“As usual for a Squares Challenge month I will be sharing squares daily, and I would love it if you did the same. However if daily sounds too daunting, don’t worry. It is fine to join us weekly or even just pop in occasionally with your squares. The frequency of your squares depends on you and also your blog. All I ask is that your image has 4 equal sides, and that it reflects the theme of bright.”
Becky B.
A Rare CA Day for the Sun to Hide Behind a Cloud
bright cloud at the tip of the palm tree in sunny CA.
If you want to share your own picture, you can post a picture of it in someone’s comment section by 1. copying your picture’s link from the media file and 2. removing the “s” from https. Thanks to Hugh Roberts for that tip.
As a cognitive coach for the County Office of Education, I learned and practiced the skills of good listening. Lean forward towards the person talking, mirror their movements like crossing and uncrossing arms and legs. If they are tense, lean back and give them space. When in doubt, repeat their words to validate them. Don’t offer an opinion or story. Listening is not about ME!
Why are you listening? Are you conducting a therapy session and you want to make your client better? Do you love the person you are listening to and want to validate them? Do you want information from them to use against them in a court of law? Are your trying to learn something for a test or gather material for your next novel? I would argue that everyone has a motive for listening.
Listening and remembering are two different skills, but one augments the other. If you can’t remember, what good does it do you to listen carefully? If you listen carefully, AND have a poor memory, then you should take steps to help your memory.
You may wonder how I tie listening to purple flowers.
Australian Florals
Agapanthus for Becky B;s #BrightSquare
Carol and I strolled through many gardens together. One of my favorites was the Treasury Garden in Melbourne. Everywhere we looked, Carol had more information for me – names of flowers, trees, buildings, birds, bodies of water, statues. I admit that sometimes my mind took a vacation, but my lapses always caught up with me and sold me short when I needed information.
She took some beautiful pictures of bird of paradise, then wandered off and found this agapanthus. But here is the problem. I kept notes, but not great ones, mostly pictorial. Now the only records I have are in my earlier posts about Australia. My posts were not precise about every item we saw. Why? Either I didn’t listen or didn’t retain what my Australian friends told me.
My Listening Score: 2.5 out of 5. I gave myself credit for writing it as a caption on my photo from 2016.
After Melbourne, we flew to Ballarat and visited the historical part of the city known as, Sovereign Hill. At one of the vintage houses we saw these beautiful “spikey purple plants,” as another blogger called them.
I may have asked Carol or her sister-in-law, what they were, but three months later when I wrote the first post about them, I did not know what they were. But the answer is in Google or Bing if you look hard enough. It was also right under my nose at the Woodlake Botanical Garden also on file in my WordPress media file.
My Listening Score: .5 out of 5. I gave myself little credit because if I did hear it, I didn’t write it down or look it up so I would remember it later.
Artichoke plant
My Listening Score to Manuel: 1 out of 5. I recognized the picture on Bing and knew I had an artichoke.
Purple in Prescott, AZ
Finally, back to the here and now in Prescott. My neighbor has been spraying what she calls “vincas” like they were invasive enemy #1. They might be. They are not like the vincas, also known as periwinkles, I remember from California. Bing had pictures of vinca major that look like my back yard where these pictures were taken.
Listening Score: 5 out of 5 So far both short-term memory and listening skills are working.
They seem too beautiful and delicate for be attacked as an invader.
California Purple Monsters
Violet, purple
California has it all
Not to be left out!
Morning Glory plants win the prize for both beauty and killing roses. Puppy Girl enjoys the shade provided by the Morning Glory tee pee built by Manuel Jimenez, the founder of the Botanical Garden in Woodlake
Listening Score to Manuel and my friend Sylvia who told me about Morning Glory 35 years ago: 5 out of 5.
I gave myself extra credit for remembering a factoid for over 35 years.
This picture also qualifies as a #BrightSquare
Another beautiful invasive species that I planted all over my yard in California is the Mexican Petunia. Even when you think they are dead sticks, they are working on their rhizomes, “a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.” Wikipedia. Our home buyers may love them, but if they don’t, it will be difficult to get rid of them.
Listening Score 3 out of 5. I still want to call them Mexican pansies.
Closing Comments
See you next week on Sunday Stills. and Sunday Poser
“As usual for a Squares Challenge month I will be sharing squares daily, and I would love it if you did the same. However if daily sounds too daunting, don’t worry. It is fine to join us weekly or even just pop in occasionally with your squares. The frequency of your squares depends on you and also your blog. All I ask is that your image has 4 equal sides, and that it reflects the theme of bright.”
Becky B.
bright golden CA poppies in Three Rivers, CA
Believe it or not we have some beautiful poppies emerging in Prescott, AZ as well as in the California poppy state. Every day I get out with my camera, they close up for the evening. The golden hour for poppies is in the middle of the day.
I caught these beauties on the way back from running errands when I lived in Central California. There were so many along the road and they were so stunning against the unusually bright sky that I pulled over, got out and took several pictures.
bright poppies against a bright blue sky
These orange poppies were in our yard in Elderwood, CA.
“As usual for a Squares Challenge month I will be sharing squares daily, and I would love it if you did the same. However if daily sounds too daunting, don’t worry. It is fine to join us weekly or even just pop in occasionally with your squares. The frequency of your squares depends on you and also your blog. All I ask is that your image has 4 equal sides, and that it reflects the theme of bright.”
After all these years, I learn something new every day. What new thing did you learn today? Leave me a comment When I create a technical Blog Tip post, if I quote one of your great comments, I’ll link it to one of your posts. If you send me a link to one of your posts, like Hugh Roberts often does, I’ll add it to my next Blog Tip post.
Do you know why you shouldn’t link to someone’s page?
When you add a link to someone’s blog, don’t use the link to their home page or any other page. They won’t get the notification. Link to a post.
This does more than just notify your friend that you’ve linked. It keeps you current with your friend. Your best friends are not always the folks that come up in Reader. This is a way to make your visitations more intentional. If you haven’t had a chance to read the post, stop and read and comment.
My Coffee-Overdosed Computer Update:
My old computer is officially toast. Best Buy will drive a stake through its heart before they recycle it to make sure.
My new computer arrived Thursday. I thought I could at least open my One Drive and get started using my new treasure. Too many password tries locked it up. I took it in for its initial appointment on Friday. The Geek Squad expert (she’s been working there since October) got in and fixed it within a couple of minutes, so my pictures are all still in tact. YAY!
Apparently it is tradition here in Prescott to keep computers that come in for attention for 48 hours. It comes home just in time for Sunday Stills. I am so excited to welcome it to its new home!
Click the Pingbacks
Becky B suggests that we read at least two other #brightsquare posts. That’s another way to be intentional in your blogging and not get overloaded or overwhelmed. Here are my first few from today.
“As usual for a Squares Challenge month I will be sharing squares daily, and I would love it if you did the same. However if daily sounds too daunting, don’t worry. It is fine to join us weekly or even just pop in occasionally with your squares. The frequency of your squares depends on you and also your blog. All I ask is that your image has 4 equal sides, and that it reflects the theme of bright.”
Becky B.
Bright Spring California Roses
bright gold center of a peach rose at Woodlake Rose Garden
Thanks for joining me in my first attempt to post every day for a month. Have you ever done a month of challenges and made it every day?
I got my new computer yesterday – mine drown in a cup of coffee last week. I messed up trying to set it up and couldn’t sign into to my Microsoft cloud where my pictures are stored. And so therefore the meaning of challenge becomes reality.
