Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - Bridges

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 


I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!


Theme ~ Bridges

Chosen by Lew.


Every week, when I delve into my archives to look for images to portray the current theme, I'm amazed that I actually have images that work.  This week was no exception--I've taken lots of pictures of bridges.

I thought I'd use this fun image of a bridge from a unique perspective--through the front window of our moving car.  (No, I was not driving.)  You get to see exactly what I saw as we followed our friends (the H. family, in that car ahead of us) toward our destination:  a beach cottage at Vero Beach, Florida.  The H's had invited us to spend the week with them in their time share in May 2011, so we did!  They told us about this bridge just five minutes from the resort, but experiencing it was truly amazing.  It really did seem as if we'd drive off the edge of the road!  You also get to see all those lovely smears of love bugs, which infest the Florida coast for about a week each spring!


Keeping to the perspective of from the car, below is another shot of us crossing the Louisville Bridge over the Ohio River, crossing from Kentucky into Indiana, on our way home from visiting friends in Georgia last year.


One final shot of a from the car image.  This was during the rains and flooding of April 20, 2013, and we were on our way to a friend's house to help them empty their basement and save as much as possible from the encroaching waters.  (Their back yard was completely flooded but the rising tide stopped just short of their basement windows!)  This below is a footbridge at a golf course, and a raging torrent of what normally is a little brook babbling way below.


Speaking of floods, here is another closed bridge from the same storm system.  This one is just a few blocks from home!  That car almost dead center got stuck and was abandoned, and there is a tree limb wedged on the side of the car.  This bridge was closed for several days until the water subsided.


On to a much prettier bridge!  I thought I'd toss in just one image of a Paris bridge; if you want to see lots, I have an entire blog post dedicated to the bridges along the Seine River in Paris.

Pont au Double, Paris, France.

Back to some bridges closer to home.  Knoch Knolls Park in Naperville has some beautiful walking and biking paths, and I frequently go there to capture images of the river, bridges, and a sunset or two.  Here is the one main walking and biking bridge from this past winter.


Here's a view of the bridge from the winter before.


This below is my favorite shot of this bridge, taken this past January.


Same bridge, autumn:


The other bridge at Knoch Knolls Park is strictly a footbrige; here's the entrance up:


It's the prettiest bridge in autumn!



Below is the bridge from the other side, on a winter afternoon:


One little footbridge at a forest preserve close to home looks like this in the winter:


And this in autumn:


One final little footbridge, at Seager Park in Naperville in the spring.



I started out with the biggest bridge, and ended with the littlest!  I can't wait to see all the bridges my fellow headbangers have posted!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Friday, April 25, 2014

March Ice

April 25, 2014.

Now that it feels like spring, I feel much better about sharing 2013-14 winter images!

Here are some I took while out and about our yard, wandering to see what I could capture.












After shooting with my 100mm macro lens, I looked up and got a bigger picture of just how pretty ice can be!  Look at this tree!  Sparkly with the hope of spring!





Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - Curves

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 


I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!


Theme ~ Name Here

Chosen by yours truly.  :)


I actually forgot that I chose this week's theme.  And then I panicked.  *chuckle*

I stayed current with my images, using only those from this year's adventures.  For the images I wanted to share, I tried to stay away from circles.  They are curvy, of course, but I wanted curves without the completion--does that make sense?  I guess that's opposed to having straight lines in the images.  That was the direction my brain was headed, anyway.

For my header, I chose a full completed curve (an oval) filled with curves.  Here is the full image:


Okay, I'm open for business now, so I'll show you the rest of my curves.  ;)

The day after the Texas wedding I attended, we visited a mostly dry lake bed and I made some interesting captures.  One was this image of really curvy trees.


On the subject of plants, here are the gentle curves of my scilla just before blooming.


And here are the curves of the fully blooming scilla flowers.


Back inside, I have some curves in my kitchen:

Funky curves of freshly baked bread.

Curved edges of tortilla chips accent my bowl of pineapple salsa.

A curved twig with balls of ice attached.

Curved chair handles with lots of straight lines, too.

A few more images from my Texas wedding, showing off those curves!

The wedding cake.

Old plow.

Clothesline of well-wishes.

Going back home again, I found this image of half-rolled-up cinnamon rolls.  Curvy and yummy all at the same time!


Finally, here is one of the latest images I took, just a few days ago, while sitting on the bench in my special place.  That's what I call it--this back corner of back yard, with a half-finished garden and view of the pool (not that great, but the garden flowers will fill in over the summer), the house, and my vegetable garden (not seen on the left).


Some day I'll be able to enjoy the finished product here in my special place--the curves of the garden and of my bench, and of my legs crossed lazily, and of my fingers around my glass of iced tea.  Aaahh!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - Don't Rock the Boat

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 


I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!


Theme ~ Don't Rock the Boat


I took this week's theme, chosen by Mac, quite literally.  Here is the full image of my header:


This is my dad's boat, and in the image above, he and my mom are giving Jacob and Thomas a ride home from Winter Bay (one of the bays on Lake Bonaparte).  This lake is one of my favorite places on earth!


This boat, a Cadillac, is special.  My Grandpa acquired it for use on the lake, and after his death, it pretty much sat.  The horn (above) makes this awesome Ah-OOOH-gah! sound, and whoever had the boat out would blow that horn upon his return to the dock at Jackson Rock on the east shore.  While the boat sat, my cousin put the horn on his boat.  When my dad refurbished the Caddy, the horn found its rightful spot on the boat, and there it stays.


My dad and mom go for a ride.


Every autumn, everyone takes his boat out of the lake for the winter.  My dad's boat removal turned into a ritual, with lots of people helping to get it out of the water and into the shed.



Set for the winter.

Other boats on Lake Bonaparte.

My cousin Al and his wife Terri own a Jet-Ski, and below you can see Terri whizzing by while their dog Dakota (who since died) eagerly waits.


Dakota gets a ride.

There are a few avid sailboaters on the lake, and on a breezy day it's nice to see them sailing by.



My parents also own bright neon green open kayaks.  They are super fun and easy to maneuver, and although they will rock with the waves on the lake, they are not easy to tip.

Fernando spots for Jacob swimming across the bay.

Pontoon boats are popular on our little lake.


Relaxing on an autumn boat ride, the last of the season.

Fernando and the guys fishing.

Of course, Fernando goes out fishing as much as possible.

Jacob and his friend Nathan headed out on the lake.

The pontoon boats require more power to get removed from the lake at the end of the season.


Power boats!  It's always fun to watch people waterski and tube.


That's it for Lake Bonaparte.  The last image I want to share is one I took in Sebastian, Florida, on a trip where we spent a week with friends in their timeshare beach cottage.  I took this at Captain Hiram's, a restaurant on the Atlantic Ocean.  Their food was amazing, and so were the views!



Be sure to visit everyone else's blogs to see if anyone "rocked the boat!"


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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