A Summer Place

Summer is here and so far so good.  Not too hot, not too cold but just right, for summer anyway.
Today is is much cooler than it was yesterday with a current temperature of 68 F and a bit of rain here and there.    Not much of a beach day for the tourists with some more rain predicted for tomorrow, but we will see what happens.
Still, there is plenty to do at the beach  and those of us who live here all year long find lots to keep us busy come rain or shine.  If you look around you there is beauty in every kind of weather.

Here are my photos for Skywatch Friday and Friday Foto Friends for this week. I hope you enjoy them.

I took photos of the sky over the football field during the Famous Anonymous Kid's high school graduation.   I just thought it would be nice to recall the early evening sky on that day.
The weather had been very warm but a soft cool breeze began to blow around half way through the ceremony. It made things lovely.
The graduates had paraded around the field to Pomp and Circumstance or Land Of Hope and Glory by  Elgar the traditional graduation theme and on the last round they parted ways with half the class coming in one direction and half in the other as they gave one another "high fives" for a job well done.
You can hear the song  HERE if you are not familiar with it.
As their teachers confirmed, no one can recall ever seeing such a tight knit camaraderie amongst such a large (400 kids) group of students.  These kids love one another in a way I've never seen in teens on such a large scale.  Nor have many ever seen such a bond between teachers and students either.
Teachers were crying to see them go.  It was quite something to see.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

It is a tradition at the school to place placards for each graduate around the neighborhood.
These kinds of signs lined the road for quite a distance.  It was a big senior class of around 400.

This is the neighborhood in which they all grew up.

Sometimes, around here, when you say  "across the street" you really mean this:

 The sea changes by the hour but the tides remain steady rising up and down like breathe on the bosom of the earth.

 Being around nature is good for the soul and spirit. 

Problems come, hard times arrive, but life goes on and the salt marsh continues as it always has with its tides and abundance of life living in it and around it going about their daily life.
It is home to so many creatures. It is home for us.

 

It is constant in Summer...

Glorious in Autumn...

Quiet in Winter when even the bay freezes over from cold....

photo from the NJ Patch

Serene in all seasons...

It is a casual place where you kick off your shoes and head barefoot up the dunes and out onto the ocean front  beach knowing your things will still be there when you return...

 Kids learn to swim when they can walk because water surrounds on every side in the form of creeks, rivers, marshes, bays and open ocean.

Cedar water creeks network the area. They are everywhere.

Wherever you are, enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.   It is there if you look whether it is a town, village or big city.   Never take it for granted and appreciate where you are planted and most of all enjoy the life you've been given to live.   We are all potential graduates of life and it is our decision what we do with it.

PS.. here is some comic relief. Me as a chubby cheeked rabbit compliments of snapchat!

And here is a composite photo of the girls and I melded into one. These things are such fun. We got a real good laugh out of them.

Wascally Wabbit

3 in one

Night Time on Barnegat Bay

Night time on the bay is my theme this week.  I don't have many new photos to show.
Friday Foto Friends is hosted by Debbie and you can join in.
It's 28F tonight and we are due for more snow.  A typical changeable up and down spring.
I don't mind and won't mind a nice cool summer either. I am no fan of humidity.
 It can be downright frigid on the bay at night when the wind is blowing and temperatures are low. I don't care. I love it anyway.



These photos were taken with my Android phone and are not very good. The video is also made with the phone and also grainy.
My front window in the evening. I keep some plants and a wind chime in the window.

The moon is peeking through the trees above my house.

The moonlight has a bluish tint to it.

The Famous Anonymous Kid will graduate high school in June.
She was accepted at Columbia and Rutgers but has chosen Rutgers (hurray.. my alma mater too) and will major in pre-med courses  .She would like to be a doctor. We have several doctors in the family and it runs in the blood I suppose.
This photo was done in an online photo thingy placing her on the "big screen".

The List

Lists of questions let bloggers learn about one another and also let you learn about yourself as you come up with answers to things you never thought about.
 Marge put up this list and I am going to join in. It is great to have Marge back blogging!

Balsam Fir

1. Favorite smell:
Balsam Fir, Cedar. I like the smell of flowers, etc. I love the scent of the salt air and leaves on the ground in fall. There are so many scents that are wonderful and bring back memories and create good feeling, but over all the scent of Balsam and Cedar and the great outdoors are my favorite.

2. Last time you cried : 
 Earlier in the week 😭
Sometimes things get over whelming. I keep it to myself but sometimes tears are needed.

3. Favorite pizza?
My own home made with mushrooms, onion, red peppers, anything else I can pile on including cheddar cheese.

Black Eyed Susans

4. Favorite flower?
Black Eyed Susans.  When I was a little girl we lived in a little brick apartment across from a park designed by the great Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park in New York as well as other parks.  He was  the father of American landscape architecture. Leading up to the park there was a little field in back of our apartment complex with a stream and a little bridge. In the stream I picked water cress for my mother to make salad and the field was loaded with black eyed Susans.  I loved how their happy little heads nodded in the breeze and the color is bright and sunfilled. I love to see crowds of them in gardens.


5. Did you go to college?
Yes I went to two of them: Ohio University in Athens, Ohio  and Rutgers University in New Brusnwick, NJ.

6. Untie your shoes when taking them off?          I can't tie my shoes since I can't bend.  So, I do a "preppy tie" on my shoes and slip them on and off without tying or untying.

