‘Tis the season to wax nostalgic – this one is dedicated to my maternal grandparents and their annual journey across the Painted Desert during a time when not many thought doing such things prudent.
Tag: memories
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Comfort Food
more please!
The Inscrutable Dr. Fu is taking full advantage of the freedom to experiment in my kitchen and likes to put her own twist on what she jokingly refers to as “white people” food. Who am I to complain when presented with these little treats?
This week’s culinary foray is NSFKids homemade Jello made from fresh strawberry-raspberry juice and a liberal splash of vodka topped with a lovely little strawberry mint garnish straight from the garden.
The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge just knows that there are tasty tidbits and go-to dishes that make you go aaaahhhh …
“Do you have a favourite childhood treat?” Feel free to leave your two cents about the most delicious of your Comfort Foods in the comments…
We would love to see your vision.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
- Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
- If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
So much for Sunday
Happy Thanksgiving – Canadian, eh?
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Contrasting Colors
we are both to blame
me for not asking
and you for not telling
now the truth is lost
◎
See the contrast in the entries of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Contrasting Colors
Travel Theme: Rivers
will you remember
this moment
picture postcard perfect?
♒︎
Take a cruise on the entries in Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Rivers.
The Big 5 – Who did you listen to?
when it all comes flooding back
Across the Bored was trying to recall the details of certain past events the other day and was surprised that, despite their importance, some had faded into near-nothingness. It’s not that they weren’t there, or had not been documented in many different ways, it was that they didn’t seem to rank particularly high without some sort of prompt to bring them back into focus. Recollection can be an odd lot, with some images and feelings so vivid that no matter how old they are they stay right in the front of the crammed filing cabinet of our memory – others, sadly, wind up jammed beneath the drawers and only surface when we do a good cleaning.
Conversations with three very different and unconnected people reminded us of this; that our memories, and in turn our perceptions of each day, are very much dependent on where we are on the curve. Our circles of influence rely much on what is floating in and out, which faces take on more significance, whose words drop into the bucket of our consciousness, even which melody informs our mood. As young adults, our lives were filled with an exotic newness and they played out against a changing soundtrack – we said sad goodbyes to the Woodstock era but still rebelled against the mainstream with a vengeance and were then hit in the face with an alternative 80s wake-up call that, yes indeed, the electricity needed to be paid and it was us holding the bill. A word, slogan or song had much impact on the direction we took, be it for that day or the coming years and so has prompted this fortnight’s Big 5 Challenge that asks:
“Who did you listen to?” – Parents or peers, punk or piano, the beat of your heart or steps in the street, politicians, revolutionaries, strangers that you’d meet…
We would love to know who influenced your youth.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- I will post some commentary such as the above on one of the five Ws (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN or WHY and sometimes HOW) and then ask you to respond on the same.
- Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a reply in the comment box, in a new post with a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
- Challenge yourself to dig deep for an answer.
- The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Big 5 Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “The Big 5 Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
- If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Big 5” challenge on your own blog.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on The Big 5 Challenge page.
- Remember to Follow to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned
some things are harder to find again
than others
dim trails, lost places
those faint glimmers
of ideas and dreams
faded laughter and plans
gone dry as the paper
they were scribbled on
promises dated
like scratchy mix tapes
abandoned by the not right now
in the hopes of later
∓
Find something to remember in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Treasure
our treasures are less about
the thing itself
than the memory of what was
♞
Every little bit counts in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Treasure.
Travel Theme: Relaxing
once upon a year
it seemed calming
to rip out pages
sort and file away
all manner of beauty
those bits that made us laugh
told us something of ourselves
the places we had been
or wanted to run to
in dreams that seemed
to stretch on forever
Now
like some archivist forsaken
there does not seem much use
for such a Paper burden
relevant to few
for desire has changed
the face
of what we wish to save
and rest comes
only in the moment
that we let go
✄
Take a minute to appreciate the entries of
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Relaxing.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Size – Week 2
even perugina told us to share the love big
How many of us remember being little? We all have some moments that stand out, larger than life, be they good or bad, joyous or heartbreaking, the snippets of time and sound, smell and taste that all come together to cast a long shadow on who we have become. We colour them accordingly and they are often seen through a lens that casts a particular light – soft focus, panorama, macro even fish-eye.
