Wordless Wednesday
Summer Came Early
The temps hit 87 degrees on Sunday so my husband and I headed for the beach! What a treat to sit by the ocean in April. I walked to the edge of the water and found it to be FREEZING, but enjoyed it anyway. Here are some of the sights as we walked a round trip of 5 and 1/2 miles along the boardwalk, crossing through three towns. Back where we started, we parked ourselves in front of the ocean and enjoyed the sound of crashing waves and ocean breezes.
Surprise
Quite a surprise to spot this group of Cormorants taking in the sun on a branch in the water yesterday. 
One Word Photo Challenge: Fish
Measure
Cee’s Black & White Challenge: M
Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do….
-Bruce Springsteen from the song Sandy
– 
Feathers on Friday
Say hello to the Palm Warbler. 
I saw him moving around in the grass, and knew it was a bird I had never seen before. He was pretty quick but I managed to capture a shot of him. This brownish-olive bird has a bright rusty cap and a bold pale eyebrow stripe. The Palm Warbler is a warbler that doesn’t act like one, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They spend their time walking on the ground, wagging their tail up and down. Which is exactly where I first spotted him. They mainly forage on open ground or in low vegetation, rather than in the forest canopy as many warblers do. This one was kind enough to fly up onto a pole allowing me a better view and the opportunity to take his photo once again.
A new addition to my list of birds!
Thursday’s Special: Waiting
Waiting for a fare….
Cars waiting for the light to change….
People waiting for the light to change….
Waiting….
More waiting….
Perhaps waiting for a friend….
Cee’s Which Way
Wordless Wednesday
It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
The town I live in has long been on the frontlines of diversity. In the 1960s it was the first town in America to integrate its schools voluntarily. It is home to more than 20 synagogues, a Bahai temple, an Ethical Culture Society, an Islamic mosque, a Kingdom of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Syrian Orthodox church, Orthodox Jewish synagogues, Conservative Jewish congregations, Reform Jewish temples, as well as Baptist, Christian. Science, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches. Our Mayor is Muslim and the Deputy Mayor is an Orthodox Jew.
As I took my walk through town on Monday morning I noticed these signs on many lawns
The message “Hate Has No Home Here” is written in 5 languages along with English. I am proud to live in a place that sends this message in these turbulent times.
Here are some of the other sights I saw, sure signs that Spring is on the way
Then I paused for a moment under this Dogwood that is beginning to bloom. It stands in front of my neighbor Vita’s house. We always call it Vita’s Tree, and think of her when its blooms begin to show. She died about 7 years ago from a brain tumor and suffered a great deal for over a year before she died. I am always happy to see the blooms and remember how much she loved that tree and how happy it made her. Better times.
and of course my feathered friends. This Junco usually leaves come Spring, but I guess he likes the sights too.
Spring is upon us at last!
A Song A Day: Day 5
Thank you to my friend, The Happy Quitter, who put me up (set me up) to participate in the A-Song-A-Day-Challenge. Here are the rules in my friend’s words: “You post some of your favorite song lyrics for five days in a row, preferably with a video -if available. Then, you think about two bloggers who have pissed you off lately, and nominate them to participate as well. Just kidding! The chosen ones then have the choice and can take part -if they wish- or crush my little heart.”
Okay- I’m in my friend. I invite anyone in the mood to share some of their favorites and post them so we can all enjoy them too.
I grew up listening to Carly Simon when her album Anticipation was released in 1971. It rarely left the turntable. Her powerful voice and songs that ranged from ballads to soft rock never ceased to disappoint. Here I have chosen one of my favorite songs of hers, from the 1988 movie Working Girl. Music and lyrics were written by her. I love the power of the song and the hope it embodies. Enjoy a trip back to the 1908’s and clips from what I thought was a great movie.
We’re coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.
Let the river run,
let all the dreamers
wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.
Silver cities rise,
the morning lights
the streets that meet them,
and sirens call them on
with a song.
It’s asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.
We’re coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.
We the great and small
stand on a star
and blaze a trail of desire
through the dark’ning dawn.
It’s asking for the taking.
Come run with me now,
the sky is the color of blue
you’ve never even seen
in the eyes of your lover.
Oh, my heart is aching.
We’re coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.
It’s asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.
We’re coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.
Let the river run,
let all the dreamers
wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.
Share Your World
Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.
I am not a biker or swimmer, but I do walk alot and love it. I have never participated in any kind of walking event though. My husband and I walked 12 miles through a park that crosses through a few towns in our area one Sunday. My idea was to park a car at each end so we wouldn’t have to walk back- I figured 6 miles was enough, but he thought better of it and we left both cars at one end. We reached the end of the 6 miles, sat down and had lunch and he said he wished we had the car. Oh well. We walked back and slept very well that night.
Name one thing not many people know about you.
