THE HIDDEN DANCE OF THE SNAIL

Don't ask and I won't tell you a long, boring story about this photomorph ("The Hidden Dance of the Snail" [7-9-09 3580e[4]). In fact, I'm not even sure I know what it is. I'll simply add that I had fun fussing at this old, old photo of mine. Old, old, and slowly morphed ... like I've been. 😊 Seriously, it was taken in 2009. I've made many versions of it and have deleted many others along the way. Where this original pic (like others I have) is ever so slowly going is certainly unknown. But I do enjoy the trips it takes me on when I come across it again. This photomorph I'm afraid, though, only earns a meh vote from me. That's OK. Especially if one recalls the saying that "The journey is the goal."

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

DIPPING A TOE IN

"Dipping A Toe In" (12-23-14 001v3[3]) was just tortured into this form from a much older version of the six year old original pic of mine. I haven't been over to this area of our retirement community's grounds in quite some time. And stumbling across the several versions I have of this old pic, has reminded me to hie that way occasionally. BTW, to the far left of this pic are gardens our residents (for the most part) plant and tend. And in the fall, some gorgeous red leafed trees appear here, as if by a miracle. At least that's what it felt like to me the first time after I'd moved here from New York City. What!? -- I thought -- fall trees in California? But back to this pic. I don't even know if this wonderful stag horn plant is still there. And I've not been paying much attention to those fabulous architecture shadows that get cast near day's end. I must admit, some of this has to do with (whining alert) not having a good pic editing program. It leaves me less inclined to take pix if I can't work on them as I want to. This blog has suffered directly due to this: I just don't feel I'm able to produce pix I want to showcase here without my old Photoshop program. Sigh, that sounds suspiciously like how I feel about my life in general for some time now. I'm old and less able (in too many ways) to do what I most want and am used to being able to do. Ah well, today I dip my toe back into this blog with a slightly satisfying new version of an old pic.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

WOLF MOON

"Wolf Moon" (Archival 5-25-09 1726v13f[2]) is a slight re-working today of one of my oldest pix, taken in 2009. I'm not even sure it was originally a moon shot. It's rare that I can't recall the original scene beneath some massive editing of a pic that I've done. But the results are certainly suggestive of a full moon. BTW, the moon out there in our sky now is the yearly wintertime Wolf Moon. As to my failing memory in this instance? Note I said it's "rare" that I can't recall ... :-) I will only add that back in those days I was a total newbie to photography, not to mention quite determined to get some good full moon pix. Which I kept trying to do for some time (and even still try to do occasionally these days) with little to no success. So there's a good chance a full moon lies beneath this pic.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

THE MIRROR BUTTS IN

"The Mirror Butts In" (11-2-17 011v9c) is a much fudged with selfie in my 2017 Halloween costume, Spider Old Woman. This posting acknowledges the passing of yet another year and the arrival (Jan. 4) of yet another birthday of mine (my 76th). I wonder what I'll manage to weave out of this year's bounty. And bounty it will be. It always is. One just can't know what that bounty will consist of. :-) And it's not been the most auspicious beginning to 2020 as I've been rather sick the past few days. But why does today necessarily have to predict tomorrow? In fact, it rarely does. "Life has a way of happening while we make other plans." So ole spider woman self will go on spinning her fantastical plans and the world will keep spinning its endless variety of surprises.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

From my Dreams & Poetry blog post of today: an old photo, an old dream haiku with new comments, and fresh HAPPY NEW YEAR WISHES!

