Scrolling back over the past posts of 2024 puts it right in my face that there was plenty about nature, food, weather, and just mindless, ambling summations. That, and a couple of Rants here and there.

At the beginning of the year the WordPress platform was giving me trouble – subscribers were not getting alerted to posts, those that tried to comment found it difficult, frustrating and not worth it. Over the fourteen years of writing this blog (January 16, 2011 was the first post – somehow I can barely grasp that fact), it has been an up and down issue with feedback, readership, and some of the helpful tools that were once available on this platform no longer seem to exist. But I’m still here, along with a handful of loyal followers, a number of new ones, and some random people dropping in from throughout the entire world, which is kind of cool. So maybe it’s fixed. For now. And for those that continue to bear with me, I appreciate it.

Of the more mundane, the weather. Temps bouncing all over the place, perhaps our new normal, climate change, all that. And yet when I look back at old posts here and memories from social media, it appears even back then we were commenting about how weird the weather was behaving. It seems it is our tendency to forget.

We had great, fluffy snows, ice storms, and even teeny tiny snowballs everywhere. Any significant snow was an excuse to have a bowl of fresh snow drizzled with maple syrup, which gets mentioned just about every year. I wonder if anybody reading about it here has ever felt the urge to try it out…..?

Phenomena provided by the cold began immediately in 2024, with gorgeous art displays of bathroom window ice. The year also ended with a new collection framed on the same glass.

At times there were skies so blue that they looked like a square on a Pantone paint strip.

There were glimpses of rainbows peeking through trees and arching over houses, luring people out of their homes and into the streets to appreciate those fleeting treats. Sunrises and sunsets lent moments of hope and led one into silent contemplation.

I found myself often lost in billowing cumulous clouds, or great thunderheads building on the horizon. You could imagine angels behind beaming rays of heavenly light emanating from icy edges of afternoon formations. There were lenticular clouds that mimicked dolphins leaping through a sea made of sky, or flying saucers surveying the Earth. We had a few dark, moody, emotional gray ceilings, along with mackerel designs blanketing the above.

Clouds and clouds and more clouds.

Right here I could probably add an Earworm. Songs just kept popping up in my head all year while writing. As I type this, I’m hearing Judy Collin’s version of Joni Mitchell’s song, “Both Sides Now” in my mind.

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

There were plenty of earworms shared this year, usually just a line or two. Sometimes they would not vacate and stuck around for days at a time.

2024 brought us a total eclipse of the sun that became a social event, bringing so many gathering together to share the experience.

Okay, so here we go again – “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon. I bet I’m not the only one who had this earworm when it was happening, was I?

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun

In more celestial phenomena, we experienced four full Super moons during the year, and a showing of the Northern Lights a number of times, including once viewed right from the front porch.

As if spinning through a color wheel, every few weeks a fresh wave of blooms took stage – Roy G. Biv through the seasons! If flora is your thing, scrolling back you will find there are photographic bouquets of beauty scattered throughout this 2024 edition.

While “Views From the Urban Porch” provided outdoor observations, whimsical, mind-spinning examinations were shared from within the house and within my head – anything from thoughts and opinions on at what point the hole in your socks rendered them no longer Sock Worthy, to Object Attachment, horses I have known, crickets, human-animal connection, Hawkmoths, radiated bliss, the attack of the lily pollen, the odd abundance of houses that are painted black, feelings of restlessness, political fissures between family and friends, and the perceptible feeling of being on the edge of an abyss while waiting for Something to Happen. There were expressed urges both to flee and to hibernate. Childhood reminiscing. A year of No Figs. My first experience with an internet troll. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. A study in the abundant patterns and colors both man-made and in nature, which provided tremendous distraction from other things that needed to be completed – like taxes. Perhaps a reader or two found recognition in a few of these meanderings.

And oh boy, there were a few Rants; a recalled expression of frustration and rage during a transatlantic flight years ago, where simple disability accommodations were not considered. A diatribe about Respect (or disrespect), set off by the theft of a single poppy, and dog owners who allow their dogs to crap everywhere and don’t pick it up. Or the guy taking up four parking spaces…. because, seriously???

