Trashy Treasure?

  Living on the water gives us no end of items that have either been lost or tossed by hapless people.  All sorts of things wash up to the pier or into the marsh.  While I try to "fish" out most of the things simply to keep the shoreline clear, it is a never-ending process.  It is understandable during stormy weather as the tidal surge wreaks havoc on the opposite shore causing our side to be the recipient of whatever has fallen to the wrath but the everyday stuff is a tad confusing.  Just outside of my reach is (or was, at one time) a perfectly good tarpaulin.  (Yes, I am still one of those folks that use the proper name for the covers.  Most call them "tarps".)  It washed into the marsh and has since been ripped to pieces.  On the other side of the pier, someone obviously lost their shirt.  A white T-shirt wafts proudly like a flag on a clump of marsh.  Hopefully, both of these items will either rot away quickly or shift to be within my reach so I can fetch them as they are now useless...not that either one would have much more than garbage.  Still, it would be nice to get both out of the marsh.

  The other day, however, Mark was able to retrieve something of use!  As we ambled down the pier before he headed out in the little skiff for a morning of fishing, I spied something bright red hung up in the marsh. "Please, please go get whatever that is before you head out to fish!" I begged him.  He did and was pleasantly surprised to find a brand new gas can!  This thing still had tags attached and had never been used!  He carted it to the pier and I lugged it up the hillside to be cleaned for future use.  Score!!!

  Before I left the pier, however, I noticed that the nozzle on the can sure looked like some sort of odd critter...perhaps some quirky pup or maybe a strange duck complete with a monocle and a bright green hat!  Yep, that overactive imagination was at work here but, in all fairness, if I have to lug other folk's castaways up the hill, I might as well make light of it!  I wonder if anyone else has noticed the odd noggin on this gas can???  Nope?  Oh, well...

Cute, Little Possum Face!

   It was a tiring day with not much of a break to go hiking about the hillside. With a few more days of cold weather settling in around us, cutting more firewood was in order.  This is all good because it "kills two birds with one stone".  (Not that I go around killing birds or even throwing rocks at them.)  With still lots of limbs and trees down from Hurricane Zeta, the firewood gathering, not only provides us warmth, but clears more debris.  It has been a slow go with that cleaning but this is helping tremendously. 

  It was my chore to haul and stack the wood.  Mark cuts, Son splits and I stack.  I am ok with this as it gives the mind a chance to wander around in the dark corners of the brain and pull out any thoughts that have been hidden.  I was in deep thought as I unloaded an armload of firewood.  I was taken aback when I saw a face looking back at me from the woodpile!  No, there was not a living critter there but rather a figment of the imagination.  As a toddler, Granddad had taught me to "look for faces" in just about anything and everything.  Well, I found a cute, little possum face in a chunk of firewood.  Or, maybe it is an aardvark...only we do not have those on the Bayou...so possum, it is!  

  I was so tickled by the cute little face that I had to show Son.  He is very obliging but still sighs deeply and says, "You are certainly easily amused".   Perhaps this social distancing and self isolation thing is getting to me.  The social interaction with people has started causing me to find entertainment in odd places.  But...I do see it!  Cute, little possum!  You just have to love pareidolia! 

Cougar at the Frog Pond!

   It is often quite amusing to check the photographs that I take during the course of a day.  Most of the time, there are a few that I deem "keep-worthy" and many that are discards.  When taking the picture, you are never quite sure if the lighting is correct, if you may be wobbling a bit or if what you think is a great photo-op is really just a dismal failure.  Then there are the times when something unintended jumps out at you.  More oft than not, I see faces in my photos.  These can be human-type faces or critter-type faces or even make believe-type faces but they are faces, all the same.  Believe it or not, there is a name for this phenomenon.  It is called pareidolia.  I sort of think of it as an "art" in itself.  In fact, Granddad taught me to look for faces in most everything.  We actually would go "face-hunting" when I was a wee tot.  To give Mom a break from having to deal with yet another lively youngster (I have 4 older siblings), my grandparents were often given "kid duty".  Granddad had to think of fun things to do, so face-hunting was introduced.  We hunted faces...in flowers, wood-grain, clouds, mudflats...anything and everything.

  Back to the photography of nowadays.  My attempts at recording oddities of the Bayou often do not turn out as expected.  What I may think is a fantastic subject may be a big no-go. Then, again, no-gos take on a new light when looked at with a skewed sense of reality.  What should be deemed as a flop, sometimes reveals a FACE!  Recently, I threw a photograph of a rock that was near the little Frog Pond on social media and the consensus was that a face was, indeed, to be seen.  This time the face was a critter...a cougar to be exact. (Use that thing called an imagination.  You do have one, you know.)  How exciting for me to have others see the same thing that I found when I first examined the photograph.  As for a picture of a rock, the photo was not extraordinary but as a bit of pareidolia it was wonderful!

