Every Day is a Gift!
Many thanks to Terri for this week’s Flower Hour challenge The Flower Hour: Maple Leaves
Watch for a new Flower Hour Weekly challenge from Terri of Second Wind Leisure Perspectives every Tuesday. If you would like to participate you can find out more about this challenge here.
Every Day is a Gift
Ann-Christine’s challenge is Dreamy. In her post she asks “So, what is ”dreamy” for you, and how do you create a dreamy picture? According to the dictionary it is ”having a magical or pleasantly unreal quality; dreamlike.” Soft dreamy photography is one that uses soft light, soft focus, delicate tones, and other gentle aspects to produce ethereal pictures. A blurred, or hazy feel is typical to the images – an almost surreal or unearthly effect. “
I chose a few images of foggy conditions because I like the way fog and clouds create a dreamy feeling.
My husband woke me up at almost midnight to see this surreal sunset of Mount Redoubt in Ninilchik, Alaska. I felt like I was still dreaming when I saw it.
Last week you showed us beautiful autumn colors from around the world in response to John’s challenge of Looking Back – Autumn.
Many thanks to Ann-Christine for this challenge. I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to her post Lens-Artists #369 – Dreamy.
Sofia will be our next host. Be sure to check back on Saturday, October 18 at noon eastern time for her challenge.
For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.
Every Day is a Gift
Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge is World Animal Day which was celebrated on October 4, 2025. Two animals that were on my bucket list were Whooping Cranes in Texas and Elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Seeing these animals in the wild was an amazing experience.
According to the International Crane Foundation – North America, Whooping Cranes were near extinction with fewer than 20 individuals in 1941. Today, over 849 Whooping Cranes exist in the entire world.
We traveled to the Texas Gulf Coast one year hoping to see some of the Whooping Cranes who winter in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. These birds breed at Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park and migrate to Texas every winter. Today there are more than 500 of these beautiful birds.
We found these magnificent Whooping Cranes near Goose Island State Park, south of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. I posted about this amazing experience at Magnificent Endangered Whooping Cranes.
Pair of Whooping Cranes, near Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
One fall we traveled to Waynesville, North Carolina in search of Elk in Cataloochee Valley on the eastern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I posted about our Elk viewing adventure at Cataloochee Valley Elk.
In February, 2001, the National Park Service began an experimental reintroduction of elk into Cataloochee Valley by releasing 25 elk from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. Another 27 elk from Canada were released in 2002. Today there are approximately 200 elk.
The breeding season, also known as the rutting season, is in the fall. During this time the bull elk make their bugling calls to attract females and challenge other bulls.
Female Elk, Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge World Animal Day
Every Day is a Gift
White zinnia in my coastal Georgia fall garden.
Welcome to the first Flower Hour Weekly challenge from Terri of Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. This new challenge will come out every Tuesday. I hope you’ll join in.
Many thanks to Terri for her first Flower Hour challenge The Flower Hour
Every Day is a Gift
John is Looking Back to challenge #106 – Autumn. We don’t get fall colors in coastal Georgia so if I want to see the autumn leaves we have to take a trip north of here.
Autumn is also college football season. Some of you know that Henry and I are huge Georgia Bulldogs college football fans. We spent many falls attending the Bulldogs home football games in Athens, Georgia. We have also made several fall trips to see Georgia play in away games. It was fun taking trips to combine football with searching for autumn colors.
On our way to Lexington, Kentucky for a football game we searched for fall colors along the way. We stopped in Sevierville, Tennessee where the colorful autumn leaves wowed us on a drive in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the following gallery the first three photos are from that drive in Cades Cove. The final image shows colorful leaves in Lexington.
One year we camped on West Point Lake in Georgia on our way to Auburn, Alabama for a football game. We were treated to some beautiful fall colors around the lake.
Another year we traveled to Columbia, Missouri and Little Rock, Arkansas to attend football games. The autumn colors were glorious in Tennessee and around Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
For Thanksgiving one year we spent the weekend in Athens, Georgia to attend a home game against instate rival Georgia Tech. The trees on the University of Georgia campus and in downtown Athens were showing their peak colors.
Last week our guest host Joanne’s challenge was “Everyone should see this”. I enjoyed seeing all of photos of many incredible places from around the world.
I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to John’s post Lens-Artists #368 – Looking Back at #106 Autumn.
Be sure to check back on Saturday, October 11 at noon eastern time for Ann-Christine’s challenge.
For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.
Every Day is a Gift
Wandering Dawgs 