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Category Archives: Flashback
Not Fade Away
I have often used the word “exposure” regarding my initial connection to the Grateful Dead. Having been in a series of relationships starting back in high school with fanatical Deadheads, tapers and jam band musicians, it was just natural to … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Flashback, Friends, Humor, Memories, Perspective, senior musings, Uncategorized, Weird
Tagged a woman in the band, Autzen stadium 1978, craze, donna jean godchaux, Early dead shows, eugene, Grateful Dead, jam band, jerry-garcia, LSD, misogynist fans, music, my hippie days, still a deadhead, the Dead, tripping, weird trip, worst dead show ever
2 Comments
Weather Roulette
As usual, where I start with these posts is not always where it ends up. One of my kids sent me photos of outrageously massive, crashing and cresting waves on the ocean near where she resides, an effect produced by … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Autumn, Coping, Flashback, kids, Memories, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, Uncategorized, Weather
Tagged 1960's parenting, big waves, childhood memories, climate change, dinner bell, earthquakes, first grade, flooding, geological, hurricanes, meteorological, microbursts, parental mistakes, parenting faux pas, running through the neighborhood, six years old, storms, tornados, walking to school, Weather, what was she thinking?, wildfire smoke
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What’s On Your Nightstand?
It has been too easy to hunker down, gazing at winter skies, finding excuses to ride out the coldest moments indoors (unless you are one of those winter outdoor types – me, not very much). Despite a predisposition to remain … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Earworm of the day, Flashback, Food, Friends, grief, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, Uncategorized, Weather, Winter
Tagged a lot of books, books, books on my night table, cozy, distractions, e-readers, friends passing, papillon, reading, reading more than one book at the same time, snowy days, the nightbird, too cold, unfinished, unfinished books, winter
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The Road to Uncle Moustache
It is beyond explanation why I often awake in the dead of the night with odd memories or curious questions about random subjects, some which can send me scrolling through the internet for verification and answers before being able to … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Dogs, Flashback, Food, Perspective, senior musings, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged 1970's jerusalem, 1970's old city, Damascus Gate, existing, falafel stand, Herod's Gate, life, Memories, my hippie youth, old city, strange days, street food, thoughts in the middle of the night, travel, why am i awake?
5 Comments
The Lanyard
I have pulled up this poem by Billy Collins – “The Lanyard” – every Mother’s Day, year after year. Although some of the technology has changed over time since it was written (for the current generation, typewriter and dictionary for … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Flashback, Holidays, Perspective, Regrets, senior musings, treasures, Uncategorized
Tagged Billy Collins, Childhood, craft for mom, gift for my mom, I hope you knew, I miss you, Memories, mother love, Mother's Day, poetry, summer camp, summer camp craft, The Lanyard, unconditional love, wish you were here, woven
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Pink
As always, the big old cherry tree across the street from The Urban Porch made a spectacular annual showing. Walking beneath this fairy-like bower over the last few weeks has provided moments of daily enchantment. The burst of warm temps … Continue reading
Posted in Daeja's Garden, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Wow!
Tagged cherry tree, cherry tree flowers, fairyland tree, flowering cherry, flowering tree, old cherry tree, Papillon in petals, petals, Pink blanket, pink petals, pink snow
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The Green Cathedral
Whenever I find myself walking deep within shaded forest pathways dappled with sunlight and enveloped in a holy hush, it is pretty much a certainty that the same beautiful and moving song will suddenly fill my head. “The Green Cathedral” … Continue reading
Waiting for the Sun
So many of us get excited by celestial phenomena, and I’m mostly on that train, having repeatedly found myself shivering in my nightgown while standing on a back deck covered in snow – at 2:30 am in sub-freezing temps – … Continue reading
Posted in Are you kidding me?, Earworm of the day, Flashback, nature, Perspective, senior musings, Spring, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weird, Wow!
Tagged 95%, celestial phenomena, connections, crescents, Earworm of the day, human connections, Neighbors, sharing an event, solar eclipse, The Doors, totality, treasures, waiting for the sun
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Funny What the Weather Will Do
January is bouncing all over the place in both weather and emotions these days. Views From the Urban Porch have been varied and unpredictable. One day I’m staring at an atmosphere so vibrantly blue that it conjures up tropical skies … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Cooking, Coping, Dogs, Earworm of the day, Flashback, Food, Friends, grief, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Weird, Winter
Tagged Changes, changing weather, diversions, earworm, grief, ice, January, january deaths, mood, most deaths in january, passages, personal history, retail therapy, sky, sky changes, snow, snowmelt, weather changes, youth
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Gifts From a Bathroom Window
Every winter my bathroom window provides some wonderful ice art. Although other windows in this house face the same direction, this is the only one that puts on a show. Some mornings – even very cold ones – there is … Continue reading
Posted in Earworm of the day, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, treasures, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Winter, Wow!
Tagged abstract ice, bathroom window art, earworm art, earworms of the day, from my window, ice pictures, views from my window, window ice
1 Comment
Summing Up Twenty-three
Every time it gets to the last days of writing for the year, I visualize a cartoon of myself wiping my brow and saying “Whew! Made it! So here we are again. I’m scrolling back over the posts for this year … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, baking, Birds, Bucket List, Cooking, Coping, Dogs, Earworm of the day, Flashback, Food, Holidays, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized
Tagged 2023, aging, another year, baking fail, Christmas, dead monsters, earworms, end of the year, Holidays, letting go, New Year, senior musings, senior reflections, summing up, the holiday curse, whew!
