Posted tagged ‘blue sky’
July 30, 2016
I apologize for the lateness of the hour, but my computer is acting up, and it wouldn’t load. I am using my iPad in the interim.
The day is a pretty one with sunshine, blue skies and only a little humidity. My windows are open. It is getting hotter so I’m thinking the air will be back on shortly. Gracie is panting, a sure sign of heat.
I actually have an entry in my date book. Tonight I’m going to my friends’ house for burgers. I figure it will also be a game night.
I’m back on my computer. It finally loaded.
It has been a while since I’ve been to the movies. I watch TV or Netflix or Infinity, but the new Star Trek movie is tempting me to the theater. I’ll have to pick a beach day so there will be very few people willing to give up the sun for a dark theater and expensive popcorn. I sneak in my own candy. I’m a Thin Mints fan and sometimes Good and Plenty. The last time I went to the theater I also sneaked in cheddar popcorn. I did buy a drink.
I’ve been watching the shark movies on Syfy. I’ve also kept track of the sightings of the Great Whites off Chatham. The pictures of the real sharks from aerial cameras are the scariest of all. The sharks look huge. If they were the stars of a science fiction movie, they’d have leapt up and eaten the plane. Today I got to watch The Three Headed Shark. It needed a huge suspension of disbelief.
Staying inside in the air conditioning leaves me with no adventures to enthrall my readers. Will I or will I not take a nap is the big dilemma. I’m leaning toward taking one.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, Great Whites, heat, pretty day, Science fiction, sharks, Suspension of disbelief
Comments: 12 Comments
June 17, 2016
Today is beautiful. The breeze is keeping the air cool. The sun is bright and shines with the deep blue sky as its backdrop. When I went for the papers this morning, I checked my front garden. Every day something new is in bloom. Today it was a tall purple flower. I don’t know its name. I never know the names of my flowers. I buy them for color. The purple flower was a wonderful choice.
Today is dump day. I haven’t yet told Gracie. She tends to get a bit excited at the thought of the car ride and the dump. It will be a surprise.
My neighborhood is quiet today. The kids are still in school. Only the songs of birds break the silence.
I have a list for today, but none of the items make for too much effort. I bought a new flag which needs to be put on the flag pole in the front yard, my new hose will be connected to the outside faucet, plants in and out need watering and I have to connect the umbrella to the adaptor. They are all silly tasks but they still need doing.
We have a place to stay in Accra. It is where I stayed in 2011 for a week. The people are wonderful, the rooms big and clean, and they’ll pick us up at the airport. There is even a Lebanese restaurant right down the street. Ghana is where I first tasted Lebanese food. We used to go to a place called Talal’s. It was close to the PC office. I had hummus for the first time there. They served it in a flat dish with hot pepper around the top of the hummus and sesame oil in a well in the middle. I also had falafel, kibbeh and tabbouleh for the first time. I came to love Lebanese food. I had it often. The fact it was a cheap was also a good draw. I still love hot pepper sprinkled on my hummus and sesame oil in the middle. What I miss here is the fresh pita they always served.
One of the best parts of my Peace Corps experience was all the different foods I ate. Chinese food was considered a bit exotic when I was a kid, and I brought that with me to Ghana. The first day there I was served what looked like leaves from the tree and a soup of unknown origins. I didn’t eat it. I ate only breakfast as I recognized eggs and bread. Eventually, though, I started trying the Ghanaian food. Some I came to love, but I never did like kontomire, that soup from the first day. It is made with cocoyam leaves. That I know that makes me chuckle a bit. I went from Chinese food to cocoyam-a huge leap.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Accra, beautiful day, blue sky, cocoyam, falafel, flowers, Hummus, kontomire, Lebanese food, list of chores, sesame oil, sun shining
Comments: 21 Comments
May 10, 2016
Today is a gift. I’m thinking Mother Nature has decided to stop teasing us with winter and has embraced spring. Not a branch moves in the stillness of the morning. The sun is bright and is framed by a blue sky. The birds are singing, and I hear several different songs. My feeders are getting a lot of traffic. It is in the mid 50’s but will get warmer as the day grows older. Tonight will be in the mid 40’s. It is a Cape Cod spring day.