  Folks, pareidolia can help you look at things a whole lot differently and can, most assuredly, improve your photography skills.  When you go about "face-hunting", you actually slow down enough to thoroughly examine items.  You will pay closer attention to what you are seeing and therefore may just find more subjects to photograph.  It all goes back to what I have been saying for years.  Folks, slow down your pace and really "see" things for what they are.  Life is better that way.  Happy face-hunting!

Don't Worry! It Is Just A Cloud! Maybe?

   It is strange how we sometimes look at things and see beauty then can see something entirely different when we try to look back at the same object.  Just yesterday, the clouds in late afternoon sky appeared to frame the hidden sun in a perfect manner.  I spent several minutes photographing the clouds as I was enthralled by what was set before me.  The magnificent view was enough to leave me spellbound for a good ten minutes until the wind shifted and sent my lovely vision askew.  Nothing could prepare me for the photographs that I viewed today.  What popped out at me was not what I saw yesterday....not at all.

  In the photographs, I found a face with deep set, hollow eyes and a rather horrified looking grimace of a mouth.  What?  This was not what I saw at all!  Thinking perhaps it was just a quirky incident, I looked at the other photographs...yep, just the same.  That face was still staring at me as if it was trying to tell me of some terrifying incident that was to come.  Do the clouds know something?  Are they harbingers of what is to come with the pending storms potentially heading our way? Should I be worried?  

  Life has a way of making some of us ponder things far too deeply.  I can live for the moment in most circumstances but, occasionally, I get a gut feeling that usually bears truth.  These clouds, however, are just that...clouds.  

The Blue and Purple Orb of Peaceful Information!

  While photographing my daughter's place the other day, I decided it would be a grand thing to take a picture of the adjacent wooded area. This is just opposite of the fenced yard and across the driveway.  I did not think much of it at the time but once I started looking at the photographs, I noticed that this particular picture looked a tad strange. Right smack dab in the middle of all that green was a large blue and purple blob!  Ok, so I must have tilted the camera wrong and caught a bit of sunlight which caused an "orb" to appear in the picture.  Without much other reason for an orb to appear, the sunlight explanation would have to do.  Then I started looking at that picture a bit more.  It seemed weirder and weirder with each glance.  Now, I am not one that has a lot of technical knowledge so I cannot do much to enhance the photograph to give me a better look but with poor vision and lots of imagination, I have come to believe that I see a face in that orb! (Granted others will most likely say that I am daft but that claim has been made before!) To me, faces in orbs are exciting! Or at the very least confusing.  

  I tried to find a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon but none really made much sense to me.  My son once told me that I live in my own little world called "Imagination" and I guess he is not too far wrong.  I do.  Still, that face intrigued me and I blame my granddaddy for that. Back when I was a tot, he had me looking for faces in everything from flowers to tree bark so it only stands to reason that I can find them in photographic orbs!  In fact, this orb was more like a whole string of the things all lined up in order. That, too, was fascinating as, at best, I only capture one or two flitting about the photograph at any given time.  Plus!  This bunch has two bright teal colored buttons!  Ok..so the imagination flew around a bit there.   Still,even the colors of the orb tell me something.  According to color charts, blue represents protection, bright (teal) blue means tranquility and purple stands for information.  So, if this was to all be tossed together into some ethereal phenomenon, my orb has come to tell me that it is protecting this peaceful place!  Way to go, Orb!  It is good to know that you are on the job!  (It is also great to be able to let the imagination run amok occasionally!)

The writings...errr..pictures on the wall!

Have you ever noticed how if you stare at something long enough, you can began to see all sorts of things in a picture?  Or in my case, I stared at a blank wall and saw all sorts of things!  The other day, it was raining like nobody's business so the house was rather dark inside if we had the lights off.  Son had been down in the kitchen with me but meandered upstairs for a bit.  When he was at the top of the stairs, he quietly remarked that there was a "face",  "There is a face?" I questioned.  All I got as an answer was a "Yup"..no explanation.  Well, curiosity got the best of me so I grabbed the camera to investigate this face he saw.  The walls at the top of the stairs are painted an ecru color..sort of drab white with no pattern nor texture. There on that off-white wall WAS a face!  In fact there were several faces!  I took several pictures even though I was not sure if the faces would show up on camera or not.  After taking a number of shots from different angles, he and I tried to figure out just what was creating the illusion. No lights were on upstairs..the only light was ambient light from the next room's windows.  Those windows were a good twenty feet away AND the window blinds were all the way closed.  Being as there were no "stripes" on the wall, we decided that the light was not a filtered effect from the window (blinds).  Try as we might, we could not find anything that might be reflecting a weird pattern on the wall.  The light from the window most likely would not be bright enough to be reflective anyway.

