Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week is, celebrating reflections or shadows. I went back in time to find the reflections of a live oak branch decorated for Christmas at Brookgreen Gardens annual “Night of a Thousand Candles.” This was the venue where David proposed to me in 2011, so these gardens are very special to us.
Brookgreen Gardens, SC. Night of a Thousand Candles 2015
The next photo is closer to home at Greenfield Lake:
Greenfield Lake
Finally, we have some tall, late afternoon shadows at the beach:
For more fun photos, visit Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge by clicking HERE.
Thanks to Linda Hill for today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday : “if.” Start your post with the word “If.” Enjoy!
If you’ve ever read Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If,” you will know it is inspiring. It inspired me when I was in my early teens. Then, when I was in my early twenties, I saw an “If for girls” and an “If for boys,” in a gift store. It made me really mad. You see, the original “If” by Rudyard Kipling ended with the words, “You’ll be a man my son.” I overlooked that and took to heart all the ifs he listed, like, “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too, ” which I remember by heart. The idea that those “ifs” by Kipling could not apply to me, and that I had to have a separate If poem about sugar and spice and everything nice, (I really don’t remember what it was about, but it must’ve been something like that) really irked my feminist spirit in the 70s. I’m glad I haven’t come across it since, so maybe I should let it go for now.
Here’s a practical warning: If you ever come across pokeweed, with it’s strikingly beautiful, dark magenta berries and stems, BEWARE! Here’s a picture or three.
Pokeweed in early fall
Most of the berries are gone now
Here’s a better photo of the berries
Those of you who’ve been here regularly know that I’ve allowed an urban forest to grow in my backyard. I thought the pokeweed berries were pretty. Such an interesting color. So I let them grow, mostly where they wanted. I’d read that the berries have been used for dye, but to be careful, because they are also poisonous.
Since the pokeweed dies off in the late fall, I decided to cut or pull up about half of it on Sunday. I wore gloves, but did not wear long sleeves. The pokeweed is the only thing I can imagine that has caused an awful, itchy rash on my arms from where I carried the cut stems and leaves to the curbside plastic trash can for pick up. I won’t show you the photo of my rash, because, well, this is not Facebook, so I’ll spare you those details. But it’s weird that the blisters continue to emerge after five days. Thank God for benadryl and prednisone. One for night time and the other for daytime. I bought a long sleeved men’s shirt at the thrift store for when I cut (or more likely pull up) the remaining pokeweed after it’s all brown and dried out. Maybe I should wear a mask.
On a more positive note, lets imagine good what ifs. What if we all start learning how to get along better? What if we start protecting the planet better? What if we get a fun surprise? What if I make it to 90 years old and still have all my teeth? What if your dreams come true? What if you fly?
Speaking of flying. I took some photos of an egret yesterday at the lake with my friend. It was hard to get close without the bird flying away. But that’s okay. It came back. Plus there were alligators!
Before it flew away
After a while it flew back
Earlier we saw an alligator
Gator and turtles
Egret incoming
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For more Streams of Consciousness, rules, etc, visit our host, Linda Hill and join me in sending prayers or good wishes for her son Alex to feel better.
The Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “may.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!“
Maybe May will be a good month.
Anything is possible!
We’re in the mountains this weekend. I bought a kayak and we brought it with us. Maybe I’ll actually kayak on the lake which I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years since we first came up here.
The photo above is the lake in the mountains where I hope to kayak. Nice and calm.
The next photo is one I took recently in the lowlands where I live most of the time. I used to paddle this lake picking up trash years ago. It has alligators, but they’re not that scary, and I don’t see them often. Years ago, when I was cleaning up the lake with my daughter, an alligator was swimming in front of us, going the same way. It kept looking back over its shoulder at us and eventually veered off. It was probably only about five or six feet long.
There could be an alligator hiding down there and we’d never know.
Maybe Mama Cat won’t miss me too much and will sleep a lot. We have a good pet sitter. It’s the fist time I’ve left her since I adopted her in October. Mama Cat. Not the pet sitter.
Maybe I’ll got to bed early tonight which is Friday – when I normally write my SoCS posts. The wind is blowing hard here in the mountains. Maybe it will sing me to sleep. That would be something different since I’m usually a night owl.
Sometimes we hear owls at our house in the lowlands. Maybe there are owls up here, too. Once I heard a strange noise outside here in the mountains late at night. It was very dark. The noise started like a growl-ish noise. But then there were quacking noises. It was like nothing I’ve ever heard before. But that memory will not help me sleep early.
Maybe there won’t be any shootings tomorrow. Dag! What a thing to write or think. Don’t want to go down that stream. Maybe things will get better. Maybe we’ll figure out how to get along better.
Maybe I will start with me getting along with myself and those closest to me.
May it be an evening star…. It that how the song goes? I’ll look…
This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.
Maybe it will help me sleep.
May your day and your May be filled with blessings.
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Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda Hill. Thank you, Linda for your consistency and perseverance bringing us together!
Anything is Possible! 