hello all!

    It seems that I made it through the digital blog gates once again!  It is a beauiful day, and I hope all goes well for everyone as summer settles in.  I have managed to have had an unusual month of May during which I've had several birthday moments!  It seems turning 80 brings out multiple celebration genies.  In any case, I feel totally spoiled. I'm very grateful, as always, for sharing love with family, friends and community. For having so many years under my belt, I wish I could have been able to better solve some of the current problems our planet is experiencing.  I'll also say I wish there was a way that everyone could have a TRUTHMONITOR  to carry around since it seems so hard to do away with so much ugly and persistant misinformation! 

    Now I will try to bring up some recent photos I have wanted to be able to share. 

spring at home, with my pond, with rain, and with my second floor deck --  different perspectives on life sure can provide solice for the soul

 

Preparation for this summer's theater camp -- perfect pigtails on our star!  A play a week!!

Next see also the hallway signs of her fellow Thespians....

           Thanks go to these very longtime friends who made sure I remembered that my May birthday this year was worthy of a monthlong celebration!!  (Photo by ROW)

    I am so happy the blog is working for me today. I will keep on trying.  In the meantime, again, I wish everyone a safe summer and a time of working for increasing kindness rather than for still more anger and cruelty in our public arena.       Ann

 

Now it's rain, rain, rain here in Kentucky

post #528 

        Very wet Sunday greetings to all, from under leaky grey clouds and over the swollen creeks. The electricity around here returned yesterday and the day before, and so I'm now able to be at home after 7 nights moved in with friends a half hour from here!!  I learned how to play Rummy 500 there. (Here's thanks for my beginner's luck!). I also could use my iPhone and have some internet, etc. And how wonderful to break bread together. I'm grateful to have already had my vaccine shots.

        My main political comment for today is that all politicians who can't proclaim that President Biden won the very fair and square 2020 election are in fact treasonous and willing to promote violence within our prized democracy. Most of them know that the voting fraud part is a lie, especially those as politically skilled as my two Kentucky Senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. I call it rampant cynicism on their part. Simple as that.

        But we now need some "moving on to spring" photos. I grew up in Connecticut, thinking  winter was the best season.  But here spring reigns supreme. It's beautiful and wondrous, especially in the woods. I love, love, love it. 

meadowlark after a shower

tiny frog on the milkweed pod

apple orchard, near Elliottville, which is no longer there

on a bank, bluets (or Quaker Ladies)

along the creek, a favorite perch

dogwood blossoms, near my mailbox

redbuds, thicker than usual

a spring beauty

that special green covering spring brings

redbuds

dwarf iris, nearly the last one in this wooded spot

reliable announcers of spring, day after day

roadside

 

 

            There's so much to see under a spring sky. I wonder what we'll notice this coming spring after the winter we've had. I sure love the natural beauty found in these Appalachian mountains.          May we find solace in how nature rebounds every year even if it's not always everything the same as the year before or after. I hope we can better team up with nature and not just use it up.

        

         

birds, bushes, and being real

post #491
           The "being real" in today's post's title is just me stating again that this virus event is really happening.  It's really not going away until, at the least, there's a reliable vaccine. Life goes on, but it sounds like there are way too many people across the globe who don't want the sickness and deaths to be true so they are acting like it's not true.They put themselves in danger, and they risk the lives of others. We are not going to sign a peace treaty for this war. We just need to outsmart it and to believe it is something we have never before experienced.
         Why would anyone make up this unexpected horror show! We human beings of all kinds need to LEARN what we can from this cruel chapter in our lives. We must be able to be clever enough to start now to be ready for the next time and the time after that. This week I had a number of viewers in Romania, and in other countries, and I write this for you as well. Welcome!
         I'm going to continue sharing recent photos from this amazing spring -- a sort of a reminder of the need to understand where we are right now so we can head to saner solutions that so far have eluded us. It will help when we can all pull in the same direction.  Let's not fear the truth so much that we don't make it work for us.

  
          pond report:

cattail

blackberry winter, on the pond

the greens are gaining

two more birds through the window --- I try to quit but sometimes I can't help myself:

I finally got the red-winged blackbird being still for a moment!!

red-bellied woodpecker -- with the belly in view!

love those weeds in the rain

road rain

These feed stations are no longer in service, and I think I should call it quits for tonight myself. I do enjoy putting this post together every week.  Stay safe, and may we all be generous enough to wear a mask in crowded places for the sake of whomever is nearby. Thanks.

