Walking and clicking in Boston

Tags

Boston, pictures, postaday2013, walking

One of the features that I love about Boston are the churches, they are nice and old, grand and majestic. The builders were very serious about their churches back then and you can tell by the absolute solidity of the stones. These churches are meant to stand the test of time. I only took pictures of three churches this time but I could have easily made an entire day of it and not only an hour. Today was the perfect day to do it as well, it was partly sunny and a balmy 79 degrees. An utter joy for walking through the streets of Boston.

I also stumbled upon a photo shoot which I think is always exciting. I also took a few pictures of this and that, anything that caught my eye.

A friend indeed

Finish this sentence: “My closest friend is…”

I'm fairly lucky that not many of those who are close to me read my blog. Lol. What I find to be so wonderful about friendship is that it can be different with the various people in your life. My best friend from my earliest memories is still someone who I consider to be my best friend even though we don't see each other. However, I know that if we get on the phone, it would be exactly as if time had stopped and we were back to the days of Astoria Park, her bedroom, my kitchen and the pizzeria at Queensborough Plaza.

I have another best friend who has moved away but the same holds true for her, all we have to do is send an e-mail, pick up the phone and poof, the dynamic is the same with no time lost whatsoever.

My husband is my best friend as well, we are team Nichols and whatever affects me, affects him and vice versa and if that doesn't make for the definition of a best friendship or at least one of the qualifications, then I need to revise the definition.

My little sister is another example, we are tied by so many bonds and so many memories that even though it is a different type of friendship, it is still of epic importance.

I am truly lucky to have these important connections in my life.

And I haven't forgotten my WordPress friends, these relationships are vital to me as well. They have their own little niche all their own. 🙂

Rhapsody in violet

Tags

blooms, flowers, gardens, plants, postaday2013

I’m tired this evening so I thought that I would share some pictures of one of my favorite perennials, the upright phlox. It is an excellent variety to plant because not only is it a perennial, but it spreads gradually year to year so it gives you a Big Bang for your buck. I also like the fact that it blooms in mid-summer so just when you are mourning your spring and late spring blooms you get another burst of color. I hope that you enjoy the pictures. 🙂

From the collection of the artist

It’s the year 2113. A major museum is running an exhibition on life and culture as it was in 2013. You’re asked to write an introduction for the show’s brochure. What will it say?

The year was a year marked by drought, tornadoes, major snow storms and dangerous heat waves. It was the year that climate change started to be taken seriously by certain governments. The Chinese came on board while Canada turned its back on climate science when it embraced tar sands fossil fuel exploitation. Moreover, the Arctic Circle came up in discussions since the Arctic Ice had melted providing easy access to drilling, a few superpowers were circling and angling for drilling rights even though oceans were rising as they were trying to get there to drill.

As we were accepting our responsibilities to safeguard our planet and her resources; it still felt that for every step forward, we were taking two steps back.

Moreover, we were seeing the Global Corporatocracy making its will known everywhere. Corporations were actively installing their headquarters in tax havens throughout the world thus starving their respective governments of beneficial tax revenues that could have gone a long way to rebuild infrastructure, fund higher education and shore up the social insurance safety nets designed to make sure that the least amount of people fall down into abject poverty.

The fight against hunger and poverty was one that we were losing, but when I thought that it was hopeless, we started to see demonstrations on a global level; in Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Greece, France, Portugal and parts of the United States. These protests were aimed against Big Oil, Big Agriculture, Big Bank and certain governments in general. The people were speaking and making themselves heard. This is an important milestone in history as is all the other demonstrations in the past that were vital in promoting worker's rights and liberties.

A visit from our dear cousin

Tags

cousin, family, postaday2013, writing

Our wonderful cousin Nancy the artist is staying with us for a few days. We always welcome her visits, she is so wonderful. Our kids love her, I love her and obviously my hubby loves her, they spend hours reminiscing about the good old days. I love listening to the stories. The baby girl loves talking to her “aunt” Nancy, they have such a connection and it makes me so happy. I think that every young person needs an adult to confide in who is not their parent, it makes their growing up much easier and Nancy is that adult for our baby girl. It gives me great comfort to know that our baby girl has someone who she can count on and trust with everything.

When Nancy came in last night, she had just come from attending a wedding and she looked so beautiful. She had a, to die for, vintage 1950’s dress, the cut was dynamite and the colors were stunning. It was tailored much in the style of an Audrey Hepburn dress and the colors were bold and bright, the backdrop was a greenish blue with flowers tastefully placed. She was a vision of elegance and class. Her hair was coiffed perfectly for the dress; she had her soft curls framing her face just so, and cut relatively short so that they were dancing around her face.

Daily prompt : A status update

Tags

blogging, postaday2013, writing

Write up a mid-year “State of My Year” post.

