Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dream Recipe

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Today the doorbell rang and since I wasn’t expecting anyone, I called out and asked who it was before opening the gate. “Package delivery!” I signed and took the rather heavy box from the young man. I had not the foggiest idea what was inside! It felt like a heavy appliance..a printer or computer, but when I opened the box, what I found inside was 10 copies of a book I didn’t even know I’d made the final cut for. What’s more, I looked back at my letter of permission and realized that meant there was a check in the mail as well! I opened one up and sure enough, there I was on pages 125-28. Nice surprise. What was my dream recipe? Chicken soup, of course. (Actually, not a recipe at all, but rather a story about a dream that changed my life.)

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Hibiscus Chain

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Just pulling one branch over so I could capture more blooms at a time created this seeming hibiscus lei.  Seven bloomed at one time. Riches.

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For Cee’s Flower Prompt.

Odd Little Saturday Morning Poem

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Odd Little Saturday Morning Poem

I lie in bed, flat on my back, head raised by pillows,
computer raised to eye level
by a wadded comforter over bent knees.
I listen to raised voices in the village down below,
the staccato of an inadequately mufflered car revving up,
a hammer falling on wood, birds in the coco  palms.
A pianissimo chorus of dogs spread
over the surrounding hills swells to a frenzied crescendo,
then falls silent but will swell again.

I have dropped obligations
like clothes shed for a lover.
My Saturday morning pool aerobics and Zumba,
I slipped out of years ago.
Group luncheons hang from doorknobs and chair backs.
Committee meetings lie sloppily abandoned in the hall.

I have retired from the running of the world
to run my own small universe on paper.
Saturday morning is my brainstorm session
with “Me,” “Myself” and “I.”
“I” suggested feeding the dogs,
but they are quiet now, so
“Me” suggested we let them lie.
“Myself” laid out some words to dry
in the heat of the fire of our communal
inspiration, laying them smoothly on the page,
rumpling up others in her fist to send them sailing
to join the crumpled singles event invitations in the corner.

This slow Saturday morning dressing of pages
and stripping them bare
is a sort of ceremony celebrating seizing time
and making it my own.
Pages  fill up with passion, angst, anger,
irritation, joy, laughter, camaraderie.
There is more than one word for each.

Imagine such control over your world–
not having to live the world of any other.
If you could have any life you wish?
Imagine a Saturday morning  building it.

The prompt today was crescendo. This is a reprint of a poem written a few years ago.

Impromptu Doors

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No reason why a fella can’t change his mind!

https://miscellaneousmusingsofamiddleagedmind.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/thursday-doors-september-7-2017/

The Ruse of Trump’s Charitable Heart Continues

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Had to reblog Lydia’s most recent fact-finding commentary. Please go to her blog via the link given below for the full story.

alotfromlydia's avatarA lot from Lydia

“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.” ~Chinua Achebe

Most of us don’t have a means to that end. You would have to be a special kind of world leader to attempt to make this a world in which charity is unnecessary.

A president could make such an attempt. This one won’t.

This POTUS’ agenda, for those not paying attention, is to strip the poor of: healthcare, food, even sanctuary. The reason for this, Trump’s goal, is to lower taxes for the richest Americans to 15%.

Trump has repeatedly falsely stated, lied, that Americans pay the highest taxes in the world. This is not true. We do however pay enough that we should be provided healthcare.

Donald Trump would like to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, the ones who typically…

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Hibiscus: Dancing With the Stars

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When eight of these Spanish Dancer hibiscus blooms showed up in full regalia on the same day, it was hard to pick a winner.  You’ll see more of their sisters on another day.  Don’t want to slight any of them. Click on any flower to see larger views of them all.

 

For Cee’s Flower Prompt.

The Finite. What We Can’t Fight.

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Universal Biography

In the end, all the same.
Although remembering your name,
eventually no one knows
the you that lived beneath your clothes.

They may see your charming smile,
your tender looks or cunning guile,
but they won’t have the faintest clue
of the authentic, inner you.

Perhaps we start out all the same;
so who’s the one that we should blame
when some turn into Phyllis Dillers
and others into serial killers?

Ghandi, Hitler, Bundy, and
the rest of us, by nature’s hand
instilled with sin or piety
in infinite variety.

But still, at end of life, we fall,
not so different after all.
At the very end of day,
returned to dust, we blow away.

 

The prompt word today is “finite.” This is a reblog of a poem I wrote two years ago.—

Anticipation

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Today is that day I’ve been anticipating for months—the day I take the girl kittens in for spaying and the boy for neutering.  Since I don’t have that much time to write, I put today’s prompt word “anticipate” into my search engine on my blog and this is the former post I came up with to reblog: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/10/03/water-and-rocks/.
It takes awhile to find the word anticipate in it–as a matter of fact it is the third word from the end, but I enjoyed reading the story and seeing the photos as though someone else had written them, so perhaps you will, too.  There is an accompanying link to the story I wrote about our huge landslide many years ago.

I can hear the kittens meowing from three rooms away.  They want to be fed and poor babies, it can’t be done before their surgery.  I’ll be glad when their little ordeal is over.  I’m also anticipating the time when they can safely be released to the great outdoors and there will be fewer kitty litter boxes to clean.  Will I suffer empty nest syndrome?  They’ll still be around, but will be mainly outside cats.  Preparing them in anticipation of January’s house sitters who are allergic to cats.  And my friend Patty who is allergic to cats.

Okay, please his that blue URL link above and go back with me in time to another rainy season, another thrill of nature aside from abandoned kittens and murdered bats.  Still sorry about that one.

Before and After

No time to sort these, but below are 3 months of kitten shots from the first day they were mysteriously gifted to me to the present.  Now we are off to insure no new kittens are in my future!

Click on first photo to enlarge all and read captions.

 

One day I came out to find this tiny kitten standing up to Annie to steal her meal. I opened the garage door to find two more climbing the bougainville vine and another in a box.
First day I found them, feeding the starving kittens.
Dinner time, 3 months ago
Meal time a few weeks ago.
Meal time now. Two dishes necessary
Ollie Then
Ollie now. (In front.)
Kitten pileup at approx 3 months
Ollie and Roo at about 6 weeks old
About 16 weeks old.
6-8 weeks old.

The prompt was anticipate.

Water Water Everywhere

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Click on first photo to view all in larger format.

 

 

 

 

 

For this challenge: https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2017/09/05/tuesday-photo-challenge-water/

Bougainvillea Bushes: Flower of the Day, Sept 5, 2017

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The rainy season on Lake Chapala turns everything a lush green.  Although generally they flourish in a drier climate, the bougainvillea seem not to be minding it either.

For Cee’s Flower Prompt.