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Category Archives: Uncategorized
To Market
Today was the opening day of the season for our local Farmer’s Market, which is one of the nicer perks of living in a small city. Even though it is early for some of the produce, we grabbed our little eco-friendly shopping bags and walked … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Spring, Uncategorized
Tagged Community, Farmer's Market, Neighborhoods, Produce
1 Comment
The Rain Garden
Looks like it’s going to be yet another week of rain, or at the very least, “percent-chance-of-rain”. Thirty percent chance of or forty percent chance of is still pretty good odds, at least around these parts. Everything is lush and verdant. … Continue reading
Thoughts on a Chicken
Traffic was moderate and moving steadily yesterday on the two lane road that is the middle leg of my commute home from work, when I spied a chicken on the edge of the northbound lane, waiting to cross the road. I looked again to make … Continue reading
Would You Like Some Mice With That?
Yesterday my friend discovered a stunned little mouse lying out in the parking lot of the condominium where she lives. What had happened to it is a mystery, but I speculate that perhaps a cat had been playing with it, as … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged cottage in the woods, Mice, mouse problem, older boyfriend
9 Comments
Passion
A few years ago I discovered this seriously cool looking plant growing at the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C. It was a vine-like plant growing on a fence with fringed flowers that I can only describe as psychedelic space eyes. … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Uncategorized
4 Comments
The Morning Smoothie
I have a Sears Countercraft blender, probably circa late 1970’s, color Harvest Gold. I hadn’t seen it for a while though, as it got lost in the bottom cabinet that contains the large rotating lazy susan that is overstuffed with items, wobbles and doesn’t go around … Continue reading
Posted in Diet, Uncategorized, Wow!
3 Comments
Skinny Girl
I was always the skinny girl. Not the long, lithe, willowy model skinny girl, but the gawkishly thin, angular, hollow-eyed skinny girl. A skinny girl in school who looked like an X-ray…….with knobby knees, tiny bones, all feet and nose and elbows and spine. The … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Diet, Perspective, Uncategorized, Weight
4 Comments
What’s Up With the Strawberries?
What’s up with the strawberries lately? Has anyone else noticed these mega-giant, shiny uber-red strawberries that have been appearing for sale in the supermarket? The last few containers I bought seem to be filled with behemoths. I have been marveling over the … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Spring, Uncategorized, Wow!
2 Comments
Intoxication
Feeling intoxicated by the scent of Lilac, Allysum and Lily of the Valley that perfume the garden. Sweet spring……
Posted in Gardening, Spring, Uncategorized
3 Comments
Fences
It has been an adjustment getting used to living in a small city, with neighbors dwelling very close by. Most of the homes on our street, built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, have weathered, stockade fences between them. However, this house came equipped … Continue reading
100 Things
Even though I am a mother, and even now the mother of a mother, each year when the Mother’s Day holiday comes around, instead of celebrating my mother status, I find myself mostly reflecting on memories of my own mom. There are those … Continue reading
Just Married
My car sat parked out in the driveway beneath the crabapple tree overnight. When I went out to it the following morning, the blue car was totally covered in bright pink petals. Actually plastered in pink. It was enough to cause me … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Spring, Uncategorized
2 Comments
Free
Ok, it looks like I am actually going to recant something I said earlier about hardly ever winning anything, because I actually just won something of significant value. Almost every year for the past fifteen years I have attended a work … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
4 Comments
Unfolding
During this time of renewal, it is as if we, too, are uncurling from the winter darkness and reaching towards the light. It is exciting and joyful to be amidst the awakening garden.
Posted in Spring, Uncategorized
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Dang!
Bad news today for all you connoisseurs of that little armored road possum of the south, the armadillo. According to the latest findings, something like fifteen percent of armadillos carry leprosy, and one-third of the cases of the disease in this country appear to be caused … Continue reading
Posted in Are you kidding me?, Humor, Uncategorized
2 Comments
Spinner
This Earth Day marks the 12th anniversary of my mother’s death. A day filled with golden daffodils, warm soil, the haze of soft greening and points of pastel color just emerging – much like an Impressionist painting – essentially the same as it was on the day she left us years … Continue reading
Posted in Perspective, Regrets, Uncategorized
Tagged Angels, Earth day, Gifts, loss, Memories, mom, mother
3 Comments
Betty-Anne?
