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Category Archives: senior musings
Silver Linings
There has been a dark cloud around my heart lately. It happens sometimes. I think pretty much everyone knows the feeling. Late afternoon, heading out the door with the dog, leash in hand, pausing for a moment on the porch … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Coping, Earworm of the day, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather
Tagged cloud rays, clouds, dark cloud, dark feelings, emotional pain, God-light, grace, Grateful Dead, hope, hopefulness, light beams, onward, silver linings, sun rays, Touch of Gray
2 Comments
On August and Letting Go
The waxing moon has suddenly taken on an orange glow this week, due to drifting smoke from the fires up in Canada that tinge the atmosphere. It hangs in the sky much like a leftover hunk of yellow cheddar, perhaps … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Coping, Daeja's Garden, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™
Tagged August, blue dayflower, blue winged wasps, cheese moon, end of summer flowers, exhaustion, going to seed, invasive vines, ivy overgrowth, keeping up with the yard, letting go, mid-august, overwhelmed, trumpet vine, wild grape invasion, wildfire haze, yardwork
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A String of Senior Moments
Back over the winter, a woman called out to me as I was walking across the parking lot of a shopping plaza. A friend and I had been out doing a little pre-holiday purchasing together – we had just left … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Coping, Deafness, disability accommodations, Hearing Impaired, Humor, Perspective, senior musings, Uncategorized
Tagged can't find my phone, forgetful, forgetfulness, forgetting, getting sidetracked, hearing aids and phone, I forgot, lost phone, memory, memory hacks, memory lapses, senior hacks, senior moment, seriously??, sidetracked, where are my keys?, where is my phone?, why am I here?, why did i walk in this room?
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Tipping Over Into Summer
As I headed back toward the house after the last evening dog walk tonight, I wondered to myself when the fireflies would appear. They always show up in June. As if a manifestation of my wishes, there they were as … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Birds, Daeja's Garden, Food, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Wildlife
Tagged blooms of late spring, early summer, early summer blooms, firefly season, gifts of spring, June, late gifts of spring, late June, late spring, late spring blooms
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Windshield Galactica
I don’t know why it is exactly, but going through the car wash has repeatedly provided brief moments of simple delight. Perhaps if getting the car cleaned was something that occurred more frequently, I might have eventually become a bit … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, nature, Perspective, Photography, senior musings, Spring, Travel, treasures, Uncategorized, Wow!
Tagged bubbles and brushes, car wash, carwash as art, childlike wonder, clouds and stars, galaxies, galaxy art, imagination, inner child, interplanetary, kid in a carwash, space, trippy car wash, windshield art
3 Comments
Toutes Les Fleurs Blanches
The Dogwood tree at the side of The Urban Porch exploded with radiant blooms, sun filtering through translucent petals against vibrating blue skies. Each year I almost forget how stunning the Dogwoods can be until it happens again. Day after … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Daeja's Garden, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™
Tagged All the white flowers, Dogwood flowers, Dogwoods, Gardens, gardens in my neighborhood, May blooms, scenes from the urban porch, spring flowers, The bluest sky ever, the neighborhood, white blooms, White flowers
2 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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Two Springs
Today I think I am mostly going to fill the page with visuals. Spring has truly sprung. My family are East Coast-West Coast people. At times all of us have been living in the East. Other times all have been … Continue reading
Posted in Daeja's Garden, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Travel, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Wildlife, Wow!
Tagged bi-coastal family, blooms, east coast, exploding spring, Family, family visit, Flowers, northern california, spring flowers, spring photos, spring twice, super blooms, upstate new york, west coast
1 Comment
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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The Waiting
If you pay attention you can already detect the scent of green – I love how the color is synonymous with the fragrance. The trees here are still in their remission, but the promise of verdancy is in the air. … Continue reading
Posted in Cooking, Coping, Food, Gardening, Mushrooms, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, Spring, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Winter
Tagged almost equinox, another year, anticipation, green, interesting fruits, lychee, moods, persimmon, seasonal changes, seasonal moods, seasonal shifts, small joys, spring is almost here, vernal, waiting for spring
5 Comments
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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First Snow
January has brought our first real snowstorm. It is so fresh and lovely. The Japanese maple leaves on My Red Tree had never quite let go this past autumn. Now they are heavily laden with fluffy clumps, soon to drop … Continue reading
Posted in Dogs, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Weather, Winter
Tagged cozy, first snow, first week of january, haiku, January, Japanese Maple, little dog problems, little dogs, maple syrup snow, Matsuo Basho, my red tree, Piette's House at Montfoucault, Pissarro, snowfall, snowstorm, the white of winter, winter, winter haiku, Winter Solitude
2 Comments
Maybe It’s Fixed
I clicked on something. Maybe it has fixed all the subscription issues and blocks on this site. I certainly hope so. Again, I’m sorry to everyone who tried to come here, or tried to comment and couldn’t, or found themselves … Continue reading
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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That Was Fast!
