Category Archives: Blogging Community

Sail Away Alma

It’s nice to think about keeping cool with heat waves in many parts of the world. We are lucky so far here in Southern California. The temperatures have been climbing a bit but we still have a cool breeze. I expect the heat to get serious as the summer wears on. Good to be able to go to a lake or ocean beach when it is so hot and be sure to drink (non-alcoholic) liquids. Make sure elderly family members and neighbors have access to enough water and a place to cool down. Nice to take my mind off of hot weather and look at an image of a sailboat on a bay with a cool breeze filling its sails, and flags fluttering. I love the photo of ‘Alma’, a historic 1891 scow schooner that sailed around San Francisco Bay delivering cargo in the old days. She now resides at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park after being restored and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. I think she has fore-and-aft rigging, which is when the sails run parallel to the keel and not perpendicular. All I know is, she is a beauty from bow to stern.

Scow schooner Alma on San Francisco Bay by NPS

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt words for today are, “for/fore/four.” Use one, use ’em all, use ’em any way you want. Bonus points for using all three.

Featured image ‘Bow-on shot of 1891 scow schooner Alma sailing on San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz Island in the background,’ San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, photo by NPS (National Park Service)

You Takes It Or Leaves It

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What did the caterpillar say to the butterfly? “I’m turning over a new leaf.”

I would like to leave off a few things around here, like household chores. It would be nice to give up dish washing ,cleaning bathrooms, laundry and folding clothes. I do have a dishwasher (machine) but I wash off the dishes before loading them in, and it seems like there are always more dirty dishes piling up in the sink. I did do a new chore this past week, sweeping up some dead leaves in my yard and trimming the leaves and branches off some of the bushes. It was more satisfying that the household chores I mentioned, being outside on a not too hot sunny day with a cool breeze blowing. Wish it would stay like this all summer.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word is ‘leaves.’ Use it as a noun or a verb.

Featured image of ‘Monarch caterpillar eating ‘ by Bradly Potter of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest Region on Flickr.com

Gatherings

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We are social beings of varying degrees. Some of us like less socializing, and can prefer to observe from the perimeter, others like to be right in the middle of things. I like the scene in the above painting, ‘Cliff Dwellers’ by George Wesley Bellows (1913). A peaceful social gathering on a busy city street with a few people watching from their balconies or window sills, while others carry on with their daily routines, and children playing outside. The clothes lines stretched between buildings. Two women sitting together at the side of the stairs, one with her face turned up to the sun, the other keeps watch on the children. In my early childhood years, we lived in San Francisco. I remember we had a clothes line suspended up high like that from the back of our flat. The neighborhood kids often played on the sidewalks in front of their buildings.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘social’.

Featured image ‘Cliff Dwellers’ by George Wesley Bellows from LA County Museum of Art via Wikimedia.org

A Way With Words

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The prompt for today is to open a book to a random page, put your finger on it, and use that sentence to inspire your writing. I read this book a few years ago, ‘Ordinary Grace’ by William Kent Krueger and loved his writing. There are many wonderful sentences in this book. One I picked at random: ‘When my mother sang I almost believed in heaven.’

I have felt like that listening to a great opera singer like Pavarotti or Renee Fleming. or a classic rock song. When I hear them sing I am in heaven.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, # SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt: “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “open book, point, write.” Pick up the closest book to you when you sit down to write your post. Close your eyes, open the book, and place your finger on the page. Whatever word or phrase your finger lands on, write about it.”

Silence

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I do enjoy quiet times to myself, but even then my mind is usually not silent. It is often mulling over assorted details of my existence, seeking interesting information off the web or streaming from the flat screen. I can get quiet inside and out if I am looking at beautiful nature.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “silent/silence.” Use one or both in your post.

Featured image ‘Enjoy the silence…’byThomas Leuthard on Flickr.com

Murder So Cozy

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“Cozy mysteries, also referred to as “cozies”, are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. Cozies thus stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, which feature violence and sexuality more explicitly and centrally to the plot. The term “cozy” was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” (Wikipedia).