No matter what our memories of being a kid are, we seem to remember an awful lot of them as looking up – staring up at adults’ odd faces, up at towering shelves in stores, up at tall trees and huge clouds and endless skies on those days when life couldn’t seem to get any better or even any worse. Everything looked so much larger than it actually was. In those days, big held the promise of better – the biggest bear to cuddle, the big birthday cake we had anticipated, even that big box of chocolates you might be allowed to have two from, but many years down the road this particular adjective has come to be loaded.
We tend to look at the enormity of something in more complicated terms and much gets blown way out of proportion when really it ought not to be – yes, it was a big mistake to not tell the hairdresser to put down the scissors when we realized he was becoming manic, no, the gigantic drama over youthful fashion dilemmas are not worth getting involved in and perhaps, just maybe, the sheer volume of what we carry with us like some great titanic baggage should just be dropped in the ocean of our experience and cast away. It might do us all good to realize that small and less is not such a bad thing after all. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Size – it all depends on your vantage point.
Last week, Across the Bored surmised that everything is relative – “What does size mean in your world?” – Big cats or little hats, too tight rants or too loose pants, babies in arms with teeny toes, the aristocratic line of a Roman nose, change enough to fill the sky or small wonders that make you sigh … We would love to see your vision.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.
Travel Theme: Flow
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Heritage
where life took one along a narrow path
It must have been a wonderful day to let all thought of work and responsibility slide softly away on the sweet summer air, to take a hamper of cold meat, berries and pound cake, a few pints of lager and a pot for boiling tea down to the quarry, to sit in the warmth of the sun and talk of love and dreams and plans and maybe even… escape. To have the whole of time ahead spread out like a silky blanket where one could rest on bent elbow, gaze on delicate wildflowers and listen to the poet’s voice lull. For one afternoon.
Little has survived, the names lost on the lips that once uttered them freely, the homestead vanished to circumstance and the landscape to the passage of time and industry but the few photographs that remain are as clear as the day they were taken. The stories they tell belong to us and like The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge surmises, the importance we attach to them becomes our – Heritage.
“How does heritage look to you?” – A stately building on the street, long-lost cousins that you meet, a silver tea pot or favourite recipe, a packet of heirloom seeds or string of coloured beads…
We would love to see your vision.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
- Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
- If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Travel Theme: Mystical
Soft moss a downy pillow makes, and green leaves spread a tent,
Where Faerie fold may rest and sleep until their night is spent.
The bluebird sings a lullaby, the firefly gives a light,
The twinkling stars are candles bright, Sleep, Faeries all, Good Night.
~Elizabeth T. Dillingham, “A Faery Song”
Transcendence can come upon us in the oddest places – a youth production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream many years ago bestowed a few such moments. Enlighten yourself at Travel Theme: Mystical.
Travel Theme: Soft
With the muted tones of a Turner painting, London through the fog and mist beckons the weary traveller. Discover more at Travel Theme: Soft.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine
Well, this pretty much sums it up…
All the best intentions were laid waste for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine when the camera to be used stated in incontrovertible and eerily prescient terms “Warning! Battery is exhausted.” Another device could have been used but time, like usual, being of the essence necessitated a reformulation of an answer to “What is mine?”
A list was tallied and the results were surprising:
- Jewellery (good and otherwise) – not since Miss Z has reached an age where she can be trusted not to lose or break any of it
- Shoes – the dog would argue otherwise
- Clothing – much of it is only temporarily in the closet
- Art that is hanging around – anything collected usually belonged to someone else and will eventually be handed down to another
- Books – we are librarians at best
- Photos, slides, film and assorted media – has turned into a family affair with more than one person disputing ownership of a work that resulted from multiple cameras all in the same place at the same time
- All that stuff in the warehouse – at least 75% of it is definitely not mine
- All that stuff in the studio – we won’t go there today
- Money – in one hand out the other
- the Dog – he is his own master as he seems to do as he pleases
- the Ancestors – claimed by a large crew some known some not
So what is really mine? Memories, all those those crazy ideas, lazy day dreamings and creative brainwaves, world-changing inventions formulated but never realized, brilliant musings and flashes of genius; everything I ever learned or heard or read about rolling around in my skull. Knowledge.
ACROSS THE BORED 