Inspiration

A Time To Dust, A Time To Watch, And A Time To Pale

Shelley

While I dusted, I pondered to myself. “Why is it that the items that Santa brought me are still in the boxes and collecting dust?”

I sprayed a paper towel with Windex and dusted them off.

“Dusting…dusting…dusting…it’s quite disgusting. Dearest Miss Shelley, to have a need for something purchased through Windows shopping on Amazon 3 months ago, yet to be used, sitting here collecting a pale dust is disgusting.”

The first draft is black and white. Editing gives the story color.

Emma Hill

I paused, snapped a photo of my silly self in the dust covered mirror and said, “At least you have time to figure out your blog post while you dust!” My mind wandered about how I should begin that post.

When one accepts their “word” for the year, one soon finds out how many opportunities to use that word befuddles them. That One is Me. (Duh) My befuddleness is my coddiwompleness paling in comparison to the complexity of my brain combining the 3 prompts for this week’s adventure in blogging. How’s that for an odd stream-of-consciousness sentence? ✅ Clearly Miss Shelley, there are better wordsmiths in the world of blogging.

Sometimes, I try too hard, and the answer is right there in front of me collecting dust.

Guess the first prompt yet? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). Here are some clues.

Cropped Vintage Filter (The earrings and two of the watches were my mom’s, and the small golden heart-shaped container holds a pearl necklace I wore at a friend’s wedding 35 years ago, so vintage fits. Yet, that’s not the prompt either.)

Cropped Film Filter, hmm…that’s interesting and kind of fun. The Guess watch needed a new wristband and the Gold Pulsar a new battery. Lucky for me our Downtown Jewelry Shop had both items. They’re an extra cool place for those who are Veterans – they change and give new batteries for free. We’re not Veterans, but our dads are so we know how much the free offerings & gratitude for their service mean to them.

Speaking of shopping, I wrote a grand post about our quaint downtown in 2018.

We walked the streets and Mr. helped me find decorated bicycles in our town including those found in the window displays.

I cropped that photo above in my camera as I was taking it. The rest I took can be seen by clicking that post here.

And of course, it wouldn’t be fun with photo editing without a black-and-white version, eh? Do you see my reflection where I’m standing above the items? My hair bun looks a bit like Minnie Mouse ears…

Later on when I asked Mr. for help ideas this week after I discovered the 3rd prompt, he said, “Well, you do Windows shopping on Amazon a lot.”

“Yeah, sigh…that is true. Thinking back to earlier in the day while I was dusting. I’ll see if I can incorporate that idea.”

Pre-pandemic I preferred in-person shopping on road trips with my kids – IKEA near the Mall of America was a favorite spot.

Now, from the comfort of my home, I find the convenience of clicking, buying, and shipping, just that – convenient. It has provided time to watch the birds’ window shopping for new places to land and find seeds to eat.

A second mourning dove added their feather imprint on the window this week.

Somehow they seem to bounce off and recover. With no photo editing below, this photo is straight out of the camera. The same photo became the header photo I cropped and edited with the Radiate filter and resized to Medium. That resizing seems to be a requirement in WordPress lately. 🤔

Not all window shopping by the birds is on our window feeder.

The little birds find the surfaces of the deck sprinkled with nuggets to eat plentiful and preferable. Especially, the house finches when it snows. Here is a Mr. Finch with a sunflower seed.

Unfortunately, one of the male finches paled compared to the swiftness of our neighborhood Sharp-Shinned Hawk. With one quick chase off the railing and a hard pounce on the deck, another photo-editing op appeared. How fast I acted to grab the camera and catch the moment was impressive for a 59-year-old. Just saying…

I cropped and edited the photo. I can’t deny that the pecking order is established in our neck of the woods.

On that note, “Should I have gone there?” It was a photo that I had to react fast to catch. And, yes, it looked more clear in the edited version.

The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.

Zadie Smith

Hmm…did I cover the prompts? Did I do them justice enough for you to distinguish all 3 of them?

It was fun to look back at photos I’ve taken over the years and reuse some. When I learned to crop in the camera instead of in post-editing, I capture photos that only need a wee bit of tweaking before sharing them (IMHO). It’s a blessing that I don’t have to learn another software or buy one. I deal with the simple and free limitations of the Windows version.

Does that mean my photo edits pale compared to other bloggers who know more about photo editing, YOU BET. Am I okay with that, YOU BET. My efforts get me to the end of a post! And I get to look at theirs on their blogs with awe!

