I Write

Firework flower and other nature news

Flower pic I took from someone’s garden I passed on the way home from Barking Dog.

1308671836-crowsonwire — Not my photo because I don’t like crows!!!

I want everyone to know, that I am NOT a fan of crows and apparently, they’re threatened by me! For the third time, I’ve been targeted, a crow dive bombed me! It touched my scalp!!! Ugh, and this was on the way to breakfast at Queen Mary.

The tea experience managed to help me out of my bad mood by the friendly service and ability to maintain my “idea” of what having a tea is with cute ceramic cups and tiara. They also managed to help me feel right at home in my business casual attire. I didn’t feel as if I was underdressed by not wearing a dress. And of course, the food and tea were devine. Fresh, tasty and the decor was appropriately English. (this coming from a Texan chicana!)

This was my last outing with my friend. We had a fantastic time visiting with each other and I will apologize ahead of time for the melancholic postings which may follow while I recover!

On the other hand, I look forward to time with my husband, before I jet off to Texas!

More to come,

~Peace friends.

Bainbridge

There are many things to do in Washington State. But, if you’re looking for serenity, then you must take a ferry to Bainbridge to visit The Bloedel Reserve. This is a beautiful forest garden, and it’s no ordinary place.

“The Bloedel Reserve is a place where people find refreshment and tranquility in the presence of natural beauty.”

My friend and I felt as if we stepped into another enchanted land. We drove across the island and parked and discovered 150 acres of lush beauty where ferns, flowers and trees blow freely in the gentle breeze uninterrupted by too much human interaction while at the same time, inviting humans to its tranquil emotional restoration.

One of the highlights of the trail will lead you to a bench which will lure you to sit and ponder life with a tranquil view of the Puget Sound. Do it!

Afterwards, and despite the act of communing with nature, drove dutifully into town and emptied our wallets in the quaint shops of the town. Fun.

~Peace friends

Eastside garden hike

My friend and I enjoyed a morning nature walk at the Bellevue Botanic gardens. We saw a variety of “Seussical” flowers in the garden and if you peek at my other blog, you’ll see a featured flower, but I was a bit peeved when my iPhone alerted me that I’d run out of room to take more pics, sigh, one day, I will fix my “real” camera.

The Botanic Gardens were beautiful and well cared for as was the walking trail that surrounded it. We did an easy, leisurely hike and at the advice of a small child, peered into a couple of gnome habitats.

At the gift shop, we found unique children’s books and jewelry and lots of nature inspired knick-knacks, soap and other stuff and a nice manager that gave us some ideas for tomorrows outing. (stay tuned!)

The hike was highlighted by shade and the songs of birds and the soothing sounds of a mini-waterfall. We sat and chatted and rested in the green nature.

A very lovely day indeed.

~Peace friends

Sunday fun-day

My friend and I started out our day with breakfast in the neighborhood cafe eating mushroom scrambles with potatoes, yum! And then we decided to drive to the Washington Park Arboretum. We strolled and took our time through the park enjoying the serenity in the breezy, sunny day. We decided to make the effort to go a little further to see the Japanese gardens and they were worth the walk. We sat in a shady gazebo admiring the variety of green shades and natural beauty.

One of my favorite parts was noticing a young man sitting alone on a bench in what seemed to be deep meditation. He was sitting so still for a long time. Watching him inspired me to take some time in the coming week to just be. Not do, but just be and to listen.

When we got hungry, we decided to drive to Ballard for lunch and local shopping. We strolled along visiting the unique shops filled with clothing, books, and art and jewelry. Funny, we found nothing that we couldn’t part with. Being together catching up on life was what we’d longed for more than filling our bags with stuff.

Instead, we ended our day stuffing ourselves full of the rich desserts at Hot Cakes-Molten Chocolate Cakery.

Though we could barely move our bodies, our taste buds were happy.

It was a fun Sunday.

Playing tourist

Coming at ya at 11:00 p.m. to report on my wonderful day. The morning I spent at the Fremont Festival enjoying the art booths and a beautiful sunny day with my husband. I’m always impressed at the creativity of the artists in Seattle.

Then in the afternoon, I drove to the airport and picked up my friend Karen visiting from Texas. This is her first visit to Seattle and so I was excited to show her around. Our first stop was the Chihuly Exhibit in Seattle. We leisurely walked around gazing at the mesmerizing glass exhibits. Next, we enjoyed a wonderful view of the city from the top of the Space Needle. And I was happy that the elevator ride up was so fast, I didn’t have time to be nervous!

