The welcoming fragrance of this wisteria is an intoxicating blend of lavender, honeysuckle, and lilac. You can smell it half a block away. I’ve never before seen such exquisite wisteria. Once upon a time I planted it in my garden but it didn’t thrive, I’m sad to say.
Wisteria symbolism is associated with romance, devotion, and good luck. In Japan, it represents longevity and success. It can also symbolize humility and endurance,
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
All I ever wanted to be was a boymom and I got my wish with the original Angel Boy.
Happy Mother’s Day!
BEST BOYMOM QUOTE EVER: “If all the little boys in the world were lined up and I had to just pick only one, I’d choose you… every time.” (Barbra Streisand to Seth Rogan in the film Guilt Trip.)
This is a funny story and all you’ll ever need to know about my AB:
Since his life threatening medical issue and subsequent (emergency) major abdominal surgery for a ruptured Meckel’s Diverticulum a few years ago, he needs to be careful about his diet for the rest of his life, mainly never popcorn, but other foods can irritate the anastomosis repair, too, which he learned by trial and error.
He recovered better than expected from the surgery except for THAT little issue.
Recently, I suggested (not nagged) that he might benefit from regularly taking probiotics to normalize his intestinal flora and fauna, and I made sure he took them every day while we were together.
How do I do that? I chose the right time, like when he was involved in editing his new book or grading papers. That’s when I know he’s REALLY the absentminded professor and won’t pay any attention to me. I then hand him the probiotic capsules with a freshly made smoothie and he downs them without argument or question. However, it’s only a delayed reaction because fifteen minutes later, he’ll ask me what it was that I gave him but then it’s too late to refuse. HAHAHAHA. #momhack
I sent him a photo of the supplements he WILLINGLY swallowed so he could take them all the time and heard nothing about it or a couple weeks…until yesterday when he texted me and I admit it took me a second or two to figure out he was being his usual snarky, facetious self:
Apparently when it becomes HIS idea, it’s worth doing. Hmmm. Whatever works, right? After all these years, I finally figured out that he likes to think about things for a while before he makes a decision, so I sent him a photo of the type of magnesium and D3 gummies I take along with this text:
That’s my Angel Boy. Stubborn child, but no matter what, he’ll forever be my heart.
Nowadays I’m even luckier to be grandma of those two vibrant Angel Kids who started calling me “Gramps” for absolutely no reason at all, but it makes me chuckle.
When I asked them, “Why do you call me Gramps?”, they laughed hysterically, so I guess that’s who I am now.
There will never be a greater joy than being loved by those guys, that’s for sure. That’s what life is all about.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and grandmas from Gramps!
FYI: Great article to explain emergency surgery for Meckel’s Diverticulum https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2533303/
Lately it seems that I see POGs popping up everywhere on social media.
Do you remember them?
For a brief, crazy intense moment in the ’90s, POGs and slammers were everywhere. If you grew up during that era, you might remember collecting the colorful cardboard discs, the thrill of slamming your favorite POG stack, and swapping the ones you didn’t want with friends on the playground.
During that frenzied time, I was involved in a business that not only produced POGs (milkcaps) as business promotional giveaways but created a line of them called The Safe Neighborhood Club, complete with an inserted educational booklet. Some of these designs were included in books about POGs.
For a time, POGS were even outlawed in a few school districts, that’s how popular they were.
The story of POGs began in Hawaii, where children used caps from Haleakala Dairy’s POG juice (passionfruit-orange-guava) to play a simple flipping game.
Alan Rypinski bought the POG trademark in 1993 and transformed it into a global brand. With the World POG Federation at the helm, POGs exploded into toy aisles and schoolyards, becoming an integral part of ’90s culture. POGman, the game’s cartoon mascot, became as recognizable as the discs themselves. He made millions during the craze but was out of the game when the bubble burst.
By 1997, the POG market had imploded. Oversaturation, school bans, and changing fads pushed the once-beloved game into obscurity. The discs that once sparked heated debates and trades among kids now sat forgotten.
Now, nearly three decades later, whispers of a POG revival are surfacing. Can a nostalgia-driven resurgence bring this playground staple back into the mainstream?
Why Revive POGs Now?
I can’t explain it, but POGs definitely ARE making a comeback, not just as a nostalgic collectible but also with a digital component and a focus on both physical and digital gaming.
The World Pog Federation launched new physical sets and online games to engage a new generation of players. They are also exploring partnerships and collaborations to expand the POG brand.
I’ll have to dig around in the garage ‘cos I know I still have a massive collection stored in binders and I can’t wait to show them to the Angels. Maybe they could start it up again at their school; wouldn’t that be awesome?
Further reading:
–Here’s a link to a cool article written just last month about the POG revival:
https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2025/04/dig-up-that-slammer-this-week-were-talking-pogs.html
–Another post from Hawaii: https://www.lanaitoday.com/news/another-chance-to-scoop
Love shall always
Find a way
Even through
The darkest of day
Love shall always
Find a way
Even through
The darkest of day
A Little Poem by Athey Thompson
Pic curated from Pinterest. Credit to the artist.
This is an update to a previous post about transplanting this awesome Peppermint Party Climbing Rose. It’s been a couple years and she’s really blossoming and super spicy!
I don’t give her too much attention except for a hard prune every January, and cross my fingers that she’ll grow back healthy and happy.
I took this photo when it was sunny. I woke up to rain which was totally, unexpectedly, but absolutely welcome, especially since we haven’t had any sky water is quite a while. Any little bit helps.
