Sunday Stills and Weekend Coffee Share in the July heat

Welcome fellow Spoonies and various other sentient beings! Come in, grab your favorite cuppa and let’s visit a bit with Natalie at the Weekend Coffee Share and Terri at Sunday Stills. Our Sunday Stills prompt is “angle” and I found oh so many on our recent adventures.

Last week, we visited Mountain Home, Idaho and took a mini tour of Penny Alley which is a local alleyway that has been dedicated to dozens of urban murals in this tiny rural town. According to the local brochure “in 2016 a group of local artists came together to transform a nearly 320 foot stretch of alleyway in the city’s downtown into an outdoor art gallery featuring a collage of different works of art painted on the walls of local businesses.” We spent a sunny (yeah read that HOT!!!) morning walking the alley, snapping pics, and eating outdoors.

It’s business hours so a lot of this collage is blocked but still sooo worth the look. I can totally dig the wild angles in the dream catcher. Dude!

Adventure is out there!!! LOOK at all the angles in the mural, each sun ray had it’s own design. Plus, it’s purple … and pink! 🙂

I considered cropping this shot but wanted to keep the “OMG this is the alley of actual working businesses” feel. I like the lines of the bricks through the murals and the way the angles are broken up with curves and blending of the individual pictures in the mural.

I particularly love this. Maybe it’s the quote, I am a John Muir fan, or maybe it’s the scene, or maybe it’s the style. This shot is not pixelated, the rough “texture” is intentional. Up close it rather resembles one of those photos transferred to canvas texture. However it was done the result is much in keeping with the alley-feel. I shot this from a straight-on angle with my hinney squeezed up against the far alley wall, stupid camera phone. ;-p

After a long stroll we made our way back to the car through a little craft fair. It was fun to see the offerings. We returned to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, splashing, relaxing and practicing that wonderous vacation ritual of napping. So many great angles in the rock water feature.

Hope you’re staying cool in your part of the world. We’re enduring another round of record breaking heat here in the west and midwest USA. To read a bit more about Spoonies and summer, check out Magical Mundanities Episode 3 –Summer Spoons.

Til next time ~Stay Wild Moonchild ~JP

Magical Mundanities Episode 3 — Summer Spoons

Buddleia gone wild

In the early morning I step outside. The air is already heavy with heat. Summer is in full swing. Blackberries and blueberries hang gravid with sweet juice, begging for harvest. Yellow squash and bright red tomatoes peek through verdant leaves. Wild roses are faded and dry in the heat while marigolds and buddleia proliferate wildly much to the delight of the cavorting swallowtails. All the sweet abundance of Summer.

But with the sweet, comes the bitter. Sweltering heat brings fatigue, enough to crush the body and soul. Discontent and maudlin anxiety taunt me with reminders of all I can no longer do. I step outside into the heat of afternoon and see the dull haze, the bane of forest dwellers everywhere, wild fires. It is hard to breathe through the acrid smell that fills the valley. There will be no evening stroll along the river tonight.

This is deep summer for a Spoonie. Equal portions of bitter and sweet, joy and sorrow. I cannot change the heat, the fatigue, or the fires. All I can change is how I react to it. So for today, and probably tomorrow, I will stay sequestered indoors with windows closed and A/C on until the smoke passes. I will read, and write, craft, and rest. And I will be grateful for the precious, magical moments of my life. I missed so many moments, days frittered away in anger and impatience, back before I knew that life is lived in those tiny moments of grace, filled with joy and laughter, and strung carefully together into the journey of a lifetime.

In a few days we venture on to our next destination but for now it is enough to know that we are still relatively safe from the distant fires, my health will return, and the berries will make an excellent topping for shortcakes.

Abundance of blackberries

Til next time ~Stay Wild Moonchild ~JP

Magical Mundanities — Episode 2 — Spoonie Travel in a Pandemic World

Welcome fellow Spoonies and various other sentient beings to another episode of Magical Mundanities where this Spoonie seeks to find the magic in a mundane world.

After returning from a short trip to visit grandkids and wrap up pre-retirement details with the home office, we had three weeks to rest, recuperate, see doctors, repack our suitcases and pack up our tiny home for storage before heading out on the “big trip of being somewhere else.” This is the first significant road trip we’ve taken in several years.

Butterfly on a purple coneflower bids me farewell in South Dakota

We left South Dakota on a sunny day. The weather had been mostly hot and sunny for the weeks prior to our departure and we were looking forward to some cooler temps.

Spoonie travel requires some adjustments. We discovered early on that traveling by car is no less draining than travel by air, and it TAKES LONGER! Bear in mind that neither of us travels well these days, we’re out of shape. We took the drive in easy steps traversing no more than 350 miles of state highways per day. We stopped at virtually every roadside rest and touristy place along the way (aka restrooms).

Independence Rock — along the Oregon Trail — Alcova, WY

We loosely followed the Oregon Trail most of the trip and picked up fascinating tidbits about the pioneers and their perils, as well as the Eisenhower Highway Act which connected this vast country. The story goes that when Eisenhower was a young Army officer, he participated in a cross country convoy from New York to California. The trek took 62 days and Eisenhower later wrote that this was when he first envisioned a cross country highway system.

The road was long, the journey arduous although certainly not a patch on what the pioneers or post WWI travelers must have gone through. Breaks became less frequent and fatigue crushed the mind, body and soul of these two spoonies. Wyoming holds many, many hundred miles of, well, nothing. At all. I have always said though that if you LOOK for beauty, you’ll find it. Above, during a brief break at an otherwise unremarkable rest area, thistles behind a dilapidated parking lot.

