stories, photographs, adventures…the next chapter
Inspired by Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Numbers: Anything with numbers on it
This is a hand operated adding machine my mother-in-law used to keep the books for my father-in-law’s business. It served its purpose for decades. We found it in our attic (along with several spare rolls of paper) when we downsized 3 years ago.
A local antique store was happy to take it off our hands and give it a new home.
Inspired by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo: Coast
A few years ago, we visited Cape Elizabeth, Maine for the first time. We were blessed with beautiful weather for our two night very relaxing stay.
Including a long afternoon walk…along its trademark rocky coastline.
Inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #70: alien
What an interesting prompt from V.J. this week.
Sometimes I also feel like an alien in the same way that V.J. does. As I juggle multiple health issues that are often met with a doctor shrugging his or her shoulders commenting: I’ve never seen that one before. Before giving up. Time and again.
So imagine my surprise and fascination upon entering a General Store exhibit (at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont) this summer. Filled with – among other things – items from an actual pharmacy circa early 1900s.
I could have spent the entire day in that one building. Hundreds of medications, potions, elixirs and tonics in their original packaging. With claims for cures for most everything that could possibly be wrong with you. I noticed a proliferation of products to help babies sleep at night…and cures for all things bowel related. Interesting!
This is how people were “medicated” back then.
All of it alien to me.
That face on the orange box (described as the “laughing baby” trademark)…Sorry, that baby is NOT laughing. He/she/it could possibly qualify in the alien category.
Was it really tasteless? I wonder. At first I thought it was to help babies chill out, but apparently not.
However…
Got me thinking…perhaps there may still be one pill out there somewhere that could cure all kinds of peristaltic problems. Ahem. Plus dizziness and headaches. And costiveness. Yes, I had to look that one up: aka constipation.
Dr. Harrison where are you.
And if all else fails, there is always the Electric Cough Cure. That chloroform and codeine combo could make a comeback if we’re lucky.
Unfortunately that wouldn’t cure what ails me.
Either would the cough remedies.
But I’ll bet babies who cough would sleep well at night.
[All of these products are displayed in glass cases – hence the reflections…]
Lens-Artists Challenge #69: Seeing Double
…let’s double our pleasure and focus on things that come in twos.
~~~
First: A glimpse back at summer…a pair of seagulls hanging out at the beach.
Next: A reminder of what is coming.
Two deck posts united in snow after a heavy wet March snowstorm. Looks like frosting to me.
AND…
Because today happens to be Halloween…I couldn’t resist an additional double from the family archives.
A sibling pair of trick or treaters dressed and ready…let’s go!
Inspired by Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things Found in a Kitchen
BeckyB: lines&squares
Watch me!
What I remember most are her bright red fingernails.
Each shiny nail a perfect oval.
I must have been quite young as her hands were close to my line of sight at the kitchen counter. Watching my mother demonstrate how to flute a pie crust.
First flatten the dough onto the pan’s rim. Press your right forefinger into the dough on the edge. At the same time, pinch the dough around it using your left thumb and forefinger…to form an even point. Repeat the process around the pan until there is a circle of neat grooves. Sealing the top and bottom crusts together. So the juices from all the freshly sliced apples don’t leak out during baking.
The process of fluting is difficult to explain – which is probably why she showed me. Many times.
She was careful. Gentle. No hurrying. No impatient sighs. Voice unusually soft and low. See? This is how you do it. I was mesmerized. Each indentation she made on the crust’s edge forced bits of dough and flour onto and under her nails…red polish slowly disappearing. The tips of her fingers eventually a dusty white.
My mother also wore matching lipstick…which outlined the ever-present red slice of discontent on her face…
…which momentarily slipped away when she was working on a piecrust.
Calmly focused on the pie pan as she expertly rotated it…pressing her manicured fingers methodically into the fresh dough…she was an Artist at Work.
Creating a masterpiece. All her own.
BeckyB: lines&squares
Colorful bamboo fills an area bordering the lion exhibit at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
On display – June 2019.
Inspired by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo: Sunset
…please share your favorite sunset moments, whether they are at the beach, at the city or over the mountains.
~~~
Since I love watching sunsets…and therefore taking photographs of sunsets, it was a bit of a challenge to decide which photo to use for this challenge.
So I settled on my most recent sunset experience. I took this photo in June when visiting friends at their summer cottage on Lake Champlain in Vermont. This is the view from their back porch…looking out across the lake…New York state in the distance.
I sure could get used to that view!
BeckyB: lines&squares
Look what I found during a walk in the woods yesterday.
A totally overcast day had its upside…looking down.
And looking straight ahead as well.
Nature’s lines were everywhere.
Inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #69: kindle
How do you ignite motivation when stalled? Or perhaps, you perceive need for a kickstart elsewhere.
~~~
To write or not to write?
That is the question.
Well, not the entire question.
To procrastinate or not to procrastinate?
That is the real question.
How to get past that pile of crap sometimes planted squarely in the way…
How to ignite a dormant fraction of an idea that briefly appears – and perhaps even feels momentarily brilliant…before it evaporates in a mist of uncertainty? Ghostly voices echoing unimportant not good enough who cares…before sinking it into the muck of inertia.
So I plod on, searching for the proper mix of kindling.
To ignite…to spark.
To silence the ghosts.
To harness the energy in such short supply.
My current mantra…
Hold on.
Begin.
One sentence at a time.
The purpose will make itself known…
…When I was in college I wrote every day. Didn’t think twice about it. Not just research papers. Or chemistry lab reports. But a personal journal with a jet black cover given to me by a girlfriend – a full size sketch book.
Fresh kindling tumbled forth without fail…plenty of sparks back then…filling pages…line by line.
Questioning. Worrying. Wondering. Planning.
What if? Why not? Why now? How will I? Should I? Oh no.
Careful script or hurried scrawl. Grand calligraphy moments of introspection.
Unfiltered and often painful, it was all there…
This past summer, I revisited – and read – what I had written decades ago.
Pages of words to heal.
Their purpose…fulfilled.
Time to let them go.
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 