Full Moon Tonight

The moon is so beautiful The bottom picture has some bokeh, which can be desirable in a photo making it more interesting. 
 

The Hard Season

Here we are at the Thursday one week after Thanksgiving. I heard someone on the radio say that for most people, Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. Expectations are lower, no gifts need be exchanged, there's good familiar food, and it doesn’t linger. I know that my family enjoys getting together then.

Last Christmas was emotionally hard for me as it was the first that I was really alone, without someone who was mine. No assigned person. No mommy or husband, and no children since my sons are assigned to other women. I appreciated my man Raymond on Christmas, that he was mine, and in the later years of grown children, we found fun things the two of us could do. But we must adapt and roll along with life’s changing seasons.

I used to love my Christmas tree more than anything. Since being here I have put up only one, but it was real, a nice size with that wonderful evergreen fragrance. In retrospect, I was wrong on those other years to under-do the season. So after Christmas 2021, I ordered a nice little fake tree. I knew if I had one, I would use it. I hoped it would cheer me up. Today I got the box down from the attic and have successfully assembled the four and a half foot tree. The fairy lights work and right now, it is looking pretty in its unadorned state. Now where to put it in my little house? 

Thanksgiving Pics

 

scene from shopping/dining/business spot

I went to lunch today with a friend I met in an art class probably in 2015 when we were both new in Wilmington. Now we are both settled in, and it was great to get together and catch up. The cute breakfast/lunch place opened only a couple of months ago. In the nine years I have been here, I have seen a lot of cute restaurants come and go. 

Granddog

When Caroline moved in, this doggie came with her. She (dog) terrorized my cats on a few occasions, but we have settled into a survival routine, and we all know the drill now. Otherwise said dog is not a problem, in fact she is helpful by keeping the floors clean. 

Rainy Day Downtown

I had to go to a government building downtown to get my ID badge for guardian ad litem duties, and since I had more time on the parking meter, I dawdled and took pix of where I was. 

The top one is of Thalian Hall/City Hall on Third Street and the courthouse. Cool places.

The second is the intersection that holds the library and the Cape Fear Apartments, once the Cape Fear Hotel. It is where my mother and daddy spent their wedding night in October 1942.The next day, Daddy shipped out for the Army. 

Oh Crap

 How do you like the license plate? So many good ones around town  

At the Fish market

 Really one of my favorite places in town. 

Those strange creatures in the second pic are the heads of Golden tilefish, supposed to be good to eat.

Entertaining Myself

After eight years in art, I am starting to get back into things I used to do. Not complaining or bragging, mind you, but all that art involvement pretty much consumed me. 

I believe in breathing well and moving as two foundational parts of good health, so I went for a little walk in this warm, post rain afternoon, pocket camera in tow. The beach is great, but there is still a lot of beauty and mind clearing ability all around. A word I learned a few years ago is omnificent. We are familiar with God's qualities of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, but there is a fourth. Omnificent is God's quality of being all creative, of having unlimited creative powers. So I am in awe when I look around, up, and into all the living things. I love to see patterns and shadows, changing skies and reflections in ponds, shapes of branches and colors of leaves. Painters I know want to paint what they see, but for me, just gazing upon it all feeds my soul. 

This is my favorite in my photo lot today. 

Civic Duty

Whether we call it a season or a chapter of life, I have come to the one I am naming Singleness and finding it to be as sweet as any other. I have a freedom that I never before had, and I don't know what to do with it. Should I do this or that or the other. So I am sampling different things that appeal to me. In the medical field we call it ruling out. I will explore and then rule out whatever is boring, unpleasant or uninspiring. 

Yesterday, mid-term election day, I sampled working in a polling place. Prior to that, I had only seen a polling place from the voter's perspective. As horrifying as it is, in Wilm a voter is not expected to show a voter ID - or an ID of any sort! If you state your name and that you live at a real address, you can vote. (That is beyond my control so I won't go on about it.) Overall, the four hours I was observing were interesting. The best part is that I got to go to an election party after the polls closed. I had seen these after election parties on television where candidates, festive patriots and others were lifting their glasses and whooping it up in a bar or party room, and I wished I could be there with them. Last night I was! The anticipation built up as we watched the results on two big screens, one with national results and one with local. The school board races were big in my neck of the woods, and good news, all four of the patriots won! The school board has been a mess lately under the leadership of misguided people who lack a moral compass and have proved to be unable even to run a meeting! It needed new blood from seasoned reasonable educators and intelligent folks who want kids to grow into responsible non-perverted adults. We are so thankful that enough people in the county wanted the same thing. It also looks like we are getting a good new US senator. 

I am not ruling out this govt stuff. 

Special Magnolia

Because it marks the spot where my grandparents are buried, right under the pink flowers to the left. 

Camellia Time!

 

View from the 7th floor

 

Stamps

 I stopped by the post office to get some stamps since I like to get the pretty ones. "How much is a stamp now?" I asked. Sixty cents and going to 0.63 in January. Good grief! I think the word "forever" gave the post office carte blanche to allow the cost continue to rise, unsuspecting to the stamp buying public. 

