Posted tagged ‘beautiful day’
October 30, 2015
Mother Nature has blessed us with another lovely day. Though not as warm as yesterday, it is still in the high 50’s, breezy and sunny. Every time the breeze blows more leaves fall and the trees become barer. I kept the front door opened and stood for a while watching the leaves flying and twirling in miniature eddies. I can see my neighbor’s deck for the first time since the beginning of summer. Fall has begun its annual wrap up to make way for winter.
I have never had the urge to go south for the winter. I am a New Englander who abides all four seasons. Admittedly, winter is my least favorite for the cold, not the snow. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved snow. I’d stand at the picture window, my head resting on my hands bent at the elbows, and watch the snow fall lit by the streetlight below my house. I could see individual flakes in the light. Sometimes they fell sideways blown by the wind. The street would disappear. I’d see the hand-rail but not the steps which led to the sidewalk now buried under snow. My father’s car was a mound of snow. When it was time, I’d go to bed hoping for a snow day, hoping to hear the whistle blasts from the fire station announcing no school. That would give me a whole day to play in the snow, to sled down the hill and to have a snowball fight.
I still love watching the snow. I go from front door to back door to see how much has fallen. My deck disappears and sometimes I can’t get the door open. I worry for poor Gracie who tries to get out but the snow is too deep for her. Sometimes I brush away enough for her to get right outside the door where she barely squats before running right back into the house.
The morning after a snowstorm, before the plows and shovelers, is always beautiful. The snows glints in the sun like diamonds. Everyone is still housebound and the snow lies untouched. It is why I stay here in the water.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Accra, bare trees, beautiful day, flying leaves, four seasons, miniature eddies, no school day, Snow, snowflakes, winter
Comments: 6 Comments
September 28, 2015
Woe is me! Woe is me! My back was terrible yesterday, last night and this morning. I maneuvered by holding on to stuff as I moved. Last night I woke up several times when I heard moaning. No ghosts or spirits, just me. This morning you’d have sworn Quasimodo, Igor and I were blood relations sharing the same handicap. I was grouchy and miserable.
Now I am finally feeling better. The pain cream and the Aleve worked liked magic. Though I am not completely upright I no longer resemble the left side of the evolution chart.
The eclipse last night was awesome in the true definition of the word. I watched it all from the front of my house where I had an unobstructed view as the moon darkened. I was mesmerized when the blood moon appeared and lit up the sky. It was if the moon and the sky around it had been painted with water colors.
Today is the loveliest of days, sunny and warm. Rain is due the next few days, but it will be welcomed as we haven’t seen much rain since the summer began. Besides, this has been such a spectacular fall I can’t begrudge Mother Nature a bit of rain.
We used to iron the colored leaves between pieces of waxed paper. I didn’t understand why it happened. I just knew the wax paper kept the colors alive. I’d keep the leaves on my bureau as keepsakes. Sometimes I’d even use one as a bookmark. I think the bright red was my favorite color but the yellow was close behind. We’d pick the leaves up our way home from school and put them between the pages of our books so they wouldn’t get wrinkled. The single ones on the sidewalk were the best as the ones in the piles along the curbsides would crumble.
I could hardly wait to get home and change into play clothes. At the kitchen table, now transformed into a craft table, my mother would turn on the iron then tear off pieces of wax paper for us to use. I remember gliding the iron back and forth across the paper, and I remember when the leaves were captured by the melting wax. Every one was beautiful.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, blood moon, eclipse, evolution chart, Igor, painful back, Quasimodod, wax paper and leaves', yellows and reds
Comments: 4 Comments
September 24, 2015
A gorgeous day today with temperatures in the mid 70’s, lots of sun and a northern breeze chilly on the back of my neck. Grace and I went to the dump this morning, and it was nearly deserted. I guess Thursday is not a popular dump day.
When the breeze blows, I can hear the rustling sounds of the leaves on the trees and of the few which have fallen on the grass, victims of the wind rather than the season. We are still far away from changing colors and the baring of the trees. Today is more of summer than fall.
My dance card is empty until Sunday. I guess I’m stuck doing the wash, a bit of ironing and changing my bed. The ironing is dinner napkins which tend to get really wrinkly even in the dryer. I have a small board I can fit on the table and iron while I watch TV. I save all the napkins until I get a large enough number to make ironing worth while. At last count I had ten.
