It’s been a while since my last bunny post, hasn’t it? So do you want to see one? (Hint: the answer is yes. XD )
Let’s start with some ancient pictures. A warm day was perfect for a bunny bath in a wheelbarrow – except that the bunnies don’t like baths. XD Well actually Lily doesn’t mind them too much. She’s well-insulated, I guess. 😀
Lily is casually hanging out, Diamond is panicking, and Olaf smells something.Bath Commander Lily, at the alert.SOO CUTE!
These are more recent photos of yet another bunny bath. I LOVE YOU, LILY! Ahem.
Doesn’t Lily look so pretty? And then Olaf’s ears have to photobomb the picture…Lily the Squishy, sitting proudly in a clover patch.My cousin says that it looks like bunnies are “saying their prayers” when they clean themselves. So it does! 😀
Now she has to dry off… on a roof, apparently. XD
Humph.
Lily has a certain “flattening trick” which she shall demonstrate for you:
Replay!
Quite impressive, Lily, if I do say so myself.
Clementine can’t miss out…
Say “Hay,” Clemmy
And last but not least, a bonus photo of Willow the Fluffy – hopefully soon to be mother to baby fluffies! 😀 😀 😀 I can’t wait!
I hope that brightened your day. 🙂 Which was your favorite picture? Do you have any rabbits?
The title sounds rather strange, but don’t worry: the hike wasn’t actually littered with lady’s shoes, it just had some lady’s slippers flowers along it. Okay good, we got that cleared up. 🙂
Of course I took many pictures when we went on the aforementioned trail with my aunt, who kindly offered to show us the lady slippers.
When we first got to the path, there were about twenty butterflies – mostly tiger swallowtails – sitting all in a clump, maybe eating or drinking something. We didn’t even notice them until we walked right up to them and they exploded and flew away. It was AMAZING to see! Since I didn’t know they were there the first time, I didn’t get pictures then, but later we waited for the butterflies to come back and a few did. But only a few – not nearly as many as we had scared off before. Oh well, at least I got pictures of those few!
This is a bee on a lupine flower. In the second picture you can sort of see the bee’s proboscis… I think.
Pretty lupine leaf…
And the stars of the hike – I present the lovely ladies’ slippers. 🙂 (Click on any picture in the collage to enlarge it.)
Spring + Hike + Camera = Flower Pictures
I like the shape of these leaves.
I edited this picture to make it look more like a fairy hotel. Isn’t it magical-ish? XD
We found this weird but pretty metallic green beetle.
And last, a simple picture of forest floor.
I hope you enjoyed the virtual walk! It was quite fun, and it was easy hiking compared to the trails I went on for my birthday, but… that’s a post for another day. 😀 Which was your favorite picture?
***Allison***
P. S. You know that riddle that I asked you a long time ago about what word has all five vowels in it? Lots of you actually came up with answers that fit the riddle, but none of you thought of the word I was thinking of! (I guess it wasn’t a very good riddle if it had so many answers. Oh well, it was fun!) The word I was thinking of was… sequoia! In case you don’t know, a sequoia is a type of tree that grows to be ginormously tall – kind of like a redwood. And with that, I leave you. 🙂
Yep, another contest post. 🙂 The story today is the fourth part of the Beyond the Looking Glass. (See the last part here. If you want to see all of the parts, just search “Beyond the Looking Glass” or “CWWC” in my search box.) Thank you guys so very much for your lovely and encouraging comments on it so far! You are so sweet. ♥ ♥ ♥
Anywho, I have a plot twist in mind for the next part which I think will surprise you. Heh heh. (Loren, I used the three prompts from this challenge.)
I eagerly approach the fairy, but when she feels my shadow drop on her, her face suddenly contorts with terror and she rushes back into the toadstool house, slamming the tiny wooden door. A few seconds later I see her miniature pixie face peering anxiously out of a curtained window. She scans the forest. When she sees me, her face freezes in terror again, then melts into intense relief. Strange. What is going on?
The fairy scurries out of the toadstool and beckons me to lean down.
“Why are you here?” she whispers fearfully. “I don’t… I can’t believe that you’re one of Them…” She trails off and mutters to herself. “No, she can’t be on Their side. She is not one of them, I just know it.” She gazes up at me with her wide, green eyes that sparkle with fear. “Why are you here?” she asks again.
