Share Your World – January 29, 2018

Share Your World (SYW) is a weekly series of four random questions created by  Cee’s Photography. In answering the questions, the reader shares things about ourselves, our home, and our traditions. In this way, we get to know each other more. Feel free to join in and share your world.

 

If you had an unlimited shopping spree at only one store, which one would you choose? Why?

This one is hard because I really hate shopping, plus I am trying to be more of a minimalist, at least with certain things. However, our house needs a lot of repairs, so maybe Home Depot so I could get everything we need to renovate. I would need to bring a handy-man home too, but that’s another story.

What is the worst thing you ate recently?

I am taking an 8-week Total Wellness course to learn to eat better (and lose some weight). Our assignment this week is to eat vegetables at every meal. That is right…breakfast too. Since there are not any vegetables that I want to eat that early in the morning, I decided to try the Naked Juice’s Kale Blazer. I like Naked Juice and I didn’t think a veggie version would be bad, but I have to say that it was the worst thing I have tasted maybe ever. There was a peppery flavor that was awful. It was worse than the V-8 I tried the day before.

Name five things you like watching…

Birds that feed in my backyard (or anywhere for that matter)

 

The ocean, especially from my balcony on a cruise ship

Photo credit: Susan Spaulding

Sunrise and Sunset

Photo Credit Susan Spaulding

4)  Netflix (binges)

5)  Deer Crossing in my yard

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week?

This little guy became part of our family a week ago. He has been a delight.

Photo Credit: Shelley Spaulding

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Brotherly Love (Friday Fictioneers)

Photo Prompt – Douglas M. MacIlroy

Gilbert fell from his chair when the email arrived. The attached photo of one of North America’s rarest birds was the holy grail among ornithologists. His brother George, unskilled in the art of bird identification, did not realize the value of such a find. He must be warned.

“Whatever you do, don’t release that bird!”, Gilbert gasped in the phone.

Gilbert underestimated George’s abilities and his need to right past wrongs. A course in Photoshop taught George all he needed to know to pull off the prank. As the small bird flew into freedom, George laughed.

 

Friday Fictioneer’s is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Douglas M. MacIlroy for this week’s prompt

Old Crow

Kika and his brother Hakan were walking through the woods in search of blueberries for Grandmother’s pie. Across the stream, Hakan noticed a bush ripe with berries.

“There are enough berries for two pies on that bush,” said Hakan, stepping into the stream.

In the tree above sat Old Crow, cawing “Danger, Danger.” Hearing the warning, Kika pleaded with his brother to return. “Do you not hear Old Crow?” he asked.

“That old bird is a trickster. He wants the berries for himself.”

Old Crow persisted with each step Hakan took, but the berries were too inviting for Hakan to return. When Hakan safely reached the other shore, he turned to Old Crow and laughed.

“Maybe I will leave a berry or two for your dinner.” He then filled his basket with the juicy berries.

By now Hakan was hungry and it would be hours before Grandmother baked the pie. As Hakan placed a handful of berries in his mouth, Old Crow cawed even louder than before. But his warning was unheeded and within moments, Hakan’s stomach burned in pain, causing him to fall into the stream. The berries had been poison.

With that, Old Crow flew away.

 

I hope you enjoyed my story. Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner is a weekly challenge to write a 200-word story, inspired by a photography. Stories for this week can be found at flash-fiction-for-the-purposeful-practitioner-2017-week-32

 

A Bird in One Hand……

Most people have heard the saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”  We roll our eyes when we hear one, but clichés serve a purpose. They are the way elders to offer sage advice to younger people in the hope they will be spared pain and sorrow for certain mistakes.

I have found in most cases; however, the best teacher is experience herself.

Satisfaction does not come easy for me. I am a perfectionist by nature and tend to want immediate results. Fortunately, I am also a bit risk-adverse, which keeps me from throwing caution to the wind in search of gold at the end of the rainbow. This is particularly true when it comes to my job. I work in Information Technology and my daily challenge of “too much to do and no time to do it” weighs me down. When it gets to be too much, I daydream about a better job. Granted, there is nothing wrong with wanting a change, but I have been here before.  I learned the hard way that not appreciating what you have can cause a person to stop thinking rationally and to make bad choices.

When I was much younger and just starting my career, there was a time when I felt I was not being treated fairly by my employer. I accepted a job with a company that had a bad reputation. My friends warned me, even my manager warned me, but I wouldn’t listen. I told them the company had changed, that they really did care about their employees, and that all those old rumors were no longer valid. Blah-dee-blah-dee-blah. In retrospect, I was rationalizing why giving up a perfectly good job (and it was) to work for a questionable employer was somehow the right thing to do.

