Time for some imagination...

Her is Valda. She now appears as a key player in the Princess Sara Quest.

How is she going to fit in? 
I love making stuff up.

I may have mentioned this before but there was a time when my kids were little that we 'made up' bed time stories once in a while.

I usually started it with something like: Once upon a time there was a little boy who became a Prince and he lived in a castle. But he didn't know he was a Prince, he thought he was just a common person. 

So the story would go on for a bit and then the next night I would ask one of the boys to add to the story.

My older son would add wonderful bits and pieces to the story and expand on the characters and scenery. It was great fun.

And...then sometimes my youngest would  add great ideas to the story....OR...
do something diabolical. "...the young Prince then gathered monsters together and beheaded everyone in the castle. Theeee End." Of course he'd smile sweetly and pull his blanket up. 

Theee End.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Valda, who are you? At first I couldn't decide who she was or how she fit into the Princess Sara Quest. 
Who is Valda?
Valda is from a Germanic name meaning: Renowned Ruler, Power, Authority.
I admit, she looks pretty tough.

Valda is one of the Wild Ones. Obviously, she has no fear and rides a dragon and at other times rides a Thestral.

I googled for a name meaning 'powerful leader' and got Valda as a choice.

Someone over on Flickr....AC...suggested that Valda was .. um.. me? You know, maybe he was right? Valda is a Wild One, a Warrior, and she gets things done. I can see that! [the name Val-da...who would've thunk it???]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to the Princess Sara journey...

The Frog finally caught up to Princess Sara and delivered her more news regarding her Quest.

A true Princess always accepts things that happen to her with grace and Sara has done this time and time again.

Princess Sara seeks out the Little People of the Forest to hear about the Dragon's Plight and the Stolen Egg. In her pure heart, knows that this is part of her quest.

The Little People of the Forest travel to seek help from the Wild Ones. They meet Valda and explain the  situation. 

Valda agrees to help. After all she would never turn down an offer enter into a conflagration. She is an avid lover of the Dragons and would do anything to help them.

Her Dragons wait behind her patiently.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now~~~

Just for fun I thought that my Wild Ones and Forest People needed something other than Lego bricks to be their homes. It all started with a couple of pieces of broken birch branches and cardboard. 

This project is not my first stick build. I've done it before and had great fun creating something out of items that I had on hand.

With the help of a glue gun and some moss, I was able to create modular pieces to use in different ways.

Cardboard, sticks, glue, and moss. Easy, free, fun.

It is easier and less expensive than trying to buy bricks to make 'scenes'. If I break a stick I can replace it easily. I made the pieces in sections so I can build and rebuild in different ways.

Other adults do wonderful crafts and hobbies for entertainment. I go for the Adult Play.

Adult play boosts creativity, helps with a sense of humor, and is a major player in reducing stress. When my mind is on creating a make believe story through 'toys', my mind is not consumed by my Caregiving duties.

I can do both things at the same time. I can create play while in the house giving care. It is a welcome relief to drop into a world of imagination for just a bit.

Oh Deer or Gazelle?

Here it is. Autumn with cooler temperatures, and the colors changing are changing quickly. One day they are greenish and gold, the next day all gold. I'll do a recap of leaves later. Yesterday I had to have some fun distractions.

The shot above was one of my projects I did in August.  I took a Lego build of a Gazelle and modified it to look similar to a white tail deer. A Gazelle would look odd in the Wisconsin Forests. 

If you are in the Midwest at this time of year, you often see deer grazing on the side of the road just like this. At least I didn't have to dodge this guy since I was carrying him around.

It was fun to take this 'deer' out and imitate some of the bucks I often see. Here, he is supposed to be scenting a doe.

Here is supposed to be spooked and running!

Last month I won a little contest on a Lego Photography site and received this Mime! The Lego Ambassador sent me this Mime from Spain and said she hoped to see it in action.

Well here he is trying to make friends with his baguette. 

I love to think up little scenarios for using this character. I won it, so I better use it!

Below you can see how I set things up in the woods. The leaping shot and the Mime shot were taken in the very same spot with using different angles.
The little black blob is Charlie hunting for mice or voles while I have my fun.

He used to nose all of my toy shots over after I carefully set things up. Now he just walks around them and ignores them. They are not food. He is not interested.

This set was a 3 in 1 set.

The first build was a Giraffe.
Here is a shot of that:

I did manage to make the baby Gazelle into Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. We'll see how that plays out later!

In the meantime. Enjoy fall weather.

Princess Sara, the Dragon Quest

I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of following my toys and conjuring up a quest for Princess Sara. 

The greatest part is the absence of rules, allowing me to invent as I proceed. Do you recall the freedom of play as a child? We would take our toys and spontaneously craft stories without needing a structured plot.