Post Inspiration: Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “rhymes with ale.” Find a word that rhymes with ale, regardless of the spelling, and use it in your post. Enjoy! Terri Webster Schrandt’s Sunday Stills Feb 25 Fun with Photo Editing and Ritva for Lens-Artists #288 Window Shopping.

PS – Do you edit every photo you take? Do you rename them before uploading them to a post? Do you like to use new photos in each post or reuse old ones? Do you like window shopping in quaint towns? Where is your favorite place to shop? How often do you dust? Or is that too personal of a question? 🤣

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

57 thoughts on “A Time To Dust, A Time To Watch, And A Time To Pale”

  1. Hi Shelley, I do edit each photo I take in some way. Cropping or tuning the colors in the HDR app on the Mac is how I usually do this. You are very good at capturing birds! I feel bad for the Mourning Dove that hit the glass and glad that it survived. Poor babies… Have a great great new week, guys!

    1. Hi John! Glad you’re not in WP jail and can comment on blog posts.
      I remember that you watermark all of your photos so I figured you did do edits while you’re at it. I’m always impressed with your photos!
      Yeah, the birds have been a little to excited about flying into our windows. They’re easy to spot and are always up to something I think at the time is worthy to grab the camera for.
      We hope you have a great week too!

      1. Thanks! I think you meant IG jail, not WP. I’m glad we don’t have to be bothered with that crap on our blogs.

        1. You’re welcome. I did mean that I was glad there isn’t a WP jail to get trapped in too. I agree, I’m glad that doesn’t happen here in the blogosphere.

          1. And guess where I am again? Yep! And this time my crime was leaving three of these: ❤️❤️❤️ as a comment reply. IG is a broken piece of 💩

          2. That’s so odd, John, it’s almost like your account has been hacked or something! That happened to Mr. once and he had to create a whole new account. The old account is still out there, but is always blocked. 🤷🏻‍♀️

          3. I just don’t know exactly what is going on but I’m sick of it. It’s a good thing that I have a blog that is censorship free. I’m looking into other platforms and have begun removing thousands of posts.

          5. Well? I’ve wanted to remove thousands of posts so that is done now. I won’t be making many comments now. That’s how it happens. Someone or the algorithm is after me?

          6. That’s a productive way to deal with the unfortunate situation.
            The algorithms aren’t perfect that’s for sure! I think it’s more of a hacked account situation than really putting you in jail for heart comments.

          7. So I should change the password… wouldn’t hurt. But then if it’s hacked, that person could change the password and I’m locked out. Grr… it’s a good thing that it’s just social media, Shelley.

          8. I don’t know if you can change it if it has been hacked, have you tried? I also don’t know what happens. When my account was locked I reported it to IG and then waited 3-5 days before it was investigated by someone there and then it was magically restored. 🤷🏻‍♀️

          9. I haven’t tried to change the PW Shelley. I don’t believe it’s hacked. I’m a victim of a bad algorithm and a corporation that denies my free speech. Yet, I never spew political opinions or bad words at people. I’ve been on IG but not making any comments. Besides, I am blocked from that feature until the 4th of this month. So stupid.

  2. Good job on the triple prompts, Shelley. I like a curated tour of your current and previous photos. However you take them / crop them / edit them, they always look good and they add to the post. I don’t usually worry about whether my pictures go with the post, except for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. That’s also when I use photos from the archive instead. I do use project-specific photos when I blog about projects. And, now that my blog theme wants a “Featured Photo” I try to choose one that relates.

    I really like the photos with the watches. I hope you have a great week!

    1. Thank you for your feedback and input Dan. Your groove with the photos you use is well done and I enjoy seeing what you put in your galleries.
      I’m glad you liked the watch photos ⌚
      I hope you have a great week too! Thanks for the reminder from your post that we’ll be in March soon!

    1. Thank you, Rebecca, I appreciate your feedback 😊
      Yes, that Hawk, it’s been a frequent flyer here this spring. 🙄

  4. High fives you could combine three challenges this week, Shelley! I love your various edits especially the ones on the watches to antique them a little. Well done! Capturing birds through window is always a challenge, but oh, the poor finch. Oh well, hawk’s gotta eat 🙁

    Definitely resize your photos for WordPress media files. Even if you resize big ones, they will stay there and still take up space. I ended up deleted really old post and the media files along with them.