This was one of my most successful transplanting of a mature plant. I moved this Peppermint Party Climbing Rose from one arbor to another and it’s been thriving ever since.
Late afternoon sun on these stripey petals caught my eye:
And a closer view…
Happy Sunday!
All photos by Enchanted Seashells
A while back I wrote about the 1970s TV show, Emergency!, a favorite of mine to watch with my RN mom. A little research revealed that one of the stars, Julie London, was an amazing vocalist and her husband in real life, Bobby Troup (also on Emergency!), was not only an accomplished musician but he wrote the hit song, Route 66.
Since it’s no secret that I have an ongoing OBSESSION with Leon Russell that doesn’t seem to be abating any time soon, I was listening to some of the tracks on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen CD and watched the videos where LR is prominent.
I’m not a huge fan of Joe Cocker, never have been, and still think that Leon’s versions of his own songs can’t be surpassed (like Delta Lady), but then I heard JC sing “Cry Me a River” by Arthur Hamilton, and realized that it’s the same song Julie London sang a while back, but this was a completely light years different arrangement by….you guessed it, the one and only Master of Space and Time, the magical visionary himself, Leon Russell.
It’s actually not that crazy because a little more digging revealed that Leon was often a Wrecking Crew first call session pianist for some of Julie London’s recordings, so there was a connection.
Listen to Julie London (amazing for sure)…
…and now watch this video. I confess that for me, one of the best parts besides seeing Leon’s magical hands on the piano is when he counts off “1-2-3-4“. No shame in owning my obsession, is there? If only Leon had sung this himself…
Do you have a preference? Both awesome versions of the song, but the talents of Leon Russell forever blow my mind. How did he even think of arranging the song that way? Sadly, we’ll never know, but his magic lives on.
And then there’s Ella Fitzgerald’s version…OMG! They are all incredible interpretations, aren’t they?
Happy May Day, hopefully you are, you won’t have to send out a Mayday call!
The “MaydayMaydayMayday” distress call originated in the 1920s as a way to communicate a serious emergency.. Frederick Stanley Mockford, a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in England, proposed using “mayday” because it sounded like the French phrase “m’aider” (help me).
Since the United States is mired in an emergency of chaos and destruction, a mayday call might actually be totally appropriate. HELP US!!!
But May Day is special for other reasons:
May 1 is also International Workers’ Day, a day for workers to celebrate and advocate for their rights. Today is all about demonstrations and activism, particularly related to labor issues and social justice. There are planned events all over the country, and one this afternoon near our beach, too.
In Celtic, May Day or Beltane means “lucky fire.” Beltane is a pagan ritual celebrating the height of spring. Today, people celebrate May Day by making flower crowns and baskets, planting flowers for the spring, decorating their homes in bright colors to embrace the change, nature walks, picnics, and enjoying the outdoors. Bonfires have been a part of Beltane rituals for generations, to dance around fire and rejoice in the wonders of the season.
I don’t have a maypole to dance around and I prefer to commune with nature and probably will NOT start a bonfire because we haven’t had any rain in a while, so it’s not a great idea.
Happy Beltane!
Art credit to respective creators.
If the house of the world is dark, love will find a way to make windows. Rumi
My child soul is eternally fascinated by these sparkly decorator houses that light up. There could be a whole world happening inside, if that’s the story we tell ourselves. It might seem like a fantasy but who’s to say what’s real and what isn’t? For me, that’s the endless appeal.
In this story, the bunnies live happily ever after, full of love in their sweet little home.
Have you ever felt as if you were being spied upon? Some kind of spidey sense that you’re being watched? Have you ever been out in public and turned around quickly because you felt the weight of someone’s gaze?
Yesterday I was working in the garden ‘cos there’s always a lot to do. This particular project involved a lot of weeding as well as fertilizing fruit trees and the veggie garden.
At one point I was sitting on the ground on the rocky dry river bed weeding around the rose bushes that I had successfully propagated (yay for me!).
It was quite a zen moment, totally and blissfully silent except for birdsong, but I felt as if I wasn’t alone, as if I was being watched.
Some force compelled me to turn around and look up. There he was right above me in the ash tree; this gorgeous hawk. It seemed as if his hawk eyes were boring a hole in my soul. He didn’t move an inch when I ran inside the house to get my camera. He simply followed my every move.
Look at his talons!
I said hello as I always do, took some photos, and continued to weed under his watchful gaze.
This went on for more than an hour. I thought he’d fly away if I moved to another spot in the garden, but he didn’t — he just turned his body on the branch to continue to monitor my every move.
He wasn’t bothered by my presence and I was in awe of him. I struck up a one way conversation, thanking him for his diligence in keeping the yard rodent-free, asked about his family, and told him how much I appreciated his visit. I hoped he would get used to the sound of my voice and we could have another chat if he returns.
The action of a hawk watching you is a symbol of divine guidance. It often signifies a messenger from the spirit realm, a call to pay attention, or an indication that you are being guided and protected. Hawks are also associated with clear vision, focus, and the need to tap into divine wisdom.
The hawk is a messenger bird. Usually when we see a hawk it means to pay attention because a message is coming to you. Hawks represent clear sightedness, being observant, our far memory, and guardianship. They also bring courage, wisdom, illumination, creativity and truth. Hawks give us the ability to see the larger picture in life.
He hasn’t returned today, but it was a special moment to treasure.
Come back, friend!
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 