Category Archives: Uncategorized

Reflecting Pool: (Sanctuary)

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Reflecting Pool

Sacred refuge and snug haven.
A safe shelter from the swarm.
Not a temple or an altar.
Comfortable, snug and warm.
Temple to deep relaxation,
Underpinning of my dreams.
A down comforter to soothe my
Rattled nerves and ripping seams.
You may guess that I’m a loner, but

You would be just halfway right.
Refuges would have no meaning without
A journey to feel life’s bite.
Under covers is a safe world,
Total living through the mind,
Cushioning the greater pleasures
Nurtured when our pathways wind
Around problems to be conquered in the outer world we roam,
Safely leading us in a circle back to the refuge that we call home.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sanctuary/

Ladies Who Paint

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None of these ladies would formerly have identified themselves as painterly, but when three of them bid for a group art lesson at a local charity auction and invited the rest of us to attend the experience, we all had the chance to test our painterly acumen.  As you might notice below, originality was neither called for nor tolerated.  The nice lady at the far left directed our efforts, step by step, and the result was what you see far below.IMG_0974

Can you guess which three of these women are named Judy?  You’ll recognize Marilyn looking much more like herself than in the Scrub Daddy post.  The woman in yellow is my sister Patti, the tall pretty lady between them is my long time friend and college little sister, Patty. Marti, another best friend from college days onwards is next to our teacher and Jackie is in the horizontal stripes that bother my astigmatism no end.  I am the too-short haircut between Jackie and Marilyn (sorry, Audrey).

IMG_1003Ta da!!!  How many things can you find that we have in common in the photo?  Yes, I cheated and made my moon a blood moon and my stars bleeding stars.  I plan not to change my career plans as a result of this experience, but it was fun fun fun and I thank Marilyn, Patty and Patti for inviting us all.  Eight participants and only 4 names between the eight of us.  I once had three Pattys visit me at the same time. I find it a great boost to my ego that I didn’t get their names confused once.

Scrub Daddy Scores (Scours?) a Family

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This is Marilyn, my sister’s across-the-street neighbor.  We went to college together but didn’t know each other then.  A while ago she started reading my blog and she says her heart was especially tugged by the Scrub Daddy Saga, which with this blog is stretching to 4 posts—I think the most I’ve devoted to any topic.  To read the opening episodes, you can go HERE, (Don’t forget to read the the best part––the comments of a representative of the Scrub Daddy corporation who somehow becomes aware of my posting and enters into the rhyme fest,) then HERE, then HERE.

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Marilyn arrived one day with a package that included a number of the Scrub family whom I had never met before.  They came complete with the note below: “Here is what happens when Scrub Daddy and Scrub Mommy get together.  Va-Va-Voom!!  Scrub Mommy was there dressed all in pink as well as a new Lemon Fresh Scrub Daddy, a new rectangular Scrub Sonny and–the cutest of the lot–Scrub Baby, meant to clean computer screens.  I isolated one of the baby twins who now resides on my computer lid between scrubbings, but I do take him frequently to visit as I work in the kitchen.  He can’t go swimming like the rest of his family, so he remains computer-locked, but a good deal of visiting gets done telepathically as they enjoy seeing each other once again.  The old Scrub Daddy relays tales of his adventures during his three month overland journey through Mexico and teaches them necessary words such as cocina, limpiar, agua and seco.

IMG_1325Scrubfamily portrait by jdb.

The Things We Leave Behind

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Amazing that I was just going to suggest this as a prompt to Cee and then saw in the reader that it was a WordPress weekly prompt.  ESP working overtime lately.

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In this first photo, my friend in the foreground of the photograph is visiting the town she left behind over fifty years ago.  I love the repetition in the backs of the two women as they walk away reflected in the crossing light logo.

