I am still writing, just privately and inconsistently. I didn’t write at all while we were on our Eclipse trip and then not for a few days after we returned. And I was fine with that. And then I started again, reminding myself of all the things I do outside of writing so I wouldn’t be surprised when sometimes I forget to write.
In the midst of all this, I finalized a short story that I plan to make available for free. I started the story in 1992 in a writing workshop with Jerome Stern. Although it is fiction, I had my parents in mind while I wrote it. Now that they are both deceased, I feel I can share the story now. I want to release it on Mother’s Day. Wish me well.
Creativity
I’ve been making potholders again, a few to gift to friends for upcoming special occasions. The rest will pile up until I can figure out what to do with them. I’ve also been knitting a pair of socks but I put those aside in order to knit a scarf. I bought this kit in Spruce –Bennet Bandana–from a shop in Thomasville, GA. It was a perfect knitting project for our trip: simple to knit, simple to stow in my bag. I could have brought the socks, but … well, I wanted a break from them.
Garden
When we got back from San Antonio, I was thrilled to find that our Bugleweed plant was straight-up blooming.
Even more exciting, a small plant I had recently bought, and promptly forgot the name of, also started to bloom. Thankfully, I remembered to include the tag the plant came with: Fringed Campion.
Grief
As Mother’s Day approaches, my mood is shifting downward. I know I’m adding to my stress by my plan to release a short story, but what else should I do? It will be my first Mother’s Day without my mom. How else can I honor her and my memory of her? And my sister Shirley. Almost two years she’s been gone and yet my heart still twists in pain when I see the Mother’s Day cards that I would have bought for her. There’s no getting over this kind of loss.
Cats
But for our cats, I’d be in a sorrier state. This guy here … we are now calling him Snugglebunny. He snuggled up to me all on his own. I’m so glad I was able to snap a picture and record the event.
Many if not most of you in the U.S. might have had the pleasure of viewing a partial solar eclipse. If you were really lucky, you saw the total solar eclipse. We were not lucky.
After successfully viewing a total solar eclipse in Casper, Wyoming, in 2017, we wanted to do it again but this time, we wanted to leave the planning to someone else. A few years ago, my husband signed us up with a tour group that planned to view the total solar eclipse near San Antonio, Texas. Let me say at the outset that Twilight Tours was great. They took care of the hotel arrangements, food, and transportation to and from the viewing site in Uvalde. There were upwards of 400 people on the tour, but it went smoothly. Except for the eclipse itself.
As late as the evening before, we all remained hopeful that the clouds that were predicted to bump up against the Texas coastline would break up, giving us at least some opportunities to view this amazing event.
The viewing site was at the Uvalde County Arena, a fairplex that includes a rodeo arena, pavilion, and RV parking stations. It’s also across from the county jailhouse, pictured above.
As the day progressed, our hopes sank. In the above 180-degree panoramic view, you can see only a patch or two of blue sky.
For the rest of the afternoon, the sky stayed pretty much as it looked in the above photo. The clouds were moving quickly, though, and occasionally–especially right before totality, during totality, and just after–we got glimpses of the eclipse. I didn’t have a solar filter for my iPhone camera, but, in a way, I did get a photo of the total solar eclipse.
When the moon covered the sun, night fell. Outdoor lights came on, and the landscape became otherworldly. Above is another 180-degree panoramic of the site. Both the above and below photos were taken at 1:30 pm, give or take a few seconds.
Some might say our trip was a bust. In fact, a few days before we were set to leave, we seriously considered not going because of the dismal weather forecasted for San Antonio.
Our experience in seeing the total solar eclipse in 2017 will never be topped; at least, I can’t imagine a more exceptional experience. It was my first time, it was our wedding anniversary, and my husband got some amazing photos that day. (If you missed it, you can read about that experience in this post.)
While this experience wasn’t exceptional, it was nonetheless interesting, fun, and fascinating. The only thing(s) I really missed were our kitties.
Now, your turn: Did you see any of the eclipse? Would you rate our viewing as a bust or success? Have you ever invested in a trip only to not go, no matter the cost?
Hello, everyone! Spring has arrived here in north Florida, a real feast for the eyes this year. We credit a few long, soaking rains for the abundance of color.
Elsewhere in our gardens …
While color is bursting out all over in my little corner of the world, I’ve been busying myself with writing (more or less) and various handcrafts. I’ve knitted two pair of socks. One pair (not shown) is mostly purple. The pair below was not intended to be “mismatched.” I apparently drew from the wrong end of the yarn for one, but I really like how these turned out. I might do this kind of mistake on purpose next time.
