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…
Leave-taking is always bittersweet when it is a long-time friend who is often more family than actual family. I’ve spent a lovely nine days in the Midwest in marvelous company, been fed delicious food, gone out and about, and now am sitting in the airport waiting to return home via Chicago. The trip in was…
Hint: Click to full-size. “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” — John Muir ~SE
I don’t write often on the more feminine aspects of life that tend to lift and enrobe us in comfort and pleasure, like the tactile feel of certain fabrics,the weather; things combined with scent. Scent is one of my all time favorite mood drivers. In this arena I am always torn between the natural and…
Briefly dipping my pinkie toe in the blogging world for a moment as the mayhem in my life mounts! First, on moving: I was |this| close to securing a tiny rental house; well, tiny for most standards. It is more than 4x the size of where I live now. But, you have to be poised…
Happy Monday all! I know everyone is rip roarin’ ready to return to well, whatever it is that you do on Mondays 🙂 This week’s mention is another accomplished pianist, baseball player turned artist, Brian Crain. He is a majestic composer, and has produced several solo piano offerings and others including strings and piano duets…
I. Can’t. Stop. (smile) This is one of my favorite weekly posts, sharing music that someone may not have stumbled upon yet. Music does so much for us: mentally and emotionally. It is often the backdrop of many writers of all genres. Today I want to introduce you to one of the pianists that form…
It is difficult to pick a ‘favorite’ instrument for me, as I appreciate all of them. Participating in the Symphonic band and the marching band when young and geeky (still geeky), I was able to hear them closely. But strings, in the hands of the right people, reach into my body and elicit something that…
I have been an avid reader since I was small, thanks to encouragement from my mother when little, and an uncommon introduction to education and learning. I am not certain why my mother thought reading was so important for me to learn, because she isn’t a reader. In fact, she finished her first full-length book…
Today Today I visited Shanghai in the rain, circumnavigated the mass of people and the vibrant colors of parasols sheltering the dreams dreamt only perhaps in Mandarin, beyond my comprehension, but their beauty I can interpret without a translator. I then traipsed from there to Lebanon, where wearied field workers rested against stacks of wheat…
I’ve not focused much on being a widow over the time that I have been writing; yet, that is really the entire back-story of this blog, documenting my life after widowhood – the thoughts, struggles, effects and the imprint that difficult things leave upon a person. I’ve never told here the story of how I…
Last weekend I had some macro photo fun, and then more playtime with the photo editing software afterwards during the week. Flowers are so delightful to me, from the tiny blue flowers that appear in the weeds in the alleyway, to the velveteen simplicity of the magnolia, and everything in between. This flower is a…
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…
First off, I hadn’t hiked properly in a coon’s age. Actually, I’m not sure I ever hiked ‘properly’ as in official, hiking-trail, backpacking type activities. Hiking was usually a spontaneous activity that occurred when we went somewhere that had hiking trails. We never set out and said “Let’s go hiking!” But hike we did, in…
Sunflower Solace Farm 