My lakeside dining room

 

A soft warm evening breeze, with soft colors in the sky over Lake Tomahawk.

As I parked, rolled down my window to take these shots, I noticed a man sitting in the van over 2 spaces from myself.

Dusk arrived before me. Some dog walkers and runners, and a few family walkers were still out.

Then the man got out of his van and had his phone and keys in each hand, standing at my window but at a distance. "Nice night," or something like that he said. "Having your dinner?"

I had just had a first bite of my sandwich, I answered, "welcome to my dining room."

He had nothing more to say. Nor did I, chewing.

Then he noticed a woman with a dog walking behind my car...so he went over to pet the dog, and talked to the woman

We are all sometimes alone, sometimes lonely. I wasn't exactly worried about him. But I had my radio blasting, so closed the window just not to anoy the neighbors.

He drove off after the woman with dog left.

And I'll show you what happened next in the next week...after Sepia Saturday tomorrow!

Today's Quote:

Think always of the universe as one living creature, made of one substance and one soul: how all is absorbed into this one consciousness; how a single impulse governs all its actions; how all things collaborate in all that happens; the very web and mesh of it all.

—Marcus Aurelius
April 26, 121 — March 17, 180, Rome
Meditations 4:40

The moon

 

No idea if the streaks and little blue dot were in the phone or where in space...so I cleaned the lens!

This may be my favorite moon photo, over Lake Tomahawk after sunset.

Today's quote:

"What makes us human, I think, is the ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.” Jane Goodall

Honoring all women in history

As my Black friends say, it's so silly to have one day, or one month to supposedly honor all the historic greats of either one race, or here just one gender.

So where does that leave all the LGBTQ+ folks?

I am not seriously wanting any particular day for their honor...but apparently Sydney Australia is putting together something pretty big for Gays and other-gendered. All kinds of rainbows on the sidewalks and buildings. And can you imagine the fall-out from a declaration that "LGBTQ+ Day" has been decided? 

25 Martin Place. This terraced entrance from Martin Place has small cylindrical benches which are very popular with office workers at lunchtime on weekdays but on weekends you can have the whole place to yourself, as seen here. The forecourt has been decorated with rainbow colours and LGBTIQA+ flags for Sydney WorldPride 2023 which runs from 17 February to 5 March 2023.

Thanks to Jim who posts a photo each day from down under

OK Women's History Day.  Does it have to be historic women? I tend to blend into those who are the elders or uniquely carry torches of their greatness.

I'm spending the month of March on my other blog (When I was 69 (now 80)) with 31 women I admire.

Whether historical or mythical, the strong and outstanding women have many stories that accompany them. I think the oldest story I'm telling is about Sekhmet, a goddess of ancient Egypt. 

For a more modern choice, I like Rachel Carson. If we had someone of her ilk around these days, there might be more hope for our planet. I am including Greta Thunberg, who may become a Carson...she has her own agenda though. I fear for her safety as she is combatting so many powerful organizations. But then the same might be said for many powerful women.

Today's quote:

 Sandra Keith Boynton designed a Happy Birthday card with a hippopotamus, a bird, and two sheep on it that said: “Hippo Birdie Two Ewes.” It sold 10 million copies.  

Doing my class yesterday

 The Bones for Life class yesterday was really long...just as it's scheduled. But I was too tired after lunch break to take part in the next processes.

So since it's recorded, I'm going to have to do the last 2 hours later this week.

On my other blog the other day I gave Ruthy Alon as a Woman in History.

She learned from Mosehe Feldenkrais. And then she taught Cynthia Allen, who is part of the Bones for Life training...classes if you will.

My intention is to have a skeleton which is able to continue to help me move rather than osteoporosis, which somehow I don't yet have.

The teachers say all the time, listen to your own body, do what feels ok for you. So I quit early, and went to try to take a nap.

Ruthy Alon (in her 50s?)

Cynthia Allen and Ruthy Alon a few years ago.

Some of my zoom class!

Saying goodbye to a volunteer position and....

It just wasn't celebrated enough I think. I've done it for years...indeed have returned to it after having had a paid position several years earlier, which included it.

I edited a monthly newsletter for my congregation. I enjoyed it, even if it was sometimes a chore to get people's submissions that they'd agreed to send. There was that one month when I had to chase down the minister, the religious education director (every month to be honest), and then I put the wrong people's birthdays in from the preceding month. It was a shambles, because I didn't even have a proof reader because she was sick. Would she have caught the birthday fiasco? I think not! It went to press as it was.

But all the other issues were right on. As we hippies used to say.

After that January edition I decided to give a 6 months notice. That's the end of the fiscal year, and changes do happen more at that time. However new blood in the organization wanted changes sooner. Since I had this up and down health issue, I missed a couple of meetings. I could have called and been on speaker, but it didn't happen. I didn't appreciate their way of telling me, "Barbara will be publishing her last edition in March."

Oh well. Now I am a free person, and it was really an easy job to do, just squeezed up at the end of each month to get it all organized.

And I am pretty well organized, at least as far as office methods go.

