September 04, 2021
Challenge - A Portrait and a Story
I was driving on Main Street looking for a place to park my car when I noticed a lady wearing a hat crossing the street. People wearing hats always catch my attention.
I parked the car and started wandering the streets. At the strip of green that divides much of Main Street, I saw the lady with a hat talking to somebody. She was sitting on a bench, he was standing with a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked more like a passerby who just stopped for small talk rather than a friend. That made me think that the lady wearing a hat is open to talking to strangers.
I kept walking but keeping an eye on them. When he left I turned around, walked towards her, introduced myself, and asked if I could take make some photos of her.
Stephanie is an interesting, smart & witty woman. We talked for about 45 minutes and she told me some interesting stories, including one about the hat she was wearing.
Earlier that day, while walking on a street by the church, she saw a hawk coming down for a chicken. Waving her arms and yelling to the hawk, she tried to save the distraught chicken, but she couldn't stop the inevitable. The hawk got most of the chicken, leaving only parts of it in the middle of the street.
To pay her respects to the dead chicken she got the biggest feather she could find, went back home, washed it, and now the dead chicken feather adorners her hat.
Hearing that made me think that she was a cuckoo, or she was mocking me.
I said goodbye promising to send her some pictures and off I went.
On my way to my car, I noticed a dead-end street by the church and decided to check it out. Some children were loudly talking to each other at the end of the road, when I was approaching them they left in a hurry, and that's when I noticed a dead bird in the middle of the road. It was a much bigger bird than the ones that visit my backyard, and that's when I saw one chicken leg by the remaining feathers!!!