Pelicans

It has been a long time since I took pictures. There are so many wonderful photographers in Wilmington, people who have very expensive equipment and take risks with every shot. And I felt like I had photographed everything here anyway so why bother. But today I took my little pocket camera down to the beach, and to the water where the pelicans like to hang out. 

I was excited to see two pelicans on the same post, but on closer inspection, it is just one. 

NC_Wildlife_Art_2022

Taking a walk in the neighborhood on Memorial Day

 

blue walls

From yesterday with the sunlight coming if the big windows. I painted one side of the two movable walls around the first of the year. Why didn't I do it sooner?! By the end of August, the gallery will be history. A memory. The wood bowls were brought in last week by a woodturner who was pretty popular when the market was being held in the park area. 

baby birds

 

Another May flower

 

Neighbor’s Garden

My Czech neighbor has lots of nice things growing in her small yard. There are Wilmington favorites like oleander and gardenias, plus she has several raised beds for vegetables, potatoes, beans, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers that are pictured here. 

In my yard

 

From Social Media

 

Yesterday evening

In the warm season from 6-9 pm, the restaurant that is a two minute walk from the gallery has musicians playing out on the wide deck on the side I am closest to. Behind the spot where they perform is a setting sun with gulls and pelicans flying over the tall swaying trees. Last night the temperature was perfect and so was the married duo that sang and played. The people I sat with and I were especially wowed by the woman’s quietly soulful voice. I do love being in Wilmington!

From one pier to the other

This is where I learned that I can’t lift my legs as high as I used to. A couple of weeks ago I walked the sandy path, and I lost my dignity as I clumsily tried to step over a big fallen tree. Two bruised knees resulted. A young couple was also walking and identifying animal footprints in the sand. Very interesting. 

Back side of nearby restaurant

 

birds at the beach

 

In the lake today

 

Today on the river

 

Pretty tulips in the house

 

May 9

Today’s pic is of the bowl of candy in the office of the car place I go to for an oil change  that I am having done today. I am rolling a fireball around in my mouth now, the first of many. 

May 8

I don't put the effort into taking pictures like I used to, but I am trying to continue my tradition of posting one each day in May. I was glad to see some honeysuckle in the backyard. 

May 7

Last year the cave swallows built a nest, lay eggs, and baby birds hatched. I never knew if they survived and flew off on their own or not. They are back at it this year. 

Funeral

Before the weather turned hot today, a graveside service was held for Brenda, the sister of my oldest friend here. It was in a cemetery I did not know of, and it was beautiful in the Wilmington way. The man who simply stood and sang How Great Thou Art pitch perfect was as inspiring as the words to that wonderful song and reminded my of when it was sung at the funerals of my loved ones. And I didn't cry. On the way out I drove past huge live oaks laden with Spanish moss. It is good to be home. 

I love being on the river

 

May 3 - Bunny

 

May 2 - Colorful Shoes in Dillards

 

May 1 - Picking Strawberries

A Most Special Song

Here in the gallery I usually have some sort of neutral music playing. It cuts the deathly silence and gives life to the place. 

Today I asked Alexa to play Johnny Mathis. Old timers like me who remember the sixties probably have fond memories of his soft singing style. Amazon had quite the repertoire of Johnny's songs, and after about twenty minutes, I hear The Sweetheart Tree - or as I call it, The Tree in the Forest.  Nostalgia welled up inside. It is not even played on oldies stations, so I hadn't heard it in years. 

It was 1965 or ‘66, and I was at a church picnic with my parents, husband and baby where, after the eating portion of the evening was over, the entertainment began, and someone sang this briefly popular song on a makeshift stage during the talent show. (Talent shows were common and a great source of entertainment during my childhood through young adulthood.) It was the first time I had heard it, and I loved the easy melody and tempo and learned to sing it. It became my go to song, replacing Brahms Lullaby, that I sang quietly to my children at bedtime. All through the years. 

When I was fifty and my daddy lay dying, I sang it to him. I just had to. Sometimes after a death, things happen to let you know God is paying attention to you, letting you know He is there. It was my first day driving to work after my days off. The car radio was on as usual and seemingly from out of the blue, Tree in the Forest played. How and why did it happen on that station at that time? Some people talk about seeing cardinals, or finding a penny, but for me it was the sweetest and most nostalgic of songs.

Cold night at FF

In Honor: Mother's 100th birthday.

My mother was born 100 years ago today, and I feel it calls for a tribute. 

During World War II, she found and married the love of her life. Two days after the informal church wedding, Daddy became a soldier and left on a military truck for parts unknown. She was a war bride, and I was her war baby. An old and very sweet story. 

During my growing up years, I didn't know enough to appreciate my mother. In adulthood, by getting outside my small circle and into the real world, through my work and hearing thousands of family stories, by observing and studying cause and effect in human lives, I realized her worth and became incredibly thankful for who she was and how she reared me. Eventually I knew it was her abiding love and dutiful care that lifted me to go forward during hard times. I felt her like a rod of light within me. 

So today in her honor, I will laugh over some funny situations, find something beautiful to delight in, listen with enjoyment to a new story someone is telling, be more expressive, love more deeply, have fun, and once again be grateful to have grown up being her daughter.