Crows made appearances on the Crow Tree. Turkeys and cardinals and blue jays graced back yards together. Blue-winged Wasps bounced around the front lawn while various larvae and beetles arrived, along with the invasive Spotted Lanternfly. We saw a ghost cat. A Suspicious Squirrel provided some laughs. Chickens were laying in abundance – neighbors shared their egg bounty. Birds nested, a doe admonished me for disturbing her repast, the annual spectacle of the fireflies made their appearance, and there was the excitement of being in the middle of an incoming dragonfly swarm.

I shared often about my little dog Rudi, who had a few concerning health issues over the year but is still by my side at what might be about age twelve. Here he is today, looking out the front room window with his little ears poking up from under a blanket my mother crocheted so many decades ago. The view of his ears from the back always reminds me of artichoke leaves.

As always, talk of food. Different variations of Dutch Baby – an oven-baked pancake (sort of) – were made almost weekly, filled with whatever fruit or berry was on hand. Significant amounts of chocolate were consumed. Many wild mushrooms were foraged (or purchased) and eaten while standing at the stove, never even making it onto a plate. Stir-fried Asian style Chicken of the Woods was a nice summer treat. Lots of Caprese salads over the warmer months. Shakshuka was made a couple of times, satisfying an inexplicable and unusual craving. Paw-paws, pomegranates and persimmons (I call them “the three P’s”) were greatly enjoyed. Baked pears with feta cheese, cranberries and walnuts….. I could go on and on. Mulberries, blueberries…. and the discovery that you can easily regrow a second batch of scallions.

It was nice to have the annual enchiladas on Christmas Eve, a tweaked recipe I used to make with my wonderful old friend, sidekick and former roommate Emrose for many years. Emrose is gone, but making them and eating them always brings back extremely wistful memories, and now my daughters have taken up the tradition. This year I was not with the entire family, where we historically have the family Swiss Fondue. That will have to happen in another month or two when we get together. One of my sisters has the original fondue pot from our childhood, and has continued to celebrate and preserve our custom on the other side of the country.

I shared a few Oddball thoughts, like the incident with the dashboard symbol, or space travel through the car wash. Lost keys. The angst of needing to get another car and the reluctance at embracing some newer technology. There was a bit of ruminating about senior-hood and the forgetfulness just about all of us in that phase of life are experiencing on some level. I reflected on the personalities of the women in my family as depicted in art. Wondered about Mercury in retrograde. And finally there was the Panettone Dilemma.

As the year wraps up, and most recently this very month, there have been a number of losses of people in my orbit. A distant friend, an old lover, a former coworker, a relative. They succumbed to ongoing diseases, sudden illnesses, the afflictions of age, and accident. As each has made their exit, the sudden holes they left have been flooded with an onrush of reflections and memories. While most of us have just been dealing with the natural nuisances of aging, a few of my friends have some pretty serious conditions going on at present. Of course this is to be expected, as we have reached the decades where we now dwell in “The Zone,” as one friend very much in The Zone has dubbed it. Being in The Zone has sent some thoughts spinning off in different directions.

One of those things is Getting Rid of Stuff so that my children will not have to deal with it. Kids don’t seem to want our stuff, they don’t want to be burdened down with our Stuff, they don’t share the same taste as us concerning our Stuff. I think someday they are going to wish they had some of our Stuff, especially if it was Quality Stuff, and might regret getting rid of it. Or maybe not. In any case, I worry about all the Stuff, but have only made the slightest dent in it. I keep thinking I should label photographs in order to avoid my kids asking each other the “Who is that person?” question that I have about many of my grandmother’s and mother’s unlabeled old photos. But then again, the kids just might not even care.

To add to all this mind-spinning, I started thinking about whether or not I have been a Good Person in life. I think sometimes yes, sometimes maybe not so much. If you could become a bird or a dragonfly discreetly hovering above while listening in to a eulogy for yourself (provided there even was such a thing happening), what nice things might be said about you? What not-so-nice things might be thought about you? What would I have changed or done differently if I could go back and change them or re-do them? What would I want to fix? What regrets do I have? And what part of the path am I satisfied or happy about? What were the successes? What have I accomplished in this life? How have I touched others?

