Gobble gobble

It's that time of year again! That glorious day when one can stuff themselves silly. THANSKGIVING! I came across a cute Thanksgiving cartoon earlier today. To see it, CLICK HERE. (Okay, that says something about my sense of humor, doesn't it.)

Whether eating turkey or tofurkey or something entirely differently, I wish all my friends and family in the United States a wonderful Thanksgiving feast and a great day of togetherness.. We celebrated last year but this year we celebrated St. Martinstag at the beginning of the month. It only seems fair to alternate traditions. I did, however, bake some sweet potatoes last week. They were tasty.

I also took part in a Gratitude Quilt created by Laura over at Shine the Divine: Creativity is a Spiritual Practice. She asked people to tell her what they are thankful for, right there at that moment, and she strung them all together for Thanksgiving. Over 222 people (from every continent except Antarctica) have taken place. To see it, CLICK HERE.

If you are reading this, I am thankful that you stopped by. I'll be double thankful if you leave a comment. Tell me what your menu is today or what you are doing today or what you love or hate Thanksgiving or a special memory of Thanksgiving or your favorite food on this day or what you are thankful for or...well, you get the idea. Tell me whatever you want related to Thanksgiving and then go have a good gobble gobble time.

100/100 - Finished

This is my last post for the 100 Days of Summer Project. I hope you've enjoyed my photos.

I've finished.

© Linda Hofke, 2012

Some of the other participants are continuing the project with 100 Days of Fall/Winter, but I've already committed to other things in November and December is always a crazy month. Perhaps I will join in again in the Spring.

99/100 - Wolfach

In my last post I showed you a few night shots of Wolfach. Here is what it looks like during the day.

© Linda Hofke, 2012

 

On Saturday we were blessed with beautiful weather, perfect for motorcycle riding and hiking.

© Linda Hofke, 2012

Unfortunately, we spent Sunday riding home in the rain. My motorcycle jacket and pants are waterproof. Whereas some complained their hands were wet and stained from their gloves, mine were fine. But my feet! My boot sucks! I hadn't thought to bring boot covers. My socks and feet were soaking wet.

95-98/100 - Motorcycle Trip

Two weekends ago we went on our annual motorcycle trip. It was a small group this year-- just 5 couples and no children. Originally we started these trips in order to visit all the Michelaus in Germany (and one in Luxembourg). Now that we've accomplished that goal we just pick any town or festival. This year we were in Wolfach. On Friday night after dinner we all took a walk around town. Of course, I had my camera along. This is the view from the bridge at night. Doesn't it look beautiful?

© Linda Hofke, 2012

Next to the bridge were lamposts. This one caught everyone's eye, because it was decorated with threads of spider web all around it.

© Linda Hofke, 2012

If you look closer you can see that there were several large spiders in there. 

© Linda Hofke, 2012

 

Here is a close-up of one of them. It seems this town doesn't need to decorate for Halloween. The spiders have done the work for them.

© Linda Hofke, 2012

 

Like I said in an earlier post (click here to read it), those spiders seem to be everywhere.

93-94/100 - Autumn leaves

Rusty reds brighten the town.

Eventually they will all turn brown.

89-92/100 - Autumn Apples

I took these pictures at the Apfelmarkt in Rudersberg.

Aren't they colorful?

And at an apple festival what else would you use for a vase?

 

Autumn is apple time!

These are some of the apples we picked from our own apple tree. Yummy! Time for Apfelstrudel. Apple galette. Baked apples. Cinnamon apple crisp. Apple sauce...

87-88/100 - Watch your Step

I spotted this mosaic while walking in the pedestrian area in Aalen. If you look at the upper left hand side of the photo you can see the corner of another. There were several in a row.

Here is another.

I wish I'd taken pictures of the others.

86/100 - Branching out

I love trees. Especially gnarly trees.

As soon as I saw this tree I had to take a picture. I like the way the branches extend. I played around with a few different effects. This is just one of them. I am keeping my favorite just for me.

85/100 - Rudi

One of our neighbors has a few goats. The one in the foreground is called Rudi. I love the way he looks with his beard and long horns.

Sometimes when we go walking in the hills they are out grazing. The other goats usually ignore us, but Rudi always comes over to say hello.

81-84/100 Going Grunge

Here is the photo I posted yesterday. It was taken when we were at Olympic Park im Munich, Germany.

