Author Archives: lifelessons

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

Purdy pitchers for FOTD

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Put purdy pitcher hear.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Although I know the name of this flower, I can’t for the life of me remember it and the plant identifier refuses to name it, too.  Someone help. A friend with a sense of humor set this up for me because he knew I’ve been crazy busy and didn’t have time to post it. The title and instructions are his!!! The flowers, however, whatever they are called, are my addition. 

(They may be  copa de oros (as not all copa de oros are gold, in spite of their name.) But, I’ve never noticed that little white flower like the center of a bougainvillea in the center of a copa de oro.)

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Way Down Low (For the Cosmic Photo Challenge)

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For the Cosmic Photo Challenge: Low Elevation

Stages of Growth for Cee’s FOTD Sept 20, 2023

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For Cee’s FOTD

A few days ago, I showed a photo of a hibiscus and was unsure of whether it was getting ready to bud out or had already done so and the petals had fallen. Cee is pretty sure the second is true but Sam (Seen here as “Anonymous.” We know not why) was curious about size and wanted to have more info. If you want to see the original blog that raised all this activity, go HERE, and you can also see Sam’s query and my answer to him. All of this led me to go out and take the pictures above. After that, I saw Cee’s comment which seemed to bring an end to the mystery.  You can see her comment on the link as well. I’ll try to remember to go out and take a photo after this hibiscus’s petals have fallen. Then we can turn our minds to further mysteries.

A bit of interesting trivia: Chinese Hibiscus is sometimes referred to as the ‘Shoeblack Plant’, or simply ‘Shoe Flower’. This is because its petals can double up as shoe polish! By rubbing the flower petals on leather shoes, you can bring out the shine and color in the material to breathe new life into your shoes in a completely natural way!

Triangulation

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Click on photos to enlarge.

I had trouble finding triangles in my photo files so decided to go on a triangle hunt around my house. This is the result for RDP Friday: Triangle

Feeling Owly

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Feeling Owly
(But Owl Be Okay)

When I’m feeling owly and in no mood to talk,
better that you leave me and take a little walk.

Cuz when I’m feeling owly, I don’t like being rushed.
Owly just increases when a girl is feeling crushed.

So leave me to be whooo I am and go be whooo you are.
Leave me in my owly funk and jump into your car

and be off on your business, out in the world’s wild hum.
When I’m in a mood like this, feeling sorta glum,

it’s best to leave me all alone, feeling my mood’s crunch.
Once in a while I feel the need to join the owly bunch!

 

This silly poem actually took me 4 minutes to write. I used the other two minutes to edit and format. Ended in exactly 6 minutes!!! No piece of great literature, but it fulfilled the prompt.

For Stine’s Six Minute Challenge: Write for six minutes about the photo provided above. 

Smashed Hopes: For dVerse Poets

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Smashed Hopes

My fascination with kale is nil,
but smashed potatoes fill the bill.
They go best with butter and
homemade gravy, never canned.
Rosé goes with clove-studded ham,
but I must admit I am
 fond of gin for getting smashed
when the potatoes are mashed!

 

The dVerse Poets Quadrille challenge prompt is Smash.
And you can find more responses to the prompt HERE.

Hibiscus: For FOTD Sept 18

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See Cee’s incredible Day Lily HERE.

Beginning or Ending? For FOTD Sept 19, 2023

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I can’t decide whether this was a flower whose petals had fallen or one that hadn’t yet budded out. I meant to keep checking it, but life intervened and I forgot to. What do you think? 

For Cee’s FOTD

Grandma’s Birthday Confessions (For Sunday Whirl Wordle 620)

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This might have been a better choice for Grandma’s Birthday Cake.

Grandma’s Birthday Confessions

A trick of fate has caused my skin to rumple, thin and bruise.
My limbs are merely spindles and my breasts simply refuse
to remain in their stations!  My locks once shiny gold
have dimmed to dullest silver, thus making me look old!
Of late, I find the edges of things have grown less clear.
I bump myself on door frames and on table tops. I fear
I may have a slight problem with my peripheral vision
which upon occasion has created much derision
on the part of youngsters, whose laughter, I suppose
has something to do with the lipstick on my nose.
And if you wonder why my bangs are so oddly fringed,
please don’t blame my hair stylist. I fear that they were singed
when I tried to blow the candles out on my birthday cake.
Who knew they’d use one candle for each year, for heaven’s sake?

The words for Sunday Whirl Wordle 620 were: late edge spindle skin rumple  fate trick slight singe dim limb

Back-fence Whispers: For Wordle 619

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Back-fence Whispers

Since I heard the rumors that my love is leaving,
unproven fears extend their claws and set my heart to grieving.
Still fluid memories of our love rush in to calm my mind,
shoring up belief that he’s not the roaming kind.

Still, those hurtful whispers breathed behind cupped hands
warn me that he’ll soon be off to foreign lands.
Thus, I sit and worry about what the truth may be.
Which love has he chosen? Is it the world or me?

 

The words today are hurt heard whispers since roams clawing rush still fluid grieving shore breathe  : for the Sunday Whirl  Wordle 619  Image by Ben White on Unsplash.