SoCS: What Ifs, Wildlife, and the Revenge of the Pokeweed

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.

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  Pokeweed in early fall

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  Most of the berries are gone now

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  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!

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  Before it flew away

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  After a while it flew back

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  Earlier we saw an alligator

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  Gator and turtles

Egret incoming

~~~

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.

SoCS: Self Disclosure, Smoothies, and Mama Cat Goes to the Vet

Here’s the prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lid.” Use it in the literal sense, use it in the metaphorical sense, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

“Keep a lid on it,” sounds controlling. Maybe even harsh. But there are times when it might be a good idea. At times in my life I have disclosed too much personal information, like a confession almost. Sometimes I have been too honest. Ocassionally socially awkward. So, I’ve had to slow down and think, except when I don’t. There have been no major faux pas lately. At least not that I know of.

Keeping a lid on something might mean keeping a secret, keeping something safe, like food, or like don’t tell anyone I said this, but…… Maybe it’s better not to tell, then. Getting back to self-disclosure, maybe a lid could be loose or tight. If it’s tight, there’s always a possiblity it could be opened again, but you might need help from someone safe. I’ve heard that “you’re only as sick as the secrets you keep,” but we still have to be careful who we tell our secrets to.

I remember when I was single, trying to open a jar by myself. So as not to do too much damage to my hand, wrist, and arm, which were already compromised by so much work on the computer, I would work on the lid for a while, then take a break. Hit it with a knife on the corners, try again, and take a break. There was this one time when I took it across the street to the neighbor. Other times, I took turns with my daugther. Don’t hurt yourself trying to open a jar. Now, I try a couple times and take it to David. His hands are much stronger than mine.

When we were dating for the second time around, we didn’t keep a lid on much information-wise. We wanted everything on the table. No big surprises. We were in our 50s and didn’t want to waste time. We talked about past relationships and what we’d learned from them. I guess how much you disclose depends on whether you want to date or a committed relationship. Of course we didn’t share every gory detail. I don’t want to think about those. Quick! Think of something else!

I try not to use plastic, but when I do, I try not to use a plastic lid, which means I have to be careful not to spill. Since I don’t use straws, I might get a smoothie mustache, but that’s okay. Here’s my basic smoothie recipe at home: Oat milk, Banana, and Peanut Butter. Add other ingredients as desired. Lids are optional. (But if you take it outside, you might want some kind of a cover to keep bugs out.)

FYI, I don’t know what this has to do with lids, but my spell check on WP has not been working for a while. I chatted with someone from WP yesterday and he? said something in WP was not compatible with grammarly, or something, but they’re working on it. He told me to go to settings in my browser which I tried, but it didn’t work. Anyway, I have to go over this again to see if I catch any misspelled words. Does misspelled have two s’s? Yes, okay. That’s good enough for now. Apparently spell check is optional for some WP sites. That would have been a good transitional line for this paragraph. Now, I’m thinking too much. Time to put a lid on this.

Thinking about a photo gallery, I could have written about Mama Cat’s vet visit. One year ago I trapped her at my chuch and took her to the vet before bringing her home. She was still quite feral and escaped in the exam room. Tuesday I took her to a place that specializes in cats. It went so well, I almost cried with relief. They took the lid off her carrier and she did not run away. The towel helped. Mama Cat has come a long way in a year. Now she has a microchip.

Semi-Random Photos:

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  Mama Cat at the vet

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  A relaxation technique

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  Wave Therapy

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  Anonymous Sand Art

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  Backyard Lantana

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  Backyard woodpecker

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  Tiny Mushrooms

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  Accidental hitchhiker
  about to go back outside

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  Down by the Riverside

~~~

Continued thanks to our SoCS host, Linda Hill. You can find more SoCS posts and rules at Linda’s Blog.

SoCS: Art Inspiration, Vegan Aspirations, Expiration Dates, and a Road Trip

Today’s prompt is from Dan who’s filling in for Linda. You can visit both of them over at the virtual bar at Dan’s blog today. Here’s what Dan came up with:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “inspire/aspire/expire.” Use them in any form you like. Use one, use two or use them all if you want. If you use two, you get bonus points! If you use all three, Cheryl will put your next drink on David’s tab. Enjoy!

