The World Through My Lens 08.2026

 

Sweet shutterbugs, thank you for popping by today. Bringing you this month's photos taken for the 2 photo challenges I am participating in this year. They are The Everyday Images challenge hosted by my friend Kym at A Fresh Cup of Coffee and Sunday Stills, hosted by my friend Terri at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. 

These gals share their photos several times a month but I can't seem to get my photo challenge posts together more often than once a month. You can find the July edition of The World Through My Lens, here, if you missed it.  

I found a couple of the prompts for August to be a bit of a challenge...I am looking at YOU 'imperfect' and 'double'.  Had to dig around in the archives (Google photos) for those.

Everyday Images #94

dessert:  Cadence's sweet 16 birthday brownies.  With ice cream.

gradual:  our work on this Texas jigsaw puzzle in Pensacola was pretty slow at first.  Then we all got real busy working on it in between beach and pool time.  But we didn't get it finished before time to leave for home.  Perhaps, next beach vacation, we can try again.

on the road:  before flying home from Pensacola later in the day, PC and I took a little jaunt to Ft. Pickens, Florida.  There were white sand dunes on either side of the road, the gulf on one side and the ocean on the other.

imperfect:  searched my Google photos for the word 'imperfect' and rediscovered this quote by Rachel Marie Martin I had saved from her website Finding Joy.  It spoke to me when I saved it 4 years ago and it speaks even louder (more loudly?) today.  I like the thought that we just need to show up, love, care and give.  Those are things I am usually pretty good at doing.

tangled:  what a tangled web we weave... Charlotte's Web is right outside our front door.  I feel like I should probably sweep it away.  But I wouldn't appreciate it much if someone came along and swept my home away.  

selfie (quarterly):  having fun using my rebounder.  It is great exercise, too!!  I follow Earth and Owl on YouTube for a variety of rebounder workouts.  

restful:  our afternoon float in the pool is very restful.  I try to swim laps for a bit before climbing onto my mattress and floating about in the water.  We usually have the Cincinnati Reds on TV while we do so.

Everyday Images #95

double:  as in make mine a double?  Two glasses of Dulcinea, please.

at home (monthly):  my niche, my loft.  On any given day, I am mid-project of some sort.  In this photo, I am working on a scrapbook page while visiting with my sister on Facebook messenger.

yellow:  from a distance, the lights of the refinery look sparkly and yellow reflected in the water of Ascarate Lake.  They are much prettier from this distance.

mistake:  this is kind of a stretch.  When we were on one of our recent fishing getaways to New Mexico, our pet sitter sent a photo of a ceramic cactus Purrcival had knocked off my tiered tray and broken.  It was just a mistake but the little devil should not have been on the kitchen island in the first place.  I ordered this unbreakable, crocheted cactus to replace it.

heart:  in the form of a rock too large to carry home from our hike

clock:  somewhere I was recently had a blue million clocks on display.  Like a whole wall of clocks of all shapes and sizes.  If only I had taken a picture of them.  But I did not.  Thank goodness, when I stumbled across these old clocks in an antiquey-thrift store I thought to take a picture of them.  

current project (quarterly):  oh, friends, I have been working on this one cross stitch project for YEARS.  Not everyday, not every week or even every month.  There were probably years I didn't look at it.  But I am working on it now!!  I will, I will finish this elephant.

Sunday Stills 08.2026

08.02.2026 Seen at the Fair or Rodeo:  onceuponatime, I was determined to learn how to use my DSLR to take all kinds of artistic photographs.  This shot of a Ferris wheel at one of those traveling fairs was my favorite photographic experiment.  

08.09.2026 Monthly Color Challenge: Yellow Hues– Ochre, Saffron…:  on our trip to London and Edinburgh, we were taken with the rapeseed growing everywhere.  The rolling hills glowed yellow with the stuff.  It was beautiful.

There was also this scrubby bush with yellow blossoms growing wild everywhere.  

And then we have an 18-month-old Lucia dressed in an ochre cape for Christmas. 

08.16.2026 Smoky:  the air above the stadium during the half-time festivities at a University of Tennessee Volunteers football game.  

When PC was a little boy, he had a stuffed Smokey the Bear that he dearly loved.  We aren't sure what happened to his original Smokey but a few years ago, I purchased him a replacement stuffie.  Whenever we see Smokeys, we take a picture.

A cloud of smoke swirled around the El Paso grands and I when we tried to light sparklers for the 4th of July.

08.23.2026 Animal or Bird of the Month:  we did a whole lot of fishing during the month of July but not a whole lot of catching!!  So rather than featuring fish as my 'animal' of the month, I am sharing my kitties.  Since our vacation this spring, the kitties have been very clingy with me.  They take turns climbing all over me and laying on top of me.  The first photo below is Purrcy using me like a pillow.

In this second photo, Purrsnickitty is using the shells we brought home from Pensacola as a pillow.  But not for long - they were not terribly comfortable.

08.30.2026 Beaches:  boy, do I have a lot of photos of beaches.  But will limit myself to sharing just 3 of my favorites. 

Lucia and Declan holding hands on Pensacola Beach our first night there earlier this summer.

The sun setting over Pensacola.

And a photo from a chilly beach day in Washington.  Had never worn a coat on a beach before.

Every morning, Google photos sends PC and I photo memories.  Depending on the day and what pictures Google displays, it can be heartwarming or bittersweet.  In almost every case, we talk about the photos, reminisce, and feel the love for family, home, nature, pets, opportunities and experiences - all the days of our lives.

Your Turn

Do you have one of those digital photo displays?  We bought one for my mom several years before she died and not only did it display photos but it enabled us to have video calls with her.  And best of all, she didn't have to do anything to answer our calls.  We were able to ring into her assisted living apartment and see her.  It was a godsend.

Thank you for popping by, my friend.  Hope you are capturing lots of lovely things in the lens of your camera these days.  

Hugs and kisses,