World Through My Lens 08.2021 & 09.2021

Shutterbugs and photo-lovin’ friends glad to have you join me for The World Through My Lens 08.2021 & 09.2021.  Today I am sharing my snapshots for the August and September editions of the photo series my blogging buddy Terri at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives.  Terri hosts the one-prompt-a-week Sunday Stills photo challenge but on occasion she invites guest hosts.  Most recently my friend Natalie the Explorer stepped in to host.

And happy to be joining Mary-Lou at PatioPostcards and friends for the final edition of the summer photo scavenger hunt (SPSH).

THE WORLD THROUGH MY LENS

Taking pictures has become one of my favorite hobbies.  When I am not participating in a challenge, I lose my enthusiasm for photography because I don’t know what to do with the pictures I am taking!!  Glad to be participating in all 3 challenges this summer.  You can see my last World Through My Lens post, here, and click here the latest edition of iSpy & SPSH.

My August got away with me before I posted a World Through My Lens post, so today I am combining the photos I took that month with my September pictures.  And today’s post is the final round up for the Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt.

Sunday Stills 08.2021

08.01.2021 Summer Bugs

These bugs are everywhere on the desert floor.  Aren’t they the most incredible deep, almost midnight blue?  Have been told they are dung beetles.  If that’s true, it seems ironic that something so beautiful could exist by eating something so…hmmm, what’s the word?  Crappy??

08.08.2021 Images Inspired by Favorite Song Lyrics or Original Poetry

Big fan of Carly Simon from waaaay back.  Her song “Coming Around Again/Itsy Bitsy Spider” has long been one of my favorite songs.  It would be perfectly suited for the theme song to most of my adult life.  Part of the lyrics read:

08.15.2021 Monthly Color Challenge: Burlywood (light shade of brown, think khakis)

One of my favorite places to hike is Dripping Springs in nearby Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We walk up into the Organ Mountains til we reach the springs and the remnants of Van Patten Mountain Camp and  Boyd Sanitorium.  It is a beautiful hike.  I took this photo last time we were there.  The adobe walls of the abandoned buildings are burlywood brown.

08.22.2021 In the Garden

Years ago, we had a hibiscus at our little house, the girls’ childhood home.  Brennyn would draw its blooms so perfectly.  And since then, I have always associated a hibiscus with my oldest daughter.  Over the years, I have tried unsuccessfully to get a hibiscus to grow at our current house.  Finally, with this summer’s incredible rain, my latest attempt has been rewarded.

08.29.2021  Afloat

Lucia swam the length of the pool and back (with her floaties) last time the kids were over.  By next summer, she’ll be a regular fish swimming in to end without any help.

SUNDAY STILLS 09.2021

09.05.2021 Colorful Murals

Have watched this beautiful mural since its inception. The art is on the wall of a home on the way to the park where PC plays ball, so watched it change and grow each Saturday.  With the first strokes of paint, the artist, Adrian Lopez, breathed life into this maiden.  Isn’t she lovely?

09.12.2021 Going Back…

This little garden path runs beside the history museum downtown and ‘goes back’ from the front of the building to the back.

09.19.2021 Monthly Color Challenge:  Harvest Gold or Citrine

I have bragged about the delicious breakfast PC and I enjoyed at Mamacita’s Restaurant last weekend.  Well, the decorations and atmosphere were almost as appealing as the food.  This harvest gold chandelier hung over the hostess’s stand at the entrance to the restaurant.

09.26.2021 Signs of Autumn (or spring in Southern hemisphere)

We ran to Lowe’s today for weed spray and muriatic acid for the pool.  In the garden area, there were signs of autumn everywhere you looked.  So wanted to buy mums in each of the colors but know they will only die as I can’t seem to grow anything flowering.  Bummer, huh?  So, I snapped a bunch of photos instead.

2021 SUMMER PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT

So excited to have spent Friday evening catching up on blog reading and to discover that Mary Lou has released the photo prompts for the summer photo scavenger hunt.  Yay!!!  You can visit her post here at Patio Postcards for more information.  Keep in mind, there are only 2 rules;  please use photos taken between 06.01.-09.30.2021.  The second rule is one I wasn’t aware of from participating in previous challenges.  You or a loved one must have taken the photo.  I always thought I had to be the photographer!!

First check in/link up was Wednesday, 06.30.2021.  Have a look, here.  The second check in was 08.09.2021, but I  am fashionably late.  The last link up date is the final one, 10.01.2021.