Of course, this is mostly useless ruminating (which was happening in the shower, no less) and there is no going back, there is only The Now and The Going Forward. But I still think it is important to make amends in some cases, when possible – a cleansing, a repairing, and a settling.

Remarkably, I have a few friends who have told me they see me as even-keeled, steady, serene, possessing wisdom and kindness. Those are wonderful things to be told, but they surely must be in the eye of the beholder. When I hear those words attributed to me, it is difficult to suppress laughing and shaking my head, wondering what makes them assume that, as I feel like an imposter. Others in my sphere (the ones who admit it) consider me high-strung, sometimes difficult, scattered and kind of nutty. In my insecure self-image, this is closer to the truth. I guess at times it could encompass both, depending on the situation and what the relationship to the observer is.

Hopefully in older age there has been a “mellowing.” What I do know is that I waffle between periods of content and dysphoria regarding who I am. Probably many (or most?) of us exist on that spectrum. Which gets back to….

(while still in the shower) I suddenly started thinking about The Serenity Prayer. The original, lengthy version was actually written in the 1930’s by a Protestant theologian and shared in many publications, where part of it was discovered, adopted and later adapted in the 1940’s by Alcoholics Anonymous, where it has become synonymous with Twelve-step programs, although not exclusively. While I do not have any addictions that necessitate a program (unless there is one for the ongoing acquiring of too many cowboy boots and other collections), for many years I had these lines taped to my computer monitor at work. It was given to me on a little card by a coworker in regards to dealing with some of the more outrageous, problematic and stressful issues both on the job and in my personal life.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference

It is thoughtful and inspiring advice, except I have always found myself balking at the first line. it’s not about the “God” word. Even if you change the “God” to “Higher Power” or “The power within myself” (I like that), I know that I will not ever (necessarily) accept “all the things I cannot change.” In our government, in keeping silent at being disrespected or lied to, or treated poorly – some of this remains and will always remain unacceptable. You might accept part of it, but not always all of it. Okay, there is the issue of loss, like sickness or death. That is different. Maybe it needs another line, like “The courage to continue to speak your truth about the things that aren’t going to change, instead of stuffing it inside.”

So much for “letting it go”. Clearly there can be a number of personal interpretations. I’m guessing some people might think I am missing the point. I can’t change it, I don’t like it, and it’s probably never going to be okay with me! With this attitude, perhaps I’m not as serene as some of those people think I am. And to segue into a whole other subject – to hell with Toxic Spirituality! Funny I should wind this post down with what sound like a Rant, although it’s not really a rant; it’s just what was going through my mind during what was actually a very pleasant shower this morning.

There are a few things I am hoping to address in the upcoming year. One of them is a funny one – an attempt to try and refrain from the overuse of the word “snippets” in this blog. When I was going back over it to sum up, I could not help to notice the redundancy of “snippets.” And it’s not even one of my favorite words. I don’t think I even use it in speaking, so I have no idea what that is all about. Note to self – there will be a conscious effort to reduce “snippets”.

The other things is to try and “go with the flow” a little bit more, while managing to maintain personal integrity. Which, ironically, could possibly be associated with accepting (just a few!) of those unchangeable things.

To those who already think I’m a nice person, I’ll will continue being that, and for those who think I am not so nice, I’m going to make an effort to figure out why and address those reasons.

To end on an upward note; a couple of posts back I shared about giving away a Thunbergia plant that had been prolific during the summer, but had pathetically withered away due to my lack of attention over the last few months. I had put it up on our local community free site hoping a plant lover might want to give it a last chance before I tossed it. Today the person who took it sent me this photo of the little plant beginning to thrive under her care, hopefully to eventually bloom once again.

I hope some of you might go back and revisit the posts made throughout this last year in order to enjoy the views, photographic and otherwise.

Little Rudi began and has ended the year perched on the arm of the living room couch, attention turned towards an unclean window, barking at everybody that walks by. Some things remain consistent. The window also remains unwashed. Goals for ’25?

Here’s to repairing the damages, looking for the beauty, finding serenity, enjoying friendship, sharing love, the courage to change what you want to, seeing through fresh eyes, and Thriving in Twenty-five. Rudi and I hope to see you on The Urban Porch next year!

~*~

• “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell, 1966 – recorded by Judy Collins, 1967

• “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, 1972

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