Cats are tricky creatures. Yesterday morning Maddie never appeared for our morning greeting. I called her by name and made that lip sound cats seem to like but still no Maddie. I got worried so I checked all her favorite haunts on this floor then went upstairs and looked in the eaves, under beds and in closets in case I had locked her in. All the while I kept making that sound, still no Maddie. Fern, from her perch on the couch, stared at me as if I were crazy. Gracie followed me. I went upstairs again and pulled the guest beds out from the wall in case I had missed her way in the back where under the bed is the darkest. No Maddie. I came back downstairs worried about her and wondering where else I could look. I didn’t have to look anywhere. Maddie was standing on the table in the den. I patted her and scratched by her tail though I really wanted to wring her neck. I swear she was chuckling
Categories: Musings
Tags: 70's, beautiful day, cats, dump run, empty dance card, hiding, ironing, missing cat, rustling leaves
Comments: 11 Comments
September 12, 2015
Today is the finest of almost fall days. The sun is brightly shining, only a few clouds drift around the blue sky and the temperature is 71˚. The house is cool but standing outside in the sun is warm. I was on the deck for a while which partially explains my lateness. Sloth explains the rest of it.
I have nothing to do today. Even the dog laundry was done yesterday. That amazes me as usually my own laundry is moved from floor to floor and then sits around for a few days. Gracie jumped right into her crate and went to sleep on the fresh, still warm bedding when I put it back on the bottom of her crate. I could hear her snoring most of the afternoon.
In Ghana, Thomas who worked for me did all my laundry except for the unmentionables. I did those myself. I had to use a bucket and hand wash them. I hated it and after a while went commando. Keep in mind I wore dresses all the time as that was the custom for women. It presented a problem only when I had to climb up to get into a mammy lorry. The only way to get to the seats was to climb then swing one leg at a time over the side of the truck while holding on to the top. I made sure nobody was waiting below me for obvious reasons. There were a few advantages to going commando and the most important was the ease of going to the bathroom over a hole. Squatting was minimally involved, but I won’t describe the rest of the process; just use your imaginations. I was an expert.
Peace Corps gave me a whole new skill set. I had expected to learn new things about Ghana: its history, its culture and most of all its wonderful people. I never expected to learn to pee over a hole or go to the bathroom in the bush. Those were just extras.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 71˚, beautiful day, going commando, lateness of the hour, laundry done, mammy lorry, Peace Corps Ghana, sloth, sunny
Comments: 13 Comments
September 6, 2015
Sorry for today’s late start but it was one of those mirror under the nose mornings. I slept until 11, but as my mother always said, I must have needed it.
It is another beautiful day with lots of sun and no humidity. I have no plans except for doing a few house things like water plants, fold laundry and oil my old desk. It is an antique children’s desk and needs periodic oiling as it gets quite dry. With no humidity, it’s a great oil the desk day.
My neighbors are on their deck. I can hear them talking. I can also smell their dinner cooking on the grill. I think today is probably universal cook on the grill Sunday. Both my sisters also mentioned a barbecue. Some meat, fresh corn and a salad is the perfect menu. The local corn is now in the farm markets. It is so sweet you’d almost want it for dessert. Adding homegrown tomatoes raises the salad to culinary heights. The meat is secondary; anything will do. I’m partial to cheeseburgers but won’t turn my nose up at ribs or the lowly hot dog. I best stop now. I’m making myself hungry!
The summer has passed quickly. We might have one or two movie Saturdays left before it gets too cold. The last one has to be a blockbuster, but I haven’t yet decided what it will be, maybe The Adventures of Robin Hood or North by Northwest. I do have a couple I can’t wait to show as they are both so very bad, The Terror of Tiny Town (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pehsws6QYEo) and Chopper Chicks in Zombietown. That last one doesn’t even rate as a B movie.
It has been eleven years of being retired, but I still have a lingering distaste for Labor Day. It used to mean back to work and it was the symbolic end of summer. It wasn’t a day to celebrate. It was a day to mourn.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Barbecue, beautiful day, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, corn, fold the laundry, homegrown tomatoes, household chores, local corn, Meat, no humidity, oil the desk, on the deck, salad, sleeping late, sunny, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Terror of Tiny Town
Comments: 11 Comments
September 5, 2015
Today is cool and beautiful with lots of sun. Mother Nature is garbed in her best for this weekend. Tonight, though, will be cold, in the high 50’s. I figure it’s a dress rehearsal for what’s coming.
My street has close to a million kids 10 and under. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but this morning that’s what it sounded like to me. They woke me up before eight yelling to one another, and I think I heard one crying. I drifted back to sleep only to have them wake me again. That went on until 10 when I decided I’d get up. Every day the kids ride their bikes up and down the street mostly for the fun of it. The street is a good one for kids on bikes as it has little traffic. I’m just wishing the bikes came with muzzles. Now, of course, the kids are gone so the street is quiet. I guess they figured everyone’s awake now so their jobs are done.
