Short and Sweet

 Short post.

 Aren't these wonderful words to live by? Love More, Worry Less. This is stationery my penpal sent me, from the Philippines.

 Sleep like a baby? Cats have it figured out.

 

May Sarton journals, a new find for me

 

I enjoy seeking out memoirs and journals written by people about my age. Or older! I found this captivating book, "At 82: A Journal" by May Sarton. Wow. I could not stop reading it and only reluctantly put it down to do other things. 

 I learned about how she is aging, which is helpful for me to know. My slowing down is not just me! She celebrates the little things like her adored cat Pierrot, flowers in bloom, her old house in Maine which she has rented for many years, visits from friends and publications of her books. Actually these are Big things.

She is 82 and recovered from a big stroke she had 12 years earlier at age 70. The year before she began this journal she had two small strokes and a TIA when in London. It is desperately hard for her to go ahead with her writing but she does. 

I have not read her poetry, but this journal is perfection. I sort of fell in love with her. She is often depressed because her poetry, while beloved by readers, does not get the awards she feels she deserves. Like me she needs quiet time alone, naps and cheerful visits with friends. 

She mentions her writing colleague and friend, Doris Grumbach, who lives near her in Maine. Sarton praises Grumbach so I bought and am reading now "Coming Into the End Zone" by Doris, written when she was 70. 

 I also bought May Sarton's After the Stroke: A Journal". A point in favor of her journals is they are quick reads, shorter than memoirs. Do you have any favorite journals or memoirs to suggest?

Fun Stuff

 Hi Friends, 

Here are some fun things I found online to share. Have you tried this new diet?

My birthday was a few days ago and here are birthday flowers from my sons in photo below. The white lilies are sensational and have a subtle scent.

 

 

 My adult sons sometimes surprise me with bouquets, "just because". One from each son.

The above bouquet was on my kitchen table last week. It is called Tropical Bouquet,The red tropical bloom, the orange colors and the mixed foliage are dramatic. 

Cute cat with a full belly sand sculpture.

Psalm 119:34 "Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end." Psalm 119:33 KJV Today at the group of Christian friends I organize once a month, this is the Psalm I read, We meet at a coffee shop and each picks a Scripture to share. I like the idea of "teach me", when I read the Bible I am open to learn.

Here is a photo of a Bedouin I took at a camel race in the desert near Jericho 60 years ago. I did not realize how foolish it was to travel with my friend Carol, in the desert to wild places on our own. The American Embassy discouraged us, but did not forbid us. It was exciting and great fun at the time. War broke out a few months later. 

Another cute pix. A Gucci Pooch.

Funnies, Abe Lincoln and His iPhone, Dragon Fan, Freedom of Speech

 

This week plumbers came on Monday to give me a bid to replace my 12 year old water heater, and they will come back on Tuesday to do the work. They will also check and clean the garden sump pump which is about  5 years old. My garden has a sump pump and French drains which work great to push rain water to the street gutter. They gave me a $200 senior discount so the sump pump servicing is sort of free. Next project is to replace one of my gas wall heaters which is 40 years old. For home repairs and improvements I usually get 3 bids. So far I got two, one is $1,000 more than the other. We will see what bid 3 will be.  

Above is my dragon fan, three feet across, and a dragon sculpture, on my living room wall. Also closeup of dragon sculpture befow.

 

Many countries are pushing against free speech for their citizens. Indeed some EU governments are pushing against free speech by citizens in OTHER countries. They are aiming to stop Americans from freedom of speech, even though it is legal and protected in America. The UK has arrested far more of its citizens for speech than Russia in the past 12 months. As famous minds have said, no one who wants to censor freedom of thought and speech has ever been on the right side of history.

And here is a funny about President Abraham Lincoln and his iPhone and photoshopped. 
 

Things I Like to Chat About

 I love to learn. I am a librarian and so many topics interest me. Here are some topics and people that I care about. Do we share any interests?

Authors: Rumer Godden and Agatha Christie. Fascinating lives, lived at same time but paths apparently did not cross. Rumer spent half her life in India and Agatha many years camping in harsh conditions in remote deserts in Syria with her archeologist husband Max. Favorite novelist Anthony Trollope. D.E. Stevenson. P. G. Wodehouse for good laughs. Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Beaton. Poet Mary Oliver.

 

I like novels set in India during the time when British were there. Novels set in Turkey. Many mystery series. Alexander McCall Smith, especially Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency set in Botswana. 

Memoirs. A favorite memoir on aging is Essays At 80 by American Poet Laureate Donald Hall. He lives alone in an isolated farm house in New England once owned by his grandparents. He is aging well and inspires me. The memoirs by Agatha Christie and Rumer Godden.

Petra in Jordan. A place of wonder I visited. Two American college girls visiting the desert long ago.

 

My favorite coffee shop below. 

 

 Gad Saad, Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, Maye Musk, Russell Brand in his Christian path. Katie Hopkins.

TV shows. Tatort Munster. Great friendship between the detective and the coroner. The new 3 part Seven Dials. The new Northanger Abbey. Eastenders, watching it from almost the beginning. Munch (funny). Son of a Critch (based on memoir, funny, sweet). The current series of Father Brown, 13 seasons now.

If you know me, C.S. Lewis is my Christian mentor. One favorite of his books is The Great Divorce, fiction about people who reject God and who accept God and his imaginative look at what happens at the moment of death. 

Flowers flowers you can not have too many flowers. I treated myself to the above bouquet at Costco.  A week later on Mothers Day my youngest son came over with another glorious bouquet and card. 

What do you like?

funnies, blue Turkish ceramics

 

Above is a cup I bought in Bursa, Turkey, where they are famous for their blue ceramics. The second photo shows blue Turkish tiles in the Blue Mosque. I visited it several times, it is beautiful. In Turkey they were not allowed to depict people or animals in art, so many of the designs are floral. I wrote my B.A. Art History thesis titled "History of the Development of the Mosque" The old grand mosques are airy and uplifting as are the Cathedrals of Europe.

Gardening Brings Me Joy and Mamaw Tribby

 "Did I take time out to laugh, to love,

To see, to think, to pray?

These are the thoughts that cross my mind

At the closing of the day."  Mamaw Tribby 

quote from the book "A Garden's Grace" by Nancy Hutchins 

Gardening brings me such joy. I know many of you feel the same peace when you see your gardens. Also some of us love to see gardens our neighbors provide. 

 The above is from my patio fence and has volunteer nasturtiums.

 

 

 

My dad enjoyed nurturing his garden and lawn at our Wisconsin home. He especially liked pruning our forsythia and lilac bushes. Once in a while he pruned a bit too much but we always had yellow forsythia and lilac blooms every spring. We had a white lilac, a dark purple lilac and a light lilac flower lilac all next to each other. The white lilac was about 10 feet tall, almost a tree, I planted a lilac recommended for where I live in California but it doesn't produce blooms. This year it had one group of blooms! I have had this lilac for about 15 years and I am not giving up on it.