Monthly Archives: June 2019

Tree with Moat: Sunday Trees, June 23, 2019

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Ajijic Pier, June 2019 jdb photo

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For Becca’s Sunday Trees.

Mistakes in Parenting 1: Teenage Fashionista

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Teenage Fashionista

She layers on her makeup, gussies up her hair,
then faces indecision over what she is to wear.
It is an epic battle, trying to decide
inside which current fashion her body will reside.

She asks no one’s opinion. She’d rather try and pile
garment after garment, not quite today’s best style,
on bed and chair and carpet, in crumpled little heaps
until she finds the outfit that she will wear for keeps.

There is no dearth of choices of every hue and kind,
which makes it even harder—this making up her mind.
Crop tops, skirts or Levis ripped in the right places
are surveyed in the mirror as she strides off her paces.

Lip poochings and selfies help to make the choice.
When she finally picks her costume, all of us rejoice.
Into the car and speeding to get to school by nine,
both of the  kids delivered, back home I guzzle wine.

Raising a fashionista is something short of fun.
I swear I won’t go shopping with the younger one.
I’ll build her fascination with reptiles or bugs,
go hunting in swamp waters for snakes or frogs or slugs.

I won’t encourage fashion sense or darling little dresses.
I’ve had enough of posturing and daily costume messes.
Making mistakes in parenting is not part of the fun,
and for sure the next time, I’ll make a different one.

 

Prompt words today are help, dearth, epic and indecision.

Immortal Flower, June 23, 2019

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What we called a straw flower is called an “Immortal” flower in Mexico.

For Cee’s FOTD

What We Must Do

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What We Must Do

I take an inventory of my heart.
There is nurture there,
and some peace,
but when I think about
the jealous nature of our world, 
a bit of it nestled, I must admit,
in me as well,
I worry about the heart of all of us,
for surely the hate and greed that jealousy seeds
is somehow fostered by us all,
no matter how much we protest it.

Where has putting up with this greed brought us?
Children are taken from their parents
and kept in cages in our country.

What can we do save protesting on Facebook?
Are we willing to face the guns
of those whose salaries we pay
to risk saving the children ourselves?
Weak children of our century,
we have to brandish our voting pens like swords.
They are our weapons.
Our agents for nourishing our souls.

The prompts for today are peace, inventory, nurture and jealous.

Dwarf Jatropha, Flower of the Day, June 22, 2019

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It took an incredible amount of research for Bob to find the name of this flower, but by Jove, I think he did it. Plaudits to LWBUT’s Flower Identification Service!!!!

For Cee’s FOTD Challenge.

Here is a better shot of more of the plant… for Bob!

Gaaaaahrlic

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Gaaaahrlic

I hate dealing with garlic! So, I’ve devoted a bit of research and a few dollars to resolving the problem and would like to show you my process for dealing with those little cloves more efficiently.

Click on first photo to set up slide series with explanatory notes.  Continue hitting on the arrows to proceed through the series:

These two little devices have helped incredibly.
The other device is readily available in your kitchen no doubt. Put an entire bulb of garlic into a mixing bowl.
Put another bowl over the top and shake vigorously.
With larger juicier cloves, this process will separate the cloves and remove all the skin the skin, but with smaller cloves, the outer skin will detach
and leave you with cloves with the inner skin still attached
Put the cloves individually into the roller
and press down with the heel of your hand. Roll on hard surface, back and forth.
Cloves will be slipped out of their inner coats.
Roll the garlic mincer (available on the internet) over the clove.
Voila! minced garlic.

 

 

Boomerang Boy: New Syndrome Defined––Grown-up Kids Who Won’t Leave Home

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Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on unsplash. Used with permission.

“In many countries, the phenomenon is so widespread that new terms have developed to describe it: bamboccioni [literally, big babies] in Italy, “hotel mama” in Germany, boomerang children in Australia, parasaito shinguru [single parasite] in Japan. These young men and women don’t leave home and don’t get married, because they only want to buy brand names and enjoy themselves and to live, as an ideology, at their parents’ expense. It’s nothing less than a pandemic.” https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-new-syndrome-grown-up-kids-who-stay-home-1.5336944

Boomerang Boy

If more interest charges he wishes to defray,
he needs to find a paying job without further delay.
He should at once take heed of my excellent advice
and give up on his former full-time job of shooting dice.

He might become a rose vendor, a troubadour or chef
or become the famous author of a roman a clef.
if only he would get a job, his parents would rejoice,
but, alas, sheer laziness is his career of choice,

The prompts today were rose, delay  and sacrifice.

A Duck Tale

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Duck Tale

He sits there on his little tail
maintaining he does not inhale,
but every time he deigns to speak
the smoke that issues from his beak
is not all that he’s taken in.
We tell him it’s a double sin
to fill his lungs with acrid smoke
and then to lie to all the folk.
We all know Little Duck’s too young
to mess with trachea and lung.
Those who take gambles respiratory
wind up with a tragic story.
But no duck I have ever known
will listen to his parents’ drone.
We take his privileges away,
but still he chooses to puff away.
We hide his fags and hide his lighter,
now and then pull an all-nighter
making sure he doesn’t smoke,
but once we’re gone, he takes a toke.
No matter what our perturbation,
we cannot stem his inhalation!

 

(If you’re not familiar with Little Duck, HERE is some backstory.)

The prompt word today is inhale.

Gerbera Daisies: FOTD June 21, 2019

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I am crazy about these new Gerbera Daisies I just bought today. More to follow! These aren’t even planted yet.

For Cee’s FOTD

Mass Lynching of 237 Black Sharecroppers

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http://www.blackwestchester.com/never-forget-americas-forgotten-mass-lynching-when-237-black-sharecroppers-were-murdered-in-arkansas/?fbclid=IwAR1SLOveBDgU737AR_fyeI4liKlZwcFbMxHOfDEHZv3Cif4Wej5gc9GVQtQ

Why did we never hear of events like this in our history classes? I have never before heard of this massacre that makes me ashamed of a country that I thought was supposed to represent all races and economic levels equally. Our present government is not a joke.  It is a travesty.  And reports like this make me realize this is not the first time that monumental injustice was the status quo.  If we let the concentration camps at our borders and further expulsion of those long-time residents contributing to our society and their separation from their children, then we deserve what is going to happen. There are now more Americans deserting the U.S. and moving to Mexico than Mexicans moving to the states. When Bush was elected, I said I was never coming back to the states until he was out of office. Looking at the Republican Party today, I have to say he was a saint by comparison.  Shame on you on every front, Trump administration. If Karma is real, I can’t imagine your afterlife!!!