Photo Mining – An Intimate Moment with a Flower

A photo of one of the flowers from our yard that I took this past summer.

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge – Direction (Choice)

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge – Direction is provocative, as always.  Direction can take the form of a street sign, a trail or path or even personal guidance from another.  One thing implied by direction is choice. Left or right along the street or the path, accept or reject the advice.

My photo represents choice about direction. The boat is moving, but the direction is uncertain. Our choices about the direction in which we are going are important, as my quote below illustrates.

“We are our choices.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

I took this photo during the 2013 “Parade of Boats” on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. It unofficially marks the end of the summer boating season.

Photo Mining – A Flower in Cherokee Marsh

Ready to bloom

The blossom

Top view of the blossom

More photo mining – here are three views of the same type of flower (which I can’t name). I took these shots in late September of this year.

Word A Week Photo Challenge – High (Souris River Valley)

North Dakota is in the dead center of the Great Plains, which for the most part means flat, flat and more flat. However like everywhere else where water’s imperative meets an obstruction, water wins. Here a lone pine stands surprisingly high on its perch overlooking the work of thousands of years during which the Souris River has cut a valley in and around what is now Minot, ND. The photo makes my more conventional contribution to the Word a Week Photo Challenge.

Word a Week Challenge – High (Intoxicating)

To be intoxicated is to be high (I make no recommendations here). And how might you get there … lots of ways. This is one, but adults only please.

Rare Ice Disk In North Dakota River (Link Only)

This is pretty cool. A retired engineer, George Loegering, out hunting in North Dakota spotted this Ice Disk in the Sheyenne River.

 

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge – Intangible (Rainbow)

This is was a humdinger of a rainbow. Humdinger or not, just try to catch it and you’ll find it to be quite intangible.

I am probably cheating a little bit but my quote is actually the lyrics from one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I have ever heard. The song is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole from his album Facing Future. When I first heard these lyrics and the accompanying song, I searched for weeks trying to find out where to get it. If you get a chance, listen to the song. I know that parts of it have become ubiquitous since commercial exploitation of the tune and lyrics exploded after Izzy’s death (I did not know him personally, but my wife and I met one of his nurses who told us he was called Izzy) but listening to the whole thing really is special. I hope the lyrics will encourage you to listen to and buy his music. Since the lyrics are widely available on the Internet I am willing to publish them here, but solely for the purposes of educating people about Izzy way of putting things. So here is my quote for the intangible rainbow.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole from his album Facing Future.

Somewhere over the rainbow/Way up high/And the dreams that you dreamed of/Once in the lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow/Blue birds fly/And the dreams that you dreamed of/Dreams really do come true

Someday I’ll wish upon a star/Wake up where the clouds are far behind me/Where trouble melts like lemon drops/High above the chimney tops that’s where you will find me/Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly/And the dreams that you dare to, why, oh why can’t I?

Well I see trees of green and/Red roses too./I’ll watch them bloom for me and you/And I’ll think to myself/What a wonderful world

Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white/And the brightness of day/I like the dark and I think to myself/What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky/Are also on the faces of people passing by/I see friends shaking hands/Saying, “How do you do?”/They’re really saying, I… I love you/I hear babies cry and I watch them grow,/They’ll learn much more/Then we’ll know/And I think to myself/What a wonderful world

Someday I’ll wish upon a star/Wake up where the clouds are far behind meWhere trouble melts like lemon dropsHigh above the chimney tops that’s where you will find me/Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly/And the dreams that you dare to, why, oh why can’t I?