WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – PURPLE

I’ll tell you a little secret.  Every time I see the title for a new post – ANY POST – I think, “Where am I going to find that?”  Or, “I don’t have anything like that!” Or, “Girl! Your ‘archives’ as I’ve heard many call them, don’t have anything that even closely resembles that.”  Let me just tell you, as I sit here typing, that I am thrilled that I am in the possession of something called “archives”!  It sounds so professional, and if I had a bucket list, being professional at something would be on it.

So I figure, I’m getting on my bike and touring around town, and I’m going to find something purple to put in my ‘archives” (*giggle* I love that word!) if it kills me!

Now, picture this (no pun intended).  I start to gather myself up for what I figure to be a long ride.  I grab my camera and Jeff…

(My dear, sweet friend Meghan gave me that beautiful, colorful strap when I retired this year)

And we prepare to peddle off onto the streets of Brigantine…

(I swear the pedicure came before the title of the weekly challenge)

Jeff on his silver bike and me on my Schwinn…

The whole time I’m thinking, “PURPLE! Where am I going to find “PURPLE”? …

So we ride.  And we ride.  Picture this…again, no pun intended.  It’s like 100 degrees, I am pushing 61, and, dang! I’m thirsty!  So we make a quick pit stop, and I take a few gulps out of the water bottle I brought from home.

And as I’m sucking down a cool, refreshing mouthful of Wegman’s Spring Water (I know I’ve told you I LOVE Wegman’s), there it was – PURPLE!

A PURPLE HARLEY!

Not that I spotted that shiny, old beauty.  That was Jeff.  Maybe you’re starting to get the drift of just how observant I really am.

Now I’ve got my picture and I’m weary, so I suggest that we head back home.  On the way we stopped for some ice cream…

Because, after all.  I worked hard for that shot.

Click here for more shots of purple…

And here:  These are just some of the terrific bloggers I’ve met…

http://ceeslifephotographyblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/weekly-photo-challenge-purple/

http://campanulladellaanna.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/weekly-photo-challenge-purple/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/weekly-photo-challenge-purple/

http://northernnarratives.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/weekly-photo-challenge-purple/

http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/colour-of-love/

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TRAVEL THEME: FLOWERS

Yesterday Jeff and I went to Wegman’s.  This is a supermarket to top all supermarkets.  If you have to go food shopping, and who doesn’t, this is the place to go.  I’m happy to say my son just landed a job there, and I’m pretty impressed because it’s not an easy place to even get an interview.

Any who, while we were there we tasted some blue cheese with balsamic glaze that sported a giant bing cherry off to the side of the little cup they give you for taste-testing purposes.  OMG already!  It was to die for.  The blue cheese tasted like some kind of fancy cream cheese and the glaze, well, forgetaboutit!  It was just amazing. When we walked behind the plethora of dairy delights, I noticed the beautiful flower arrangements that created a backdrop to my little piece of cheese-heaven.  There were three woman working, feverishly, in a jungle of floral reds, yellows, and greens , creating all sorts of fancy bouquets and table dressings and I thought, “How lucky is this?!”  This week’s challenge, presented by Ailsa from wheresmybackpack is all about flowers!

I figured, hey!  Why can’t supermarket flowers get a little recognition, so I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, asked Jeff to hang tight, and off I went, clicking and smelling and smiling.  Here’s some of what they were building back there.  Great stuff, ladies!

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As much as I enjoyed looking all that  fabulous flora , this was my favorite.  A Rainbow of Roses!

Blue cheese and balsamic glaze, bing cherries aside, it was a very fruitful trip to the supermarket.

And, because I was on a roll, these are in our side yard at home.

Click on this link to enjoy more fancy flowers, exotic and otherwise, and thanks to Ailsa for posting the challenge.

TRAVEL THEME – TRADITION

WELCOME TO SOUTH CAROLINA

This challenge really had me going.  I was starting to think I was tradition-less. (Is that a word?)  As I told Ailsa, of  wheresmybackpack, whose challenge I am attempting to enter my post in, I didn’t know if I’d be participating in this one.  But she was her cute, little, adorable, helpful self and encouraged me not to fret.  She made a few suggestions, all of them appropriate 🙂 and told me to hang in there and not to give myself a headache. which I was.  “There’s always next week,” she told me.  Now I am a procrastinator.  That’s a fact.  But I’m not a quitter.  So,  here’s the one and only traditional event that occurs in  my life.  Everything else is fly by the seat of my pants.

When time and finances allow, we like to spend Christmas with our grand children (If you’ve seen pictures of them on other posts, you’ll know why.  They are way too cute!)  This takes us to Georgia. (The U.S. kind, not the European-by-the-Black Sea kind).

But, I’m not a flyer, so we drive.  My husband will fly, but he apparently loves me (this is what he tells me) because he will make that trip via auto every time.  This takes us about 14 hours. I contribute to the driving, but not on a 50/50 level.  More like 80/20, me being the, yes, you guessed it, the 20%.

Now it’s a little out of the way, but we make a pit stop about 12 hours into the trip, in Charleston, South Carolina.  This is where we, ultimately, wish to spend our Golden Years. (OK, we are already one leg into our Golden Years, but we’re not ready for no-work- at-all retirement, so living in  S.C. will have to wait.)

This pit stop and the family visit is as close to tradition in our lives as we get.

You gotta just love Christmas in S.C. or the Fourth of July or my birthday or, well, you get my drift.  These are some of my favorite pix.

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Then there’s the traditional unwrapping of gifts.

You know.  When you get the dreaded green jacket, or pj’s, or superhero underwear.