I hope to inspire, but more naturally than in the past. Because I like to be inspired, too. In my art folder here on my laptop, I have a folder named, “inspiration.” It has ideas from nature and other people’s art that I want to, not copy, but be inspired by, taking my own spin on them. Clouds inspire me, like this one:

If you know a lot about clouds, you might be able to tell I turned this upside down. Originally it looked like a bird or angel diving down to earth. Turning it upside down makes it a rising mermaid or angel or something. I like rising better than diving, though I do love diving under water. So I’m going to paint it rising, whatever it turns out to be. The head will be different. We’ll see what happens. Do you notice the face near the very top a little to the right of center? It’s kinda eerie/cool. The face seems to be looking over a shoulder or wing.

Aspire. I have aspired to be and do many things. Maybe the best is to aspire to be ourselves. Our true selves, not what others expect. I think of myself as an aspiring vegan, inching closer and inspired by the vegans at the farm where I volunteer. Been doing better on not eating fish. Gave up chicken a couple years ago (the chickens on the farm reinforce that) and stopped eating mammals in my early twenties. Cheese though is sneaky. Dairy productus show up unexpectedly in granola bars or veggie burritoes. Anyway, I’m not perfect, never have been, never will be.

Expiration dates are subjective. My husband will eat (almost) anything that smells okay even if it’s expired. I might go a couple months out from when something was said to expire. Maybe six months. A lot of food is wasted because it’s expired or looks funny, but it’s still good to eat. I’m glad people are starting to rescue and redistribute some of that. I got some free almond butter that had expired at the new food co-op down the road. Almond butter is something I don’t usually buy, because peanut butter is so much less expensive, and there’s something about almonds production that’s a problem, maybe with bees. I don’t remember. But it was a nice gift, the expired almond butter.

My energy level expired Saturday when David drove home from southeastern Connecticut to southeastern NC. He’s a tough guy. Just riding in the truck all those hours was hard on my body. We took the scenic route close to the eastern shore, because it was less traffic and less stress, though more time (15 hours with our stops.) We had considered stopping for the night halfway, but David seems to have an amazing ability to keep going which only inspires me to take a nap or take pictures. Oh, the reason for the trip – we had gone to visit David’s mother who is 86 and doing very well except for some vision problems. (We have all been vaccinated.) She was very happy to see us after five years and told me all about her volunteer work at the elementary school when her kids were little. I’m going to write another post about that sometime – about how she helped start a kindergarten, school library, and got things done as a mama bear back in the 1960s. But that’s enough for now. Here are some photos from our trip. I hope to stay home for a while.

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  Windmills in NC

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  Somewhere on the east coast

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  Abandoned house in Rhode Island

