TALKING photos on Flickr

Balsams make really nice, and fragrant, Christmas trees... string together some of those berries from the mountain ash to get a head start on decorations!

I may be preaching to the choir here as I point out that Joyce and I are always quite busy this time of year. I’ll be scrambling around today for last minute ingredients for meals I’m preparing for a Christmas gathering of international students from Duke University with International Students, Inc tomorrow evening at our church’s fellowship hall. The meal is potluck-style, with many members of our church pitching in, as we may be feeding 150+ people. We must be concerned about dietary restrictions of some the students, Muslims for instance, so I’m making a huge pot of gluten-free rotini pasta with Bolognese sauce and southern-style chicken and dumplings… comfort food. Others will be making vegan dishes and desserts. I will be there early to coordinate the kitchen and the food… Joyce will be there to help with finishing touches on holiday decorations.... after she returns from Boydton, Virginia, where she's also setting up decorations at the historic Boyd Tavern along with the mayor's wife... she knows how to hobnob.

At this gathering last year, I sat at a table with a few first-year engineering students from China. Engineering is something I understand, so we had a pretty good conversation going on. That conversation led to issues of regionalism and colloquialism that we found quite funny. "Regionalism" eventually reached across the world when they asked me what I thought of them. I'm sitting there with science-minded young adults brilliant enough to attend one of the most elite schools in the world from a country that insists communism is their only God... and yet, I was able to explain God to them and why we celebrate His birth at Christmas. In doing so, I explained how God tells me that I can't say that I love Him without also loving them... that's much of the theme of the Book of James. They sat silent for a bit after that, though I could see something was whirling around in their heads. As I gathered my stuff to leave that evening, they were lined up at the door to thank me and hug me for talking to them... and one of them now attends church with us. Time spent with God never returns void.

After church this Sunday, we're both headed back to Boydton, a little over an hour away on the far side of Kerr Lake, to participate in the open house Christmas activities there. I will be taking photos of kids with Santa Claus... which should up my ante on the naughty or nice quotient. Time will tell.

listen to me by Prapol (ประพล - ตุ๊ ) Kositangool

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ให้ฉันพูดก่อน.....(ฉันมีไม้นะเฟ้ย...)

Talking with her by Lover of sandals

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She is my neighborhood. One day I saw her in the street, she was shoppping some clothes in the street market and inmediatly I started to talk with her. While we were talking I was taking pictures of her beauty feet. What do you think?

Talking by Rick

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I rescanned this for better quality and to see it larger. See the other one in the set.

www.flickr.com/photos/rickwashere/111519822/in/set-496984/

Scooter talk by phil anker

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Talking of hats....! by Lilla~Rose

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Are you talking? by Douglas Liu

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Talking with God by Francesco

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Talk to me ! by Martin von Elm

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Talk to Me! by Christopher Meder

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Talking Trash by century_636

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Former UP EMD SD40-2 "Snoot" 3306 takes Sundays off from shuffling trash cars around the Waste Management Facilities located outside of Arlington Oregon. Arlington, like Roosevelt directly across the Columbia River, is the destination for the majority of King and Pierce Counties solid residential waste.

This former UP SD40-2 appears to have lost it's turbo charger, making it essentially an SD38-2.

DJI_0238

Talking by Elenovela

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Do you see?

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1 II

Lens: Olympus 50-200mm f2.8-3.5

www.elenovela.eu

Talk to Her... by David Davidoff

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Central, Hong Kong

Leica M6 TTL Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH