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Archive for the ‘Weekly Photo Challenge’ Category

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

Posted in African Safari, Favorite Places, Journeys, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on February 23, 2013| 3 Comments »

            “If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” – Isak Dinesen, “Out of Africa”

Following the leader forward. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Following the leader forward. — Photo by Pat Bean

Africa

Balloon ride over the Serengeti: OK, which way is forward? -- Photo by Pat Bean

Balloon ride over the Serengeti: OK, which way is forward? — Photo by Pat Bean

            The first image that popped into my mind when I saw that “forward”  was the photo challenge topic this week were the long line of elephants that I watched trudge forward  in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. What an amazing sight..

            Then I thought about how the native guides were always going forward in search of Africa’s exotic wildlife to give me and my friend, Kim, the best possible safari experiences they could. They did well.

Holding my breath until this baby moves forward and rejoins his mom and brother -- Photo by Pat Bean

Holding my breath until this baby moves forward and rejoins his mom and brother — Photo by Pat Bean

         On the very last morning in the Serengeti, we watched a mama lion and two nearly grown offspring come forward toward us. The guide had seen them and had parked the Land Rover in an ideal situation so that would pass not too far from us.

            One of the young lions, however, took a detour and came over and scratched his back on one of our tires – the one I was standing above. It was both thrilling and frightening and I was glad when he went back to going forward toward his mom.

            Interesting how two weeks of some of the best travel days of my life became fresh again in my mind after hearing one single word.  

        

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

  Bean’s Pat: Winter’s Majesty http://tinyurl.com/b7d8zek A leaf and a simple poem that captures the best and worst of Chicago in the winter.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Kisses

Posted in Journeys, Lakes, Nature, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on February 16, 2013| 8 Comments »

“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. ”  ~John Muir

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Tree Partnerships

During the three summers I spent at Lake Walcott, I never got tired of looking at the park’s many trees. My favorites were the willows, Russian olives and the cottonwoods. The cottonwoods, thanks to Snake River irrigation water, were huge, the willows graceful and the frosty color of the Russian olives, which also grew larger than any I had seen elsewhere, gave the park’s greenness a vibrant texture.

Arms entwined in a naked embrace. Bell-lughing now. How about you? -- Photo by Pat Bean

Arms entwined in a naked embrace. Belly-laughing  now. How about you? — Photo by Pat Bean

What amazed me was how many of them seemed to have grown up in pairs.

And like John Muir, I saw the trees in their many moods: From their naked branches, whose forms sometimes made me think of an Escher painting, to their passionate dance when a wind storm blew across the park, to their quiet summer verdancy when they issued an invitation for me to sit beneath them and partake of their shaded coolness.  

And when I saw this week’s photo theme, the trees were the first thing that popped into my mind. if trees could make love, would their foreplay begin with kissing leaves? What do you think?

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

Posted in Dogs, Journeys, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on February 9, 2013| 15 Comments »

            “Home is where the heart is.” Pliney the Elder           

This colorful sleeper couch was one of my first purchases for creating a new home and a new lifestyle. i think it's a "joyful" beginning. -- Photo by Pat Bean.

This colorful sleeper couch was one of my first purchases for creating a new home and a new lifestyle. I think it’s a “joyful” beginning. — Photo by Pat Bean.

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.” Tad Williams

Creating a New Home

            The road has been my home for more than eight years. It was the home I had dreamed of for most of my life and it was every bit as wonderful as I had imagined.     

My third-floor apartment lets me live at tree-top level It's the closest thing I could find to living in a tree house, which is something I would still like to do. These two winter-naked trees are visible from my front-room balcony. I'm eagerly awaiting them to change into spring garments, and watching them do so is one of the joys I look forward to in coming days. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My third-floor apartment lets me live at tree-top level It’s the closest thing I could find to living in a tree house, which is something I would still like to do. These two winter-naked trees are visible from my front-room balcony. I’m eagerly awaiting them to change into spring garments, and watching them do so is one of the joys I look forward to in coming days. — Photo by Pat Bean

        Me, my bossy canine companion, Maggie, and for a short time a joyful puppy named Pepper, traveled this country from border to border and ocean to ocean in Gypsy Lee, a 22-foot RV that I bought new in 2004, and which now has almost 140,000 miles on her.  

            To live this wondering-wandering life within my personal financial means, I sold or gave away, almost everything I owned before I could get on the road to explore this fantastic country. “America the Beautiful,” it truly is.  

            I knew, however, that one day my full-time life on the road would have to become at least only part-time. And when that day came, I knew I would be starting from scratch in the homemaking department.

            That day came this past December 26. And this red sleeper couch was one of my first purchases. And I love it. It feels like a good start to a new home. What do you think?

