We seem to be alternating between fierce winds and drenching rains to breezes and sunshine as we transition to Spring — nothing new in this neighborhood. Lots of trees are down and small limbs and branches are littering the grounds, so the weather has let up to allow us to clean up before the next wave arrives.
I have to fight the urge to go out and start planting, or at least start seeds inside, but we could easily have freeze and snow until middle of May… To bide my time, I’m cleaning up the back porch and garden shed, always a treat and much preferable to cleaning the house.
I’m planning a trip over to Southern Illinois tomorrow, predicted to be a beautiful day. My Carmi friends have a new garden plot and I’m excited to see it and dream up a design. I’m sure I’ll be inspired and come home with ideas for my own scheme.
The Orchid Show is still going on over at the Zoo and that’s on my agenda, as well. Have you visited it yet?– it would be a great retreat on a rainy day.
In the meantime, the mundane tasks of reading, writing, and making music are keeping me company, but I’d love to meet up for lunch. Anyone?
Pulling on my boots and headed outside! Hope the sun is shining where you are!
It’s Day 3 of my News Block. I feel exactly like I did on election day 2016 — sick to my stomach and afraid. I cannot allow myself to be emotionally manipulated by media, both social and otherwise. I have put up the Forcefields to block the anger from entering into my Peace. I am struggling to Be Here Now, in The Present with The Presence.
I’m so glad I have my gardens and my grove where I can throw myself into the trimming, the harvesting, or the contemplation of birdsongs or the purpose of creepy-crawlies. There have been a lot of bees around, a good reason to rejoice, and I’m feasting on homegrown tomatoes and peppers. Gratitude abounds here in the Present Moment…
Edible Garden
Coneflowers in the Peace/Bird Garden
I’m calling this Shady Grove now; an excellent spot for Contemplation.
Casey’s been staying busy remodeling Goldie’s interior, my design, of course, and she’s beckoning us to take a trip off-grid…
I hope that you will take the time to clear your mind of the “slime from your video” (Frank Zappa) and your timeline. Come back to the Present and receive the power you need to go forward in Love and
It’s the Second Day of Christmas and I’m expecting the delivery of my turtledoves anytime now. Boxing Day in the UK was originally about opening the alms boxes to give to the poor, but has devolved into a shopping day. It’s also St. Stephen’s Day in the Catholic church, the day that Good King Wenceslas looked out where the snow lay round about…
Last Monday was the anniversary of my daughter’s birth and we were in NYC to celebrate. After luncheon at The Community, we proceeded to the movie theatre to see “West Side Story”. (We Loved it, we cried, we marveled…you really should see it.) Then we trooped back to the apartment to sing and blow out candles; I’m Sure her wishes can come true.
We had a super time on Christmas Eve with the Jrs. After a good meal replete with mashed potatoes and gravy, we opened presents. Then it was off to the movie theatre to see “Encanto” which was encanting…(insert punny emoji)
We called the grandies on Christmas morning; beyond that it was just us, two old kids, exchanging presents, drifting through the day, content with grazing the leftovers, amicably sharing. The Day was balmy, so we walked through the woods, planning a pruning spree next month; walked around the gardens discussing plans for the 2022 upgrades; walked down to the campfire circle and envisioned a wall of forsythia between us and the neighbors’ pond… I hope your Christmas was just as heartwarming as ours…
We may or may not have visitors from Manhattan this week, depending on Covid testing. I think Emma may have gotten caught in the blizzard out there…
Last week I spent some time staring at the campfire and contemplating. Something inside me kept saying “I’m done” in a loop. I’d been feeling my age lately and this year’s Camp Sonnystone really brought it home as I cope with my grandies growing up in what seems the blink of an eye. But there’s no reason to think that I’m done, not at all; with so many good times to look forward to and our health still strong, I couldn’t justify that sort of morbid thinking. So I examined it more closely, listened more intently.
This blog means so much to me; it is the Chronicle of my Life. Including the defunct blog, for the last 16 years it has witnessed the birth of all my grandchildren and my evolution as a JoJo. Through two organist jobs, two nursing jobs, Christmases, Birthdays, Camps, and plenty of Disney Trips we’ve watched the grandies grow. But there were also lots of topics; I did interviews, reviewed every “Best Motion Picture” Oscar winner, went through my CD collection with comments, occasionally talked politics, often talked about Peace. There were some deaths, as well: Aunts Thelma, Almeda, and Shirley; Uncle Jr; my friends, NuNu, Lois, Chuck, and Beaver. I’ve taken you on lots of trips with us, kept you apprised of what’s growing in the garden, what birds are at the feeder, and sometimes just blathered.
