12/01 Outdoor Wednesday #99

If you are interested in seeing Outdoor Wednesday themes click here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com. Thank you Susan for being the hostess.

Graffiti on Wall, Evanston, Illinois - 2010.

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

My best friend in the whole wide world, Elisabeth Bacon, gave me a gift. It was a clock in the shape of a present. I displayed this hinged clock on my desk at work for many, many years. Tucked in with the gift was this quote: "Yesterday is History. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That is why we call it the present." ...Babatunde Olatunji

While dining out at Red Lobster, a cousin of ours, Geneva Fox, repeated this quote.

Thank you Elisabeth Bacon and Geneva Fox for reminding me to live in the present moment.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Use the talents you possess---for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best."
...Henry Van Dyke

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

First line in poem:
"I live my life in widening rings which spread over earth and sky."
Third line in poem:
"I circle around God's primordial tower,"
...Rainer Maria Rilke

Primordial definition from Webster's Dictionary: existing at or from the beginning.

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."
...Lao Tzu

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"Joy is prayer---joy is strength---joy is love---joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. She gives most who gives with joy."
...Mother Teresa

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here."
...Desiderata

Thanksgiving Day

Gobble, gobble until you drop!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Revelent detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience."
...Dale Carnegie

11/24 Outdoor Wednesday #98

Gobble, gobble until you drop! Did you know that at the First Thanksgiving sugar was scarce so the Pilgrims probably didn't have pumpkin pies, pumpkin cupcakes or pumpkin bars. Can you share a Thanksgiving fact?

Hawk, November 2010.

Two Canada Geese, November 2010.

Two Canada Geese II, November 2010.

Whole Chickens, October 2010.

Thank you for the delicious meal at

Andrew's Open Pit and Spirits

2610 Dempster Street, Park Ridge, IL

(847)824-3800

This time of year turkeys are all running around saying "Eat Chicken! Eat Chicken! Eat Chicken!"

If you would like participate or view other Outdoor Wednesday posts click here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.com/.

Thank you Susan for being the hostess.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"There is no love that is not an echo."
...Theodor Adorno

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
...Vince Lombardi

Thinking Outside the Box

Fungus on logs, 2010.

I used Picasa 3 to crop this photograph. To zero in on what was interesting to me was the object of this shoot. Then I changed format from color to sepia because the forms began to have movement like the ocean.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you really have."
...Eckhart Tolle

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted---a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."
...Rabbi Harold Kushner

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"It's good to have an end to journey toward; but it's the journey that matters in the end."
...Ursula K. LeGuin

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 - Episode 19

Click on logo above to see skies from all over the world.

Storm rolling in, Little Lake-Near Windigo Lake, Wisconsin-Autumn, 2010.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"It is hard to live through a day if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future and insists on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand."
...Andre Dubus

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Begin today. Declare out loud to the Universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy."
...Sarah Ban Breathnach

11/17 Outdoor Wednesday - #97

Today it was a chilly fall day. New merchandise was available to purchase for both Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays at the Starbuck's counter inside our neighborhood grocery store. The clerk suggested peppermint this and cranberry that. mmmm, it all sounded so sweet, tasty and delicious. I decided to indulge in a Hot White Chocolate. What a treat!

Then I went to the library to obtain books on hold, prepared dinner, started a load of laundry and did the dishes. Finished just in time to watch DEATH OF A HOLLOW MAN, Midsomer Murders. Mystery stories are v-e-r-y interesting to me at this point of my life. I'm not sure why. I also like to read biographies and self help books.

To participate or view blogs who have posted an Outdoor Wednesday theme click here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com. Thank you Susan for being the hostess.

Photo: Fernando at Saddlebrook Farms, Grayslake, Illinois, November, 2010.

Photo: Pawprint shot through glass window, Harvard, Illinois-2010.

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"I want to do it because I want to do it."
...Amelia Earhart

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down."
...Natalie Goldberg

Outside the Box Image - Sunday, November 14, 2010

Greyness has enveloped the landscape in the Mid-western part of the United States of America. The image below was taken just before dark in August on Lac Court Oreilles, Hayward Lakes area, Wisconsin. It was a color image changed to a black and white format. The moodiness of it is how I feel. So today, I will go curl up with the TV and do laundry. Tomorrow is another day.

Chair on Dock, Lac Court Orielles, Hayward Lakes Area, Wisconsin - 2010

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught."
...Georgia O'Keeffe

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it is going to rain, it will."
...Clint Eastwood

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"
...Henry David Thoreau

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 18

Click on SkyWatch Friday logo above if you would like to participate or view other blogs who have posted skies from all over the world. Thanks to the skywatch team; we do appreciate all the work that you do to make this event possible.

I was down at Lake Michigan and saw this tree with just a few leaves left on its branches. Soon snow will cover this sand and these boulders. Until then I am going to enjoy this mild weather. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for rain. We need the rain.

Today is Veteran's Day. I want to thank the men and women who have served this country in peace and in war.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one
but I give myself to it."
...Ranier Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, Love Poems to God, Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Goals-365 Days of Quotes

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean."
...Ryunosuke Satoro

11/10 Outdoor Wednesday #96

Click on logo above if you would like to participate or view other blogs who have posted an Outdoor Wednesday theme. Thank you Susan for being our hostess.




Color format was changed to black and white format. Shoe Soles I.

Color format changed to black and white format. Shoe soles II.

Fall colors being reflected on shoe soles.

And that's all folks.....See you next week.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"There are certain mysteries, certain secrets in my own work which even I don't understand, nor do I try to do so."
...Georges Braque

Click here for information about Georges Braque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"The only reward to be expected from the cultivation of literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds."
...Voltaire

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Whatever you do...avoid piles."
...T. S. Eliot

Outside the Box Image-Saturday, November 6, 2010

I am still exploring shapes and different textures. It seems to be a lifetime passion of mine.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"When we practice walking meditation, we arrive in every moment---we arrive at the destination of life. The present moment is a destination."
...Thich Nhat Hanh

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountains and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."
...John Lubbock

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 17

Click on logo above to view other skies from around the world. I would like to say thanks to the skywatch team who are: Klaus, Sandy, Wren, and Sylvia.



Storm is brewing.

Black and white format of similar shot. Both photographs were taken down at Lake Michigan. Drop in again sometime to see Midwestern Skies.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage."
...Anais Nin

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream."
...Vincent van Gogh

11/3 Outdoor Wednesday #95

Welcome back folks! I decided to post this photograph of a bike at Lake Michigan. This image was taken during a very windy, very cloudy day; but I felt somehow peaceful walking in the sand. I was being aware of the awesome beauty surrounding me. This is how I live in the moment.

My husband and I went to Hackney's for a $2.00 burger and their famous onion rings. Burgers were on sale today if you wore a sticker saying I VOTED. Hackney's was packed with guests coming in and guests leaving. Believe it or not the service was quick and pleasant. However, there were long lines to wait for a table. It was worth it! Click here for more information about Hackney's: http://www.hackneys.net/.

If you would like to participate or view blogs who have posted an Outdoor Wednesday theme click here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/. Thank you Susan for being our hostess week in and week out. See you next week.

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"To love what you do and feel that it matters---how could anything be more fun?"
...Katherine Graham

Goals - 365 Days of Quotes

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies."
...Author Unknown