Out beyond what you can see, there is something else. Hidden from sight, but certainly there. When you drive along, or when you are out hiking, do you ever wonder what just what it is? Is there just more of the same? Is there a friendly, warm neighborhood of homes? Is there a huge, unseen lake? An industrial complex? A highway? Are there animals, watching you quietly, hoping to be unnoticed? Using the thick, green forest for cover?
Wonder always, and explore when you can. But, take care not to find it all. Hidden objects stimulate imagination – and uncovering them will limit the possibilities.
Deep dark forests hide many possibilitiesSmall dark areas can hide many things: Ogres, snakes, Sasquatch nests and poison ivy.
My family loves to make fun of my photographic interests. They joke about how I constantly slow them down on hikes by stopping to take close up photos of weird stuff along the trail. Rocks, plants, sticks, bark, lichen, whatever… it’s all interesting to me. Rather than typing a lot of thoughts about it, I’ll just share a few of those photos and you can let me know what you think.
There are twenty (20) photos. That’s “a few”, right? Enjoy!
Miscellaneous debris on the groundTeeny, tiny ground cover plantsRoots, moss and dead leavesGnarly bark and lichenDried mudPalo Verde bark patternsLichen and plants with stone paverLichen and moss on stoneSmall plants and debrisBamboo debrisMoss on treeMulti colored bark swirlsCut limb stumpMulti colored bark swirls 2Fungus colonyWeird opening on side of treeAcorn shells, gray and some greenAcorns, leaves, twigs and moreMoss and leaves on dead logPretty browns, grays and bright green
If you made it this far, please let me know if you think I’m crazy for seeing this type beauty everytime I go for nature walks. Any comments are welcome for that matter. Thanks!
No. I’m not a magician. But I DO see magic in much of nature.
For example, do you know where goblins live? Under hollow tree stumps! I’ve never actually seen a goblin, but I know they exist. I’ve seen their homes!
These guys were asleep. They only come out at night.Here’s another magical home. Maybe for fairies?What do you think lives in this magical house?
Now, don’t go and spoil the magic. Those weren’t homes for racoons, skunks, squirrils or snakes. Only for magical beings! Keep your eyes open. Maybe you’ll luck out and see one someday…
Have you ever been sitting with a drink, absentmindedly daydreaming, staring into that drink, watching the bubbles rise to the top and burst with a tiny spray of cool liquid that releases a pleasing scent to fill your nostrils? And suddenly you are struck by the image the drink creates. A beauty that you hadn’t noticed before. Strange shapes. Interesting colors. A little world all unto itself right there in the glass in front of you.
Or maybe you stare at the glasses themselves, the shadows they create and the patterns displayed on the surface beneath them. Circles of various complimentary sizes. Colors again overlapping. Something to contemplate with mindless thought.
Maybe you just think about how that cool, fresh water with ice in it is filtering through your body, adding liquid where needed to allow blood, nutrients and everything beneficial to life. And it tastes great, too! Even the lemon adds flavor, color and vitamins to an otherwise colorless fluid.
Hopefully, while contemplating your drinks, there are others around to provide stimulating conversation. If that is something you like. Regardless, there is still the presence of varied colors, sparkling ice, reflections of light and the feel of cool wetness on the outside of the glasses. Enjoy that, too!
Hey! Are you getting thirsty yet? Is it time for a drink? Well, go for it! It’s the Elixer of life!
Today’s prompt is “Note”. In describing it, WordPress refers to musical notes and written notes. For the latter they have suggestions for poets, artists and composers. I’m not a poet, nor a composer and I can barely draw. So I’ll have to wing it today.
One of the most interesting uses of the word “notes” is the way it is used in acting. After a play, or a practice for one, the director (or anyone else who has a position allowing them to comment) will provide “notes”. Notes are their viewpoints or recommendations for improvement or change.
