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Lens – Artists Challenge #135: Glimpse into your world

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Miriam Hurdle 111 comments

This week, the theme from Sheetalbravon is ‘A Glimpse into your world’. She invited us to show the things we love that make our world spin or things about our world that make us delirious with joy.

The immediate world that fills me with inspiration and amazement is my garden. My morning routine, especially in the summer, is to visit the garden while I drink my coffee. After coffee, with the gardening tools in hand, I check the flower bushes, trim the dead branches, or dig up weeds.

I started feeding birds from 2014 and the regular visitors are Ruby Throat Hummingbirds, mourning doves, American Finch, American God Finch, Scrub Jay, Song Sparrow, White-Crowned Sparrow, and a few I couldn’t quite identify. Over the years, there were baby Mourning Dove, baby House Finches, and One baby Hummingbird born in my garden.

There are other animals such as squirrels, stray cats, and lizards roaming during the day or at night.

I have many hobbies, more than I have time to fully enjoy each of them. Not included in the images here is photography, which I started as a teenager when the photos were black and white. Another hobby is ceramic. I did the whale free hand with clay. I made it into a nightlight for my baby daughter. When my daughter was nine years old, we took a ceramic painting class together in the summer. It’s something we continue doing separately until these days.

I learned to draw and watercolor painting as a young adult. After retirement, I took classes on both and used some watercolor painting to illustrate the poems in my book.

My immediate community of 35 years is a church fellowship and the group of ladies. They are a part of my world for fun, for friendship and support. Some of these friends’ kids and my daughter grew up together. The ladies gave a bridal shower to Mercy for her wedding. Some friends still send gifts to my granddaughters as their own.

Music has been my world since I was a kid. I didn’t have a family background to nurture my love of classical music. It seems to be a natural favorite. The first time I performed Handel’s Messiah was when I was still in Hong Kong.

Most of my family except for one sister are in Hong Kong. Lynton’s family is my extended family, and we see each other regularly.

The biggest world to me is my daughter’s family. My granddaughters lighten my heart and give joy every day. My daughter has a TinyBeans.com account where she posts multiple photos and videos daily to chronicle the kids’ growth and family activities. There was not one day I go without checking on what they do. Nora’s birthday on March 22, and I wish to visit them.

Thank you for reading. I hope to hear what the things you love that make your world spin or things about your world that make you delirious with joy.

Lens – Artists Challenge #135: Glimpse into your world

Discover Prompts, Day 16: Slow

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Miriam Hurdle 35 comments

Ben Huberman at Discover, WordPress posts daily prompts throughout April. The prompt for today is Slow.

He invited us to write about an activity, chore, or habit we enjoy lingering on, or music, art, literature we turn to when we don’t need to rush.

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I worked for the same school district for twenty-five years before retirement. The freeway commuters increased year by year. Every driver was impatient, but there was no other option to many people to get to work. For me, I had an option of taking surface streets. It took fifty to sixty minutes each way. If the freeway were free, it would take about forty minutes. During the rush hours, it could take an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was still unpredictable. Eventually, I only took surface streets to work.

There was an internal clock that woke me at six o’clock before the alarm went off. There was no time to linger in bed. The morning routine was repeated methodically. Every five minutes of delay to get out of the door would cause extra ten minutes late to work. There was no time to have breakfast at home so I would eat after I got to the classroom or office when I worked in the school district office.

After retirement, the internal clock still woke me at six o’clock. It took a good year for me not to worry about getting on the road. It has been almost ten years now. I enjoy my slower pace of life with no apparent deadline and no rush in getting things done. If I cannot get it done today, there is always tomorrow. Sometimes, it is all right if I do not complete the job.

The best way for me to learn to slow is doing watercolor painting, drawing, and ceramic painting. Here are some samples.

butterfly watercolor