Category: writing

It started with the contrails in the sky as I drove home from picking up my groceries from Walmart. (I have started ordering my groceries online and using the curbside pickup service.) Two contrails made a big X in the sky. Then, there was the straight one off to the side. Next, I started looking at the clouds. Not the big cotton ball clouds of the summer, but the wispy featherlike clouds of winter. After putting the cold stuff in the refrigerator, I grabbed the camera.

I signed up for the Girls with Cameras Lightroom Intensive workshop. I am learning to edit photos more with Lightroom than with Photoshop. In the Creative Group, we are working with black and white photos. So, I converted my cloud photos to black and white in Lightroom.

And all the while, I had Judy Collins’s song “Both Sides Now” running through my head:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Lyrics from “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell

In October, I began taking pictures of the cherry tree at our driveway. I stood on the back steps. The tree was just beginning to turn to autumn red-orange. I’ve been taking pictures weekly to trace the changes.

October 18

October 30

November 6

November 13

I wasn’t “faithful” in taking pictures at the same time every day, but I did try to have the same composition (more or less). The changes are not as drastic right now, although some of the trees across the pond in the background have gotten more color this week. It’s interesting.

I have the “sniffles” this week. I’m hoping it’s just allergy right now from all the ragweed and privet growing around the ponds. However, it is “cold season,” and I don’t care what the experts say, when the temperature changes from the mid-to-low 80s one day and mid-50s the next, it’s bound to cause a reaction in the human body! I’m drinking hot tea by the gallon (along with water on the side).

Some of the other images I snapped today:

I think this is one of the prettiest falls we have had in a while around the pond. I am savoring it–in spite of the sneezing and sniffling.

Shakespeare wrote, “If music be the food of love, play on.” I don’t know which play that line comes from, but music is one of my love languages. My mother taught me my first piano lessons. When I outgrew her, I took lessons from Mrs. Wessinger, the “preacher Wessinger’s wife.” I went on and studied piano at Newberry College while pursuing a degree in English. A dear friend from my church gifted me with a beautiful Betsy Ross Lester piano, circa late 1930s, which is in fabulous condition. Quite a few years ago, I bought a handmade mountain dulcimer at Mount Mitchell, NC. It was destroyed in a house fire in 2008, and I did not replace it–until this week. Christmas came early! I think playing the dulcimer is sort of like riding a bicycle; I may be rusty, but I didn’t forget. In addition to my two instruments, I love having my Echo Dot and Amazon music for music “fixes.”

Today, I’m sharing a mish-mash of things.

1. Mountain dulcimers–a stringed instrument that is most commonly associated with the Appalachian Mountains and traditional music. The old people sang traditional songs, often those carried her from England and Scotland, including many of the ballads collected in Child’s ballad collection from the 1700s. Jean Ritchie may be one of the most recognized figures in popularizing the dulcimer in folk music. This is a rare live performance and interview with Pete Seeger.

2. Writing is difficult, and writing without a support group is a lonely business. This is National Novel Writing Month. I’m working on my second novel this month. The goal is to write 50,000 words this month. Check out NaNoWriMO!

3. I’m a band parent. I know, my sons are no longer students, but my older son is a middle school and assistant high school marching band director. So, whenever I see reels and stories featuring marching bands, I have to watch them. I love watching the bands participating in Drum Corps International competitions and shows. We have a DCI corps here in South Carolina: The Carolina Crown based in Fort Mill, SC. Their 2023 show is based on the legends of Camelot.

4. Fall color is peaking here in the South.

5. I enjoy knitting and crocheting while the TV is on. I have subscribed to Annie’s Kit Club for a while. I love the project I’m working on now, a knitting project called the Dublin Afghan. I make one block a month. I’m working on the fourth block this week. It will be a beauty when I finish it.

In the Here: Five Things Fall 2023, Liz posted about taking a pause. But today is Thankful Thursday, so there will be a list.

1. I am thankful for my grandson’s second birthday today. Sullivan is energetic and full of mischief, as only two-year-olds can be. He is well on his way to giving his daddy a run for his money! And he loves Oreo cookies!

2. I am thankful for autumn days, cooler weather, bluer skies, and colorful leaves.

3. I am thankful for “restarts.” It is so easy to put things aside when “life” happens. I started sketching about twelve years ago after deciding that I would not let a comment made to me when I was an impressionable eight or nine years old keep me from doing something I wanted to do. With the encouragement of the art teacher in the school where I taught English, I picked up a sketchbook and some graphite pencils and began. Yesterday, I bought a new sketchbook, new pencils, some charcoal sticks, and oil pastels. I watched YouTube videos. Then I created.