So I tell her. I tell her how I got to the land beyond the mirror; I tell her about the strange schoolroom, the riddle, and my surprise when I learned that silent, angry Mademoiselle Trumente is my mother who once loved me so much that she sacrificed herself to save me; and I tell her about the last message on the blackboard: “Go to the fairies. They will know what you need.”
During my story, the fairy’s eyes had constantly roved the forest, then returned for me. She was obviously afraid of something. Now I can’t stand it anymore. I have to know what she is afraid of, so I ask her.
She sighs. “So you don’t know Them. Very well, I will tell you, but you’ll wish you had never asked.”
A shiver runs up my spine like a mouse with cold feet. The fairy begins a sort of ballad in her soft, silvery voice.
“They are cunning, they are brave,
They are brutal, they are relentless,
And they are hunting us.
White creatures, ghostly in the mist,
Stooped and spiny.
Horrible creatures that flit from tree to tree
As tall as trees themselves,
Or small as flowers growing in the sun.
We can never know what form they’ll take,
But we can always know
That they will be terrifying.
They steal into our village on silent feet,
But their silence is a loud and terrible silence.
In the morning, our village wails and mourns.
One more fairy gone to the land of no return,
One more friend lost to Them.
But now, we will fight back.
They are brave, but we are braver.
Bravery is overcoming fear;
We will overcome our fear
And destroy Them.
Now the fairy lifts her head and she looks beautiful standing there, proud and defiant. But she is tiny. How can such little fairies ever hope to conquer such strange, terrible creatures as tall as trees?
“I am so sorry.” I say, meaning it. “But what about me? Was the message right when it said the fairies will know what you need? Do you know what will save my mother?”
The fairy looks me in the eye. “I do. There is a plant called the Healing Lily that grows in the mountains. For centuries the fairies have prized the Healing Lily as a cure for blindness or deafness. It will cure your mother… if you can obtain it.”
I nod my head with excitement. “Oh, that is wonderful! How am I to get this Healing Lily?”
“That part is not so wonderful. The plant lives on the mountain, but so do They. You will come with us, and help us fight Them, and when They are conquered, you may take the flower.”
I gasp. I have no experience in war; I am not strong; I do not know how to use a sword or shoot a bow and arrow. And I most definitely do not want to meet Them. I struggle to find my breath.
“But – but isn’t there some other way? I won’t be much help to you – I don’t know anything about fighting.”
“We will teach you.”
“But…” It is no use. I know I must fight Them or never save my mother.
That night at dusk I cloak myself in a dark cape. The fairies have given me their largest lantern, which is still rather small for me. I return to the fairy ring to see dozens of fairies standing solemnly in front of their houses, watching me. Young and old, men and women, boys and girls, all are watching and waiting. The first fairy I met – who I now know as Gwendolyn – nods at me. I take a deep breath and wave to the fairies. It is time. It is time for me to test my bravery. I must carry the message to the surrounding kingdoms: “War on Them tomorrow.” The elves and dwarves and all the other people of the forest have been preparing for this moment for months. Now I will be the spark that lights the match, and tomorrow the fire will burn against Them.
I turn and hurry down the woodland path, consulting the fairies’ map every so often. It is certainly true that I can cover ground much faster than the fairies ever could. My hair streams out behind me as I run silently over the moss. I pass a dwarf graveyard, spooky in the misty night. Are They lurking behind every tree that I pass? Are They waiting for just the right moment to jump out and capture me? Will they put out the spark before it has time to light the match? I take a deep breath and remember what the Gwendolyn said: Bravery is overcoming fear.You can do this, Adele.
And now for the BIBPC entry. This is the LAST category, guys! BIBPC was lots of fun – thanks for doing it, Megan! The category this time was Photo Editing.
BeforeAfter
Story behind the photo: You may have seen the unedited version several times already on my blog, because I just really like it! It’s a picture of bubbles on the top of our aquarium. On PicMonkey I tinted it purple (obviously XD ), and added a few effects and basic touch-ups. Ahhh, purplicious! 😀
Okay, the title is kind of strange. This post is going to be about a thunderstorm and wildfire, which are sort of natural disasters, but… not really (at least thunderstorms aren’t exactly natural disasters). XD Does that clear things up? Good. 🙂
Yep, there was recently a really big wildfire on the mountains near where I live.We could see the glow at night from one of our fields. I think the fire grew to over 9,000 acres! (Which is really big for around here, but not nearly as big as the Canadian wildfire raging right now. I hope that wildfire is put out soon! 😦 )
This picture is about how our wildfire looked like:
Yeah, pretty boring. But I also got some more dramatic (and unrealistic) photos:
Much more interesting. 😛
And now for the thunderstorm…
***Allison***
P. S. Thank you all so much for your sweet Happy Birthday wishes! And yes, I did have a great birthday. 😀 I don’t normally do this, but would you like to see a post with pictures of some of the lovely presents I got with reviews on a few of the things?
