Wearable Art --- Days 12/275 & 276

Walks: Crissy Field, Hood

Distance: 6, 4 miles

The annual World of Wearable Art interrnational dedesign competition took place in Wellington, New Zealand recently.   Designers with backgrounds in fashion, art, architecture, design, and more were invited to showcase their creative and inventive garments.

"Spiral Nebula" by Galina Mihaleva, US  
Hagen Hopkins/Getty for World of Wearable Art

Maybe it is living in San Francisco, but Ciwt doesn't find their outfits all that shocking.  Original, creative, extraordinary, yes, but it's not unlikely she could see one of these outfits walking down the street out here. Such are 'dress codes' these days.

Out of The World --- Day 12/274

Walk: Nails

Distance: 2 puny miles

The Running Chicken Nebula. Winner, Young. The Running Chicken Nebula, IC2944, is in the constellation of Centaurus, 6,000 light-years away from Earth. Embedded in the nebula’s glowing gas, the star cluster Collinder 249 is visible. #

© Runwei Xu and Binyu Wang

Ciwt hasn't a clue about the constellation Centaurus.  But she's so impressed that two young Chinese boys do and figured out a way to photograph it.  Winning the 'Youth' category of The Atlantic's 2023 Astronomy Photography of the Year contest for their efforts.

Keeping Up With Fashion --- Days 12/270 - 273

Walks: Hood

Distance: 3.5 miles

Gucci 2023

Gucci A While Ago

News from Around the World --- Day 12/269

Walk: Hood

Distance: 2.5 miles

Steam-engine driver Bob Corrie (left) and grower Paul Proud pose for a photograph with Paul's huge cabbage, which won its category in the giant-vegetable competition on the first day of the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show, held at Newby Hall, near Ripon, England, on September 15, 2023

Impressions --- Day 12/268

Walk: Radnet 

Distance: 3.50 miles

Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas

A revolutionary art-history-changing painting about a new day seems appropriate to Ciwt as she is starting to feel Impression Health on her horizon.

Blah Days in September --- Days 256-267

Walks: Hoods, Parks

Distances: 3.5 miles average

Under the weather   ---   Still.......😣

All Day (and part of the night) in Bed With A Doctor --- Days 12/255 & 256

Walk: 1. No 2.Walgreens

Distance: n/a; 1.5 miles

So a reading friend highly recommended a 700+ page book titled The Covenant of Water.  Ciwt's private reaction was "I'll never finish it."  But she knew the author to be an excellent writer and her friend to be a discerning reader.  So she went to her dear neighborhood bookstore, bought it, read 30 pages or so, put it in her basket of unread books, and thought "knew it; I won't finish it."

That was approximtely a week before Ciwt contracted some 'everything but covid' condition (she tested) that left her barely standing.  Nothing to do but "drink plenty of liquids and get plenty of rest." Oh, dear - how boring.  But then she remembered that 700+ page.

The author, Abraham Verghese is a doctor as well as a writer.  And Ciwt is beginning to think, a healer in the ancient sense. ...Covenant..taps into life force itself and connects his reader (or at least Ciwt) to it.  After a day of liquids and rest, she's 250+ pages along and finding that being sick can also be uplifting thanks to Verghese's tender, exquisite storytelling.  

PS - You don't have to be under the weather to appreciate its effects.

Grand Prize Winner --- Day 12/254

Walk: No, sinus

Distance: n/a

Imagine the patience, technical skill -and sheer luck - to capture this peregrine falcon attacking a pelican headed toward her young.

Here's the Grand Prize and Gold Winner, Jack Zhi's, description: During the breeding season, a female peregrine falcon fiercely protects her young, attacking anything that comes near the nest. For four years, I attempted to capture these rare moments of her attacking large brown pelicans with incredible speed and agility. The high-speed chase made it challenging to capture a close-up shot with a long lens. #

Where Oh Where? -- Days 12/245-53

Walks: Park and Hoods

Distances: 4.5 miles average

Green Tanager.© Nicolas Reusens / Bird Photographer of the Year*

Ciwt has been hiding in plain sight these end of summer-beginning of fall days. 

*Stay tuned for more beautiful winning entries from this year's The Atlantic Bird Photographer of the Year contest.