Moon-rise

 
    The moon-rise is caught in the clutch of trees before it floats free, clears the roof tops and sails into the darkening sky.

       I have trouble photographing the moon with my camera.  It's likely operator error and not the instrument, but I keep trying.

       There's something fascinating about seeing the first bit of moon appear behind the neighbour's roof and watching it hang in the branches, the tree tops. A fascination as old as time...

Happy New Year 2015

       What a quiet beginning to 2015! 

       We have family around but are unable to spend time with them as they have been dealing with the flu. They seem to be improving but now Gary has a head and chest cold. Save for coughing and sneezing, it has been a quiet end to 2014 and an even quieter beginning to 2015.

       Gary has been resting, as have the cats. And while no one was watching, the annual visitors to our yard have returned.  

       Now, we'll have ducks staring longingly at our kitchen windows every morning when we wake. They wait for Gary to feed them.

       If he's not better soon, that will be my job.

       Happy New Year 2015. Things change, things remain the same.

Happy Christmas Season 2014

Enjoy today

 in whatever way is meaningful 
to you.

While we don't yet have snow,
the temperature has dropped. 

For me, meaningful today means
staying close to the fireplace
with wine and my writing.

Happy Boxing Day 2014

Where are you finding

moments of joy

today?

Happy Christmas Eve 2014

The kitties are searching in all the usual places 

for signs of Santa Claus.

Merry December 23, 2014

     It's two days before Christmas 2014. I'm concentrating on the parts of my life for which I feel gratitude. And, thinking of the events that have turned out well, when they could have as easily been disasters.

By the Twelfth Day of Christmas

I hate Christmas letters.  

Well, I hate the kind that sugar-coat real life.  Yes, there are awards, graduations and births to share, but every person's life has shitty times, too.

People fib in Christmas letters about how wonderful their past year has been.  It isn't possible to have had a perfect year, a perfect life, or the perfect family.

You know what I mean?  Yes, you do.

In a letter, I want to hear the good things but I also want to hear about the struggles, disasters, challenges and failures--the real stories.

So, here is a tongue-in-cheek ditty about one family's year.  (Any resemblance to real persons or situations is purely coincidence.)

Please sing it to yourself, to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

By the twelfth day of Christmas, the family had endured...

twelve new referrals,
eleven gooey ointments,
ten toes a-throbbing,
nine rashes itching,
eight discs in spasm,
seven bouts of hiccups,
six ribs a-cracking,
five golden scabs,
four kidney stones,
three stiff necks,
two gouty knees
and a surprise colostomy.


Merry Christmas! And keep those letters coming.