Saturday Centus - To Keep The Money Or Not To

HAPPY 100!

AT   SATURDAY CENTUS

Really,  how old?  Congratulations Jenny at "Off on my tangent" blog and all her faithful followers!


Bravo.  Jenny is celebrating with her first prompt from so long ago.

But - seriously a 53 word prompt?  Any style writing, and pictures if you wish.  Oh my how things have changed for the better!  ha ha


My centus begins with Jenny's 53 (past) WORD PROMPT to set up my story!

                                What? Doesn't everyone tie their shoes like this?


 My untied shoelace changed my life. As I leaned down to re-tie it, I kicked away a few leaves. When I turned my head slightly to look where the leaves had been, I was astonished to see a rubber-banded wad of hundred dollar bills nestled in a little indention in the muddy ground.

Hopefully no one is lurking behind this castle wall.

Only a fool wouldn't take it.  But something else equally impelling cautioned, “No” it’s not yours to keep.


But I don’t want to be logical I argued; with that stubborn part of me that refuses to see it any other way, but the right way.


“I won’t give it up."

Are you absolutely sure?


Go away! You ridiculous conscience, haven’t you heard of finders keepers?


Greedily I snatched the bulging wad while my conscience raged, 

brewing up a storm before

turning me to stone and forcing me to tie shoelaces.



I just know you all want to play along too, and view other faithful followers
so go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/03/saturday-centus-centennial-celebration.html

Six Word Saturday 31 March 2012

WELCOME TO

SIX WORD SATURDAY

I saw this quote yesterday and can't stop thinking about it.

NEVER LET YESTERDAY

USE UP TODAY

The past with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, (it's dreams-my words) is there for each of us forever,

 and it should be. - Lillian Hellman

Can you

live, laugh, and dream

in the now?

If you want to play along with Cate's, Six Word Saturday from her Show my face blog
go here

http://www.showmyface.com/2012/03/six-word-saturday_31.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+showmyface+%28Show+My+Face%29

Thematic Photographic #189 Branded

Welcome


THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC



              Carmi, from "Written Inc." blog  has unleashed "branded" as our theme this week.  Which way should we wander?  

How about, branded by the brands around us (commercialization) or, perhaps ownership with a ranch logo branded to their cattle, or possibly the latest in tattoos?


Or the



BRANDED Being a word defined so eloquently upon sight of it, explanations aren't necessary?

 I rather like the sound of that.

"Let's eat out!"
Why shouldn't this gigantic hamburger company have their own sign flying out front?  They've been selling burgers since May 15th 1940, are headquartered in the United States but can also be found in 119 countries.




I do feel a bit famished though.

Through the ages we have acquired such branding..... where shapes and colors besides names instantaneously tell us the entire story.




There's definitely something about COLORS branded in our heads from the beginning of childhood to adulthood. 

What about all those reds and pinks and all the rosy colors in between?

It's a girl's shop!

Blue (my favorite color) could it be more of a boy's color?  At baby showers it sure is!

Yes, there is a place for old retired race cars to go, if they were lucky enough to be branded....like this popular #32 still hangs proudly today.


Are you thirsty yet?

Does the name of this band really matter, when the sponsors are trying to sell beer? 

Do you feel like playing along with Carmi's TP?

If so or if you just want to view more posts

go here

http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2012/03/thematic-photographic-189-branded.html

Saturday Centus I'm Living the

Greetings on this sun-less (so far) Saturday for,


SATURDAY CENTUS


This Saturday Jenny, from "Off on my tangent" blog seems to be stuck on exact word counts.  Won't this get confusing?  She says, our centus must be 100 exact words, and contain the prompt, "I'm living the dream, man"  that quote is so (well let's just say "man" is annoyingly overused) but there is a man behind it (an old boss) who said this day in and day out.

Anyway, Jenny is letting us do this with as many photos as we'd like, in any style of writing, it's just up to our creative minds.

My centus,

Has your life ever been so prosaic?


That your evening


Dreams bring you to where you need to be?


Care to follow a little dirt road with me?


Zigzagging here and there

In search of escapades


Of tranquility and amusing adventures


We’ll see

A rage of endless whispering fields

Beautiful colored blossoms


That chatter a worthy song


If you have time to listen


A great orderliness river waiting below

Flowing past my memory


Of  yesterday’s -


horrible could be forest


But rather endless vocations.


