Every Day is a Gift!
Our host Ann-Christine’s challenge is feet and shoes. I decided to have a little fun with this challenge. Here are a few boots from my archives.
Many thanks to Ann-Christine for this challenge. Be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists challenge #161: Feet and Shoes
Our host Patti has challenged us to show what our inspiration looks like. I find my inspiration in the natural world.
In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir
Starting the day by watching the sun rise adds inspiration to any day.
The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.
Claude Monet
The natural beauty found in America’s National Parks never ceases to inspire me.
If you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere.
Vincent Van Gogh
The weekly challenges from the gifted lens-artists hosts Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy always inspire me to be a better photographer. I’m also inspired by all of the talented WordPress bloggers who respond to the challenge with their wonderful photographs.
Many thanks to Patti for this challenge. Be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists challenge #160: Your Inspiration.
Our final guest host for the month of July is Ana Campo of Anvica’s Gallery. Her challenge is Postcards. She writes about thinking about how many postcards were used in the past “to congratulate, as a souvenir of the places we visited or simply as collectibles.” The above image is a real post card I brought back from our trip to Hawaii.
Once upon a time, when long distance phone calls were too expensive, before Facebook, Instagram, WordPress blogs, and many other internet options were available, travelers would mail postcards to their friends and family back home.
I love receiving postcards so when we were planning our first RV trip across the U.S. and Canada I knew I wanted to send postcards to our grand children. I have kept up that tradition for all our trips, whether we were gone for a few months or just a few days. I enjoy picking out the cards, writing to them about our adventures on the back of the card, and even searching for a mailbox to mail them.
The cards usually were 25 cents each and sometimes I could get 5 for a dollar. I still have a collection of extra cards that never got mailed.
Sometimes as I edited photos from a trip I would find one almost identical to a postcard I had purchased! For this challenge I chose to show three postcards and my similar photos. The cards are in the left column with my photos in the right.
I hope my grandkids had as much fun receiving the postcards as I had picking them out, writing them, and searching for a mailbox to mail them.
Many thanks to guest host Ana for this fun challenge. Be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists challenge #159: Postcards.
It was my pleasure to host last week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #158: Along Back Country Roads. Thank you Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy for inviting me to host. Many thanks to every one who contributed to the challenge. Your beautiful photos took me along back roads of the United States and Canada, and around the world to South America, Europe, the U.K, India, Kuwait and many more amazing places. Thank you!
Our guest hosts Bert and Rusha Sams of Oh The Places We See have challenged us with the theme: Getting Away.
Henry and I have always enjoyed getting away. When we were both working and raising our family, one of our favorite places to get away was to the Florida Keys. We started off camping in state parks there, first in a tent and later in a pop up trailer.
In 2006, we bought our fifth wheel trailer and took off for our first RV road trip with no set schedule and no reservations. For two months we wandered around the United States and two Canadian Provinces. We loved exploring the National Parks and National Monuments and all of the places in between.
After our first RV adventure we were hooked. We continued taking RV trips until the end of 2019. Our longest and most memorable trip was our four month journey to Alaska in 2013.
This year we were able to get way to three completely different types of destinations for three short road trips . Oh, what a wonderful feeling to travel again!
In March we traveled to Cedar Key, Florida for a relaxing and fun weekend. Located on the Florida Gulf Coast in the area known as the Nature Coast, this small town was just what we needed for a short getaway.
In May we traveled to our daughter’s home in Virginia for Mother’s Day. It was wonderful to visit with family and on Mother’s Day we enjoyed a relaxing walk together around Pandapas Pond.
We returned to Florida in June for a week long getaway to Orlando. While we didn’t visit any theme parks we still enjoyed a little Disney Magic with two memorable meals at Disney resorts. We had fun being kids again at a dinner with Mickey Mouse and friends. Another day we had a fantastic lunch with a view of animals in the savanna of Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Many thanks to Bert and Rusha Sams for this challenge. Please be sure to visit their original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #157: Getting Away
Many thanks to Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed for guest hosting with the theme of Black and White. My contribution to the challenge is a selection of photos from a recent tour of Andulsia, author Flannery O’connor’s home in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was the author of two novels, thirty-one short stories, and many essays and reviews.
O’Conner lived at Andalusia from 1951 until her death in 1964. To help take us back to the time when Flannery lived here I converted these photos to black and white.
Andalusia was first settled in 1814 as a cotton plantation and farm. In 1931, Flannery’s uncle purchased the property. She moved to Andalusia in 1951 after being diagnosed with Lupus and lived there with her mother until she died in 1964. She did much of her writing while living there.
Our tour began at Flannery’s home which is shown in the header image at the top of the page. As we walked through the rooms I felt like I had gone back in time to my childhood.
There are several out buildings around the property. Hill House was built in the 1820’s and was the original home at Andalusia.
The cow barn.
Flannery raised Peacocks and these two are descendants of her birds.
Andalusia was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Today it is owned by Georgia College and open to the public. To learn more please visit Georgia College – Andalusia.
All of these photos were shot in color and edited using Photoshop Elements.
Many thanks to Anne Sandler for this challenge. Please be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #156: Black and White
Wandering Dawgs 