2021 SPSH LIST

1. A Breakfast of Champions  
2. Favourite Time of Day 
3. Something To Represent Home But Not The Building  
4. Head In The Clouds; shapes or interesting patterns  
5. The Art Of The Fold  
6. Something That Makes You Laugh or Happy  
7. What’s In Bloom  
8. Window Views  
9. Something Older Than You  
10. The Delivery Van/Truck Making The Deliveries  
11. The Shape of Round/Circular  
12. Something That Is Cause For Celebration  
13. Your Marie Kondo Moment – Or Not  
14. Inside Your Fridge Or Cupboard  
15. Your Best Doodle Art (not public graffiti)
16. A Guilty Pleasure; Something That Recharges You 
17. An Exit  
18. Upside Down, Right Side Up  
19. Steps, But Who’s Counting  
20. Decades Of Sharing; find something in your home that is from the 70’s or 80’s or 90’s or 00’s  

Alternates

A: show off your  COVID safety; masks, cleaning, or other related supplies

B: a local landmark  

C: the most beautiful landscape photo of the season

MY LATEST FINDS

Have been working on finding these scavenger hunt prompts all summer.  Here are my last finds.

First Few

• #3 something to represent home but not the building – every year or so, some guys come around offering to paint house numbers on the curbs on either side of the driveway.  The first time we had ours done, one side was painted with a C for the Cincinnati Reds and the other side with an O for Ohio State.  The second time, the C was just freshened up but a B for the Cincinnati Bengals replaced Ohio State.  Next time they come around offering to paint our numbers, I think it is only fair that I get a UT for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

• #5 the art of the fold – my friend Lorena gave me this little folded origami crane years ago in a nod to the library lesson I always did about the Hiroshima victims.  And one in particular, Sadako Sasaki.  Learn more about Sadako in the video below.

• #9 something older than you – my mother’s childhood handmade, homemade toy gun.  With her initial – N for Nira – carved right there on the barrel.  By my calculations, this little gun is probably close to 90 years old.

There’s More

• #13 your Marie Kondo moment – or not – recently tidied my linen closet as part of my spring-into-summer cleaning.  Have had the shoe organizer on the door for years.  Have one upstairs, here and another one downstairs on the door to my cleaning supply closet.  This summer I bought these Dollar Tree plastic baskets for my sheet sets.  I think it looks neater than stacks of poorly folded sheets on the shelves.

• #14 inside your fridge or cupboard – new fridge…we had to buy this little beauty a couple of months ago when our old one developed a leak.  Nothing especially artistic about this appliance or the photo of it.  I do like the multiple bright lights.  There’s that.

• #15 your best doodle art (not public graffiti) – I’ve raved about this book several times recently but it merits all the acclaim.  And so does my friend Juhli for sharing it first on her blog, A Boomer Girl’s Guide.  365 Days of Creativity by Lorna Scobie is a daily doodling journal.  Except I am not doing it daily.  Probably partially because I spend too much time on my doodles and sometimes one day’s doodles bleed into the next day.  Anyway, the prompt for this particular day was something like ‘draw the ingredients for a favorite recipe.’  Can you tell what this recipe might be?

And There’s Even More

• #16 a guilty pleasure – ice cream, no doubt my favorite guilty pleasure.  Made this dessert with ice cream sandwiches, caramel topping, and coconut.  Sinfully delicious.

• #17 an exit – had to go to the ER with my neck today.  When I was released with a big shot of lidocaine in my upper shoulder, I started to walk through this exit when I remembered it was one of the scavenger hunt words.  Not a particularly pretty picture but it satisfies the prompt.

• #20 decades of sharing; find something in your home that is from the 70’s or 80’s or 90’s or 00’s – this little ceramic couple is from the early ’90s.  It was given to me by my daughter Brennyn.  And I have a similar one that was given to me by my daughter Lauren.  The photos in the background are my parents.

Bonus

• Alternate C – we had an exceptionally wet summer which has put us at over 2″ above normal for the year.  Considering we only average 9″ annually, that is a quite a bit of extra precipitation.  And that rain made our world wonderfully green for a few weeks.

Believe I earned a 100% on this scavenger hunt.  Yay me!!

YOUR TURN

What have you captured with your camera lately?  I am sad to see the summer photo scavenger hunt come to a close becuase these challenges encourage me to look at the world with a fresh eye.  Need to get caught up on my iSpy photos, though, so I have that to keep me on my toes.

Hope to enjoy another week mostly at home.  My daughter Brennyn will be here on Thursday night, so I want to get the house whipped into shape.  Need to pick up some groceries, and have started a new StepBet so need to be sure to get my steps in each day.  How does the week look for you?

Thank you for popping by, sweet friends.  I appreciate your visits.

Hugs and kisses,