Ocean City Kites

A month ago today, Mike and I were in Ocean City for the last day of its September kite festival.  The kites are now one of my favorite Ocean City memories.  I cried at the beauty of them and at the thought that there's no real reason for them but that instead, this is something enough people wanted to do just to add some beauty and joy and whimsy and fun to other peoples'--completes strangers'--days.  It was just so touching to me.  

'Flying pigs (always my favorite  ♥), rainbows, larger-than-life seagulls,

swordfish or marlin,

soccer players and soccer balls--so charming!--

dragons,

stingrays and seahorses,

giant horses,

Pegasus (!), with a black and white cat under him that looked more than a bit like our own  ♥, more stingrays, and a black and white dog, 

 --I could cry again looking at these pictures.  The creativity and just-for-the-joy-of-it!  ♥  Some of these kites lit up, so even while walking on the beach or boardwalk at night, we could enjoy them.  The wonder!  A huge elephant and whale were about to get off the ground just as we were leaving town, and at some point, I saw in other peoples' photos, there were larger-than-life scuba divers in the air too.  We did see penguins, fish, more rainbows, more dragons, and my beloved flying pigs again, though. 

♥ 

The kites were enchanting even from a distance, 

and I had a favorite photo of them from the weekend turned into postcards after we returned home.  Ohhh, sweet Ocean City!  I love it so.

♥

October Saturday

'A high of 64° today, just cool enough, and just warm enough.  Blouse with a scarf, no jacket needed, but sunshine, windows open, and fresh air.  Lunch out with Mr. Mike and then to the movies to watch Joaquin Phoenix's brilliant performance in Joker.  Heart of leaves on the way home.  A postcard mailed to Mom and Dad.  Chili-cooking and baseball playoffs-watching tonight. Harry Potter series-rereading (now midway through book 5).  Stuffed asleep on the patchwork chair.  A night off!  Home!  ♥

Sweet Stuffed

He has no idea how adorable he is.  ♥

This Week's Hearts

Raspberry and zucchini hearts this week  ♥

That which you create in beauty. . .lives on for all time to come ~ Denis Waitley

As in previous summers, the neighbor's fire escape garden brings joy this August.  The colors and jumble of baskets, pots,vines, and flags are even more riotous in person, and I love peeking out the window at them. ♥

Waiting

. . .for curtains?  'Am still looking for the right shade of green for the gingham ones I want here.

July and August

♥

And Baby's Arrived ♥

wrote my brother, who now has a family of four  ♥

The Love of Little Cottages

Between my grandfather's death and my grandmother's sorting through her own things these past two years, I've somehow come into possession of what seems to be the only remaining photo of my maternal great-grandparents' house in New York.  A little Aunt Laurie is the girl standing in the front here.  It is a cottage!  Be still my heart!  ♥  When Mom saw my reaction as I thumbed through the pile of old pictures this was in, she said, "Well, I've told you about it before.  You knew they lived in a little house"--with an implied "???" at the end of her words.  And yes, I had, but there are little houses and there are cottages.  It's like her grandparents lived in a backyard playhouse.  How sweet is this!  ♥  We all come by our love of little homes honestly in this family, then.  :)  

Hearts and Flowers, or Up-and-Down Spring

'A perfect heart-shaped stone Mom found out in my garden this spring. 

Spring has been lovely, 

and now we move into summer already.  The oldest I've ever been and the fastest-moving year I've ever had, and I'm sure the two go together.  I turned 42 last month, my older brother is only five years from 50, baby Bianca "graduated" kindergarten last week, "little" Dylan who started kindergarten just yesterday has a girlfriend and is in high school this fall with his sister, a new niece or nephew is due any day now, I have been struggling for awhile now with what seems to be psoriatic arthritis, and all this to say time has been flying and I have been feeling old.  Bianca's cat ↓ captures my wary watching of the seasons as they change.  :)

'A thousand changes at work lately too, which have made for a stressful spring.  As Lisa over at "Searching for a Balance" knows, balance isn't something you find once and cross off your to-do list, but instead something you have to re-find over and over every day.  I found the below heart on a table at my workplace one night this spring and had to laugh.  When a paper towel-piece heart randomly appears on a worktable, I have to take it as a reminder to "be still and know that [He is] God," right.   So I adjust to the thousand new changes and plod onward. 

And get a haircut that is way too short--where is my wild mass of curls!!!??!!  GONE!  I now have the smallest sprig of them, like an unruly paintbrush perched atop my head--

 --then I find a heart in my hummus and chips and chill out a little more.  Again. 

I made it home around Mother's Day and Father's Day so got to see both my family and my roses--Louise Odier is in bloom this very week!  ♥--and those things alone end this up-and-down June on a sweet note.  

Heaven on earth!  And the scent!!  ♥  I made a small bouquet of these and my white Iceberg roses for my sister-in-law Sunday as she works her way through her final days of pregnancy.   To her, the days are probably not moving along quickly enough.  

'Another perfect heart Tuesday afternoon, this one as I was waiting for the bus back to the apartment post-visit home.  And tomorrow, it will be summer.  Ay yi yi.  

♥