Wednesday, December 01, 2021

December 2021


May this new month bring you good health, happiness, peace, protection, and abundant blessings. 

πŸ™πŸΎπŸ’•

 

Saturday, November 13, 2021

November Saturdays and Fall Colors


Happy Saturday...

Just thought that I'd share the beautiful view from our nice drive around the countryside this morning. This is my passenger seat view.

The fall colors are really coming through now. Nature is glorious! πŸ‚πŸπŸ‚πŸπŸ‚

Monday, November 01, 2021

November 2021


 

Happy new month...

Well here we are...it's November. 

There are only two months left in 2021.

Enjoy!

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Saturday Photo


 

I took this photo this morning. I usually stop by this tree every Saturday. It was great to see the fall color coming through.

Happy Saturday πŸ‚

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Weekend

 

Hello there!

I just wanted to stop by to say that I hope you're having a good weekend wherever you are.

Happy Weekend!

Take care and be well πŸ’—

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Fall 2021

 


Happy Fall πŸ‚πŸπŸ‚

 I hope wherever you are in the world...whether it's Fall/Autumn where you are,

or Spring if you live in the southern hemisphere, I hope that you enjoy the renewal of this new season.

Friday, August 20, 2021

Flowers on Friday

blue hydrangeas
Above: Hydrangeas seen while walking

 

Today, hubby and I took a lovely walk. It was good to get out into nature and it was good exercise. 

Seeing these beautiful hydrangeas was a great treat because I love the color blue and I love hydrangeas. I've read recently that in order to have blue hydrangeas, they must be cultivated to do so. Blue is my favorite color, as I've written about before. I'm always excited when I see blue flowers of some shade. 

I love all flowers, but my two favorites are peonies and hydrangeas, in that order. They are both so voluminous and gorgeous.

pink peony
Above: Peony on my kitchen windowsill a while ago

Sunday, August 08, 2021

Sun and Cloud


 

I took this photo yesterday, when we were out for our morning walk. 

It was a glorious sight to see the sun illuminating the sky, atop that huge fluffy cloud.

 

⛅ ⛅ ⛅ 


Saturday, July 31, 2021

Last Saturday in July

white flowers

Happy Saturday!

We had a good morning walk. It was good to get out into the countryside and to take in some fresh air. There was a slight breeze and the birds were singing. 

I hope you have a great Saturday and weekend wherever you are 🌻


Saturday, July 10, 2021

A Saturday in July

Scenes from my Saturday morning...

 
Ducks at lake

First, a lovely walk...
πŸŒΏπŸ¦†

and then some blueberries 🫐

Blueberries

Happy Saturday!! 

Wednesday, July 07, 2021

Feedburner Subscription By Email Ending

As you may or may not know, starting July 2021 (now), Google is ending their FeedBurner email subscription service, which is what I've been using since I started this blog in 2008. This means that if you are subscribed to my feed through the email subscription service, you will eventually not be alerted when I publish a new post. First of all, thank you for being an email subscriber. I truly appreciate it!

Since Feedburner will eventually stop working, I have switched over to follow.it as an alternative. If you are an email subscriber, you should continue to receive my posts via the new service follow.it. Please expect some disruption / duplication during the overlap.  

However, if you find that you're not receiving my posts, perhaps the switch over might not have gone as smoothly as I would have liked. Sorry about this. 

If you would like to continue as an email subscriber to my feed, please consider re-subscribing by entering your email address within the subscription box as seen below. You will find it on the homepage in the sidebar.

However, if you would not like to re-subscribe or continue as an email subscriber to my feed, I completely understand if you'd like to unsubscribe. 

I will say it again though, thank you so very much for subscribing EVER...whether you will be continuing along with me or not. I am forever grateful to anyone who has taken time out of their day to read something that I've written or taken a look at my photos.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

An Intriguing Opportunity to Go Forth

blue flowers
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
 

I've been a bit absent and sporadic about my blogging lately, but for good reason. I haven't been feeling so well, but I pray that I'm on the mend. (Sidenote: I didn't have Covid-19). I'm certainly better than I was a few weeks ago, so for that I'm truly grateful. I will get there.

