Tag Archives: Celebrations

Celebrations – September 12, 2014


Today is the Celebrations blog hop by VikLit .  Come join us: the information is below. 

Some of the best celebrations I’ve had or enjoyed have been those that highlight others’ joys.  Today I am delighted to say that a good friend, Jerrie Brock, has a book that is free on Kindle, and it is doing very well, having reached the top 100 books free in all of Kindle after less than 24 hours.  It’s a wonderful story of the way love can handle the intrusion of the past.

I interviewed Jerrie on this blog, HERE

Something Returned is the sequel:

It is, for me, a wonderful story of the resilience of love.  You can pick up a copy on Amazon.  Here is a geotargeted link for you:

Now, as far as what I, myself, am celebrating in behalf of myself. would the fact that I idiotically did NOT back up my manuscripts on a cloud drive, but did on a 16 gb flash drive, and somehow, through my own stupidity managed to destroy that drive and lose all those manuscripts and yet, through the grace of God was able to retrieve them from a source I had not expected count as a celebration?

Yes, I thought so, too.  Stupidity is not always fatal.  But this was too close a call.

Champagne tonight!

(Yes, the files are all on various ‘clouds’ now)

What are YOU celebrating?  …I do hope it’s nothing stupid.  Mine was big enough for now.

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Celebrations September 5, 2014


 

Today is the Celebrations blog hop by VikLit .  Come join us: the information is below. 

I think you can find something to celebrate, if only that something has not happened.  Today I am celebrating my return after a hiatus of several weeks, and the fact that I am now able to tread water.

I am looking forward to going through everyone’s posts and enjoying seeing things through their eyes.  Shared smiles are sometimes better and brighter than those you muster all by yourselves.

For something pretty, I am sharing a photo I came across:




It isn’t the mountains that wear you down, but the grain of sand in your shoe…

What are you celebrating?   I hope it is wonderful!

Enjoy your weekends!

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Celebrating Mom and the beautiful lake


 

Today is the Celebrations blog hop by VikLit .  Come join us: the information is below.  Join us!

Today I am celebrating a visit to my 87 year old mother in ‘Upstate’ for which read ‘northwestern’ New York state.

The location is Keuka Lake, one of the glacier-born Finger Lakes of new York, famous for wines.

It is a stunning spot, as this photo shows, bordered by vineyards.

Keuka Lake, with a view of The Bluff, New York


Mom is handling her second year of widowhood with her usual courage and aplomb.  Dad probably found her a charming handful  She always loved him (exasperatedly) but recently she has said, “You know, Diana – he made sure I was provided for.”

That he did.

So I’m heading to Penn Yan NY (so-named because it was settled by Pennsylvanians and Yankees, and the name was a whole lot better than its original, which was ‘Hellzapoppin’.

What are you celebrating?

I hope yours is good!

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August 1 Celebrations


Today is the Celebrations blog hop by VikLit .  Come join us: the information is below.  Join us!

Today I am celebrating:

1.  The delicious continuation of a break in hot weather.  So lovely to be able to wake up with a quilt over me and a cat at my feet.

Cup with Agapanthus

2.  drinking my morning tea out of a cup decorated with agapanthus, which I call ‘aspidistra’ because ‘aspidistra’ has an almost Dr. Seuss-like sound.

Little Miss Mess with Photobomb




3.  A road trip to a cat show with Little Miss Mess (so-called because she takes no nonsense from the two big boys in the household) is scheduled for this weekend.  Probably her last since while she does love going into the public and flirting with children and passers-by and going up on judging tables and blowing kisses to the crowd, she is now ten years old and perceptibly slowing down, though she still whacks the males in the household on the backside.

4.  The weekend.

What are you celebrating?

I hope yours is good!

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July 18, 2014 – Celebrating (the demise of) wisteria


Welcome to Friday  and VikLit ‘s blog hop.  We’re celebrating the small things that make our lives richer.