This is the time of year when I’d ride my bike to school. I remember speeding down the hills and feeling chilly from the wind. My jacket would fill with air. The ride was short, probably about ten minutes, all downhill going and uphill returning. It should have been the opposite.
The bike rack was old and wooden. It was under branches from the tree in a yard next to the school fence. It was painted a dark green and had layers of paint. You could see them all when the paint chipped. I never had a lock for my bike. I don’t think anyone did. The bikes weren’t fancy. They had the back pedal brakes. Most had wire baskets. The best part of riding my bike was getting home fast and having more time to play in the afternoon.
The streets all had sand from winter when the sand trucks would come by and spew their sand on the snow to give cars better traction, but this time of year it was the street cleaning trucks which would come by. They had brushes low to the ground and would sweep the sand to the curbside. A couple of times I skidded in the sand. Sometimes we did what came to be called wheelies. Our bikes would leave circular skid marks. Braking at the right time and place was the key.
The day hasn’t started well. I had an early morning meeting and nearly fell out of bed when the alarm went off. On the way to the bathroom I stepped in cat throw up. I have to go out but not for anything fun. I have to some x-rays done of my back. I’ve decided I deserve a good lunch, my favorite sandwich and a whoopie pie for dessert. I definitely earned it this morning.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bike rack, bike riding, bird feeders, birds, blue sky, cat vomit, morning meeting, no bike lock, pedal brakes, sand, spring, stillness, sunny, wheelies
Comments: 8 Comments
May 9, 2016
Run for your lives! Find a place to hide! Shield your eyes or you’ll go blind. Okay, I admit to a bit of exaggeration here, especially the going blind part, but I was raised on B science fiction movies and the warnings just came naturally because we have sun today for the first time in months, okay another exaggeration, but it has been a week or more since it was last here, and every day in that week it rained. This is my Noah I think I see a bird moment. I can see blue sky and the sun though it does pop in and out of the clouds, but I’ll take it anyway it comes. Today is warm. All the chilly dampness is gone. I am so stoked about going outside and not getting wet. The bird feeders are empty and need my attention. Any water in pots and on furniture covers has to be dumped so the deck can dry. I know I have sunglasses somewhere.
I have seen cartoons of me, not really me, but a perfect representation of me. I don’t have a pill box. I have a pill suitcase. With the number of containers you’d think I was a pharmaceutical rep, but no, they’re all mine. Most are preventative, but it doesn’t matter. The containers number in the teens. Now I need a cane or a walker to complete the picture. I can see myself wearing a chenille robe while bending over to use a walker to move a few inches at a time. That sound is my slippers making a scuffing noise as I walk.
I am in a whimsical mood brought about, I believe, by the return visit of the sun. I feel light and airy, a bit like Scrooge on Christmas morning when he found out the spirits had done it all in one night. I had become glum from all that rain, but the darkness has disappeared. I’m going into the light!
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, run for your lives, spring day, sun, warm day
Comments: 10 Comments
May 6, 2016
I think I’m going crazy, the kind of crazy you get when you see ocean waves in the desert after you’ve crawled through the sand for days without water. This morning I swear I saw a bit of blue sky and a round bright orb hiding behind clouds. They’ve gone now so I’m questioning my sanity. Were they really there?
With all the rain this past week, I’m imagining plots to science fiction movies, bad science fiction movies. I see plants crawling up my legs or vines trying to grab me as I run to the car. Water creatures rise out of the front lawn and none of them are friendly. There better be sun soon or it will be too late.
At least the rain has stopped. Maybe my deck will dry so it can be sealed then readied for warmer weather. To say it is spring is a heart wrenching misnomer.