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This elderly gentleman has been visiting the beach at the same time I do for a number of years.  I once tried to involve him in a dice game, but he wasn’t much interested unless it was for money!  Instead he told me about his past as an artificial inseminator, which led to a few stories of my own about my dad who was one of the first ranchers to make use of this process on his cattle ranch.  I thought he had a bit of a twinkle in his eye as I expounded on the topic.

It was two years later that I met his daughter and related to her the topic of my earlier conversation with her father.  She looked askance.  Her father had never been an artificial inseminator!  What had been his job?  He was with the CIA, she explained.  Now, was that a twinkle in her eye as well?  Guess I’ll find out this year.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/discover-challenges/the-things-we-leave-behind/

Where the Pavement Ends: Sunday Trees, July 24, 2016

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In Wyoming, more land and sky than trees.

https://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2016/07/24/sunday-trees-245/

Pink Petunias on Main: Flower of the Day, July 24, 2016

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Prettying up Main Street in Sheridan, Wyoming, were these flower baskets stuffed with petunias and asparagus ferns. No extra charge for blue skies, wispy clouds and a touch of Main.

Flower of the Day – July 24, 2016 – Primroses

Macro Moments Challenge, Week 5

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For some reason, this detail of a fisherman’s net won out over other favorite closeups. It was taken with my Nikon Coolpix S33 camera shortly before it bit the dust when I mistakenly dipped the lens in sea water while trying to photograph a jellyfish.  My cameras have had a shelf life of from one to two years lately, but they live a good and busy life in the interim.

https://musinwithsusan.com/2016/07/20/macro-moments-challenge-week-5/

Dahliance

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Today, instead of posting a photo of a flower, I chose to write a poem about Cee’s flower of the day. If you haven’t seen it already, go have a look but then come back here to see the poem.

“Dahliance”

Your round perfection, minutely curled.
Your ruby lips in rows unfurled.
The dew you cup in early morn
shows the day has been reborn.

Your face, uplifted, requires no word.
To talk to flowers is absurd.
Instead, I choose a focus and
thus pick you, though you still stand

erect and safe as I depart.
I’ve caught you in my camera’s heart
to be released for all to share,
delivered to them through the air.

You join a virtual bouquet
that I’ve assembled day-by-day
just to give away for free
so whole worlds can admire thee.

 

Punished

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Punished

There is something one can do with anger—
some sign that can be recognized
and answered—
a scab to be picked,
a mystery that leaves clues.

The only punishment
impossible to rectify
is
silence.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/punishment/

Cherry on Top: WordPress Weekly Photo Prompt

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The intent of the prompt is to publish a photo of something that tops off an experience and makes it special.  It doesn’t have to specifically be a cherry.

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These little guys were definitely the icing on the cake when they arrived to visit a few days after I celebrated my birthday in Sheridan, Wyoming.  They came to visit their grandmother, one of my best and oldest friends, but because I live in Mexico and they don’t live in the town where I visit her and my sister most years, I’d never met them before. They came running in and said, “Our dad says you are his godmother.  Does that mean you are our great godmother?”  I said, “No, that makes me your ‘fairly’ godmother.”  And it went on from there. They are adorable and smart as you can probably see from this photo.  The one on the right was getting a buzz haircut from his dad when his dad decided it looked cool to leave a little ducktail in front, and I think he was right. It is adorable. At one point, the last day they were in Sheridan, we all went to the Holiday Inn for breakfast. There was a wishing pool and after the boys threw in their money, Ducktail came and reported he’d gotten his wish. He told us what it was and I said, “Well, that was my wish, too!”  He looked at me quizzically and said, “Oh, did you wish that you were younger?” Ha. Think he missed the part about our wishes being the same.

This is what the icing on my birthday cake looked like:

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The photo that is here rendered in frosting was of me blowing out the candles on my birthday cake at age three.                                                                                                jdbphoto

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And here it is three days later. Yech! Glad I have aged a bit better. The cake has fewer wrinkles but at least I haven’t turned green and broken out in boils!!                   jdbphoto

 

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/cherry-on-top/