#Caturday #Cats Look! A squirrel!

#Genealogy #Italy #VitalRecords I have found the address where an Italian ancestor was born in Altamura, Bari in 1858 on the birth certificate. These records are searchable for all of Italy on FamilySearch. We can look for the place when we visit Italy and see where great-grandfather was born.

#BlueSkyRelay #Respite #Poetry Treadmill So much stress So many mistakes So few good answers So much pain and sadness And respite seems so far away.

#BlueSkyRelay #Sonder #Prose I came up against sonder so very recently when I met a person whose interests mirrored mine in some ways. But when the conversation turned to deeply held prejudice I saw the different parallel life that fear and misinformation had made.

#BlueSkyRelay #Realm #Haiku My favorite realm Is the curious realm of Possibilities

#EastCoastKin #Stunday Mirrored Beauty

#BlueSkyRelay #Zenith #Haiku At the highest point, The zenith, one has to look For safe place to land.

#BlueSkyArtShow #Relax Come out, sit down Relax!

#Circle #Ring #BlueSkyRelay #Cipher #Poetry Garnet and Pearls This blessed circle of love Is no cipher Not a zero Or a mysterious message. It graced the marriage Of ancestors Frankie and Johnny In 1887, passed down to me, Only Great-Granddaughter, Treasured and cherished.

#GoldenAnniversary #50Years This yellow rose represents our 50th wedding anniversary today. I remember the yellow roses that celebrated my grandparents’ 50th in 1967 and chose to carry yellow roses at my own wedding in 1975. Sometimes time stands still as we recall the milestones.

#Caturday #Cats New sofa Mouse approved

#Poetry Blessings reach us In many ways We also give them Sometimes unknowlingly Our connections Reflect our feelings Strangers see the smile And feel the blessing Kindnesses are the fruit Blessings proliferate When patience and grace Abide Takng time to bless and acknowledge Brings grace

#BlueSkyRelay #Amulet #Poetry The moon The star The butterfly transformation Jizo playful and caring The mercy of Guanyin Stones of the earth Candle enlightening Spirit amulets Peace Harmony Welcome Guidance Grace

#BlueSkyRelay #Oracle #Poetry The mystery The oracle The epiphany What did you hear What really happened Was it clear or clouded In obfuscation Like family stories Always a grain of truth But not necessarily what you thought Originally.

#BlueSkyRelay #Oracle #Haiku The oracle speaks Words that are always left to Interpretation

#BlueSkyRelay #Fable #prose My brother and I were born out west in Wyoming. We traveled East a week after he was born and grew up in New England, our parents midwesterners from Missouri. No true connection to Wyoming really. And yet my brother’s fable identity was a cowboy with boots and hat.

#ArtYear #Photography #Texture The Bark of the Live Oak

#BlueSkyRelay #Fable #Poetry Our public-facing facade Has elements of truth Enmeshed with the fables We tell ourselves. Who we are How we are Where we are from Where we are going Are colored by What we want The world to think. The stories we write About ourselves.

#BlueSkyRelay #Create #Poetry As much as I love fireworks And wild, chaotic tangles of nature, A different kind of creativity Brings peace. Eliciting the comfort The grace The warmth And welcome Is a test of patient creation That transcends All the thunder and lightning the gods can muster.

#BlueSkyRelay #Canvas #Poetry Only oil paint enlivens canvas My art's canvas is the very air The blank page The computer screen Words that paint pictures Feelings Urges and despair Beauty and hope Comfort and creativity I write with water and fire Illustrating with photographs That also speak

#RastCoastKin #Stunday Look Up!

#EastCoastKin #Stunday Nuts To You Nucis Tibi

#EastCoastKin #Stunday Spider Lilies Dazzle

#EastCoastKin #Stunday Afternoon Delight

#BlueSkyRelay #Gouache #Poetry So hard to use very Specifical words When poetry tries inspiration. To shoehorn such things Creates awful uncomfort The scanning is lumpy The words uncooperate The poet is frustrate OK - gouache - Wish-wash.

#BlueSkyRelay #Brush #Poetry Blueberry Pancakes Saturday ritual Celebrates weekend Stack the flapjacks Brush on butter Soak with syrup Whipped cream finish

#Caturday #Cats Happy Caturday from Mouse

#5GOODThings 1) Great British Baking Show 2) Squirrel Olympics in backyard 3) Fried Chicken homemade 4) Swallowtail Butterfly 5) Inspiring BlueSky poetry prompts

#Photography #porchswing Invitation to Swing

#Photography #Squirrel Look! A Squirrel!

#Photography #Green #Leaves Virginia Creeper

#BlueSkyRelay #Ink #Poetry Inky darkness hides all But Mouse the Cat's ruff Beneath the shadowed bush Peering out from his lair Mouse poses elegantly Hoping to surprise A passing lizard Or incautious squirrel A haunting figure He lingers Just out of sight

#Photography #Butterfly Red Admiral Stops by our Abelia bush

#BlueSkyRelay #Pastel #Poetry Soft cotton candy clouds In a pastel sky Wispy and gentle Moving along On unseen winds A world of movement Slipsliding above And I am tethered To solid ground O to fly aloft with birds.

#BlueSkyRelay #Watercolour #Watercolor #Haiku Smiling sunflowers Oranges and tea welcome In watercolors.

#BlueSkyRelay #Frost #Haiku Crisp and frosty fall Dry leaves crunching underfoot Harvest Hallowe'en

#Swallowtail #Butterfly #Photography Today’s Visitor

#Photography Japanese Maple After Rain

#EastCoastKin #Stunday Spider Lilies

#Photography Happy Saturday May enlightenment find you when you are not looking for it. Blessings are free.

#Caturday #Cats Y-A-W-N

#EastCoastKin #Scape Santa Fe

#Photography #Katydid Forked Tail Bush Katydid

#BlueSkyRelay #Ineffable #Haiku To witness sublime Natural beauty reaches The ineffable

#Photography #Katydid I have discovered this enchanting creature to be a Katydid that is parading about my Rose of Sharon.

#BlueSkyRelay #Nefarious A squirrelly welcome But nefarious sellers Should leave quite quickly

#Photography #SpiderLilies Soon-to-bloom Spider Lilies

#Photography #Grasshopper #Haiku On the Move Grasshopper wanders Leaves of Rose of Sharon, Stepping gracefully

#Poetry Gratefulness Blessings come With thankfulness. Learning to remember To thank Brings grace to both The one who thanks And the one who is thanked. When life is ruled By correction Or denigration, Blessings flee.

#Clouds Not quite a cloudless sky