Now, I’m an outsider when it comes to theatre or drama. I don’t need all the fingers of one hand to name plays whose titles I can remember. And, I’ve never seen Hamilton. My family will tell you, I fall asleep in most plays. So notes are not my forte.
I’ve only actually seen notes presented in TV shows like Studio 60. From what I’ve observed, notes can be major changes or minor recommendations. They can be given with great emphasis and even anger, or they can be presented gently with a smile and a little humor. Basically, they are criticism. Regardless, the emphasis of these notes is on change, and change is notoriously difficult to accept.
Maybe some of you reading this can provide some notes about my writing style – not that I will be willing to accept them. I know my writing is off-the-cuff, mental regurgitation with minimal emphasis on proper writing style, but I kind of feel comfortable with it. My purpose in writing is to merely to record some thoughts, extemporaneous as they might be. But, I also have a desire to improve my writing and possibly even be perceived by some others as having a little mental accuity in doing so.
Therefore, if you have some notes for me, feel free to provide them. And, I’ll feel free to accept or reject them. (You’re not the boss of me!)
The WordPress instructions for today’s prompt, Tempo, indicate that photographers could depict “motion” in a photograph (slow, medium or fast) to depict tempo. I’ll try. I’ve got several photos in mind, but the big problem will be locating them.
(Three days later…) Okay, I’ve spent hours and hours trying to find the photos I really wanted to use. However, I’m sequestered in Indiana and my PC is at home in Phoenix. All I’m able to search is the contents of my iPhone and iPad that I have with me. The photos I want (which show motion, but are not videos) were taken on a previous cell phone and have disappeared into the abyss of iCloud and Google related “out there somewhere” storage locations not easily accessed from this location.
Just to fill in the rest of this blog I’ve grabbed two photos which have moving water in them. The first was taken during a rain storm in Ajo, AZ during the first days of March. Water spilling from a rain pipe and splashing onto some cement blocks is frozen in mid-spill. That, if shown as a video, would depict a faster tempo. The second, taken on a cruise ship shows the ship’s wake to the aft with my shoes included. That probably would depict a slower tempo.
Rain from water spoutShip’s wake. And my shoes.
So, sorry for the poor blog quality – at least compared to what I had hoped to accomplish when I started several days ago. Maybe sometime in the future, after I’m home, I’ll find those other photos and update this post.
Well, most people responding to this prompt will probably write something with a musical bent. Me? I don’t play any instrument (although my Mom tried to get me to in my early years). I will have to write about a non-musical instrument that I utilize in a major hobby I have: a avocational archaeology.
The instrument is my handheld Garmin GPS unit. It was a gift from my wife almost fifteen years ago. Or at least my first one was. It wore out and I found an identical replacement for it on the Internet.
The GPS unit allows me to locate archaeological features in the field, so long as I have UTMs for them. At home, before I leave for the field, I create a map on the GPS with my starting point (where I am to park), a route that I want to follow, and UTM points for any archaeological features in the area.
When I get to the field (almost always a location on Agua Fria National Monument or Perry Mesa) north of Phoenix, I turn on the GPS, mark my parking spot so I can get back to it afterwards, start creating a track of where I walk, and turn on the route so I can begin following it.
So far, I have created almost 400 tracks from my trips, marked points for over 900 prehistoric habitation sites, and created over 1,600 KMs of hiking tracks. That dosn’t include points for multiple thousands of other archaeological artifacts or features. All of those get transferred from my handheld unit to my home personal computer each time I return from the field.
Green Lines: Hiking tracks; Purple line: Proposed route
With all that information I can create maps of artifacts and features in any area of the monument or mesa. It allows me to study spatial relationships in a visual manner which is not possible through any other means.
One of the problems I’ve encountered is that after fifteen years, the huge amount of data I’ve collected is in danger of becoming obsolete. The original software I’ve used for years is no long supported by Garmin. Neither is the actual handheld GPS unit. That’s why I had to replace my first unit with another duplicate that I found on the Internet. Somehow, someday, I’ll need to get all that data translated into a version that can be supported with newer software.