Image captured on a dreary, rainy day with no added lighting other than  what was coming through closed window blinds from the next room.  It is on a plain off-white wall.

When I transferred the photographs to the computer, I was amazed at how well the shadowy figures were picked up by the camera.  My first "face" was that of what I imagined to be a little girl.  She appears to be in bed and perhaps holding a blanket or toy up near her face.  In my wild imagination, I feel that the little girl with the long curls is having a bad dream.  She is frightened.  Or perhaps at some point she witnessed something evil and was having nightmares because of the sight.  Poor baby girl.

Circled is what I see as a face of a little girl.  In my imagination, she is in bed  and is holding a toy or blanket near her face.  She has long curly hair and a sweet face!

 The second figure above her is a man.  This guy looks a bit angry to me.  Perhaps this is villain in the little girl's dream?  With his long hair and mustache, I feel that he is from a time many years ago.  His eyes appear "shifty" as if he is guilty of something.  Yes, it is a stretch but hey..this is my imagination!

In this small circle is what I see as a man's face.  He does not appear to be too  happy making him be cast as the villain in the little girl's nightmare!

 Behind the little girl is a shadowy figure of a woman.  This lady looks kind.  Perhaps she is the little girl's mother who is there to calm the fears of a nightmare about someone evil that scares the little girl.  The lady is wearing a long dress..again suggesting that the story took place many, many years ago.  I wonder...

Unless you can enlarge the picture, it will be hard to see this one.  The outline shows the figure of a woman.  Perhaps this is the child's mother who has come to comfort her after a vivid nightmare!

Ok, ok...so I know that I am going a little strong here!  I have warned you before that I have an overactive imagination!  But enlarge those pictures and stare at them a while...you might just start to see faces, too!  If you do...dream a bit!  Imagine and create your own story behind the faces!  I see the faces..I am just a bit confused at how the image was formed!

Imaginations at Work!

It is a strange habit of mine..this seeing of faces in all sorts of things. Back when I was younger, my grandfather used to show me "faces" in everything from tree bark to flowers. There were faces in clouds and there were faces on buttons. There were faces in my oatmeal and faces in dead leaves. At first, I could not see them, but then he would patiently point out eyes, nose and mouth until the face came into view. Now I see faces! Everywhere! Today, a small piece of plastic wrap was crumpled up in a ball on the kitchen table. The sun beaming through the window made this plastic look just like Alfred Hitchcock! Oh my! I could not get a clear photograph of Mr. Hitchcock but it made me think of another face I had recently seen in my window. This one I did photograph! It started one day when I was out near the driveway, I stood absentmindedly looking at my house. Then I saw it..or rather him. There was a man in my house! I could perfectly see the profile of a giant through the window. My goodness! I know that I have a very active imagination but there he was as clear as day..in my window. Now curiosity will always get the best of me and cause me to investigate. I walked toward the house fully expecting whatever was causing the silhouette to become out of focus. It did not. I pressed my face against the window screen and had to start laughing! It was not just one thing that was causing the silhouette but a whole slew of items. From the position that I was standing, I was actually looking through one window, across the room and through the screen door. Beside the door stood an old hat rack that had accumulated all sorts of items. Among these items was a pair of binoculars, the binocular bag, several straw hats, one cap, and a short handled scoop net used for catching minnows. They were just haphazardly thrown onto the hat rack but at the right perspective and from a distance, formed a very distinct profile. The man in my window! A giant of a man to be sure, but still he was in my house! Oh, what would we do without vivid imaginations! The world would be so boring!

While speaking of imaginations..meet Belina. Belina is the second of a series of ragdolls that I am making. I introduced you to Agatha a few days ago and thought another introduction was in order. Where Agatha is quite the tall gal at thirty inches, Belina is rather petite. She is a mere fourteen inches tall, but what she lacks in size she makes up for with spunk. With her bright orange feather boa and gleaming gold headband and necklace, she appears to be ready to walk the Red Carpet! Yes..I admit..the imagination is soaring lately!