Return to Posting September 30, 2017

"Mackerel Clouds"

In the past month two of my friends, Diana and Ileana, have asked me to write postings for my blog again.  For several months the thought has been in the back of my mind but today the true inspiration hit me with a hard knock - write about this!  Mackerel clouds.  I Googled it and found it is a common name of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds arranged in this fashion.   Thanks to my man, Frank, who interrupted my reading to show me this phenomenon of which  pilots are well aware, but not me.   Thanks to the Universe for providing us with such beauty and pleasure!  The wonderful thing is - hardly a day goes by here at The Pond without something catching our eyes and causing us to wonder and be grateful for the serenity and beauty of our home.

Weather is right for Just Being.July of 2016

Today, for some reason, time is sort of standing still.  There is nothing on my agenda to be done.  It seems all has already been done.  Those things that are left to be done are outside chores and in 90 degree weather, it's not possible.  I have been getting up at 7:00 am each morning and doing yard chores for a couple hours.  Then, it's get inside to AC!  The temperatures have been in the 90s for many days now.  I guess the global warming believers group is growing by leaps and bounds this summer since it appears to be hotter everywhere!  I suppose in part my discomfort is due to my elder years.  But whatever it is, I'm tired of the heat.
Fortunately, Frank and I are going to Vermont soon - August 5 we leave for a two-week trip.  Surely it will be cooler there?  At least by ten degrees.  In the meantime, I'll stick with doing a lot of nothing important and just be.

Return to Blogging - Tomatoes

It's been a while,  but blogging isn't something to do under pressure or necessarily regularly.  So, just this afternoon I am once again moved to write, after months of doing other things that seemed more relevant. Tomatoes are on my mind.  We have 5 tomato plants that are producing a true challenge  in an attempt to not waste a single one.  Tonight, it's scalloped tomatoes (from my 50-year-old BH&G cookbook).  Last night it was tomato salsa (recipe from the Internet) and both are real winners.  We are eating the salsa on our lunchtime ham and cheese sandwiches.  Tomorrow, I'm shooting for gazpacho.  Found MANY recipes on line once I remembered its name.  Had to start with "cold tomato soup."  It is true, there is something uplifting to be felt in growing, preparing, and eating veggies from one's own garden.  It is true, I do not like to cook.  But I am certainly enjoying this experimenting.  It is also true that I am not an experienced gardener.  May never again grow a tomato, but this time it is fun - regardless of the knowledge that each tomato has cost much more money, time, effort, thought, and all that kind of thing than those I buy at Food Lion.  But who cares about money?  Only those who don't have enough.  And I certainly have enough.  I guess the real question is "What is enough money?"

Family Reunion June 18, 2016

I just realized I said I would post here

The Yogatorium

information about the family reunion coming up June 18.  And, I haven't written a post since mid March!   I am still alive and well but managing to find more urgent things to do than writing posts.  For example, I am studying French and it is taking up all of my fun time - well, not all, but a lot.   My niece, Kate, is accompanying me to Provence for a two-week yoga trip!  We leave May 14 and return the 30th.  Fortunately, my partner, Frank, spent some time in Europe and is very helpful in my pronunciation difficulties.  Not that I'm any good at it, but at least he helps by conversing with me.  Of course, Google Translate is a key tool.  What a joy to be able to simply type in a word and get the French to look at and HEAR both on my MacPro and on my smart phone.

This note is really a plea to all the family who might see it - please send me names and email addresses of ALL your family members.  At the moment, I have most of my own family in a group email mailing, but only one or two from other families.  As you know, there are seven:  Annie Laurie, Harold, Helen, Lois, Louise, Margaret, and Voight.  I discovered a listing I did 14 years ago for the last reunion and realized there are many names of children and grandchildren which I could not possibly have come up with.  I'll be happy to make up a list for everyone but I'd like it to be as complete as possible.  Be sure to include those who have passed on and, dates, if possible.

And, of course, let me know whether or not you will be attending our celebration June 18.

"Beside the sea...."

WHEE!  I am sitting on the third floor of the Harbor Town Yacht Club in a lovely suite with its own balcony looking out over Calibogue Sound.  How fortunate I am to have a brother who lives right across the harbor and provides such wonderful hosting whenever I am here.  This weekend will be especially special since friends Harriet and Ed and their family are here on a winter break vacation from Albany, NY.  The temperature this morning is 69 - a beautiful day is beginning - even shorts weather!  Harriet and I have traveled together several times and our families have been friends for over fifty years.  What a joy!  Last evening Jim and Anne took me and Frank to the Quarter Deck here right beside the lighthouse.  I somehow or another had never eaten there before and, of course, the food was very good.  Like Atlanta, it is difficult to eat in any restaurant that doesn't serve very good food - a real treat for a Ninety Six resident!....but the most important benefit is the atmosphere, the energy of being "beside the sea."....As a child, my favorite poem began, "When I was down beside the sea, a wooden spade they gave to me, to dig the sandy shore."  I've forgotten the rest.

Yoga Benefits

I am beginning a new book: Threads of Yoga.  Thanks to my niece, Kate.  It is a whole new take on Patanjali's sutras.   Here are a few words that caught my attention - particularly the last few words:  "it does not lie."
The legacy of yoga has been resurrected in our time through the innate pleasure of our flesh.  The simplest techniques of breathing, spinal elongation, and joint fluidity have given countless flesh-alienated postmoderns a renewed sense of vitality, purpose, grounding, and connection........Through modern postural yoga we have remembered that our flesh innately wants to rejoice, connect, and serve--and that it does not lie.
In my experience, these words are fact - vitality, purpose, grounding, and connection.  Yes, these are benefits of practicing Hatha yoga, as we teach at The Yogatorium.

Valentine Rose

Still trying to learn how to use my upgraded laptop!   Here's a photo of Frank planting his Valentine's gift to me - a Mr. Lincoln tea rose bush!