I say “drive carefully” to my family members any time I know they are going off in the car. We do a lot of driving in California and I usually enjoy driving,but not in crazy rush hour traffic. I am not really keen on driving along narrow, winding roads that run along a high cliff like Highway 1 in California. Although, if I am the passenger, I work to tamp down my fears and enjoy the spectacular views. One place along that highway with a history of being particularly dangerous is Devil’s Slide. When I was a teenager I heard tales of reckless young drivers going over the edge. This section of the highway has been bypassed now and the old section has been converted into hiking and bike trails, a very good idea. Here’s a link to the history of Devil’s Slide and Highway 1, and “drive carefully.”
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This post is part of JusJotItJan guest hosted by Dan Antion at No Facilities. The prompt word for today is ” danger” suggested by Mathew at MWLange, you can check out his blog,too.
Winter is the time for quiet and contemplation. The sunlight is weaker and the temperatures drop. Darkness comes earlier in the evening and I find my energy waning. Nature and I are drawing inward to ourselves. The power of life is not diminished, it is just resting and storing up energy. In the Spring it will burst forth again. No man made force can hold it back.
JusJotItJanuary is hosted today by Dan Antion of No Facilities. Word prompt “power” supplied by Erica at 20/20 hines sight. Click on their links to visit their blogs. Featured image of Bodie Hills, Ca. via Bob Wick of US Bureau of Land Management Conservationlands April File on Wikimedia. Click here to get some interesting information about the Bodie Hills location.
This year I definitely need a winter coat in California and a raincoat to boot, (and boots to boot). It has been a long time since I needed winter clothes here in Southern California because it never gets cold enough. We are expecting a real winter for a change after several years of drought. I am liking the change in weather here.
“California Rain Storms”
Rain on Saturday
Atmospheric rivers flow
Hole in my rainboots
This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday and JustJotItJan hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “coat.” Featured image “Paris Street; Rainy Day” by Gustave Cailebotte via Wikipedia. Girl in Raincoat image via Pixabay.com.
“Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.”
― Margaret Atwood
I enjoy writing on my blog. But is it something tangible and am I a real writer? What is a real writer? It is someone who produces a tangible product like a book or published article. I am writing therefore I am a writer even if I never sell or publish any of it. Writing on my blog or anywhere else is not a job or career and I don’t think I want it to be just now. It is a form of creative expression and sometimes I get on My Soapbox about an issue. A description of my blog writing matches these synonyms for hobby:
Amusement, relaxation, divertissement (ooh, cool French), play, interest, leisure activity, sometimes whimsy, but also art, craft. It is way of being creative for me. Fun.
California is pretty bedazzling. I am grateful to be a native and love so many of its beautiful natural sites and exciting cities. The LA Times is doing a Calfornia Bucket List series which covers many great places to see in California. Here’s a great little video on the San Francisco cable cars, “that climb halfway to the stars.”
And here’s a few more beautiful spots:
Big Sur Coast
Inspiration Point Anacapa Island
Point Lobos Headlands Cove
Muir Woods Trail
El Matador Beach
California Coastal National Monument Point Arena by US Bureau of Land Managemnt
Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas, California
Coastal Redwoods
Peachy Canyon Vineyard at Sunrise near Paso Robles by Macolm Carlaw
‘Vineyard bathed in light’ (Sonoma) by torbakhopper
Big River Mendocino via Jar [o] on Flickr
Half Dome Yosemite via LA Times Postcards from The West:
California Dream Orange Crate Label photo courtesy of Orange County Archives
The State Arms of the Union by Henry Mitchell 1876
This post is part of JustJotItJanuary guest hosted by Rosemary Carlson. The prompt word for today’s post was “spangly,” supplied by Judy B. Martin at Edwina’s Episodes.
My morning ritual is coffee, toast/bagel, read several news sites, email, gradually get ready for the day. Having some jittery feelings about the transition to the new President. There are so many news reports of his political appointments, tweets, and general prophecies of doom, gloom, foreboding, and The Russians. So I need to titrate the amounts of these stories going into my brain to help protect myself. Balance the negative with the positive hopefully. Remember there is positive in the world like my duck and turtle crossing sign. I mean if people are trying to protect the ducks and turtles there has to be some good will out there, right? 🙂
The prompt for today’s post is “warning” supplied by my friend Dan Antion at No Facilities for JustJotItJanuary hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image via Max Pixel.
If the live stream is not working when you check in, it will probably be replayed later and be on You Tube. This post is for JustJotItJanuary hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt for today “time.”
I am wanting in this new year to hold tight to my feelings of possibility and optimism in spite of all the forces in play in the world that want to work against them. Creativity is always about dreams, imagination, vision, possibility, aspiration, and expression of our souls. In the darkest times the spirit can continue, it must continue. The prompt word for today is “spider.” Spiders can be associated with dark, scary things. But I don’t want to get into dark things today. Only to look them in the face and say, “You can’t scare me.”
“There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and those that don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”–Lynn Truss
Unsolicited corrections of others writing is not a helpful thing. I am happy that I have not experienced it very much. But this came home to me when I read another blogger apologizing for his grammar mistakes. He went on to say something like he was learning and to cut him some slack. I interpreted this as telling the grammar police, to back off ,in a nice way. Another blogger referred to these critics as “Grammar Nazis.” I believe it is a type of trolling.
Even though I have not been “corrected” often, I did find the experience caused me to hesitate when writing and wonder if I was making mistakes.
This is wrong. We are not writing essays for an English class. If we are going to be published in a magazine, newspaper or book the editors can advise us.
I have a blogging friend who is a grammar expert and writes a blog criticizing grammar mistakes in well-known publications. I did say to her once, that I felt I could be making grammar mistakes and, as she was one of my readers, was a bit self-conscious. She said I did not have a staff of editors like a big newspaper and therefore should not worry. I hope she meant that in a good way. Not that I was making tons of mistakes but, after all, I do not have an editor. 🙂 She has liked my writing.
Blogging lends itself to a stream of consciousness style of writing. If I am truly writing that way, I am probably making errors. Sometimes I catch them and sometimes I don’t. And sometimes I don’t realize I am making them. If my writing is truly unclear, the reader can ask for clarification.
I read that Jack Kerouac did not use periods, wrote on a long scroll, and did not edit himself. I have read a few quotes from his writing and feel, if I could write as good as he did, I would feel fine about leaving out a few periods
Blogging can be a format for experimentation and play. Bloggers are creating something out of their unique perspectives and engaged in exploration. I don’t think they should be held back and made self-conscious by having their grammar mistakes pointed out on their blogs.
I did a bit of experimentation myself with this verse:
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 