Blueberry mountain

My maternal grandparents bought property in Ontario, Canada, a place on a lake, because they couldn’t afford holiday property in New York State.

My grandfather died at 79 but my grandmother kept going to the lake. We had our own names for the surrounding properties, including blueberry mountain. At around age 90, my grandmother said she wanted to pick blueberries. We loaded into the boat and headed for that area. Lake Matinenda is on the Canadian Shield, so it’s all rock, rock, rock. There was no path. At one point I was helping my grandmother from below and my cousin was reaching for her from below. My grandmother was about 95 pounds at that point. She was going up a face of granite and getting out of my reach. “Have you got it?” I said frantically, worrying she’d fall. “I don’t know,” she said. But she did and my cousin helped. At the top, the blueberry picking was not that good, but the views were fabulous. My cousin and I agreed, we were not bringing her up there again! If she fell, we’d have to get her down the hill, into a boat, into a car and 17 miles into town. She seemed majestically unconcerned and denied having any problem climbing. It was way too much thrill for us, worrying about her!

Which brings us to today’s music!

And another Fats Domino, fabulous!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: thrill.

I took the photograph of Katherine White Burling in 1979.

Sun bathe

Are the seals placid? It’s hard to tell, since I am really far away on the beach, with a Panasonic DMZ-FZ150. It has a 24X optical zoom. The seals are way out in Puget Sound. I can hear them when they roar. They really like the sun and this island is gone when the tide is in.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: placid.

Pillar

I do think these are unique pillars. What sort holds up your castle and what does one call these? I know they are not Corinthian or Doric and we’ve pretty much plumbed my list of pillar types. They all look very muscular and very tired.

I took these in March 2022 in a castle.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: exclusive.

Relaxed core

This was taken earlier on my walk out on Marrowstone Island than the photograph for the Ragtag Daily Prompt today. The tide was out further and everyone was enjoying the sun. Relaxed core and relaxing to the core.

The tide is in a bit more here.

The container ships look so huge when I am next to them. They don’t on the Sound, though. What do the seals think?

Raptor majesty, maybe

These two eagles were high above me on the North Beach bluff. So when I zoomed in, I thought, oh, good, majestic eagles! A pair!

Oh, um. More silly and derp and grumpy than majestic. They remind me of the Highlights cartoon, Goofus and Gallent. Though maybe this is Goofus and Grumpy. I guess eagles can be silly and grumpy too. They look more like siblings than a couple to me.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: raptor.

Cinque Terre

My daughter and I went to Cinque Terre in Italy. What fantastic architecture! Five small towns perched along the Mediterranean.

And perched long before cars, so the streets are cobbled and narrow. No cars.

Trains stop at each of the towns. We walked the open part of the trail connecting them. It must be some amazing work to maintain.

Afterwards we took turns swimming, found a place for dinner, and took the train back to Pisa.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: architecture.

Fan

There aren’t two roads diverged before me
But a fan of roads and possibilities
Poetry and writing, music and medicine,
Art and quilting, paints and knitting,
Cats and travel, dance and friends.
I spread the fan with joy
as life opens like a flower.
Not two roads, neither one best
but the daily gift of the sunrise and a song.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: observe.