I also sewed the bag in this photo, finally finding something to do with the fabric remnant I bought years ago. It’s called a 4-corner bag (designed by Cocoknits) and was super easy to make. I have a fetish for bags and am enjoying this one so much I might make more.
Finally, we’ve done a grownup thing and bought new living room furniture. The cushions and springs of our old furniture were fairly shot after 15 years of wear and the upholstery fairly destroyed after 15 years of tear by our cats. Note: Do not buy tapestry-like upholstered furniture if you have cats.
Raji and Wendy were quite put out by the loss of their beloved oversized scratching posts. We eased their adjustment by installing window perches behind the loveseat. We also covered the loveseat with a little-used comforter to protect it from the sun and make it more comfortable for our cats should they desire to stretch out.
No one can say that we don’t try to do right by our kitties.
I hope all is well out there among my far-flung online community. My writing is going well enough for me. My writing course is taking a break (as scheduled) until April 1 when we’ll start Session Two with new prompts among other goodies. Life is going well for us.
We did the other grown-up thing with updating our Wills, Living Wills, and Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care. If I learned anything in the last couple of years, it’s that you don’t want to leave your loved ones guessing.
Monday evening I received this lovely bluebird in the mail. The bluebird from a gift from Zazzy, a blogging friend I’ve never met and only recently became acquainted with.
I was quite moved to receive a gift and moved to tears that it was a bluebird. As many of you know, bluebirds are special to me as they remind me of people I’ve love and lost, like my stepdad, his son, and my sister.
This little guy is staying indoors, but I thought he would photograph nicely in natural light.
Thank you, Zazzy, for warming my heart.
Writing
Just over a week ago I took a major leap and signed up for A Year of Writing Dangerously, hosted by Summer Brennan on Substack. I’ve been reading Summer’s work for a couple of years now and have taken her Essay Camps a couple of times. Before I signed up, I hadn’t been writing for a couple of months, at least not writing much of substance and it was starting to grate on me. But I was also depressed. Yup, that dark demon just won’t leave me alone. He likes to show up just when I’m starting to feel good about life.
So it might seem contraindicated for me to join an intensive writing practice for a whole year. But I’ve been paying attention to Summer and the community building up around her, because of her. I know I’ll be in a safe place for writing. For one thing, I don’t have to share anything I write, ever. The focus is on developing a practice, finding those gems buried deep in the mounds of seemingly nonessential words, and then making them shine and sparkle. On our own. Summer will guide us through example and recommended readings. On Substack, we have something like a chat room where we can account for ourselves in whatever way we want. But we don’t have to share our writing, and I like that.
For now, I want my writing to be for my eyes only. The writing I struggle with, that is. Book reviews, photo essays, things like that, can go out into the public sphere. That’s the whole reason for writing those. But right now, I need to just be writing and not worrying about whether my writing is boring or interesting.
Today is Day 7, and I have written for seven days, writing about what I see and hear and remember. Ranting, which I still do a lot of, is not part of my daily writing assignment. It doesn’t count except to clear my head so I can write intentionally.
So here I am. Zazzy’s bluebird couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
This week’s Lens-Artists challenge is hosted by Patti at https://pilotfishblog.com. She asks us to consider: ”what makes a photo dramatic? Maybe it is processed in black and white, or it has vivid colors. Maybe a person, place, or object is captured from a unique perspective or it is a macro shot. This week, we’ll explore some characteristics of dramatic images and some ways to add drama to photos.”
Whenever I want to see something dramatic, all I have to do is look up.
A crescent moon high in a night sky has a sense of the dramatic.
Then there are sunsets as viewed from our patio.
Clouds don’t need color to be dramatic. Do you see an angel in one of these photos?
The open sky of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is often dramatic.
The evening sky at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park, a once-favorite place to hike, could be dramatic at times.
(These photos were taken about 10 years ago. That’s the back of my head in the first one.)
Finally, no drama here. Just a warm memory of Raji getting cozy with “uncle” Junior (RIP).
Next week’s challenge will be led by Ann-Christine/Leya, so be sure to visit her site next Saturday for some inspiration.
I always like to save the best (or good) for last hence my list is in reverse order.
The Ugly (1 thing)
Shortly after my mother died, my brother–my last remaining sibling–cut ties with me. His choice. In fact, his last words to me were “We’re done here. Don’t bother to contact me for anything further.”
Before my sister Shirley’s death, I had not spoken to or seen my brother in roughly ten years. I admit that I didn’t make an effort to see him when I visited home, nor did he make an effort to see me. After our sisters died, we started communicating, mainly about our mother since he was now her primary caretaker. We talked or texted daily after she fell and was in hospital and then after she died. He seemed to want my opinion about things. There were moments when I thought we might have a normal brother-sister relationship again.
Silly me.
All I needed to do to piss him off was question how he was (or was not) executing our mother’s will.
The Bad (1 thing)
The bad was learning a lesson the hard way. When someone tells you, “it’s not about the money,” you can be sure that it’s always about the money.
The Good (3 things)
My mother is at peace. I remind myself of this as often as I can because I feel selfish in my sadness that she’s no longer with us. I hadn’t been with her at Christmas for many years, but I always looked forward to calling her. The reality of not calling her this year, and of not sending her the wreath I would normally send, hit hard. I took myself offline so I wouldn’t have to pretend to be jolly. But now that Christmas has past, I feel a bit stronger, more able to embrace the fact that my mother is at peace.
I am at peace with my mother. She had made certain stipulations in her will that were not being honored by her will’s executor. So I made it right in my own way. I honored her wishes and, in that way, eased some of my grief.
We have a butterfly nursery. In early December, when nighttime temperatures threatened to dip into the low 30s, my husband brought in a couple of passionvine stems that had a couple of larvae (caterpillars) on them. He wanted to try and save them. Little did he know that there were also eggs on those stems. Over the next few weeks, I counted at least 20 chrysalis in our little tent nursery. The first emergence of a Zebra Longwing butterfly seemed like a miracle. And then two emerged. And then three. We’ve released seven to our backyard, near their favorite plants. And now we’re waiting. Either we’ll have more butterflies emerge or the remaining chrysalis will die. We do our part; Nature does the rest.
Here’s goodbye to 2023. Hello, 2024! I hope the New Year brings you as much peace and contentment as brushing Raji brings to him.
For this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, Ann-Christine encourages us to find the magical in our lives: According to Wikipedia, Magical can mean: ”…beautiful or delightful in a way that seems removed from everyday life.” She notes there may be other meanings, as you might guess with my selection of photos. Some photos are magical in their whimsy. Others are flat representations of awe-inspiring moments. One is a calm before the storm. They are all magical to me.
While not an award-winning photo of a Total Lunar Eclipse, I still feel a thrill when I see this photo, taken as it was with my (then) iPhone 8 Plus and a pair of binoculars. The moon is a force of magic and wonder, messing with the tides on our planet and in our bodies.
Fungi always makes me think of fairies and folklore, and these pleated inkcaps entice me to image myself an inch tall running through a land where the mushrooms are as tall as redwoods.
I think of this photo as the calm before the storm, a magical space where, for a little while, my world was cushioned by soft clouds and endless blue. We were on our way back home after visiting my sister and family in New York. I didn’t know, at this peaceful moment, that the trip would be the last time I’d see my sister alive.
Anyone who has been following my blog for any length of time must know that I love the thistle. I know it’s called a “horrible thistle” because of the thick, sharp spines along the edges of its leaves. So, one looks but doesn’t touch. It’s still magical to me.
Finally, a little magical whimsy: a photo of Raji superimposed on a photo taken at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. To stretch the idea of magic a little further, this kitty is himself magical. Although he still prefers not to be picked up, he is tolerating it more and has even developed a habit of curling up next to me on the loveseat when I’m reading, within arm’s reach of frequent pets and head scratches.
Now, what is Magical to you? Anything–people, places, and things, memories and feelings–are fair game. If you want to join in, please link to Ann-Christine’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag so we can find you in the reader.
I am continuing with my daily record of five things and decided to share today’s effort on WordPress. (For more about this prompt, read Summer’s description of the Five Things Essay here: The Five Things Essay.) For this post, the five things are about one place: St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (aka the refuge). The refuge is located about 30 miles south of Tallahassee near the coast. It’s our favorite place to ride our bicycles (which, by the way, are getting long in years just like us). Here are five things about the refuge that we enjoyed when we went there for Thanksgiving.