Learning kids’ names was always one of the first items on my agenda when I was teaching. I wanted to address each kid by name instead of using the proverbial you or the pointed finger. I had five classes of names to learn each semester and I did. In Ghana the learning was complicated by the names and how to pronounce them. Abibata Abdulai and Bintu Liman were a couple of the more difficult names to remember. Fatima was pronounced as fa teem ah. Old-fashioned names were popular. Faith, Hope and Charity were common. Florence, Beatrice, Agatha (a ga tha) Rose, Grace and Regina, pronounced the Canadian way, were also common. It took me a bit longer to match names to faces.
My dad was great remembering business names and details but was never good at other names. I figure his head just didn’t have the room with everything else he remembered. I had two friends with Polish last names, and he never got those names right. One he called the Pole, and the other he never called anything except she or her. I don’t even think my friends noticed.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Abibata Abdulai and Bintu Liman, beautiful day, cool day, faith, Hope and Charity, kids on bikes, learning names, muzzles for kids, noisy morning, Peace Corps Ghana, waking up again and again
Comments: 16 Comments
August 8, 2015
I don’t know what we’ve been doing right because we are blessed with another glorious day. It is cool, in the 70’s, bright with sun and breezy. The birds are singing, the chimes are tinkling and I can hear water flowing from the fountain.
While I was sitting outside and taking in the morning, I had some deep thoughts. I wondered which super power I’d want. Flying was my first thought. I could go anywhere I wanted whenever. I was thinking of lunch in Rome, dinner in Paris and a quick weekend in Accra. I wondered if I could fly and carry baggage at the same time. I did think I could wear layers so maybe I wouldn’t need much baggage after all. Night would be the best time to arrive so I wouldn’t spook anyone.
When I was a kid, I wanted all of Superman’s powers, and I wondered what superhero costume I’d wear. I liked his cape but not the rest. The cape was flamboyant, and I could envision it blowing behind me as I flew. The red is a good choice.
Sitting outside seemed to engender strange wonderings. I pondered which book I’d choose to enter as a character. Heidi came to mind because of the beauty of the Alps but then I thought of winter and decided against Heidi. Around the World in Eighty Days went on the list. It’s that travel bug thing I have. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy went on for the same reason. I’d stay away from Hemingway except maybe The Sun Also Rises. I like On the Road but of course I would. I’d reread Walker Percy as I think maybe his books might be good jumping into places. I’ve always like Dashiell Hammett, and I’d get to wear great clothes and all those hats. I’d leave off the fox stoles, the ones with heads.
I’m going back outside when I finish here. I’m sort of curious where my mind might wander next: a science fiction movie maybe but only in black and white.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Around the World in Eighty Days, beautiful day, bird songs, chimes, Dashiell Hammett, enter a novel, flying, fountain, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, super power, Superman's power., The Sun Also Rises, Walker Percy, which character
Comments: 8 Comments
August 7, 2015
Today is truly another day in paradise. The weather is sunny, dry and in the high 70’s. The breeze, coming from the north, is cooling. It ruffles leaves and sways the smaller branches. It is nap time here. Fern, Maddie and Gracie are sleeping. The cats are each on a different couch and Gracie is snoozing in her crate. I can hear her snoring. I’m thinking an afternoon nap might be just the thing.
The Globe gave me a few chuckles this morning. A video, part of the robbery at the Gardiner Museum, has been released. From the night before the heist, it is possibly a dress rehearsal for the real event the next night. It shows Guard Richard Abath opening a door to let the man inside the museum. The next night it was Abath who opened the door to two men dressed as police officers who went inside, subdued Abath and tied him up. There are other issues connected to Abath, but my chuckle came from a man who was a student with Abath back in the day. The man, Knight, called Abath “a very nice guy, very intelligent, very well-read.” Knight recalled Abath said it was an honest mistake letting in the men posing as officers. Knight went on to say, “I hoped he was not involved in this. It would certainly cast him in a different light if in fact he was proven beyond a reasonable doubt he was guilty. That would alter, in my mind, his overall character significantly.” Do you think?
Another article described the top Argentinian officials facing charges in a 1994 bombing. “On a day of heavy rain, several of the 13 men were ushered into court…”I have no idea why we needed to know it was raining, but once we did I wanted more. Did they wear raincoats, use newspapers to cover their heads or have umbrellas? I want the full story!!
My favorite of all is the SJC (the state’s Supreme Judicial Court) has tossed out a law which made it illegal to lie in political campaign material calling it “inconsistent with the fundamental right of free speech.” The court explained, “Citizenry, not the government, should be the monitor of falseness in the political arena.” So what happens when your opponent fills the air waves with lies about you? According to Justice Cordy,”That solution is counter speech.” In other words, tell your own lies. Let the people figure it out the truth on their own. How scary is that?
