A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Everyday Images #97

Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts.

September Prompts - Everyday Images #97

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steps

from underneath

morning light

at home (monthly)

beautiful

landmark

chair

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steps - technically only one step outside, but then you have to step up into the doorway so I think it works.

from underneath - one of the beautiful views looking up at the ceiling of the Macedonian Orthodox church

morning light

at home (monthly) - not sure the raven lamp will stay in this spot, but for now it has a home in the office/spare room.

beautiful - I know I've already featured the Macedonian Orthodox church, but it truly was so beautiful inside. I had trouble picking just one photo to use for this prompt. I added more in the bonus section.

landmark

chair - looks like all the throw blankets are on this one chair at the moment

And a few bonus photos:

The weekend before last we went the Macedonian festival at the Orthodox church not far from us. We love seeing the beautiful interior of the church, with incredible artwork depicting so many Bible stories. We also thoroughly enjoyed the food. Very similar to Greek food, if you're wondering - North Macedonia is a small country bordered by Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, and I think Serbia to the north.

We got a sampling of desserts to take home and share with friends. Baklava is always my favorite!

For some reason the tidbit of information added to a road sign struck me as funny.

I finally got a squash pie baked, and oh, it was so good!

I went to the Backwoods Fest with friends last weekend and it was a lot of fun. This is a little peek at a Backwoods style food court. We had amazing vegetable soup for lunch, and I was delighted to find a one of the food vendors making fried cornmeal mush which is one of my favorite breakfast type foods.

I sent this photo to my husband and said "thank you, I did!" but in reality I didn't get all that much. Not as much as I wanted to, that's for sure!

There are often traffic delays right in our neighborhood when I'm trying to get to work in the morning. I think they were trying to get in a row and having trouble aligning themselves. I get it, ducks, I get it.

Maybe the "Welcome" sign should have gone at the beginning of this post, but I'm closing with it just because I like it.

I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.

September/October Prompts - Everyday Images #98

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Friday focus

rocky

two

at my feet

orange

new and/or used

books

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Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Falling Into the Hodgepodge

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Fall arrives this week in the northern hemisphere. Does it look/feel like fall where you live? What's something you love to do this time of year that makes you feel it's officially fall?

I do think it started to feel very much like fall over the last several days, because it's been cooling off at night just enough so that you almost feel like you want a jacket. You don't really need it, but you kind of want one all the same. And it's been foggy a couple of mornings and that makes it feel and look like fall. There's just the start of the leaves turning too. Something I love to do . . . I guess just looking at fall colors. Fall is the best time for walks in the woods.

2. What's a small daily task or chore that always seems to fall through the cracks when your schedule get busy?

Goodness, most of my chores fall through the cracks when I get even a little bit busy! Putting laundry away is the first thing to go, and that's been happening a lot lately. It gets washed and dried and brought upstairs but if we've got a busy schedule, it sits in the basket or in folded piles and doesn't get put away. That is exactly the current situation this week, in fact.

3. What's something you're falling for lately?

I totally fell for the new Peanuts collab stuff from Starbucks and got myself a new mug. I'd been doing so well on not buying new mugs too. I hadn't acquired any new ones since Christmas!

4. Pumpkin is a popular flavor this time of year. Are you a fan? What's your favorite pumpkin flavored food or beverage?

Okay, first let me ask this . . . are all the pumpkin spice drinks actually pumpkin flavored, or are they flavored with the spices we associate with pumpkin pie? Because I don't detect that much pumpkin flavor. Anyway. All that aside, I like both pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavors but I'm honestly just kind of 'meh' about the pumpkin spice seasonal drinks at Starbucks and all the other coffee shops. I love pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. A good pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing is my favorite, I think. I do like the pumpkin spice chai latte from Starbucks though. That is really good, especially with the cold foam.

5. What's something you wish would never change? Explain.

High standards. If 90% is the grade required to earn an A and 70% is the grade required to pass the class, that shouldn't change for anybody. If you have to be able to lift a certain number of pounds and run a mile under a certain time in order to pass the fitness qualification to be a firefighter, that's the standard for everyone. Those kinds of standards need to apply regardless of skin color, sex, ethnicity, or any other factor. I also wish that standards for evaluating policy outcomes would remain the same no matter which political party we're talking about, and that journalists would report using the same standard regardless of political party. It is shameful the amount of blatant bias in most media outlets, because it's misleading often to the point of being almost falsehood.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Related to Question #1 - We're hoping for a nice fall day on Saturday, as we are finally going up to Cuyahoga Valley National Park! It's a bit early for full fall colors, but I think we'll get to see some leaves that have already turned.

Related to Question #5 - I'm in the middle of switching over to Linky Tools from InLinkz, following my random thoughts from last week. I kind of wish InLinkz hadn't changed their product because it put me in a position of having to change, but I think I'm actually getting a better deal with Linky Tools anyway which is how the free market works.

What are you falling for this week? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Best Friends. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

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Sunday, September 20, 2026

Sunday Stills - Where the Buffalo Roam

This week the Sunday Stills Animal of the Month prompt is "Antlers, Horns, and Hooves". I don't have have any hooves on my camera roll, but when I looked back for photos of antlers and horns and the animals who sport those features, I found these. As my title indicates, we have buffalo. Or, more accurately, bison. These were spotted at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park in Galloway, Ohio (just southwest of Columbus). This Metro Park area is over 7000 acres of wetlands, forest, and prairies along the Darby creeks. American bison were reintroduced to this protected area and roam in two enclosed pastures, giving visitors just a hint of what the landscape was like when this area was first settled.

The bison below was spotted at the Columbus Zoo.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam . . . check . . .

And the deer and the antelope play . . .

Deer are arguably a lot easier to find roaming than buffalo/bison, but they aren't always close enough for photos. Here are a few (only one with antlers!) that were calm and friendly and didn't blend into the background in the photo.

This one was content to eat from our hands and let us pet her!

I don't have good photos of antelope, but in lieu of the elusive pronghorn antelope I remember from the western Canadian prairies, I offer some photos of bighorn sheep and their impressive curly horns. They roam through small towns in the mountains like they own the place. Towns like Banff in Alberta, Kimberley in B.C., and Radium in B.C., where I took these photos.