In the misty pre-dawn haze of a Saturday morning I awoke to an urgent voice that appeared to be vocalizing right near my head. “Betty-Anne!” In that surreal aura that surrounds you when someone shouts you out of a dead sleep, I shot … Continue reading
Posted in Birds, Humor, Spring, Uncategorized
Tagged betty-anne, loud birds, red-eyed vireo
2 Comments
Door Number Three
After spending the day exploring the Spice Market and touring around in the Sultanahmet district, it finally got to the point where I seriously had to pee, and very soon, so the search for a bathroom began in earnest. In the middle … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Perspective, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged adventure, Istanbul, squat toilets
2 Comments
Medusa Scary
It is with a great, disheartening sigh that I have just seen a number of recent photos of myself. After such rude and irrefutable proof, there followed the panicked realization that I have let my hair go for waaaaay too long without a hair cut … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Uncategorized
Tagged big hair, Changes, curly hair, frizzy hair, Hair, uncontrollable hair, wild hair
2 Comments
Awakening
Yesterday was an overly warm spring day, one of those flukes where it got up to eighty degrees when temps are normally in the fifties. Things are just starting to blossom and bud around here; it’s been a slow start. A few … Continue reading
Resisting the Social Network (is that you in that photo?)
It was through my then fourteen year old that I first became aware of online social networks and blogs like Live Journal and MySpace, where it seemed kids were regurgitating the minutiae of their lives ad nauseum and flaunting their bootie for the … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Perspective, Uncategorized
Tagged discretion, facebook, privacy, social network
1 Comment
Fernweh
A friend of mine who has travelled the world and has made her life in a foreign country once shared a word in the German language which describes the yearning for travel which we both share. She told me I have “fernweh”, which roughly translates … Continue reading
Just In Case
Travel afar is imminent and suddenly I have become totally dysfunctional. Once upon a time I threw a few scant items in a backpack a few hours before leaving and travelled to the other side of the world with open-ended plans. Why can’t I do that now? … Continue reading
Aftershock and Perspective
In the wake of such disaster as has occurred and continues to occur in Japan, most other issues suddenly become less significant and actually trite by comparison. The physical shock that has radiated out from Sendai and beyond also translates into … Continue reading
Posted in Perspective, Uncategorized
Tagged destruction, trauma, Tsunami Japan, universal cry, vibrations
2 Comments
Hairbrush Diva
There is a woman in a Subaru at the traffic light. Bill Wyman’s bass from the RollingStones “Gimme Shelter” is booming through the speakers and she is singing Merry Clayton’s legendary screaming harmony to Mick Jagger at the top of her lungs, oblivious of anyone who might … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged Diva, janis joplin, rock and roll, singing in hairbrush, wannabe singer
3 Comments
Speechless
I ventured out to the mall the other night in search of a purse with lots of compartments and zippers so you can find all your stuff easily. Of course, I got side-tracked and ended up on a fruitless quest for some of those … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Humor, Shopping, Uncategorized
Tagged aging, dressing room mirror, wrinkles
4 Comments
The Color of Angels
The interior of funeral homes generally look tacky to me. I have yet to experience one that is totally tasteful (in my opinion), although I will say one of the wakes I attended last week was in a lovely old … Continue reading
Posted in Perspective, Uncategorized
Tagged Angels, funerals, Wakes, wakes, what color are angels?
2 Comments
Caller Number Three
On my commute to and from work I sometimes call into radio contests trying to win tickets to concerts and events. I have my Blue Tooth on and if there is something that interests me, I make a call. “Trying” is the … Continue reading
Two Wakes and a Birthday Party
Two wakes and a birthday party in one week. It’s enough to really give you pause for thought. One woman was the mother of a co-worker. The other one was a neighbor, not much older than I am now. A … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Friends, Perspective, Uncategorized
Tagged birthday, old friends, rituals
1 Comment
Hit and Run
Finding out someone has hit your car and taken off is an upsetting and enraging experience. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter called to tell me that she came out of work to find that someone had hit the … Continue reading
Egocentrasana
She came walking into the Yoga I class tonight leading with her chest, the small of her back slightly arched, wearing a teeny tiny yoga tank top and perfectly fitting yoga pants clinging to her tight little yoga butt. Even though there was plenty … Continue reading
Dinner Club for the Anti-Socialites
Adjusting from a rural/exurb environment to a small city has been a very big head realignment for me. There are many things I have had trouble embracing about relocating into the House of the Significant Other, but the one thing this urban scene has going for it … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Uncategorized
Tagged club, dinner with friends, good food, monthly dinner, rituals, socializing
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Radical Reversal
The parallel lines between my eyebrows appear to have deepened into a permanent number eleven, giving me a perpetual look of worry, concern or anger that I do not necessarily feel inside. I scrutinize these changes in the mirror with surprise and … Continue reading
Where Did the Weekend Go?
