sunset | Anything is Possible!

May 10, 2025
by JoAnna 24 Comments

SoCS: My Favorite Places, Naturally in Nature

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “favorite place.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

A favorite place can be real or imagined, or a combination of both. If I were to create a favorite place, it would have quiet sounds of nature. Gentle bird songs, whispering breezes, and a trickling of water. There would be lush greenery including ferns, trees of course, and a mingling of daisies and black eyed Susans which I’m cultivating. There would be rocks, smooth rocks to sit on or bask in the sun with. There would be only occasional human voices, maybe singing around a fire. Oooh, a cabin down the path that has a fireplace. And dogs. and horses. Now, I’m describing heaven, or what heaven would be for me.

There can be glimpses of heaven on earth. Slices of paradise since Earth IS a paradise or would be if we respected the work of Earth’s Creator, whoever or whatever you believe that is.

There were many years when I lived near the ocean and would have little slices of heaven in the late afternoon which was my favorite time to go to the beach,

Or we’d have an evening moonrise in late September when the water was still warm.

Or a sunset on the intracoastal waterway…

Now, since we’ve moved closer to the western part of North Carolina, there are slices of heaven with waterfalls…

on wooded trails….

… and in my own backyard.

~~~

For more Streams of Consciousness and Favorite Places,

visit our host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE.

January 17, 2025
by JoAnna 11 Comments

SoCS: Birds at the Feeder, an Old Song, Keeping it Simple, and Snow

Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan the 18th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “pack/peck/pick/pock/puck.” Use one or use ’em all for bonus points—it’s up to you! Enjoy!

Kudos to those who use all those words in their post. I’m not even going to try, but anything’s possible!

We have two bird feeders in the backyard. One is attached to the deck but has been moved further from the air conditioning/heating unit after an unfortunate accident I wrote about previously and don’t want to revisit. The other feeder is a little further out in the yard. The birds can be competitive. I’ve noticed that no more than one cardinal can be on the feeder at a time. There’s probably a pecking order. We’ve had a couple of medium sized woodpeckers, but again, not at the same time. Here are a few photos taken through the screen in Mama Cat’s room:

The birds can go through a lot of birdseed. We try not to fill them every day, but don’t let them go empty too long when there’s snow, which has been abundant lately.

Whenever I see the word, peck, I think of the song my dad used to sing to my mom, that went, “I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.” I’ve probably shared this before, but I’m sharing it again, in honor/memory of my parents. The song is from the Broadway musical, “Guys and Dolls,” in 1950 which was when my parents were dating.

There are some strange versions of the song which involve women dressed as chickens trying to be sexy. I did not like that one. I don’t think I shared the following one by Molly Bee who has a relatively pleasant voice:

You might not know that I wrote a family history novel based on my parents, Betty and Jim, just for family. It was a labor of love and often an emotional process. Maybe one day, I’ll work on revising it for general publication, but who knows?

Well, I think I’ll leave it at this. Nothing profound, though my parents love was profound….

I’m trying to avoid anything challenging. Keeping it simple. Baking and cooking more, sewing curtains, doing a little home decorating. It’s funny that in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I disdained the thought of me being simply a homemaker like my mother. (Not that I judge her or anyone else for doing that, but it wasn’t for me.) Now, after 30 plus years working out in the world, I LOVE being a homemaker! Thank God for retirement.

Here are a few more snow pictures including my snow angel sculpture, Marley trying to make a snow angel, and the setting sun shining through trees.

~~~

For more Streams of Consciousness

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.

October 26, 2023
by JoAnna 27 Comments

Tree Love, Sunset, and the Creek

If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.

…Steve Irwin

We walked along our neighborhood creek near sunset a couple of times this month. I love the feeling of wild places, even when they are on the edge of the city.

Plants growing naturally along the banks reduces flooding.

…

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur.

For more tree love, visit Parul at Happiness and Food.

August 5, 2023
by JoAnna 16 Comments

SoCS: 12/12 and Sunset on the River

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pick a number.” Choose a number—any number—and write about it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Thank you to our SoCS host, writer, and Wordle Champ, Linda Hill! You can visit Linda and learn more about SoCS by clicking HERE.

