Can you figure out what the photos below are? One of them I couldn’t figure out for the longest time. I knew what it was but not how I’d taken the photo! Let me know what you think they are.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/05/17/cees-fun-foto-challenge-whats-this/
Heading South
My friend put on her traveling gown
for London was her sort of town
where mouths share tales and shoulders rub
when friends or strangers meet at the pub.
My friend put on her traveling gown
for Paris was her sort of town—
gone to the boulevard to eat
where strangers she perchance would meet.
A demitasse or two, or more,
a shared baguette or petit four—
approachable down to the bone.
Better not to eat alone.
She was a traveler, born to roam
when she was not ensconced in home.
Back home, a cat upon her lap.
Away from home, a well-creased map.
On maps, the south is always down,
be it Paris or London town.
So be not sad or down at mouth.
Our friend is merely going south!
As I grow older, I like to think
one day we’ll meet there for a drink.
Well-versed, our friend will show us where
to sip our coffee in open air.
Or snuggle in for shepherd’s pie
in company fit for roving eye.
To lift a pint or raise a glass
once we have joined her there en masse.
(Word came yesterday that my friend of 49 years had passed away in a London hotel room, where she was just finishing up a month long vacation. If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, go HERE.)
Marilyn suggested this song which my poem reminded her of. It is one of my favorites, so I’m including it here…the link provided by okcforgottenman. In his words, ‘It is Fort Worth Blues, written by Steve Earle in tribute to the then recent passing of Townes Van Zandt. You can see him sing it –HERE- in a Townes tribute on Austin City Limits. It’s a worthy tribute to Grimmer, too, I think.’
I is for Iguana. I’ve been waiting to have a chance to use this one! Saw this fellow outside my friend’s house in La Manzanilla, and it was as though he was posing for me. You need to click on the first photo to enlarge them.
If you want to see even more spectacular views of an iguana, go here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/02/21/iguanas-in-the-sand/
and if you want to participate in this letter challenge, go here: https://lumar1298.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/26-weeks-letter-challenge-i/
(To enlarge photos and read the captions, it is necessary to click on the first photo.)
Her name was Judy Grimm. She was a “little sister” assigned to me by Chimes—a junior women’s honorary at the University of Wyoming. The year was 1967 and that summer, we started up a correspondence that consisted mainly of her asking questions and my answering them. She was a freshman coming from Colorado to Wyoming and her main fear was that she wouldn’t be able to wear cut-offs to class.
She was a relaxed sort of girl. We were different in many ways, but alike in others. She pledged my sorority. We were both English majors. We shared a first name and since we also shared a best friend, we were to weave in and out of each other’s lives for the next 49 years. She was a funny tomboyish girl with a devilish grin. We spent a lot of the two years we were in the house together forsaking our early afternoon classes to play bridge with the hashers after lunch. She had an infectious sense of humor and when she married one of the BMOC’s and became Judy Hill, it was to be just one of the surprises her life had in store for us.
After earning an undergraduate degree in English, she discovered that her true talent was in science and she went on to become a dental surgeon. When she divorced her BMOC and joined the military to see the world, I went with our mutual best friend Patty to give her a send-off in New Orleans, and when she was sent to Germany and Patty went to teach nearby, I went to visit them there and we traveled to Paris and Spain together as well.
Years later, after she moved back to the states and I moved to Mexico, she came to visit me in Mexico several times. When I went to Denver, I stayed at her house and when she sold her house and downsized, I visited her in her new high rise luxury apartment overlooking the park. We were making plans to see each other in Denver at a mini-college reunion when I go through enroute to a family reunion in Cheyenne this June/July.
But a phone call early this morning changed those plans, for it was Patty telling me that Judy had died the night before in a London hotel room. Due back in the states a few days ago, she had phoned to say she was cancelling her flight reservations to check into a hotel and get over a bout of the flu. She had said earlier that her month in England had been the best of many vacations she had taken in her life. And so in the end, she seemingly died the way we all would probably like to die—doing what she liked best. She was scheduled for back surgery in a few weeks, and if it had to happen, I am so happy she died in a London hotel room instead of a Denver operating theater.
R.I.P. Dr. Grimmer. We didn’t write much and although we didn’t always see life the same, we did continue to see each other over the nearly 50 years since we first met. You always did enjoy traveling, whether it was with company or alone, buddy. I hope your last trip continues to be as enjoyable as your penultimate one was.
I’ve since written THIS about Grimmer.
Ironically, the Daily Prompt today was “buddy.” https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/buddy/
Last week, I wrote about an epiphany experience wherein I speculated about the origins of the baker’s dozen. Today I finally checked it out on the internet and in two places, found the below explanation:
The oldest known source and most probable origin for the expression “baker’s dozen” dates to the 13th century in one of the earliest English statutes, instituted during the reign of Henry III (r. 1216-1272), called the Assize of Bread and Ale. Bakers who were found to have shortchanged customers could be liable to severe punishment. To guard against the crude punishment of losing a hand to an axe, a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat. Specifically, the practice of baking 13 items for an intended dozen was to prevent “short measure”, on the basis that one of the 13 could be lost, eaten, burnt or ruined in some way, leaving the baker with the original dozen. The practice could be seen in the guild codes of the Worshipful Company of Bakers in London.
s://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061108041832AAS6JWq
I love this photo and I’ve been saving it because it has never quite fit in to any challenge..Then it occurred to me that this is the purpose of the odd-ball challenge! I love it because of everything that is going on. The little boy “shooting” his brother with water ammo, the stance of the little girl, the fishing poles of the fishermen repeating the lines of the water guns and the other swimmers and fisherman in the surf. One thing I love about the beach is that there is always something going on––a fact perfectly represented by this photo.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/05/15/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2016-week-20/
This surprise awaited me in my garden today. These colors of gold and burnt orange surround me. They are the colors of the outside of my house and studio as well as my bedroom.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/05/15/flower-of-the-day-may-16-2016-iris/
Have you ever wondered where the phrase came from? I had an epiphany moment when I was baking cookies a month ago, then forgot about it until I again baked cookies yesterday. It was then that I realized if you place the balls in rows of 3, then 2, then 3, then 2, then 3 on a regular cookie sheet to leave room for expansion, you can fit exactly 13 cookies on the sheet! Voila!! A baker’s dozen!!! I perhaps could have discovered this by looking it up on Google, but much more fun to discover such facts on your own!
Or, for more information, look here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/05/16/the-truth-about-the-bakers-dozen/
Remember when padded envelopes used to be filled with the fuzzy stuff? That was kapok. It was also used as packing material. This is where it comes from!
https://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/sunday-trees-235/