finished basement
I do better than before
on the climb back up

[dream haiku, written in January of 2008 (re-posted 12-31-19). Another from that stash of old dream haiku/monoku I am considering for re-posting. It hits me just now that it’s probably appropriate at year’s end to be going through the last of my three old, hand-written notebooks of dream haiku. As I’ve said here before, the books are truly old, some of the source dreams going back to the 1990’s and earlier. There’s always that looking back this time of year. But what I find interesting is that many of these old dream/poems were more predictive of my future than I recognized. Enough to give me goosebumps, every so often as I read. And I’ve been long accustomed to having the occasional “psychic” moment, sometimes in dreams. But it’s eerie to find them in retrospect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this could simply be a matter of “self-fulfilling prophecy.” I.e., I may not have seen a particular dream as predictive at the time. But just the act of writing about it years ago, put the possibility of manifesting it in the back of my mind. I hasten to add, though, one could say that about anything we think/do/observe. All of life is deeply suggestive. Who’s really to know the source(s) of anything, ultimately? Maybe this is what is at the heart of that assertion that “Everything is one.” Just try to identify, much less untangle all the contributing causative events in which we're embedded. 😊 Anyway, back to today’s re-post: I think it’s a nice bit of positivity to end this year with. Which leads me to: HAPPY NEW YEAR, ONE & ALL! Photo “What Lies Beneath” (Archival Old Pix-2, 12718) by Roswila; BTW, this pic is of the guts of the only elevator we have on our retirement community grounds, given the heavy use it gets (as much for freight/furniture, etc. as people with walkers and shopping carts) it's amazing its motor has only been replaced once in the 12 years I've been living here)]

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

MERRY CHRISTMAS! BLESSED SOLSTICE/YULE! HAPPY CHANUKAH! MERRY KWANZA! (did I forget anything?)

In case I don't make a post before Wednesday (Christmas) here's a new version (Photomorph/Screenshots 6, 10-21-19[83]) of an old pic of mine that puts me in mind of that holiday. But also others, as this time of year is filled with festivals of light. I hope whatever holiday you observe (or if you observe none at all) that this time of year brings you and yours health, happiness, and prosperity.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

WHEEL OF LIFE

"Wheel of Life" (9-11-13 040v2[3]) was just fussed from an old pic of mine. I've had it sitting in its 2013 folder all these years, awaiting some much needed attention. Yeah, one of those photos of mine I liked but (as with with many I take) it had a serious issue. In this case, distracting, messy background greenery. I knew even back then, one solution was to darken that background. Well, I never got around to it. And then when I got my new computer I found myself with very limited editing programs. (I still mourn the loss of Photoshop.) Today, though, when I ran across this pic I realized that MS's Photo editing program has among its few functions, one for lightening or darkening all "shadows" in the pic. Well, boy how-dee, for once I was grateful for this bare bones program. Of course, I also then had to do some work on contrast and highlights to balance it out (and a bit of cropping, too). ... And so the wheel turns...

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

CHARYBDIS ON A SUNNY DAY

"Charybdis on a Sunny Day" (9-11-13 045v2[3]) is a slightly edited version of an old pic of mine. And I'd say the title reflects how I'm feeling today. Yeah, things are sunny but I'm still in a messy whirl under that. 😊 (Don't get the mythological reference in that title? Just Google for "Charybdis and Scylla.") And as to the pic? I like the vaguely water color effect, and the shapes, and even the colors. Viewed all together, though, I'm afraid they result in a rather meh photo. But I had fun editing and looking at it anyway. So there!

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

AT CROSS PURPOSES

Yeah, from this evidence (At Cross Purposes 7-7-09 3478[2]) my mood ain't improved one whit. Won't go on about this pic except to say (1) its focus sucks. And (2) I even like it at all because it makes me think of the Minor Arcana suit of Swords in The Tarot. BTW, it's been said that the suit of Swords grapples with and/or portends some of life's most difficult or painful issues of the five suits. (I count the Major Arcana as a fifth suit, the others being Pentacles, Cups, and Wands.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

DISMAL OUTLOOK

I hesitate to post this and not only because there's some stuff I'd do to it if I had my old Photoshop program. It too well expresses where I'm at, have been at for a long time. Yeah, there've been brief moments when I thought things might be improving, if only that I seemed to be getting some clarity. But nothing lasts these days. Everything in my life seems to have the life span of a May fly. Eeewww! What self-pity. If you want more of the same, check out the post to my dreams&poetry blog of today's date, and some of the previous posts there, too. Maybe putting all this out there will help me rid myself of it. Or at least get some sort of reasonable control over it. Sigh. And that's probably just another hope that will fade away all too quickly.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