Categories: Musings
Tags: a day of heavy rain, beautiful day, Boston Globe, cool breeze, counter-speech, full story, Gardiner heist, Laundry, let the people decide, napping, Richard Abath, SJC, Snoring, top Argentinian officials facing charges
Comments: 12 Comments
July 17, 2015
My house was only 66˚ when I woke up. In the winter that’s cold but during this time of year it’s a pleasant, lovely morning. Today will be in the 70’s, but tomorrow the humidity will return with stifling air which will make moving uncomfortable and sweaty. No one is attractive in the humidity. We all wilt. Sunday will be the same but with a probability of rain.
My mother was always cold. She kept her house in the 70’s during the winter. The rest of us wore t-shirts and sandals and light pants. Her house was almost tropical. We complained, and she hated it when we did. Now, as I get older, I understand. Each winter I am colder than I had been the winter before. I keep the house at the same temperature it has been for years, but I need a sweatshirt. Long sleeves used to be enough. I think I am becoming my mother.
The other day my former Ghanaian student Franciska called. She likes to check to make sure I am doing well. She calls me her mother though I am only seven years older than she, but motherhood, to her, is a matter of principal, not age. I was her teacher, and that is enough to bestow motherhood on me.
When I am with Franciska, I notice she talks to anyone she can. She also introduces me to her new friends as her mother. They look a bit bewildered until Franciska explains I was her Peace Corps teacher 45 years ago. I cringe at the 45 but love that Peace Corps gets into the conversation. Anything that promotes the Peace Corps is just fine with me. Franciska often tells me she is still bewildered as to why volunteers actually agreed to go to Bolga. She says even Ghanaians don’t like Bolga. It is flat, almost treeless and hot, really hot, in the dry season. Back in my day there were no creature comforts, but I always figured that was just part of the Peace Corps experience: you take, even embrace, what you’re given.
My list is long today-errand day. I have four stops and not a single one of them is fun or exciting. Where’s the Ferris wheel when you need one?
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, cold winter, errand day, Ghana, hot, hot in the house, humidity, Peace Corps, pleasant moring, rain showers, stifling, sweatshirt, wilting in the heat
Comments: 6 Comments
July 11, 2015
The day is another beauty with sun, a blue sky and no humidity. The house is cool. The weather in the paper said we’d have low 80’s today and mid 60’s tonight, perfect for sleeping. This is summer at its best.
I have lots of household chores today and I have a list. I always have a list. Even when I had a good memory, I had a list. It is in no particular order and nothing is too strenuous. Doing the laundry is the most energy-consuming task.
The Great Whites are back in Chatham. One which was tagged in the past was the first to return. It seems even sharks can’t pass up a free lunch. The seals sunbathe on the rocks unaware of what lurks below the surface where the sharks wait patiently. People are a bit more leery this year given all the attacks off the coast in North Carolina. That they are not our Great Whites is a bit of comfort.
When I was a kid, my life was filled with demands. Brush your teeth. Wash your hands before dinner. Wipe your feet on the outside mat. Hang your coat in the closet, not on the chair. Put your schoolbag away. Go upstairs and change into play clothes. Finish your homework. Don’t sit so close to the TV or you’ll go blind. Leave your sisters alone. Don’t slam the door. Go outside and play until I call you for dinner. Don’t stand looking with the refrigerator door open. No cookies before dinner. Eat all your vegetables. Get ready for bed.
I suppose my mother chatted with us in-between, but I don’t remember. Every day she pretty much made the same demands because we generally ignored them, and none of her demands stuck with us in anticipation of the next day when they began all over again with something about teeth.
I was a master at not hearing my mother. When she spouted her daily demands, the words all ran together, and I understood nothing. It was as if she was speaking in a foreign tongue. I’d nod my head pretending I was listening. When I was reading, I didn’t hear her at all as I was totally immersed in the book. She never really believed me and thought I was ignoring her on purpose. She’d ask if I had heard her, and I’d truthfully answer no. That was the wrong answer. The truth sometimes is.
When I got a bit older, sarcasm just flew out of my mouth unfettered, uncensored. My mother would go wild. I didn’t blame her as I had become a bit of a wise ass.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, Brush your teeth. Wash your hands before dinner. Wipe your feet on the outside mat. Hang your coat in the closet, cool house, demands, Great Whites, Laundry, list of chores, listening, no humidity, not on the chair. Put your schoolbag away. Go upstairs and change into play clothes. Finish your homework. Don’t sit so close to the TV or you’ll go blind. Leave your sisters alone. Don’t slam t, wise ass
Comments: 14 Comments
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