ODE TO A PAIR OF SOCKS

A cherished gift from a special friend,

Now worn and frayed and reached their end.

They came from Arizona, I was told,  

With hues so vibrant, patterns so bold.

Compliments flowed like rivers wide,

Every time we stepped outside.

But time wore on, and wear they did,

And holes appeared where colors once hid.

I tried to mend them and stitch with care,

But alas, they reached a final wear.

Though now they're gone, their memory stays,

A sweet remembrance of colorful days.

>

ONE LONELY PANSY

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--LONELY

Five minutes to free write about it

----------------------------------------------------------

All the pansies in our courtyard seem to be thriving, except for the ones bordering the walkway to the right of my building which, for some unknown reason, all died despite having the same exposure as the ones on the left.

One day, an insignificant looking patch of green appeared that I thought was a clump of weeds. But no. Just the other day I noticed a small flower peeking out from under the leaves (picture at the top of this post). 

The sight of that one lonely pansy warmed my heart. It filled me with hope and a reminder to never give up, because all things are possible with God.

TULIPS AND WILDFLOWERS AND FLOWERING TREES

My favorite redbuds are blooming, as are several other trees I'm not sure the name of. I think some of the pink ones may be ornamental plums?

And there are tulips all around town.

>

A few daffodils still linger...

...and I noticed some pretty little pink wildflowers in the grass along with the dandelions in our courtyard.

I thought I had taken pictures of the pansies too, but they seem to have disappeared, so I'll have to retake them and put them in another post.

VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE

Two days ago, the snowball bush (viburnum) in my parking lot was full of beautiful fragrant blossoms.

When I went down to my car this morning they were all gone. Vanished without a trace.

I've never seen flowers just disappear like that before. Have you? Usually the blooms start withering and turning brown first.

I tried Google, but it did not provide an answer.

JUST A GALLIMAUFRY

Gallimaufry is a word I was introduced to by my blog friend, Veronica Lee, who posts beautiful selections of photos under that header. I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing her caption just for this post.

According to Dictionary.com, gallimaufry can mean a hodgepodge; a confused jumble or medley of things; or a hash made of meat scraps. And that's what this is, a hodgepodge of thoughts and photos I've wanted to post but didn't get around to, and then they were no longer timely.

The clock was supposed to be for last week's Five Minute Friday prompt, "LIMIT," which I wound up skipping because of limits on my time. Like so many other things that I'd like to be doing, it got put on the back burner in favor of higher priority things that needed to get done, and then I missed the moment. So here goes to a very disjointed this and that.

Can you see the face in this linoleum tile? 

In all the years that linoleum has covered my bathroom floor, I never noticed it before. I'm wondering how I could have missed it when it's right there in front of me every time I sit on the loo.

There's a snowball bush in my parking lot that's full of beautiful fragrant flowers.

And a cat that sits on the rail of a neighbor's balcony when the weather is nice and watches me as I make my way into the courtyard.

This is a Friday Funny I've wanted to share for such a long while that I've forgotten whose post I was going to give credit to for it...

...and this was supposed to be for a Wordless Wednesday post, as was the cute little piggy bank below that I spotted on my last trip to the bank.

The next two pictures are of puzzles I completed with some help from my daughter.  

The round one was 500 pieces, and the other one 750.

And here's one other thing I just really noticed for the first time (even though I'm sure I've seen it many, many times before without giving it much thought). That little formation opposite the stem end of a navel orange really does look like a belly button.

SOLAR ECLIPSE 2024

Monday's solar eclipse provided an awesome show--even though coverage was only about 87% in my neck of the woods. 

The first picture is a view of the sky from my friend's front porch before the eclipse started. 

I did not know about the filters you could download to your cell phone, so I did not use it to take any pictures. However, I did take a few with my point-and-click camera. 

Mostly what I captured were the interesting little clouds, and the slight change in the color of the sky as the moon made its way across the sun. It went from a brighter shade of blue to a more metallic-looking one.

Even though it was a partially cloudy day, the clouds were not very thick and they moved quickly, so it did not hamper our ability to view the whole event.

As the eclipse was reaching its peak, the sky darkened some, and although it didn't get completely dark, there was a drop in temperature and we felt quite chilly for a few moments. 

At about that point I did a little experiment and took some pictures with my eclipse glasses over the camera lens. The results were interestingly weird. Obviously not the actual eclipse, but rather, a mysterious capture of I know not what. 

To me they look like abstract paintings. What do you think?