DENDRITES LOOKING TO HOOK UP

Just now tortured this version ("Dendrites Looking to Hook Up" ss-6 10-21-19[52a]) out of an old version of an even older pic of mine. Not much else to say about it. It's one of those that is decidedly "meh," IMHO. (Lots of stuff I'd change if I had a better pic editing program; little things that by sheer weight of numbers distract from what I see this pic as offering.) Why post it? Don't have anything else I like more (and plenty I like even less). And I wanted to post something.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

SUNDOWNER

"Sundowner" (ss-4 10-21-19[29]) is one of my older pix, just now screenshotted (is that word? :-D) off my dreams&poetry blog. And then heavily fussed with, changing the orientation and colors a bit, increasing the contrast, cropping, and I think that's all. It reflects in both title and look, the winds we get here in California this time of year after sundown. Extremely high winds that greatly increase the chances of wildfires, and of any fire at all being whipped up into a huge inferno. (Channel 9 News [L.A. area] just now started showing live pix of a new fire in Pacific Palisades.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

THE DREAM CRUMBLES

"The Dream Crumbles" (ss-3 10-15-19[34]) is a slightly edited version of a very old pic of mine. (Just some minor cropping, and fixing of very small distracting spots.) It's one of the many pix I've re-discovered in the project I just completed last night: going through hundreds and hundreds of paper copies of my old poems, each of which has an accompanying pic. I've kept a list of photos to "print screen" copies of from my dreams&poetry blog as I decided each poem/pic's fate: to file away again, or destroy. Today's was on one of those paper copies whose fate I don't recall at the moment. The title that I just chose reflects the feeling I had a lot doing that "keep or toss" work. So many dreams have come and gone over the many, many years that all that work came out of.

BTW, I don't even really have to keep any paper copies. All are on my blogs and/or computer. But old dogs learn new tricks very slowly, if at all. And I've always backed up electronic systems with paper copies. I've worked with computers since the 1970's and have seen too many computer (and, later, blog) crashes that take everything with them. I could also back up my entire computer (as I used to) to an external hard drive. But that, at this point in my life, feels excessive. Of course, this all begs the question if my work is even worth much care and worry at all. Something I have begun to wonder, more and more. Well, I'll just have to leave that determination to posterity.

Another "BTW" -- I haven't made print copies of my poems/pix in a few years. Cost became prohibitive. So those stacks I was going through were from 2008 to 2014 daily posts, with some sporadic prints after that. And I also haven't ordered any glossy prints of my photos online in a couple years. (Again, cost is prohibitive.) But, here, too, I have stacks and stacks of prints from the days when I could afford to take advantage of every sale the online printer would offer. (Penny prints? Oh, yeah!!) It's that supply from which I pick photos to make birthday cards and such out of. And I can't see this supply running out any time soon.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

AN AUTUMN BOUTONNIÈRE

"An Autumn Boutonnière" (ss-3 10-15-19[35]) was just edited slightly from an old version of an even older pic of mine. (Technical Rant Alert! Skip to orange text at end if you're not interested ...) In this case, that number 35 in brackets does not indicate how many previous versions I've made, but is just saying how many screen shots that day I'd made of different pix of mine ... Go figure, I'm beginning to have quite a time of it ... The Windows 10 photos program slaps a number on at the end of the file name of a pic, no matter what it is I've done to it. I suppose once done working on a pic I could then modify it's title to suit me (get rid of these pesky numbers?). Eh! Something to think about. However, should I decide to do it, not only will I then have to remember to do it all the time (good luck at my age!) but how will I tell over time which sort of numbering is applicable? (Sequential versions of an individual pic, or overall total of that day's varied screen shots?) ROTFL! Why do I even care? As long as I can find a pic based on a file name is all that really matters. And, even more so -- ROTFLMAO -- the reason I'm doing so many screen shots is I don't have the file names for a great many of my old pix that I'm running across in my paper files and on the computer. So, I screen shot it, and it winds up with a new file name. Yep, duplication of images on my computer, but I've got ready access to the pix and maintained my sanity. In the past, I've gone through the craziness of going through computer folders of pix going back to 2008, amounting to pix in the thousands, hunting for some old pic. Ain't about to do that agin' if'n I kin possibly avoid it. Yikes! What a tirade for what must sound like a little thing ... Oh, and today's pic? I like that autumnal feel to it. It's closer to black and white in its earlier version, but I felt it needed some warming up today.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****