Day: October 1, 2023

Sunday Poser — Stressed Out

Fandango3 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

When under stress, or not feeling 100%, do you take it easy or challenge yourself?

Interesting timing on this question. I guess the first thing I will point out is that I’m retired, so I don’t have a job that stresses me out. I also pride myself on being a relatively mellow guy whose feathers don’t get ruffled very often.

That doesn’t mean I never get stressed out. I do. But I have a of way of dealing with stress that makes it feel less stressful. As a matter of fact, I posted about it earlier today: my waterfall. I go outside to my backyard, sit on the swing chair hanging from the pergola over my back deck and savor the view as well as the soothing sounds of the waterfall. It relaxes me and makes all my troubles melt away.

And yes, if the stress has built up to a certain point, I may occasionally indulge in a cannabis-infused gummy or marshmallow to chase the stress away.

One-To-Three Photo Processing Challenge — October, 2023

Fandango16 Comments

For this monthly prompt from Kate at The Squirrel Chase, the idea is to pick a photo we want to play with and process it using three different methods. So today is October 1st. You know how I can tell? Well, I went to Safeway, my local grocery store, this morning to pick up a few items and saw the colorful Halloween display there and decided to use that for this month’s challenge.

All processed photos were made using apps available for the iPhone at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).

Original photo

Processed using the Prisma app.

Processed using the Sketch Master app.

Processed using the Waterbrush app.

Which image do you like best?

Cellpic Sunday — 10/01/23

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John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device.

I’m sure that I’ve featured photos of my backyard waterfall in the past on my blog…and maybe even here on one of my Cellpic Sunday responses. Well, here’s another one, which was taken about a year ago.

One of the reasons we bought the house we now live in is because of the view from the backyard. We sit atop a relatively small hill (elevation around 600 feet) and can see for miles. Our house was a flip, and the flipper decided to not landscape the backyard, leaving that task to whoever bought the house.

So when we first moved into our current house in February 2020, our backyard was essentially a black mesh weed barrier tarp that ran from the back of the house toward the back property line. This is what it looked like in September 2020.

My wife and I discussed our vision for our backyard and one of the items we agreed upon was to have a recirculating waterfall in our backyard. One that not only looked nice, but added the relaxing sound of water falling. We found a contractor and broke ground on the waterfall. And by the time October 1st of 2020, our new waterfall was functioning.

But it was lonely, in that the rest of our backyard was flat and barren. So we worked with a landscape architect to plan out a backyard with a large deck and pergola, a bluestone patio, a fire pit area, a play area for the grandkids, and lots and lots of natural, local, easy-maintenance, and drought-resistant plants.

And here’s what it looks like today. The waterfall is on the right, just behind the small, round, metal café table.

If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.

My Last Photo — September ‘23

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Brian, aka Bushboy, posted his monthly Last on the Card prompt, where he asks us to…

  • Post the last photo from your camera’s SD card or the last photo from your phone taken in the month of September.
  • No editing — who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like, or the subject matter didn’t cooperate?
  • No explanations needed — just the photo will do.
  • Create a pingback to Brian’s post or link in the comments.
  • Use the tags “The Last Photo” and #LastOnTheCard.”

This is probably the strangest last on the card photo I’ve published to date. I was getting ready to take a shower yesterday morning and, for some reason I thought about what my last picture for September would be. I looked at what I call my soap tray in the shower and, for some crazy reason, I thought that might make a fascinating photo.

Since I busted my hip and broke my arm last January, taking a shower has become a more time-consuming ordeal than it used to be. My shower products used to be just shampoo and bar soap. But after I did my falling off a ladder thing, I found I couldn’t just use bar soap, so I had to start using a loofa on a long handle in order to be able to reach and soap up my entire body.

I’d never used a loofa before, and that’s been an experience. Now I wash my hair with shampoo, my face with bar soap, and the rest of my body with liquid body soap and a loofa on a stick. And yes, my shampoo and body soap are specifically labeled as men’s products. Please don’t ask me why. That’s a story for another time and place.