Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #408 – Over the Top

Published on by Yinglan

Happy Sunday! Egidio is hosting Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #408 and this challenge is all about things that are over the top.

My definition for “over the top” is overly grandeur or something that’s there but totally unnecessary.

The first thing I thought of was this picture of an indoor pool at Hearst Castle. If you’ve never heard of the Hearst family, you must google. This castle is located in central California and it once belonged to William Randolph Hearst. If I remember my history correctly, he was a newspaper tycoon.

When I visited the castle around 15 or 16 years ago, I had no idea of the history of the Hearst family. I only learned of this history in recent year from listening to various podcasts. Back then, I was just following my mom and the crowd, admiring the architecture and the over-the-topness of the building. I don’t know about you but I still think having an indoor pool in one’s home is a bit over-the-top, don’t you?

I don’t know about you but I find this to be too much gold for my taste. I saw this while I was in Macao handling some business for my mom. I believe this was in the lobby of the Wynn hotel there. I remember that lobby had so much golden displays that I got confused at times because I couldn’t tell one thing from the next.

Finally, this is a tray of recently sowed seedlings. It has 2 varieties of romaine lettuces, 7 varieties of bok choy and tatsoi, and 2 varieties of spinach. Is that over the top? To be honest, I think it is and I have to laugh at myself for that but most of these are new varieties to me and I am experimenting with each one to find out which does well in my climate.

If you ask my mom, she thinks my entire gardening venture is over the top and highly necessary. “Why are you growing so much when we have the supermarket?” She would often say. What about for health? For the safety of consumption? Though I may have gone a little overboard with this tray of seed-starting, I don’t think I’m over the top when I say that the food in the garden is better than the ones in the store, which comes from who knows where.

15 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #408 – Over the Top”

  2. I think you are definitely right about your garden vegetables are better tasting and safer than what is at the grocery store. You know all about what happens with them, where at the store they go through so many places and people you don’t know where all it’s been. 🙂

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    1. Oh, I’ve seen the videos and news reels. Scary stuff. I now shiver when I think back on all the times I bought those bag salads. Thankfully, I always do an additional rinse before eating.

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      1. Me too with buying bagged salads. I also like making my own with a little bit of everything. I love salads but am too scared to eat them now. At least you grow your own. 🙂

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  3. Visited Hearst Castle in 2009 and still consider it took me sometime to get over the extravagance. It does compete with the palaces of Indian Maharajas. The Forbidden City in Beijing is too much redness. I must flip through my pictures to find the extra rich subjects.

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    1. Ah, you visited Hearst Castle just a year or two before I did. I sometimes feel I remember the drive and the walk more than I remember the castle itself. Still, I felt the castle was too extravagant for my taste but maybe it wasn’t back in the day for the eccentric rich folks.
      I went to the Forbidden City in 2005, the only thing I remember was feeling like a popsicle😄 and the walk made me wonder how people used to do it.

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  4. Yinglan, opening with the Hearst Castle was fantastic. I’d forgotten about how over the top some things appear there. As for the closing choices, some people with excellent palate can probably differentiate among those varieties of romaine lettuce, bok choy, etc. I can’t, and I’d go with over the top there, too.

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    1. Haha, on the contrary, I plant a variety of the same vegetables because of the different tolerance of cold temperatures. For example, one of the lettuces can withstand colder temperature than the other. It doesn’t matter now but in the middle of winter, it’s the difference between having delicious vegetables and losing heads of lettuces to the frost.

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  5. Ha! I loved how you went from Hearst Castle’s grandeur to a golden Macao lobby… and landed on your own tray of eleven veggie varieties! 😄🌱 That’s my kind of ‘over the top,’ Yinglan. And honestly? Team Garden all the way nothing from a supermarket beats something you’ve grown yourself. Wonderful post!
    ❤️ love ❤️
    — Khadija

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