I have never been prissy. I had a couple of college friends who were prissy. One was the real life epitome of Mrs. Cleaver. My friend wore the exact same sort of sweaters and she wore pearls. I saw her at my class reunion, and she is still wearing sweaters and pearls. Even her glasses are a throw-back to the 50’s. She’s not making a statement or being a parody. It’s all real.
When I was younger, I used to dismiss the wardrobes of old ladies simply because they were old ladies. I figured they earned the right to wear anything they wanted. I am probably an old lady to the kids on my street. I can imagine them giving directions to my house, “The old lady lives in the green house with the garden in front.”I, however, have a wardrobe very different from the old ladies of my childhood. None of my clothes scream old lady. I have been dressing in the same way for years.
My Ghana fund goal has been met, and I still have a few months to save more. I’m thinking the more will be seed money for my next trip wherever. It has to be somewhere I’ve never been, and it can’t be continental Europe. I’m actually leaning toward Madagascar or Malta, but I think I’d do better with my money in Madagascar so Malta may be beyond my financial status.
I may not have time to post tomorrow as it is the multicultural fair day, and I usually help man the Peace Corps table so don’t worry if I’m missing!
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, desert, going crazy, grabbing vines, Madagascar, Mrs. Cleaver, pearls, prissy, round orb, Science fiction, sun, sweaters, water creatures
Comments: 20 Comments
April 5, 2016
I saw the sun this morning. The day was lovely for about a half an hour. The sky was so blue it didn’t look real. It looked painted, a combination of blues, maybe even by Van Gogh. I can hear the drops from melting snow so we’re above freezing. If this were January, I’d be happy with melting snow.
The sun has just come out again and I can see blue appearing from among the clouds. I’m hopeful that the sun will decide to stay for a while.
The Sox and the Indians were postponed yesterday because of the weather: no surprise there. The game is today and starts at one. The Sox are now being introduced to boos, of course. Most of the team is wearing the jersey head coverings just in case. The stadium is fairly empty. The announcer is wearing his winter coat.
When I was young, I didn’t care about the weather. It wasn’t as if I could do anything about it. My day to day didn’t change come rain, snow or sun. I walked to school no matter what. I tended to hurry on the rainy days and saunter on sunny days. On winter days my friends and I huddled to walk together, the better to stay warm. I remember it was hard to breathe on the coldest days and sometimes my nose would run. I’d use my sleeves for that problem because no self-respecting kid carried a Kleenex or even worse a handkerchief, besides that’s why sleeves were invented. It grossed out my mother so she’d sneak and tuck a Kleenex into my jacket pocket but it usually stayed there most of the winter. Sleeves were far more convenient.
I always moaned and groaned at the trials and tribulations of being a kid. Life was ordered so I didn’t have a whole lot of choices. What I didn’t realize was I didn’t have a whole lot of responsibilities either. I had to go to school unless I was close to dying. I had homework to do. I had to bathe occasionally. When I got home from school, I had to change from school clothes to play clothes. My vegetables had to be eaten, but my mother generally served the ones I liked so that was no big issue. I had to go to bed early on school nights. Early was contested all the time. My mother and I differed on its definition. I usually lost. That was part of being a kid: losing arguments with parent, but I’d start one anyway. I was always hopeful.
Categories: Musings
Tags: being a kid, blue sky, cold, handkerchief, head coverings, Kleenex, melting snow, Red Sox and Indians, runny nose, sun, walking to school, weather
Comments: 16 Comments
April 3, 2016
“In the lane snow is glistening…” We got a dusting of snow last night. It is wet and heavy. I know this because I went out and made a snowball to throw at the spawn of Satan eating from the suet feeder. The snowball was the perfect heft for an accurate throw, and I hit the spawn dead on. It sort of jumped in surprise then took off on the deck rail down into the yard.
The sun has just appeared backed by a cloudy blue sky. The wind is dying down. The day is beginning to have possibilities. We didn’t go to the dump yesterday as it rained all day, but it looks as if today might just be the perfect dump day. Strange, I never imagined myself talking about the perfect dump day or any dump day for that matter. It seems I’ve turned into such an odd conversationalist.
