For CFFC the prompt is colorful buildings.. Ha! right up my alley…
Colorful Buildings for CFFC
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Author Archives: lifelessons
Breaking Piñatas, for Cellpic Sunday, Dec 22, 2024
Finally, the guests started arriving. Santiago got here first so I gave him some rubber duckies to float in the hot tub. His folks were both near by so no danger. Isidro’s six grandchildren rushed in and surrounded me with hugs and kisses..unprompted! Even the boys. They are such sweet children. Then Yolanda and Yoli and Oscar and Isidro were close behind, lugging a big aluminum pot full of Yolanda’s traditional posada chicken salad to be eaten on tortillas as well as a huge thermos of fruit punch and another of jamaica. We did the piñata first, starting with the tiniest and going uphill to the tallest–and as it turned out, the strongest. Yoli was the heroine who whacked Santa his final blow. Luckily, I think his cute face is salvageable so I can use it on a wall or door next year.Below are all my cellpics of the event. It was sooooo enjoyable and the kids were so excited and all the young adult parents and cousins and brothers and sisters were so fun as well. The kids had as much fun playing hide and seek in my garden and all around the outside of my house..and the inside, actually…as they did whacking the piñata. Here are some pics:
The children were so active, running through the house and out four different doors of the house..in backyard and front yard and yet they were careful, damaged nothing. At one point one of Isidro’s granddaughters saw me pick up a candy bar wrapper from the grass and minutes later went over to kids and told them not to throw anything on the ground and to put the candy wrappers in their hands into the wastepaper basket. She was a very small girl and I thought this was an incredibly thoughtful act. In fact there was no trash around at all. Amazing given the hundreds of pieces of wrapped candy that were being consumed. .Yolanda and Yoli and Ellie and Marie Jose cleared the tables and all the trash, even though I did not ask or expect them to. All in all, a wonderful wonderful experience. The mother of most of Isidro’s grandkids who attended was only about 7 when I first met her. She won a “clean up the lake” poster contest I sponsored. And Alejandra, the mother of two others, attended a kids camp I helped organize and conduct when she was 12 years old. She’s now 27! It’s amazing to live through an entire generation of kids. I’ve been here 23 years. Longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. (If you are worried about Santa’s present condition, here is more of the story: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2024/12/24/santa-makes-a-comeback/
For Cellpic Sunday
For Sunday Whirl Wordle 686
This strand of freshwater pearls, knocked off the table where a beach vendor was displaying her wares to us, looked so good there,
Night Thoughts
Words strung like pearls on memory’s thread
merely repeat what has often been said.
Whispers of heartaches, sparks of regret,
prick at our senses so we’ll not forget.
Then the witching hour joins us, ringing her bell,
shaking earth from her shoes she has tracked in from Hell.
An herbed wind shifts vines to whip overhead,
sending stray sojourners straight to their bed.
Then sweeps over cobbles, whisking away
unresolved problems of the past day.
For the Sunday Whirl this week, the words are:
The Numbers Game #53, Dec 23, 2024. Please Play Along!
Welcome to “The Numbers Game #53.” Today’s number is 174. To play along, go to your photos file and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title.This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. Here are my contributions to the album.
Click on photos to enlarge.
I saw this guy inspecting the water from the malecon at the very beginning of my walk.
Dad duded up
Piñata Party Prep
Pinata stuffed and ready for hanging.
Rubber duckies ready for action.
Car out of garage
Rope hung over the beam
Tree lit
Candles lit.
Cookies bought
Santa lit and lined up with friends.
Some munchies out for adults who don’t need to swing a cane for theirs.
Beer and Sangria cooling for Moms and Dads and Grandparents.
Chicken salad sandwiches, enchiladas and fruit punch for kiddies on its way. Doggies will go next door before the first arrivals at 4.
This party is just for kids from San Juan Cosala and their folks. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly..More photos later.
Succulent Still Life for FOTD
Free Saturday, (For Cee) For FOTD Dec 21, 2024
Free Saturday
Today’s the day I get to do
exactly what I want to do.
To prowl my yard both up and down
clad only in my sleeping gown.
(The air so brisk, I guess I better
also choose to wear a sweater.)