I should have realized my mistake on my first day. It was after 5:00 p.m. and the employee I was working with not slowing down. My daughter’s daycare closed at six and I said I had to leave. The woman I was working with looked at me dead serious and said I might need to find other arrangements. Limited overtime was one of the conditions discussed during my interview, and this deal was broken the first day.

I started work in February, and for first few months, things seemed fine. I liked the people I worked with, I was treated well by management, and atmosphere was great. Around May, however, the job started taking over my life.  As a computer programmer, I was no stranger to being called in the middle of the night to fix a coding problem. At my old job, this was a shared responsibility that prevented burn-out. At my new job, I was part of a two-person team: my supervisor and myself. Guess who got most of the calls. On an almost a nightly basis, I would receive a phone call, drive to the office, fix a problem, drive home, get a little sleep, then back to work. Some nights I would barely make it through the door when my husband would tell me that the computer operator had just called again. The lack of sleep and having to care for a two-year old daughter was starting to wear me down.

I remember the night I finally reached my breaking point. I got a call telling me to come in and fix a problem. It was a Friday night and my husband was out with friends, and I had no one to take care of our daughter. I packed up my sleepy little girl and drove to the office. It was after midnight before my husband came to pick her up. When he got there, I was sitting on the curb in front of the building, hysterically crying. I was so exhausted and overcome by stress that no bird would have been better than the one bird I had. The next day, I managed to pick myself up and go on. In the end, however, I finally gave up and called my ex-boss and asked for a job. My lesson had lasted than a year.

Whenever I get too disgruntled with my current job, I remember this story. For some, it may sound like failure, but for me, it is a check-point. I may not stay in my current job forever, but I will never leave a for emotional reasons. I learned the hard way about clichés . Before I give up this bird, I will make sure the others birds are worth pursuing.  

 

Photo 101 – Collage of Color

My final tribute to Photo101. Thanks to everyone who took the time to look at my photos and for sharing yours with me. Until we meet again.

 

Exotic Tropical Flower

 

 

Reflection of a tree in stream

 

Roatán, Islas De La Bahia,

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

© Susan Spaulding

Triumph (Day 20)

Participating in Photo 101 has given me a new perspective on photography. Gone are the days of a non-thinking ‘point and shoot’ mentality. Going forward, the photos I take will be more thoughtful and deliberate. Although I wasn’t able to create a new photo for every assignment, just going through my old photos with a specific theme in mind helped me see them in a new light.

In contrast to my old self , I triumphed by not giving up on this class on the days when I could not go out and photo something new; by not putting this off because there was something more important (and less challenging) to do; by giving this my best shot and  putting myself and my photos “out there” for comment.

I also triumphed by finally getting a photo of a woodpecker that frequents my bird feeder.

 

A Moment in Motion(Day 13)

Humans experience time as a series of continuous moments, all strung together. One moment feeds the next and we don’t notice where one ends and the other begins. What makes a photograph special is that it captures a single, unobserved moment before it disappears forever.

This photograph was taken at Galveston Beach. It was April 20, 2013, late in the day. My first trip to Galveston and the first time to the shore after a very long absence. The day was filled with motion: sea gulls hovering over the water and swooping down to catch a small fish; waves rushing to the shore, only to recede and re-form; families splashing in the cool Gulf waters, or simply strolling along the sandy beach in search of sea shells. In the snap of a camera, this moment came and went. This moment was unique, and this photo is the only remnant that it ever existed.

Splash of Color (Day 10)

March in Oklahoma can be described as drabby brown and moldy green. Dormant winter plants have barely begun to break the ground. Dead leaves cling to the trees. There isn’t much color to be found this time of year, except for the vibrant pink redbud trees that have taken bloom. Finding a slash of color among the dreariness of winter was no easy task.

 

 

 

The Natural World (Day 8)

Nature is full of wonder and the perfect photo op. There is never a shortage of magnificent subjects in the natural world.

Exotic Tropical Flower

 

This flower was taken in a tropic forest in Honduras. The long stamen reminds me of a tongue sticking out of a mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

Birds in a Tree

Even in my own backyard, nature offers herself up for a photo. I was outside a few days ago when I heard a lot of birds chirping in the trees next to the house. I was curious what type of birds they were because they seemed large from a distance. This is the picture I got and while you can’t tell what the birds are, it fits the theme of natural lines.Yesterday I took a walk outside and noticed the vibrant pink of my Redbud tree. The long-awaited color is a welcome change to the browns of winter

 

Yesterday I took a walk outside and noticed the vibrant pink of my Redbud tree. The long-awaited color is a welcome change to the browns of winter.

Pink blooms on the Redbud Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photography

Oklahoma Blue Jay

Blue Jays seem to be making a home near my house. Every morning I hear their distinct chirp and two or three frequent the bird feeder out of my office window.