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Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After

Rediscovering Life after Retirement

Categories: Craft and Create

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

Shutterbugs and photo-lovin’ friends glad to have you join me for The World Through My Lens 03.2023.  Today I am sharing my snapshots for the March prompts provided by my blogging buddy Terry at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives.  Terry hosts the one-prompt-a-week Sunday Stills monthly photo challenge.  For the winter season, I also created my own list of prompts for a winter 2023 photo challenge.  Did so in hopes that I would take a little more time to notice the beauty in the world around me.

You can find my last The World Through My Lens post, here, if you missed it.  This month, we have had a couple of hiccups in our world that have kept me from focusing on the beauty of the world around me.  And I hate that.  Our plum trees bloomed and I hardly noticed.  The peach tree is starting to bud now.  Need to get out there and snap some pictures before all of those blooms blow off with our spring winds.

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WORLD THROUGH MY LENS 03.2023

 

I had just started taking photos again in January so waited to combine that month with February’s pictures.  You can find those here.  And you may have seen a few of my photos on Instagram, here.  (Are we IG friends??) Then I slipped back into a slump but have tried real hard to finish up my winter 2023 photo challenge in a big way,

WINTER 2023 PHOTO CHALLENGE

 

I had planned to collect photos for my winter 2023 photo challenge until the first day of spring.  But when I came up significantly short, decided nobody would care if I went a few extra days to finish the challenge at the end of the month.  Here are the prompts for the challenge.

 

The World Through My Lens 02.2023

 

MY PHOTOS FOR THE WINTER 2023 PHOTO CHALLENGE

 

Here are all the prompts with just checkmarks for those pictures I have shared in earlier posts.

  • Through the window ✔️
  • Door ✔️
  • Snuggly:  when it is chilly at night or Purrsimmony just isn’t feeling well, she becomes extremely snuggly.  Crawls up beside me on the couch, kneads and gently nibbles or sucks on the velour blanket we share.  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Shopping:  ran into Walmart for kitty food but had to pass through the women’s clothing, of course, to get there (not).  So many cute things.  Love the print on this cute spring dress. ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Cozy place:  I loved everything about this spa.  The sounds, the scents, the coziness of the heated bed and the dim lighting.  ✔️

spa

  • Fancy ✔️
  • Weather ✔️
  • Lights:  Lucia and Camila were mesmerized by these large globe lights on the grounds of a Japanese restaurant in Santa Fe. ✔️

lights

  • Twinkle:  pretty sure each of my 4 grandchildren has a twinkle in their eyes but Declan has such a spark!!  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Fragrance:  these cinnamon rolls and orange roll filled the kitchen with such a spicy-sweet fragrance.  I made both the day before Easter.  Lucia made a special request for the cinnamon rolls which she calls ‘brown bread.’ ✔️

cinnamon rolls

  • Pattern ✔️
  • Workout ✔️
  • Shadow:  not sure if this is a shadow or reflection or both.  The curly design on the wall of our neighbor’s house is the shadow of a wrought iron piece that hangs over my buffet in the dining room.  The round shapes on the right side of the photo are distorted reflections of the dining room windows onto the neighbor’s house.  Weird. ✔️

shadow

  • Something red ✔️
  • Frosty:  everything about Santa Fe was frosty but this beautiful frozen waterfall said it all.  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Relaxation:  Purrsnickitty settles into her bed most evenings for a few hours of relaxation before the day is done.  ✔️

cozy

  • Toasty:  PC built one heck of a fire…so toasty, we had to open the door to cool off.  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Movement:  Cami is in almost constant movement.  Declan is, too, these days.  Lauren and Francisco have registered the girls for gymnastics.  I think they will be naturals.  Check out Cam mid-stride at Jump World. ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Something I’m Working On ✔️
  • Still:  can’t believe how still Purrsimmony was laying so the girls could snuggle her. ✔️

kitty

  • Love:  in our family, you can’t pass a snapdragon without making it say, “I love you.” ✔️

snapdragon

  • Sweet:  a brand new, tiny Dunkin Doughnuts has opened within walking distance of our house so we ‘tried it out’ the last Friday that Paul had off.  I debated between getting an old fashioned dunkin’ doughnut and a toasted coconut.  Went with the coconut which was a whopping 21 Weight Watchers points – my whole day’s worth – and a whole lot of sweetness. ✔️

doughnuts

  • Handmade:  do scrapbook pages count as handmade?  This was my last 2-page spread for our summer 2021 trip to South Padre Island.  My sister and I always scrap together while Facetiming and joke that no one is probably ever going to look at our scrapbooks.  But we have fun doing them. ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Savory ✔️
  • Winter clothes:  snowsuit, boots, hat, gloves, and a full layer of everything underneath that.  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