The snow is dripping off the roof mimicking the sound of a rain storm. I can see small clumps of snow falling from the branches. I filled the bird feeders the other day so the birds are many and varied. My usual gold finches, chickadees, titmice and nut hatches are here as are house finches, woodpeckers and a sparrow of sorts I don’t know by name. I’m sure the doves are here as I did throw seed on the ground for them.
Getting ready for spring takes more time than getting ready for winter. The outside furniture has to be uncovered and cleaned. All the decorative items like the fountain, the painted tables and the tree candles have to be brought from the cellar. The three bins filled with summer I keep stored under the deck have to be emptied then filled with the furniture coverings. The pictures have to be hung on the house wall facing the deck. The gnome and the flamingo are last on the deck. They formally announce the beginning of summer.
In the front and on the side, the gardens need to be cleaned and the dirt overturned. Two branches too close to the house on the front pine tree have to come down. The lawn needs tending. When the weather is warm enough, flowers need to bought and planted to fill any empty spots. The annuals in the herb garden need replacing. The window boxes for the deck need to be repainted this year then filled with flowers and herbs. The small vegetable garden will only have tomatoes as they seem to grow best there.
In winter the furniture gets covered and all the gardens turn brown. The front yard gets its last cleaning. The dead flowers are cut. The deck is bare and abandoned. Only the feeders are left. It never takes long to ready the house and yard for winter. I always think it’s the saddest day, the day I have to admit fall has finished its course, the day the gnome and the flamingo come inside.
It is so easy to love spring.
Categories: Musings
Tags: birds, blue sky, candles, cleaning the gardens, conversationalist, deck cleaning, dump day, flowers, gold finches, chickadees, titmice and nut hatches, planting herbs, ready for summer, Snow, spawn of satan, sun, the flamingo, the gnome, windy
Comments: 13 Comments
March 19, 2016
The day is beautiful with lots of sun and a clear, deep blue sky. The only problem is the cold. It isn’t take your breath away cold, for which I am thankful, but it is wear a jacket or a vest cold. The prediction is for snow starting tomorrow night and continuing into Monday. We could get up to 8 inches, but the forecast is still filled with maybes. Sadly the snow isn’t a maybe but the amount is.
Even when I was young, I don’t think I’d have welcomed snow this time of year. It’s bicycle time. Sled time is over. I’d have already put my sled in the cellar and brought out my bike.
I was a pretty good roller skater on the sidewalks near my house. My skates were the key kind which attached to my shoes, always shoes, never sneakers. I’d sit on the front steps, loosen the sliders on the under part of the skates then put my feet in and move the slider up and down until the skates perfectly fit my feet. I’d then tighten the slider bolts. The next part needed my key which I always kept on a string around my neck when I skated. The string was a necessity because losing the key was about the worst thing to happen. That key loosened or tightened the clamps at the top of my skates, the clamps which held on to my shoes. Once the clamps were as tight as I could get them the last thing to do was to buckle the leather strap which went across my foot.
I loved how strange the bottoms of my feet felt as I skated. It was like a tingling sensation. Coupled with that was the great sound of skates rolling across the sidewalks. It was almost like the sound of a revving motor.
The skates never really glided and didn’t do well dealing with big bumps or cracks in the sidewalks. I didn’t care; however, I did sometimes fall after encountering a crack and often skinned my knees. Blood trails went down my legs. They were like badges of honor because I’d get right back up and skate again, blood or no blood.
We went to the skating rink occasionally and rented shoe skates. The rink was in Medford, the next town over, and was called The Bal-A-Roue. It looked a bit like a hockey rink. The skating part was oval and surrounded by a railing. The surface, though, was wooden. An organ played the music so easy even now to recognize as skating music. I love going there.