Anyway, that’s the “instrument” that I decided to blog about today. I hope it was informative and interesting for you.
Whoa! This prompt is much like the previous one, Day 3: Song. At least it is for someone like me. Music, song, bands, performers… they all blend into a mishmash of sound that I can never identify. I’m a musical neophyte and troglodyte. An embarrassement to the rest of my family who know the words, titles, writers and melodies to literally thousands of musical pieces.
There are a very few exceptions. I CAN remember most of the words of “Happy Birthday”. And there are a couple of songs that I remember because of the impact they had on our family life when the kids were growing up. Jill and I used to drive around Phoenix with Carly and Zac in the car with the stereo playing. Their favorite song was a “They Might Be Giants” song, “Birdnest in your soul”. They would roll down the windows, blast the radio at full volume and sing it at the top of their voices. We also listened to Partical Man and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by the same group. Disclaimer: I had to look up the name of the group and the wording of the song titles in order to type this paragraph.
It’s at this point that I would like to insert a link to “Birdnest in your soul” to illlustrate what we were hearing. However, there is probably all kinds of copyright redtape that I would have to navigate and I’m not willing to spend the time.
My Large Format photography instructor at Scottsdale Community College, Rod Klukas, was fond of saying that “Three is Divine” when talking about the number of subjects within a photo. That means that the following photograph, taken at Tumacacori National Monument must be divine:
“5 over 3” by Michael J. Hoogendyk
Except for the fact that there are many more objects in the photograph than three – five holes, a large beam, the three pots, along with the cracks, shading and sandy texture of the wall.
Personally, I’m not too happy about the fact that three pots are distorted (the left one stretched to the left and down; and the right one stretched to the right and down). I also am upset that I cut off the left-most hole at the top. But, I did show you a photo with three pots.
Continuing with the theme of “three” – I have three kids: Carly, Zac and Kimberly. Now THAT’s divine!
Today’s prompt urges me to do or say something new. New as in format; new as in never written about before; new as in new friends; etc. The biggest, baddest, “NEW” in my life is my granddaughter, Luna Sofia Campbell-Hoogendyk. She’s right at two months now, and because we came to visit her when she came home from the hospital, we’ve been with her the entire time. That’s because of the Coronavirus. When we traveled to see her, we ended up being self-quarantined for awhile in order to protect her – then stuck at her home due to travel restrictions.
Luna-Sofia, Age: 2 Months
Luna-Sofia, Luna for short, spends all her time nursing, sleeping, crying and pooping. Once in awhile, she spends half and hour pleasantly enjoying her surroundings, moving her head left to look at this and then right to look at that. She doesn’t yet have control of her arms, which tend to jerk all over the place.
She pretty much is on a 3 hour sleep and 30-60 minute nursing schedule, 24 hours a day. That requires some teamwork in terms of her parents, grandparents and Aunt Carly, who is visiting from NYC until the quarantine is lifted. Grandpa Mike and Nana Jill typically spend the 10pm to 6am hours with Luna unless she is nursing. Her parents, Zac and Kasey spend most of the 6am until early afternoon hours with her. Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Deanna come over most afternoon and evenings to hold Luna and have supper with the family.
Luna with Grandpa Mike
Luna and her parents on an outing to the park
Luna snuggling to her mom
Grandma Jill (Nana) (or Dad Mom) with Luna
Sleep Time
Peek-a-Boo
Chillin’ Out with Dad
Hiking with Mom and Dad
Picnic with Mom and Dad
Aunt Carly Time is Special Time
Bath Times are Fun Times
Car Seat Time means More Sleep Time
As you can see from the photos, our new granddaughter, Luna-Sofia has really been getting around. Several hikes, several car trips (especially to her routine doctor appointments) and one awesome picnic. All first-time, new experiences.
arizonamike 