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.

Kalanchoe for FOTD Dec 7, 2024

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A spike at least 3 feet high grew straight up out of a large planter in my front garden. I had not a clue what it was. Certainlly not something I’d planted. I kept thinking I’d cut it down or move it but finally just directed it away from a sculpture it was growing directly in front of.  It had no flowers or leaves and was not that attractive, but I was rather intrigued, wondering how tall it would grow.  Then the other day I saw that it had pushed out blooms. I looked it up and learned that it is a variety of kalanchoe–one of my favorite flowering plants. I certainly have never seen one like this, however.

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Allamanda blanchetii Seed Pod for FOTD Dec 6, 2024

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Below is a photo of the Allamanda blanchetii  flower. It isn’t a very good photo because of the position of the sun,  but the ones I took with the seed pods yesterday vanished from my camera!! I’m just showing this so you can see what the seeds turn into.

For Cee’s FOTD

For Fibbing Friday, Dec 6, 2024

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For Fibbing Friday the questions to answer are:

1.   Who saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus?  Not daddy, that’s for sure!!!
2.   All I want for Christmas is for someone else to put the lights up on my tree.
3.   Rockin’ around the chain gang.
4.    How did Buttons get his name? From his master the tailor.
5.    I wish it could be Saturday night in 1963 on a date with my high school boyfriend.
6.    Last Christmas, I gave you Covid.
7.    Who was the eighth dwarf? Mickey Rooney.
8.   Why was Rudolph’s nose red? Minus zero degree temperatures.
9.   Why didn’t Cinderella’s glass slipper crack? It was made of polycarbonate glass.
10.  Who was the Frog Prince? Louis I de Bourbon

 

Flowers and Fountain, for Cee’s FOTD Dec 5, 2024

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Please click on first photo to enlarge and see entire series.

Now
you
see it
and now you don’t!

This little solar-powered fountain floats along on the surface of my pool. Here it is in front of a bank of assorted flowers.

For Cee’s FOTD

Hibiscus for Cee’s FOTD. Dec 4, 2024

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She’s back!!!!! This bloomed today just for Cee.

 

For F0TD

Jumping for Joy for Last on the Card

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For Last on the Card, Nov. 2024

When the adults took a break from the dance floor, the kids took over for a song…running and leaping. love this shot!!!

The Numbers Game #50, Dec. 2, 2024, Please Play Along!

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Click on photos to enlarge and see details.

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Welcome to “The Numbers Game #50.”  Today’s number is 171. 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. Above are my contributions to the album. 

 

Alejandra and Ismael’s Wedding for Cellpic Sunday

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Click on photos to enlarge.

 

A Mexican Wedding is a joyous affair.  You might guess from the number of wedding cakes how many people were at the celebration afterwards. The photos in this spread just show a bit of the spectacle. I didn’t realize until I started editing that I had taken over 500 photos! 400 on my camera before the battery gave out and then 100 plus more on my friend’s phone. At any rate, here are a “few” of the shots. I particularly love the one of all the children acrobatically dancing on the dance floor…More photos will follow in a few days.  I might add that Alejandra is Yolanda’s niece and my English student.  I first met her at a camp we threw for local children many years ago. One of the photos is of Yolanda and her sisters. Another is of Alejandra with her two children, her sister Marie Jose and her cousin Yoli, who is Yolanda’s daughter. Yoli and Marie Jose are also taking English lessons from me. The two other Anglo women were Alejandra’s former teachers. Do you know about the Mexican tradition of filling eggshells with confetti and breaking them over each others’ heads? You can see evidence of the practice in the photos. The bride and groom are not the only ones brushing confetti from their hair and clothing at a Mexican wedding!

For Cellpic Sunday

The Five Elements, For the Lens Artists Challenge

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Air, Earth, Water, Fire
Air, Water, Earth, Metal.
Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Metal
Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Metal
Earth, Air, Water, Metal, Fire

Click on photos to enlarge and better make out the different elements.

NOTE: I saw “Five Elements” in the prompt and just naturally thought, “Air, earth, water, fire” and I saw “Metal” before I started finding photos. It wasn’t until after I posted and saw the posts of others that I realized “wood’ had been substituted for “air.” I guess 5 of the photos include wood by accident, so I’m covered. Next time I’ll read more carefully and not presume! 

In most cases, fire in these photos is represented by the reflections of the sun. Air is ever-present, especially in photos of the small toy metal figures suspended in parachutes. In one case, metal is shown in the wire of the fence as well as the car made out by its headlights. In another, by the metal boat. The other larger images of cars are obvious.

 

For the Lens Artist Challenge: We were asked to post photos that included the 5 elements of air, earth, water, fire and metal.

Requiem for a Tyrant, for The Sunday Whirl Wordle Dec. 1, 2024

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Requiem for a Tyrant
(Guess Who?)

He will wander from the wide-eyed world into that sacred cave
where past memories assault him—wave on wave on wave,
bringing back on him the agonies, maneuverings and strife,
shattering the safety that cushioned him in life.

Harsh currents froth around him and spray into his eyes—
all his evil actions, his cheating and his lies
strung out to swirl around him, shifting power once again
so he becomes the object of all his former sin.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle  the word prompts are:frothed waves string face cave spray sacredshift shattered safe wide-eyed world