For more traditional stuff from people who apparently have more tradition in their life than yours truly, click on wheresmybackpack.

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – INSIDE

I’d like to take you inside one of the rooms in our house at the shore.  I call it the Blue Room, I guess because the pull-out couch is blue and because I don’t like calling it the spare room.  Spare room sounds like a “I don’t use this, so why don’t you take it.”  kind of room. 

Blue room sounds more like you’re staying at the White House.  No matter what your political views, that would have to be such a cool place to have a sleep over!  Anyway, as much as I’d love to have you stay, and as important as you are to me 🙂 I’m afraid you’d have to live out of your suitcase for the duration of your stay. (Ask our son and his wife.)

You’ll notice that there’s a closet to the left of the pretty blue night light, and there’s another to the right of it, which didn’t make the shot.  But these are not really functional, in the sense that closets are used for clothing and shoes, and maybe some extra pillows thrown up on a shelf.

No.  Inside, take note, are the makings for some of my husband’s delicious

home made vino.

Currently, you’ll find Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Pino Grigio, Zinfadel, and Cabernet Franc all “cookin'” in there.  (Not that it cooks, but then it’s Jeff’s hobby, not mine.  I am vino making-challenged – but luckily, not vino-drinking-challenged,).

Each carboy, (that’s what the juice is in) produces about 28 bottles.  It takes approximately a year, or more in some cases, of mostly waiting while the fermenting takes place.  There’s racking and reracking, and a few extras involved, but the results yields some pretty decent, glass-clicking, butt-kicking wine.

So this is what’s inside our Blue Room, inside our closets.  And when all is said and done, this is what you get to put inside your tummy.

For more interesting takes on “Inside”, click here.

I got the inside scoop to some of these posts, so try them out for size:

http://thismansjourney.net/2012/07/23/weekly-photo-challenge-inside/

http://soundslikewish.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/weekly-photo-challenge-inside/

http://eastofmalaga.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/in-plane-view-inside-out/

http://adinparadise.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/weekly-photo-challenge-inside/

http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/weekly-photo-challenge-inside/

http://northernnarratives.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/weekly-photo-challenge-inside/

I’m going to pour myself a glass…

SUNDAY POST – COLLECTIBLES

Jakesprinter offered up a new challenge this week. Collectibles. This is a great topic for a pack rat like me, so I had a few choices.  But seeing as we are lucky enough to have a little place on the beach, well, you know where I’m going with this, right?  Beach?  Collectibles?  Yup.  SEA SHELLS!   If you live at the beach, you’re decorating with, eating with, sleeping with, let’s say showering with, and collecting sea shells.  Even our fireplace screen, below, is covered in beautifully colored sea shells.

There are shells in our kitchen cactus…

Shells on our deck table…

There are more in the bedroom… 🙂

And, yes, shells in the – ah – john…

Jeff’s mom loved pelicans, and his dad loved the sea.  This shell belonged to him, so we display these in their memory… xoxox

Their are plenty more shells where these came from.  It’s a vast ocean, chock full of beautiful collectibles, but I’ll leave some for the rest of the beach combers.

Click on the flying dragon, and he will lead you to Jakesprinter and more fun collectibles.

WEEKLY IMAGE OF LIFE – COLORS

COLORS

What a fun, bright, and cheerful idea for this week’s Image Of Life Challenge.

And SWEET!

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You can find all these brilliantly colored candies and much, much more at It’s Sugar on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

Visit IslandTraveler‘s blog to get a glimpse of more COLOR.

COLOR ME PEACEFUL 🙂

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – DREAMING

DREAMING

PEACE.

IMAGINE THAT.

In his life time.

Keep dreaming – here…

SUNDAY POST – SOLID

I found this on Fizztext’s blog where he had reblogged it from EuZicAsa’s blog and to make a long story short, I think this earns the tag of a SOLID show of unity and FUN!

euzicasa

On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.

En el 130º aniversario de la creación de Banco Sabadell hemos querido rendir un homenaje a nuestra ciudad con la campaña “Som Sabadell”. Esta es la flashmob que realizamos como colofón final con la participación de más de 100 personas de la Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès y los coros Lieder y Amics de l’Òpera y la Coral Belles Arts.
AN DIE FREUDE – ODE TO JOY

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen
und freudenvollere!

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten…

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SUNDAY POST – SILENCE

This is how it all started.

Watching in Silence

while the sky above exploded

with a brilliant light,

flashing white, exquisite energy

trapped in the clouds,

And all of it without a sound.

Silence.

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And in the end…

Visit Jake’s Sunday Post to see more silent beauty.

(Sorry for the quality.  These were taken with my phone, in the evening.  Not the best, but my camera wasn’t available.  Still, I love the pix.)

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – MOVEMENT

WELCOME TO CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY’S ADVENTURE AQUARIUM

(Move along. The Shark’s will bite!)

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge is all about movement.   This topic has endless possibilities, but I opted for the aquarium.  Not only did I find a lot of moving going on, but it was happening in so many beautiful colors.  Some of these guys are real movers and shakers, and some are barely budging.  In any event, movement…

Beautiful blue

Fin of flashy gold

Outstanding Orange – I’m sure at some point they were moving 🙂

Now these guys were moving!

OK.  These weren’t real, but they were moving.

There is so much to see and enjoy, so get moving!  Pack up the kids, get in your car, and visit a local aquarium.

   

Click on the shark to visit the Adventure Aquarium’s website.

Click on the jelly to visit the Atlantic City Aquarium website.

Click on the penguins to visit the Jenkinson’s Boardwalk Aquarium website.

GET MOVIN’ !