Category Archives: Blogging from A to Z

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question

Blogging from A to Z, Q is for query, quest, question.

I took the afternoon from work yesterday to go for a walk with my son, who is visiting from Maryland. We went to Chetzemoka Park and down to the beach. More blue herons and more photographs! Hiking back, we saw a halo around the sun, above the ridge. I know that this is formed from a reflection of ice crystals in the atmosphere, more information here. It is magical! And there was something in the tree…. what is it? A quest with a zoom lens reveals:

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In the first picture the angle is different and the eagle is right by the trunk of the tree, difficult to see. We were watching great blue herons take off from the beach and land in  trees on the ridge but I heard an eagle’s cry and the silhouette is wrong for a great blue heron.

Queries and questions and quests: happy letter Q.

Q

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O trees

Blogging from A to Z, my theme is happy things. O for open, outdoors, over!

Over. How can over be a happy thing? My photograph is from last week, the trees here are so tall and tower over us!

I love to walk outdoors. Outdoors is another happy thing for me. I had a thousand posts on this blog before I really knew what it is about. It is celebrating the place where I heal, where I stay balanced from work: outdoors. I get to share the photographs I take:

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Open. When I walk outdoors, my heart opens. I feel joy! It is still dark here this morning, but as soon as it begins to get light, the birds start their madness! I sing back to them. This year I am learning the song of the towhee. The smaller birds are so good at hiding in bushes when I want to take pictures. I want to sing like this towhee:

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And those are today’s happy things about the letter O.

O

 

 

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Happy no

Name, noun, nut, gnome, know, no…

I have a nutty streak, a silly streak and love silly things. It helps me to balance clinic. Sometimes things are hard there, I hope to be able to do something for many people that I see. Half my patients are over 65, one is now 100, and no one lives forever even if I recommend the right things and they live a medically perfect life. I am always mourning for someone.

So my nutty streak comes out with listing words for the letter N and adding gnome and know. Are they N words or not? I think they are.

And my happy thing today is the word NO. How, you say, can NO be a happy thing?

This weekend I wanted to do too much. I wanted to attend a retreat about change that went from 9:30 to 3:00 but I also was already tired. It would be with a  group of people that I don’t know well, so my introvert side would be on guard. My son was coming into town and I needed to make choices and save energy and say no to myself. I went to the retreat, but only for two hours. I wanted to stay longer but did not. And that protected my energy for the next day and this busy week.

Do you argue with yourself and want to do too much or something your shouldn’t or spend too long on something that you didn’t plan to? Look, I thought this would be a very short post to catch up….

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There were three great blue herons on the beach the other night, and then an eagle in the surf. The herons were fishing but also watching the nearby eagle, the people on the beach, loose dogs going by, and each other. Their feathers were windblown and they made me think of teens at a dance, looking at each other with interest, but pretending they were more interested in fishing.

Happy Blogging from A to Z!

 

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Love, labor, laughter

Blogging from A to Z, my theme is happy things. Love, labor, laughter, I love my labor, my work (except when it is driving me nuts, of course). I love my family, including my cat, my friends, taking photographs, writing and blogging, the list goes on and on. I have a very silly streak and love to laugh.

I love being in my local Rotary. I get to work on real world problems, local and international, meet exchange students, and work with a diverse group of people in my town.

The photograph is of Patrick, in Hawaii, with my “stealthie” shadow, up at 9600 feet.

And we found a Rotary meeting in Waemea and showed up and were welcomed. We had a delicious lunch. This photograph is of the club banners brought to their club from all over the world! I didn’t think to bring a banner from our club, but will take one on the next trip.

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I’m still a day late, but hooray for the letter L.

L

 

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Keen kindly kites

A day late, but my theme remains happy things.

Oh, for yesterday the happy things are keen kindly kites and alphabet poems. The kites are from my own alphabet poem alphabeasts. I was thinking of the birds when I wrote it. I have not seen a kite yet. The brant above flying are caught by my cell phone, after my big camera ran out of batteries. They all spooked and leapt into the air. We did not figure out what spooked them.

I love other alphabet poems. Dr. Suess’s ABC, the wonderful creepy Edward Gorey poems, I have my childhood copy of Tasha Tudor’s A is for Annebelle, grandmother’s doll. Edward Lear’s alphabet poems and peculiar drawings always fascinate me. The children’s illustrated alphabets are beloved as well: Graeham Base’s endlessly detailed paintings for Animalia. We could make up whole stories about them! Max Grover’s deliciously strange The Accidental Zucchini with wonderful bright color paintings. What is your favorite?

K

 

 

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I for intent

My Blogging from A to Z theme is happy things. Three happy things with intent!

We took a beach walk two nights ago and the beach was full of birds. Three great blue herons, three oyster catchers, an eagle landed in the surf, crows, gulls and the flock of brant. There were various dogs being walked, who were not chasing any of the birds, hooray for that!

I love this great blue heron: so intent on fishing. What are you intent on? Intent, intention, attention, retention. So many tents….

I was intent in clinic yesterday. We had a packed schedule and I started thirty minutes early to add an extra patient and I had good intentions to run on time. I didn’t. By the last person I was running 20 minutes late, and three people were grumpy. No, four people were grumpy because I have to add myself to that. I had good intentions, but I can’t control what problems people bring to clinic and they don’t always fit in the time allotted!

Here is the eagle, also intent on dinner. I don’t think of bald eagles as surf birds, but this one had caught something and landed. We did not get close, not wanting to disturb things.

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The photographs are taken at the Port Townsend Bay beach below Chetzemoka Park. Happy blogging. 

I

 

 

 

 

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G for give

My Blogging from A to Z theme is happy things: G for give and generous and goat!

Goat? Yesterday was the opening of our Farmer’s Market which starts with the March of the Goats.

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Give and Generous:

I went to a Rotary fundraiser last night.

I am in the Sunrise Rotary, and the fundraiser was put on by the noontime Rotary. We have three clubs in our county.

There was dinner and both a silent and live auction. The benefit raised $20,000 for a new kitchen for the Boiler Room. The Boiler Room is a youth coffee house, drug and alcohol free, and where people are welcomed and can volunteer. There was a video about three people who talked about how it helped them. The fourth was the director, who told her story from 18 years ago.

Additional funds were raised. I love the Rotary: it sustained me when I had to start my clinic and it does so many things. I am delighted that we are down to two countries with polio virus, the exchange students come from all over the world and go all over the world, the yearly Shelterbox that we buy will go to some disaster area and locally the third graders each get their own picture dictionary. And I get to meet weekly with a wonderful group of people.

I bid on a lunch with US Representative Derek Kilmer. I wish I’d gotten that, I would bend his ear about healthcare. I didn’t. But I came home with an odd ladle and I am signed up for a two day black smithing class at the Cedar root school. And my money will go to multiple projects.

Hooray for all the generous people and organizations working for and with people and the people working for and with them.

G

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Blogging from A to Z.