Howdy, and welcome to Allison’s BIBPC entry #6! XD The theme this time was “Action”! Behold, action! (I’m entering the first picture.)
Ha ha, isn’t that great!
Story behind the picture: I took this a couple of years ago after there was a flash flood which resulted in ginormous puddles near our creek! (Another time, I don’t know if it was that time, we floated down the flash-flood-swollen creek in an inner tube. Which proceeded to pop. XD XD XD ) My siblings thought it would be neat if I could take pictures of them splooshing through the water, and they were right! In the picture I’m entering, Megan and Jefferson are glorying in mud-puddle bliss. Look at the expression on Jeff’s face! (If you can see it.) Pure joy. 😀 Oh, and I think it was this same flash-flood when the boys drove our three-wheeler through the water. XD Ahh, good times.
Since this is a pretty short post, I thought I’d add a few more random photos I took recently.
Maggie rolling her cares away. XD She looks like a headless dog. O.oA random picture of gone-to-seed asparagus. XDWillow my adorable fluffy rabbit! ♥Dandelion in the golden sunGorgeous spring-green leaves!
As you can see by the monstrous title, this post will be a conglomeration of contest entries. I combined the AAWC and CWWC prompts into one story, which I think turned out really well! (If you wonder what all of these acronyms stand for, click on their linked names to find out. 😀 )
First, the story. Misty, I used the word prompt (“Fade”) and my team mascot (“Swan”) in this story. Loren, I used all three prompts. (Click here to see the prompts for CWWC #1.) I had a lot of fun writing this, and incorporating some poem-ish things into the prose.
Tonight rain and moonlight are tap-dancing together on the roof. Mademoiselle Trumente hates the rain because it will not obey her rule of absolute quiet. I slip out of bed in bare feet and steal silently over to the mirror. I have had much practice in being silent, for if I make a noise, Mademoiselle Trumente will be up the stairs in a moment, a silent apparition of doom. She will stand there in her threadbare slippers, strands of her greasy hair trembling and quaking about her thick red face as if they too, are afraid of her wrath. Her anger is a fierce fury, hotter than any fire, sharper than any sword, and deathly quiet. Everything in this house is deathly quiet. Even her punishments are quiet.
Down to the cellar for a day and a night;
No food; stale water; darkness; silence.
But tonight Mademoiselle does not appear at my door. I carefully avoid the third floorboard which always heaves a long groan of sorrow if I so much as touch it with a toe. I snatch up the lit candle and hold it in front of me as I gaze into the mirror. A girl’s face stares back at me from the gilded frame on the wall.
Long tangles of wavy, red-brown hair.
Pale face; drawn and thin and colorless.
Chocolate brown eyes with flecks of gold.
Small nose. Thin lips. Sharp chin. Black dress.
Me.
The mirror is unforgiving, but I want it to forgive. It will not show me what I need it to show. I have to know who I am.
I gaze far down into the depths of the dark eyes, pulling with all my might, willing secrets to come to the surface. There! Far down in my eyes, something moves. I concentrate, grasping the thought with my mind until the picture fills the eyes of my reflection, then my face, then the whole mirror. It is a beautiful scene. Torrents of water tumble over boulders, crashing into milky froth where they leap into the lake below. Pearly swans glide on the lake by the dozens, preening, eating, swimming. Graceful willow ladies and strong, ancient gentlemen trees stand shoulder to shoulder by the river. And… there it is. The familiar picture of two silhouettes sitting on a log-bridge. One of the figures is a young girl reading a book. The other figure is strange and fantastical: a cross between a dragon and an enormous bird crested with swirling plumes. The dragon-bird is listening intently to the girl as she reads aloud.