I remember the trolls my sister and I cherished in our youth. We'd bring them outdoors, where they might be found constructing sandcastles one day or aboard my grandmother's boat the next, leaping from one escapade to another without a final destination.

The narratives didn't need to be logical; we were immersed in the play of the moment.

Adults always want a definitive beginning and a logical outline for a story. But the child's play is more inventive and creative with no bounds.

I find this holds true for Princess Sara's Quest. The Quest can veer in any direction, entwining countless subplots. I certainly didn't intend for it to be that way. But I follow where inspiration and imagination takes me without constraints.

The concept is to not dwell on the little details, but to relish the journey.

Below, the Rock Monsters have absconded with the Magical Dragon Egg and are concealing it.

Emerald, the Forest Dragon, confers with a clan member, stressing the imperative to retrieve the Dragon Egg at all costs. The egg is believed to contain a dragon destined to bring peace to their kind and ensure their survival. However, not all clan members are persuaded.

Emerald is aware of the Rock Monsters' formidable magic and their merciless leader. Rumors suggest that the Little People hold the key to vanquishing the Rock Monsters.

Yet, trust in the Little People is scarce among Dragons, who have been hunted by them for ages.

Despite this, Emerald is certain of the legend's authenticity and thus seeks counsel from the wise ancient Dragon sage, Sago. [LOL, think Yoda??]

Sago summons the Wise Old Frog.

Together they will find the Little People and speak to them.

And so the Quest goes....

why not?

Not Weather

I intended to complain about the heat and humidity again, but decided that we all know what was going on and how nasty it was. I was entertained by the posts on FB regarding the temperatures. 

How many people took photos of the temperature reading in their cars??? Lots! Others took photos of their weather station thingies. One even posted a photo of herself with an outdoor thermometer on a tree. Hmmm.

Well.

Me? I got up early and went to CrossFit. I know. Nuts, right? But it was the coolest part of the second day of the heat dome. It was a rowing and burpee work out. Who doesn't love burpees? 

When I got home I decided to put together my fun little 'story'. 

These are the Kenner toy versions which are not very posable but very suitable for kids [or in my case??? Big kids.] 

They came from another second hand shop a good find for a couple of dollars....

I have taken an instant liking to them. Last week I carried them around on my hikes and adventures so I could look for spontaneous fun with them.

This blue one is called PZ-C4O or Peazy. I looked up what this droid was supposed to be and found out that it was a 'she' droid and she handled communications and other difficult tasks. She seems charming in a way.

I thought she should meet the other Droid I had called NED-B. Or NED for short. Apparently he worked moving shipments and off loading and loading things to ships. He also like to Bonk bad guys on the head. 
What a great Droid!

NED meets Peazy in the forest and hands her an Oak Gall. A romance ensues. I mean come on! Who saw that coming?

I'm going to explain something here. I have a very vivid imagination which I suppose one day will get me into a lot of trouble. At my age, should I have such an imagination? I don't really know.

