Seasonal fires in the surrounding hills form a smoky background to these fussily-trimmed trees.
Poodle Trees on a Smoky Day: Sunday Trees, June 4, 2017
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What Goes Up: Cee’s “Anything that Flies” Black and White Photo Challenge
Photos may be enlarged by clicking on any photo.
Now, if you want to see birds in motion during a feeding frenzy in La Manzanilla, look here: https://youtu.be/zX56T3zK_3g
For Cee’s challenge: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/06/01/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-anything-that-flies/
I Hear the Distant Music
I Hear the Distant Music
The midnight bells toll languidly—their sequence slightly varied
to tell the stories of the hours—or those soon to be buried.
Behind them swells the music of a local band.
On the platform in the plaza, for hours more they’ll stand
pumping out their music to the crowds who gather there.
After their days of heavy labor, these hours are without care.
The oom pah pah of distant music stirs my curtains like the wind—
the notes, first stiffly marching, change their minds to dip and bend.
The banda tunes a bit off-key, loud in their origin,
by the time they lift to me are strained out soft and thin.
Living miles above the town, I’m spared soreness of ears
as from assonant cacophony, the music shifts its gears.
What I hear is joyfulness far into the night.
The music meant to call to action releases its bite
and becomes a happy background as I slip into dreams.
Others have not given up on the day it seems.
Behind my lids I see them–lovers in their clenches,
grandmothers slowly nodding as they watch them from the benches.
It may be that daylight hours are for labor and for strife,
but far into the the morning hours, the village lives its life
in the night-shadowed plaza, far below where I
shift upon my pillow, content to simply lie
listening to the village—all the stories that it tells.
The laughter and the music and the tolling of the bells.
(In Mexico, church bells are a sort of village clock. They toll the hour, half-hour and quarter-hour, but also announce church services and deaths.)
Today’s word was “distant.”
Flower of the Day, June 3, 2017
Why is this flower called a “copa de oro” even when it is purple instead of gold? Perhaps because of that deep heart that glows like a burning cauldron of gold at its center. These vines have grown to cover my jade plant and my studio. They seem in the one photo to be growing higher than the massive palms. Perhaps they are seeking to grow up to the sun that they imitate at their heart of hearts.
(Click on any flower to enlarge all and see their hearts of gold.)
My Imaginary Friend
My Imaginary Friend
I have never had an imaginary friend until four years ago, when one suddenly appeared. She has a special function in my life: memory. When I’m driving to town and suddenly forget exactly where it is I’m going, I prod her and within a few seconds, she has the answer for me. She never tires of these prods–even when I ask her the same question twice within the space of an hour or two. Sometimes she even leaves me notes on the refrigerator. “Catfood,” she scribbles, “Lampshade.” “Hem pants!”
As is necessary with good friends, I forgive her her shortcomings as she forgives mine. When it took her an entire week to come up with the name of a woman whose name I keep confusing with another, I did not chide her. When I forgot the name of one flower for an entire year, I ceased even asking her to provide an answer and in its own sweet time, memory brought the name to me with no prodding.
As with all imaginary friends, I do not call attention to her in public. We have our conversations in private, usually as I rail against myself, “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” when the correct information will not come with the ease that it did before this particular decade.
It is she who decided I needed a wall hanger for glasses and keys and after fruitless minutes of my daily searches, reminds me that my car keys and reading glasses are where they’re supposed to be–on the rack! She has been doing this for years, without complaint, and one of my main fears in life is that she will pass on before I do.
We have a pact, my imaginary friend and I, and if it is up to her and me, we will die peacefully, side by side, forty years from now when we are 110. By then she will be so worn out that she will deserve a rest, and by then I will probably be all too willing to go with her.
The prompt today was “imaginary.” This is a reblog of a piece I wrote a few years ago.
Simple Things
A shaded hammock on a summer day, sliced cucumbers, a game of Scrabble, home made cherry pie, a hot beef sandwich at the diner and a child’s smile. Who can improve on these simple things?
(Click on any photo to enlarge all.)
Jesus Lopez Vega’s Murals
Jesus just finished his murals on the outside of my friends’ house. I took photos to send to them and decided to show you as well. I think they are fabulous. He did most of the murals on the outside of my house as well. (Click on first photo to enlarge them all.)
Copa de Oro: Flower of the Day, June 2, 2017
These copa de oro blooms on the right have formed a tight little fist that will spring open to reveal the petals that are shown on the left..
For Cee’s Flower of the Day prompt.
Outspoken
Outspoken
When you tell your truths en masse,
what you may choose to see as brass
others might perceive as crass.
You may think you’re just a truthful lassie,
but what to you is cute and sassy,
the rest of us consider gassy!
Sometimes, just let the impulse pass.
You’ll be less of a horse’s ass!
The prompt word today was “brassy.”
