Weekly Photo Challenge (Mine)

October 1, 2012 / Janna Hill / Leave a comment

Nestled in the woods there is tiny space of refuge. A place of respite and reflection and it is mine. At least that’s what the sign says.

[For the weekly photo challenge titled Mine]

Weekly Photo Challenge (Solitary)

September 22, 2012September 23, 2012 / Janna Hill / 3 Comments

This week’s photo challenge is titled Solitary. Though solitary is defined as: solitude, alone, secluded, singular or without companions the word itself conjures a multitude of images.

I immediately imagine a one man game of cards, confinement, loneliness, punishment and isolation. Well those things along with an old song ‘Countin’ Flowers on the Wall’ overlapping the imageries

Yet what I chose to submit is an empty chair. Now I sit alone pondering what that means (if anything) while I scroll through the other intriguing submissions and wonder what solitary means to so many others.

Alone in the Woods

Here is an excerpt from the lyrics of Countin’ Flowers on the wall.

Counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do

P.S. A personal tidbit. Dour Number IIII was inspired by these very woods. Just beyond the barn in the background another world exists.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Everday Life

September 15, 2012 / Janna Hill / 13 Comments

This weeks photo challenge is titled Everyday Life

Why did I choose this photo depicting dusty dirt roads? #1 Because these roads are part of my every day life and #2 it reminds me that every day we are presented with at least two choices. How we choose decides the direction our lives will take.

Every Day Life and (at least) Two Choices

Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge

August 18, 2012 / Janna Hill / Leave a comment

Mardi Gras Sky

For this weeks photo challenge I perched a vase filled with colorful Mardi Gras beads on a fence post and merged it with a cloudy blue sky.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

August 13, 2012 / Janna Hill / Leave a comment

This weeks photo challenge was WRONG, yet so many photographers got it right.

Go figure…

Wrong Size.

With the help of my grand daughter(who supplied the shoe) and my daughter in law who is such a better photographer than myself we managed to decide on an entry. There wasn’t much they could do to remedy ugly feet. Sorry 😦

Did I mention I can throw a rock a good ten feet or so with those wicked toes. When the foot toss is officially accepted into the Olympics I may very well win a medal.

Weekly Photo Challenge (Inside)

July 21, 2012July 23, 2012 / Janna Hill / 7 Comments

For this weeks photo challenge I went immediately to an old jewelry box and looked inside. I recall rummaging through my grandmothers costume jewelry like a pirate with precious booty.

Inside the Jewelry Box

Mine is filled with trinkets of cheap metals, faux pearls and inexpensive stones but they are treasures to me and every piece holds a dear memory of the bestower. This weeks theme also inspired me to share a prose from Interior Verse (which is free via kindle right now) titled The Chest of Hope.

The Chest of Hope

The Chest of Hope

It’s just a small brown wicker basket not built to hold much and a bit tattered from over handling.

Its beautiful warm browns have dulled and faded with age on the outside but inside the natural luster still shines. Its top is held in place by make do leather ties because the first woody hasps were worn in two and now dangle loosely without purpose.

What hands made the airy coffer? I wonder as I stroke the thin smooth fibers.

Was it one as handsome as the tight weaves frayed by time?

Though dust has long since claimed his finger prints-

I know that he was a weaver; I imagine that he was a dream weaver…

Diligently intertwining each cane thread with my hopes in mind…

A place to store my breathing dreams so that they could be kept safe and close at hand, amassed in a beautiful fibrous reminder.

A quaint little chest of hope I will one day hand down to a child, a grand child or perhaps even a great grand child when I have used up its contents.

When I have taken the dusty lid off one last time and felt deep into the corners to make certain I haven’t left any ideas untouched.

I imagine when I offer it up to him or her they will look at me like I’m crazy (and I may well be) then they’ll tear the lid off expecting to find a treasure of sorts before saying with disappointment, “It’s just an empty old basket.” It is then I will share with them the wishes and ideas that were stored and later born of that basket. How they were kept safe till I could see them come to fruition. And one more time I will imagine the handsome dark skinned man who meticulously weaved the wonderful piece…a place to store my dreams because dreams need room to breathe.

Then I will show them how to place their own aspirations into the old auburn chest with caution to keep them safe, to nurture their hopes and give them time to mature.

And if my last wish were to come true I will see them realize the birth of their visions.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

July 11, 2012 / Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I’ve been perusing various blogs and looking at some pretty awesome takes on the weekly photo challenge titled Movement all the while fighting my sick sense of humor to catch someone on the toilet and post that movement. I know, ewwww. Relax, my decent side won out [thank goodness] and I chose a photo of my son tossing skeet.

Two Fisted Skeet Toss

Weekly Photo Challenge (Fleeting Moment)

July 5, 2012July 5, 2012 / Janna Hill / 3 Comments

This has got to be this worst photograph I have ever taken (at least sober anyway) yet when I saw it Fleeting Moment is exactly what I conjured. I was attempting to snap a shot of a pair of hawks that hang out at the edge of the woods. I hurried and spun the camera and well… you get the picture. I looked through fifty other photos in trying to prepare this post and kept coming back to this cull. I think it is because it says more to me than any crystal clear image could. I titled it Time.