Self didn’t realize how long it’s been since she joined Nancy Merrill’s Photo a Week Challenge! She’s glad she can correct the situation today. The theme: HORIZONTAL LINES.
Living Room
San Luis Obispo
Fourth of July 2021
A Photo a Week Challenge: Horizontal Lines
August 3, 2021 at 11:48 pm (destinations, Holidays, Links, Lists, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: California, Fourth of July, Nancy Merrill, photo challenge, San Luis Obispo, summer
July #TreeSquare Challenge #4: Sunday in Golden Gate Park, Part II
July 9, 2021 at 4:59 pm (destinations, Holidays, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Weather)
Tags: Fourth of July, Fridays, Golden Gate Park, memorials, photo challenge, San Francisco, summer
For this July #TreeSquare challenge, self is sharing more pictures she took in Golden Gate Park last Sunday, the Fourth of July. It was a beautiful day: cool! What a nice respite from the heat down on the Peninsula.
The statue is a memorial to Marie Bonner. The log cabin was something self stumbled open while wandering around the picnic area:
Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.
The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman: p. 11
July 5, 2021 at 11:07 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Conversations, Holidays, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, English writers, Fourth of July, humor, Mondays, mysteries, novel, reading lists
You will thank self later, dear blog readers, for spending only two days on Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. Keith Lowe is one of her favorite new history writers, but the pile-up of atrocities in Savage Continent were too much after a while. Inferno was a fantastic book.
The Thursday Murder Club is a mystery, and so far it is very delicious and entertaining. It’s set in Coopers Chase Retirement Village, an upscale senior citizens home in the “heart of the Kentish Weald”, the kind of retirement home where people still dress for meals. If you don’t think that sounds very exciting, well neither did self. But she found herself being unexpectedly charmed, from page one.
On p. 11, a (very) junior police officer named Donna De Freitas is giving a talk on cybersecurity. An octogenarian named Elizabeth says:
- “That really was wonderful, Donna,” says Elizabeth. “We enjoyed it tremendously.” Elizabeth looks to Donna like the sort of teacher who terrifies you all year but then gives you a grade A and cries when you leave.
After, another octogenarian (Probably all the MCs are octogenarian!) named Ibrahim asks Donna to guess his age, and when she gets it right on the first try (“Eighty?”), looks quite deflated. But continues to flirt.
Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.
HAPPY FOURTH
July 5, 2021 at 2:03 am (Holidays, Sundays)
Tags: favorites, Fourth of July, summer
The Fourth was always self’s favorite holiday. Nothing’s changed.
Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.
SAVAGE CONTINENT: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, p. 16
July 4, 2021 at 2:43 pm (Books, Holidays, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: COVID Reading, English writers, Fourth of July, history, Keith Lowe, reading lists, World War II
- Greece suffered about 410,000 war dead — a total that does not appear markedly worse than some of the countries already listed until one realizes that Greece had a prewar population of only about 7 million. The war therefore killed about 6 percent of all Greeks. Likewise Hungary’s 450,000 war deaths represented almost 5 per cent of the population. In Yugoslavia just over a million people were killed, or 6.3 per cent of the population. Deaths in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania probably amounted to between 8 and 9 per cent of all prewar Balts. As a nation, Poland suffered the most proportionally: more than one Pole in every six was killed — a total of over 6 million people in all.
July #TreeSquare Challenge #3: Still the Backyard
July 4, 2021 at 2:08 pm (Holidays, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: blogs, California, Garden, photo challenge, summer
Self urges everyone to look at the gallery of trees on The Life of B, host of the #TreeSquare challenge. There are many beautiful trees there!
Here are two more from self’s backyard: an olive and a plum tree.
A Photo a Week Challenge: CIRCLES ON CIRCLES
May 31, 2021 at 4:51 pm (Artists and Writers, Holidays, Links, postaday)
Tags: A Photo a Week, art, California, Golden Gate Park, Mondays, museums, Nancy Merrill, San Francisco
Today’s challenge is from Nancy Merrill: A Photo a Week.
This week’s challenge is Circles on Circles.
Here’s a standing lamp in her living room.
Here’s the roof of the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The gorgeous building was by Renzo Piano. Self took this picture from the Rainforest. She remembers there were so many butterflies (not one of which was captured by her camera, boo).
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Flower of the Day (FOTD), 30 May: Columbine
May 31, 2021 at 4:11 am (Flowers, Holidays, Links, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: Cee Neuner, flower photography, Garden, inspiration
The columbine on self’s front porch are blooming again. She went out to take a few pictures for the May Colors and Letters Challenge (today’s color is Orange Red), but ended up taking pictures of her other flowers as well.
Thanks to Cee Neuner for hosting the Flower of the Day Challenge!
May 30 Colors and Letters: ORANGE RED
May 30, 2021 at 11:25 pm (Flowers, Holidays, Links, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: flower photography, Garden, spring
Self is joining the May Colors and Letters Challenge. More about it here.
The color for May 30 is Orange Red.
Self decided to take pictures from her front porch today. Well, the geraniums in the first picture look more pink, come to think of it. Oh well, they’re pretty, she’ll just leave them in.
