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skywatch friday

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Wayne County Court House in Detroit, Michigan

We’ve been having blue, blue skies here for the past few days and summer-like temperatures. It’s been wonderful to get outside and plant my flowers, good for the spirit and my legs too, I have plenty of soar muscles from all the bending and squatting! Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend and I also hope you pause and take some time over the next few days to remember and honor the men and women who have served their country and made the ultimate sacrifice.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. ~Douglas MacArthur

skywatch friday

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Yes, we are those dumb people who go outside when a storm is blowing in to see if it’s bringing a tornado with it! The pic is from earlier this week, we saw a few swirling clouds, but thankfully no funnels, just a lot of wind and rain. Notice Mr. bookbabie has his wine with him, he read somewhere that offering up a glass Cabernet Sauvigon to the weather Gods will protect you 🙂

skywatch friday

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I wandered over to the fishing pond across the street to take a few pictures and two swans were conveniently floating around enjoying the bright sunny day. It’s finally starting to feel like spring around here. I must admit to feeling a little blue today however, it was a year ago this week that we lost our first granddaughter at only five months gestation. Last spring was tough with my mom being so ill and then the baby’s death. Thinking about those days and weeks reminds me that I have so much to be grateful for; that Meagan is pregnant again and doing well, that my mother is no longer suffering and my dad is adjusting as well as can be expected to living alone.

I suppose what they say is true, time heals all wounds. Or perhaps it just puts some much needed space between you and the pain. And in that space, if you are lucky, you may find a little peace. Near the end of one of my books I write …when the earthly lives of my daddy and brother had safely made that transformation from flesh and blood to mist and memory, when the grief had finally settled itself comfortably into the undercurrent of my days and nights, my voice came back to me. I wrote that not long after losing my beloved father-in-law Hank, and I was remembering that shift, that soft gray place where grief slips quietly into the background and we begin again. That is the joy and wonder of spring too, and it is here at long last.

skywatch friday

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Shot this a few minutes ago out my bathroom window, my Bradford Pear tree is budding, getting ready to officially announce spring. It’s sunny and fairly mild today, when it warms up a bit I think I’ll go walk around the yard and look for more signs of spring, maybe cut back some of the plants I didn’t get to last fall. I feel like I’m a little out of balance lately. I think I’m watching too many cable news shows and worrying too much; about the economy, about Meagan and baby Brooklyn, about how my dad is dealing with being alone, about my ginormous Visa bill…etc.  Things that are basically out of my hands (except my darn Visa bill, if only I’d actually kept that card out of my hands in the first place!). Worrying really is just a bad habit, isn’t it? It accomplishes nothing, changes nothing. I remember my mom doing her spring cleaning every year when we were kids, washing walls, wiping away dangling cobwebs, cleaning out closets and moving furniture so she could vacuum up the hidden dust and crumbs that accumulate after a long, dark winter. I feel like I need to that with myself this spring, cut away some of that cluttered old growth and give my spirit a good sprucing up:)

I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened. ~Winston Churchill

skywatch friday

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My son took this photo on a trip to Mexico. He and my daughter-in-law went for long walks every day venturing far outside the property lines of our resort. My son has a good eye for photography, he’s less traditional than mom and likes to find the unexpected, which in Mexico isn’t hard to do. Every day, not far from this abandoned gate, they saw a lone man with a submachine gun standing guard. What he was in charge of protecting they never could figure out and they had the good sense not to ask (or take his picture!). When I think of Mexico, I can’t help but think of contrasts; the lush tropical landscapes, treasured ancient ruins, and the rich, colorful culture of its people contrasted against a history of poverty and the horrific drug war that has recently escalated.  My daughter and I were just talking the other day about light and dark, good and evil and whether one can exist without the other. It’s always an interesting debate, isnt’ it?

Where there is much light, the shadow is deep. ~Johann Wolfgang Goethe

skywatch friday

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…she stared out the car window and watched as the country terrain began to roll gently under a lovely postcard blue sky, the fields and meadows changing color like the patterns on a quilt, moving from pale greens to muted gold’s to faded browns, dotted here and there with grazing creamy white sheep and striped with sleeping grape vines strung out like martyrs between five foot posts. ~Chapter 15, Love is a Many Splintered Thing

skywatch friday

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I couldn’t bring myself to post another snowy, barren winter scene… I am sooo over winter. My poor backyard is all brown mud and pools of gray snow, it’s covered with sticks and dried leaves and ringed by wilted and neglected clematis vines.  I’m feeling a bit wilted and neglected myself after a long, cold winter (and a long, grief filled year) and I need a dose of color.  So here’s my little park across the street before the snow and cold swept in this year. Happy SkyWatch Friday everyone!

So it’s been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether. ~ Sidney Poitier