Preppy Tie

7. Roller coasters?             
No, thank you.   I don't like the idea of being whipped around like a rag doll. It is no longer even an option for me anyway.

8. Favorite ice cream?
For a brand I like the ice cream at Cow's in Canada. For flavor I like real Vanilla with the vanilla bean chips in it.  
And for a Sundae I like Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce,  marshmallow sauce, peanuts and whipped cream.
In Pennsylvania  they are called a 'CMP'




9. Favorite pass time?   Make it 'times'. plural.  
Blogging, painting,playing piano,  learning, and being outdoors.



10. What drives you crazy?
Willful ignorance and closed minds.

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.
Willful ignorance differs from ordinary “ignorance“ — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone "ignorant" shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word "ignorance" has often come to mean "willful ignorance", and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ("ignore") actually carries that meaning

11. What are you listening to?
a lawn mower somewhere in the neighborhood.

12. Favorite Color?         
I can't think of only one favorite.  I like color based on it's use. If it fits, it's fine but I really like vibrant, jewel colors best.

13. Tattoos?                 
I don't have any. 

14. Piercing?                 
My ears are pierced but that's all.


15. Color of hair?
Blonde with some white here and there that makes my hair look frosted.

16. Color of eyes?
Green, same color as that of my Famous Anonymous Kid 💖.
Here is her eye, same as mine pretty much.

17. Favorite food to eat?
Fried foods: Fried Tomatoes, Fried potatoes, Fried Chicken, Fried Eggplant, etc.
I also love Greek and Mexican food.

18. Favorite drink?
Water ,tea, coffee. As for coffee, well, I really just like Coffee Mate powdered creamer with a tiny bit of coffee in it.
For tea I am partial to strong Irish tea with milk in it.

20. Night owl or morning person?
Depends really and varies. I can be both.


21. Favorite day of the week?
 Saturday.I love the beach sounds,the boat sounds, the sound of light planes over head, lawn mowers, etc.

22. Do you have a nickname?
In High School I was Angie.
Some of my friends called Chanala meaning little Hannah.

23. Pictures on your wall?
Yes in all rooms really. Here is the largest hanging over my piano. It is a lovely original by Leonid Afremov.
He uses a pallet knife to paint. The strokes on this impressionistic painting amaze me.
You can enlarge it to see more detail.

In The Eye Abides the Heart

This eye belongs to the Famous Anonymous Kid

In the eye abides the heart.
Every pure and tender feeling,
All emotions worth revealing,
Through the eyes their charm impart.
Words are often clothed in guile;
For the lips with fear may falter:
E'en confiding smiles may alter
Oh! believe not in a smile!
Refrain:
'Tis the eye unveils the heart.
Every pure and tender feeling,
All emotions worth revealing,
To the eyes their glow impart.

If thy bosom heaves a sigh
For a fair and cherished maiden,
Though her voice with love be laden,
Mark the language of her eye
There each impulse of her soul
Beams for thee in truth and candor;
There her secret passions wander,
There remain beyond control.
Refrain:
'Tis the eye unveils the heart.
Every pure and tender feeling,
All emotions worth revealing,
To the eyes their glow impart.

(Franz von Kobell, translated by Stephen Foster in 1851)

And I thought I would join in the Saturday 9 at Nonnie's.

1) Memorial Day was introduced after the Civil War. War memorials, as well as the graves of veterans, are to be decorated with flags and flowers on this day to show our appreciation. Is there a war memorial in your neighborhood?

Yes. A world war I veteran on a pedestal, a Vietnam memorial and a Revolution war memorial at a site of a roadside hospital that was there in the Revolutionary war.

2) Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, was in office the first time Memorial Day (then called Decoration Day) was celebrated. Have you ever met one of our 45 Presidents?

Yes, President Eisenhower just before he passed away, Richard Nixon, and my daughter is the 6th cousin of Jimmy Carter on her father's side and they have huge reunions for relations.

3) According to the AAA, 36 million Americans will hit the road this weekend and drive more than 50 miles. Will you be traveling far from home this weekend?

No. I live in tourist country and people come to us from Memorial day to Labor  Day.

4) Memorial Day kicks off the summer season. What’s your favorite picnic food?

Sandwiches and Kettle chips.

5) Have you packed away your winter clothes?
Or is the weather still so changeable that you still may need something warm?
it has been chilly here and weather changes. But, I don't have a house big enough to store anything away.  Everything I own is in my tiny closet. You know the kind one of those itty bitty old house closets that are barely as deep as a hanger and only 32 inches wide.
 

6) As you answer these questions, is there an air conditioner or fan on?
I use a fan in the bedroom year round to circulate air. But last night the heat was on for a bit.

7) This week, we are featuring the Muppets. Jim Henson made the first Muppet out of an old coat, and he used ping pong balls for the eyes. Do you have a talent for do-it-yourself/arts and crafts projects?

Yes. I enjoy making all kinds of things from woolen afghans to wreaths and table decorations.

8) Random question: Think of the last thing you bought. Did you get a good deal?
Yes. I shop a lot at TJ Maxx and Home Goods.

9) What song or a performer would you like to see featured in a Saturday 9 this summer?
Beethoven or Mozart perhaps.

That's it for now.. have an enjoyable day.
(posted ahead of time)