But let's admit, my emotions have not been served well.

So I shall work up a ritual where I let go of that job, and any resentments I may have, and get open to the next fun thing that may come along!

And it is probably already part of my life. A small group of dedicated environmentalists working to network with other groups, to provide a way for small groups of people to improve their neighborhoods...by teaching them about Doughnut Economics as a model to evaluate people's needs in balance with those of the earth. I've mentioned Doughnut Economics before. Check out here  if you're curious.

Our meeting Friday last had us brainstorming a way we could work under a non-profit so as to raise operating expenses. A late comer to the meeting said, "I know this group which would be ideal...interested in green ways in our towns." Just the timing that we needed.

Then we celebrated our first year as Swannanoa Watershed Action Network (SWAN)...some munchies, and a game which was cooperative and lots of information sharing.

The New York Times published it in Aug. 2022, called "Save the Earth."

At times I sat next to the youngest person there, a good contrast because I was probably the oldest person there!

We met our game's goal in time...within certain alloted moves, and everyone was involved in the success!

A new restaurant

 A new place to eat, and my friend Helen pushed me to go there after my eye appontment earlier in the day.

Pure and Proper is in the old Pure Oil Station across from Town Square's park.

Lots of touches from the original building, including the garage doors overhead.

We didn't sit on the fake fur, but on stools like these...around the corner. Inside a wall nook!

The top edge of our nook...looking toward the bar.

Then I had to look up. It offers no explanation!

Down the sloping drive outside, we could see the two tables in a southern facing patio. Remember those stairs in the first lobby...they certainly have been added for the restaurant.

Food, I had squash and coconut soup, and a Belgium waffle. Helen had a Greek waffle open faced sandwich and hot tea.

It's a breakfast only till 11, then no more. I think I want to try some of the breakfast with waffle dishes sometime. Look on line to see their dinner menu.

Boo! THis is the great big eyes-dialated-Barbara! Waiting for eye dr. to tell her how her cataracts will be removed.

Looking "up."

 

Here the "PAA-?" crew is loading a 5 MB IBM hard drive into the plane in 1956.

I do wonder how much it weighed!

Did I show you this already? Economy class in the 60s for Pan Am's 747.

I think he was up high to change the light bulbs.

Some 60s Stewardesses I haven't shared...not sure what airline. The hats remind me of Delta, or maybe United. Or it could be a Texas airline. If these women look like Barbie dolls, I imagine that was their intent.

And of course if you get high enough, and go on the far side of the moon...captured by Chinese Space Agency in 2014.

Sepia Saturday's meme is "Up." Too bad I already posted all my women in planes post...but I found the above which kind of connect.

Today's quote:

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. -William Wordsworth, poet (1770-1850)

A link to some poetic nonsense about moss

 I mentioned moss somewhere before. 

I also have admitted to being a fan of Robin Wall Kimmerer. She who wrote Braiding Sweetgrass.

And I love the ever-so-beautifully written posts by Maria Popova called the Marginalian.

So when all three were woven together and came into my inbox a few days ago, I just hummed with having such beauty in words painting pictures I could only imagine...and I wanted to share the experience with you.

It may be a bit far fetched, but it's an experience. Midweek Pick-me-up. Here's the start...

FROM THE ARCHIVE | The Magic of Moss and What It Teaches Us About the Art of Attentiveness to Life at All Scales

“Attention without feeling,” Mary Oliver observed in her magnificent memoir of love and loss, “is only a report.” In Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (public library) — an extraordinary celebration of smallness and the grandeur of life, as humble yet surprisingly magical as its subject — botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer extends an uncommon and infectious invitation to drink in the vibrancy of life at all scales and attend to our world with befitting vibrancy of feeling.

And that's just the first paragraph. Later she says about Kimmerer, "There is a special commonality between her heritage and her scientific training — a profound respect for all life forms, whatever their size — coupled with a special talent for rendering that respect contagious, which places her prose in the same taxon as Mary Oliver and Annie Dillard and Thoreau."

I've not read the book about mosses, just the Sweetgrass one. I agree with all of Popova's comments about Kimmerer and there will be many quotes on this "news-blossom."

The ornamental invasive Bradford Pear Tree

 

I admit I got a kick out of the clouds right behind the tree!

Evening light shows different trees illuminated.

Today's quote:

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. -Booker T. Washington, reformer, educator, and author (1856-1915)

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Marching on

  And now it's finally March. For us in Black Mountain it usually means enjoying a few spring-like days, then perhaps a blizzard. Most of our blizzards have been in March, say the old timers. "I remember when..." they say.

This year February sucked up some of March's glory and produced spring flowers of daffodils, quince, forsythia, and ornamental cherry trees.

And then there's "not our national bird." Wild turkeys know about traffic on this cove road.  When I stopped my car to lower the window, they kind of knew to get off the road. Warning! There was a big beast!

One turkey thought safety was on the other side of the road.

A friend's Quince in her yard.

Today's quote:

Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life. -Barbara Kingsolver, novelist, essayist, and poet (b. 8 Apr 1955)