Hope you all are staying well and cool!! :hug:
Hi Candy. We are good. Enjoying a respite from the heat. How are you?
Hi to all the gang :)
I'm doing great! You can keep the heat and just a little bit of the rain. Garden is loving it all though.
(https://i.postimg.cc/D4s2WGVV/Resized-20210612-090350.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/D4s2WGVV)
Just got back from Portland, OR before the heatwave.
Are you getting the rain we're having in OK?
Lovely flowers Candy!
After the tornado scare (it touched down a mile from us with F3 force), we went through a heatwave then followed by rain, rain, and rain. This is after one of the driest springs in the area.
With the rain, the wildflowers are coming out. These are taken at the abandoned railroad track by my workplace.
(https://i.postimg.cc/SXv0Bqr9/IMG-8475.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/SXv0Bqr9)
(https://i.postimg.cc/KRr6Ztfx/IMG-8495.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/KRr6Ztfx)
Schen, it's amazing what the change of the weather does. While it may not suit us, there are some plants that take full advantage of it. Our areas have been full of wild flowers!! The fleabane is beautiful and I hope you munched on a few of those dewberrys!!
The wild berries are tiny but very flavorful. The rain stopped and was followed by another heatwave which is supposed to end this afternoon after some severe thunderstorms. This year's weather is a real rollercoaster ride.
I finally made it to this infamous Humboldt Park Lagoon. It became a sensation two years ago when an alligator was spotted in the water. How did an alligator more than 5 foot long got up to Chicago is still anybody's guess.
(https://i.postimg.cc/N28bS9Kw/IMG-8448.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/N28bS9Kw)
Beautiful, Chen!! As for the alligator, perhaps someone finally got tired of it as a pet. I remember those alligators being sold at TG&Y when I was a girl.
How beautiful Schujen.
Wishing everyone is safe!!
I'm actually working on trying to get a book of poetry published
This pandemic is rough on everyone
I'm hoping all of you are staying safe !!
I thought I would share a poem I wrote with all of you wonderful people!!
I went home today
I wasn't brave enough to visit my parents graves
The majestic splendor of yesteryear
Filled my heart
The streets rolled by
like a time capsule
The excitement of being able to see an old friend
The joy of seeing where I grew up
The hidden history in that small house
That we had all once called home
It beckoned me to look at it
To remember it
To feel it
It saddened me
To know that within its walls was something different
Someone different
Decades had passed
It rejuvenated my soul
If only for a moment
To talk to my friends as if they were a part of our family- because in many ways
They were
reminiscing about my childhood
My mother
My father
My brother
For a moment- they were alive
For a moment- I felt alive
Life is just moments
They are lived - experienced
And pass
Like a whisper
Beautiful Jesterjeni!
Jesterjeni, thanks for sharing. Now I am getting a little sentimental.
(https://i.postimg.cc/QKm4BWDJ/D80-DEFE8-E972-494-B-BD9-C-1-F08-DE566568.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/QKm4BWDJ)
One of five sculptures of "Human+Nature" by Daniel Popper at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.
(https://i.postimg.cc/4Y5TVwvp/210-C6-BA4-2097-4-CF1-ADE0-93-EC02170-DB9.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/4Y5TVwvp)
Wow, those are amazing Shujen!
Well since things have slowed down here I have turned my attention to making up photos. So a few months ago I purchased Mac Apps, Artmatic Designer and Artmatic Voyage. These are hard apps to learn but they can produce some interesting scenes.
(https://i.postimg.cc/gXHm2NW2/Bird-Cluster.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/gXHm2NW2)
Looking great Phil! Would be interesting to see the before.
Hi Margie. There was no before. The whole picture was synthetic. Made from selecting and adjusting the water level, the sky, the sun placement, the atmosphere the boulders and whatever.
Jesterjeni, Shujen, and Phil ... wow! Thanks for sharing. All of our creations have been in the kitchen. Tweaking cookie recipes and creating mystery dinners ... boredom has led to a need for lots and lots of exercise to work off all the taste-testing. ;D On the plus side, neighbors and friends are always happy to see us leave something at their front door. ::)
Well thanks, Shadow. Here is another creation made with Artmatic Voyager. This one I did not make but was included with its "examples."
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZWp5M2bW/outofthisworld.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/ZWp5M2bW)
Very cool Phil. Looks like a scene right out of a video game or sci-fi pic.
Oh no, Phil! Those two moons are too close to each other. The gravity is going to pull them together! :hug:
Well you are right Schen. Just after I posted this the Moons collided and I lost the file.
:up:
Quote from: philbach on August 18, 2021, 06:54:42 AM
Well you are right Schen. Just after I posted this the Moons collided and I lost the file.
LOL Way to go, Phil!!
Why not another?
My soul is ornamental
It lingers - it hides
It mimics a dark revine
All my feelings travel there
He has embalmed the air
Making it difficult to breathe
The winds of summer sigh
I run to the broken stairways
My feet stumble
Chasing a dream
Aspiring after things I cannot reach
I pay the price
For my senseless breach
With the downfalleness of spirit
My compass moves in all different-directions
Like a magnet of confusion
I try desperately to convince myself
This is not just an allusion
I am caught
Upon his speech his words hung
I wondered as I listened- why does this not burn the mouth of the forked tongue?
Why is there nothing soft and dear?
Why is horridness what I hear?
I sit with a mighty mysterious
Vacant kind of look
The mind has elevated itself
Beyond tranquility
With muted expression
His troubling theory's and scattered accounting's continue
He seeks to penetrate the veil
Shooting words of delusion
Streaming evil
Splicing the recordings in his head
As if my very being was molded by his cunning hands
I do not cry
Before I'm hurt
I just wait
He shuts up within himself
His deliberate habits repeating
It's almost visible
There's no room in his head to turn
He shall continually self profess
His attributes of wisdom
His narrow minded morals emerge
There's many a grave yard
Of the voiceless
I do not wish to be among them
A few minutes ago a pretty sailboat came by.
(https://i.postimg.cc/p5BzJVx7/Sailing.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/p5BzJVx7)
Nice Phil, reminds me when we had a Catalina 21 sailboat. No thinks of land locked Kansas as good sailing, but we have great winds and plenty of lakes.
(https://i.postimg.cc/MXt9sJcx/IMG-8750.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/MXt9sJcx)
Beautiful!
New Orleans will mark on Sunday the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's terrible disaster and in a chilling coincidence the city will face another challenge when Hurricane Ida hits the shores of Louisiana, apparently with winds of 125 mph. President Biden declared a state of emergency and low-lying areas were evacuated
(https://i.postimg.cc/4nN9kgJ5/photo-2021-08-27-15-11-23.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/4nN9kgJ5)
This one is forecast to be worse. Hurricane Katrina was a Cat 3, Ida is forecast to be a 4 and the path will be worse for New Orleans by curving from the west. This is just the start of Hurricane season.
It all depends on if it can gather up steam and what direction it decides on taking. My husband was born and raised there. He and his brother have been talking about it all day. Thought I'd pass on his thoughts.
I grew up in the middle of a typhoon alley. Everyone was different but we also had high mountains that made the direction of approach very critical. It already made landfall with Cat. 4 strength.
Well I was riding my trike late this morning and I was thinking of Chen's photo he posted of clouds. I thought it was sort of whimsical or something like that then I looked up and took my iPhone out of my pocket and shot some clouds as well.
(https://i.postimg.cc/zHRpv2zn/Lake-Church-Clouds.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/zHRpv2zn)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PNZwBJWN/yellow-stable12x8-v2-copy.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/PNZwBJWN)
Love the pics gang! :)