Still spring in mid May!

post #490
           So many of us are appreciating this year's extra long Appalachian spring.
          
           I've felt compelled to document even more of this season than I usually do because there's no way in today's world to guarantee the vitality we are currently squandering. I want the beauty I perceive to be something we all share, preserve and enhance.    

           I realize that so much of the essential work on behalf of Mother Earth is not taking place as much as it needs to happen.  It's hidden behind the chaos of the global coronavirus tragedies.  Yet the longer the science of the atmosphere is denied, the greater the cost of digging us out of the resulting damage to our air, water, food sources, and nature's needs. What if we insist on education classes for all ages devoted to envisioning possibilities for the earth and figuring out how to achieve them? Vision 101, for everyone.

chives in J and R's garden

creative retreat in the yard, with some shade and access to the wifi from the house (for calling a friend) during time spent being #healthyathome for T, who's now nine.

I'm always crazy about the greens as the leaves go through their "adolescence.

H A R D

and     E V E N  H A R D E R

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last moments before the rains beat down these flowers

two views from a single vantage point

one single purple iris

surrounded by many white ones, along side of my shed, totally neglected by me.

        
          This potted plant was left on my porch a year ago, after I had broken my foot. I still don't know who "done the deed"! Nonetheless, I have managed to keep it alive! And yesterday, still in the house due to late frosts, it produced this blossom!  So, my beauty, welcome to this world filled with the unexpected.  
          Be safe, everyone, be kind, for the sake of others, especially those keeping us alive at great cost to themselves. So please do the social distancing, to help other humans, and, as always, love a tree.

California, #3 of 3

post #425 -- am publishing this 425th weekly blog a whole day early! girls gone wild!

          On the last evening of my California visit, Liz showed me the area of Mill Valley which is made up entirely of house boats, a whole small village of them. I never even knew this place existed! We walked up and down all the piers, and I loved it!  Lots of color, lots of potted plants, lots of surprises....

       This photographer (me) malingers, while her friend leads the way....

cat serenity:

The whole time we were walking up and down the piers the tide was low: 

whimsy, again and again:

      At first, I assumed that this duck was a carving, with feathers placed around it, one more work of whimsy. But when I looked more closely (thank goodness I did) I saw breathing!  I assume someone worked hard to make the duck feel so welcome, though, of course, perhaps it was a breathing piece of art! I know that a bird will stay on a nest if there are eggs newly hatched, but, in any case, I was touched by the beauty of it all.

      The morning of my return home, it was raining as I took the wonderful bus at 7 a.m. from Mill Valley directly to the SF airport. This meant I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge en route, headed toward San Francisco and beyond. I had time to take this one photo, with my iPhone, while the bus was moving across the bridge. I couldn't believe how it turned out. I share these words about how it happened because it's such a thrill to capture one's emotions in a moment that unexpectedly presents itself. I was sad to leave, glad I had been able to come, so thankful for friends, and, always, grateful that I still love making photos. The seeing seems to help me make sense of so many things.

 

My plane from SF was delayed three times, so, essentially, I spent a day in the airport, and I didn't see my checked bag for a day and a half.  But, hey, my two planes were took off and landed safely, and the airline put many of us up in the Hilton Hotel across the road from the Chicago airport. I slept in a Murphy bed! with a great mattress! Once we actually were flying somewhere, I couldn't help taking photos of moments when sky, clouds,and light from the sun banded together.

     

A totally different look outside the next day on the way to Lexington:

A last note: I saw this large photo during my visit, in a restaurant in Ukiah, and I wanted to make some joke here about how I got slowed down by some construction problems getting across the bridge..... However, I realize that my humor might not make enough sense to share.  (Sometimes my humor doesn't make any sense, but other times..... ) Seriously this photo shows the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, in the 1930s. It was way ahead of its time, and it changed the whole region. Everyone, here's to adventures, every single one.