A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Everyday Images #73

Welcome to another installment of my 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 find that I 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. Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases that I'm focusing on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week.

October Prompts - Everyday Images #73

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leaf or leaves

at home (monthly)

harvest

gold

doorway (quarterly)

on my plate (quarterly)

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leaf or leaves

at home (monthly)

harvest - I was about to give up on this prompt, and then my husband brought some harvest items home to use for fall decor.

gold - we were able to briefly stop by the community Diwali celebration and it was so sparkly and colorful! Lots of gold, but the only photo I took is of this kids' craft table with its centerpiece of gold lamps.

doorway (quarterly)

on my plate (quarterly) - this was not my dinner plate, to be clear, but a tray of butter tarts I made for our Thanksgiving dessert. And a white squash impossible pie as well.

And a few bonus photos:

Our friends that came for Thanksgiving dinner brought me this kitchen towel - I love it!

We smoked the turkey for Thanksgiving and it turned out pretty good.

On Sunday morning we were accidentally locked out of the church and I took a photo after I texted someone to let us in. LOL

This past weekend we went to Blackhand Gorge and did some hiking. The main trail is closed at present, but there are two smaller trails we could walk on. One took us up along the ridge of the gorge, with not many views, but we spotted a couple of oil pumps (pumpjacks) and some very good fall colors.

On the lower trail, we walked up to the old train tunnel and also saw what was left of the river locks.

And I felt like we needed a goofy old people selfie for our collection.

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.

Everyday Images will continue in 2025, every other Thursday, and the link-up is open for two weeks.

October/November Prompts - Everyday Images #74

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spooky

black and white

trees

blaze

selfie (quarterly)

ornate

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Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Wednesday Hodgepodge - Orange and Other Fall Things

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!

Anyone tired of the Toronto Blue Jays mug photo? I'm not! I made it extra large this week to celebrate the Blue Jays going to the World Series! Woo hoo!!!

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

1. What do you like most about your family?

I love that we all get along well and enjoy each other's company. There's no big drama or little feuds going on. Yeah, of course there are minor annoyances and frustrations, but we are a family who like spending time together and helping each other out. The kids' significant others fit into our family so well and (as far as I know anyway!) they enjoy spending time with the whole gang as well. The kids in Maryland still share our house, and all go to the same church, often serving in the same ministry groups. The only way I could love this aspect of our family better is if we all lived closer together so we could get together more often.

2. What's something nice that's happened to you recently?

I've received some sweet and unexpected compliments that really made my day. Or days, since I can think of three in the past week or so.

3. Do you like the color orange? Besides a pumpkin and actual orange, what's something orange you love?

To me, orange is a color for foods and flowers and autumn leaves, but it's not a color I wear (except for my safety orange hoodie that I wear at work) and it's not a color I decorate with. So I like it, in its place. I love sunsets and they are very often orange.

4. What's something you have now you couldn't have imagined having five years ago? How does that make you feel? What's possible now because of it?

Season tickets for NHL hockey. To be clear, we don't have our own season ticket package, but we share a package with friends. But even having a quarter season makes us feel really lucky and sort of like we've 'arrived'. When we were first married (way more than five years ago) season tickets in Calgary, where we lived, were next to impossible to get and wildly out of our price range anyway. We put our name on the waiting list thinking that by the time they got to us maybe we'd have made it big and could afford it. When we first moved to Maryland, twenty-five-ish years ago, we got a ten-game package for the Capitals for one or two seasons but it was a stretch to get to the games and then the price went up so we were done with that. Five years ago we would never have considered even a partial package because the Washington Capitals tickets were so expensive, and it was an expensive headache to get to the games. Here the tickets are more reasonably priced and the arena is about half an hour away. As to what's possible? That's a little harder to answer, but personally I pay more attention to hockey news again, and every game is a fun date night!

5. Let's wrap this one up with an October this or that . . .

pumpkin bread or apple cider donut
cozy sweater or cozy hoodie
apple picking or pumpkin picking
scary movie or Hallmark movie
hay ride or corn maze
twinkle lights or candles
autumn hike or autumn bonfire

although I like both, I definitely prefer pumpkin bread
cozy hoodie!
I guess pumpkin picking, since I'd only need to pick one or two and I'd be done
Hallmark movie for sure, I'm not at all a fan of scary movies
I find a corn maze more entertaining, and less itchy
Both!! I guess twinkle lights if I can only choose one
Can I sit at the bonfire after the hike? This is the hardest choice. I guess I'll choose the hike.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This week is the Sweet Adelines International right here in Columbus and I so wish I could be there! Scioto Valley Chorus is competing at next year's International, which will also be here in Columbus. I couldn't justify taking any days off work to attend, so I'll be watching the live webcast as much as possible, and I'm really looking forward to going to the Coronet Club show on Friday night!

So many photos in this Hodgepodge! I kept adding them and thinking "I'm overdoing it" haha. I'll share more photos tomorrow in the Everyday Images photo link-up. I hope you'll join me for that!