Tentative love

Usually on Monday I participate in Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge.  But Sally will be not only cyber-free but visiting relatives this week, so there’s no challenge.  Instead, I thought I’d share a photo I took earlier this year along Naperville’s Riverwalk, a lovely length of pavement that winds through the downtown.  I took my camera and sat on a bench, waiting to see who or what came by.  This meeting brought a smile to my face.  The little boy wanted to pet the dog but as you can see, he was a bit cautious.

Do you prefer color or black and white?

Hands full

It’s Friday night and I’m still somewhat under the weather, needing to go to bed.  I thought I’d share this photo from the recent Fall Festival at our church.  This little girl had her hands full and she was having fun.

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Portraiture…Indian Independence Day

Our city has a large Indian (Asian) population and our church has an Indian ministry. Every year, we host a celebration for Indian Independence Day.  This year’s festivities featured the most adorable children acting and dancing and as I’ve been edging into more portraits or people photography, I decided to go in that direction for this week’s challenge.  Here’s one of the shots from that day.  Do you prefer it in color or black and white?

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Challenger’s Choice…Sugar and spice and everything nice

I rarely venture into portraiture, but this little girl on the plane caught both my eye and my camera. I offer her as the subject for “Challenger’s Choice” and hope you find her as cute as I did.  (Even though it appears that Mom is wearing a nun’s habit or something similar, it’s only the seat back.)

Feel free to join in the challenge if you like to take photos with any non-traditional camera.  We’re a friendly group and always enjoy new company. A link to Sally’s site will be here once she’s put up her post, approximately 8 am EST.

Friday Fictioneers–Black Friday

One hundred words aren’t many to tell a story.  Yet every week, a large group of authors gather to try to do just that, then share their stories with other authors and readers.  We call ourselves Friday Fictioneers, as the photo prompt used to be posted on Friday.  Now it’s posted early Wednesday morning (at least in the US) and the stories come fast and furious, continuing throughout the week.  If you’d like to read more stories, click on the blue critter at the end of my story.  If you want to participate, go to the site of Rochelle, our hostess, read the “rules”, write and post your story.

copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Black Friday

“Fran, let’s go to the fitting room.”

No answer.

I turned around. No little blonde-headed girl. Trying not to panic, I scanned the store.

“Francesca?”

Nothing.

Mouth dry, I hurried to the front of the store, perusing the crowds clogging the street. No chance of spotting one five-year-old. Frantic, I pulled out my cell, started punching 9-1-1.

“Mommy.”

I whirled.
Nothing.

“Fran?”

“Mommy, can you find me?”
“No, honey. Where are you?”

Her blonde head popped out from under the circular clothes rack. “You couldn’t find me!”
“No, honey, I couldn’t.”

Torn between relief and anger, I simply hugged her.

Friday Fictioneers: Perspective

Friday Fictioneers
Janet Webb

Eyes observe photo
Tumbling thoughts settle into
One-hundred word story

Copyright Adam Ickes

Perspective

“Grandma, how come you can’t take your teeth out at night like Eddie’s Oma?”

“Grandma, how come your hair’s white?”

“Grandma, why do we pray “Halloween be Thy name?”

“Grandma, why does he have earrings in his lip?”

“Grandma, can I get a puppy?”

“Grandma, why can’t we have purple grass?

“Grandma, don’t run so fast. I can’t keep up!”

“Grandma, you smell nice.”

“Grandma, I’ll be five tomorrow. How old are you?”
“I’m sixty, honey.”
“Grandma! How many is sixty? That’s OLD!!”
“It all depends on your perspective, Riley.”
“Do I have ‘spective, Grandma?”
“You will, dear; you will.”

********

(“Oma” is a word for “grandmother” in German and Dutch.)

(For another look at “Perspective”, take a look at my post on this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge.)

I’m not sure why the WordPress gremlins are at work, but the little blue link critter doesn’t want to show up in my post. But you can click on the boring link below to find links to the other stories.

An InLinkz Link-up

Still only a penny!

When I was a child, the grocery stores had these horses and for a time, they were as close as I got to a real horse. If you live near a Meier store, your children can still ride for one cent!

Friday Fictioneers–Lavender Blue

How many years does it take for children’s songs to fade from your brain?  The answer seems to be an infinite number, so choose those songs carefully!  Our girls loved Sharon, Lois, and Bram and one of the songs they sang comes from Burl Ives and before him from folk song history.  It’s called “Lavender Blue” and the lyrics and lovely melody SL&B sang have been in my head all these years.  It inspired the title of this week’s story.

If you’re new to Friday Fictioneers, each week on Wednesday, a number of addicted writers wait with great anticipation for the photo prompt selected by our hostess-with-the-most-ess, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.  We then cudgel our brains a/o wait for the muse to strike us (hard), then craft our stories for the week with the best hundred words we can choose.  If you’d like read more stories, click on the little blue guy at the end of my story, sit back, and enjoy. Feel free to “like” and comment too. We writers love interaction with our readers. And if you’d like to join, the door’s always open.

 

copyright Sandra Cook

Lavender Blue

Lavender perfumes the patio where we linger over déjeuner with local wine, basking in the sun, relishing food chosen at the village market.

Once children are gone, it’s time to move on.  We took “move” literally, leaving the town where we’d lived and had a child.  Choosing Provence had been easy, finding the house more difficult. This house attracted us with its quirky sculpture. It remains a now-bearable reminder of the tricycle David was riding when the drunk driver’s car jumped the curb, hitting him as he joyously wheeled along the sidewalk.

Lavender perfumes the urn tucked in the garden.

.

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

Lavender Blue
(Sharon, Lois and Bram)

 Lavender’s blue
Dilly dilly
Lavender’s green
If I were king
Dilly dilly
You’d be my queen

Who told you so
Dilly dilly
Who told you so
I told myself
Dilly dilly
I told me so

How it all began

I may have inherited my love of horses from my dad because I don’t remember a time when I haven’t loved horses. I knew where all the horse books in our library were and I read them all. I think I learned to ride through reading those books, because I didn’t take any lessons, but I seemed to know how to ride instinctively.

I wanted nothing more than a horse. I wanted one enough to put up with, and enjoy, the occasional rides to no- much-of -on bored horses at a nearby stable, rides where the horse couldn’t be forced into a trot without massive amounts of kicking. I didn’t get a horse until much later but one day someone came by our house with a pony and my parents paid for my brother and me to have our pictures taken on it.  That is definitely a look of pure happiness!

The Christmas bottle

I know some of you (Randy, Rich, probably Ted) have tuned in thinking, “Wow, a story about getting plastered at Christmas!”   Much as I hate to disappoint you, it isn’t that sort of story.  And no one even got pounded (fortunately.)