Thanks, Lynn and Esther, for this challenge!

At the end of July I finally made my own tryzub patch designs. Our Ukrainian friends shared stories about their history and we understood how Russia had forced them to give up their culture. We felt their pride when they replaced the soviet emblem on their monument with a trident.

Wow! I thought I posted this long ago! Lucky I saw it today, it's the deadline. :D

AUGUST 2023 CHALLENGE LAYOUT LINKS : CHALLENGE 1 - WHITE SPACE/CLEAN https://oscraps.com/community/media/challenge-1-stay-curious.381859/ CHALLENGE 2 - COPY CAT {insert link}https://oscraps.com/community/media/challenge-2-summertime-white-butterflies.381341/ CHALLENGE 3 - THEMES AND OCCASIONS...

What a DOLL! I mean, he really looks like a life-like doll. When mine was tiny she never could sit up, so this all the more isn't quite real for me. :giggle4:

Thanks for the challenge and for picking my page. Wow! I had forgotten I made this. I still love this refuge and my page today happens to also be from there. I didn't want to distract from the right page, so all of the elements are in that lower left corner. ;)

Sometimes the Rio Grande was not much of a river, but it was always quiet, although there was whitewater rafting at Creede. You knew I always had to stop at the most scenic stretch of the river at sunrise. But on this day, in Texas, migrants from Mexico risked drowning to swim across a wider part.

I saved some photos for this weekend's challenge, and you must have seen what was on my Bridge. :D Thanks Adryane for this wonderful challenge. I needed something to make it work although I did have the photos ready.

One male avocet flew all the way across the lake to give us the what-for and we knew he was guarding his tribe. We saw them mating in June, and were sure there would be nests among the dense growth of milkweeds. From our view, it looked like the ideal safe home for them.

I see lots of milkweed. Love it.

Thanks! It's new to us. We'd never seen or heard of it anywhere in our region until this trip. It's not as common here as in the Bay Area, I think.

It was always too dark when we passed the first pond on the right, but I thought there might be pink flowers on the distant side of the pond. So we returned to the start of the trail just before we left the refuge. The succulent glasswort, or pickleweed, was pretty in the bright sunshine.

Thanks for the inspiration, Nancy! I blurred and faded the map and used fotoblendz for my main photo. The long narrow photos are a new twist for me, but really give the feel of the refuge. PS Thank you for starting my Saturday off so wonderfully. :D

On our way out of Alamosa heading east, we opted to stop again at Alamosa NWR, to avoid driving straight into the morning sunrise. The ducks flew, but I watched a wave and couldn't see what made it. What a surprise when a photo to see what it was turned up an otter in that canal!

I plugged the colors into my fractal software, and it took a few renders to get something like I had in mind. Good practice, and I so love your color challenges, Adryane. Thanks, as always.

On a day when the clouds stole away much of our golden hour, we were at least glad to have the company of the full moon. The Buck Moon is named for the time of year when the buck deer grow new antlers. This moon was also a supermoon, and I appreciated the clear sky.

The front line for Democracy runs through eastern Ukraine right now, and I'm thankful so many Americans, that in general don't vote in their best interests, are actually on the side of Ukraine. I'm hopeful and yes, it's going to stay very scary.

Maybe golden sunshine on the Jeep was the story for Thursday's trip to the refuge. a big flock of birds flew up in front of us. Then right after the sun rose, it climbed into a cloud and the lighting was more like that of a rainy day. And still, there was no place we'd rather be at sunrise.

This card from my BFF and amazing impeccable artist, Lea Gunn. Why do I have 54,000 fonts, you may ask? Because she's a calligrapher! I just wanted her most recent card to be in my book and she liked the idea.

We weren't sure why, but the yellow-headed blackbirds would let us get much closer during the blue hour when they were among the shrubs, than when they were out in full sun among the cattails. After so many visits to their habitat, I enjoyed seeing them in the low light amidst the greenery.