It occurred to me one night after I had crawled into bed….. and then almost every night afterwards. Much in the way a dog will circle and paw until they finally decide they have found their sweet spot and plop … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Autumn, Earworm of the day, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, Uncategorized, Weird, Winter
Tagged back in bed already, busting up the routines, comfort in routine, days blowing by, déjà vu, here i am again, how our brains process time, is it a senior thing?, perception of time, time goes faster as we age, time is moving too fast
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Random in the Rain
I’m sitting here at the computer, eating a very yummy but particularly stinky combination of melted goat cheese “brie” topped with last season’s harvest of honey from my brother’s hives, with a scattering of Spanish almonds on top. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Autumn, baking, Cooking, Food, Holidays, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Winter
Tagged chevre dish, cozy like a dog, dutch baby breakfast, dutch baby sunday, flashbacks of youth, last of the leaves, making autumn last, melted goat cheese, my foodie thoughts, my red tree, odd memories, what ever happened to
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And Then This Happened
“Are you OK?” “You’ve been so quiet.” “What’s going on?” A few people have noticed and asked, not just about the sudden absence of posts over the past few weeks (after there having been so many), but concerning an overall … Continue reading
Posted in Are you kidding me?, Autumn, baking, Food, Holidays, Humor, Perspective, senior musings, Uncategorized
Tagged baking failure, baking goals, dessert fail, Filo nutella snowflake fail, I can't bake, i needed this laugh, laugh till i cried, no patience for baking, pastry on fire, snowflake pastry fail, thanksgiving
5 Comments
Fall Back
The week has brought forth a number of seasonal changes and fall-scapes. With something just short of a flourish, the Halloween decorations were happily removed from The Urban Porch ™ very early the following morning – so ready to have … Continue reading
Posted in Autumn, Daeja's Garden, Gardening, Holidays, House plants, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather, Wildlife
Tagged autumn scenes, curious raccoons, daylight savings time, fall back, fallscapes, first frost, Halloween, night animals, November, peak leaves are over, take down the decorations, the fading of autumn, trick or treat, trick or treaters
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Patience
Not too many days ago a friend and I were lamenting to each other on the phone about how the autumn foliage is not as dramatic, that the absence of serious color is a bit disappointing. How everything is either … Continue reading
Posted in Autumn, Earworm of the day, nature, Perspective, Seasons, senior musings, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, treasures, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather
Tagged colorful leaves, everything in its own time, fall foliage, get centered, late october, slow autumn, waiting for foliage, where is the color?
1 Comment
The Percale Fail, Updates and Mind Meanderings
Some minor updates and musings to share following the last post. This one goes all over the place, just because. All of the the invasive, toxic White Snakeroot with its scribbly looking flower heads was pulled up. It came out … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Autumn, Perspective, senior musings, Shopping, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Weird
Tagged Aso Shiso, chemicals on sheets, comfortable sheets, fig season, halloween decorations, hot flashes, Laura Ashley scratchy sheets, percale sheet fail, pretty sheets, Red Perilla, scratchy sheets, Shiso juice, softening sheets, The Urban Porch ™
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Stepping Out of Limbo
Mid-September. I’m awaiting a burst of productivity to occur, but it’s not happening. Earworm of the day, recorded by Jimmy Cliff in 1971: Sitting here in limboBut I know it won’t be longSitting here in limboLike a bird without a … Continue reading
Posted in Autumn, Cooking, Daeja's Garden, Earworm of the day, Gardening, nature, Perspective, Photography, Seasons, senior musings, summer, The Urban Porch, The Urban Porch ™, Uncategorized, Views From he Urban Porch ™, Weather
Tagged almost fall, colors of early autumn, easy recipe for the unmotivated, feeling in limbo, late summer colors, no motivation, stagnation, waiting for Autumn, zucchini for dinner
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In Five Days
It’s almost astonishing that my credit card has not warped and melted from all the use it has gotten over the past week. The “tap” feature on it suddenly stopped working during the last number of transactions, which may or … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Are you kidding me?, Coping, Deafness, Hearing Impaired, Perspective, Rant, senior musings, Uncategorized, Vent
Tagged almost deaf, expensive hearing aids, expensive medication, healthcare failure, hearing aids, hearing discriminiation, hearing impairment, inadequate health insurance, insurance company rip offs, lacking health care coveerage, making ends meet, medicare won't cover, Oticon, reverse slope hearing loss, RSHL, senior expenses, surprise bills, uncovered expenses, unexpected expenses
1 Comment
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
Thoughts From the Shower
The wildfire smoke has returned. Perhaps that has something to do with the lessening of the late afternoon mosquitos out on The Urban Porch ™ . I’m not sure if that’s the case, but it could be possible. While standing … Continue reading
Nice Socks
One thing I do every year during The Birthday Week is indulge in a massage. This year that didn’t happen – I missed that window for a number of reasons…. but eventually I decided to just get a very badly … Continue reading
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
daeja's view 
My Big Apologies for the WordPress Difficulties
In response to those who have contacted me about the difficulty they are experiencing when trying to respond with a comment on any of these posts, and to those subscribers who have let me know they haven’t gotten the expected … Continue reading →