Penny Wall, Mountain Home, Idaho

Finally after three days of bone crushing travel fatigue, we stopped for a two-night R&R in the little town of Mountain Home, Idaho. While there we took in some local sites like “Penny Alley” which encompasses an alley full of murals. More on that later.

Hand Mural – Penny Alley — Mountain Home, Idaho

For now, if we were having coffee at the Weekend Coffee Share, I’d tell you that our travels have been full of tiny steps and beautiful moments, and some fairly huge stumbling blocks as well. I’d remind you that you have but to open your eyes to see the beauty around you, and “those who do not believe in magic will never find it.”

Til next time ~Stay Wild Moonchild ~JP

Sunday Stills — Temps Have Fallen

For Sunday Stills — Fallen

The pine trees all have long since
dropped their load of pollen
the last red leaf of maple
months ago has fallen
landscapes now of purest white
outside it’s wt* degrees farenheit

I have to admit that my first thought when I saw the prompt was *insert dumb look here* so I thought — fallen, fallen like in fallen angel? Yeah I read Jim Butcher, no members of the Fallen here. Let’s just say that from there my thoughts got weirder and weirder (yeah I know, whoda thunk) Anyway, then I got to thinking about petals on the plum tree in our former RV park of residence in Utah. Do you know I do not have a single picture (that I can locate) of those petals once they hit the ground. Hmpf, well I guess I’m just gonna have to wing it. I went down the rabbit hole of photo archive digging and before I knew it, it’s almost dinner time. So you’re stuck with “things that have fallen.”

Flowering plum tree – Virgin, Utah before all the petals had fallen

A heavy coat of florescent yellow pine pollen, there are no scratches, paint peels or rubs on the car, that’s all pollen. Ewww took me weeks to get it out of everything.

Little spontaneous waterfalls here in Zion National Park where fallen rocks, trees, and other debris wash down the canyon until they get stuck and create those beautiful babbling brook sounds.

This was part of a massive rockslide that wiped out a good section of highway going through Zion National Park in Utah a few years ago. To quote the zen master C3PO “it’s possible this asteroid is not entirely stable.”

Waterfall at the entrance to the Temple of Sinewava the rock shelf is worn from water that has fallen over it for centuries. Regrettably the waterfall no longer flows.

And finally, Sterling Castle, Scotland grave yard, tributes to fallen ancestors.

Til next time ~stay wild moon child ~JP

Sunday Stills – through the cracks

For Sunday Stills our theme this week is “City Sidewalks”

City Sidewalks, busy sidewalks
people rushing to the stores
like watercolors flowing
down the canvas of life
spread too thin
to leave an impression
Nature’s beauty superfluous
to their needs
too hurried to smile
too harried to pause
they never even noticed
the tiny flower
growing through the crack
in the pavement

 

Flower in a pavement crack, Pahrump, NV

taking the sidewalk into Castle Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Sidewalk running by the hot spring in Hot Springs, SD

A rainy sidewalk in Osaka, Japan

Sidewalk in Xiamen, China

Walkway across the quay into Wellington, NZ

What I’m listening to now:

Til next time ~Peace ~JP

Blue Skies – picoftheweek and OLN

For Maria Antonia’s 2020 Picoftheweek photo challenge, my prompt for this week is “blue skies” and for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace is hosting pop on over and discover something new.

Heading into the Highlands of Scotland, on our way to Loch Lomond

Trip to Loch Lomond

For too long the city air
has seared my lungs
and choked my soul
so away I go
to the Highlands
to clear the air
and free my heart
on the bonnie, bonnie banks
of Loch Lomond

The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond — Ella Roberts

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Monday Windows — A light

A stone lantern at the entrance to a garden Kyoto, Japan snapped with my phone

For Ludwig’s Monday Windows project wee-bity windows light the way

A stone lantern stands
a lonely sentinel
silently lighting the path
for wayward travelers,
pilgrims and seekers
rich with moss and
the patina of ages
how long has it guarded
this woodland path
and who lights it?

Every Light in the House is On — Trace Adkins

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Monday Windows – Imperial Windows

For Ludwig’s Monday Windows do pop over a see some great windows.

At Shugakuin Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan. At the pinnacle of the upper garden and grounds lies a simple pavilion structure of multiple rooms where emperor Gomizuno could view the panoramic views. Construction began in 1655 and Shugakuin remains one of the finest displays of shakkei (the Japanese garden art of “borrowing scenery”) to be found. Here at the Emperor’s Pavillion you see the extensive use of tatani mats. Note the elevated platform where the Emperor would sit. The paper windows let in light at different times of day and these large “lift out” windows let in the summer breeze.

One of many views from the Emperor’s Pavilion

Summer Breeze – Seals & Croft

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

The Gael – a Which Way Challenge

“We cross the bridge, and are transported back to a long ago age. Soot still clings to the stones and I cannot help but wonder if somewhere blood stains linger. The blemish of war wraps itself around the very stones and spirits call from the long empty battlements. Make no mistake, this is no fairy tale castle, this is Castle Edinburgh ancient stronghold and defender of the nation.”

~ JP Pearlman A Travel Journal

For the Which Way Challenge

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

Suzhou – a Which Way Challenge

A canal in Suzhou, China

Suzhou was once at the center of the Chineses silk trade. Today, it is much more celebrated for it’s art, delicate gardens, thousand year old temples, and of course romantic water towns and canals. It is these that have earned it the name “Venice of the East.” A thoroughly charming city all modernized but still holding on to it’s 2,500 years of history and architecture.

And a plus, a traditional gondolier song by what may well be one of the finest voices of our age.

For the Which Way Challenge brought to us by sonofabeach96

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP