Observation Post

The last few weeks have proven to be fertile ground for candid people shots, and photography in general. Landscape and nature photography were always my safe spaces. Leaves, bees and other things never seem to mind my peek into their worlds. My fellow humans, though, that is another story altogether. I try to find non-identifying…

Being Still for 15 Minutes

Today on a break I sat outside, away from computers and phones, and practiced just being. Why is this so darn hard?? Thoughts came floating in and I let them float by. I looked at the ground. I looked at the sky. I looked at the golden air where sun streamed between tree limbs. Here…

The Magic of Mushrooms

Today’s trip to the lake was simply sublime, and a perfect post- work unwind. I love woods and water, especially the rocky shoreline type. So I was primed for some zen rock sitting, watching the water do its thing. I got so, so much more! First off, there is nothing like occupying a waterside picnic…

Nature’s Insights

In order to reinvigorate my writing activities, I thought I’d once again attempt a post a day. I did this once, several years ago and it led to both good and bad. Good, because I was thinking like a writer again, and bad, because I got burned out. This time I start with a 30…

On turning 6-0

Ah, I can remember when sixty was a distant thing, and how wise and patient I’d grow to be by that age – if indeed I’d live that long. Now that it’s here, what is it really like? Am I wiser? A life of ashes and rebuilding teaches one a great deal. Things like: Nothing…

The Little House That Could

She’s damp, dark and cold, with dead leaves scattered in and around doorways and windows that don’t quite shut all the way. But she stands just as I left her – in disarray from hurried packing. Freshly decorated rooms with art both purchased and created hanging on the walls, candles arrayed on platters waiting to…

Geminids Redux

When I went on the road, I had no idea one amazing benefit would be dark skies by which to grow much more appreciative and aware of celestial happenings. Over the last fourteen months I’ve seen dozens of meteor showers, gobsmacking full moons, lunar eclipses and now the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Last night…

I Can See Clearly Now

It has been over eleven years since I went to the eye doctor. I know, because my late husband drove me there. Today’s visit was an eye opener (no pun intended, hah!) Things have really gotten high tech in the eye exam world. Little lasers to measure your retinal thickness. Video game type tracking of…

Maiden Journey – First Run

‘Tis done. I’m now traveling in my new-to-me rig. After tires, brakes, differential fluid and new batteries for solar, I was a lot lighter than when I arrived to pick up the little E-Nuff bus, wallet wise, lol. First stop was, aptly, Hope, ID. What a beautiful place for the first real road camping I…

Free flying

Oh my, my, how I had forgotten the joy to be found in driving – particularly driving a responsive, well-functioning vehicle where gauges and issues did not have to be monitored. It’s glorious. You feel one with the car. The radio playing classic sounds – The Cranberries, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Panic at the Disco, Plain…

Superpowers

Do you have superpowers? We all do, sometimes they are just hidden from us until needed.  Lately, I feel like my cape is at the dry cleaners. I’ve been accused of being a Pollyanna, a rose colored glasses kind of gal often in my life. The eternal optimist. Today was supposed to be a celebration…

Van-demic in a pandemic…

… And other musings. Ruby had been sputtering along in a stoic way on seven cylinders  but she finally complained loudly enough, and refused to signal when turning, so I bit the bullet (wallet?) and took her in to a mechanic referred by another nomad friend. Whatever gremlins have been rambling around in my other…

Sleeping Under the Stars

I finally fulfilled one of my dreams out here, to sleep in the open, under the stars. It’s something I’d only do in a safe place. Last night I visited my original camp for a potluck, but I was packed to the gills for a camp move. Seemed like the perfect place to try it…

Impressions of Life

I came out to the PAR TR for a weekend of fun, to shuck off a couple of difficult weeks and to just relax. What I’ve experienced turned out to be much more. In a world that grows more expansive each day via the Internet, people seem to be growing more isolated and lost feeling;…

Pack and Play

After almost two weeks of talking mainly to myself, plants, and inanimate objects, I need some socialization. Yes, an introvert just wrote that sentence. I too, am surprised. I’ve figured out that introversion is how I process the information I take in over time, but it doesn’t really define my personality type, now that my…

Life is hard

The wonderful thing about Google photos is that it sends you reminders of where you were x years ago and what you were doing. Well, sometimes it’s wonderful; other times, painful. Today it reminded me of where I was five years ago. I was camping, alone, down in Florida, under another full moon. I hiked…