Today stretches tall against our skies,


reaching for tomorrow, no matter what


"I'm  living the dream, man."





I just know you want to play along too, or at least observe other Saturday Centus posts so please go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/03/saturday-centus-im-living.html

A special note all of my photos for this post

(due to the watering-river escapades)

I used a disposable camera.

Sepia Saturday #118 Going out to Poi- Nourishing the Heart and Soul

WELCOME TO

              SEPIA SATURDAY


                 Every Saturday we craft our posts from our imaginations and a theme photo which Alan posts on his (all things sepia and old) Sepia Saturday blog.  This week he has taken Liz Stratton from "Attics and old lace" blog idea of couples sharing time together and/or going out.

 

If you want to view more Sepia Saturday posts or share some of your own please go here

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2012/03/sepia-saturday-118-going-out.html


I begin with Couples and Going Out but end in a rather sacred life nourishment.


May I have this dance?

Copyright 1900 of women dressed in ball gowns and men in military uniforms all observing a couple embracing at the foot of the staircase. 

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Washington DC Prints and Photographs Division.





There are times in a person's life when they just know they'd go to the ends of the earth just to be together.


This is one of those moments.

Don't they just appear so comfortable together, even way up high where they could almost touch the sky?


There all alone they sit together in love, at The Valley - Half Dome - Nevada Falls, Cap of Liberty and imposing Sierra (E.S.E) from Eagle Peak, Yosemite, California.  Courtesy of Library of Congress Washington, DC Prints and Photographs Division.

So many of my smiles begin

from looking at you.

and end when

 you are away from me.

Doesn't he seem to be asking, "Will you take my hand, please."  Or perhaps she's just offering him a cookie.  You tell me, what do you think?
Photo taken October 1943, Courtesy Library of Congress, Washington DC Division of Prints and Photographs.



What about the times you just can't swing going out?

A little short for going out this weekend, so this lovely couple from Pie Town, New Mexico are spending the evening inside the living room of their new adobe house.  They originally arrived from Oklahoma seven years before this, and lived in a cabin until this adobe house was finished.
This photo was taken June 1940. - Courtesy of Prints and Photographs at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

I'm ending with a Couple sharing their family traditions right from their beloved surroundings.

POI- a sacred. life giving food- sustaining living beneficial organisms into a higher form of energy-
nourishing the human body, heart and soul.

This couple is making poi which was considered an important and sacred art of Hawaiian life.  When they put this on the family table, they believed that the spirit of Haloa, (Hawaiian ancestor) was present.

photo courtesy of Library of Congress Photos and Prints

Washington DC

Six Word Saturday Everyone Has This

GREETINGS this Saturday morning




             SIX WORD SATURDAY






Where Cate, from "Show my face" blog  asks us to express ourselves or what we're up to in just

Six Words    it doesn't have to be pretty either, give us anything!

Okay, this photo is from Red Rock Canyon in Nevada (2011) and not on this Root River Trail.
(Last time on the Root River  we were wireless, camera-less but not, waterless.)

Note: while on vacation you can always rent bikes
as well




2 Nights


BICYCLES AND BUGGIES


LANESBORO



Are you tired of biking in your usual spots? Try the Minnesota Bike Trail system on the Root River
Harmony - Preston Valley State Trail System 60 miles of fun.

You can do a day ride and if
you want to avoid
crowds
and can take time off
during the week
it's entirely

less busy

Views of soaring limestone bluffs and Fillmore County rural landscape too

what more could you want?
A favorite of mine
On the Harmony - Preston Valley trail is

a rock cut near the (very cool) Old Barn Resort
 a great break spot too.

For those looking for antiques and gifts, storefronts abound in each quaint little town. 
Lanesboro, and neighboring towns burst with everything you could want.
If you don't sleep at a B & B in town
there's camping every where!

Restaurants, lodgings, a winery, catch a play at a theatre
see a buggy and visit the Amish community in Harmony.



So if you want to play along at Cate's blog or just view more posts
please go
here

http://www.showmyface.com/2012/03/six-word-saturday_24.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+showmyface+%28Show+My+Face%29

                  

Alphabe-Thursday A Rough Ruins

TODAY IS ALPHABE-THURSDAY



            OUR LETTER FOR TODAY IS "R" and it comes with many questions (Q) was last weeks letter that I missed.