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join us? 




False advertising!

Today I am celebrating going to war against the wisteria in my back yard. I planted some, years ago,   and now have more than I need. No one told me (and to be honest, I didn’t do my research) that the species is considered invasive and will send runners and roots all over the place. It is strong and insidious, and can take down a castle.

The only structure that can withstand wisteria is in Wales

In fact, Cromwell tried to use it against Harlech castle.  Harlech won that engagement.  But, alas, I don’t live in Harlech castle, so I am off to war.



Wisteria’s true nature!

Wisteria is pretty when it blooms, with cascades of fluttery grape-like blossoms.  The Japanese love it.  I (once) loved it.  Not any more.  The stuff has taken down temples in the jungle, and after considerable research and cursing, I have concluded that it is related to The Blob.

The final annoyance is that it has never once bloomed in my yard.  That has sealed its fate.  …If it does not blob me to death.


I also have chokecherries. (the lookalike weeds, I mean)  They are juicy-stemmed, shoot up like (you guessed it) weeds, and multiply like Hercules’ hydra.

Who cares if it can be used for ink?


The berries can be used in place of ink, but since I only have one fountain pen, inherited from my father, I’m not going to gum up its works, or dye my hands, with the stuff.

But this weekend I am waging war, and I am prepared! 

Off to war!


Enjoy yours, everyone!
(weekend, not war)

(…I certainly hope that my dog does not attack the wisteria and chokecherries with lifted leg before I get at them!…)



So…  What are you celebrating?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Celebrations, July 11 – Inspiration, however late, is a good thing…



Welcome to Friday  and VikLit ‘s blog hop.  We’re celebrating the small things that make our lives richer.

You’ll hear from parents, athletes, thinkers (most of them are!), doers, dreamers, movers and shakers, shakers, poets, people who write, people who crochet, people who do all sorts of things that make you feel somewhat inadequate, but it’s all in your own head.  People who read books, write and review books.  People from all over the place (and this is the odd thing: you can be following a blog for literally years and suddenly realize that the blogger is from the other side of the world, and you never suspected it).

In this hop, they’re all smiling.

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join us?  Or, at least, visit the various posts and smile.

Today I am celebrating last night’s burst of inspiration.  Well, I’m not sure it’s a burst, exactly.  Rather more like saying “What was WRONG with me?  It will work better this way!”

I’m speaking of my covers for The Memphis Cycle.  Something wasn’t quite satisfactory.  And I figured out what it was, and changed it.

 
See if you can tell the difference:



…And that is what I am celebrating today!  (Took me long enough!)

What are you celebrating?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Celebrations, July 4, 2014



Welcome to Friday  and VikLit ‘s blog hop.  We’re celebrating the small things that make our lives richer.

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join?  Or, at least, visit the various posts and smile.

It’s a good place to go if you need a smile, a chuckle or a ‘hmmm…’

It has been a miserable, wretched really, really lousy week.  It started out well.  I came bouncing into my place of employment, glad to see everyone, and things went south from there.  Grumpy people, people in downright nasty moods, snarking, snarling, finger-pointing.  And I spun my wheels for three days.  Used up quite a lot of tissues, too

Judith Viorst wrote a book about such a time:


I am, however, off today and tomorrow, and I did not need to deal with degenerative snarkosis.  Nor did I have to look at their faces and bite my tongue.  I go into the office tomorrow to get some work done.  (Yes, it’s a holiday, but I’m going to be alone.)

So I am, fighting the mood and sipping some red wine from Burgundy: Moulin A Vent (‘Windmill’ in French, named for the windmill that is visible from the vineyards).

It does appear to be helping.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Celebrations – June 20, 2014





Welcome to Friday  and VikLit ‘s blog hop.  We’re celebrating the small things that make our lives richer.

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join?  Or, at least, visit the various posts and smile.

…And today I am celebrating…
 
Bloggers!
 