Wildlife
There is wildlife in this photo, a young deer grazing. It’s almost smack dab in the middle of the scene. While I was disappointed that I didn’t get a better photo, it was exciting to have a deer nonchalantly grazing among the grasses, curious about me but not fearful. There’s no hunting allowed in the refuge although there is in the wildlife management area that borders it. We wear bright colors during hunting season since bullets don’t respect borders.
The Bayou Stony Trail
This is really my favorite part of the loop that we ride. The photo on the top shows the view as we approach the stony trail, and the next photo shows the (very much) stony trail (plus part of the front wheel of my husband’s bike). Both of these were shot with a wide-angle lens, skewing the clouds a bit. And, yes, that big bright spot in the bottom photo is the sun. The roughness of this part of the loop makes for a bumpy ride, but on this trip, we had the added disadvantage of riding into clouds of (possibly) midges (very tiny insects). Yuck. I never pedaled so hard and so relentlessly on this stretch as I did on Thanksgiving. I kept my mouth close but I was also afraid of the midges flying up my nose. Yuck again.
Ring Dike
We survived the midge swarms and made it safely to a favorite rest stop: Ring Dike. An overgrown semicircular trail takes you from the main trail to a spot with two sturdy benches by the bayou. The first photo is the view from where I was sitting. The second photo is a panaromic. You can see how lovely the day was. Interesting clouds but mostly blue sky. At Ring Dike, we always drink hot tea and munch on homemade banana bread, nuts and raisins, and Lindt dark chocolate truffles.
Buzzards
We always see a buzzard or two on our trips, but this time we saw a “wake” of buzzards. (Seriously, why the word “wake”? See Collective Nouns for Birds. Of course, there is something a bit ominous about seeing several buzzards at once). They flew in and roosted on a bare-branched tree. I thought about getting off my bike to take some pictures, but I didn’t want to spook them into flying off. Of course, riding by the tree was enough to spook them anyway, so I stopped and got a few so-so photos. Below is the best one.
Alligators
A trip to the refuge isn’t complete if we don’t see at least one alligator. Given that temperatures were on the chilly side, most alligators we saw were in the water. Riding along, I saw an ahinga (also known as a snake-bird or water turkey) drying its wings on a log. It seemed like a good photo opportunity. Then I saw the alligator off to the right.
This is perhaps the largest living alligator I have ever seen, at least in recent memory. Greg estimates it was about eight feet long. EIGHT FEET LONG! Fortunately, there was a body of water between us and it so I didn’t have to be shy about taking photos. Still, the one photo I didn’t get was when the gator decided to turn around and I saw all its teeth. I was standing yards away but I saw ALL ITS TEETH. Then it slipped into the water, leaving a few inches of its tail exposed on the land. Kind of like when our cat Wendy wraps herself up in her fleecy blanket but leaves her feet sticking out. Kind of … but not quite.
So, now I can say I completed my five things prompt (or essay or draft or whatever you want to call it). I hope you enjoyed the photos. We’re planning another bike trip this week, and it will be colder than last week. I’ll be looking for alligators, but unless there’s a sunny spot on land (preferably not on the trail), they’ll likely be in the water. Stay tuned, and thank you for reading.
I’ve only missed one day of writing in the last 24 days, a streak I haven’t had in a very long time. My writing has been quite inconsistent, though. At first, I firmly adhered to writing per the five-things essay promoted by Summer Brennan as such:
It does not have to have five paragraphs or five topics. The number five functions more like five little shoves to keep you thinking, to keep your pen moving across the page or your fingers on the keyboard.
(For more on this, read Summer’s description of the Five Things Essay here: The Five Things Essay.)
Initially, I wrote about five distinct things (writing, walking, friendship, family, weaving). Then, occasionally, I’d start with one thing and let it flow into another thing (for example, reflecting about friendships could lead me to also write about loneliness). More recently, my writing turned into talk therapy as I used it to vent and analyze. Even more recently, I started “cheating,” using the five things prompt to read and comment on blog posts, with my comments being the “five things.” This way I can keep up (more or less) with reading blogs as well as fulfill my daily writing assignment.
I’m not sure where this is going to lead me. I firmly believe that any writing is writing that counts, whether the words are for a novel, a blog post, a poem, or a list. Comments on blog posts counts, at least to me, because I always reread what I wrote before I hit send and often edit as well. I don’t want to be misunderstood.
Today, I am going to write my five things here.
Weaving
I recently finished weaving and sewing together 16 potholders to make a tripod mat for my husband. He wants to be able to view the night sky with his telescope out on our patio, but was worried about slippery fingers and dropping lenses down to the hard stones. Hence, this thick cotton mat which fits neatly under the tripod.
