Sunday stills – A Cozy Shade of Winter

Our Sunday Stills prompt is hosted by Cathy at Picture This and our prompt is “winter”. Now I have a confession to make. I love Winter. I love the cold temps, big fluffy sweaters, lapgans, fireplaces and all things hygge. I live in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA where winter temps in fahrenheit measure in the single digits and nightly lows are well below 0 (-18c). And, yes I love Winter everywhere we go. Here are a few Winter shots from some of our travels.

Beavertail cactus in snow – Zion National Park, Utah

Snowy Branches – Richmond, UT

Frozen fog phenomenon – South Dakota

Winter’s dawn – South Dakota

Come Winter and welcome
bring your frozen kiss
bring your stunning sunrise
bring your cozy bliss

Come Winter and welcome
I cherish your dimming light
sweaters, books, steaming mugs
my fireplace burning bright

And Winter Came — Enya

Til next time ~Peace ~JP

SOCS – How Many Ways

Iris, Queens Garden – Invercargill NZ

For Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday our prompt is “more than a hundred”

How to I love thee?
Let me count the ways
I love you like the flower
loves the sun’s bright rays
I love you with my very soul
and I’ll love you all my days
between my heart and yours
many words lose their way
Just how many are there
I have often wondered
I may not know the total
but, it’s more than a hundred

 

I’ll have to say I love you in a song ~ Jim Croce

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Hazy Daze and Verbing

For dVerse Meeting at the Bar – our host today is Björn who asks us to try our hands at “verbing”

Smoke snaking across the sky
puddling into blood-red haze
tabling my irritation for a time
I quickly google what’s ablaze

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer ~ Nat King Cole

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Hazy Spoonless Days and Cardiac Sarcoidosis

“I talk a good game
for someone who topples over
putting on her underpants.” ~JPP

It’s been a tough summer here at Chez Spoons. The weather is wretched, smoke creates a smoggy haze, I wheeze, and debilitating fatigue is the order of the day. Summer flares are no fun and this particular one involves a flare up of cardiac symptoms. Hard to diagnose, near impossible to treat. So I do what Spoonies do best, I survive. I ride the wave of fatigue, don’t fight, just keep afloat and let it pass. My creative muse has deserted me. By mid afternoon I find myself spoonless and unable to do more than breathe and maybe blink. I force my way through the steps I have to take to stay “functional” like yoga, walking, meditating and proper diet. Then I collapse into bed and get up and do it all over again. Mind numbing routine guides me as I wait for the wave to carry me back to shore.

Red Sails in the Sunset – The Platters

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Sunday Stills – Room for a View

Cathy from Picture This is hosting our Sunday Stills Challenge for August while Terri is taking a short break. Our theme for this week is “Out your window”

Over the hills as seen from the passenger’s seat

 

Sunrise

Views

Outside my window the world goes by
squirrels scamper, cicadas hum, birds fly
sun rises, while the humans scurry
never seeing, always in a hurry
to get to where they are not

A Room With a View • O Mio Babbino Caro

Til next time ~Peace ~JP

Normal Magic

Lillian is the host of Open Link Night on dVerse Poets Pub and one of her sayings is “Normal” is a setting on a dryer.(lillian) Which got me to thinking about my own sayings that I use a LOT right now. One of which is: “Average is a mathematical equation; normal is an illusion.” (JPP). So in honor of all the times people have said to me “this is the new normal” only to hear “normal is an illusion” I give you …

Normal Magic

They call it the new normal
for me it’s another day
of masks and social distance
and, really, that’s Okay

Normal never did mean
all that much to me
it’s just a grand illusion
whose source I cannot see

So I walk my path alone
isolation’s not so tough
for I have magic in my veins
and for me that’s quite enough

Secret Garden – Nocturne (Lyric Video) ft. Anne Takle

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

dVerse Haibun — Birthday Magic

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

Kim881 from Writing in North Norfolk, is our host for this week’s Haibun Monday

“For this challenge, I ask you to think about your own birthdays, ones from the past, one that is coming up, a memorable one, or one you are dreading. Whether it’s birthday cake and balloons, a quiet glass of wine on your own that turned into something memorable, or a complete disaster, I’d like you to share a birthday with us.”

Birthday Magic

Born on a cusp with an aura of blue, a child between signs. Always looking for where she fit in. Black and orange confetti, fairy costumes and pumpkins as happy children dance around the cake table. A birthday wish for magic and a pony.

Birthdays come and birthdays go. Her aura darkens as does the world. No dinner, no parties, nowhere that she fits in. No need to hide her blackened eye. Alone, she makes her birthday wish for magic and love.

Moons wax and wane as life goes on. She finds love again, and trust. Purple and black decorations, a pointy hat adorned with flowers, love and laughter. Amber eyes twinkle with merriment. No need for birthday wishes, she has all she needs, she IS magic.

Candle burning bright
years come and go by too fast
blow the candle out

Strange Magic — ELO

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Sunday Stills – Life’s a Beach

Many thanks to Cathy over at Picture This for hosting Sunday Stills for us during Terri’s August blogging break. Our prompt for this week is “Beautiful Beaches”

March of the sand crabs – Kauai, Hawaii

I was born to be a mermaid
but by nature was betrayed
to live this false existence
and walk this world on legs
the ocean’s song still sings
within my heart and mind
peace and calm engulf me
as I watch the waves unwind

View from GuLangYu Islet off the coast of Xiamen, China

Beach at Wakatipu Lake – Queenstown, NZ

Surf on Oahu, Hawaii

Stronger — Under the Sea: A Descendants Short Story

til next time ~maluhia ~JP

One Liner Wednesday — Scraps of Poetry and Madness

For Linda’s One Liner Wednesday — For all of us struggling to process and adjust to the “new normal” of 2020.

Artwork from my polyvore collection

“My brain hums with scraps of poetry and madness.”
~Virginia Woolf

Mirage — Lindsey Stirling

Til next time ~Peace ~JP

dVerse Poetics — Flight of Fancy/Dance of Death

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Our host a dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics is Laura Bloomsbury, who asks us for our flights of fancy. The following is based on a real life observation of a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls who were being tormented by a scold of very noisy jays. One of the adult owls defiantly lured the jays away and suddenly turned on them, snatching one unwitting fellow right out of the air.

Flight of Fancy/Dance of Death

Whump, whump, whump the air throbs
under the assault of massive wings
three powerful strokes and he is aloft
master of the thermals

He dips one wing in silent condolence
to the pitiful flightless things below
while defiantly flying straight
into the scold of jays, and through

He climbs ever higher, taunting
inconsequential forms of lesser birds
that fall behind in the chase
still jeering they cluster … until

Pivoting on one wing, he falls
with sharp talons and flared wings
like an avenging angel set to smite
their relentless taunting

A silent cloud of black feathers
announces his success

Fly Like an Eagle — Steve Miller Band

Til next time ~Peace ~JP