A Day In The Life

People, Places, Nature, LIFE!

02/15/2021
DailyMusings

12 comments

The Great Backyard Bird Count 2021

The Great Backyard Bird Count took place all over the world this past weekend.  You can learn about it here and participate today, February 15th

I spent Sunday on the look out for visitors to my yard . A flock of Starlings showed up, the minute I moved to take their photo they flew.

This guy must have been to hungry too take off

The Blue Jays came and alerted their friends there were peanuts in the yard

The Chickadees paid a visit too

 

Dark Eyed Junco

Mockingbird

Mourning Dove

Red Bellied Woodpecker

The only bird that was a new visitor to my yard was a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, a type of Woodpecker. He was high up in a tree, and I was taking the photo through a window so I was not able to get the clearest of photos.

He has a distinct red head spot, and red on his neck.

Here is a video,(not taken by me) that shows his beauty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

02/14/2021
DailyMusings

9 comments

Song Lyric Sunday: Inside Our Heads

Today’s prompt is Brain/Mind/Think

Written in 1969, the song has been recorded more than 100 times, first by Lightfoot himself for the album Sit Down Young Stranger. The album was not a commercial success, but after the song reached #5 on the US singles chart in 1971, the album was renamed after the song and re-released, reaching #12 in the pop charts.  My father was a big fan and I grew up listening to Gordon Lightfoot and his beautiful voice.

02/14/2021
DailyMusings

4 comments

Book Character Day

Last week in school we had a special event day. Everyone was asked to dress up as their favorite book character. The day was to be spent in D.E.A.R. time- that’s Drop Everything And Read. There was a Bingo game with questions about your book, there were reviews of books and discussions about them. It was such fun to run into people in the hallways dressed as their favorite characters.

The book that popped into my head when this special day was announced was Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. It was published in 1964 and I can remember just loving it when I read it at age 9 or 10.  Eleven-year-old Harriet M. Welsch is an aspiring writer who lives in New York City’s Upper East Side. Harriet is precocious, ambitious and enthusiastic about her future career. Encouraged by her nanny, Catherine “Ole Golly,” Harriet carefully observes others and writes her thoughts down in a notebook as practice for her future career, to which she dedicates her life. She follows an afternoon “spy route”, during which she observes her classmates, friends, and people who reside in her neighborhood. Things don’t always go so well for Harriet, and life lessons abound. Most of the kids in my class had never heard of the book and I was happy that at the end of the day a few asked me to write down the name on their book list, I had sparked their interest in reading it.

02/14/2021
DailyMusings

25 comments

Bird Weekly: Birds You Love

As a lover of all birds, this is tricky. But I will admit I do have some favorites.

Grey Catbird. I love their call, which sounds like a meow. I love their black cap and red underside, usually hidden from view.

Mockingbird. The great mimic who can sing on and on without taking a break. They are friendly and will think nothing of swooping in to say hello or to let you know they have a nest nearby and you should keep moving along.

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Blue Jay for their beauty and also their sassiness!

 

Bald Eagle
Oyster Catcher
American Goldfinch
Tree Swallow
Cardinal
Nuthatch
Red Wing Blackbird

 

Birds You Love

02/07/2021
DailyMusings

18 comments

RDP-Sunday:Homecoming

I still live in the same town where I grew up, been here since 1962. I moved from my parent’s home into my own apartment in town, and then married and we bought a house a few blocks from my childhood home. I saw today’s prompt and thought of how I still consider the home where I grew up, (long since knocked down) and my childhood there as going home. The family gatherings, my siblings, my parents. A lot of life has gone by since then, my parents both gone, my brother too. All three sisters out of touch with each other for many years now. But those years together still “home” in my mind.  Here’s my homecoming for today’s prompt:

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Homecoming

02/01/2021
DailyMusings

17 comments

Last On The Card

Brian invites us to share the last photo we took for the month of January, no editing. Here are mine.

Last on the cell phone, a beautiful sunrise on Sunday, but as the rhyme goes, red sky at morning, sailors take warning, and we are expecting a major snowstorm Sunday into Monday…

A few hours later I went down to my favorite pond and saw 5 Eagles hanging out in a tree.

Something was down there….

Last On the Card

 

01/27/2021
DailyMusings

12 comments

Tuesday Photo Challenge: All You Need is Love!

Our challenge for the week is to share what we love, love doing, love sharing, just love, love, love!

This photo pretty much sums it all up. Drinking coffee (Starbucks iced latte), a book, my camera, knitting, and sitting overlooking water, nature and birds.

My view from the photo above

The beach at sunrise

The birds in my backyard

Walking through a garden

This view

Love

01/26/2021
DailyMusings

17 comments

The Weekly Smile

I can’t say much good has come out of our present world in this pandemic, but if I did have to find something I would say the use of ZOOM has connected us in a way we might never have thought possible. My school was closed back in March and remained so for the remainder of the year, all classes were on ZOOM. Not a perfect situation, but at least we had school and managed to connect and actually continue learning. This year we are back in person in the classroom, but for those who may be absent, they can ZOOM in and interact with the class. I had a mini high school reunion on ZOOM when a bunch of us decided to get together that way, and I attended my niece’s wedding on ZOOM.

This past Sunday someone in my neighborhood advertised he was giving an Origami lesson on ZOOM. My husband and I decided to check it out and logged on along with a bunch of kids. The person running it was kind enough to leave a box of origami papers with what we would need, on his doorstep for anyone participating to pick up.

We were going to make fruit in a bowl. We would begin with an orange.

The man giving the lesson had the patience of a saint. All the folding and turning the paper over, and making a crease and following the crease could be confusing, but he helped each child that was having a hard time, starting over as many times as needed.