Even though I upgraded my WP account, I have now very nearly filled up all the allotted media space for Sonnystone and for the garden blog, Growing Every Season, which I started around the same time. At first I thought I would do a whole lot of work to download and delete old posts, but I kept putting it off. The next upgrade costs quite a bit more money and is more for a monetized blog. I believe the voice that was saying “I’m done” meant that I’m done with this particular blog and the obligation that I feel to keep it going.
To give The News a proper send-off, I compiled a video of photos. In order to not make it an hour long, I concentrated on just the people, then had to pare it down more to mostly grandies growing up. The music that I chose is poignant; Over the Rainbow and Wonderful World by Iz, the wonderful Hawaiian artist. He speaks in one part, almost unintelligible, but he’s using two Hawaiian words: “kuleana” has multiple meanings, including “land divisions”, but represents your space or spirit; “pono” which means “to make correct” or “to make good”. So what he means is that kuleana pono is an “automatic plan”, that if you make your space, your spirit good, “stuff” is just waiting to come to you, waiting until you are ready.
It makes me kind of anxious to think of not blogging every week, so I remind myself that I’ll still be keeping up the ancestry blog, and our trips will still be recorded over at the travel blog. The fact is I need to let go and open my mind up to new things, especially regarding my writing. By letting go, I will open up my spirit for some of that “stuff” that has just been waiting until I’m ready.
Thank-you for following along with me. I have truly enjoyed your company. Now I’m taking one long look back, then turning out the light, closing the door behind me.
There is nowhere else I’d rather be than with my grandkids, so the last two weeks have been heaven. As usual, Camp Sonnystone 2021 was a rousing success. Our Word was Believe, and our Theme was Rainbows. We ate well, swam a lot, painted, made suncatchers, sang, danced, laughed and had a few tears just to keep it real. My daughter has been making regular posts to FB, but for my WP followers, here’s a few pictures.
I’m just beginning to work on a video and hope to share that with you next week.
I’m such a loner. The “isolation” of this virus hasn’t bothered me a bit. We Garden at this time of year, starting seeds and breaking up new ground for planting, and that’s just what I’ve been doing. Other than wearing mask and gloves when I grocery shop at 7am, not much has changed around here. I sort-of started Spring Cleaning, kind of, which is totally normal for me. What has bothered me is how Time is Warped right now… Every week seems like a year and the days lumber along slowly — what day is it, again?
I know that many of you are concerned about my daughter. She and her family are doing well, thank-you. If you are friends with her on facebook you can see for yourself. We stay in touch and there’s not much else that can be done right now. In order to keep a handle on my anxiety, I stop and Practice the Presence more often and that’s a Good Thing.
We had some storms fly through last night and tornadoes touched down about 10 miles from here, both sides of the river, just adding to the Stress on our First Responders. With All my Heart and Soul, I am sending Love and Strength their way. The clean-up efforts will only compound the hazard of spreading the virus. Please stay safe if you are inclined to help, and Bless you for it.
This week I’m starting a series of posts about the “genealogy” of our house and grounds, aka Sonnystone Acres. We continue to garden and I post at Growing Every Season on Thursdays. I’ll try to be friendlier over at the facebook, but you can always call or text or email, as well.
I have had the most Wonderful Holiday Season, culminating with a surprise visit from the Jose’ Fam and my Entire Family being together right here at the Acres. It was exquisitely peaceful and loving.
Whilst basking in the Joy of my family, I didn’t realize for a day that our country had started a war, assassinating another country’s leader, acting as if the USA has some sort of moral superiority to judge and attack any other country (or religion) it doesn’t like. This sort of verbal aggression is to be expected from the bully that is president right now, but to Start A War…and don’t kid yourself, we are now at war…in order to distract from his corruption is pure evil.
I pray for the people in the Middle East who have been abandoned and assaulted by our country. I pray for our own people who are going to die paying for this sick man’s ego games. I pray for all of us as we wander around in this dangerous world.
As I have studied history and its wars, I have found that there is no winner, that in fact Everyone Loses. I would be against war even if the other side had started it. I believe we are all the same and those who fail to see every human as their brother or sister are blinded by their own fear. I pray that Love can pierce their blindness and wake them.
Remember: we’re All just walking each other Home…(Ram Dass)
My daughter-in-law’s surgery went fine and she is back home loopy on meds, so I’m still doing the chauffering for her. It was about 8pm last night that Michael brought her home, so I had Samantha asleep and Olivia at least in her room — I felt like a real Mama. Samantha gets out of pre-school at noon, so I’ll just say “hey” and get back to work…
I’m glad the election is finally over, but it won’t stop the incessant roar of anger in this country. I continue to avoid watching cable news, facebook, and twitter, though facebook, for me, seems the mildest of the three. Facebook just hasn’t been showing me much more than ads until recently when folks (and their cute kids) started popping up–finally a reason to hit the like button..! Believe me, a person can stay informed without the shrill and shriek of the talking heads manipulating and triggering emotions…
Casey is out putting some cages around the rose bushes. There are some tall canes that I fear will be destroyed by winter snows. Our first “snowfall” is predicted for next week…the kind that melts by noon…but we’ll be ready for anything.
Getting up early and getting out of the hou-hou-house seems like such a new/old experience. Out there in the early morning with the school buses sends me back in time when I had places to go and things to do…and stress out the wazoo. I’m glad I can help the kids out and take a little of the stress off of them. Soon enough I’ll be back here with plenty of time to write.
We seem to have finally crossed into Autumn around these parts and ’tis the season for pumpkins and mums. with some rudbeckia and scarecrows thrown in for good measure.
We spent Mon-Wed doing some babysitting duties, though Saman-THA is quick to let me know she’s not a baby anymore. That’s okay, because she cuddles and plays, and fully embraces the fact that she will Always be My baby…
But babies aren’t allowed to play with play-doh, so that proves that she is a Big Girl…
We have finished up taking down the pool. The peas look like they are struggling some, but the green beans are blooming and we should have a big mess of beans by mid-Oct.
Sevin spray on the cauliflower and broccoli has maybe held off the worms, but I’m not sure what kind of crop we’ll get. They still look pretty from a distance, though.
We pulled up the travel trailer from its dock in the back to our side yard and plan to keep it there through October. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find a window of weather to trip in it, but there’s no definitive plan now.
I did my usual shuffling, pulled out the banquette table, dragged out a round table I bought 30 years ago and it fits perfectly! Now I’m going to hit up Joanne’s for fabric and re-do in Blue. I’m super-excited to have a new sewing project..!
I’m going out to enjoy this beautiful day…walk in the woods, smile a lot, and fix up a super beet salad that I’ve had a hankering for…
I roasted beets and they are in the fridge, ready to be cut. I’ll add some goat cheese and pecans, perhaps a little spinach, then drizzle it with a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, and whatever other magic I come up with. I’m not real good at recipes, always changing them up to suit myself, so you can bet it will get rave reviews when it’s served—from me, anyway!
Please take some time to send out thoughts of Love and Peace to the World today –and Every Day. It really needs it. #MeToo…
I love to take my morning coffee out on the front porch swing to Just Be in the present moment. I brewed some french vanilla the other morning, settled into my attitude of gratitude, but had a song stuck in my head.
90% of people experience such earworms, also know as Involuntary Musical Imagery. It bothers some people, but I usually just go with it…listening to my memory play like a stereo.
The song in question that day was Eli’s Comin’ by 3 Dog Night…girl, Eli’s comin’ you better hide, girl, Eli’s comin’ you better hide…hide your heart now… As the jukebox in my head played, I thought…that Laura Nyro was such a great songwriter… what all did she write? …
the music switched to “and when I die…and when I’m dead, dead and gone” …what was the name of that group? oh, yeah, Blood, Sweat, and Tears. While the tinny piano and cowbell from that version played in the background, I began to sort through Nyro’s discography…soon the music became a medley of Fifth Dimension songs…come on down to the stone soul picnic… i got the wedding bell blues..ain’t that sweet-eyed blindness good to me…
I stayed there for a while, letting those songs play in the background while I looked around at the patch of blue sky I could see through the trees, noticed the birds and squirrels were going about their morning rituals.
Suddenly, the songs were back with a nagging question…what’s that one that goes come on people… I brought full focus back to Laura Nyro’s discography… didn’t Barbra Streisand do one of her songs? Yes..going down to stoney end, I never wanted to go…cradle me, mama, cradle me again.. not the song I was looking for, but still worth remembering… I expanded to come on people, come on children, let’s go down to the ?jordan? river… I could hear the piano…but could get no farther..The not-remembering finally got to me and I came in to the computer and looked it up.
It was covered by the Fifth Dimension and that youtube video is a wonder of 60’s bright bell-bottoms, platform shoes, and awkward dance moves. But it was the artist herself, Laura Nyro, sitting at the piano and exuding the feeling of this powerful song that most moved me.
Step into the Wayback machine of black-and-white TV, watch this Vietnam war protest song that offers great wisdom…maybe get it stuck in your head.
It’s called Save the Country…
Laura Nyro was 49 when she died in 1997. She was so brilliant and if you don’t know her work, you’ll do yourself some good to listen to her albums.
Blather & Balderdash 