I thought I'd have a little fun and grunge it up a bit.

Grunge effect number 12:

Grunge effect number 9:

Grunge effect number 11:

And grunge effect number 1:

Which one do you like best?

80/100 - Olympic Park

Outside at Olympic Park (Munich, Germany)

77-79/100 - Beyond the Hamster Wheel

Did you see my last post of the human hamster wheel? If not, you can see it by clicking THIS LINK.

Here are more old pics from the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

In the music room...

with a big guitar 

and a giant xylophone.


Also a photo from another area of the museum...

the transport section.

76/100 - Being a Hamster

Another old photo:

          taking a spin on the hamster wheel.

at The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany

75/100 - Surprising Scenery

Found on the side of the road.

74/100 - On the Go

Often on a Sunday we go hiking or bicycle riding, either alone or with friends. Somewhere along the way we find a park or just a bench to enjoy our packed lunch.

In looking through old files I came across this photo. Year ago we used to frequent this place often with another family. It's only about a half hour ride from home so it was easy for the children to bike out there. Some of them would then play in the creek there.

 I'd almost forgotten about it. I am glad I take so many photos. They serve as my second memory bank.

73/100 - Stefl and Lindl

Instead of Hansel and Gretel...Stefl and Lindl. Don't we look silly?

72/100 - Cat/ch Me if You Can

71/100 - Giddy Up!

I was looking through old photographs and found this pic of our former neighbors' horse.

70/100 Blume/Biene

This photo was taken in Rudersberg.

69/100 Mid-September

It's that time of year. In Michelau everyone is harvesting their apples.

68/100

This is a close-up of a moth on on window. It was night-time and rainy.

67/100 - Pesty

I am expanding upon my last blog post for my day 67. The post is at my other blog. Press here to read it.

Thanks!

58-66/100 - Closer and closer and closer

They are everywhere.


At first you don't see them.


But then you get a closer look.






                                                               Yep. There it is.

                                                          Want an even closer look?

 

A spider. Those darn things spin a web wherever they please and if you aren'tpaying attention, you'll walk right into it and end up with web in your hair.

 
Or you'll end up with this crawl-crawl-crawling in your hair.

We have a spider in our front garden that likes to spin his web from the top of the yucca plant over to the bush. No matter how often one sweeps the web away, the next morning it will be there again. I just don't bother anymore. It isn't doing any harm there. Live and let live, right? Anyway, I am not afraid of spiders.

I just don't like them spinning webs inside or in unusual places like my driver's side door. See it there attached to the mirror? Not a very good place to make a home. Especially at the speeds we travel.  

Once again, let's get a closer look.

There he (or she) is, just hanging around, waiting for food to fly onto my car door.

              

Silly spider. You haven't caught anything there. The only thing on your web is your shadow.

I felt sorry for it. Before driving away I used a twig to break the web and transport him to a more suitable home. Live well, little spider. Outside. If you come inside, my daughter will probably kill you with a very big shoe.

I wonder what it is doing now?

Ketchup, please!

Yikes! I've been AWOL from blogging and from the 100 Days of Summer project. And I am now....gulp!....about 28 days behind.I'll have to do a bit of creative finagling in order to catch up. Or ketchup as my friends say jokingly.

For instance, what about if I do one picture several ways and count them separately. Or post a few related pics based on a common theme. Or snap a a few shots on sport mode and post them as a sequence. Or I could write a short story or poem instead, though that would take more time and I am already so far behind.

Okay, then. Today I choose...

a photo several ways.

Here is the original photo of flowers in my garden.

Then if I wanted I could do some underpainting and give it a rounded frame. Those are simple changes that would make it look like this.

If, perhaps, I am a Georges Seurat fan, I might want to experiment with just a tad bit of pointillism and add a different frame.

Or to stray more from the original photo, we could change the coloring all together. How about yellow tones?

I could be patriot and use a mix of red, white and blue.

With a color pinhole and a bit of double- (or triple) vision, the photo can become this.

And to make a drastic change so that the bee in the original photo can no longer be recognized, we can go more extreme on the pointillism with very large dots and less detail.

 Now we have seven variations. I am counting this as days 51 through 57 and posing the following questions.

1) Which of the photos do you like best AND why?

2) Which do you think is my favorite?