My mirror is a window to another world, a world guarded by strange dragon-birds called Ferrymen. How do I know what the dragon-birds are called? How can I see this land behind the looking glass? I do not know. I only know that I belong there. The girl swinging her legs on the log-bridge is me, I just know it. And the dragon-bird… I strain my mind, rifling through memory files that stretch back 16 years. As always, I come so close to solving the mystery. My mind clenches the memory, but cannot rip it open.
Why, why, why am I here?
Why do I live in this dark, old house?
Why must I always be quiet?
Who is Mademoiselle Trumente,
And why must I obey her?
What is the spell hanging over this house,
And how do I shatter it forever?
But mind is too weak. It lets go of the memory, and the picture in the mirror begins to fade. But this time I will not let it go. I cannot live like this, with my life shrouded in heavy clouds of mystery and loneliness and silence. I squint my eyes hard and force my mind to keep the picture before me. But it is no use. My legs are weak, and my mind is weaker. I cannot hold the picture. Wait! I need you to give me the answers! Don’t go…
Suddenly, I am angry. Angrier even than Mademoiselle is when I drop something and it clashes to the floor. I will not let the picture go until it answers my question. I will not let my mind give up until it finds the memory.
I.
Will.
Find.
The.
Answer.
The picture comes nearer and nearer. I can hear the faint roar of the waterfall reaching me through the glass. I can hear the murmur of the girl as she reads to the Ferryman. What is she saying? Will it solve the mystery? Why, why, why am I here? My brain is churning. The picture is fading again. No!
If my mirror is a window to another world, I will break the window-panes and crawl over the windowsill. In desperation I pick up the wooden chest on my dresser and hurl it at the mirror. The glass shatters with a tremendous explosion. All I can think is Mademoiselle Trumente will be up the stairs now. How long will I stay in the cellar this time? Three days? A week? The rest of my life? I close my eyes and crumple to the ground. I give up. I wait wearily for Mademoiselle to glide over to me, outraged. I don’t care what she does. I give up. I have never been so tired in my life. Still Mademoiselle’s shadow does not fall on my face. With an effort, I open my eyes.
Broken shards lay scattered on the ground beside me, but I pay no attention to them. My eyes are fixed on something much more interesting.
CLIFF HANGER! 😀 I’m probably going to continue this story later. Somehow I tend to write in the first-person point of view for contest entries. What do you think – which POV is your favorite to read?
Okay, now for my BIBPC entry:
Story behind the picture: These strange flowers are called Dutchman’s Breeches. Don’t they look like puffy pairs of pants hanging on a clothesline? 😀 I took this picture when we made a trip to the Arboretum. There were SO MANY pretty flowers there! (See my flower overload posts here and here.) Did you know Dutchman’s Breeches are related to bleeding hearts? (I mean the flower bleeding hearts, not literal bleeding hearts. XD That would be funny if the flower names were literal: pants are related to bleeding hearts. XD XD )
Phew! I hope you enjoyed that super long post! It’s really, really fun to do these contests, but next time I might not do so many at a time. 😉
***Allison***
P. S. And before you go, you absotutely posolutely MUST check out Hayley’s amazing ATC trade if you like art! (And maybe even if you don’t. 😀 ) Basically, it’s a way to trade mini works of art with bloggers and people all across the country. I’m so excited to be a part of it!
(See part 1 here.) I’m ready to unload some more of my gazillions of flower pictures! (And I took even more today. *Sniff* Oh wait! That’s not sad, that’s good! XD )
First I’ll show you a photo I took today. We went hiking with my aunt who kindly offered to show us where some lady’s slippers were growing. (No, we didn’t take pictures of shoes growing out of the ground. XD Lady’s slippers are unusual, pretty, and rare flowers that grow in the woods. 😉 😀 ) We had lots of fun! I’ll devote a whole post to it later, but for now…
Lady’s slipper – or maybe a fairy slipper! 🙂
And an edited version:
One day I just sat down and took lots of dandelion pictures. I just love the petal-design of the mature dandelion when all of the seeds have flown away.
Which one of those was your favorite?
For some reason a few of our tulips bloomed like this. Weird, but neat!
Tulip
The next several pictures aren’t exactly flowers I suppose… But they’re so pretty I couldn’t leave them out!
Willow tree. I love this picture! It’s so sunny and springy!Willow tree at a strange angle XDSoft, new little pinecones on evergreen treeNew needle growth on evergreen tree. Okay guys, I REALLY LOVE this picture! I just think the spiraling pattern is so neat. God made even such small things beautiful!New growth on evergreen tree – from the side.
