Category Archives: Uncategorized

My Week So Far (Busy Week in a Nutshell)

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I like this sorta spooky view of my living room.
Lunch with Letty at our favorite Veggie restaurant.
Brad and I finally got some time in the hammocks. Morrie, too.
The Nueva Posada’s tree was still up. Every year it is different and spectacular!
Thank goodness Xmas goes on until Jan 6 here so I got a shot of the tree. Here is a closeup.
Sprang a leak in the water pipe. No swimming today!
Open Mike and Becky!!
Finally got my business cards, but mysteriously, 1/2 of them have the wrong photo on them instead of my photo, phone and email Go figure. Other fifty were fine.

With less than an hour before midnight, Forgottenman informed me I had not yet blogged today! That has not happened for 10 years! ..Well, except for the other few times he has sent the same message. I think it is because I’m accustomed to doing Cee’s FOTD each day and she is on vacation. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. So, I hurriedly posted a picture of a flower..a non-FOTD post, and then decided to publish photos of my week so far. Now just 39 min. to go on that week. So, here they are!

Click on Photos to Enlarge and Read Captions.

If I Were Water and You Were Air: Love and Unlove Poems

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This is the title of a new book of poems that I am working on formatting and doing the covers for.  If anyone is interested in giving me their opinion about the poems, their order and which I should perhaps not include, I would love the advice and could easily send you the ms. as  an attachment.  Any takers????

Pen & Ink, for the Weekend Writing Prompt, Jan 6, 2024

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Pen & Ink

Guided by a hand like yours,
pens can open many doors.
Unclip it. Uncap its point.
Let paper that pen anoint.
As words somersault and caper,
flowing from your heart to paper,
a simple point, an ink-trailed line
could link your lonely heart with mine.

 

For Weekend Writing Prompt: Guide

The assignment is to write a piece of exactly 45 words making use of the word “guide.” I snapped this photo in Guanajuato. Never hurts to have a pen handy!

More Surprises re/ the Bagworm or Case Moth

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When I got home today, I decided I’d double-check and make sure I hadn’t overlooked the bagworm yesterday. And guess what?  This is what I saw, although it seemed like it was on a lower part of the succulent plant than before.

I snapped this shot and sure enough, when I compared it to the Dec. 30 photo I took of the bagworm cocoon I had discovered on that day and found missing on Jan 3, the bagworm casing is completely different and on another part of the plant than before.  Did the bagworm build a new cocoon or is this another bagworm?  If so, what happened to the old cocoon? Or is this an entirely new bagworm? Mysteries, mysteries.

Below are the 2 cocoons side-by-side.

Photo taken on Dec. 30
Photo taken on Jan 4

I’ll keep an eye out for future developments.  Anyone with information to share, please do. Your expertise in this matter will be appreciated. In the meantime, I’m researching bagworms or case moths.

HERE is a link to my original post when I discovered the first cocoon.

And here is a Faceook message from my friend Jan Golik who first acquainted me with bagworms when she formed a relationship with one during her Covid isolation:

Now, my research on the matter:

How serious are bagworms? Bagworm larvae grow and feed on trees causing plant damage. These pests can be dangerous and costly to landscaping plants, but they pose no threat to human health. Large infestations of these pests may damage or cause trees and shrubs to die from defoliation.
Adult males transform into moths in four weeks to seek out females for mating. The female never leaves the cocoon, requiring that the male mate with her through the open end at the back of the case. She has no eyes, legs, wings, or antennae and can’t eat, but she emits a strong pheromone to attract a mate.
Below is a male bagworm emerging from his bag:
I am fascinated by this process. Can’t stand to destroy the “bag”

12/31/23 End of the Year Waltz

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12/31/23
End of  Year Waltz

One two three, One two three—
won’t you come dance with me?
Out of the old year and into the new,
I’d like to spend the time waltzing with you.
When the clock chimes, we’ll be on the floor,
welcoming in two zero two four.

A friend has pointed out that today’s date, seen without slashes, is 123123—the realization of which gave birth to this poem.

“Lucky Roll, Wrong Decision” For One Word Sunday: Three

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This is a grand coincidence, for I really did roll six threes in one roll in a game of Ten Thousand two days ago!  This is a first in years of playing this game.  My friend I was playing with insisted that when one rolled six of a kind in the game that it was an automatic win, but I insisted on playing through, taking only the 2400 points that the roll would garner.  And can you believe it, she got to 10,000 before me!  So much for nobility in dice-rolling! At any rate, it gave me the perfect photo for this challenge. And yes, I really did take a photo of my roll. This is not a staged photo.