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  Nice view in Connecticut

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  Chesapeake Bay Bridge

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  Chesapeake Bay

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  Same windmills heading home

~~~

Happy October!

For more streams of consciousness visit Linda’s blog HERE. Be sure to look for Dan’s contribution at “No Facilities” in the comments.

SoCS: Puzzle Pieces and Loving the Unvaccinated

Today’s Friday excellent prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is…… “puzzle.” Use it any way you’d like!

Puzzles are a big part of life. Big puzzles and little puzzles. Hard puzzles that take years and years to figure out, like, Is there a life partner out there for me, and where the hell is he? What’s taking so long? Oh, I need to work on me first. Finally figured that out. Now it makes sense. Self love and spirituality were pieces of the puzzle. And it wasn’t all about me.

There are easy puzzles, too, like what to have for dinner. What should go in the soup? Some things don’t fit, but must do if you’re willing to be adventurous. And then there are all those in between puzzles.

People could be like puzzle pieces. We need lots of different pieces. The best puzzles are diverse, with lots of different colors. Some of us are on the edges, some in the middle, and there are cornerstones. With buildings, cornerstones are important. And there’s more than one. Maybe even more than four. I don’t know.

What happens when we are missing pieces to our puzzles of life? We wait. We search, or we accept. Maybe we could even make our own piece of the puzzle. Like cut it out of cardboard and color it just right to fit. Maybe it will work. Then maybe we find the other piece. Or not. It’s okay.

It’s puzzling that some people refuse to get vaccinated and refuse or resist wearing masks. Some of them are my family members who I love dearly, and so I worry about them. I can’t just write them off. When I work to try to understand their reasons for not being vaccinated or wearing masks, there is more than one reason. But when I really listen, deep down it is about fear. Misguided, irrational, and confused, in my opinion, but still fear, not selfishness. I don’t know the answer, and I don’t know if I can change their minds. Still, I let them know about my friend who died from Covid and my friend’s son who died from covid last week at the age of 36. Neither were vaccinated. Still, I love them, my unvaccinated loved ones, with a little more distance, but just as much love as ever.

Here are a few photos from my grand daughter’s 10th birthday party. It was all about unicorns!

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  Unicorn Cake

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  Unicorn  Piñata

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  Birthday Princess

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  Cousins

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  with Matching Rainbow Dresses

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  I don’t want to watch.

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  Grandma Necklace

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  Time to Go Home

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  Unicorn Dreamin’

For more on Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit our host, Linda Hill, at :

https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-18-2021/

SoCS: Birthday Plans, Strange Clouds, and Rainbows

Today’s SoCS prompt from Linda Hill is, “where.” Use it any way you’d like!

Where am I?

In the mountains of NC, but not exactly, because I’m in the city/town of Boone which is in a valley, so I can see the mountains. We are here for my granddaughter’s 10th birthday which was yesterday and my son’s birthday is today. Yep. His birthday is on 9/11. It was his birthday 36 years ago, when 9/11 was just 9/11 and his birthday. So we are having a party at the park this afternoon, mostly for my granddaughter who is 10 years old! Oh, I said that already. But it’s double digits! She’s still into sparkles, rainbows, and unicorns.

Thanks to my husband David driving us here, I got to take pictures of clouds. What do you see in the sky today? What do you see in these pictures? It’s open to interpreation. I hope all you see in the sky today is clouds, birds, butterflies, and maybe a rainbow. Oh, and the sun, but don’t look at it directly or too long.

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  Do you see an angel?

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  Do you see a skeleton?

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  Do you see a dragon?

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  What do you see?

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  This is my favorite. What do you see?

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  Do you see a giant bird?

Clouds along the way.

This is an older photo that I just like.

I spend my fair share of time reading the news and remembering, analyzing, and certainly in gratitude. Sometimes we just need to look at the clouds. I hope you get to be somewhere nice, peaceful, and safe today.

~~~

Where do you go for more streams of consciousness and to find out the rules?

You go to Linda’s blog!

SoCS: Pins, Buttons, and What NOT to Drink

 Here’s today’s prompt: “pin.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Remember bobby pins? My mom had a lot. There might even be one around here. They were for your hair, like mini barrets. She would put her hair up in little pincurls and sleep in them overnight with an x of double bobby pins in each curl. Better than those big plastic curlers in the days before curling irons or whatever people are using these days.

Straight pins could be (and still are) useful for sewing a hem or keeping two pieces of fabric lined up while you sew them together with a needle.

Pintrest is so full of everything. I don’t keep up with my account. There are only so many hours in a day and so many other things to do.

I don’t wear many pins. My mom had a lot. I pinned her angel pin to the lapel of my black blazer which I used to wear a lot but have not worn in a long time. Maybe I’ll wear it this Christmas.

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? I guess it depends on the size of the angels, and several other factors that have something to do with divine magic.

There are also pins that I have called buttons – campaign buttons, cause buttons, save the whales buttons – but they are really pins, because they have pins and you can wear them on your shirt or purse, or whatever. I had a big collection once. Now it’s smaller and kept in a glass container in the kitchen. Why in the kitchen? I have no idea. One button/pin says, “Get stoned. Drink wet cement.” When I was a substance abuse counselor, one of my clients gave that to me. It was funny. And weird. (Do NOT drink wet cement!)

Now I’m going to my pictures and type in “pin” and see where that leads.

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  My mom’s angel pin

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  The “get stoned” pin is bottom left

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  dragonfly on closthes pin

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  This one is still on the mantle.

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  I don’t know where this pic came from.

