NaBloPoMo ~ NoMore

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Maggie C

We made it! It’s the last day of November, and the last day of the 2015 National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge. I succeeded in posting to this blog daily for 30 days and — as promised — I didn’t resort to regaling you with endless photos of my cat and dog. Well, maybe I did. But they’re so stinkin’ cute!

Most of the time it was fun, sometimes tedious. It certainly did force me to crank up my creative juices, and to acknowledge that I don’t have to wait around like some mutt underfoot begging for table scraps, hoping my muse tosses a few ideas my way.

Okay, so it’s never been that bad. My usual writing process is that some notion begins buzzing around my head like an annoying insect. I roll up a metaphorical newspaper and swat it. When it falls to the ground, I poke at it to see if there’s any life left in it. If there is, then maybe I write about it. The metaphorical insect, that is.

If it’s a real insect, I try to get the dog to catch it and either escort it outside or ensure its demise. He usually just sniffs at it and walks away. As does the insect.

Outdoors: live and let live.

Outdoors, my bug philosophy is “live and let live.” Indoors, the rule is if it won’t go away or if it creeps me out, it dies. Kind of like a blind date. But I digress.

There aren’t many insects flying around my part of the world at this time of year. Except stink bugs. And who wants to write about a stink bug, metaphorical or otherwise?

Indoors: sic ’em, Chules!

The point of all this is to say that I will write with less frequency from now on, that I’ll try not to write if I have nothing to say, and that you probably shouldn’t go on a blind date with me.

Thanks for seeing me through this month, and for reading each and every one of my posts. You did that, right?

Haiku Nineteen ~ Three Word Haiku

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Maggie C

serendipity:
uncoincidentally
coincidental

coincidence

Mere Fluff to More Fluff

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Maggie C

Daily Post weekly photo challenge: Transition

6/21/2014

11/26/15

Four Diagonals & Two Thankfuls

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Maggie C

This week Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge focuses on diagonal lines, with extra credit for a couple of photos illustrating things for which we are thankful.

Here are my diagonals:
First up, these clever weeds who had the wherewithal to grow in rows.

A tree splintered in a windstorm.

These branches reaching toward one another remind me of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” frescoe. They also remind me of the rose hip jelly my granny used to make.

A caterpillar makes his escape across a railroad tie.

And my two “thankfuls:”

I am thankful that nature hasn’t given up on us. And thankful that there are numerous people and organizations working to preserve nature and repair the damage we’ve done to this planet.

I am thankful that humanity hasn’t given up on itself, and that there are multitudes of kind, caring people despite what we might see to the contrary in our newsfeeds.

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #8 Diagonal Lines

Life Squared: The Instagram Junk Drawer

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Maggie C

I 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:

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

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

the beautiful:

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

The obligatory sunrise/sunset taken through power lines.

silly captions:

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

Rare sighting today: the yellow-bellied sap maker.

pets: (silly captions optional)

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

adventures:

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

and of course, Selfies!!!!

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

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

Haiku Seventeen ~ Two Kinds

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Maggie C

sadness descending
sometimes cold fog enwraps me
sometimes a warm shawl

sadness

Wordless Wednesday 11.18.15

Image

ww46

Window Watching

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Maggie C

Mannequins in the window
ungainly plastic poses
frozen faces void of expression

Unmoving and unmoved
as I walk past, and yet
I find discomfort in the notion that
perhaps their unseeing eyes
are somehow
watching me

B&W: Patterns

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Maggie C

patterns underfoot
functional and beautiful
balance sole and soul

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Patterns

NaBloPoMo ~~ Halftime Entertainment

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Maggie C

I’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.

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.

What Rhymes with Stanza?

Words at rest, words at play

Tag Archives: #NaBloPoMo15