Challenges and Choices

This is going to be a rambling narrative, so you might want to get a cup of tea, or a glass of beer or wine, or a wee dram of single malt, and make yourself comfortable.

(Before I start rambling, I would like to thank everyone who wrote encouraging comments on yesterday's blip. Your support meant a lot to me!)

The day began auspiciously when, having been awakened about 6:45am by a coyote singing (howling) somewhere nearby, I quietly slipped out to the half-bathroom -- the one I consider mine, because it's the only one with an actual color on the walls (a soft sage green -- not just the almost-10-years-old builder's extremely blah off-white). (We have 3.5 bathrooms. Visitors are welcome.)

There I was enchanted to see a delicate, long-legged spider, making an interesting shadow on the wall. I like spiders, especially Long-Bodied Cellar Spiders. We do have a cellar -- it's what's known in the US as a daylight basement, in which are Pilipo's Dream Workshop and Beer Fridge, the Giant Rarely-Watched TV, one of the 3.5 bathrooms, and the laundry room -- but this spider clearly preferred to be closer to people.

I grabbed a camera and took a few photos, but the light in the windowless bathroom was completely inadequate for the task. What to do? I didn't know where my headlight (UK headtorch) was, but I did know the whereabouts of my cordless clip-on reading light, a recent gift from P, so I grabbed it, clipped it to a tissue box, and (do not look if you don't like spiders) voila!

I didn't have time then to download the photos, so I carried a camera with me on my errands, hoping to find a back-up blip possibility. On my way home, I decided to stop at Lake Padden Park. ("So why haven't you blipped this before?" ask all of you who run, bike, hike, and generally are more active outside than I am. "No good reason," I reply. "You'll be seeing more of it from now on.")

I shot about 20 images, and today's blip was my favorite, particularly the reflected clouds in the foreground. You might prefer the contrast between the trees and the bench here or the blue and gold tones in this one.

However, I have a long way to go to be as good a photographer of this lovely park as Pilipo himself -- you can see some of those photos on the People for Lake Padden website. He's one of the PLP volunteers who collects and measures water samples to track the lake's health. In addition, our grandchildren love to play there when they visit, we took our dogs to the off-leash area there before they got too old to enjoy it, and Pilipo has flown his radio-controlled model airplanes there, too.

I'm glad I stopped at Lake Padden Park today. I've been away too long. And it's Blipfoto that brought me there, and all of you who do marvelous outdoor photography. Thank you!