Is it already mid-year? Time is going by too fast, if it went any faster, I would be suffering from a severe case of whiplash. I have nothing major to report, live is humming along like an speed bullet train. I would like it if time would slow down and that the days wouldn’t meld in to themselves so that Monday and Friday would have a bigger separation, instead of seeming to be one into the other in the blink of an eye. My mother often asks me if I am ever bored being a stay at home wife and mother and I have been answering in the negative for two decades now. No I am never bored, there is always something that needs to get done and I blame the constant state of busyness and having children as to the accelerated passage of time. When you live only for yourself and have only your life to measure time against, time will appear to dilly-dally, however once you experience living life through someone else’s experience, time seems to be unleashed and gets unhinged from your myopic lens and grows wider and broader into a warp drive effect.

So now after writing this, I am a little depressed because I know that the end of the year is only right around the corner. There are so many things that need to occur between now and then and that will only speed up the clock. The baby girl has to move down to Miami, the baby boy will be moving on with his music and then you have the normal holidays, birthdays and duties and such that before we know it, I will be getting my WordPress year-end stats report. How depressing. Someone pull the cord and stop this runaway train so that we can take a breath!

My hubby’s food delivery system

Tags

catering, food, Love, marriage, postaday2013

My sweet hubby surprised me this afternoon with a delicious smackeral of mashed potatoes and sausage, one of my favorite food combinations of all time. My hubby knew that I was tired and not feeling great so he surprised me with this small dose of delectable goodness, the salty pork sausage complimenting the creaminess of the mashed potatoes so nicely that it just melts in your mouth. My hubby takes care of me really well when he can and he knows what flavors and smell tempt my taste buds and nose so that I cannot even refuse if I wanted to, I am very lucky.

I love sausage. There are so many ways that sausage makes everything better; sausage and mashed potatoes, sausage and eggs over easy, sausage and sauerkraut, sausage and ratatouille, sausage and peppers and sausage and oysters. The sausage and oysters is a typical French combination, the saltiness and savory sausage goes so well with the brininess of the oysters, they even have festivals in France to celebrate this stellar combination.

Daily prompt : Life after blogging

Tags

blogging, computers, internet, postaday2013, writing

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

My life without computers would look very much like the way it did before computers came into my life. Essentially I would resume my pen pal correspondence to stay in touch with my WordPress friends, just because the computer has gone away doesn’t mean that my friendships drift away into the ether. I have made important friendships and they are valuable to me so I would never mind resuming the ancient art of letter writing, lol.

Before the computers shut down I would make sure to have printed out the complete 450 pages of my unfinished novel in progress “The Chic Bootlegger” so that I can resume either writing it in long hand or typing it on our old typewriter. I don’t need a computer to finish it, I just need my imagination, my fingers and the discipline to sit down long enough to type the remaining story of Madeleine and her adventures.

The only thing that would sadden me about the loss of computers and the internet would be the loss of my political blog “A Progressive’s Thoughts”. I read and comment on a daily basis at the Huffington Post and I cross post it to my blog and I often get immediate reactions, both negative and positive to my political opinions, it is very addicting. The immediacy of other’s opinions in response to mine is unlike anything that I have ever known and it would be hard for me to give it up. I would have to work really hard to get the same reaction the old fashioned way. I suppose that it could be done, the question is do I have the intestinal fortitude to be able to do it? Well thankfully, at least I don’t have to worry about being forced to try, as far as I know the internet will continue to be with us for a long time into the future.

An appreciation for old family photos

Tags

family, Jazz, photos, postaday2013, trumpet

My hubby asked me to take pictures of his father and his mother so that we could send it to our cousins. His father had so much charisma, I never had the pleasure of meeting him, he passed away suddenly, all too soon when my hubby was in his early teens, but through pictures and family stories, I have a wonderful image of him in my mind and I know without a doubt that we would have gotten along famously. He was a brilliant trumpet player who started playing professionally at a very young age. Moreover at the tender age of 17 he played for the Glen Miller Air Force Band as the lead trumpet player. He was in Europe playing for the troops during World War II and then after the war back in the States, he played with the band Sauder & Finnegan. We are so very lucky that we can listen to his music on records and even watch him perform on Youtube. I know that it isn’t the same as having him with us, but I will take whatever I can get.

There’s no place like home

If you had the opportunity to live a nomadic life, traveling from place to place, would you do it? Do you need a home base? What makes a place “home” to you?

For the past two weeks I have been living out of a traveling bag, spending time on the road with my hubby, and it has been very nice. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, that was precisely what I lived for; the open road and that sense of adventure, never being pinned down for longer than a school year. However when you start work, marriage and a family, the roots that develop keep you anchored and I found that to be a wonderful thing as well.

Now that the babies are grown and starting their own adventures, I see that the nomadic life has once again shown its appeal, the only thing that could get in the way is the latest addition to our family, little Jack, a nomadic life doesn't always agree with a dog but we shall see. Hotels are coming around towards accepting small dogs and Jack is so cute that everyone falls in love with him. So I think that my hubby and I will be spending much more time together going back and forth from one side of the state to the other. On the Road Again, one of my favorite Willie Nelson songs ever.