     This post is for Jenny's "Alphabe-Thursday" and her "Off on my tangent" blog that arrives every Thursday as we follow the alphabet.   My story begins today with a little mystery.



In the wee hours of early morning,



          I set out for an albatross of a day.  A time when all is right with the world, and most of the city still sleeps. 

It was a normally pleasant day, nothing out of the unusual, at first.

Then on my return trip I stumbled upon a magnificent discovery, resting in an unexpected ruins, not far from home.




A RATHER ROUGH RUINS RESTS ALONG A RIVER
in Minnesota, perhaps you know where this is?

Ruins especially like these are not common in Minnesota or any where else in the United States.


So when you happen upon one, you take notice very quickly.

My first thought was, where are the ropes, or the fencing or wooden barricades to keep people and mostly children from falling inside?  Very unusual to see this type of ruins so wide open.  Of course the photographer is delighted for easy access.




Other writers and bloggers through the years have fed us stories about this ruins resting along the river not far from my house.

Looking out on the river.  This remaining ruins, of a nineteenth century flouring mill is on the National Register of Historic Places.  I fear the person supplying the information for this lost mill may require two cents from me.  Wikipedia, reports: "this as a derelict flour mill" derelict? Really?



Do they have no taste for style or desires of preservation for historic places?

The river at this location is mostly calm and heavily wooded on both sides, with a foot bridge south of the mill.  I shot this photo from a two lane bridge. 

You don't really need to be an architect to see this mill was built as a basic two-story building.  The roof hasn't been seen in ages.  I'm guessing it was covered with a low pitched gable roof, and not of long lasting materials.

This structure that once was a thriving flouring mill was built in 1857 and even with all the crumbling stone and how sadly it has fallen in useless shape, I wander about the ruins simply amazed at the thought of its glory days.


You see they just don't build them that way any more.  Today most mills if they run are basic in design.  As the next photo clearly shows.

A few miles away from the old mill ruins is "Ames Mill in Northfield" which is currently running, and has a bit of stone work as well.





Okay yes, I want to stretch this lovely tale out just a bit, so I won't really disclose the whereabouts in this post.  Although for the adventurous souls, I have dropped quite a few hints that a simple google search could get you there.


This will be continued, next week in the letter "S" where I will reveal the name of the mill and share more about the quaint little town it's in.  I hope to see you next week.  If you want to view more or perhaps want to post your own go here,


http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/03/alphabe-thursday-letter-r.html

Thematic Photographic #188 Lights On

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC


             Our theme for this week is "Lights On"  and brings forth a path well lighted, or so we might believe at first glance.



             If you want to play along with Carmi's, Thematic Photographic" at his "Written Inc." blog please just go here


http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2012/03/thematic-photographic-188-lights-on.html


"Truth, like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil, however deeply sown, will make its way to the light." - Ellis Peters



LIGHTS ON, camera, action please begin......

Things and places are not always as they seem, or what they are labeled, are they?

Inside this store they sell "Hats" an unbelievable selection too.





Lights on, can be a mysterious case of "Boxed lighting"

Is this what many patio owners wish they could display, but sadly most don't?  This was taken inside Ridgedale Shopping Center Mall, in Minnetonka, Minnesota.





If you skip the Costco and big boxed stores and venture into the exclusive more trendy shopping centers like below, they offer an artsy touch to their selling approach.

At the "Galleria Shops of Distinction" Edina, Minnesota.

What could be better than roaming the quiet and deserted streets of Cannon Falls.  This is shortly after all the shop owners have closed up for the day, and just for those of us who enjoy strolling by, they have left the

Lights on for us!


It's always a good feeling of comfort when into the darkness we may roam to later discover, someone has left the lights on.

One last thought for this lights on theme
I had a little lights on discovery this last week with one of my tires that continued to leak air.

It's fixed!

No more warning messages flashing on my dash....so far as yet anyway.

Saturday Centus - It was only ninety-eight cents

IT'S TIME FOR


                SATURDAY CENTUS

                  Miss Jenny, from "Off on my tangent"  
having so much work and so little time for play thought she'd bundle an extra load of work for all of us.  Or so I thought, at first.  Jenny declared our centus must be exactly 98 words

Is she serious?