~Peace friends, hope your day was good also.

Friday’s thoughts

Hi everyone,

TGIF!

Daily writing has been great for practicing writing, but I’ve also learned some things:

1. I’m not a very good news reporter. Despite technology and media, I seem to be a step behind the big news. I’ve not yet watched the Jon Stewart video that other people posted on FB. But, that’s okay, I don’t want to report the news.

2. I find myself struggling for purpose for writing and just writing for writing sake is fine and good practice, but I can see that pretty soon, I’ll just want a blog with a specific goal in mind or I’ll just want to write a novel.

I admit, transitioning from a day job to a writing from home job has been tough. I feel as if I’m floating in the sea, looking for land, fearing the sharks, but enjoying the relaxation as well. In the same scenario, a question becomes clear:

Am I actually going anywhere? Without a sail or someone to rescue me, will I ever reach land?

Mid Day Post

I’m unashamedly posting at 12:54 to keep my trend and to remain unpredictable. Or maybe that’s just me. The point is to remain steady with the goal.

To Write Daily.

In between chores and writing, I’ve been fixated this morning on the sad news of yesterdays shooting of innocent people, 6 women and 3 men. After reading the article on the Seattle Times, I decided that one thing I can do for now is to blog about it. Things of this nature need to interrupt our busyness, our goings about. We need to talk about, share, and do something. This is senseless!

The article says:

“This shooting “should be a warning to us all that we do have a problem in our society,” said state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a Democrat whose district includes the church. “There’s a race problem in our country. There’s a gun problem in our country. We need to act on them quickly.”

I agree our country has a growing problem and my heart and prayers go out to the community in South Carolina. I’m asking myself, what can be done? What can I do?

Obama states,

“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Obama said.

Are we so fixated on our phones, our own agendas and busyness? Are we thinking about our children, grown and otherwise and what they’re into? Do we get alarmed at what they post on Facebook? Are we taking the time to have conversations with the people in our lives?

I’m asking myself today these questions and also the one about, “What can I do?”

~Peace friends.

Magic show

In Seattle at least, the day isn’t over yet, so technically, this post counts as my daily writing for today. I spent tonight watching a magic show called The Illusionist. It was pretty good!

Before that, dinner, errands and a manicure with my daughter. The sunny, warm day was not conducive to staying indoors and so, thankfully, writing can happen on a bus waiting for our stop.

I’m wondering if I’ll eventually find my groove or if I’ll keep enjoying writing integrated throughout my days and in some cases, nights. Stay tuned and goodnight.

~peace friends!

Career Changer

In contrast to yesterday, it took me a while to get going today, but I’m hoping that after reading this article that I’ve gained some perspective. And as a side note, this is not the first interesting article I’ve read from Forbes. I’ll have to put them on my reading list.

The take aways from that article are:

1. goals and plans

2. know yourself deeper than you have before.

“Until you let go of what you’re doing and thinking that keeps you stuck and small, you can’t build a happy, successful career. Your limitations will follow you in every new direction until you address them.”

Ugh! That’s true, limitations follow! After reading that I cringed at what’s on my heels. Get away from me disorganization, distraction, laziness! And then, it also said:

“You also need a 3-month, 6-month and 12-month plan, with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals, and someone in your court to hold you accountable. Again, don’t try this on your own. You’ll fail.”

And I thought, that’s another thing, the hard thing.(for me) You don’t try this on your own. That’s the hard one. I’m good with keeping to myself. In some ways, that’s what teacher’s do, but I’m not a teacher anymore, I’m a writer and networking is a necessary part of “careering”.

Yep. True, until next time.

~peace friends.

Good Morning

I woke up at 5:45 a.m., but no worries, here in the Pacific Northwest the sun cracks the dawn early enough to go ahead and start your day. The crows will help in your decision of whether or not to peel back the covers and start your day. No need for alarms here at least in my neighborhood.

The good news: There’s now plenty of time to get things done since I’m up soooo early. I hope to catch up on my Content Writing Course. These videos are brief and informative and I recommend the site to anyone wanting to learn about all kinds of topics. It’s called Open2 study and the best part, it’s free!

The bad news: I’m a bit groggy since I had a bad night. It wasn’t such a good idea to end Sunday night with a large portion of Molly Moons goodness. When they offered two size choices, I went for the large, bad idea! That meant 3 scoops of ice cream! And I ate most of it.

But I do recommend this treat, just don’t do what I did and decide to eat it at 10:30 p.m. unless of course you’re young and can handle that sort of thing.

~Peace friends.