This month Jude wants to see native wild flowers – those plants that haven’t been planted, but occur naturally
A Photo A Week Challenge: Raindrops
I was so engrossed in taking a photo of this wild Yellow Iris with drops of rain from what I thought was the previous night’s rain, when I realized it was actually raining at that moment. 
I made a hasty retreat back to the car, but not before attempting to catch some of the raindrops making rings in the pond
Travel Theme: Camping
I’m not really a camping kind of girl. I love nature, wildlife, and walking in nature. I have no desire to sleep under the stars listening to sounds of croaking toads, howling wolves and thinking about the ticks and ants crawling around and the bears looking for food. I read an article a few years ago about Glamping- glamorous camping. When you’re glamping, there’s no tent to pitch, no sleeping bag to unroll, no fire to build. Glamping is a way to experience the great outdoors without sacrificing luxury. Not that I have ever done it, but it would certainly be more up my alley.
In the meantime I will stick to the indoors with an outdoor view and places nearby to visit by day, and sleep tucked in within 4 walls and 3 flights up, in an old B & B – as my husband and I did in beautiful Ocean Grove NJ.
Sunday Splash
Black & White Sunday: Texture
Taking A Break
As I walked along a trail looking from side to side and of course up and down, when I turned to my left I thought I caught the glimpse of something behind the fallen trees. I crouched down and zoomed in, and sure enough it was a deer. Laying down. 
He turned his head when he heard the beep of my camera- he was only a few feet away.
I moved along but turned to look back, then spotting another deer also resting a little farther back
What a beautiful peaceful scene, and beautiful animal.
Hope you can take the time to take a break this weekend too!
Feathers on Friday
The Northern Mockingbird enjoys making its presence known. You can see them sitting on fences, eaves, or telephone wires, and I often see them running and hopping along the ground. They sing almost endlessly, even sometimes at night.
Thursday’s Special: Park
Three different parks- three different seasons.
Visiting and walking in parks is one of my favorite things to do
Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Tongues
Cee’s Share Your World
When do you feel most connected with others?
When we are sharing in a common experience together, either something positive like a celebration, or sadly grief over the loss of a friend.
What daily habit would you like to introduce to your life?
Meditation. I would like to be able to sit quietly and concentrate on breathing and blocking out “the noise” that takes up space in my head sometimes.
What one mini-little-adventure would you like to have in the coming week?
I have to admit I am not looking for any adventures at the moment- mini or otherwise! School is winding down and just being in 1st grade everyday is an adventure in itself!
List a list of things or events that changed your Life: It could be as simple as a book or meeting a certain person
Meeting my BFF
Meeting my husband
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Distance
Taking The High Road
The school year is coming to an end, with a mere 24 days left. Looking back I have been reviewing the things I have learned this year, about myself and about others. There have been times when my interaction with fellow teachers has proven challenging- making me reassess who I am, and who I become when I interact with them. The head teacher I assist who is 16 years my junior, came right out and told me “they bring out the worst in you.” She was so right. It is easy to get caught up in allowing the negative behavior of others and their lack of integrity, to cloud my judgment and bring out the worst in me. I am a rule follower, and as I continued to follow the rules while others scoffed and broke them, I became too focused on how unjust it seemed, how unfair that they were “getting away with it.” My resentment was growing and gnawing away at my insides. My husband said I needed to let it go, if they choose to act without integrity, to take the low road by lying, complaining, and attempting to elevate themselves by pointing out the faults in others, I should not lower myself to their level by allowing that resentment to eat me up alive. Many times I use the phrase “be your best self” and now I needed to listen to my own advice, and take my own advice. Stop worrying about what they were “getting away with”- but instead focus on being the best person I could be, not allowing their ugly behavior to turn me into an ugly person, dragging me down, complaining and spewing my resentment to anyone who would listen.
I already feel better changing my “focus” -minding my own business and not letting the choices others make have an impact on who I am. Focus once again on being my best self.
Blueday Tuesday with Tree Swallows
BOO!
Sunday Splash
What Was, Was
Yesterday I ran into a childhood friend I have not seen in 40 years. We grew up near each other and went to elementary through high school together. It was nice to see her and we caught each other up on what we have been doing in our lives and where we now lived. I still live in the town I grew up in, just a few blocks from where my childhood home stood. She told me her parents sold the home she had grown up in, and the new owners tore it down and built something new, much to her chagrin. She commented on how awful that was, how the feeling of the neighborhood had changed. I listened and smiled and said my childhood home had also been razed, but stopped there rather than share what I was really thinking.
My town is filled with tree lined streets, lined with houses built in the 1920’s and 30’s. Many Tudor style homes, as the one I live in built in 1932. Many are still beautiful on the outside, but on the inside hold another story. No master bathrooms, tiny bedrooms, old kitchens without dishwashers and scarred linoleum tile. Our kitchen was decorated with yellow formica from the 1970’s when we moved in, and a gas stove you lit with a match. I set out to replacing it a few years after we moved in, but for many replacing is not worth it, a total “redo” will work better. I grew up in a home with no master bathroom, 4 kids and 2 adults shared the bathroom, but that is not something I would choose to do today. Some people have no interest in the charm others see in older homes, especially when they can turn into a money pit. Part of me understood where this friend was coming from on an emotional level- her childhood home with her memories was no longer standing, but is it the actual house that holds those memories or are they still safe inside her, with her forever?