Starry starry night

After a day full of music, mucking about in the van, and a huge meal with good company and good food, I was feeling the need for moving around a bit lest I resemble a stuffed turkey! I took an easy bike ride around the area, dropped off the trash and then headed back as…

“I’m all alone, with no one beside me..”(Donkey in Shrek)

And so it goes! After traversing Arizona moving south and westward, I finally arrived at the RVing Nirvana known as Quartzsite, or “Q”, as one mountainside proclaims visually. I had seen a video or three on this place. Seemed cool enough. However, after having the freedom of truly boondocking, this is just a leetle different…

Wish upon a star

It’s funny sometimes, how things happen. I stood in the chilly darkness before work this morning straining to see a falling star. It was breezy, quiet and dark. Only the sound of the wind in the junipers, the rustle of grasses, and the trill of unseen insects kept me company. But no such luck. Tonight,…

Five Days In

My eyes open in the dark, savoring the sounds of crickets and the edge of morning. It is quiet but not-quiet; life wells up in the dark and seeps into the windows of the van. I stretch and lay here thinking of all of the mornings like this I have missed while being surrounded by…

What do *I* want to do?

A friend of mine recently said ” It doesn’t matter what anyone else wants, what do YOU want to do?”  I thought back to what my goals were before Plannus Interruptus (common ailment for plans, no doctor needed).  Remember nearly five years ago when I bought an RV and planned on paying off debt and…

Preparing for Dorian (aka waiting, waiting)

  Some music to watch for storms by: Riders on the Storm Or if you like something a bit more upbeat: Skywatcher The good news is that no one in my family will be impacted by much more than some rain and a bit more heft to the breeze.  I have one friend on the…

“Pooh hasn’t much Brain but he never comes to any harm…”

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living A decade. One hundred and twenty months. Three thousand six hundred and fifty days. And so on.  The pain of missing has diminished, except on the days when it has not. Those days have at least become less and less frequent. Philosopher and Poet David Whyte says of…

Saving Wasps & Relishing Quiet

I saved another wasp today. No, no, not the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant type. The flying, stinging type. “Why?” will be most people’s response, understandably. But, I feel that wasps get a bad rap. They live all around my house – on the ceiling of the mud room, on the door frame of my front door,…

Dis·​ori·​ent·​ed

It has been a long time since I put the words of my head onto a white space. Mostly I think because they have not been perky prose, or uplifting, pithy bootstrap thoughts. They haven’t even been particularly interesting – I mean, I’d get them out of my head and pick up a new narrative…

Last Grasping of Solitude

For almost seven years of widowhood, I have lived in solitude, with the exception of a one year stint with a co-worker roommate. She opened her home to me for a pittance while I was struggling to get back on my feet upon returning to work and I will always be grateful. I am comfortable…

Fifteen minutes ago

Fifteen minutes ago It was that day. The day I flew. The day I decided not to counteroffer on a house I really liked. The day I last heard “I love you so much.” The day I last shared a newspaper with anyone. I wonder when this day’s awareness will fade from my brain. When…

Who are you and what have you done with my Mother?

I can tell you first hand that widowhood sucks.  Just like when you marry, you learn to blend, compromise and bend to fit into a pair and it is a little awkward – stops, starts, spills, so too, is widowhood.  In a culture that practically elevates partnership to sainthood status, suddenly finding oneself pulling in…

Floundering for Words

I always have words.  Words to write, words to say when given a chance.  And I am full of them now too – well, thoughts actually would be more accurate. What does one write on a death anniversary, when writing is simply what one does? Does it make others uncomfortable? I don’t know too many…

Free Flow

It is no mystery to those close to me that this is a difficult time.  What follows is simply another free flow writing I did, similar to “Skin Tight” a few months ago. ****************************** It is trying to try, try and try again. It wearies and robs the soul of happiness that it is its…

A day of silence and fullness

I don’t have much to say today really.  If you’ve a mind, I ask you to visit my poetry site here: She Doesn’t Mourn Well Life is for the living, but sometimes living is harder than you expect. To those who have helped me along the way, my gratitude is truly inexpressible even for me…

Buy less, have less, worry less?

I continue my march (shuffle?) on towards a return to living closer to the natural world, with a lighter footprint, more mindful consumption, growing more of my own food (leaf and limb) and trying to reduce what I already own. Egads, you simply don’t know the cycle, the pressure of it on those around you,…

Stone Cold?