I’m writing this post while eating lilac-colored chocolate covered sunflower seeds and waiting for the next episode of a series I watch once a week on television. I should probably turn on the set and try to figure out which station it is … Continue reading
Black Thumb
There are two different cactus plants, two spider plants and an Air Fern “growing” in my office. The cacti are crammed into pots that are pathetically undersized. They are also missing most of their soil because they have been knocked … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, House plants, Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged fake plants, house plants, killing plants, resurrection plant
4 Comments
Late
I decided I was going to go to a yoga class after work tonight. It was only the second time I was going to this particular venue. Of course, fifteen minutes before it was time to leave work, I got held up … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aggravation, gym, lateness, parking, timeliness, yoga class
1 Comment
O Neti Neti
During the course of a nasty sinus headache a few winters ago, a nurse that I worked with suggested I try using a Neti Pot. I had never heard of one, so she launched into an extremely animated explanation, mimicking … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged natural remedies, net pot, Neti pot, salt water irrigation, sinus drainage, sinuses
4 Comments
Just One Small Thing
The past couple of weeks seem to be especially dragging, both in a physical and emotional way. They could be connected to each other. Those pinpoints of notable stress and probably a little bit of the winter blues hanging around … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged chai, Kindness, kindness, morning coffee, pay it forward, relationships
2 Comments
The Febs
The Febs We have officially slipped into February, the groundhog is a wimp, and I think I am coming down with a case of “The Febs”. It was in the middle of one of those endless winters a number of years ago that I … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized, Winter
Tagged getting past the winter, winter blues, winter doldrums
3 Comments
Enlightenment For the Rich
Since the new year, and especially during the long winter months, I find myself pouring over catalogs with a focus on how I imagine my new life is going to be when I make all these changes. Every year I … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged catalogs, holistic retreats, new age, new age workshops, path to enlightenment, spirituality, wish books
2 Comments
Hiding the Patchouli
Hiding The Patchouli. It almost sounds like some dirty party game, doesn’t it? (but it’s not). My daughter and her husband are planning on coming for a visit with the baby, weather permitting, so I am making a point of … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Rant, Uncategorized
Tagged Patchouli, patchouli stench, rude people, smelly people, too much perfume
2 Comments
One Redeeming Feature
I made this discovery only because we are experiencing some feisty weather around here this winter. A couple of days ago it was -14 degrees Farenheit here. That little dash is not a typo, it’s a minus; that is fourteen degrees … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized, Winter
Tagged Hot Flash, hot flashes, middle-aged, winter, women
3 Comments
A Little Piece of Sun
A friend gave me some Paperwhite bulbs (Narcissus papyraceus for you botanical types) for Christmas. For those who might be unfamiliar, you force the bulbs in a pot indoors with the idea that they will bloom in the winter and … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Spring, Uncategorized, Winter
Tagged forcing bulbs, Gardening, house plants, narcissus, paperwhites, taste of spring
3 Comments
These Lovely Boots
Every time I would visit my mother, she would dig the boots out of the back of her hall closet and urge me to take them. As the story went, Aunt Rose, who had expensive taste in clothing and often … Continue reading
Posted in Perspective, Uncategorized
Tagged Gifts, love, Memories, mom, mother, regrets, winter boots
4 Comments
Saint Joe, On His Head
For a brief period of time, I owned my own home, but there came a point when I could not afford the expenses alone anymore and I had to let it go. One of the kids had gone off to … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged Catholic, faith, good luck, Moving, saints, selling house, selling real estate, slow house sales, superstitions
4 Comments
Soporific
The last time (which was also the first time) I had a new bed, I was living with my fiancé, who complained bitterly about how soft and lumpy our mattress was. The too-soft mattress he was complaining about was at least … Continue reading
Hydra
The tree in the backyard on the property line between us and our neighbor towers over all the others and has some serious girth to it. It looks kind of like a locust but not quite a locust. All summer … Continue reading
Posted in Are you kidding me?, Gardening, Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged ailanthus, Ailanthus altissima, invasive weed, nuisance, Tree of Heaven
4 Comments
daeja's view 