Imagine me telling my caregiver that I want to play with my Legos or that my stuffed animals on the bed are talking to me. Right? That is when they carry me off to another ward.

~~~

The toys develop their own stories, I rarely have to think up the next progression. It just seemed natural ... that they would become good friends.

And they'd go on hikes...

And spend time quietly together talking about being droids and other droid things like ... well, who knows?

And then this happened...

Hmmm, they seem to be making a story of their own and I just am along for the ride.

Regarding 'play'.

and creativity in older adults---

I see those who are creative with cooking, sewing, knitting, crocheting, baking, drawing, singing, gardening...., just to name a few things. Anything in my mind is better than sitting and channel surfing on the couch. [These activities along with being sociable seem to keep a person younger at heart perhaps??]

I find strange joy in using my imagination in what may be called Childish Play. But my love of photography always leads me to make a story even if it is very short story.

--- It started with Morris and his toys years ago. 

The stories were written for my Grandkids. When they visited, they usually took a walk in the woods with me. On the walks they'd name parts of the forest. The Big Woods, The Big Creek, and so forth. So I revisited our walks with Morris and his toys and let an adventure happen.

The kids loved it and I wrote a few short books about what happened on their walks. The joy of making up the stories stuck with me. I used photos of Morris with his toys. Sometimes it was impossible to get a shot I wanted and sometimes more interesting things happened when Morris did his own thing and didn't follow the script.

In other words, we just let things happen and had a LOT of fun.

When Morris died, I couldn't bring myself to try anything like that again. His toys were dormant, they wouldn't 'speak' to me. 

Give me cast off toys and things seem to happen.

I go with the flow and don't think too hard about it. 
It just happens.

Our adventures were always fun and we never knew what was going to happen!

Enjoy the next few days if the heat has passed!

Snow, blowing snow, weather, play

We had some rather interesting wild weather on Friday with the winds. I walked to the ridge to see if the snowfall was drifting across the ridge roads.

It was.
I cancelled my CrossFit work out because. Well, because I could. I don't have to drive in poor weather anymore so I can relax and just watch the snow pile up and the winds create beautiful drifts.

Our road looked like this:

The winds were picking up the snow and blowing it into fantastic shapes in the roadside ditches.

I talked to a friend of mine who had said they'd gone to town and the roads on the ridges were drifting and visibility was not good.
I figured that because I could barely see across the cropland on top of the ridge.

The winds were whipping the snow like crazy. Video length about 20 seconds of snow-nadoes!

I walked off the ridge and just into the woods. 

It got quiet and peaceful without the roaring winds. Charlie and I walked down into the wild meadow where I picked up sticks, mosses, pieces of bark, and some grass. I felt that I'd probably be spending most of the rest of the day indoors and I felt like making something creative.

It sure looks like a mess, but I had ideas for a diorama of sorts.

I had some quiet time to myself so I got to work with my free materials from the woods.
Sorry, my cell phone takes awful photos in dim light. But I used and old cookie sheet to create a scene just for the camera.

 I thought it would be funny to have a Lego Robot and a Squirrel working in a garden together. 

Hey, IT could happen right???

And after all of their hard work, they decided to have a picnic.

An Acorn for the squirrel and a pizza for the robot. The Robot is the Nanny Droid, IG 11. He stars in Disney's Mandalorian episodes. I thought he was just weird enough to use in this scene.

The fork he is holding actually is an extra piece that was included in the Orchid build. 

It looks like the pair is happy with their work of planting and watering.

After I cleaned that up I wondered what to do with all the extra material I had from the woods.

I had clay, a glue gun, sticks, and moss...

And I heard that Acorn Guy was looking for a little place to live. He didn't like Lego Brick homes, he preferred more wild-like things....

...stay tuned....

We don't stop playing because we grow
old
We grow old because we stop 
playing.

George Bernard Shaw.

Play on!

December and Surprise!

Welcome December!

It sure came in with a colorful and amazing sunrise.

Thursday morning I ran errands. I had Christmas Cards to pick up in case I got the notion to sit down and make out cards. I'm not very good at that. On a whim, I went by the toy isle and picked up a Jurassic World Lego Toy. It had a big truck in it and two dinosaurs. I was interested in mainly the truck.

When I got home, I unpackaged the Legos and set it down on the table.

Rich looked at it and said, "What's this?"

I said "Oh, hmmm, I needed a truck for the village and there is a red one in there somewhere. I need you to make it." 

I walked off to put some things away.

We had a Video Connect appointment with his Mental Health doctor and I had to have hm put things to the side.

Our conversation was much different than the one he had a month ago. It normally sounds exactly like this

How are you?
The same nothing changes.

...and it started out that way until....

I told him to tell her about the Lego building we had been doing. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and then the doctor was able to convince him to tell her about it.

He started to laugh and talked about how 'my wife can't build Legos without any directions and she messes up all the time so I have to supervise her!'

He said it was nothing but stupid. I interjected the obvious. I told the doctor that we engage for at least two hours at a time when working on the Lego 3D puzzles and he often can figure things out for himself. He was engaging socially, using his mind to problem solve, working with small motor skills, ... and NOT sitting and staring out the window.

Then Rich went on to tell her a bit about building and directions and how he was figuring things out. He explained that he used to run a welding shop where he had to think things up on the fly in order to create or fix things so Legos was sort of the same.

With Aphasia, it took a bit for him to explain it, but I could see her face light up while they were talking. He was animated and laughing as he explained the concept of Legos.

Who knew? Right? This doctor had never seen him laugh or engage like he did in this video meeting. She even quipped that she should prescribe Legos...and casually wondered aloud how to do that.

I'd sent a photo to his daughter of her father working on the red truck. She asked if Lego had tractors as she would like to get him something different for Christmas.

I sent her a link to a set that isn't very pricey but had a nice tractor and trailer build by Lego Technic which means the tractor will have articulated parts.

Hey, the guy loves tractors and cars. Maybe he can build some models. Of course we'd do it together because those really tiny parts are hard for him with his tremors.

Win. Win.

Then around supper time I received an email from the Kickapoo Valley Reserve:

Congratulations,  I’m happy to inform you that your photo “Campsite AA Gibbous Moon” has been voted for a Voter’s Choice Award.  If you are able, please come to the Holiday Happening on December 3 for the public announcement at 5:30 p.m. Please keep the secret until then!  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I hope to see you on Saturday. 

The photo above is the one the email refers to. SHHH, don't tell anyone!

More important though was the afternoon project.

And the result:

I wonder how the Christmas Village will welcome dinosaurs?

What a wonderful way to the start of December.