This means the folks on this hop, the people who jot down their thoughts now and then because they want to share, those who have an interest that they think is just absolutely cool and they can’t stop talking about it.
 
There are those who assemble the most fascinating bits of information and provide a background to help us understand the information, those who have a skill, be it crocheting (one on the A to Z blog fest had a theme involving  crocheting all sorts of flowers)  or travelogues. 
 
Cooking, being a parent, adjusting to country life, job-hunting, chronicling their writing endeavors, reviewing books and, through all of them, giving an incredibly rich picture of people.
 
I have been honored to co-host this hop, along with two others, and the time has been truly eye-opening.  It’s been a ‘wow!’ experience.
 
So here’s to bloggers – people to celebrate!  (And I’m going to try to visit every single blogger on the hop list over the next week.  Fun!)
 
Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Fireflies – (June 13, 2014 Celebrations)


Welcome to Friday!  This post is part of the blog hop  that Vikki at VikLit thought of well over a year ago. 

Here we pause to celebrate the small things that together make our lives richer.  

The hop is still open if you want to join, and it has drawn a wonderful group that posts, remembers, celebrates and just generally supports and cheers you on.

Today I am celebrating one of summer’s perennial surprises.  You know: the sort of joy that you forget from year to year, making each new encounter seem as though it is the first.  This always comes as a surprise to me, and it sifts down in several ways to make it memorable each time I encounter it.

I am speaking of what we call ‘fireflies’.

They are modest little things, sober-colored insects with that splash of red.  There always comes a point in late spring when I step outside, gaze up a hill  in the deepening twilight, and see, like a handful of stars thrown on the hillside, flickering points of golden light, drifting in the light breeze, rising up into the tree tops.

When visiting my grandmother in Vermont (far northeast United States for those who are not from North America) I can remember driving back from getting ice cream and watching, enthralled, as the forests seemed to flicker with light.

Just two nights ago, one of them was perched on my window screen.  I fell asleep to the gentle, flickering glow.

This weekend, the sporadic showers and the mosquitoes willing, I will be sitting on my porch and watching them against the stars.

How about you?  What are you celebrating? 

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join and tell us? 

 

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Small Celebrations, May 23, 2014



Welcome to Friday and the Small Celebrations blog hop, started by VikLit.  We all sit back, take stock (Fridays are good for that) and notice the little things that make our lives happy, that make us smile, or that give a moment’s joy.

The information on the hop is below.  Why don’t you join?  Or, at least, visit the various posts and smile.

Today I am celebrating two rather small things.  Aside from a soft, spring rain that is making the grass green (and, unfortunately, making it grow!)

Shining Brightly

The photo of the spring rain did not turn out well.  It looked rather like the view you get through your reading glasses after handling them with hands that just boned a roasted chicken (smeary, I mean).

So we are celebrating two other things.

This is a hydrangea of a particularly bright pink.  It is bright even on a rainy day.  I forgot I had it, since I don’t generally go in my own front door.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this beautiful plant glowing in early twilight:

…and doesn’t the pink go beautifully with the handmade pot? 

Once it is gone by,  I will be putting it in the ground by the front door.  With any luck (and some good feeding) it will bloom again next year.

…And I am posting about a small celebration.  I’ve mentioned her before.  I think I called her an attractive nuisance.  She answers to ‘Princess’, though her name is ‘Frida’.  She is also referred to as ‘Little Miss Mess’.  And she is a very sweet illustration of a bit of poetry by Katherine Lee Bates:

Little Miss Mess, the Attractive Nuisance

Dawn love is silver
Wait for the west
Old love is gold love –
Old love is best


Frida celebrated her tenth birthday this month.  She is healthy, lively, in good flesh – but she is more than half the maximum age she is likely to reach.  (Burmese cats tend to be long-lived)  The time has passed so swiftly, and she is my best little girlfriend.

So what are you celebrating?

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