    Yes to your first three questions–I edit all my images for publication, I rename them with date tag and short title, and I reuse many photos on my blog. I got in the habit of dusting off (speaking of) older images in the media files and featuring for Wordless Wednesday. Have a great week!!

    1. Thank you, Terri. The watches were more fun than I thought they’d be.
      Yes, that’s what Mr. said when I showed him the photo of the hawk. 😥

      I think I have a setting that automatically optimizes and resizes the photos, but I could be wrong. I’m self-hosted so that makes a difference too I think. But my theme all of a sudden requires the feature photo to be resized or it doesn’t work. After all the changes in WP lately, I think I need to take your advice about cleaning up the blog space and updating where needed. I just hate to break things. 🤣

      Thank you for answering the questions and your input, it’s valuable for us to learn from each other! I hope you have a great week too – I can’t believe March is almost here!

  5. Hi Shelley. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s I loved shopping in record stores. But not many record stores exist anymore. These days I enjoy shopping in food markets. The huge varieties of products there kind of blow my mind.

    1. Hi Neal! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I love the record stores too. Our town had two of them. One downtown that also sold small pipes for those that smoked you know what, and one at the new mall. It was a large store there and it was so fun to browse there.
      That’s fun that you’ve adopted food as your new source of nourishing the vibes for entertainment. 😊

  7. oh no, the poor finch. It is what it is, I guess. Survival of the fittest. Now I feel kind of bad laughing at the swack against the window. Shopping. I love your street and the bikes you photographed. And oh…I admit to always buying something at IKEA. I never really need anything. I just love organization, and IKEA seems to know that. A nice post, Shelley. Loved the different moods the edits of the watches bring.

    1. Yes, that’s how I felt about the finch and hawk too. Mr. said, “We probably never even knew that was happening in the yard when we didn’t have a feeder on the deck.”
      Glad you enjoyed the photos. I was happy the watches worked out for photo editing.
      I could see you liking to organize and having fun at IKEA. The little window shopping like spaces showing how to use all their products fascinate me. I LOVE that store and I have to work hard at not buying too many things. 😉
      I enjoyed your take on the window shopping prompt – your photos are wonderful and your stories behind them make me smile!

  8. Once done there, come and dust my place….a never ending job living on a gravel road albeit 60 metres through the bush to the house but the dust still filters through.
    Good bird photos. The Hawk, well done old girl 😂

    1. Oh, my, that’s a lot of dust to deal with! While we’ve enjoyed our cozy wood fires this year, it’s been eye-opening how ‘dusty’ wood can be! I’ll book a flight your way one of these days and bring a dust cloth along. 😆
      Thank you for appreciating the back story to the hawk photo. I was darn quick to capture it, it was less than a minute before he flew off with the finch. 😉

  9. Well, you got your prompts lined up and done – good for you Shelley. I am glad I am not the only person who has Amazon boxes, yet unopened – I know I need to do better in the regard. I am also glad to know I am not the only person with a fine layer of dust in the house. My landline phone has its “information window” at a slant to make it easier to see. But, if you prefer, you can push it down flat. I was a little horrified today to see behind that window – OMG, probably not just dust, but dust bunnies and right next to where I sit some 10+ hours per day.

    Your mom’s earrings are the exact same as a pair I have. I need to wear earrings again – I’ve gotten lazy and just poke an earring in my ears every few weeks so the hole doesn’t close up.
    I was sorry to see the Dove made its imprint by smacking into the window … but it lived which is good. I was even sorrier to see the poor Finch that became the meal for the hawk – hard to justify the cycle of life sometimes isn’t it?

    As to your questions, no, I don’t edit my photos … no time to do that at all. I may crop them to make the image bigger or get rid of distractions like branches, but that’s it. I do rename the photos because I write my post in Word, then transfer it over to WP, so I put asterisks and the description or names of the photo in my Word doc to match the picture name – usually I use letters or numbers. I like to use new photos, but occasionally I use old photos if contrasting, but usually just “fresh photos” only. I really don’t go shopping anymore – sadly I look at my work clothes and accessories, once treasured items, now languishing on closets as I have opted to work from home. I don’t dust enough, but that will be changing soon.

    1. Yes, Linda, the prompts somehow came together. I wasn’t so sure I could pull it off. Thank you for the encouragement to do so.

