A Day In The Life

People, Places, Nature, LIFE!

01/18/2019
DailyMusings

15 comments

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt: Jan. 18th: Companionship

Our Max (left) and Sammy. Both rescues, we brought Sammy home first and two years later wanted him to have a friend, so brought Max home. Max was game from the start, but Sammy made it very clear that he was the Alpha dog, and really wasn’t looking for a friend. He tolerated Max mostly.

He did allow him to share the living room chair for a nap, not really leaving much choice, as Max just snuggled himself right up against him

Here Sammy was the initiator. But I am sure he would never admit it.

And then the years wore on, Sammy was 18 and confused, the Vet told us dogs, like people, if they live long enough, can suffer with senility. He would always seek the touch of Max, his loyal companion all these years.

I came into the kitchen one day to find Max had climbed into the bed with Sammy, though there really was not enough room for them both in the bed. He placed his head on Sammy and stayed like that for a few hours. Companionship.

Companionship

01/16/2019
DailyMusings

13 comments

Weather Vane Wednesday

Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, Tarrytown NY

Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture is a non-profit farm and educational center  located in Pocantico Hills, New York. The Center was created on 80 acres (320,000 m2) formerly belonging to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills by David Rockefeller and his daughter, Peggy Dulany. Stone Barns promotes sustainable agriculture, local food, and community-supported agriculture. Stone Barns is a four-season operation.

I loved this cow weathervane

Weather Vane Wednesday

01/15/2019
DailyMusings

12 comments

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt: Jan. 15th: Paris

The year was 1983, I was 25, and it was my first trip to Europe. My sister and I were traveling together, but she left a week before me. I flew at night, on a plane that had seating on a 2nd level, I remember it being very quiet. My sister met me at the airport, I scanned the faces on the other side of the gate searching for her, overwhelmed by the signs in French and being in a completely new place. My Aunt was living in Paris at the time, so off we went to her home, to unpack and then explore the streets. So many years ago but I can still remember it so vividly.

Paris

01/13/2019
DailyMusings

12 comments

Song Lyric Sunday: Laugh/Laughter/Laughing

This week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme is Laugh. 

We all need laughter in our lives. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving our resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel–good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can forget the chance
That I didn’t have to know you
And live in peace, in peace
‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can forget the plans that
I didn’t use to get you
At home, with me, alone
Oh yeah
‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can recall the way
That I used to be, before you
And sleep at night, and dream
‘Cause if I laugh, baby if I laugh
Just a little bit
Oh yeah

01/12/2019
DailyMusings

12 comments

JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt -Jan. 12th: Art

We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the summer. It is an enormous museum, but we decided to focus on the galleries that held the European Paintings. We saw paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt to name a few. Some of the art dated as far back as the 1400’s. As I walked through the galleries I seemed to focus on the different ways women had been depicted in art. It differed depending upon the year the painting had been done, or the status the woman held in society. Here are a few photos I took of those women. Some women are adorned in beautiful clothing, obviously wealthy, while the painting depicted on the bottom right was of a servant sleeping.

The painting that I was most taken by was this one

It is called The Fortune Teller, an oil painting of circa 1630 by the French artist Georges de La Tour. The work was uncovered in about 1960 and purchased that year by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting catches a moment in which a young man of some wealth is having his fortune told by the old woman at right; she takes the coin from his hand, not only in payment, but as part of the ritual in which she will cross his hand with it. Most or all of the women portrayed are gypsies, and, furthering the stereotype of the time, they are depicted as thieves. As the young man is engrossed in the fortune-telling—an act which, if discovered, would have repercussions for both him and the gypsies—the leftmost woman is stealing the coin purse from his pocket, while her companion in profile has a hand ready to receive the loot. The pale-faced girl on the boy’s left is less clearly a gypsy, but is also in on the act as she cuts a medal worn by the boy from its chain. The figures in the painting are close together, as if in a play, and the composition may have been influenced by a theatrical scene.

The face of the woman who is cutting the coin purse was haunting. I love the vivid colors used in the painting and the expressions and just the scene of what is happening. A trace from the past from 1630.

Art

01/11/2019
DailyMusings

23 comments

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt :Jan. 11th: flew/flu/flue

The school I work in has been overcome by flu. I can barely keep up with wiping down the doorknobs and desks with Lysol sheets. My hands are raw from washing them in hopes of fending off the germs floating around in the air. I leave the classroom windows open to let those germs take leave out through them. So enough about that kind of flu. Let’s move on to flew, as in flight, as in birds.

flu/flew/flue

01/08/2019
DailyMusings

7 comments

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Gentle

This week Frank invites us to share our interpretation of Gentle.

This duck seemed to want to make friends. She walked right up to me as I sat on a bench in a park one day. A gentle soul.

Nothing like the feeling of a duck taking bread from your hand. Their bills were soft and barely touched my fingers as they took it.

Gentle

01/07/2019
DailyMusings

6 comments

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt : Jan. 7th

The  prompt today is “memento.”

My father was a collector of things. Keepsakes from trips, small figurines that struck his fancy. He had a great appreciation for things that were handmade, going to crafts fairs or seeking out off the beaten path places to shop. I seem to have “inherited” this from him.

Back in the 1980’s my father discovered a wonderful music box store in New York City, Rita Ford Music Boxes. The store had opened in the late 1940’s and carried an amazing collection of music boxes. My father’s love of music carried over to these wonderfully made music boxes that played so many different songs, and could be custom made to do so. The boxes themselves were works of art too.

The musical “Cats” came to Broadway in 1982, and my father took me to see it. The song Memory became a hit from the show, the lyrics poignant, the melody so beautiful. As a gift my father gave me a music box from Rita Ford’s store, that played the song Memory. I cherish it to this day.

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