I thought that I'd drop in with a short post just to get back into the swing of things. It's kind of a good time to restart since tomorrow will be July 1st, the second half of 2021. It will be an intriguing opportunity to go forth with this blog again 😊 I hope you'll join me!

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Happy Saturday

Lake

 

Happy Saturday! 

Happy weekend!

We took our Saturday morning walk and this was our view. We try to get out early and it's worth it because it's so peaceful and quiet in the early morning. 

Nature is so restorative 🌼

Have a good day wherever you are!


Sunday, June 13, 2021

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Book Spotlight – Lucy’s Worth by Letrise Carter

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book for review. All opinions are mine.


Recently I’ve had the opportunity to read the new book, Lucy’s Worth - Part 1 by Letrise T. Carter. 

Lucy's Worth book cover


Book description

Lucy’s Worth is part one of this young woman's desperate journey to find herself, while trying to make it on her own. Faced with her first true relationship, Lucy's long battle with low self-esteem will cause her to fall down a path with a dangerous man. Will Lucy be able to escape the trap that's been set for her? She's going to have to make the most important decision of her life -- because her life depends on it!

*****

This is an intriguing book which follows the story of Lucy Mason on her journey to self-worth. Lucy is a young woman who is facing many challenges as she navigates the waters of adulthood in trying to build a life for herself. As a reader, I was cheering her on as she made her first steps into independence. However, she soon finds herself in the middle of a toxic relationship and this sends her along a difficult path. Lucy’s boyfriend is terrible.

The important issue of domestic abuse is effectively woven into this story. The author does a great job at making the characters come alive and there is a real authenticity that comes through. We get to see Lucy's family dynamics. Her relationship with her parents and her sisters provides an interesting look at Lucy's foundations as a person. We get to witness Lucy’s emotions and her thought process up close, and this offers a window into the mindset of someone going through a dysfunctional relationship like this. Lucy’s Worth is a cautionary tale, and it is a story that needs to be told. 

I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

To get your copy, visit here: Amazon 

You can also follow the author Letrise Carter on Twitter @AuthorLetrise 

Saturday walk

Lake

 This was the view this morning as we took a walk. 

Happy Saturday!


Friday, May 28, 2021

Last Friday in May

 

Happy Friday and weekend to everyone!

I've had a challenging week, but I'm incredibly grateful for this new day.

Enjoy! πŸ™‚πŸ™πŸΎπŸ’•

Monday, May 17, 2021

Friday, May 14, 2021

Nature's Beauty


 The beauty of nature close up is extraordinary to see. The pattern of this leaf is glorious!

Happy Friday!! 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

Saturday, May 01, 2021

May 2021

May flowers

 

Happy May! 

Happy new month!

πŸŒΈπŸ’πŸŒΏπŸ’πŸŒΏπŸŒΈπŸ’πŸŒΈ


Thursday, April 22, 2021

Sunday, April 04, 2021

Easter 2021


 πŸŒ»πŸŒΏπŸ’•πŸ£πŸ’πŸŒΈπŸŒ·πŸŒΌπŸ’πŸŒΈπŸ’•πŸŒ»πŸŒ·

Monday, March 22, 2021

7 Things


seven


I’ve been trying to get back into regularly writing here on my blog. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m rather sporadic now, especially in comparison to how often I used to blog back in the early days of this blog. I guess that getting back to regularly blogging has something to do with how irregularly I write posts here. I’ve lost a bit of my carefree way of blogging from the early days, and I’d like to get some of that back. It may sound simplistic, but I think that I just need to stop overthinking and just write what I feel because that’s what I did in the beginning and I enjoyed it so much. No pressure, just fun. I just need to let go and be me.

So, in the spirit of being me, I’ve taken a look back at some earlier posts just for fun. I’ve realized that this blog is something of a time capsule. Reading back through some of the earlier years has been revealing. Where has the time gone? 😊

I found an earlier post from the first year when I started blogging, in 2008. It was one of those posts that were popular then which asked you to tell some things about yourself and then you passed it along. There were no ground-breaking revelations in my original post, but it certainly reminded me of a seemingly simpler time in my life and it was nice to visit for a while. If you’d like to read it, you can find it here

I thought that I’d offer up another list for now, over a decade later, as I reacquaint myself with my blog. So here goes…nothing ground-breaking again, but I just thought, why not? 😊


7 Things About Me – 2021


1) I love the color blue. I've talked about this previously.