      The items still in the box are ironically for taking care of the clothing I don’t wear that collects dust. It’ll be a fun post to write next month. Maybe…

      Thank you for the confessions about dust. It’s a real thing and I found dust that resembles your description too.

      I knew you’d feel sad about the birds, sorry. Since we put up the window feeder we’ve seen more of nature at work than ever before.

      That’s so cool that you have the same earrings. I don’t know the backstory on them, do you have one?

      I’m like you – working from home I don’t get to use the clothes very often, so why do I keep them or buy more? Vintage clothing is a hot item on Ebay/Etsy and I bet with your height you’d be able to find a niche in selling your collection easily? As if you need another project, right? 🤔😉 Your retirement is so close now, I can’t wait to see how much fun you have getting to things you want to do instead of what you’ve had to do. 😊🤗

      1. I was sitting here this afternoon and thought of you Shelley. From the time I got home and at work, I had multiple junk phonecalls. So I got one call, the caller ID was no one I knew and the screen on the info panel of the phone is large, so I often use it to look at the time (like the other three clocks and computer clock aren’t easier?) Anyway, suddenly it said 01/01 – 11:30 p.m. I got two more junk calls and it stayed the same … I pulled up the phone manual thinking the dust killed it as no low battery light was on – turned out spoof international calls can make your caller i.d. revert to the country of origin’s time … never hard of that … I watched and it is normal again. Still not convinced it’s not the dust. 🙂

        I do have those earrings – short ones like that and longer ones, both wires. I wore a lot of silver … so had a lot of silver earings. I just saw them, maybe when I was in the jewelry chest that is lined to keep them from tarnishing (when looking for my silver deer, frog and alligator pins)?

        I have not only tailored clothes, but after Robb/I moved to the new office, there was no dress code and I was wearing a lot of long skirts and tops, ballet-style tops, even my “horse skirt” and western top with beads. I do feel sad seeing those clothes. The accessories … jewelry and scarves defined me. What a waste of them all these years.

        I hate to give them away, even though I won’t work again – can’t see me getting “dolled up” to go to the Park or other parks though. 🙂

        1. I’m with you on thinking the dust may have something to do with it. That is odd though. Glad your caller id got back to the right time zone.

          The earrings were some that my mom had that my youngest took from her and then returned to me. They do tarnish if I’m not careful.

          Do you still fit in all the clothes? If so, you’ve accomplished something many people never do by the time they retire. You’re probably right, the critters at the park might not appreciate the nice outfits.

          On another note about the clothes, when a former boss of mine’s aunt died, she left behind stunning and very nice clothing. My boss found the local theater was interesting in many of the styles so she was able to donate them and they lived on in fancy style!

          1. Well, this problem persists with the phone Shelley and I have since taken a Swiffer duster to it. 🙂 It corrected itself, then the same (563) area code/unknown caller came in and it turned back to 01/04 15 hours earlier. Then today my boss called three or four times and I thought it would correct itself, but it has not. I am annoyed – maybe I’ll pick up tomorrow and say it is a work-at-home job and I can’t tie up the lines. What I don’t understand is why I look at that clock so much – there are three clocks and the computer clock, yet I look at that clock and I didn’t realize I was such a habitual clock watcher. 🙂

            My mom had a pair as well and they were smaller than mine, but she was petite. They were comfortable – I have some earrings that I wore once and they were too heavy and bothered my ears, these did not.

            That is a good idea about the clothes. Hmm. I loved my long skirts and slouch boots look … I had a dark green suede skirt and a bulky pullover that I really liked a lot.

          2. It’s easy to become a clock watcher, especially when it is malfunctioning. I’ve heard that robot calls continue to call back when the phone is answered. If it keeps ringing for however long it takes they stop calling. 🤷🏻‍♀️

            I’m with you on avoiding earrings that are too heavy. I don’t know how anyone wears big heavy ones!

            Sorting clothing is a fun project when you have a destination to give it to. I have a box that I sorted last year at this time…I’m going to be brave and not peak in it to see if I want to rescue anything from it before donating it. 🤔😏

          3. It is weird with the phone Shelley. I got about 12 calls today: boss five, computer guy one and the other six robocalls. In between, someone calls and the caller ID is fine, then another call, doesn’t matter if I pick up or not, it reverts back to the strange date. When it began doing this it was a date of 01/04 and now it is 01/06, but still 15 hours behind. Twilight Zone stuff here.

            I loved earrings, hoops especially and had some white enamel ones that I finally gave up wearing them as they just pulled my ear lobe down too much.

