Lirio, (Water Hyacinth) FOTD, at 5:55:55 A.M., Sept 18, 2021

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Click on photos to enlarge.

For the past year, I have frequently looked at the clock at 1:11 or 5:55 or checked out views and found them at 444. This repetition of numbers happens countless times a day to the point where it has become eerie. But this is the first time it has gone to six digits! Here is proof:

Don’t know what it means.  I also realized yesterday that today would be the 20th anniversary of my husband Bob’s death, so Bob, these lirio flowers are for you!

The lake is filling up with lirio (water hyacinth) again. They’ve had to dredge or poison it a number of times since I moved here 20 years ago as in time it inhibits the passage of fishing boats and numerous people have drowned because they got trapped underneath it. Just last year a man drowned when he went into the water to reclaim a ball his children had mistakenly kicked into the water. Sad.  

Bob, too, lies in this lake as when he died, his kids all came down and one of his sons took the remainder of Bob’s ashes out in his kayak that he had hoped to use in this lake. Sadly, he died before we could move down so I brought his ashes down in the toe of his kayak lashed to the top of our van.  R.I.P. Bob. 

For Cee’s FOTD

Cold Snap

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Cold Snap

When Autumn winds its avant course and takes its paint box out,
Winter with its probity pursues another route.
Freezing all connections between the leaves and limbs,
it snaps off all Fall’s paintings crisply at the stems.

It is as though the bourgeoisie has seized the reins at last
and expunged the riffraff artist with a single blast.
If Autumn’s the iconoclast, Winter must seal the norm
by covering its statements with a winter storm.

When Spring speaks out its message through the meadow lark,
stodgy frigid Winter ceases making its mark.
Then after Summer pales Spring’s green and dries the colors out,
it is the turn of Autumn to throw pigment about.

Season after season, the colors build and fade,
every new stage cancelling progress the last one made,
then building up its opposite thinking it might win,
not seeing life’s a painting that all of them are in.

 

Prompt words for today are autumn, course, bourgeoisie, probity and speaker.

Breaking In

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Breaking In

Last night I was with two talkative friends who just wouldn’t stop talking. I had a very interesting anecdote that had happened to me that I wanted to tell but I could not find a break in the conversation. I kept even trying to interrupt but no matter what I did, they just kept on talking, talking, talking, talking. It was so frustrating and finally I just said, “Stop! I have a really interesting thing to tell you but you need to stop long enough for me to tell it!!!!!”

It was at that point that I woke up and realized the book I’d been listening to as I fell asleep had been playing all night and it was unlikely that any of the characters were going to stop talking long enough for me to join in the conversation. I shut the lid on my computer and fell back asleep and by the time I woke up to the kitty’s pleas for breakfast, I could no longer remember the interesting story I was so anxious to share!!!!!

Hibiscus, Sept 17, 2021

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Click on photos to enlarge.

 

For Cee’s FOTD. See her gorgeous shot HERE.

FOTD Sept 16, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Hallofourthofvalenmas: How It Came to Be.

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Okay! Prompt words for the day are knockers, combination, festival, beseech and sentence. What in the world would you do with a combination of words like that? Think of that before you  judge me for this:

Hallo-fourthof-valen-mas

This festival’s the weirdest of any that I’ve seen—
a crazy combination of Christmas and Halloween.
The hire-a-Santa in the mall wears bear paws on his feet
and when the kids climb on his lap, they mutter, “Trick or Treat!”
Below the Christmas wreaths above, door knockers are kept busy
as grandmas baking Yule logs are kept in a fine tizzy 
by swarms of little carolers who can barely reach
the door knockers, who gather with arms up to beseech
the homeowners for candy after every song,
then stuff it in the Christmas stockings that they brought along.

Scores of scavengers dressed  up like shepherds or like kings
as well as Virgin Marys or angels sporting wings
abandon Christmas pageants to Trick-or-Treat instead.
You might ask me by what edict the world was made to wed
Halloween and Christmas? What legislative body
chose two celebrations equally over-gaudy
and mixed them both together to try to regulate
the number of occasions  on which we celebrate?

I think it was the W-H-O that thought up this solution
to try to deal with Covid and to try to curb pollution,
then issued this weird sentence and made us all comply
to celebrate all holidays on the fourth of July!
And so in combination with the skeletons and holly,
as witches and small ghosts are enjoined to act more  jolly,
fireworks are exploding in the sky far up above,
and as they trick-and-treat they also express love
by handing out their valentines—kill two birds with one stone
by trading hearts for Hershey bars with a ghostly moan.
And that’s how Hallo-fourthof-valen-mas has come to be
the only time when we’re allowed a group festivity.
And since part of it’s Halloween, without being asked
every guest, no matter what their politics, comes fully masked!!!

Prompt words for the day are knockers, combination, festival, beseech and sentence.

A Dream, A Wastepaper Basket and Glenn Yarbrough: The Power of Intuition

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A Dream, A Wastepaper Basket and Glenn Yarbrough: The Power of Intuition

Today I was looking for a YouTube video of Morrie playing basketball and stumbled upon this talk on “The Power of Intuition” that I gave years ago at an Open Circle Lecture Series in Ajijic. There is some introductory material, so if you jump ahead to the 6 minute 30 second mark, you will start viewing at the introduction for my talk: “The Power of Intuition.”  Hope you enjoy it.  Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYVmLDttDM&t=390s

Hibiscus: FOTD Sept 15, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD prompt

The Perfect Man

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The Perfect Man

I know from what his kind is cast.
He’s fearless as he is steadfast.
He does not vaunt his strength or looks,
excels at sports and reads good books.

Sexy and mysterious, 
he’s musically serious—
motivated from within
to play a wicked violin.

He is as solid as a rock.
Nobody needs to wind his clock.
And yet I had to choose another,
for, alas, he is my brother!!!

Prompt words today are fearless, steadfast, digitally, vaunt and wind. Photo by Silas Tolles on Unsplash.

Apricot Posies, Apricot Skies

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For Tourmaline’s Color Your World Apricot prompt.