Zen Monday: #215

Zen Monday returns!

Zen Monday is the day when you tell us what the photo's about, rather than me telling you. For newcomers: the idea is loosely (very loosely) based on the Zen practice of teaching and learning through action and example, rather than through didactic lectures.

So basically, you already know what this photo's about. Just say what comes to mind.

**********

Here's the latest on the Camelot Where You Are photo contest:

The winner of last week's round is Katie, with #15, House of Shields!
(You are a bunch of lushes, aren't you?)

Congratulations, Katie! Thank you all so much for entering. Every photo last week was imaginative, beautiful and spectacular.

The contest returns tomorrow, with four entries this week. The rate of receipt of entries is diminishing so we might take next week off. According to the contest rules, I'm accepting entries until the date of publication. So far the rules are working, so I'm sticking to them.

I still don't have a definite publication date, so the contest continues!

Too Charming

Bungalow Heaven is a Pasadena Landmark District. Many homes there fit the description of a Craftsman bungalow, a style that was hugely popular (and economical) in Pasadena in the early 20th century. We have bungalows all over town. My own home has many Craftsman bungalow characteristics. But there's an especially high concentration of charming bungalows in Bungalow Heaven.

The Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association sponsors a home tour each spring. I finally went this year. So did everyone else. Surely you were there, and your brother and your aunt and your third cousin's cousins and their kids and pets. By noon the lines outside the eight featured homes were as long as the lines at Disneyland on a temperate summer Saturday.

So I saw five of the homes. They were lovely, and the gardens were lovely, but the lines, well, the lines were not lovely and I couldn't bring myself to wait in three more of them. (If you look closely at this picture you can see lines of people on both sides of the street.) The docents did a great job (and I hope they at least got a free lunch for their pains) but there were just too many people. If I want to see inside more Bungalow Heaven homes I'll have to meet more people who live in them and get invited over. Do you live there? Hi! What's up?

I'm glad Bungalow Heaven is popular. It's becoming more popular all the time, and that's well deserved. That being the case, however, I wonder how they'll handle the amusement park crowds next year.


Reminder: tomorrow's post will be a little different: it's a contest entry, consisting of a pitch for my novel and the first 250 words. There will be a photo, as usual, but the copy will be, uh, unusual. Feel free to comment! We'll see how it goes.

Zen Monday: #191

Zen Monday is the day you tell us what the photo's about, rather than me telling you. This time, I definitely have my questions.

Bike Bike Bike Bike

When John and I pulled up behind these wheels we were thankful for the red light. We needed time for the camera scramble, plus we wanted to figure out how many bikes were attached to this car.

But I can beat this. Take a look: it was a Zen Monday in 2010. Not quite in focus, but enough to see the difference between sane, happy family off to ride bikes on the mountain trails and insane someone who MUST HAVE BIKE BIKE BIKE BIKE BIKE.

I have a jar where I throw change. Do you collect?

Whoosh

I was trying to make a "whoosh" with the camera, and I got this instead. It's more of a "whu-uhp!...phhh."

I'm fine with that. Often, when I set out to create something, I have to let go of the outcome.

Zen Monday: #83

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion. Because you know, when I get in there it all goes downhill.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary. Remember, last week Zen Monday was Tuesday.

Confession: I didn't take this photo in Pasadena.










for clarification