In the not too distant past, a male friend remarked that I am ‘emotionally cold.’  Another said “You are a self-contained package, needing nothing, from all appearances.”  Am I, I wondered? It isn’t the first time that I’ve heard those words; they echo a sentiment my late husband once struck me with during a heartfelt…

Getting better acquainted with Berry, and an ode to solitude.

This week is the annual customer visit for one of my largest clients, so time will be sparse to write, as well as the solitude and quiet that I require to do so.  But discipline is required to form habits, so…go easy on my content this week 🙂   I first read Wendell Berry several…

The Birthday Hike – Finale

Can you tell I’m stringing this along just have another excuse to take these memories  out and immerse in them again 🙂  I hope you don’t mind humoring me in it. It is difficult to tear myself away from the old homestead and all of its treasures and imaginings. But I hear the wild turkeys…

The Birthday Hike – Part 2

The pace and intensity of work lately has left me primed more than usual for pulling out the memories of this year’s earlier camping trip.  It isn’t that I mind working (although independent wealth would be cool too, lol!).  It is just that often it seems that there is nothing really productive about my days…

MRSA…and the festivity ensues

Edited 5/13/14 – Update post Primary Care visit. I am leaving this topic up, although the resoundingly good news from my PC is that I do NOT have MRSA.  YAY!  I do have a lesser issue bacterial infection, probably picked up at one of the previously suspected locations.  Starting with a receptionist that had no…

Moseying the property alone and absorbing, first trip

My weekend is hectic for a change, with social stuff.  Plans made with my daughters and their children yesterday, plus a gardening supply activity and then a trip to a Speed show with my oldest for her birthday.  These kinds of events don’t really pique my interest, but it is important to her so I’m giving…

Re-entry into normal orbit, or, shifting gears while holding on to happiness

Yes, yes I know, you’d rather see photos and hear about my adventures outside the norm.  Forgive me, I am withholding them like a greedy person, as I know they have to last me at least a year before I can visit again.  But all in due time, I promise, I will share more of my…

When camping goes awry, you just learn to smile :)

Taking you back to the beginning of this trip (actually recorded in the morning rainstorm in GA, at the campsite, and updated later from my tent in TN) When I grouse about technology, I often forget that it is technology which allows me to be atop a ridge, on hundreds of acres, in a tent, running…

When reality beats imagination

Yes, I know I said I’d be posting from the woods, and I didn’t.  Something about being out there made me wish to eschew the computer, a rare event in my life, since nearly everything I do revolves around computers.  Part of the issue was with my generators – one was more suited for phone…

“I went into the woods…”

It is almost time.  My apartment looks worse than usual (tiny thing that it is) because of all of the camping gear staged around.  Tarps. Sleeping bag. Sleeping mat. Food bags. Hiking boots.  Portable generators.  Chargers. And so it goes.  Looking at all of the ‘stuff’, I thought that possibly ‘primitive camping trip’ might perhaps…

When the clients arrive…

I’ve led a fairly unobtrusive business life since leaving the Fortune 100 arena ten years ago.  Long ago and far away, I used to fly a lot to client locations, speak before crowds, chat up potential customers at trade shows, and all of that jazz.  As an introvert, that is some kind of tiring for…

When opportunity knocks, answer the damn door!

Sometimes I believe in serendipity.  Sometimes I believe that serendipity actually knows where I live.  This is one of those times. When a writer writes, we really toss our inner selves out into the light waves of the universe to be bandied about a bit in the head space of others.  Some people skim over…

Finally feeling better, yay!

I don’t really need fussing over when I’m sick.  In fact, I prefer to be left alone for the most part.  But it would be nice to have a flower, or some soup made, or something.  I worked all week even though I was sick.  At least in my job, I can work from home…

Beauty and the beast

  This has been a tough week for me.  Thankfully, although I live in the city for now, I still have places that I can feast my eyes on woods, water, wildlife and other things that bring me peace.  I miss the quiet of the woodlands, the really dark nights, the opportunity to have a…

Road trips, memories and dreams

Anyone who has followed my blog for a month or more knows that homesteading, the euphemism for ‘simpler times’, is the dream that I desire to return to.  It has been a few years since I lived that life, 2011 to be exact.  Previously embarked on by me and my husband, it is a lifestyle…

You’ve got to sell your heart (reblogged)

You’ve got to sell your heart. via You’ve got to sell your heart. As I am sipping my morning coffee and trundling about WordPress, I had the privilege to read this piece by Christian.  While I am not as fluent in art and artists as he, the words about beginning to write rang straight through…