Every Day is a Gift!
May 8, 2022 is World Ovarian Cancer Day. Teal is the color for ovarian cancer.
The symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague and many women don’t get an early diagnosis. There is no screening test for ovarian cancer. A Pap smear does not detect ovarian cancer.
Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge monthly color challenge teal or aqua.
I enjoy feeding my back yard birds and keep a feeder filled with seeds close to my butterfly garden. It’s fun to see how the birds in the yard change with the seasons. During the warm months I keep three hummingbird feeders filled with nectar and grow flowers that attract them. I enjoy sitting and watching the birds and trying to capture them with my camera.
In Fall and Winter birds like Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse, House Finches, and Northern Cardinals show up frequently. All of these birds can also be seen at various times during the rest of the year. The pair of Northern Cardinals in the header photo were perched in a tree near the bird feeder this week. They like to hang around waiting for seeds to fall to the ground for an easy meal.
I start seeing a change in the birds in the spring when the weather starts warming up. The hummingbird feeders go up and I anxiously await the first Ruby Throated Hummingbird. Spring also brings the Painted Buntings to the yard. Both the hummers and the buntings come around frequently all spring and summer.
This post was inspired by John Steiner’s Lens-Artists challenge Change
and by Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge Are you a Bird Feeder? Her post reminds us that February is National Bird Feeding Month.
Tina is hosting this photo challenge and she is “suggesting that in addition to our challenge you explore and link to some of the other creative opportunities our friends and fellow challengers make available in the WP blogosphere or any other sites where you post photos.” Many thanks to Tina for encouraging us to participate in other challenges. Be sure to visit Tina’s original post Lens’Artists #181: Double Dipping
All the photos in this post were taken this week near where I live. The caption of each photo contains a link to the original challenge.
The Hibiscus (above) and Camellias (below) are blooming where I live.
For John’s Cellpic Sunday the only requirement is to include a photo taken with a cell phone, IPad or other mobile device. The next image was taken on an early morning walk with my IPhone 7S and then cropped and edited on my computer.
Natalie wants to know how our week has been. My week as been filled with preparing for a trip and getting out to take a picture a day for nine days in a row. Maybe this is the year I’ll reach the goal of taking a picture a day for 365 days. This shrimp boat is one of my favorites from the week.
Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge topic is “The Future is Ours”. A flower bud’s future is to become a flower. We humans don’t know what our future will bring. I posted more about that in Every day is a gift.
Many thanks to Tina, Cee, John, Natalie, and Terri for the inspiration for this post!
Wandering Dawgs will be taking a 2 – 3 week break.
I am grateful that in 2021 we were able to take a few road trips and get together with friends and family more than we could in 2020. The header photo is my favorite because we had such a fun day celebrating my birthday at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom.
January and February found me experimenting with closeups in my back yard, taking early morning walks on the beach, and enjoying the camellias in my garden.
In March we enjoyed a short road trip to Florida and a visit to Flannary O’Connor’s home Andalusia in Milledgeville, Georgia. A Brown Pelican in Cedar Key and a Peacock at Andalusia were my favorite images from those trips.
Spring flowers were spectacular in April.
May was a special month with a Mother’s Day weekend trip to visit our daughter’s family for the first time in over a year. I enjoyed her backyard garden and the wildflowers on a Mother’s Day walk beside a peaceful pond.
In June we made another road trip to Orlando to celebrate my birthday. A birthday lunch with a view of animals at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom Lodge was the highlight of the week.
In July and August the flowers in the garden attracted butterflies and bees and a Roseate Spoonbill made several appearances in the creek.
The rest of the year was filled with sunflowers, ospreys, beautiful mornings and spectacular sunsets.
There were also a few non photo worthy events in 2021. Among other things we survived a major remodel of a 1980’s bathroom, enjoyed a visit from my brother and his wife, celebrated a family Thanksgiving at home, cheered on one of our granddaughters at several sporting events, and enjoyed spending time with friends again.
Many thanks to Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine and Amy for another year of Lens-Artists Challenges. In 2022 we welcome three new hosts Sofia, Anne and John. I’m looking to forward to finding out what challenges they come up with this year.
Tis the season for celebrating! In our home, the celebration begins with Thanksgiving and ends after New Years Day. The month of December is filled with cooking, baking, shopping, celebrating three family birthdays, and getting together with friends and family.
The Christmas tree is our main decoration each year. Each ornament on our Christmas tree brings back fond memories. Some are hand made by our children or grandchildren, some are from our travels, and others are family or beach inspired.
I love listening to Christmas songs. My car radio is tuned to the holiday stations beginning the day after Thanksgiving. Sometimes a Christmas display makes me think of one of those songs. These next two displays remind me of “How’d you like to spend Christmas, on Christmas Island?” and “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch!”
My favorite Christmas memories are from the days when our children, and then grandchildren, were very young. Back then, baking and decorating cookies was an event we looked forward to every year. One year we decided to make the cookies coastal themed instead of the usual Christmas shapes.
For many years one of my favorite traditions was to put up a Christmas village in the living room. What started out with two pieces grew into an entire town. A few years ago I put it up for one last time.
My Christmas wish is for joy and happiness for all my family and friends. May your days be merry and bright!
This post was inspired by these amazing bloggers: Many thanks to Amy for this Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #177: Celebrating, Terri for her Terri’s Sunday Stills – Christmas Song Lyrics, and Donna, Sue and Debbie for their Festive Bonbon – Retirement Reflections
Wandering Dawgs 
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