Life Squared: The Instagram Junk Drawer

Posted on by
Reply

insta picI try to not get sucked into social media: Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr… whatever else is out there with cute misspelled names. I have a love/hate/hate/hate relationship with Facebook, and I probably definitely give it much more space in my life than it deserves.

And Instagram? At first I couldn’t see any point in taking photos with a cell phone, formatting them into tiny little squares and then posting them to… exactly where was it they were posted to???

When I finally got a cell phone that had capabilities beyond conveying conversations,  however, I simply couldn’t resist the urge to document all the minutiae of my daily life. And of course once one goes to all that bother of snapping a photo, they need to share it with someone, right? Enter, Instagram.

I see it as my photo “junk drawer.” Junk drawers don’t really contain junk. They hold any number of useful things that just don’t have a designated spot to hang out. Sometimes I take photos that I simply find amusing or pretty or whatever, but don’t really want to share on Facebook for the whole world to see.

Today I thought I’d pull out a few items from my Instagram junk drawer to share with you, but don’t show them to the whole rest of the world like Facebook does, okay? Promise?

Instagrams seem to fall into certain categories. We have…

the oddities:

insta gate

A gate held shut by chains and a padlock, but there’s no fence. Anyone see a security risk here?

insta glove

A glove balloon in the shrubbery outside a hospital. Bored interns?

the beautiful:

insta flowers

Summer flowers, autumn leaves, winter snow, spring flower and leaf buds and melting snow…

insta sunrise

The obligatory sunrise/sunset taken through power lines.

silly captions:

insta seagull

“I think I’m lost. Has anyone seen the ocean? Big… blue… wavy…”

insta pun

Rare sighting today: the yellow-bellied sap maker.

pets: (silly captions optional)

insta leaves

I wanted to continue our walk today, but Chules just wanted to leaf.

adventures:

insta wrench

When you forget where you packed your utensils, you have to get creative.

and of course, Selfies!!!!

insta selfie

Taking selfies isn’t as easy as it looks, kitty.

Now I’ve shown you mine… What’s in your junk drawer?

B&W: Ghosts of Battery Russell

Posted on by
2

br5

Unrest amidst these recent ruins,
abandoned shells of concrete rooms;
gray walls, gray clouds, gray misted woods,
dampened air of palpable gloom.

br2

Who walks along these musty halls?
Whose shadows flit across the walls?
A voice from sometime far away…
whose name is it he softly calls?

br1

Whispered tales of haunting ghosts:
a soldier loathe to leave his post,
a submariner from World War Two
who shelled this battery from off the coast.

br3

Strange sightings, chills, and eerie sounds.
Some say a night watchman guards the grounds,
an infantryman from the Civil War,
lantern swinging as he makes his rounds.

br4

Whoever within these walls abide,
be they visiting spirits from the other side,
or mere figments of imaginative minds,
I leave it for you to weigh and decide.

Battery Russell is located in Fort Stevens State Park on the Oregon Coast. For more information about the history of the fort, please visit the Friends of Old Fort Stevens website.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge

NaBloPoMo ~~ Halftime Entertainment

Posted on by
7

writingI’m halfway through the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge of writing a post each day for the entire month of November. It has, indeed, been a challenge. And perhaps a challenge for you, too, in receiving daily posts from me.

Take heart. After this month I fully intend to return to my sporadic “as the mood strikes” posting schedule. Or non-schedule, I guess.

So I promised halftime entertainment… a bit misleading, I confess. There won’t be any scantily clad cheerleaders and megastar wardrobe malfunctions. I don’t even have any clever, funny stories to regale you with today. Mostly, I just thought it made for a catchy post title.

The last time I tried to entertain anyone was when I was serenading my pets with a medley of Neil Diamond tunes. I soon found both of them hiding under the bed. Hmmm… everyone’s a critic.

ht1

It surely couldn’t have been my singing, so it must be that they just aren’t Neil Diamond fans. Next time I’ll try Cat Stevens or Three Dog Night.

Okay, halftime is over. Time to get back into the game.

A shout out to Susie Lindau , wild rider extraordinaire, for her mid-challenge inspiration and post ideas.