When I had the tree-trimmers trim back my hugely overgrown pistachio tree, they cut off a huge branch and tarred it over completely to inhibit further growth. This little sprout stubbornly flouted convention and somehow managed to push through the tar. I have to applaud its persistence and determination!
I’ve tried so many times to get a decent photo of a honeysuckle. Along with the lipstick plant, it has been impossible. This one still isn’t ideal, but it is the best so far. One of these days!
A while ago, I published a tribute to my friend Jim Tipton, who had passed away here in Chapala, where he had resided for the past 15 years or so. Jim was an incredible poet and his friends here are trying to insure that his last book of poetry, “The Alphabet of Longing” gets its due notoriety. At $6.99 it is an incredible bargain. You will not regret acquainting yourself with the work of this lovely man whose work has been acclaimed by Isabel Allende. Go here for more information and to order his book: http://tiny.cc/JimTipton .
Once a Week
To be eccentric every moment takes too much from me,
so I limit my oddness to every Saturday.
On that day my zany hats come out from their hiding,
anxious for one day a week they get to go outsiding.
I don my feathered boa and stick on rhinestone lashes.
I wear my fringe-tiered flapper skirts with neon colored sashes.
I hop onto my bicycle, my cockatoo inside
the wire basket on the front and take him for a ride.
When we drive by the playground, at first the children balk,
but I pique their expectations as we have a little talk.
The cockatoo speaks bird talk and does a little jig.
Then he does impressions of a donkey and a pig.
He does a little rap routine that every child loves
and then I don my riding hat and my driving gloves
and pedal off to other adventures up the street,
expressing eccentricity to everyone I meet.
Later in the afternoon, I pedal us back home,
turning up the driveway by the garden gnome.
I put my bike into the shed, the bird behind his bars.
I put my rhinestone eyelashes in their storage jars.
I strip off all my finery and pull on my old jeans.
Microwave a hot dog. Open a can of beans.
I sink into my Barclay lounger, flip on the T.V.
turning once again into the ordinary me,
having exorcised my cravings for eccentricity
The prompts for today are expectation, moment and eccentric:
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/07/28/expectation/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/07/28/fowc-with-fandango-moment/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/07/28/eccentric-july-28-2018/
Click on any photo to enlarge all and view as slide series.
To see more benches, found after I posted this batch, go HERE.
Click on any photo to enlarge all.
I have been admiring a lush vine like this one at the Chapala Society for 17 years. A few years ago, I put a few seeds from it into my pocket and scattered them in a spot where I’ve never been able to get any thing to take hold. I’d tried a grape vine to no avail, so thought perhaps these could use the dead grape vines for support. This year I noticed that they had bloomed. I took one of these photos then. Today I took it at a later stage, more fully bloomed out. For years, I’ve wondered what it was and I finally lucked out and found it on a website. It is called a Pink Coral Vine, so when I forget that at a later date and label this as a mystery flower, you can remind me!