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For the four center pieces, I used the pattern Shadow Fern by Deborah Jean Cohen (from her book In the Loop: Radical Potholder Patterns & Techniques, p. 100). The rest of the squares were simple stripes or plain weave. Loops are flax, leaf and autumn from Friendly Looms. In the photo of the full mat, you can see a mistake I made when sewing the squares together. One of the corner squares has its stripes going horizontally instead of vertically. My husband, ever resourceful, said that square will represent North.
Sunsets
Before we set the clocks back an hour, my husband and I enjoyed long evenings on our patio, watching the light turn golden before heading back into our house for dinner. Now it’s a bit of a scramble as I like to prep for dinner ahead of time, before we relax on the patio. One evening I was running late. I was in the middle of prepping for dinner when my husband remarked that it looked like we might have a nice sunset. I thought I would shrug it off (surely, there’ll be more sunsets to enjoy) until he said, “Honey, you have to see this!” As quickly as possible, I put everything in the frig or the microwave for safe keeping (i.e., away from Wendy and Raji) and hurried outside only to have to run back inside to get my phone. He was right. I had to see this.
Life
One of the joys of having a garden is seeing life bloom. We’ve had some warm days, and the long-winged zebra butterflies have been busy laying eggs. Now we have larvae on our passion vine which will eventually yield more butterflies.
Flowers
Actually this could fit under Life, but I’m trying to write five things so … This lovely red Gerbera flower is from a plant that I bought a few years ago. I used to keep it on our deck but everytime it bloomed, a squirrel would decapitate the flower. I was going to give up on it when my husband suggested putting it on the patio. After several months there, it has started to bloom again. And, so far, no squirrels have attempted to make off with the flower.
Cats
A few weeks ago, our neighbors had a guest who liked to park their car directly across from our driveway. So it didn’t take long before I noticed some unusual but delightful stencils on the passenger and driver-side windows.
I’d love to get these for my car!
Thank you for reading. To those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful holiday. To the rest of you, I hope you had a wonderful Thursday.
One of my most favorite bloggers, Ally of The Spectacled Bean, happens to like zinnias. Actually, I believe she likes them a lot. A couple of months ago, I bought a pair of zinnias from a local nursery. They were in the same pot, a mix of yellow and pink. Sadly, the yellow zinnia did not survive, but the pink one has and it is quite a showy flower.
I would argue that the above photo doesn’t do the flower justice, but I do like how you can see the various stages of life on this plant. The following photos are more to my liking.
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They are such a delight when the sun is shining directly on them! The challenge for me is whether I should transplant them to a sunnier venue, which would likely be off my deck and outside my range of vision when I’m sitting at my computer, OR keep them on the deck and repot them as necessary with hopes that they will survive the winter.
I believe zinnias are annuals, but in my climate, I’m hoping these might become perennials.
Wendy
Wendy is doing quite well after our (not hers) brief scare. She’s doing all her cat things normally, including swatting at Raji now and then. [One night, when they were both gathering around my legs while I was reclined, watching TV, she swatted at Raji when he got too close. He punched her back. Seriously, he punched her. Chaos ensued.]
Writing
I have been writing. For the first five days of November, I was quite earnest in my writing and found some nice support from other participants in Summer Brennan’s Essay Camp. [By the way, Summer is starting a series of essays on essays which I’m looking forward to reading. If you’re interested in learning more, she has an free introductory post here: Introducing the Essay Series.] I have been using NaNo to track my word counts, but not much else. I feel myself sliding into a rut. Unfortunately, I’m preoccupied with a family issue, and I thought writing about it would help clear my head, but family issues are the gifts that just keep giving, aren’t they?
On the bright side, refocusing on my writing has made me think about the stories I’ve already written and what (if anything) to do with them. Some have been published so rights have reverted back to me. I don’t have much enthusiasm for finding new publishers for them, but I want to share them “with the world.” One idea I’ve had is to have booklets of my short stories printed, along the lines of Creative Nonfiction Foundation’s (now defunct) True Story series, and then I can gift them to interested readers.
Does anyone reading this post have experience with printing booklets of their stories? Please share if you do.
I’d also love to have some recommendations for printing services to narrow my search. So far, it looks like it might be expensive.
Meanwhile … last night I saw an interesting contrail from my Adirondack chair … no filters on this photo.