O Christmas Tree

 

Inside Christmas tree. Photo by Ernest Kirchman

O Christmas Tree!
(O Tannenbaum!)

O Christmas Tree is a traditional German Carol. The author of the lyrics is unknown, as is the composer of the music. The tradition of bringing a tree inside and decorating it with candy, baubles and bells was started in the nineteenth century and is immortalized in the carol O Christmas Tree.

Below is a picture of the Christmas tree outside our front deck.  My hubby and I both love this pic and want to share it with you, along with our Christmas wishes for a blessed day, followed by an outstanding new year.

 

A tree born to be a natural Christmas tree. Photo by Ernest Kirchman.

 O Christmas tree video and lyrics

Rugged Fall Trail

This is not actually my pic, but I have traveled paths like this.  This particular one was provided by my favorite desktop wallpaper place called Your Daily Escape at www.away.com.  A  travel site, they have fabulous pics from all around the world, but mainly from wonderful North America.

Trail in the Sierra Nevadas

Here’s what Your Daily Escape has to say about it:

An Empty Fall Trail

Granite cliffs, three-story trees, and 14,000-foot mountains might make hikers feel Lilliputian in the Sierra Nevada landscape. But that is exactly the point. Escape city life on the 211 challenging miles of the John Muir Trail, named for the founder of the Sierra Club, to see three national parks, two wilderness areas, and countless rugged vistas. In early September, the summer crowds and mosquitoes have dispersed, but the days are still warm.

Certainly part of North American grandeur and eminently worthy as an entrant in the weekly photo challenge of “Path.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring

Welp, today is the first full day of Spring, and I was baffled.  I really want to take my own pictures for this challenge, and believe me…challenged I was.  Yet with my journalistic background, I felt I had to tell the truth.  So, going with my instincts, I am portraying a contrast for your enjoyment.  Here is where a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Springtime in the Netherlands

And now, on the other side of the world is the contrast.

 

Springtime in Saskatchewan

The above pic is kind of misty.  This is because there is snow falling, but you can’t see the flakes in this pic.  Hence the following closeup.

 

 

I seem to be having trouble inserting links below in the related links area, so I will manually add them below.  There are tons of beautiful and unusual spring pictures this week.

 

Related Links

Dorky Deb’s Blog – Deb – Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring – (dorkydeb.com)

Huffygirl’s Blog – Huffygirl – Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring – (huffygirl.wordpress.com)

Inside-Out -Marge Katherine Mercurio – Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring – (mkmercurio.wordpress.com)

Panicmonster.com – Panicmonster – Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring – (panicmonster.com)

Passionate About Pets – Barb – Weekly Photo Challenge – Spring – (passionateaboutpets.wordpress.com)

Spirit Lights the Way – Nancy Hatch – Photo Challenge Spring – (nrhatch.wordpress.com)

Summerfield84’s English Blog – Summerfield84 – Week Photo Challenge: Spring – (ensummerfield84.wordpress.com)

The Practical Dilettante – Seonaid – Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring – (thepractical dilettante.com)

What’s Bugging Me Today – Classy Rose – or not – Weekly Photo Challenge| Spring in Purple – (whatsbuggingmetoday.wordpress.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

First off, I have to say I am really enjoying the categories that WP is picking for us.  They give us scope to use our imagination but also some direction so we aren’t bouncing off the walls.  Good job!

I am including two photos for “Home,” although if we can only have one that counts it will be this next one:

Home is where the heart is! Photo: Sandra Bell Kirchman

A lot of the above is symbolic.  Shown here are the three features that make my home…my husband’s chair, made specially for big men (he is 6’4″ and weighs 270 lbs.).  When he stretches out on it, all three of our dogs–Ling Ling (pictured), Oreo, and Tilly Tot–jump up and he is covered in a living blanket of dog.  Finally, there’s the plant that was the scary monster in last week’s “Shadows.”  Not so scary now 🙂  All in all, my heart is filled with my husband, my dogs, and beautiful plants.  That’s home.

This next one I added because really, a kitchen is the heart of any home.  This is where I usually entertain visitors who just drop in, where we eat most of our meals, where my husband and I often have a snack and chat at night before bedtime; and where I feed the dogs twice a day.  I also love my kitchen.

Home is where the heart is and the kitchen is the heart of the home. Photo: Sandra Bell Kirchman

Related Articles

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Curiosity (fantasyfic.wordpress.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadows

This photo was taken in my livingroom.  It looks like a blurred picture of a plant, but actually it is the shadow on the wall of the plant.  The sun is low in the western sky and coming in the big picture window, casting the two upright bars (out of three) and the plant (which is right under the window) on the far wall.  I found it a fascinating picture.  Even though I know the shadow is about 10 feet away from the actual object, I have a hard time assimilating that from the photo.

Afternoon shadows on a yellow wall. Photo: Sandra Bell Kirchman

As for the fantasy aspect of this photograph, I think it looks spooky, like something you might see in a haunted house.  The plant might be semi-sentient.  Perhaps the abode housed an evil woman who talked to herself constantly and fed the blood of creatures she caught to the plant.  Her last act was to attempt to kill an old man, homeless, and without money.  She figured no one would come looking for him, so it would be safer.  However, a young man looked out for the old man and came looking.  He found the body of the old man and the body of the evil old woman.  There were strange blood tracks leading away from the window and up to an open door where they disappeared into the thick grass.

The police were called and came to investigate but couldn’t quite figure out who had killed whom and how the body of the old man landed on top of the woman.  They thought the woman must have killed the old man.  They called for the Crime Investigation Unit, questioned the young man thoroughly satisfied that he was innocent.  As he walked home, he thought he heard a strange rustling noise.  The wind picked up and decided it was just the wind.  Or was it?

How about you?  What fantasy story do you see in the picture?