When I’d get home, my skirt or my pants were usually dirty from the number of times I fell on that wooden floor. I admit the railing and I were great friends.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bal-A-Roue, bicycle, blue sky, clamps, cold, key, metal skates, roar of the wheels, roller skating, shoe skates, skate sliders, Snow, sunny, tingling, vest
Comments: 10 Comments
December 15, 2015
The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the day is quite warm. I’m thinking winter has forgotten to come. Not that I’m complaining, but there is a certain expectation here in New England about Christmas and winter and maybe even snow.
My mother was always the architect of Christmas. She bought the gifts, did all the baking, trimmed the tree and decorated the house. My father did his best. He’d help my mother wrap, do the outside lights and put the tree in the stand. He used to do tree lights, but one year they were so tangled he refused to hang them. He just threw them on the floor and sat down. No one wanted to remind him he had put the lights away the year before. The lights then became my responsibility. I was quite fussy about where they were hung, and I tried to vary the colors of the bulbs so same colors wouldn’t be together. My father also helped by being the official taster of Christmas goodies. He did love his sweets. He knew he could count on having sugar cookies, her peanut butter balls, a pie or two, and some different cookies, whatever struck my mother’s fancy from a magazine or a cookbook. I remember her Auntie Mary’s, a chocolate cookie with a cream in the middle.
I began baking and bringing the goodies to my mother’s. I made fudge which was grainy and was my father’s favorite. I made my grandmother’s date nut bread and one year I made orange cookies. My mother liked them so much she hid several so they’d be some left just for her. My English toffee always disappeared quickly.
One year my sister and her family from Colorado came for Christmas. She bought goodies including whoopie pies, one of our all time favorites. What was amazing and extraordinary was she brought spritz cookies because my mother always made them when we kids. She’d add coloring to the dough and we’d have white, red and green cookies. I also made spritz cookies for the same reason. We were all going to be together for Christmas for the first time in many years and spritz cookies was a connector to our childhood Christmases. My mother remembered those years, and she too made spritz cookies. The three of us through those cookies celebrated the shared memories of Christmases past.
Categories: Musings
Tags: architect of Christmas, baking, blue sky, Christmas goodies, decorating, family Christmas, goodies, no snow, Shopping, spritz cookies, tree lights, warm day, wrapping
Comments: 17 Comments
October 12, 2015
Today is the best sort of a fall day. The sun is shining, it’s warm and the clear blue sky goes on forever. The leaves have started changing, and with the help of the wind, some have already fallen. My front lawn has touches of red lying on the grass blown from the trees along the driveway. Clumps of pine needles with chewed ends are strewn on the grass and the driveway. The spawns chew the clumps off the branches, drink the sap then toss the leftovers. I don’t ever remember seeing as many clumps.
Columbus Day meant the day off from school, but it was always the 12th, never a convenient Monday. Today is just happenstance. Schools, banks, town and federal offices including the post office are all closed.
I don’t know how to celebrate Columbus Day. All the other holidays are easy, each has a token, a symbol. Some even have traditional foods. I suppose we could eat Italian food in honor of Columbus having been a citizen of Genoa or considering he never really made it to the New World, we could eat Caribbean food, the closest he got. We could wear one of those silly hats he’s always pictured wearing. As for decorations, miniature ships with crosses on their sails could be on the Columbus Day table. That’s all I’ve got.
Now we come to the controversy as to whether or not we should celebrate Columbus, by most accounts a slaver guilty of genocide. He wiped out entire populations of indigenous people. He didn’t even find America, his one claim to fame. Protests against Chris are held every Columbus Day. In some places the day has been renamed Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Only 23 states still have the day as a holiday from work.
I used to like a day off in October. In truth, I didn’t care the reason.
I agree that Chris doesn’t deserve a whole day in his name. He really didn’t do anything worth recognition. Quite the opposite is true so I think it’s time to stop honoring him. We need to rethink the day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, Caribbean food, columbus day, falling leaves, genocide, gorgeous day, Indigenous Peoples' Day., Italian food, miniature ships, red leaves, slavery, warm day
Comments: 12 Comments
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