Photo Challenges – A New Challenge

On January 23, 2024 By TimelessladyIn photo challenges3 Comments

Judy Dykstra Brown’s Blog offers a unique new challenge. The basis of the challenge is to search your photos with a number and create a blog post with them. This week the number is 126. Post a selection of photos on your blog and link back to her blog. Fun! I thought I would have more, but these are the three photos that had 126/26.

This is my first time taking part in this challenge. I will definitely try again. Why not take part too? What a good moment it was when a photo of my grandparents showed up in my search.

The two beachy scenes are Block Island, Rhode Island. I love the way visitors and islanders alike build rock cairns on the slopes and sand.

I was surprised I didn’t have more photos in the search, but then again, sometimes I relabel the numbers. If you do this also, Judy Dykstra Brown has a way for you to take part, choose a word instead.

Like the Steinbeck quote below, my photos seem to multiply while I sleep. Most of mine are on CD discs for storage.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

~John Steinbeck

Quirkiness – Wacky Wednesday/Creating Cairns on Block Island

On July 22, 2015July 21, 2015 By TimelessladyIn Quirkiness2 Comments

I recently composed a mantelscape using “beachy” items in honor of summer and the many seashore areas we have visited. I created a cairn (stacked rocks) with a few pebbles I brought home from Block Island, Rhode Island. I have created many a cairn on the Block Island beaches and admired hundreds more of these impromptu works of art built by the talented stone stackers who roam the bluffs, rocks and sand of this beautiful place.

“A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn (plural càirn).” ~ Wikipedia

Here are a few of the cairns I have photographed over the years on Block Island. As you can see cairns can be stacked quite tall…

Or very small…

Some have a picturesque backdrop…

While others adorn the muddy clay at the base of the bluffs…

Some stand alone…

While others stand en masse in a madrigal choir of stone.

There are even a few who have gotten married! (See note about this photograph at end of post)

Block Island cairns are created with the beautiful rocks and pebbles found on Block Island Beaches.

I composed and photographed the bride and groom photograph on Block Island a few years ago. I have used it many times as a wedding or shower greeting card. Please feel free to copy and use the photograph for non-commercial uses. It looks terrific mounted on a piece of black cardstock and then double-mounted on a white 5 x 7 greeting card. The photo is a standard size and should be easy to have reproduced anywhere they print out digital photos. Better yet, try your hand at creating your own bride and groom photograph from natural items…so much fun!

Place and Phascination – Block Island Day 6/The Cairns at Mohegan Bluffs

On August 10, 2012September 27, 2023 By TimelessladyIn Phascination, Place3 Comments

To get to the amazing beach below the steep hills of Mohegan Bluffs you must climb down 144 steps. The first time you descend you get a rude surprise. Instead of stepping onto the beach, you have a 15 to 20 foot portion of the bluff to pick your way down. This can be tricky. There are many natural springs in the bluffs, and the fog and surf spray can make the rocky dirt slippery. It’s worth the effort though. The beach is gorgeous, and the view in all directions is terrific. If you click on the photograph above you can get an idea of the climb at the end of the staircase. The two people in the upper right corner are at the end of the staircase, and the people in the middle have just finished climbing down the side of the bluff.

It was foggy when we reached the bottom this year. The misty atmosphere gave a magical feel to the field of Cairns along the beach.

I have never seen so many cairns in one spot before. The photograph can’t capture them all because they fade into the mist.

I loved this arrangement of stones with a message and decided it would make a great motto for the year. I took a snapshot and pasted it in the front of my daily to do notebook.

Here are a few more photographs of the beach at Mohegan Bluffs.

This gives you an idea of the clay that can be found all around the island. Many people apply it to their skin, let it dry in the sun, and then dip in the water to wash it off. Others create interesting works of art by scraping images into it with driftwood and shells.