I have to say there was a certain amount of satisfaction when he told us to find the tiny hole at the top of the orange and blow into it to inflate the orange, and it worked!

Next we would try our hand (literally) at making a bunch of bananas. This entailed a lot of folding, and folding the paper over itself many times. One child was really having a hard time, but our teacher remained calm and patient walking her through it.  It struck that me in order to do origami one needs patience, it is not something that is done quickly, the folding needs to be precise in order for whatever you are creating to turn out correctly. This man has been doing it for over 20 years, during which time he has honed his craft, along with his patience, I would guess.

The bowl was last, which was pretty simple compared with the orange and bananas. It allowed us to learn different folds, and their names.

A smile to start our week off, and learn something new too!

Weekly Smile

 

 

01/22/2021
DailyMusings

8 comments

A Photo a Week Challenge: She’s Got The Look

My mother was a no nonsense kind of person. She had a short fuse and little patience. She was organized and always on time, kept lists and took care of things. Emotional she was not. If you were looking for a hug, sympathy or someone to dry your tears she was short on giving those things. Her mother was not the type either, so I assume that is where the die was cast.

This photo was a typical look of hers, the resigned, ok what do you want, just get this over with look. No doubt mad she was the one cleaning up the leaves in the backyard instead of one of her 4 kids. I have no idea who took it, the date on it says 1985, making her 53 at the time.

This photo is another great moment in Pauline history… the don’t mess with me I am really ticked off  look. Hand on hip, no smile, she means business. She had taken her camera in to the store where she bought it because something had gone wrong and she was not happy. The guy behind the counter took this photo. Whenever I see it I smile, because the guy probably didn’t know what hit him. My mother was someone to be reckoned with when she got mad.

But in all fairness, that was not my mother all the time. She was also an easy laugh, and once her children were grown she became calmer and less bothered by things. Life was easier. The photo below was taken at my grandfather’s summer home, during a meal on the beautiful screened in porch overlooking the water. Her easy smile shows the other side of her, that emerged during her later years.

She’s Got the Look

01/18/2021
DailyMusings

25 comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Emotions

This week, LAPC #131 gives us the opportunity to focus on emotions. Show photos that captures people’s feelings, such as happiness, anger, sadness, curiosity, or fear. Or, choose a subject or scene that evokes an emotion in the viewer.

I began sifting through the many files of photos on my computer and kept coming across old photographs, most taken long ago, but all capturing a moment of emotion.

SURPRISE

Walking into a surprise party for my 21st birthday….

JOY

A family party, my husband showing how happy he was to be there…

More joy at a wedding

LAUGHTER

My cousin and I sharing a laugh on my 30th birthday

My sister and I having a good laugh

My mother -someone must have said something funny

And excitement, happiness, joy all in one….

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Emotions

 

 

 

12/29/2020
DailyMusings

21 comments

The Weekly Smile

I began knitting again after Covid 19 brought changes to the world.  It was helpful to have something to keep my hands and mind busy, distract me from the stress of school and the ever present underlying feeling of tension. A close friend is a knitter, so she helped me through the mistakes as my hands found their “footing” once again. I knit through the spring and  summer, completing some scarves and neck warmers, trying different patterns along the way. Most days throughout the summer I could be found sitting on my favorite pedestrian bridge overlooking the water, knitting and Starbucks in hand.

Once school started, my knitting was a tension reliever as I sat outdoors during lunchtime, my hands busy creating something I would later be able to wear.

Last month I decided to try my hand at beanies, which brought new knowledge of knitting in the round, and when using large needles and bulky yarn, I could finish a hat in a few hours!

This brings me to my weekly smile. My husband has been watching me knit for these many months, and asked if I would show him how to do it. So I did. He caught on pretty quickly, and worked on a practice piece, my fixing his mistakes along the way, and showing him where he had gone wrong. He watched a few youtube videos, and that helped too.

After a few days, he was ready to move on, and wanted to learn how to purl, rather than just the knit stitch. More practice. Now he was ready to actually work on something, and forged ahead knitting me a scarf to match one of my hats. And so he did. And that made me smile.

The Weekly Smile

12/27/2020
DailyMusings

4 comments

Song Lyric Sunday

This week’s prompt is: Odor/Scent/Smell/Taste

“A Taste of Honey”  was originally an instrumental track (or recurring theme) written for the 1960 Broadway version of the 1958 British play A Taste of Honey (which was also made into the film of the same name in 1961). Both the original and a later recording by Herb Alpert in 1965 earned the song four Grammy Awards. I grew up listening to the Herb Alpert album it was released on, my father was a big fan.  It was also recorded by The Hollies and The Beatles.

These are the original lyrics, The Hollies changed them up a bit.

Winds may blow over the icy sea
I’ll take with me the warmth of thee
A taste of honey
A taste much sweeter than wine
I will return
I’ll return
I’ll come back for the honey and you
I’ll leave behind my heart to wear
And may it e’er remind you of
A taste of honey
A taste much sweeter than wine
I will return
I’ll return
I’ll come back for the honey and you
He ne’er came back to his love so fair
And so she died dreaming of his kiss
His kiss of honey
A taste more bitter than wine
I will return
I will return
I’ll come back for the honey and you
I’ll come back for the honey and you.
The Hollies Version

A taste of honey
Tastin’ much sweeter than wine

Yours was the kiss that awoke my heart
And lingers still, though we’re far apart
A taste of honey (honey, honey)
Tastin’ much sweeter

I dream of your first kiss, and then
I feel upon your lips and then
A taste of honey (honey, honey)
Tastin’ much sweeter

I will return, yes I will return
I’ll come back for the honey

Well I will return, yes I will return
I’ll come back
For the honey
And you
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa you
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa you
Whoa, whao, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa you

Song Lyric Sunday

 

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