I knocked on the door of the home I grew up in some years after my mother sold it. I was invited to come in and look around. As I walked through the entry hall I got all choked up- it was as if I had stepped into a time warp, literally crossed the threshold into the past. I was surprised at my reaction, pictures flooding my mind of coming through those entry doors for most of my life. Some things within the house had changed, some remained the same. It still felt familiar on some level. A few years later the house was sold again and torn down- it was sad to actually witness the tractors doing their demolishing, but it didn’t really matter to me. The destruction did not destroy what I held inside.
Neighborhoods change, old replaced with new, many of the new homes in town built to look old blending in with overall feeling of the neighborhood. They are much larger and grander, they hold kitchens with granite counter tops and islands, “great” rooms off those kitchens, because that is how today’s families live. Time moves on, things change. The actual physical demolition of something does not have to mean it is demolishing what we can hold dear to us inside is how I view it. 
Weekly Photo Challenge: Face
Sunday Surprise
I heard a noise and looked overhead to find an eye looking back at me.
I guess he wanted to take a better look and changed position…I took it as a friendly gesture on his part
until I realized through my viewfinder there was another eye above his ear
Who wanted to say good morning too!
It’s good to have a friend to hang out with.
but I guess they decided to go back to sleep and said good bye! Hope you have a Sunday of happy surprises too!
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Music
My father instilled in me my love for music. I learned to play piano and guitar when I was a teenager, and loved to sing. 
Music has the ability to transport us back to the place we were when we first heard a certain song, remind us of a person, settle its melody inside our head and into our soul.
I went with my husband to one of his violin lessons and enjoyed seeing how his teacher explained how he should feel the music, let himself go as he plays.
Here is my father singing, a recording from 1953 that I was able to convert to CD and then mp3. When I think of music, I think of him.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Shoes or Feet
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Single Flowers or Bud
Feathers on Friday
Meet the Black Crowned Night Heron. They are small herons with rather squat, thick proportions. They stand still as a statue in streams or creeks, this one I walked right by as he was so still I didn’t see him at first.
Something spooked him (probably the click of my camera) and he flew into a tree, where we had a staring down contest.
Feathers on Friday
Chance Encounter
Is there really such a thing as a chance encounter? Or is it part of some “bigger plan” already set up that brings two people together to change their lives. Their meeting predestined, but they think it all chance. I personally believe things do not happen by “chance,” rather they are “meant to be.” We do not always see this at first, or may not see it for many years. I feel that way about someone who came into my life when I was 16. My “chance encounter,” and meeting him changed my life in many ways. He became the catalyst that set changes in motion that would eventually lead me to the life I have with my husband, how I live my life today. I learned much about myself through my experience with him in my life, grew to know myself better, understand myself better. We parted ways, and then met up again 26 years later. Another chance encounter. Or was it fate playing with us once again? Adults with lives behind us, and futures still ahead, his being cut short by illness. I helped him out the last two years of his life, was with him when he died. Our initial chance encounter changing my life in so many ways, and now our final chance encounter changing it again. I wrote the story in a previous prompt if you would like to read it here
Alone in the Woods- Not So Much
Someone asked me if I mind walking by myself along the trail in the nature preserve I go to. I don’t mind at all, as the trail is not deep inside woods, I am always able to see the sky, and have become so familiar with the trail I always know where I am. I like to be alone to take in everything around me, without the distraction of talking to anyone. Besides, I am never really alone, just yesterday these were all the friends I shared my walk with.
One Word Photo Challenge: Bulb
Keep Dancing
As I walked through a park this past Sunday, I passed a man sitting on a bench at a particularly beautiful stretch of the path. He was alone and seemed so content. I took a photo of him after I passed, and then decided to stop and say hello to him.
His name was Matty, and he told me he comes to the park often, even though it is a 15 minute drive from where he lives. He loves the outdoors, and usually bicycle rides but his knee has been giving him a hard time lately. He told me he continued to ski until he was 70. His favorite activity has always been ballroom dancing, his favorite dances salsas. I wondered about his family but didn’t want to ask, when he offered that his wife had passed away some years ago. Today was Mother’s Day and he had just come from the cemetery to sit here in the park. I felt bad as he choked up when telling me this, but he brightened quickly to tell me more about his dancing and how he goes twice a week. 
He then asked me how old I thought he was. I estimated late 70’s, as his face revealed no lines, he was fit and trim. He laughed out loud and said 91. He shared how it is hard to be alone and how important it is to get out and be with people, stay involved. He said his only daughter lives on the west coast, and works in TV, that I could find her if I googled her and looked her up on youtube. Matty set a good example of someone who is keeping himself current and relevant by keeping up with the times- something to emulate I thought to myself.
I finally said I had to go, but was glad I had stopped to say hello. Our short visit had left me with things to think about; growing older, being alone, staying current, staying active, participating in life, not quitting life just because you reach a certain age. A 15 minute life lesson to take with me, to keep as a reminder.
A Day In The Life 
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