Hmmmm. That’s a hard one since I feel I have revealed so much about myself on my blog, and in “real life” basically what you see is what you get. I think people are surprised when I tell them I can be quick to anger- those who have not experienced it first hand, that is. I can have a short fuse and I also have the ability to cut people out of my life pretty easily. My father was like that, so I don’t know if it is learned behavior or partly just how I am wired. It is not something I like about myself, but have a hard time changing. I am always being put into the “escalation” department when on the phone trying to sort something out with an insurance company or the likes because I lose my temper and start yelling.
What is your favorite flower?
Hydrangea. I do love Peonies. Oh and I must include Bleeding Hearts. They are a miracle to look at.
Things I want to have in my home (paintings, hot tubs, book cases, big screen tv etc)
I just sent 8 huge garbage bags off this morning with Purple Heart donation center- I am trying to rid the house of the extras I don’t need that are taking up space. I do love the books and the knick knacks that hold special meaning because they were gifts, and some of the paintings hanging on the walls for the same reason.
Grateful everyday.Share Your World
A Song A Day: Day 4
Thank you to my friend, The Happy Quitter, who put me up (set me up) to participate in the A-Song-A-Day-Challenge. Here are the rules in my friend’s words: “You post some of your favorite song lyrics for five days in a row, preferably with a video -if available. Then, you think about two bloggers who have pissed you off lately, and nominate them to participate as well. Just kidding! The chosen ones then have the choice and can take part -if they wish- or crush my little heart.”
Okay- I’m in my friend. I invite anyone in the mood to share some of their favorites and post them so we can all enjoy them too.
John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him “the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement. I started following him around the time, when his album Land of the Bottom Line was released. He played many of the small venues near where I lived and my BFF and I would go to see him perform. He was playing locally again a few years ago and we decided to go to see him and he did not disappoint even though it was over 20 years later! The following song was one of my favorites then and is still now.
I didn’t know where to look for you last night
I didn’t know where to find you
I didn’t know how I could touch that light
That’s always gathering behind you
I didn’t know that I would find a way
To find you in the morning
But love can pull you out of yesterday
As it takes you without warning
I want to be a long time friend to you
I want to be a long time known
Not one of your memory’s used-to-bes
A summer’s fading song
[Chorus]
It’s from me, it’s to you
For your eyes
It’s a weight, a wonder that is wise
I am here, you are there
Love is our cross to bear
I know I’ll think of us upon that hill
With the golden moon arising
And the stars will fall around us still
While the love is realizing
And so it is until we meet again
And I throw my arms around you
You can count the gray hairs in my head
I’ll still be thankful that I found you
Surprises Around the Corner….My Weekly Smile
I was walking along my favorite trail a few days ago, when as I rounded a corner I passed a woman and we both did a double take at the same time. I asked if her name was Mrs. Fatell and she replied “Oui” and I said she had been my French Teacher when I was in 7th grade in 1970. She said I had looked familiar to her too, which was why she had hesitated. She is still living in the neighborhood though no longer teaching. We shared some familiar names from those days and she told me about her teaching career after I had left the school where she taught. She was born in France but has now lived here longer than there. It was so nice catching up and I told her she had given me a good foundation in French as even today I am able to still understand a bit and can construct a sentence. She was glad to hear it. We exchanged email addresses and said au revoir- until we meet again!
I continued on and came to another bend in the trail, where as I rounded it I was met with this deer’s eyes upon me, and he or she making no effort to move as I approached, which surprised me
I waited and finally said “good bye!” to which he slowly meandered into the reeds. 
I smiled as I continued on my walk, happy for both surprises I had been met with that day. What made you smile this week?
Black & White Sunday: Traces of the Past
Glenview is a river home with a past that first began with its building in 1876, built by New York City financier John Bond Trevor (1820 – 1890) Glenview’s twenty-four rooms were outfitted with the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing, gas lighting, and a huge coal-burning furnace. Trevor’s wife and daughter lived in the house until Mrs. Trevor’s death in 1922. The house was put up for sale, many of its contents sold at auction. The house, itself, was sold to the City of Yonkers, in New York, and opened as the Yonkers Museum of Science and the Arts in 1924, renamed The Hudson River Museum of Yonkers in 1948 and, then, renamed, again, The Hudson River Museum of Westchester. In the 1960s, the Museum began to restore the home as an historic residence that showed life in a home of the Gilded Age. I visited the museum last year and have chosen it for Traces of the Past this week. The museum sits overlooking the Hudson River with sweeping views of the Palisades in New Jersey across from it.
A Song A Day: Day 3
Thank you to my friend, The Happy Quitter, who put me up (set me up) to participate in the A-Song-A-Day-Challenge. Here are the rules in my friend’s words: “You post some of your favorite song lyrics for five days in a row, preferably with a video -if available. Then, you think about two bloggers who have pissed you off lately, and nominate them to participate as well. Just kidding! The chosen ones then have the choice and can take part -if they wish- or crush my little heart.”
Okay- I’m in my friend. I invite anyone in the mood to share some of their favorites and post them so we can all enjoy them too.
I am a lover of the music app Shazam, which allows you to find out the name of a song you hear, wherever you are-by tapping the app. I wrote a blog about it when I first discovered the app, you can read it here. I was shopping when I heard a song playing in the store that I liked, so I “shazamed” it and the name Austin Plaine appeared with the name of the song, “Never Come Back Again.”