And all the rest of these pictures were taken at the Arboretum.
Beautiful tree blossom of unknown name
Albino grape hyacinth?? XDI have no clueBloodrootSnowdrops I think?Snowdrops againI don’t know what this flower is, but I like the picture!Dunno.AzaleaDutchman’s Breeches. They really look like upside-down pants, don’t they? XD They’re so unique and pretty.
And that’s about it! Whew, I hope you’re not flowered out. XD What is your favorite kind of flower? Which of these pictures was your favorite?
Have a gorgeous spring day!
***Allison***
P. S. I made up a riddle: What word contains all five vowels? Hints: This isn’t a trick-riddle, it’s just a knowledge-riddle. It’s not even a long word or anything. But I’ll bet it will take a while for you to figure out! (Unless, like my sister, I’ve already told you. No telling, Megan! XD ) I shall tell you the answer… eh, sometime in the future. XD
I know we were supposed to post our BIBPC pictures by yesterday, but Megan gave us a sort of bonus day because she thought the deadline was the 27th instead of the 26th. 😀 Yesss!
In case you’re wondering what BIBPC is, it’s a fun photo contest that my sister Megan is doing. BIBPC stands for Boring Into Beautiful Photography Contest. (Read about it here.)
The theme this time was Textures. Here’s my picture:
Story behind the picture: This is a photo of our friends’ dog, Snoopy. They recently got an ADORABLE Miniature Schnauzer puppy! I took this picture while he was resting on my friend’s lap during an Arboretum trip. This picture kind of has two textures: his nose and his fur. Such a cute wittle nosy-wosy, yes it is! XD XD Dogs’ noses have a really neat texture, don’t they?
Sorry this was such a short post. 😦 I have an AAWC post, Flower Overload Part 2, and a craft post planned for later. Until then!
Guys, I have SO MANY flower pictures I want to show you. I’ve been taking pictures by the hundreds, and I can’t keep up with posting them! If spring goes on much longer, I’m seriously going to wear out my camera or something. XD But I can’t help it. I LOVE SPRING! 😀
Since I don’t want to bore you to sleep, I decided to divide my boatload of pictures into bite-sized servings. (Well more like large-mouthful-sized servings. XD )
Now, onwards! 😀
Star of BethlehemAnother Star of Bethlehem
Isn’t it neat how some redbud trees have big puffs of blossoms on their trunks?Redbud tree blossomsThe same. 🙂DogwoodDoes anyone know what this flower is? *Update* Bella says it’s a wild geranium. Thanks, Bella!PhloxVirginia BluebellsA sea of Virginia BluebellsA peony of some sort – probably a Tree PeonySame
And againStill the Tree Peony. Isn’t it gorgeous?Center of the Tree Peony
Apple tree blossomMore apple tree blossomsBleeding Hearts (Not literally. I mean the flower bleeding hearts. XD)My grandparents have this huge flower in their flowerbed, and it does NOT smell good, let me tell you. XD It smells like a dead animal. O.o I’m not sure what it’s called though. *Update* Clara says that this is a carrion flower. Thanks, Clara!
A fly on the carrion flowerWeeping Cherry
Wintercress (It should be spring cress! This stuff is all over the place here.)
*Gasp, puff, wheeze* Okay good, you’re still alive. In that case, look for the next part soon! XD 😉
***Allison***
P. S. And now a word from our sponsors. XD Not really. But I do have some reminders/updates/announcement thingies. Ahem.
If you’re almost out of photo space for your Blogger or WordPress blog, don’t fear, my friend. Check out Clara’s tutorial to get yourself unlimited photo space for free!
Wohoo! Lots of people have already signed up for WordCrafters, which makes me SO happy. Thank you guys! To learn more about WordCrafters and/or sign up, see my WordCrafters 2 post.
Today is the last day to solve the mystery! I’ll post the answer to these mystery pictures tomorrow the 26th. And guess what? You have soundly beaten my previous record for how many people guessed on a mystery picture post. THANK YOU! I just love reading your guesses. 🙂
Oh well, it was fun!) The word I was thinking of was… sequoia! In case you don’t know, a sequoia is a type of tree that grows to be ginormously tall – kind of like a redwood. And with that, I leave you. 🙂
Allison Marie 