For I Saw Sunday Week 62: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com

Several Individuals have asked how the mandalas, I am using on my poetry site, are made. Being challenged in the digital arena, it would be very difficult to explain. I found a tutorial online for altering photographs to Mandala form and told my digital wise friend about it. The tutorial may be found here: http://www.earthmandalas.com/how/templates.html

I supplied her with the photographs, and she brought them back as Mandalas. This is a close-up image of a plant I saw at the Farmer’s Market.

This was what she created the first time.

Then she tweaked it a bit and altered it to a black and white image, to which I added a background.

That is the part of the process that I understand and she uses Photoshop to make these wonderful creations.  I continue to use one a day for my responses to the November PAD Challenge, writing a poem and then going in search of a Mandala that, I feel, enhances it in some manner. You can view those at http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/

I saw the heart specialist this week for a year end check-up after receiving two stents last year. It was very early in the morning, but before I left, I took the time to check out that day’s prompt for the Poem A Day (PAD) Challenge. The nurse ushered me into an examination room, then asked me all those questions about prescriptions, symptoms, etc. After she left, I looked up at the wall and saw a poster. The image was of a little girl, standing on her Daddy’s toes, in order to dance with him. Across the poster in large letters was this message: P.A.D. can cause very serious problems. It may lead to a STROKE or a HEART ATTACK! P.A.D. is Peripheral Artery Disease. I was laughing out loud when the doctor walked in, and had to explain my lack of decorum. He joined in the laughter, but I sort of agreed with the poster. A poem a day can cause some serious problems.

I continue to create Zendalas. They fascinate me, and are an excellent form for relaxation and the satisfaction of creating something beautiful.

Thanks for visiting.

Early in the week, my daughter and I went shopping just before sunset. The wind was so strong that it had ripped Autumn’s dress from her being and tossed the remnants in piles like swatches of colored fabic strewn everywhere.

We were able to capture the moon sliding between threatening dark clouds.

Only two nights later, it was a different story.

We definitely found the dividing line between the leaving of one season, and the gathering of another.

And just to make sure that I fully understood, I caught my first winter cold the very next day.

The PAD Chanllenge continues and my responses may be found at my main poetry site:
http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/

I Saw Sunday Week 60: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com

Another quiet, but busy week. Started the 2011 November PAD Challenge at Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer. One poem a day. More of a challenge than normal, as I have been pretty scarce on the poetry circuit of late. But, with the help of my good digital friend, I used both Robert’s prompts and her wonderful photo Mandalas for incentive. You may see the results here:
http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/

Have been reading as well. A Robert Crais novel titled The Sentry, Crime School by Carol O’Connell, and am now making my way through a book of short crime fiction stories, Chicago Blues, in which all of the stories take place in the city of Chicago during different times, from the roaring twenties to the present day. Although I have been to Chicago many times, this is a very different city from the one of The Better Business Bureau.

I have told and shown you my doodles in another post. For the past few weeks, I have enlarged that field into more intricate  pieces, all contained in circles. They are sometimes defined as Zendalas. No surprise, as I have been fascinated with Mandalas for a long time. These are a few of the ones I have completed.

Thanks much for stopping in and I hope you join us, to show and tell us about your week.

For I Saw Sunday Week 59: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

This was a quiet week. Did go to lunch with my sister to a place at the Marina, on the river. They had some unusual full-sized decorations hanging from the ceiling.

Later in the week, a friend who is not as digitally challenged as I, took some of my photos from that drive up North and altered them into Mandalas and Kaleidoscope images.

A pile of rocks became

An ancient altar, while rushing water

became a sacred stone.

And a bright Autumn tree

danced as though in a dream.

The week was quiet but altogether satisfying. Hope you join us and let us know about your week.

For I Saw Sunday Week 58: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

Have a confession to make. I fell in love with the photos I took of the Autumn colors. There were a large number of them. I spent some time this week, resizing and cropping them. Then my daughter helped me set up a slide show window saver that allows me to get lost in them all over again. And I have done that several times. It’s my favorite time of the year and I have never had such a variety of images to surround myself with. This week was full of wind and rain, blowing away all of that beauty.

I have continued to doodle. However, this week I added colored pens to my assortment. They are a lot of fun.

 But also did some in sepia ink, as well.