  • Feminine ✔️
  • Boots:  trying on Gabba’s boots.  ✔️

boots

  • Candlelight:  I have been lighting this candle on Wednesdays when I write.  Pumpkin Thyme from The Country Corn Crib.  Might be a more appropriate fragrance for writing in fall but it works in spring, too!!  ✔️

candlelight

  • Fun ✔️
  • Golden hour:  I am just so happy with how our pool repair went.  Everything looks so pretty.  So right!!  Just added our solar lights around the deck tonight.  Will lay out the rugs tomorrow and mow and want to plant some little pots of flowers to set out around the spa.  Of course, everything looks pretty in the light of golden hour.  But I am so happy.  ✔️

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

SUNDAY STILLS 03.2023

 

03.05.2023 out of this world:  we have begun taking the girls to a new-to-us park where they pretend this rope jungle gym is a spaceship and they are being rocketed out of this world and into the universe where they encounter alien robots – AKA Gabba (me).

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

03.12.2023 monthly color challenge, green (any shade):  for my birthday, Brennyn, Mustafa, Cadence and Declan sent me chocolate covered strawberries and the most magnificent green bouquet.  Interspersed between the sprigs of greenery, and the blooms in assorted shades of bright green, were some white tea roses and small white carnations.  It is still beautiful, almost 2 weeks later.

The World Through My Lens 03.2023
03.17.2023 “I’d rather be…”:  “I’d rather be home,” said Simmie when I took her to the vet, and to the vet again, and again to the vet.  Poor baby.  She has had an ongoing respiratory issue/asthma/allergies since August.  Then most recently, the vet thought she saw a mass on Purrsimmony’s spleen but further investigation revealed she is just very chubby.

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

03.26.2023 peek:  somedays you just have to peek out at the world before you fully commit to the day…at least according to Purrsnickitty.

The World Through My Lens 03.2023

 

YOUR TURN

 

What have you captured lately in your lens?  I have enjoyed the photos of my friends on Instagram as spring arrives to their communities.  Our grass was still very brown and dead until just this week.  Unusual for El Paso.  But we haven’t had rain since sometime early in March and then it was nothing to write home about.

We are waiting to hear when PC’s surgery will be.  I had planned a getaway weekend in May for his February birthday gift.  Purchased tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Short together in a stand-up comedy performance in Austin, Texas.  Now I worry that it is going to interfere with his surgery.  LIFE often makes it hard to plan anything.

Thank you for popping in.  I appreciate the time you spend with me.  Hoping to do a whole lot of blog reading tomorrow afternoon while PC watches the Cincinnati Reds play baseball.  Will be by to visit YOU!

Hugs and kisses,

  • leslie
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    About Leslie Roberts Clingan

    I am an aspiring blogger and children's author, wife, mother, daughter, sister, - in-law, responsible pet owner and recently retired elementary school librarian. I hope to figure out the next chapter of my life as I transition from crazy, busy work world onto totally idle retirement and now to something in-between.

    Comments

    1. Deb

      April 17, 2023 at 1:19 am

      What beautiful photos! Perfect for every prompt.

      Reply
    2. Joanne

      April 17, 2023 at 5:51 am

      You did a great job! I missed at least one or two prompts for the Winter Photo Challenge.

      Reply
      • Leslie Roberts Clingan

        April 18, 2023 at 11:38 am

        Photo challenges really help me ‘see’ the world. Thank you.

        Reply
    3. Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom

      April 20, 2023 at 6:44 pm

      I just love the photos of your sweet kitties. And their names are the cutest. We have a Dunkin Donuts here and I really need to get a yummy coffee and a couple donuts sometime just for the heck of it. Ha, ha! Those baked items/cinnamon rolls look so good and I bet they smelled great!

      Carrie
      curlycraftymom.com

      Reply
    4. Lysha

      May 10, 2023 at 8:17 am

      So many great shots. I love the shadow pic.

      Reply

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    In what felt like the blink of an eye, I have gone from full-time wife to my sweet husband, hands-on mom to my two beautiful daughters and elementary school librarian to a retired, empty nester with lots of time on my hands. Join me on my journey to rediscover who I am. Glad you are here...
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