PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Going For Walks and Taking a Closer Look at the World
Week 3: June 14–20
This week my husband and I got a chance to take an evening walk through our neighborhood. I took an early morning walk before work and spent some time looking at nature up close. I also got to spend a whole day catching up on some projects.
The lead photo was taken on Monday. My husband showed me the grape tendrils in the backyard. They grow, reaching out for something to grab on to, which stabilizes the plant. He held a tendril close to the vine and we got to watch it curl over and grab on.
Tuesday evening after work, we took a walk through the neighborhood. The walk was part of our regular bike route, on our way to a network of mountain bike trails nearby. We went shortly before sunset and it was still hot. There were a lot of people out walking their dogs though.
On Wednesday, we kept working on the pollinator garden outside of our office. I have a macro lens for the camera on my phone. I got the lens at a water quality training in January last year. Three of us were trying it out, taking pictures of flowers, pollen, and insects, like the one above.
The lens was meant to take up-close pictures of snowflakes, but I didn’t get to use it much last winter. It works just as well for other things, though!
Thursday was a day off. I spent a couple hours doing more social media tutoring before I came home to work on some more projects. I finally made it to the post office and mailed out three packages. I also finished a knitted washcloth and got to sit and read more of Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer on Kindle. (I’m determined to sit and finish that book one of these days!)
On Friday I finally got a couple hours alone in the kitchen to make a loaf of soap. My mold holds around 50 oz, which is 8–9 bars when cut. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to focus on soap, and since I messed up my last two batches (before Mother’s Day), I wanted to get it right. I forgot that floral fragrances are hard to work with. The floral soap was still usable, but it didn’t look like I wanted it to. Now it’s mine to use for hand soap.
The batch I made on Friday turned out exactly like it was supposed to. The fragrance will turn the soap brown on its own, so I used brown oxide and Moroccan red clay to add a little more dimension. It smells like cinnamon and pine, with some cedar and amber.
On Saturday, I was awake early enough for a short walk before work. My alarm goes off at 5 a.m. but usually, I hit the snooze button a few times before I get up to shower, drink coffee, and read. This time I was awake before my alarm, so I got up and got dressed.
I was planning to walk to the corner and back, but once I got to the corner, I realized less than five minutes had passed. I walked back, making a loop around the block. I spotted these flowers on the way and had to stop for a picture. My iNaturalist app identifies them as part of the Sunflower family (Asteroideae). I like the patterned leaves.
On Sunday, I filled two large plastic garbage bins with mulch from an old pile. I wanted to get a head start on filling the garden beds, alternating mulch and dirt. I tried to control the first bin as I unloaded it from the truck, but it landed on my foot. My foot is fine, but it’s going to be bruised for a while.
I let the second bin fall to the ground without trying to catch it. That worked better, but I got a face full of dirt when it bounced up after hitting the ground. Oh well, I showered the second I got home from work, anyway.
This has been my week in photographs. Thanks to Dennett for starting this PHOTO-A-DAY challenge. Also, thanks to Anne Bonfert, Barbara Radisavljevic, and Mia Verita for the inspiration to join in. I’ve had fun looking around at my daily life, deciding what to take pictures of and what to share.