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Book of Joys
And so we slowly move past the holidays and begin wrapping up another year. There will be a temporary reprieve from the Labels of Guilt – that onslaught of personalized address labels from good environmental causes, children’s hospitals and international … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Flashback, grief, Holidays, Perspective, senior musings, treasures, treasures, Winter
Tagged book of joy, books, darkness and light, diaries, end of the year, grief and joy, happiness, holiday gifts, journaling, Joy, labels of guilt, Memories, old diaries, the guilt factor, The Holidays, the written word, too many labels, venting, writing, writing journals
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Close to Over
In a few more weeks the school busses will be back on the roads again. Meanwhile, the kids are buzzing with anticipation as they await the news of who their teachers will be this year. It feels almost surreal how … Continue reading
Posted in Daeja's Garden, Gardening, Mushrooms, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™
Tagged almost time for school, August, down another rabbit hole, Earworm of the day, late august, late summer palette, the colors of late summer, unpredictable mushrooms
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Looking for Bessie
“Her name was Bessie”. That’s the only thing my father told me about his paternal grandmother, and that was only after I asked him about my great-grandparents. He mentioned there were a couple of uncles, both of which disappeared “I … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Bucket List, Daeja's Garden, Mushrooms, nature, Perspective, Photography, senior musings, summer, Travel, treasures, Uncategorized, Wow!
Tagged aging, all points led here, ancestry, connections, familia, Family, finding your roots, genealogy, Memories, mushroom capital, orchid room, recording family history, relatives
3 Comments
Water
Repeatedly throughout the day, I move from the air conditioned space that has provided relief from the heat and step out onto The Urban Porch ™ in order to leave the chill and be enveloped in the warm, bathwater density … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Flashback, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather
Tagged August, beauty, end of summer, Family, heat, humidity, July, Memories, nature, observations, Rain, rituals, Summer, urban porch
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Aurora
If anyone in the immediate neighborhood had looked out their window shortly before midnight last night, they might have seen a woman standing in the center of the street in the middle of a lightning storm, wearing only a long … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Daeja's Garden, Divorce, Flashback, Friends, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather
Tagged aurora borealis, bee magnet, garden neglect, hosta, lack of inhibition, lightning, Memories, neighborhood, neighborhood colors, Neighbors, northern lights, rose of sharon, strobe lightning, summer bees, summer insects, summer storms
1 Comment
Bustin’ Out All Over
Earworm time again! Today it’s Rodgers & Hammerstein – “June is Bustin’ Out All Over”, by way of an elementary school assembly I was in, back in sixth grade. It’s amazing how some of this stuff can stay in your … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Daeja's Garden, Flashback, Gardening, Humor, nature, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, summer, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weird
Tagged earworms, flower explosions, June, June is Bustin' Out All Over, Rodgers & Hammerstein, school assembly memories
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Acceptance (I’m Not a Guitar Player)
I’m not exactly sure of its origin, but one day my father came home from work with a Stella six-string acoustic guitar that someone had given to him, and he gave it to me. Up until that time, my experience … Continue reading
Radar Love
The ever-revolving selection of earworm songs continues. Following a recent visit to the Southwest which resulted in weeks of the relentless repetition of a particular Grateful Dead song in my brain – the name of which I don’t even want … Continue reading
Clouds
At the beginning of this past weekend, the temperatures plummeted into the “I’m not going anywhere unless I really have to” zone, with wind chills of minus forty degrees fahrenheit (-40F). While this time could have been spent baking or … Continue reading
Summing Up Twenty-two
Yup, it certainly was another weird year. Thinking about it, it appears after almost every year we finish out, we probably look back and say things like “That was really hard “, or “Whew, made it through that one!” Of … Continue reading
Posted in Holidays, Perspective, treasures, Uncategorized, Winter
Tagged 2022, following up, Gifts, Holidays, it's about the love, my micro-universe, small wonders
1 Comment
Little Thrills
A few readers have shared with me that they have been unable to comment on some of my blog posts, that WordPress won’t allow them to register their responses without jumping through a few website hoops. In general I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Cooking, Coping, Dogs, Food, Holidays, Perspective, Photography, treasures, treasures, Weather, Winter
Tagged crows, gifting, Gumby, hunkering down, laundry lint, little pleasures, no snow, pieces of the past, simple pleasures, winter food
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Peaking
The color is peaking in style this year here in the northeast. Despite skepticism that it wouldn’t happen due to the drought, Autumn is delivering with a pupil-dilating, heart-opening array of almost trippy leaf psychedelia. We are pulsing with color … Continue reading
Posted in Autumn, nature, treasures, Uncategorized, Wow!
Tagged achingly beautiful, Autumn, most beautiful season, northeast autumn, the melancholy of fall
2 Comments
True Colors
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. – Maya Angelou
In Print
It wasn’t a milestone birthday and my expectations had been pretty much non-existent. Aside from wishing some things could finally be repaired or upgraded around the house (I keep wishing for that every year), this day marking another trip around … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Holidays, Spring, treasures, Uncategorized, Wow!
Tagged appreciation, birthdays, Gifts
3 Comments
All the Horses
I was up in the attic on a search for some of the many beautiful children’s picture books I had stored away after my daughters grew up, hoping someday they could be pulled out once again for future grandchildren. That … Continue reading
Posted in Flashback, treasures, Uncategorized
Tagged Breyer, collecting, finding treasures, growing up, horse-crazy girl, letting go, model horse collecting, model horses
1 Comment
daeja's view 