Easter's Eve on the porch, getting it together...

                          This picture from 1990 something, showcases our permanent waves. Pic#4

O questions from March 2015. 

1. The one thing I've tossed and never missed is...my work clothes. I have retired and kept thinking I

     might need these clothes again some day. But the are gone and I am okay.
2. But I wish I could get back...my Barbie dolls. They were given away when I left home and I have
     missed them ever since. Seriously, I have spent years replacing the dolls and clothes with vintage
      eBay purchases.
3. The one place in my life that's always messy is...my side of the bed. Piles of books, magazines,
     yarn, my e reader and a lavender filled eye pillow take my messy nature to a new level.
4. I am most motivated to declutter when...never. I love my clutter. I love having my piles, see
     question  # 3. Once in a while, just before company is coming to visit, I am motivated to stuff all
      my lovely clutter under the bed, under the couch or into a closet.

I finished John Green's, Looking for Alaska. He sure knows how to make a reader feel the pain. I might be too old for his books. I'm half way through Written in my Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon...Outlander #8. The violence of the Revolutioary war is getting to me. But I still love Jamie and Claire. The second half of Outlander on Starz starts tonight! I can't wait. My favorite Gaelic words, Mo Nighean Don, my brown haired lass.

Isn't It Amazing...

I love this picture (#3) of three of my grands waiting in line for Space Mountain at Disney World. I stood in long lines with the kids waiting to get on rides. It was half the fun. Watching them in line was like a pile of puppies falling all over each other. Laughing, hugging, pushing, teasing, calling Papa Harry Porter cracked them up and the anticipation of fear! Some of my favorite moments of our family trip.

Questions from O, August 2013. I saved this page.

1. The best surprise I ever had...was my surprise sixtieth birthday party. I had no idea.
2. I wish I had invented...that soccer ball that generates and stores energy by being kicked in play.
3. The most awe-inspiring place I've visited is...a Lake Superior sunset. The entire lake was pink and
     gold. Breathtakingly beautiful.
4. When I'm really excited, I...prepare! I get ready. Say, I'm going on a trip. I have been known to pack a month early!

Easter shopping, an excuse for sugar, Sugar!

Today's pic #2 is my sweet haul from a shopping trip to downtown Escanaba, MI. Hand made fudge egg dipped in chocolate with my name on it. The woman who wrote in frosting is the same one who has been personalizing my Easter eggs for at least 40 years. Double dipped malted milk balls. Cherry, white chocolate scone from Stone's. The queen would be lucky to taste this treat for high tea. My grands will love this.

O questions from February 2015 issue. 

1. I wish I had the guts to ask...

     For a photo shoot from a local photog. I wonder what I really look like. I have such a good (personal) body image of myself, but is it a true view?

2. But I'd rather not know...

     If my family and colleagues think less of my abilities because of my age.

3. I'd love for someone to ask me...

    Please, because of your unique perspective, will you do photographs of my family?

4. My favorite icebreaker question is...

     "What are you reading?" I'll ask anybody that question. Standing in line at the grocery store, 

      sitting by the pool, at lunch with friends. I really want to know!

Twenty nine days til my sixty fourth...

April Fool's Day...but this is no joke! On the twenty ninth of this month I will be sixty four. Just like the old Beatles song. I did not think that this could ever  happen to me. But here I am. I will post every day this month. Twenty nine pictures. Twenty nine posts.

I like to read the answers to the questions the writers who contribute to O magazine answer every month. My answers to the April 2015 questions.
1. When I need a change of scenery I...
     Go out my front door and sit on my old front porch. Bikers, walkers and kids playing.
2. The change maker I most admire is...
     Elizabeth Cady Stanton. A leader of the suffrage movement. Her sacrifices paved the way for   women's rights. I am humbled by her willingness to give up her own comfort to make a difference.
3. I would love to change...
    My exercise habit. Or non habit. I just can't make myself  a regular at the gym.
4. But I'll never change...
     My family. They are the joy of my life. The grands make life youthful and new all over again.

When I'm 64...

                                             Flower child and me on the beach in January

                                                         Selfie with flower child

                                                     Self-ie portrait-first wrinkle sighting

 I know it is only February but in April I will be 64. You know how I am. I want someone to sing me the Beatles song "When I'm 64" preferably Paul McCartney.

I' m reading my first Nick Hornby book. Juliet, Naked. So good. I am going to have to read About a Boy. A former rock star and a museum curator both face aging, don't we all, but feel they have wasted years. Big question. Do you remember what you were doing on any given date? Say April 09, 1988? I got nothing...
Also reading Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library for a book report to my 9 year old in FLA. listening to An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabalden. Outlander series #7. I do not want to finish this series. It has become the background of my life. Watching True Blood season 3. So bloody. SNL 40th Anniversary last night. Paul Simon made me cry.

Time,once again, to play 20 questions courtesy of Oprah magazine's 20 questions every woman should ask herself today!
#1 Do I enjoy my own company?  Easy. Yes. I have always lived by the, "If you want to have an intelligent conversation, talk to yourself," school of thought. I know what I like to do and at this point in my life I have the time to do it. Reading, porch sitting, biking, photoging, spending time with the really interesting people in my life, the grands. I do not mind alone time at all.

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris...

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

The mouth is a weird place. Not quite inside and not quite out, not skin and not organ, but something in between: dark, wet, admitting access to an interior most people would rather not contemplate--where cancer starts, where the heart is broken, where the soul might just fail to show up.

Would you keep reading? I am going to take this one on!

Pages read, travel and pictures...

                                          Packers and Lions and Cowboys...Oh, my!

                                A bike repair stand with tools for every imaginable fix. Vero Beach

Sand man + grands on Atlantic Ocean beach

Flower child, sand man and Granny on the beach

Packer fans in Florida

Frame tree on Indian River lagoon

Food truck with tofu

January has been a month of interesting pictures. I spent time in Vero Beach with my daughter 

and family on the Indian River lagoon. I sat with a cup of tea on the dock. Pelicans, flying mullet and dolphins crossed my vision. A tree that is a picture frame. I read part of Captain Rodney Smith's journal. Enjoying Life on the Indian River Coast. I enjoyed the beauty and peace of this bio diverse boundry water. 

My most notable books read in 2014

January 2014 I read: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Voyager (Outlnder#3) by Diana Gabaldon,

February favorites: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, Swamplandia by Karen Russell, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry March #1's: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd and the Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson April: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, Nightwoods by Charles Frazier, May: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, Drums of Autumn by d. Gabaldon, Shotgun Lovesongs by Nick Butler, I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, Arcadia by Lauren Groff, The One and Only Ivan  June: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King  July: The Interestings by Wolitzer, Still Life With Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlan, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell September: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, Americanah by Chimandah Ngozi Adichie October's best: A Breathe of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon November: Euphoria by Lily King December: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

These are the best of the many books I read in 2014. I hope I find books equal to these special reads in 2015.