2) I like the number 7. 

3) I love spicy food and I add hot sauce to a variety of things.

4) I love films , documentaries or features, I love them all. 

5) I love books. 

6) I like writing lists.

7) Peonies are my favorite flower.

peony
Peony


Saturday, March 20, 2021

Spring 2021

Flowers

 

Happy Spring!!!

πŸ¦‹πŸ’πŸŒ»πŸŒ·πŸŒΌπŸŒΏπŸŒΈ⚘🌱

Saturday, March 13, 2021

March Weekend

 

weekend
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

I just wanted to check in to say hello!

I hope that everyone has a good weekend!

Take care πŸ’–

Thursday, March 04, 2021

My Thirteenth Blogiversary

Thirteen

Today is my 13th blogiversary! πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰

Wow! Who knew that I would stick to this for thirteen years no matter how sporadic I am with posting these days? πŸ˜‰πŸ˜

As I mentioned here recently, this is more of a passion project, since I don't even know if people still read my blog. Thank you truly to anyone who does. I sincerely thank you. 

I've looked back at my first blogiversary post and it was interesting to go down memory lane. Time flies. It felt like I was looking back forever ago. Time is funny.

If you'd like to take a look at my first blogiversary post, you can find it here .

Onward to more years of blogging...

I hope that you'll join me πŸ™‚πŸ’•


Monday, March 01, 2021

March 2021

Hello March

 

Wishing everyone a great new month!


"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” 

― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

A Tale of Two Photos

Tree branches

 The photo at the top is how things looked here this morning. It was very sunny. However, by the afternoon, it was windy and overcast.

The photo at the bottom was taken yesterday morning. It was a rainy morning. However, by the early afternoon, it had turned beautifully sunny.

These two pictures have reminded me that change is a part of life. It's inevitable. Life is a continually unfolding story.

I hope that you have a good day wherever you are. 

🌿


Monday, February 22, 2021

Last Monday of February

Raindrops on branch

 It's a rainy Monday...actually a bit of rain and then a bit of blue sky...still a beautiful day!

I hope you have a great Monday and week ahead, wherever you are πŸ™‚

Saturday, February 13, 2021

February Weekend


 Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Stay safe and well. 

Please wear a mask.

πŸ™‚


Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Remembering Ms Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson


Mary Wilson, the incredible Motown legend and co-founder of The Supremes has passed away at the age of 76. I've always love the music of The Supremes and admired these ladies as the trailblazers that they were, especially for Black women. Their elegance and pure talent was ground-breaking. Mary Wilson was a fabulous singer and an icon. What a life.

Back in 2008, my husband and I had a few special days in London which featured many highlights. One of the highlights was experiencing a fantastic limited-run exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum which featured memorabilia from The Supremes. The exhibit had also been shown at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The Supremes

The exhibit of The Supremes memorabilia was amazing! The evening gowns were incredible! It was an absolute honor to see these history-making pieces up close. Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the exhibit, but the sights and sounds are imprinted upon my memory forever. I wrote a long post about that day. Here's an excerpt:

We went to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) mostly to see an exhibition of memorabilia of The Supremes. It was fabulous. The gowns were amazing and timeless. A lot of those dresses that were from the 60s still could look fabulous if worn now. There is something about dresses from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that transcends the particular decade and will always look good. There were programs, photos, and all kinds of artefacts of this fabulous group of ladies. Mary Wilson had held onto a lot of this stuff, so she put it all together and now we have this great exhibit to see. I heard her in an interview here where she said that she didn’t throw anything away from that time. Thank God for her. (smile) The exhibit also had film of her and others talking about Motown and The Supremes. There was also a bit of archival footage of Martin Luther King Jr and things about the Civil Rights Movement as a background to give a feel of the times when Motown and The Supremes were doing their thing. It showed just how massive their achievement was and how it shaped history. They altered the perceptions of many in the rest of the world. The Supremes were elegant and all of the girl groups after them have a great example to follow. The Supremes were at their height before I was born, but I grew up hearing their music like everyone else and I think they were wonderful. The little girl in me just wanted to break into the exhibition cases and try on all of the clothes. (smile) As a former wannabee fashion designer, I was loving the fashions and the music is classic.