12/12 was when I was born in the year 1955. David and I got married on 12/1/12. We thought about getting married on 12/12/12, but that would have been a Wednesday and maybe harder for people to get there. Plus, who wants to have their anniversary on their birthday? Better to have two small or medium sized celebrations than one big one in my opinion, especially with Christmas right around the corner. But let’s not rush things. Time is going fast enough already. Zoom, zoom, zoom.

On the last day of July, David and I went to the river and were lucky to find a parking place since traffic has become more congested every summer. At same riverwalk where we had our second first date in July of 2011, we watched July 2023 sun set in a blaze of glory.

The first photo in the gallery below is a sailboat about to pass in front of the Battleship USS North Carolina. I like the reflection of the sailboat. Click the photo to see the whole image, then the arrow will take you to the next photo.

Reminds me of a line from my favorite singer/songwriter, James Taylor:

Hey Babe, the sky’s on fire…….. Goin’ to Carolina in my mind.

~~~

Click here to join the stream!

July 15, 2023
by JoAnna 14 Comments

SoCS: Recordings, Mountains, an Old TV Show, and an Anniversary Sunset

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “record.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Thanks to our host, Linda Hill for the prompt! So many possibilities.

My dad used to have a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He sent a tape recording of his voice home when he was “overseas” maybe in Vietnam. Now we have video recordings, not on tape. They seem like magic by comparison, but they are not really magic. Unless they contain a magic message, a message of hope in the midst of despair.

Dad saved a lot of old records – 45s and vinyl albums and two record players, aka turntables. He had three Captain and Tenille albums. I had no idea he liked them.

Recording in ancient days meant writing. I was a good note taker. Still am. Notes help me remember things. I still have notebooks where I write things, for the record, or just for helping me organize my thoughts, like houses in the NC mountains I’m interested in. Sometimes, I ~~get a~~ ~~little obsessed~~ spend too much time on Zillow….

I’m working to trust God who knows best. Maybe we’re supposed to stay here near the coast, in the house where I’ve lived for almost 40 years, where I’ve put down roots, in the city that had the closest university to where my parents settled after Dad retired from the Corps at Camp Lejeune. That’s how I ended up here. After being a military kid, I was tired of moving.

But I’ve always longed for the mountains. It’s not just that my son and granddaughter live in the mountains and my daughter is getting ready to move up that way, and the mountain air smells so fresh… When I was about 10 or 11, I used to love TV shows about the mountains. One was called, The Monroes. It was filmed in Wyoming, I think. This was way back when there was no such thing as recording TV shows. We had three channels and were satisfied. Barbara Hershey co-starred in The Monroes, one of the first TV hippie westerns in 1966 or 67. The family was homesteading in Wyoming. Their parents had died. They had this cool dog, a Great Pyrenees, named Snow.

Let’s see if anyone remembers the opening:

So you see, I’ve always had a thing for the mountains. John Denver just reinforced it in the 70s. The Appalachians are not as dramatic as the Rockies but are gentler which is fine with me. David is okay with moving if I want to. But if God wants us to stay here on the coast and just visit the mountains, that’s okay, too. There’s a lot of good here if you can overlook the summer heat and mosquitoes. The cicadas are singing loud outside as I write this stream Friday evening. I can hear them from inside the house, or maybe that’s my tinnitus.

Here are some photos I took at the intracoastal waterway Thursday night where the water was cool and refreshing. This is near the place David and I had our second date when we reconnected on the weekend of July 15, 2011.

(I did not enhance those colors. This is what my old i phone camera did. )

And here’s an old video of me singing with a mountain stream a few years ago:

Singing with a Mountain Stream
~~~
Saturday morning: Today is the anniversary of our second first date when David came down from Connecticut in 2011 after 39 years of no contact. I kind of wish I’d written about that more. It’s time to trust the timing and focus on the gifts of the present.

~~~

For more streams and SoCS rules,
visit our host, Linda Hill
by clicking HERE.

June 24, 2023
by JoAnna 20 Comments

SoCS: Abnormalities and a Visit to the Beach

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “starts with ‘ab’.” Find a word that starts with “ab” and use it in your post. Enjoy!

First thing that came to mind was, abs. Gotta engage the abs, strengthen the core. Do some planks and get beyond 30 seconds. I got to a minute once with the plank posture. Straight arms – it doesn’t matter. My osteoporosis has gotten slightly worse in the past 2 years, so I have to do more weight bearing exercise and be consistent with the calcium, D3, magnesium…. read a book, Strong Bones for Life. Haven’t decided about medication, but I have read that my thyroid meds and the medication for acid reflux can mess with bones. Sheesh. It’s always something.

Second thing I thought of was, abnormal, as in not with the norm. Who wants to be normal? Sometimes I pretend to be normal, but less and less as I get older. I have accepted and embraced that I do NOT like crowds, especially when a lot of people are talking in an enclosed space. Makes my ears ring louder. Who needs that? Went to a memorial service where that was happening, so I went outside by myself and walked in the damp grass, which was a big relief.

Abnormal made me thing of this scene from Young Frankenstein: https://youtu.be/C9Pw0xX4DXI

Marley killed a squirrel in the backyard the other day. It was traumatic for me – watching the scene unfold and trying to get him to drop it. DROP IT! DROP IT! DROP IT! For Marley it was fun and exciting. I’m trying to remember that for a dog like Marley – a husky mix with a strong prey drive and a history of escaping from his previous owner and being gone for days during the first six years of his life – this behavior is not abnormal. I always take him out back on a leash first and yell at the squirrels to disperse up into the trees before I let him off the leash. I figured the squirrels would be too fast for him, and they were until Tuesday. The squirrels have been getting bolder and abnormally abundant. Sigh. I don’t want to think about it anymore, but we are working on the DROP IT command more.

Now, I need something funny or soothing to soften that memory in my mind’s abnormally vivid imagination. I could go on and on about abnormalities. But who’s to decide what’s normal and what’s not?

My daughter is getting ready to move west to the foothills next month, so we went to the beach Wednesday. We drove to the state park beach which was worth the drive, since there were fewer people. It was late afternoon/early evening. I swam in the cool ocean, and we got to see some interesting clouds. Click any individual photo to see better.

Here’s a photo of me and Ayla at the beach 30 years ago:

