Beyond the field. That’s where I’ll meet you.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
― Rumi
(Photo credit to me: Laguna Mountains)
Here’s another British TV show that I absolutely LOVE.
It was a long-lasting series so we can really build a bond with the excellent ensemble cast.
Based upon the “Constable” books by Nicholas Rhea, Heartbeat is set in the 1960s.
Local constabulary patrol the town of Ashfordly and the nearby village of Aidensfield in the North Riding of Yorkshire. They keep the peace while also dealing with local lovable rogues and their own love lives.
Definitely binge-worthy!
Today would have been my mom’s birthday and I heard that Burt Bacharach died. He was one of my mom’s favorite artists.
While we were baking together or cleaning the house, wearing the apron I still have hanging up in the kitchen, she’d sing along with an album or the radio, which REALLY REALLY embarrassed me — I thought she was so annoying, but I miss hearing her voice now. She could carry a tune and I cannot, even though I had voice lessons…oh well, not one my skills, I guess.
So much awesome music like “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “Alfie.
Rest in peace, Burt.
Here are some of my mom’s favorites:
One of my favorite singers, Cilla Black and one of Burt Bacharach’s best-loved songs, too.
One of my favorites, poet Thomas Hood, who also wrote A Lake and A Fairy Boat.
This one calls to me, too…
A little fairy comes at night,
Her eyes are blue, her hair is brown’
with silver spots upon her wings,
And from the moon she flutters down.
She has a little silver wand,
And when a good child goes to bed
She waves her wand from right to left
And makes a circle round her head,
And then it dreams of pleasant things,
Of fountains filled with fairy fish,
And trees that bear delicious fruit,
And bow their branches at a wish;
Of arbours filled with dainty scents
From lovely flowers that never fade,
Bright ‘flies that flitter in the sun,
And glow-worms shining in the shade;
And talking birds with gifted tongues
For singing songs and telling tales,
And pretty dwarfs to show the way
Through the fairy hills and fairy dales.
Image curated from Google public domain. Credit to artist.
After all this time, after all my injuries, once again I accurately diagnosed a medical issue.
Last March I did a deep weighted squat and felt something pop in my right knee. My stubborn self chose to overlook the subsequent discomfort and stoically carry on.
We need a backstory here...This is the same knee that was injured when I carelessly pulled a full and very topheavy garden waste trash can to the street, blithely ignoring the fact that the wheels were tangled up in fruit tree netting.
I mean, for a split second the thought crossed my mind that I should probably untangle it before I rolled it down the hilly driveway but I did not.
So…as you can probably guess, my feet became entwined in the netting which then pulled the heavy can down on me, twisting my leg and knee beneath it.
I know, I know. I’m not bright, also extremely impatient.
Once I deduced that my knee/leg wasn’t broken, I iced it for a while and endured the pain on the lateral side of my knee. A few months later, I had some physical therapy which actually seemed to help and I was back to normal movement.
And that’s how I ended up doing a weighted squat. Again, I iced it and figured it would take a while to heal, whatever it was, but this time there was no specific pain location. I wore a brace and compression sleeve and that didn’t really help.
Finally, I was able to pinpoint the pain, did my research and thought it was a medial meniscus tear along with an inflamed bursa, right below the knee.
I waited a really long time before telling my doctor (too stubborn to admit defeat), but when the pain wouldn’t subside, I did. She ordered an x-ray and when the results were unremarkable, she ordered an MRI, the appropriate course of action.
That was my first ever MRI. For me, it was a pleasant experience, probably because only my legs were in the machine.
The results came back as I had predicted:
Now I have an appointment with the same orthopedic office where I’ve often visited for other dumb accidental broken bones and torn ligaments.
SIGH.
Just call me Doctor Rosebud BUT don’t be like me and wait months suffering before seeing a professional!
An unexpected marriage of art + photography.
Since I can’t draw any better than an average two-year-old, this is the closest I’ll ever get to creating art. It reminds me of The Joy of Painting’s Bob Ross and his “happy little trees”, only these appear rather gloomy and vague; evocative of nature’s dark night of the soul.
I don’t know how my phone managed to capture this image. I attempted to get a pic of the full moon between the branches of my eucalyptus tree and ended up with what appears to be a glimpse into the portal leading toward a shadowy otherworld.
This full moon is in Leo and since Leo is ruled by the sun, our INNER LIGHT will shine brightly.
I think I’ll print and frame, I love it that much!
Whether they’re House Finches or Robins doesn’t really matter. They are adorable!
I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes and looked out at an amazing sight. There were literally dozens of chirpy birds invading my garden, SO MANY I couldn’t even count them all.
I no longer have feeders because of my arch nemeses, RATS, so what they’re feasting on here is actually an invasive species, a Brazilian Pepper tree that somehow sprouted into the neighbor’s yard and they didn’t get rid of it like we did.
There’s no way I could capture as many as there are, but I’d say definitely more than fifty of these lovely red breasted birds are visiting Casa de Enchanted Seashells.
This makes sense because they’re eating red berries from the pepper tree.
They stayed for about an hour, saturating my world with their most delightful song and chirpy calls to friends and family. Every tree in the garden is full of these guys as well the rosemary and lavender bushes.
I’ve never seen anything like this. For me, It’s as exciting as spotting a pod of whales or dolphin. I’m grateful they chose my garden to visit. Pure joy!
Not again!
During my biannual visit with my dermatologist, she saw something she didn’t like, took a biopsy, and just called with the results…
This time it was squamous cell carcinoma, or as the report states: atypical squamous proliferation.
Previously, it was basel cell malignancy, and before that it was a basel/squamous combo, so I’m no stranger to this kind of diagnosis.
That means I’ll have to undergo another procedure to remove all the offending cells.
While the actual procedure isn’t painful, the healing IS, and since it’s on my back, it’s in a tough position for wound care and sleeping, which totally sucks.
Once again, all those summers of baby oil and cocoa butter for six hour tanning sessions on the beach have taken their toll.
Another PSA: Don’t be like me; wear hats and sunscreen and don’t forget the importance of a yearly skin check. Thank goodness for my eagle-eyed dermatologist!
This quote by Hāfiz (1325 –1389), a Persian mystical poet, seems an appropriate way to commence this month of love and Valentine’s Day.
Not another one. Not another incredibly anguished murder of another young man by police. My heart goes out to his family.
It’s bad enough that we had THREE mass shootings in California last week in three separate locations – it’s unfathomable to think of all the random violence, but this young man did not deserve to suffer the way he did, calling out for his mom with his last breath. It’s heartbreaking and disgusting at the same time.
I’m posting the following from https://msnewsgroup.com/
So much has been talked about in regards to the death of Tyre Nichols. Rightfully so. But let’s talk about his life:
He was a son and a friend. He liked to skateboard. He worked at FedEx and he was a self described aspiring photographer.
He posted the following on his photography website:
Hey guys,
My name is Tyre D. Nichols. I am an aspiring photographer. Well I mostly do this stuff for fun but i enjoy it very much. Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways i cannot write down for people. I take different types of photograhy, anywhere from action sports to rural photos, to bodies of water and my favorite.. landscape photography. My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what i am seeing through my eye and out through my lens. People have a story to tell why not capture it instead of doing the “norm” and writing it down or speaking it. I hope to one day let people see what i see and to hopefully admire my work based on the quality and ideals of my work. So on that note enjoy my page and let me know what you think.
Your friend,
-Tyre D. Nichols
This picture below was posted by Tyre Nichols on a photography website he designed.
Here is a link… https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsph…/fashion
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 