4. I am thankful for my family. It is almost a cliche, but I am thankful for the people around me. I lost my father eight years ago, but I still have my mother. She is as much a friend to me as a parent and always has been. I suppose that’s because I grew up in a very rural area without nearby neighbors. We went places, worked in the garden, and played board games at night. We shared books, bowls of popcorn, chocolate (Three Muskateer bars split four ways) with Coco-Cola in the afternoon, and afternoon “soaps” (or “stories,” as my grandmother called them).

5. Given the situation in the Middle East with Israel and Palestine, I am thankful that I live in a place that is safe from war. Yes, I know there is violence in our world and in America. We are not completely safe from terrorism, murder, domestic abuse, and other crimes. Still, we are not under a threat of constant attack and we do not live in fear of having our homes bombed or our families being cut down in the streets by soldiers. I am in prayer for Israel–and for the Palestinians–that one day, there will be peace between them.

Psychologists say that keeping a gratitude journal improves our lives. Sometimes, it is too easy to see only the negative things around us. I have a tendency to “live under a rock” and “bury my head in the sand.” I laugh sometimes that I should have been born an ostrich (I don’t know whether they actually bury their heads in the sand or not, but “they” say they do!). However, when all the news seems to be doom and gloom, thinking about the blessings does raise my spirits.

What happens when you get derailed? When things you have been doing regularly, almost habitually, suddenly just stop?

That happened last week. I’m going to blame it on Friday the 13th. I dropped my listing practice. I dropped my photography. I just sat. I didn’t even try to work on the revisions to my novel. It seemed I fell off the face of the earth.

But yesterday, I channeled my inner Scarlet O’Hara, pulled myself up out of the chasm I had fallen into, and decided, “Tomorrow is another day.” I gave myself permission to restart.

So yesterday, I made two lists. The first one addressed Liz’s prompt:

Things I Love About the Season:

1. Cool, crisp, clean air
2. Bluer skies
3. The changing leaves and the crunch beneath my feet
4. Sweater weather
5. Apples from mountain orchards
6. Sully’s birthday–our miracle

This is the second list, based on Liz’s “meditation,” for lack of a better word:

Things I’m Beginning–Again

1. Listing my five things
2. Catching up on my writing
3. Spending time daily in God’s Word
4. Regular walks outdoors, even if it’s only to the mailbox and bax
5. Photo challenges and projects
6. Keeping my blog

Today’s prompt was just to list five things:

1. Yesterday was hard. It just was. I had a headache; I was groggy.
2. “Tomorrow is another day.” (channeling my inner Scarlet O’Hara)
3. Autumn may be my favorite season
4. Hot cinnamon spice tea in the morning is nice.
5. I almost aced the Wednesday NYT crossword puzzle, finished the Wordle on the sixth try, and made all four by process of elimination in the Connections puzzles, and got a perfect on the Tiles puzzle.
6. I’ve ordered my groceries, including a new journal, oil pastels, sketching pencils, and a sketchbook to start my art practice again.

Okay, so I don’t follow diretions and list “just” five things.

And something random to share–this meme a teacher friend posted on Facebook:

In a way, creating these lists daily is a way of saying “I made it. I’m still here.” lovely thought!

It’s the first Friday in October. I walked around the ponds this afternoon. The afternoon was beautiful–blue sky, some wispy white clouds, a light breeze. Temperatures were in low 80s, but there is a supposed to be a cool-down this weekend.

The spider lilies are just about over for the season. This one is still vibrant. I brought the bulbs or tubers from my parents’ home thirty-eight years ago. They are still blooming.

Goldenrod and fleabane are in full bloom. My nose was running and my eyes itching when I came back inside. It is fall allergy season. Time to get out the anithistamines and allergy medicine.

One of the photography challenges I have is capturing the transparency of foliage when the sun shines through the leaves. I keep trying, though. And following the concept of wabi sabe, I did not try to edit out the dark spots on this beautiful leaf. There is beauty in the imperfection.

This is the homestretch. I walked across the dam between the Big Pond and the Pond behind the Big Pond (yes, those are the official names of the two ponds. All seven ponds have names.) The willow tree is beginning to turn to gold.

It will be interesting to see the changes around the pond next month on the first Friday.