            I have to ask Ann Marie first – she does a lot for her church and may know someone. Before Covid, Ann Marie used to volunteer every day doing something – nursing home a couple of times a week, plus she taught Sunday School and used to work at a soup kitchen in Southwest Detroit every Monday. She went to HFCC (where I went and mentioned it with the Laurel and Hardy gig the other day) and wanted to learn Spanish as all the volunteers were Mexican and she wanted to communicate with those other volunteers. I will have a lot more room in my closets upstairs and downstairs … yes, how did other people live in this house besides me?

          4. Maybe your phone it trying to adjust to the Leap year? 🤔

            I found that my favorite go-to earrings are pearls this year. Or hoops that I wore in high school. Classics, right?

            Your place is going to look so different when you’re retired and focusing on what you want there and don’t want there. It’ll be dreamy 🤩😊

          5. I can hardly wait to be able to lay my hands on anything in a few seconds … it has been a long time since I could do that. I have my mom’s pearls. You are right Shelley – pearls and hoops are timeless.

            Today the phone has behaved. I woke up and it was still “off”, then I got a ton of calls today and it seemed to keep it from reverting to this earlier date which is really annoying to me the phone clock watcher (bizarre, since there are four clocks besides the computer to look at – I forgot about one of them … but most of them are off. The stove clock I have to turn around to look at it.

  10. Loved the watches – I need to try something similar. Thanks for the inspiration. the windows with bikes and how you cropped the images was done stylishly and and I love to convert my images to black and white – so kudos to you for a crisp photo of the watches. As to shopping – ikea is not my cup of tea, at some point I decided that I am not buying chipboard furniture. I like smaller stores that you find in small towns and cities

    1. Hi Ritva, thank you for sharing your input. I’m glad the watches and bikes sparked some inspiration. Your B&W comment reminds me that I should switch my camera to that setting and play around again. I like it better straight out of the camera that way versus using a filter in Windows.
      I agree on the furniture from IKEA. I have a lot of antique furniture, and the pieces outshine the chipboard furniture for sure! I like their containers for plants and some of their textiles. I wish we had more smaller stores around where I live. You’re lucky you have places like that to support.
      Thank you for hosting the challenge this week – well done for your first round of doing so!

  11. Poor little finch…I know hawks have to eat too but still….

    I edit my photos more often than not, eith with the Mac editor or Fotor and I do enjoy playing with the different effects.

    1. Yes, that’s how I feel about the finch/hawk situation.

      Thanks for sharing how you handle photographs. Yours are always so nice so your efforts pay off well.

  12. The Zadie Smith quote about how to be a better writer is spot on. I enjoy editing words, but get more frustrated editing photos. I do it, but there is a lot of swearing involved. I like how you changed your watches photo, very cool.

    1. Hi Ally – ah, yes, you and Zadie think a lot alike based upon the quote. You are a gifted wordsmith. Ooh…swearing, I love those moments. 😉 Perhaps the challenges of photo editing can be a way to unleash pop in visits of your sparky snarky side? 🤔😆
      I’m glad you enjoyed the watch photos 🥰

  13. Great captures…I love what you said at the end about being okay when something weve done pales in comparison to someone else, and it doesn’t mean what we’ve done is wrong even…just different experiences and perspectives.

    1. Thank you Kirstin, I appreciate your feedback. I enjoyed your take on the prompt too. You play with the photo editing tools well, congrats! 🤩

  14. Hello friend, I enjoyed your peaceful post. I subscribed. See you often. Have a happy and bright day🌙💫🔆😸

  15. Gosh! There was a lot in this post! Those doves are so beautiful! I didn’t know they had blue/grey on them like that. Your town is quite cute. Looks like a nice place to live. Could’ve done without the “circle of life” moment, but that’s ok. Yes, I do process every photo I take. 98% of them it’s just resize & therefore sharpen. Some get some extra brightness/contrast or cropping. I can’t imagine how far behind I’d be if I did more. 🙂

    1. Hi! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The doves are so pretty. Until I started taking photos of them I didn’t realize their beauty either.
      The town is quaint and is working hard to revive after the pandemic.
      Sorry about the circle of life photo. It is what happens and when the moment is there to capture, I grab the camera. 😏
      That’s good to know you take a similar approach to editing that I do. I definitely would be so behind if I did more!
      PS – I enjoyed your take on the prompt – very clever!!

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