Drink my morning coffee cold,
do not one thing that I’ve been told
to do. Make not one new appointment,
no sunscreen worn or other ointment.
Merely hang out in the shade,
leave home with no arrangements made.
Perhaps I’ll shop the Christmas fair
or simply walk to get some air.
Run into friends and have some lunch
or simply choose to skip the bunch
and have a sandwich on my own,
to drift wherever I am blown
like the dandelion I tore
out of my planter. Like its spore
I’ll fly off free to create more
adventures than I’d counted on
until my day is finally done.
Unplanned, unplotted and unlisted.
My former behavior resisted.
But first, there is this prompt to do.
I simply have to take a few
photos of new flowers for Cee,
(Well, some for her and some for me.)
An hour ago, I had not any,
but now it seems I have too many.
But, unable to make the call,
I guess I’ll have to post them all!
( I really did take all these photos this morning..yes, in my nightgown. If you look closely, you can see that my plants, too, grow where they want to. Can you find them growing out of nose, eye and ear? Click on photos to enlarge and see detail.)
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Cee!!!!
For Cee’s FOTD
“The Wish” for SOCS, Dec 20, 2024
Wish Wagon
Hear the clanging pots, the squeaky wheels?
Over the rise comes the peddler’s cart––
horse with head down, pulling the load,
the jolly man just dangling the whip over her flanks.
Pitchers, fry pans, mops and brooms,
a doll for sis and kites for the boys
who run to greet this week’s happening,
hoping that Pa has spare bills in his wallet this time.
Now hear the “Whoa, Nell!” and see Zeke, the peddler,
swing his bent frame down from his high perch,
Ma drying her hands as she emerges from the kitchen door,
sis attached to her skirts, shy but drawn irresistibly from safety
to see the wonders that the peddler draws from his wagon:
penny candies by the jar and safety pins.
Needles, spoons and dime novels.
Cloth for Ma of calico and new boots for Pa.
Rag rugs made by Ma and traded for a bucket
and a wash pan his last trip here
that haven’t sold and so he won’t need more.
Jangly bracelets like the city women wear.
Her brief laugh scoffs at them.
The very idea. But one finger runs them round
before it draws away. And in her eyes
there is a wistfulness we will not see again
for thirty more years, until another wagon
crests the hill and drives away with her,
that look again frozen on her face
for eternity.
The SOCS prompt is “wish.” Image from Unsplash.
More Fibbin’, Dec 20, 2024
For Fibbing Friday, the brain teasers this week are:
1. Why is a Pantomime thus called? Because one of her suit cuffs got caught in the lawnmower and pulled off but she still performs her act with one leg bare!
2. Why was the White Rabbit late? Pregnant.
3. What happened when Aladdin rubbed the lamp for the first time? He was double-tasking and ordering a pizza online at the same time so totally wasted his first wish on a pepperoni pizza!! It was, however, an extremely fast delivery.
4. How many ugly sisters were there? No one knew because their habits were veiled back then.
5. What did Jack exchange for the magic beans? Bitcoin.
6. Why do they always shout ‘It’s behind you!!’ Because try as you will, you still can never remember where you keep your wallet!!
7. What was the house in the woods made of that Hansel and Gretel found? S’witches.
8. Who owned The Mirror Mirror on the wall? A stutterer.
9. What was the name of Dick Whittington’s cat? Penileope.
10. Who was Tinkerbell? The town handyman’s girlfriend.
Oh, how I love this prompt!!!!
Photo thanks to Google.
My Body, for the Writer’s Workshop, Dec 19, 2024
!!!Fragile!!!
Just as I’m becoming less agile,
all of me is turning fragile.
Flesh on flesh and bone on bone,
Nature won’t leave me alone.
Bruise more easily, skin tears easier.
Looking up now makes me queasier.
Can’t be trusted on a ladder.
Larger hips but smaller bladder.
Lips are thinner, bones are brittler.
And suddenly, I’m two inches littler.
If Nature’s bound to fold and shrink me,
Really, now, wouldn’t you think she
could leave me with my height and lips
and do her shrinking around my hips?
The prompt for the Writer’s Workshop was to write about my body as it grows old.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 