What odd thing have you been noticing lately?

I see a lot more flying saucers around here recently, as well as a lot more dead greys that have been run over by cars. They really should be more careful, the little buggers.

Butterflies, they fly like they’re drunk, either that or they suffer from vertigo.

Rusty corrugated iron fences. They are so beautiful, the different colors and textures of rust. They look like giant patchwork quilts. Amazing!!!

Strange occasional thing in the sky that almost reminds me of something familiar, but I can’t pin it down. It seems to move very slowly and be less grey than the rest of the sky and it goes away at night for some reason.

White picket fences. What an incredible diversity there is to those suckers!

I know, you think “white picket fence” and you probably have an image of a boring, basic-straight-sided-pointed picket, all of the same length and with boring, plain gates, but if that’s your image you either live in a place with zero appreciation for design, or you have no experience with the real thing.

I love the white picket fences around central Connecticut; they’re mostly white, to be sure (don’t read anything else into that; I’m talking about fences here), but what an amazing diversity of design!

The number of really fat people cruising through my local Whole Foods in an “electric cart”. Somehow, just doesn’t seem to fit.

Time flying by at the speed of light.

This is odd but not so delightful. The bar soap I’ve been buying online for years (Neolia) melts away faster than it used to.

@ragingloli maybe you can give them traffic lessons?!

@ucme Maybe they are just intoxicated by your presence.

@rooeytoo I just finally got your name..D-Doh! That sounds gorgeous a photographer’s paradise. Or maybe…a writer.

@susanc Well may your skies be less grey as to make the mystery all the clearer.

@CWOTUS To be honest I recall very few white picket fences. But it does not surprise me divirsity and beauty of such a thing were it prevalent.

Art and expression melded with practicality. Although I did have an image of Tom Sawyer conning his friends into white washing the fence.

@josie It does actually considering whole foods is a sell out and pseudo healthy. That would however not prevent me from shopping there should one be in my area.

@ZEPHYRA I know right, I tried breaking a clock as if to stop time. It did not work but I will keep trying.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I noticied awhile back when I bought cottonelle tissue paper the size not only decreased slightly in thickness. But also a slightly shorter roll. Sign of the times even bathroom tissue is being shrunk and economized.

rosehips: Shrinking toilet paper is one of my mom’s soapbox campaigns. Don’t get her started!

@RandomGirl Lol due to reported but unforeseen shrinkage, that threat holds less.. erm..bubbles? Nah it’s substance.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room – try unwrapping each bar and allowing it to sit out in the air for a while before you use it. That seems to harden the soap and make it last longer. I buy soap in a box of 6 and the last bar to be used lasts much longer than the first.

Power lines. I mean they’re everywhere. Some thin, some thick, some all mixed up in a knot, some have devices attached to them. Boxes, ransmitters, big cylinders that look like garbage cans, all hanging around from one pole to another. More than one line reaching to EVERY building, splitting here and there…That’s all pretty normal, but when I walk around town and look up, it’s completely impossible to not see a power line and there are always so many.
I noticed just how so many there are. Every time I look to the sky, there’s power lines crisscrossing all over the place. It’s insane.
We had violent winds today, caused a bit of some damage, the power went out constantly this morning. Now this power line observation is one I made before. But it happened again today, probably because of all those winds making me look up, so I could make sure that no horsemen would come to smite me. And it was even more weird this time, because since it was so windy, every power line was swinging back and forth, and one I saw was undone, and just kind of hung there, dancing in the wind. I heard trees croak and groan in the wind…and some power line poles, too. Kinda fuckered up.
My town does have an entire system of power line towers running through it though, so that makes for even MORE power lines. Big metal structures…they’re so far from one another, yet there’s like…a whole battalion of them. They seem so deadly and ominous on the horizon, and then you walk for 20 minutes and BAM, you’re right there besides it, contracting ass cancer.
Big major ones, and then smaller ones, and then wooden poles…

But my point is, it isn’t odd, I just think it’s really nuts just how many damn power lines there are EVERYWHERE when you walk outside and look up for not even ten seconds.

@Symbeline – I love power lines, over train and tram tracks are great! Andrew Wyeth went through a phase where most houses he painted had power/phone lines going into them. Does amazing things to perspective. This is the only one I could find an image of and it’s not one of my favorites. I will try to find a better one for you. But I am pleased I am not the only one who finds the patterns and movement of the wires intriguing!

Nice painting. Yeah, I guess power lines are mundane, but I mean, if you pay attention to them, they are pretty neat. Kinda ruins the view, but not in a bad way.

The little house across the road. It’s divine at night. There it sits, surrounded by little trees that wave in the wind. It is white, and has outside lights that come on at a certain hour. The windows are curtained but by draping so I can see a little inside. It looks quaint. It looks as if it has a grandfather clock, and a dining room table. It looks like a home.

Sometimes in the day time the people come out, they sit on the tiny sundeck with an umbrella and drink tea. All around them are rose bushes. I realize you meant unusual things but every night I stare at it from here, from my computer. I have to ask myself what it has that I want so badly.

Thanks, @rooeytoo—I’ll definitely try that.

I do have the suds-spicion they’ve changed the formula.

The bare trees in the night sky. There are a ton of them outside my house, I look up….it’s like a beautiful show of branches.

@Symbeline My favorite view of them is when they are cut into hills, you’ll see a stripe running up a field of green or red. Like a zipper When you are up on the hills you can use them to look down, otherwise you may just get a vision of trees. They are also used for skiing and walking dogs as well as snowmachining etc here.
But they can also feel as if they are taking over. I guess it is too late to use cellphone tower strategy and obscure them or make them pretty.

@rooeytoo They can add so much too a painting. It draws the eye to a focal point but in a believable way. It can also be an amazing contrast.

@Shippy There is no wrong answer. I actually loved your answer. It came from a place that meant something. I could almost see it.

@rooeytoo and @Pachyderm_In_The_Room never heard of that, and I have not the faintest idea why that would work. I barely buy bar soap unless it’s from the farmer’s market so you should let me know how that works.

It begs the question if it is a formula change if you are now just buying the product for the name. Admission: I quickly googled to see if the net was ablaze with product change but found nothing immediate, however the idea to give up soap making and buy neolia did cross my mind : )

@obsidianowl I know they are gorgeous I have pictures that I took of naked trees and sometimes when I go for a walk I just want to… I guess @Shippy described it best: stare at it from here, ... I have to ask myself what it has that I want so badly. But then again I think Georgia O’Keefe was an amazing artist. Basically trees are primal to me
Right now ours are layered and outlined by snow. It is also a beautiful scene.

The struggle between small-town homeyness and suburb atmosphere in my home town. It’s become a political issue in the area, but it’s a struggle in everyone’s lives.

@rosehips – I think it works because the soap dries out and gets harder when it is exposed to the air. Just like bread! It still lathers up as it should but just lasts longer!