~~~

For more streams of consciousness and guidelines,

visit our absolutely marvelous host,

Linda G. Hill

by clicking HERE.

November 10, 2022
by JoAnna 20 Comments

Thursday Tree Love: Sunset Silhouette

I think I’ve shared this live oak before. She lives across the street from our neighborhood park. A few evenings ago, while walking Marley, I saw her as a sunset silhouette.

Below are a couple older photos of this very special tree in the light of day:

~~~

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

For more tree love, visit Parul at:

https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-137/

February 12, 2022
by JoAnna 28 Comments

SoCS: A Lullaby and a Golden Sunset on Ice

There be tales of old telling of young men, and young women too, going off to seek their fortunes, perhaps with a song, a fore tune, when they imagined gold and other riches. But after many miles and many years, if they are wise, they find more fortune in friendship, and honor, love, and finally peace. Gold is fine. Gold is good to have if used wisely, but it is not the most important thing, we learn in time. We gather a fortune in experience, knowledge and hopefully wisdom.

There’s a song my daughter taught me years ago when we travelled together. Now, I sing it to my granddaughter as a lullaby. Fortune and misfortune are mentioned in the second verse.

Back when we had a rare icing here on the Carolina coast, I saw the golden sunset reflected through ice on the fence. The old wire fence was transformed into a canvas. I feel fortunate to have been able to catch the light in these photos.

What is your favorite lullaby? Is it a song or a gentle rain?

Right now, I’m listening to the birds sing – my favorite wakeup call. They say spring is on the way!

~~~

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was, “fortune.” For more streams and rules, visit our host, Linda Hill by clicking HERE.

December 23, 2021
by JoAnna 14 Comments

Thursday Tree Love: Trees Along the Creek in Late Afternoon

A pine tree? or maybe a cypress? dressed in Spanish moss

I took this photo last week as we walked our new dog, Marley, along the creek in our neighborhood. I love how the trees and Spanish moss filter the sunlight. On winter nights the leafless branches make the starlight twinkle. Our sun could be someone else’s starlight. Writing in stream of consciousness mode, I think of the Charismas song that goes: Star of wonder star of light …… Guide us to thy perfect light. It’s the holidays here in the US where I celebrate Christmas. Some have celebrated Hanukkah, some celebrate Kwanza. Let us all celebrate trees!

Here are more trees along my neighborhood creek.