It must include the prompt of, 
"It was only ninety-eight cents"
with any style of writing, and pictures if we wish.



Here is my centus for today in exactly 98 words.

It was only ninety-eight cents, making Taylor four dollars and two cents short for her movie ticket. Her mother’s rules were, “Be creative” like it would be impossible.



Never underestimate a 4th grader on a mission.


The two cents were inside her Barbie car and with a three dollar off coupon to Harry's Foods, which her Grandmother happily exchanged (promising she'd help with chores)

left a dollar balance.  Of course searching her book bag she found a quarter.  She could collect the last seventy-five cents at the recycling center with empty bottles from their garage.

Excellent work Taylor!


Okay now it's your turn.  I know you just can't wait for this link

Time is running out so fast.  Not really, you have all week, and if you live where I do, What in the World are you doing inside today?

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/03/saturday-centus-it-was-only.html

Thematic Photographic # 187 Watery

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC




               OUR THEME IS



                                                    WATERY

Folkestone, England, taken from the front of our hotel.







A genius is one who shoots at something
others may never see,
and shares it with the world.

The artist doesn't ever see things as they are,
but rather through his own eyes
and if we're lucky enough
to stumble upon his work,
look deeply with your own eyes.

".......and what do you see?"



A couple times a day (if not more) I could sit upon the watery openness, just gazing at boats and water, as my thoughts float freely around me.



In truth, "We all live under the same sky,
 but we don't all have the same horizon."
- Konrad Adenauer

Have you stopped by Carmi's "Thematic Photographic" at Written Inc. yet?
What gave me the reason for this post?
This morning I was inspired by "restlessjo, from Roaming at home and abroad, (Johanna)" and her stunning photos and delightful stories (which includes a pirate legend) from Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire.


My photos are from abroad, Folkestone, England, but mostly the South of France.  Although, now thanks to Johanna, I have to plan another adventure, very soon.

Six Word Saturday - 17 March 2012

SIX WORD SATURDAY
     
Welcome to Six Word Saturday where Cate, from "Show My Face" blog asks us to share what's new in just six words.


I bet you thought I'd DESCRIBE what today is?

Or, that I'd BRING OUT the color GREEN?


But I'm not!




DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW
OUR SEASON?


Hint, it's mid March 2012, with temperatures in the 70's expected to reach the 80's.  Although, things aren't always as they seem. 

As seventeen year Abby (out for a swim) discovered in her bathing suit at a local lake coming back to shore with ice in her hand.  Her story featured on Thursday's front page in the StarTribune.  Complete with a smile, and I imagine goosebumps too.

               DNR state climatologist Pete Boulay said, "Unprecedented for March" the ice has vanished from three southern Minnesota Lakes this week.

PLEASE, don't let your common sense slip away too.  The lakes are extremely cold.  Just ask Abby who took her dip on Wednesday in Lake Nokomis.  Well gosh the group was hanging out at the beach as if they were on some exotic beach vacation!  Of course somebody had to go in!




Remember to bring all your boating gear if you go boating!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CAN  SOMEBODY
THROW  ME
A  PADDLE?

                                      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Okay, Happy You know what day it is today.  Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

If you feel like posting your side of what's happening, or just want to view more, please go here


http://www.showmyface.com/2012/03/six-word-saturday_17.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+showmyface+%28Show+My+Face%29

Thematic Photographic # 187 - Watery

Can you guess what our theme is this week?

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC




                     WATERY




Watery - relating to, containing or just soaked with water.

Or, watery could  mean,
"My eyes are watery after we say good-bye."



From the watery substance that spreads before us.....
do you see everything?

Or,

Is it just another illusion?   Can you make out the sky from the water and the sculpture between them both?  Could this just be another illusion?

If you were lucky enough to meet a swan, would you know what to say?
Or, would you let your meeting slip silently away?

Slipping off the shores of a watery parking lot, are you ready to venture out into these unknown waters before you?

Have you ever been sorry for parking in a NO PARKING

zone?

What is this thing called Watery today?

Why it's Carmi, from "Written Inc" blog who has called this week's theme

WATERY

MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL

BUT DO BRING MORE FOR US TO SEE

http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2012/03/thematic-photographic-187-watery.html