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  My dad’s MASH hat has pins.

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For more streams of consciousness, rules and stuff, visit our host, Linda Hill at her blog here.

SoCS: Thanks for the Vaccination Nudge

My friend Mary who is a pediatrician nudged me to get vaccinated early this year. I wasn’t in any hurry and might not have even been vaccinated if she hadn’t nudged me early on with a link to a local clinic. I wanted to see what happened. I knew from my side effects to the flu shot, that my side effects to the covid vaccine were likely to be significant, and they were. But now, I’m glad I got the shots.

Saturday I dropped some school supplies off to a community organizer. We chatted in her living room without masks. I had mine in my pocket, but knew we’d both been vaccinated. She offered me a hug as I was about to leave, and I accepted warmly. Not sorry about that. But maybe it wouldn’t have hurt to wear a mask. I found out yesterday that she tested positive for covid. I think she’s okay, but her daughter is in the hospital.

I’ve heard of a lot of people who were vaccinated testing positive for covid, but their symptoms are mild compared to people who have not been vaccinated. My friend who tested positive but was NOT vaccinated has been in ICU for three weeks and on a ventilator. He is ten years younger than me. He’s also a wonderful person who has done a lot for the community. God, I hope he’s going to be okay. Lots of people are praying.

I am thankful for my doctor friend nudging me to get vaccinated. I’m feeling okay, recovering from plantar fascitis and a pulled muscle in my back. My body is good at healing, if maybe slower than it used to be. Still, I think I’m going to lay low, take it easy, and wear my mask when I go anywhere. Life is precious.

Some of these photos are from the farm animal sanctuary where I prepare lunch on Thursdays.

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  Me in my angel mask

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  Leo isn’t so sure about his new perch.

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  The goats like the fennel in the chicken yard.

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  Patrick reminds me of a big dog.

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  Padre is so handsome.

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  A skink in my backyard.

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  Girl at the beach.

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  The vegan chocolate “ice cream” is my favorite.

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday was: “my.” Start your post with the word “My.” Bonus points if you end your post with “yours.” Enjoy!

For more streams of consciouness along with rules visit out host, Linda Hill at this link.

SoCS: Ode to Joy

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ode.” Find a one- or two-syllable word that rhymes with “ode,” or use the word “ode.” Have fun!

Ode. Mode: most frequently ocurring score (from statistics) which I guess is what makes the hill in the bell curve. “Ode to Billy Joe.” Maybe someone else will do that. How about “Ode to Joy?”

Here’s a flash mob.

I’ve been in small dance mobs, more like acting mobs or mime mobs. I bet I have a picture somewhere……

Very improv. That’s me on the right with the red hair about 10 -15 yrs ago.

It was a fun time when I was much more social, not romanticly, and finding myself while focusing on friendship with a very accepting group of people.

I’d like to sing in a flash mob some day. I would want to enunciate because I can’t really hear the words in the “Ode to Joy above.” I worry about that in choir – that the organ could overpower the lyrics. Maybe it’s my hearing? Anyway, I’m going to find the words to “Ode to Joy…”

So there are many differernt versions. There’s the original poem written in German, the hymn, and here’s a simpler version, well, the lyricis are simple, the music not so much. (Maybe I couldn’t understand the words in the flash mom version bc they were singing in German?)

In all the mess and confusion of the world,

I hope you find many moments of joy!

…

For more stream of consciousness posts, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2021/08/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-21-2021/

SoCS: My Not So Wee Accident

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wee.” Use the word “wee” or find a word that contains it and use it in your post. Have fun!“

I wish I could say I had a wee accident, but that would not be true. I wish I had been able to say, “wee!” as I drove my car into the picnic table, but I was more like, OMG or WTF in a sort of out of body experience. People rushed to see if I was okay. I assured them that I was. Embarrassment and disbelief were my worst injuries.

I remembered pulling into the rest area parking lot on my way to the mountains. I’d stopped about two hours earlier for lunch and stretching and only had two more hours to go in the six hour trip. I remebered looking for a shady parking space, picking one out, turing into it and my car ran over the curb into the sturdy metal rest area picnic table.