According to his website, Austin Paine was born in Fargo, ND and raised in Minnesota, his music is seeded in storytelling. Austin was intrigued to find a guitar that belonged to his grandfather in a family closet. At age 13, with the help of his cousin, Austin learned his first chords and dove straight into songwriting. Taking inspiration from artists like Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith, and Ryan Adams, Austin tells emotional, inspirational and personal stories about love, exploring the world and living life to the fullest. His raw, concise lyrics and beautiful melodies have proven to be a sound track to TV shows and commercials. Mastercard licensed his song “Beautiful” for a heartfelt ad at the end of 2014. The song was also featured in a key, uplifting moment in an episode of The Biggest Loser.
I love the mellowness of the song, his voice, and am always happy to listen on my “cool down” part of my walk on the way home.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Letters K or L
A Song A Day: Day 2
Thank you to my friend, The Happy Quitter, who put me up (set me up) to participate in the A-Song-A-Day-Challenge. Here are the rules in my friend’s words: “You post some of your favorite song lyrics for five days in a row, preferably with a video -if available. Then, you think about two bloggers who have pissed you off lately, and nominate them to participate as well. Just kidding! The chosen ones then have the choice and can take part -if they wish- or crush my little heart.”
Okay- I’m in my friend. I invite anyone in the mood to share some of their favorites and post them so we can all enjoy them too.
I listen to a lot of different music, always have. I grew up listening to folk and then “pop” music, rock, punk, new wave. I still enjoy listening to a variety of music, both old songs and new.
I have a playlist in my phone I use when I am out walking, one list is upbeat, another I call “quiet cool down” for the way home. On my upbeat list are few songs by the band Daughtry, an American rock band formed and fronted by namesake Chris Daughtry, who was a finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. I love Chris Daughtry’s voice and one of the songs they sing that gets me moving is “Feels Like Tonight” It was released way back in 2006. There is nothing profound or deep about the lyrics, I like the beat and the crescendos that get me walking!
You, you got me
Thinking it’ll be all right you, you told me
“Come and take a look inside.”
You believed me, in every single lie
But I, I failed you this time
And it feels like tonight
I can’t believe I’m broken inside
Can’t you see that there’s nothing that I wanna do
But try to make it up to you?
And it feels like tonight, tonight
I was waiting
For the day you’d come around
I was chasing
But nothing was all I found
From the moment you came into my life
You showed me what’s right
And it feels like tonight
I can’t believe I’m broken inside
Can’t you see that there’s nothing that I wanna do
But try to make it up to you?
And it feels like tonight
I never felt like this before
Just when I leave, I’m back for more
Nothing else here seems to matter
In these…
Security
Staying close to momma
Shacking up with a friend
Knowing you have someone you can always count on
A Song A Day
Thank you to my friend, The Happy Quitter, who put me up (set me up) to participate in the A-Song-A-Day-Challenge. Here are the rules in my friend’s words: “You post some of your favorite song lyrics for five days in a row, preferably with a video -if available. Then, you think about two bloggers who have pissed you off lately, and nominate them to participate as well. Just kidding! The chosen ones then have the choice and can take part -if they wish- or crush my little heart.”
Okay- I’m in my friend. I invite anyone in the mood to share some of their favorites and post them so we can all enjoy them too. Like maybe you Lois.
I was thinking about the songs I love to sing along with when they come on the radio while I’m in the car and Bohemian Rhapsody came to mind. A song by the British rock band Queen, it was written by Freddie Mercury for the band’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera. It is a six-minute suite, consisting of several sections without a chorus: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. Mercury refused to explain the meaning behind his composition other than saying it was about relationships; the band remains protective of the song’s secret. Brian May supports suggestions that the song contained veiled references to Mercury’s personal traumas. He recalls “Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS, having confirmed the day before his death that he had contracted the disease.
I love all the different parts of the song, and was dating someone when it was released who listened to it incessantly, forever ingraining all 6 minutes of lyrics in my brain. I find it an amazing piece of work from a musical standpoint, not necessarily a lyrical one.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me, to me
Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters
Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body’s aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh, I don’t want to die
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright’ning me
(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo figaro magnifico
(I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me)
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go) Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mamma mia, mamma mia) Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me
So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?
Oh, baby, can’t do this to me, baby!
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!
Nothing really matters, anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows
Thursday’s Special: Pick A Word in April
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Summer – Fire
This sunrise over the ocean last summer was absolutely breathtaking. A ball of fire appearing on the horizon. It has not been altered .
The Weekly Smile
My Orchids are all blooming! That’s my smile of the week! One of the plants actually sprung an entirely new stem with buds and this week they all began to bloom. I bought each plant in a local supermarket- they were on sale for $9.99 and I just couldn’t resist. I didn’t buy them all at once, but over 3 weeks. I smile every time I come through the front door and see them in the window with all the blooms and colors. What made you smile this week?
A Day In The Life 
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