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique

Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , on February 2, 2013| 8 Comments »

Chitters in 2010 -- Photo by Pat Bean

Chitters in 2010 — Photo by Pat Bean

“Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You’re able to benefit for the unique viewpoints of others without being crippled by your own judgment.” — Ralph Marston

Chitters

Chitters is a great horned owl that I met back in the 1980s. And yes, he is unique. What other great horned owl twitters – as in chitters@ogdennaturecenter

He became the Ogden (Utah) Nature Center’s mascot when it was determined he couldn’t survive in the wild. But he did fly free for a short time, which is when I first learned about this magnificent bird.

A nature center worker called the newspaper where I was working after Chitters got loose. She was hoping for extra eyes to find him. The article I wrote in response to the plea noted that a female owl had been hanging around the nature center trying to attract Chitters’ attention. She succeeded, and at the first opportunity Chitters made his escape.

“Imagine that female’s surprise,” said the Nature Center’s spokesman, “when Chitters fails to bring her food, as courting males are supposed to do.”

Chitters turned up back at the Nature Center several days later, skinny and much the worse for wear. Perhaps he has progeny flying free over Ogden, or perhaps not.

The photo of Chitters above is one I took of him during a visit to Ogden a couple of years ago. Isn’t he beautiful?

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Posted in Journeys, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on January 26, 2013| 8 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Love

            “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

My first great-grandchild is just one of the many forms of love that fill my life. -- Photo by Baron Marsh

My first great-grandchild is just one of the many forms of love that fill my life. — Photo by Baron Marsh

I hungered 

            I grew up feeling unloved, not that I actually was, I now realize. It was just that my father was never around, and my mother was overburdened with taking care of my three younger brothers and her own mother while fretting over finances because her husband gambled away his pay checks.

I married young because I thought I had found the first person who ever loved me — and I was convinced no one else ever would. The love proved false, but I hung on far too many years because I still thought no one else would ever love me.  I left when even that alternative was better than what I had.

What happened after that is that I did find love. While not exactly the ever-lasting romantic love I had longed for, I discovered love had many forms. Family, friends, colleagues and love for my job and my life was love.

I consider my passion for writing, for birds, for life a fulfilling kind of love. Seeing my grandchildren grow up and have children of their own is love. The neighbor, like the one I have now who is keeping watch over me while I recuperate from a broken ankle, is an expression of love.

Love fills my world. I’m so glad I finally recognized it.

Bean’s Pat: An Elephant Can’t  http://anelephantcant.me/   This one’s for those who lived through the ‘60s. This is a fun blog I recently came across. Go back a bit and look for the cats.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Posted in Journeys, Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on January 20, 2013| 23 Comments »

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” — Albert Einstein

The Gold That Lies Beyond

This golden meadow beyond Chalk River reminded me of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. -- Photo by Pat Bean

This golden meadow beyond Chalk River reminded me of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update on the  Sprained Ankle

The doctor had the audacity to laugh after skeptically agreeing my foot should be re-X-rayed.

“Oh you were right to trust your instincts,” he said, a big smile on your face.  “It is broken.”

She-ee-et was my response. My grandmother said if you could say the manure word using three syllables, you would remain a lady.

I wonder just how many times you can say it before the lady loses her standing, because I repeated the word quite a few times when he said that I would most likely be in a cast for eight weeks.

I want my life back, and so I’m trying hard to look beyond the next eight weeks.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Winged Display http://tinyurl.com/a5u5esn Fantastic photo of a great horned owl. 

 

 

 

 

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Just a Photo

Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on January 6, 2013| 5 Comments »

Wouldn’t you rather be fishing?

Taken through the underwater windows aboard the Seaworld Explorer off Cozumel. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Taken through the underwater windows aboard the Seaworld Explorer off Cozumel.                                   — Photo by Pat Bean

Do you have a favorite underwater photo?

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise

Posted in Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on December 22, 2012| 5 Comments »

Open wide“Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson   

Waiting to Surprise Someone

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2012| 2 Comments »

It’s a Matter of Balance

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and woried to death by a fown on the right man’s brow.” — Ovid

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Balancing Rock in Utah’ Arches National Park. You can see it in the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. — Photo by Pat Bean

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

Posted in Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , , on December 2, 2012| 2 Comments »

fountain“Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.” Alan Cohen

Gaylord Opryland’s Resurgenge

Resurgence sits in the Cascades Lobby at Gaylord Opryland. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Resurgence sits in the Cascades Lobby at Gaylord Opryland. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I saw this glass sculpture, I immediately assumed it was the work of the famed glass artist Chihuly. But unlike another blogger, who will remain nameless to protect the guilty, I double-checked and discovered it wasn’t.

The piece is called resurgence and was installed as part of Gaylord Opryland Resort’s restoration after the huge complex was flooded, along with much of Nashville, in May of 2010.

Opryland’s press releases say the piece was made in Sweden but didn’t mention the artist, or perhaps artists.

I thought the piece was fantastic, especially the way light reflected of it. Don’t you?

A glass sculpture by Chihuly that was on display as part of a plant-glass exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in 2006. -- Photo by Pat Bean

A glass sculpture by Chihuly that was on display as part of a plant-glass exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in 2006. — Photo by Pat Bean

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