in Herzliyah

Sleepwalking in the sand!

Compared to New England, the weather has been outstanding here in Israel.  Lots of people are still wearing their heavy coats (it’s only 65F and windy), but without having had time to adjust to these milder temperatures, it’s T-shirt weather for me.

One of my strategies to counteract my jet-lagged brain/body’s tendency to not allow me to fall asleep at a reasonable hour is to get lots of fresh air.  With a hotel that is right on the beach that means going for long walks along the beach.  While the strategy hasn’t worked thus far, I’m at least getting my miles in 🙂

Mediterranean Evening

And the views aren’t too bad either!  In addition, there’s evidence of friendly companions…

Evidence of Dog

Dogs definitely love the beach!

Three Line Tales – Future Focus

17 syllables of despair

Many thanks to Sonya for Week Fifty-Eight of Three Line Tales part of her awesome blog Only 100 Words!

three line tales week 58: a man behind a fence
photo by Jake Oates via Unsplash

****

Land of Hope, they said,
Where Opportunity knocks.
Internment Camping.

****

Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.

You’ll find full guidelines on her TLT page, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
  • Link back to this post.
  • Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
  • Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
  • NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
  • Have fun.

Happy three-lining!

Surf’s Up in Herzliyah

National pastime?

As my body is still fighting against the time zone difference (translation: sleep deprivation), I decided to go for a long walk along the beach this morning to at least show my brain that there’s daylight at this hour.  By my standards, the weather is wonderful, as it’s a rather humid 67F (appr. 19C), which is a far cry from the light snow that is falling at home…

As the wind is in-land and the surf’s not too shabby, there are 100s of people out in the water surfing along the beach.  If there were a bigger surf and bright sunshine, this might look like California!

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Planning the Surf

The vantage point is between a set of concrete barriers in a stormdrain that empties into the beach.

Warped Wednesday – pt. 9

The mind’s eye

As I’m in the middle of travel when this entry posts (should have landed in Tel Aviv a couple of hours ago, although my body might not know what time it is yet 🙂 ), here is a quick post along the Wednesday theme.

I have grouped the image along with some of my more abstract photography, even though in a pure sense it is representational.  When examined closely, the leaves are well defined and there’s a sense of composition that gives the viewer of a serene, early Autumn moment on a crips day.

Now focus your eyes toward the bright light coming through the leaves and the flare that is visible and let your view become a little diffuse…

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Autumn Clarity

Do you perceive something different that is more abstract than representational?  Do your emotions take you in a different direction?

I’m curious to hear how this image connects with your mind’s eye…

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Bloom

A flowering moment!

Welcome to Week 47 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge. Your entries for last week’s theme of Structure were an absolute joy to read and peruse!  It looks like the entries are just getting stronger every week!

For this week’s theme, I’m drawing once more from the images that I captured during a visti to Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  While I absolutely love exploring the textures and structure of leaves, there are some other things that attract my attention.  Such is the case for the image that brings us to the theme of Bloom!

The word bloom is interesting to me linguistically, as in Dutch the word for flower is bloem, which is pronounced bloom.  For that very reason, I’d encourage you to think about all the nuances that you sense when you hear the word bloom; use these to inspire your exploration of creative possibilities when you select your photos!

So here’s that image full of bloom…

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Bloom!

This beautiful flower stood out among the sea of green, just beckoning to be noticed.  The only thing that was missing, were some hummingbirds to sip the nectar.

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

I know that your entries will be blooming fantastic and fun!  Have fun unlocking those creative juices!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 46

Structured thoughts!

The 46th episode of our weekly challenge jumped into another area of exploration through the theme of Structure.  As I’ve come to expect at this point, this has been another week of great entries with some extremely creative work!

The entries went into several directions, ranging from human-made structures to an impressive variety of natural wonders.  Again, there was some stunning photography and lots of great posts that were just wonderful to read.  You definitely make this a lot of fun for me to read!

Here’s another image from my trek to Tower Hill Botanic Garden…

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Orthogonal Conditions

What struck me immediately about this leaf were the orthogonal lines working throughout; the color bands against the veins contrast one another.  The function and form come together in simple beauty.

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • Mac’s post in Southern by Design shows off some wonderful human-made structures in Wilmington, NC.
  • Leaking Ink‘s entry brings a completely different structure into view, as ants were rather busy in putting it together.
  • Bullyboy’s post in Travel387 brings us some beautiful structures made of flowers, which are very impressive.
  • Xenia’s post in WhippetWisdom brings some root structures into view that are nothing short of impressive!  It had to take some years for them to grow like that!
  • pensitivity101 brings the brilliant structures that are created by our friends, the arachnids, to the forefront in their post.
  • Marie’s structure in her post in The New 3Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect is none other than a pyramid of glass and steel!
  • Miriam has us looking up in her post in The Showers of Blessing; up toward the beautfiul ceilings and magnificent structure!
  • Ron’s post in Progressing into Solitude brings us to stunning temples in Thailand, which definitely on my list of must-visit locations around the world.
  • Steve shares the story and wonderful photos of a most unusual steel house in his post in A Bum Without A Beach; great post!
  • Judith’s post in Nature Knows Best brings us back to structures from a different time, when public baths were still the norm; interesting entry!
  • Candace takes us to the Denver Botanic Garden’s in her post in Netdancer’s Musings for a very airy structure that almost appears to float!
  • Cee brings us some fantastic structure in Cee’s Photography; another wonderful example of what Nature puts together.
  • Another great one to check out is Black Body‘s post, which shows a structure that I’d never seen before; curious?  Go look!
  • Debbie’s structure of choice in her post in ForgivingConnects is a labyrinth, which is often path in life, love and forgivenss.  Debbie has also started a series of prompts on Fridays, so definitely check them out!
  • Maria’s post in CitySonnet focuses on the structure of the waves with wonderful images.
  • Khürt’s entry in Island in the Net shows us a wonderful old Dutch style house in the Harlingen area of Belle Mead.  Great location and photos!
  • Emily found some rather interesting structures in her post in Zombie Flamingoes and even looks into the future!
  • Sonya found an impromptu shot of a structure being constructed in her blog Middleton Road.

This is another great set of images, posts and participation!  Thanks to each of you for taking the time and being creative!  Tomorrow we’re on to another week…

Turning a New Leaf

Beauty is everywhere!

As a follow up to this week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge theme of Structure, I figure that I’d share another image from those I captured at Tower Hill Botanic Garden during last Sunday’s visit.

This image is of another leaf that is lit bu sunlight pouring through it…

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Big Leaf

Hope you enjoy this image and have a wonderful weekend.