Now I know there’s a name for what happened: Pedal confusion. It can happen to anyone, but it happens more in old people. I’m sure being tired was a factor. I stepped on the gas instead of the brake. I still find it hard to believe and embarrassing. It also happens more in confinded areas like parking lots. I’ve actually done this twice before over the years though not recently until two weeks ago. Both previous times, I was pulling into a parking space, but didn’t do any damage as I was able to correct my mistake quick enough. And there were no picnic tables. One person I lamented to said she rear ended someone by stepping on the gas by mistake. I’m glad no one was hurt.

People were very helpful. They called the police, EMS, and even a fire truck just to be safe. In spite of my assurances, EMS checked me out and everything was normal by then. There was a police officer who was very helpful. He said he could get a tow truck faster than AAA’s estimate of 45 minutes. The tow truck arrived in about 20 minutes and the police officer took me (in the cramped back of his police car) to the car rental place and made sure I would get a rental before he left. Maybe it was because I was a older ? woman driving alone. Maybe it was my father’s Bible in the car door pocket. Maybe he’s just a good cop and it was a slow day.

So anyways, I managed to have a good swim in the pool the next day and kayaked on the lake with the goal to stop thinking about the accident (after I had read at least three articles about pedal confusion.) I managed to drive the rental car back home without incident. My messed up car is still 4 hours away and needs a LOT of work. My husband says, that’s why we have insurance. He encouraged me to “get back on the horse.”

Eventually, I’ll have to go back and get my car which makes me nervous. I don’t enjoy driving anymore and talk to myself saying: “My foot is on the break. The break is in the middle.” I stay on the brake as much as possible in parking lots. Once in the parking space, I put on the parking brake. When I move my foot to the gas, I go slow and say, “Easy does it.” It makes me nervous just to write about it.

Deep breath. Another deep breath. Maybe some day, I’ll get my confidence back about driving. But I don’t want to drive long distances if I can help it. I’d rather sit here on the couch and watch TV while petting my cat.

I had prayed for safety and mindfulness at the beginning of the trip. Well, at least I was safe, because I was not hurt. Just my pride. Yeah, so I get more humilty. Okay. I am thankful.

To wrap things up, what does make me go “Wee!” in a fun way? Like swinging high in a swing. I’m not so much of a “wee” person. Maybe the ocean on a day when the waves aren’t too rough and they tickle me with foam. I wouldn’t mind swinging on a rope swing over a lake and jumping in, as long as I know the water is deep. Maybe riding a horse would do it. It’s been a while.

What would make you say, Wee?

Oh, swining a grandbaby on a swing. That would do it!

My granddaughter’s not a baby anymore.

Be safe and be mindful.

Update: Trying to wake up this morning, I stumbled upon this Ted Talk which made me realize my practice of mindful driving has become not so kind and a little bit shaming. So I was thankful for the idea of kind attention Shauna Shapiro shares in this video.

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For more streams of consciousness, rules, etc. visit Linda Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2021/08/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-7-2021/

SoCS: Angel Wings, Caladiums, Fairies, an Owl, and my Old Dog

Here’s our prompt: “the last photo you took.” Take the last photo you snapped. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you look at it? That word is your prompt. Enjoy!

The last photo I took was…. No wait. What’s the word? It’s a toss up between, Fairy, and What, as in What is the title of this piece of art that I’ve been working on for the past year and a half?

It all started when David was making a cabinet to store more canned goods at the start of COVID. He brought home the door of the cabinet, and I said, “Wait a minute! Look at those angel wings!”

Here’s one section

Unfortunately, it’s a bit heavy, but I couldn’t let it just be a cabinet door. Here are some enhancements below inspired by the wood grain. I was looking at caladiums a lot. Then the owl just showed up.

This was maybe a year ago.

Well, it’s closer to being finished. It might even be finished. I don’t know. And I don’t know what to call it. Tree fairies and friends? Caladium Angels, Fairies and Friends? Any ideas? Here’s where it is now:

What’s the first word that comes to your mind?

I didn’t plan the painting much. Some things just emerged, like my Golden Boy, Jesse who’s in heaven. Maybe he’s hanging out with fairies and owls.

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For more streams of consciousness and rules, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS July 31, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)