Ice

On my cell phone I have a contact labelled ICE--which stands for In case of emergency. I wonder if anyone would recognize it as the key to call if something happened to me. I also have HOME as a contact. Both link to my husband's number.

Before my husband had a cell phone (and long before we dropped our land line) he had my phone along when he went to pick up his tux for our daughter's wedding. This was in Phoenix, a good 1200 miles from home. Not being used to carrying a cell phone, he left it on the counter in the tux shop. When he got back to our daughter's home, we realized he didn't have it. My daughter called the number and the phone was answered. "Did you find this phone?" "Yes." "Is it at the tux shop?" "Yes--we called and left a message!" And indeed, when we got home a week or so later there was a message on our home phone that he had left the phone at the tux shop and they would hold it till he came back for it.

This is not the kind of ice Lew had when he set the word "Ice" as our theme for this week's header challenge. You can see what the others have chosen by clicking their links in my sidebar. And I am sure none of them are expecting me to post anything that came from a deep freeze, although this cruise offering might be worthy.

 No, they are expecting me to be off somewhere on the mountain on snowshoes looking for winter's natural sculptures. They will not be disappointed. But first and before I decide among the shots I sought out in my files last night, let's take a look at some other bits and pieces.

iceberg

ice crystals on the antenna ball

ice coated barbed wire

Oops! Maybe we should have turned off the fountain.

Ice art in a thin layer of water remaining in another fountain.

pond ice

waterfall ice

big waterfall ice

popular waterfall ice

eave ice

and finally three instances of river ice

And now to choose. I really thought I would use one of the river ice images, but chose instead the simplicity of the iceberg.

The 2 of Us

The two of us are on the road again--headed to California.

The hotel WiFi is not letting me add my header photo for this week's challenge.

Let's see if I can get it into the post at least.

The header photo. This is on the beach at Kalaloch when we participated in the Coastal Clean-up Day a couple of years ago. We hope to be able to do so again this April.

On another hike near the Carbon River a few months before it flooded in 2006.

I believe this is Stewart's choice of theme. You will find the Headbangers listed and linked in my sidebar.

Sunday's Psalm--First Sunday of Lent

Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”

Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.

Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.

You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;

you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.

Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

Solid Color

When Craver Vii set this week's theme as "solid color" I thought "Huh?" He suggested that we all would have something in our archives that would satisfy this theme. Still thinking "Huh?" I perused my photo archives to see what I could find. Being currently very busy and having more than six years of images on my external hard disc (Four or five cameras at least one of which took 10,000 pictures before starting the count again--oh, dear--that  is a lot to go through.)

I didn't go very far back before I identified this one, from which I cropped the trees from the top. (Added benefit, it makes the image the right proportion for my prefered header size and shape.)

I wonder, though. White. From an artist's perspective it is the absense of color. So does it indeed fit the theme. Craver said solid COLOR not solid NON-COLOR.

But as an artist immersed in a family of scientists -- well, some scientists and definitely some artists and some artists who work in science--looked at from the scientific point of view white is the presence of ALL color.

Color is seen because of light reflected and light absorbed. Blue reflects all the blue lightwaves and absorbs everything else. Red reflects the red waves and absorbs the rest. So white absorbs all the lightwaves and reflects none of the colors. Therefore, we see as artists the absense of color because as scientists we know that all the colors have been absorbed.

So here is my solid color, and I will stop typing so as to keep myself out of further confusion--except to point out that the rest of the headbanger blogs are linked in my sidebar so that you can see how they interpreted the solid color theme.

Sunday's Psalm--Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

License Plates

Two years ago, when the plates came for our new-to-us car, hubby was in the hospital. So I unwrapped them and what should appear but evidence that it would be MY car. The digits of the license plate number--not a vanity plate mind you--corresponded to the last four numbers of my Social Security Number. I know, I probably shouldn't tell the world this, but I am not posting a picture of the plates, so you won't get a clue for stealing my identity.

Tom gave us an early heads up on his theme of Favorite Vanity License Plate, so we could get some pictures. When I stopped at the bank a couple of weeks ago, this car was parked in front. It could well be the first vanity plate I had ever seen, as this local now-retired school teacher has had these plates for years and years. That is evidenced by the fact that he still displays the yellow plates which were the first Washington vanity plates--distinguishing themselves from the then white with green lettering and rim plates us ordinary mortals sported.


Washington has long since changed to a license plate bearing the background image of Mt. Rainier, which BOOHA does have on the rear of his car. But it is pretty cool that he still has his first vanity plate several vehicles hence.



My vote for favorite vanity plate, however, has to go to this one which belongs to a member of our quilting group and which I photographed when she stopped by to visit us at a quilting retreat a couple of years ago.

The plate not only suits her yellow and black striped Smart Car, but helps to define the whole package. You see, Nansi is a miniaturist, and rarely makes a quilt larger than about fifteen inches square. She brought dozens of them to show and tell, and was not strapped for space in her miniature vehicle.

Vanity plates will be included in the headers of our challenge group this week. Their blogs are linked in my sidebar, so you can have a look and see what they have found for Tom's challenge.
 

Sunday's Psalm--Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time