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Vintage Car Chrome

Flying lady hood ornament on green vintage car

It always amuses me how so many words connected to cars differ in the USA and the UK. Gear lever. Wing mirror. Windscreen. Bonnet. Belisha beacon. Central reservation. We Give Way and overtake. We rent a car, drive on a dual carriageway and stop on the hard shoulder (in an emergency only).

So while I think of this as a car mascot, since these are American cars, hood ornament is more appropriate.

I’m far from being a car fanatic, so what interests me here is not the car or even the flying lady mascot, but the reflected waves that make the far side of the bonnet so abstract. I have no idea what caused them. Something about them reminds me of corrugated leaves – a hosta, for example – so I’m claiming this is about as close anyone can get to making a car look like a plant in the absence of vegetation. I’d be intrigued by any rival claims! Continue reading “Vintage Car Chrome”

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So Many Challenges, So Little Time!

Faded advert on a garage wall
Faded advert on a garage wall

…and that’s excluding real world challenges, as this post is about blogging ones. These pictures were inspired by Nancy Merrill’s challenge: Textures.

Nancy is one of several community-spirited WordPress bloggers who fill the breach left by the late (still lamented) Daily Post Photo Challenge. I met many blogging buddies through the Daily Post and loved seeing their sometimes wildly individual takes on each subject. The official WordPress format made it a cinch to navigate. When the challenge ended I felt dispirited, not foreseeing that the mantle would pass to so many other hosts.

Cee Neuner maintains a useful list of WordPress challenges in the For The Love Of Challenges section of her blog. My hat’s off to Cee – her list is more inclusive and up to date than the Daily Post’s list ever was. She lists photography and writing challenges and I’ve just noticed a couple of musical ones are listed too, although I know from experience not to inflict my musical taste on anyone not similarly afflicted. 🙂

Shell house grotto at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden
The grotto celebrates The Queen Mother and features her initials

Continue reading “So Many Challenges, So Little Time!”