 Thanks for visiting and hope you take a look at all the others who participate in I Saw Sunday. Have a good week.

For I Saw Sunday Week 57: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

For the past two weeks, I have offered photos of the turning colors of Autumn. Early this week, my sister called and asked if I’d like to take a drive up North. I said yes immediately. She’d be doing the driving and I could sit back comfortably and just snap pictures. Which is exactly what I did. We stopped several times. The first time at The Peshtigo River State Forest Camp Grounds.

Then it was back into the car and on to Dave’s Falls, where we had a picnic lunch, then very slowly and carefully followed the winding path through the woods to a foot bridge that crosses the river and gives a wonderful view of the falls. This is one of my very favorite places and the old woman with cane made it all the way. Wow!

Back in the car and a determined effort to get to a small town called Niagra (not the famous one). The highway had a major detour for construction and we bypassed the place we wanted to get to. With some directions obtained from a Travelers Info Center, we managed to get to Niagra and figured the fuss and hassle was well worth it.

One more stop at another campground where wildflowers of a different hue greeted us and we made dinner with the remains in the cooler.

Then back in the car to head home. Yes, I took pics through the windshield, lol and even caught a strange but wonderful sunset.

Altogether, a most incredibly satisfying day. It’s echoes have accompanied me through the week as I slowly sorted through the pictures I had taken. There were a lot of them. But, again, those echoes of deep satisfaction when I would come upon an image I thought only to ever see in a magazine.

For I Saw Sunday Week 56: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

Last week I showed you a first taste of color. This week is seven days later. Most of these photos were taken in my sister’s back yard.

This is the tree in her front yard:

The rest were taken on my ride home from her house:

That’s two city blocks of pure color.

And then I turned a corner:

Next week the ground will be littered with color, and that’s always way too soon for me,

For I Saw Sunday Week 55: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com

Went to see my sister and found

a street called Autumn Lane. Said last week that I was planning to go in search of the changing leaves. Spent two days doing so. One in bright sunshine and the other dodging rain drops which smeared the windshield.

We persevered. A promise is a promise. Some of these were taken in my sister’s backyard and on her street. Others were taken on a drive down the outer Loop road at the nearby University.

This is only a fraction of the photos I took. Then found out the forecasters are saying that our area will not hit the peak of the color season for another two weeks. Overload for sure, lol.

For I Saw Sunday Week 54: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

My nephew called unexpectedly, said he had about an hour and was on my side of town. We met at a little city park about a mile from my apartment. Sat at a picnic table and yakked. But, this little guy seemed to want my attention,

Behind him, was a circle of long needled pine trees and my eye was drawn by the sunlight and shadows playing across their combined shape.

Had to walk over and take a closer look.

And then the trees began to whisper and tell me their story.

“Now look up,” my nephew said. And I think I know where the idea of stained glass windows came from.

Two days later, my sister called and asked if I’d like to go to the weekly Farmer’s Market. They block off two blocks downtown and erect stalls on both sides of the sidewalk and through the parking lots. It was a field day of color, shapes, and forms.

Influenced by that abundance and by some line patterns at http://zentangle.blogspot.com/  I did this within 24 hours.

Glad you could visit, and hope you join us for words and photos of what you saw this week.

For I Saw Sunday Week 53: Week In Review
http://isawsunday.blogspot.com/

Went to my sister’s for a hair cut, mid-week. We had lunch and then she lightened my burden by several inches. She was a beautician before she retired. We get together at least once a week, and have become those two old women who frequently discuss body functions and physical symptoms. And we laugh out loud whenever we catch ourselves doing so.

It was a beautiful fall day outside, so we went out on her patio for a bit. But, there was a problem. It is fall, which means the squirrels are in frantic efforts to store what they can before winter. There is a huge old oak tree that overhangs the southern part of her house. And it is full of acorns. The squirrels obviously love that tree and hustle through it constantly gathering acorns. They do seem to drop quite a few of them, which then roll down the roof, and plop onto the patio. We both got hit and discussed the possibility that the squirrels are quite deliberate in their aim. May even be egging one another on to see how many points they might accumulate for direct hits.

I did have my camera with me and took a few shots of the acorns, becoming a bit intrigued by the shapes and shadows in the wonderful Autumn sunlight.

And for some reason, this one reminded me of a pen and ink drawing, lol.

Hope you all had a good week and will come and join us.