For One Word Sunday: Three

Taking A Hike

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My Shoes

My shoes go out without me. They do it all the time,
and do the things I never do. They jog. They hike. They climb.
But when my shoes get home at night, they’ll be completely clueless
that I’ve left them out as well by venturing out shoeless!

 

For Greg’s Four-Line Fiction

“Slang with a Bang” For Fibbing Friday. Last of the Year!! 2023

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Auld slang syne this week: Your interpretations please!

1. Sling your hook: What the doctor said he was going to do to Mohammed Ali when he was taken to the emergency ward with a broken left arm after his last fight.
2. Here’s mud in your eye: What the female mud wrestler said to her opponent just before she trashed her eye makeup.
3. Bun in the oven: Describing Jennifer Lopez as she stuck her head into the oven to test the temperature.
4. Twinkle Toes: Anyone going barefoot in the Mardgras parade.
5. Moolah: Money spent on enlarging one’s cattle herd.
6. Brazillian: A new term above million and trillion that described Playtex’s total income.
7. Airhead: What they call the bathroom on a jet.
8. Goof off: The challenge is not punctuated correctly.  It is what Goofy said to Pluto when he was ready for him to abandon his lap. It should read,
               Goof: “Off!”   
9. Mickey Mouse: Request made by Cinderella, arriving home exhausted from the ball. Also a bit tipsy, thus her stutter as well as her need to request help in opening the door from one of her tiny rodent companions. “Mi-c-key, Mouse!”
10. Razz: Really good with Red Beans.

For Pensivity’s Fibbing Friday. Dec 29, 2023  Image by Lawrence Makoonah on Unsplash

What I Did On Xmas Day! For Share Your World, Dec 25, 2023

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The Share Your World questions for today are:

What will you be eating today?  I cooked a spiral-cut ham and made sangria. I also bought a pecan pie. My friend  Brad brought a Caesar salad and cheesy potatoes made in his crockpot. Larry and Elizabeth and Kathy brought a green bean casserole and buñuelos and Dianne brought a mocha flan cake and tres leches cake. 

What was your favorite gift? Elizabeth brought us all tea towels from her line of Indian-created clothing and house goods. She also gave me a wonderful book bag and cosmetic case but my very favorite was an incredible large hand-embroidered silk scarf that is simply stunning. It is large enough to make a blouse out of, but the problem is which side to present on the outside as both sides are incredible and each is a different color. Perhaps I’ll have to have it made reversible.  I’ll show a photo of it tomorrow.

Do your pets get to join in with the fun? My dogs are very very naughty when it comes to guests. They just go a bit crazy, so I put them in the lower garden. (Not the lot below, as they can easily escape from it.). This they did not like, and voiced their protests. Then my friend brought her very large German Shepherd and after a few warning barks and growls, we let her in with my banshees and they seemed to get along all right, but during the day, especially when it was feeding time, it got complicated. I must take them for obedience training or have them take me for obedience trining.  I actually gave them all doggie tranquilizers given to me by their vet, but I didn’t see that it made much of a difference.

Gratitude: For my friend Brad who usually furnishes the solution to my problems and who brought a wall mount for the echo he brought me for the bedroom a month or more ago (which we still haven’t gotten installed) and a scraper to replace what he considers to be my substandard one. (Forgetting that he had already replaced it earlier, but no problem,  because who doesn’t need two good kitchen scrapers?)

Also, gratitude for the good conversation and the contribution to the meal by my friends.

What is the worst bit, if any, about celebrating?  The dishes, but luckily everyone listened when I said I would rather spend our time talking and would not let them help.  When they left, I put away the food, cleared off the table and rinsed off all the dishes and piled them in the sink and on the counter. An hour or so later, I emptied the dishwasher of yesterday’s clean dishes and filled it with our comida dishes, then washed the rest by hand. I used my wooden-handled good flatware, so washed all of it by hand, as well as the fragile wine goblets and my favorite square sangria glasses. Actually, in the end it was very satisfying to end up with the job finished. I have a sneaking suspicion that Yolanda will show up tomorrow since I wouldn’t let her come either Xmas Eve or today…and it  will be fun to see her reaction when she sees I did it all.

After the Celebration!

(You can enlarge photos by clicking on them.)

And now, at 2 AM and 8 hours after the main event—to all a good night!!!

(I know. Very strange to show everything after cleanup rather than during the event, but it wasn’t until afterwards that I actually had time to take photos!)

Vivid Sunset!!!

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This sunset from Oct. 13 of this year just popped up on my computer. I think it wants to be noticed! Click it and it will fill your screen!!!