- excerpt from blog post "Nelson Mandela and the Rest of Our Story" - 2008

The original post was rather lengthy, but if you'd like to read it, you can find it here

Mary Wilson was instrumental in making the exhibition a reality and I'm so grateful that she shared her great memories with the world. And now as we say goodbye to her, I'm immensely grateful that she shared her great talent with the world!

RIP Ms Mary Wilson 

Revisiting and Renewal

arrows
Image courtesy of Pixabay

 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking back about how much I used to enjoy writing here at my blog. I still enjoy it when I come here, but I’ve been sporadic over the past couple of years or so and I’ve lost my way a bit on the blogging front. To be fair, my life has been a real rollercoaster over the past year or so, not even counting the pandemic which we’ve all been going through, so I’m realizing that I need to cut myself some slack in regard to how much of a sporadic blogger I’ve become. 

Still, all kinds of questions come to mind like…Does anyone still read “this” blog? – Do people still even read blogs or is it better to have a podcast? – Do I have anything left to say here? etc. There are SO MANY questions that cross my mind. I haven’t been able to come up with any definitive, smart, or clever answers, however, I’ve changed my perspective when thinking about all of the questions that I have. 

Basically, I’ve decided that I should just not worry about the questions and just do what makes me happy. Life was hellish for me personally and for the world in general during 2020 and 2021 is still messing with us all. But I think that the earnest pursuit of what makes me happy, despite all the crap of the world, is a definitive act and I need that to get back on track and to rescue my mental health. It’s like they say, two things can be true at the same time. The world can be crazy “and” I can be aware of that, but alongside that, I can celebrate some good in this life. I can’t let “this or that” take me over so much. I’m going to do my best to have more “and” in my life. 

I’m not a Pollyanna by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to get back to some brighter things here at my blog again. I know that there will be times when I will write about something tougher or sad, but life is about balance and I’ve been out of balance here for a while. I started this blog several years ago to have fun and I did, but then I lost my way. I know that I can’t go back to writing the same things that I wrote back in 2008 because it is a different time now. When I started out back then I was in the early days of my expat experience. However, now in 2021, it’s still a good time to revisit this space that I’ve cherished so much over the years. 

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I don’t have any answers to those questions, but I’m not going to worry. If anyone is still reading this blog, thank you for still visiting me. If I pick up new readers that would be fantastic and I would be so grateful, but if no one reads I’ll just come here as a kind of “I was here world!” exercise. 😊 I don’t know if it’s better to have a podcast nowadays. Maybe it is and perhaps I’ll give that a go someday soon as another creative experiment. As for having anything left to say, well I guess this long post is proof that I can still ramble with the best of them πŸ˜‰ Sidenote: If you’ve read this far God bless you for humoring me! This post is way too long, but it has been cathartic for me. It has given me the chance to think things through as I have written. I haven’t been this candid here in a long time. 

So here’s to revisiting this space…this blog…and here’s to renewal on a few fronts. I’ll be back to write and ramble more about a little bit of everything way more often. I hope you’ll join me.

Monday, February 08, 2021

Monday Evening Sky


Here's a little peek at what the view was like out the window on this February evening, right before the dark sky showed up for the night. 

I do love a moody winter sky. 

Sidenote: My fern is hanging in there! 

Happy Monday!

Tuesday, February 02, 2021

Black History Month

Happy Black History Month!

I'm a day late since I intended to highlight the occasion yesterday, but I didn't get the chance to do so. 

Better late than never I say πŸ™‚

I try to highlight my culture in one way or another every month. However, I think that it's absolutely important to celebrate this month as Black History Month. We must highlight our ancestors who have paved the way for us and also celebrate those who are making history right now. 

Friday, January 29, 2021

Rest in Peace Ms Cicely Tyson


 Rest in Peace Ms Cicely Tyson πŸ™πŸΎ

Thank you for all that you have given to the world. Thank you for telling our stories and for doing so with so much brilliance and dignity.

❤πŸ’”