I am all for limiting explicit sex and violence in mystery stories and have often liked “cozy mystery” series like ‘Murder She Wrote’ or ‘Miss Marple.’ But lately, I am wondering what made me like them with their usual ‘cozy’ premises of small town, and amateur detectives. Isn’t it kind of rediculous to think of murders happening regularly in a small little village or town and to have the local clergyman, landscapers, librarians, as the detective? The exception to this would be the greatest amateur detective, Sherlock Holmes.

‘The Detective’ by József Rippl-Rónai (1861–1927) via wikipedia.org

Jeremy Brett by Insomnia Cured

Maybe it’s because we imagine ourselves to be amateur sleuths who can solve the crime.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt is “rhymes with rosy.” Find a word that rhymes with “rosy” or use the word “rosy” and base your post on it.

Shattered

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Accidentally, I dropped the glass lid of a large pan on my tile kitchen floor just as I was finishing up the dinner dishes. Oh joy! I got to clean up this pile of broken glass and its pieces that spread out from the point of impact to the next room. I am thinking, could the glass lids of these pans be made in a way to prevent breakage like this? (Well, that was not not my first thought, which was probably oh shit! ) I did some quick research and my lid could have been ‘tempered glass’ which is supposed to break in smaller pebble-like pieces and not so many shards. I have swept, vacuumed, and swiffered up the evidence before taking a photo, but I think the glass did break into smaller pieces and stayed together mostly, except for the pieces that got loose and flew everywhere. I wish they could make a glass lid that is really shatterproof.

Image by Jurgen Sieber on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “adverb.” Start your post with any adverb and just run with it.

A Day For Mothers

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Hope that all mothers have a day of relaxation and happiness, free of stress and strain, doing what they like surrounded by the love of their families.

Mother’s Day Sunday May 12 in the US.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The word prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “strain.” Use it any way you’d like.

Featured image ‘Mother’s Day Rose’ by slgckgc on Flickr

Southern California Skys Clouded With Butterflies

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Have you heard about the great migration of Painted Ladies to California? I am not referring to the saloon hall girls of the old west or aspiring starlets, but butterflies, lots of butterflies known as Painted Ladies. Some have been flying through my back yard and appear to be heading North. Wherever they are heading they are sure in a hurry. No leisurely gliding through the air for these Lepidoptera. A few did rest on the blossoms of my Pyracantha in the backyard but they tend to stay on the very top branches and when I try to approach with my camera they quickly fly away.

Pyracantha blossoms in my yard

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “fall from the sky.” Write about anything that falls from the sky–real, imagined, or idiomatic. Featured image ‘Painted lady nectaring’ (caption: Painted lady butterflies prefer nectar from flowers that are 3-6 feet high.) by Mara Koenig US Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest Region via Flickr.

Man Brings Hope To Poor Communities Of Chicago

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Jahmal Cole started his organization ‘My Block My Hood My City’ to uplift some of the neighborhoods and youth in Chicago. The organization volunteers have worked on various community improvement projects like clearing trash, mowing overgrown lots, trimming trees, and shoveling snow on a block where elderly people live. Cole wants to expose disadvantaged young people to the world outside their neighborhoods as well. He started an ‘explorations’ program of “twice-a-week trips that take teenagers to different parts of the city, sometimes to learn about a business or profession, sometimes to visit an ethnic neighborhood and sample the food” (Christian Science Montior). The kids know they can rely on Jahmal Cole to care about them.

You can read the full article ‘Block by block, a community activist builds a better Chicago’by Richard Mertens, here. And here is ‘My Block My Hood My City’ website.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blogfest that “seeks to promote positive news. There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world. ” To learn more about #WATWB and sign up to participate.

The cohosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Uppal, Peter Nena, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.

Featured image of ‘South Side of Chicago’ photo of 1973 from US National Archives on Flickr.com