Category Archives: photo

so sweet


windowsill rosebud, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

Went to Meeting this morning for the first time in many weeks. Felt so buoyed by the smiling faces of Friends. I had some important insights while I was there, but most of all I just let myself be happy that I felt well enough to attend again.

John and I will celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary tomorrow even though the official date is Tuesday (we tied the knot on 9/2/92–isn’t that a great date and we didn’t even plan it to happen that way!). I guess the traditional gift for this anniversary is “silver holloware” (whatever). Not our style. We’re going to keep it simple and maybe watch a video, share some memories and go to sleep in each others’ arms.

Me, I’m hoping that I get a pretty good backrub. That’s what I always want most anyways.

Oh, and I’m baking a chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. Yum!

🙂

What have been your favorite ways to mark your anniversaries? Perhaps nothing will top Boston for quite some time, but I am looking forward to the attempt to in the years that lie ahead….

just peachy


peach blossom, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

This is the image that our last contest winner selected as her prize. Good choice, don’t you think?

My peach tree brings me lots of joy. Especially right now, when my peaches are oh-so-close to being ripe.

The tree was a Mother’s Day gift many years ago. It’s one that keeps on giving, year after year.

🙂

deep, deep sigh


monstrous II (photoshopped), originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

Had a bit of a scare when my leg got swollen and inflamed again on Sunday. The doctors switched my antibiotics today and we’re watching it carefully. I was a bit of a mess though for awhile there, worried about my infection returning again.

Deep, deep, sigh.

I keep trying to live in the moment and not carry too much fear. I know I can face whatever looms ahead, come what may. But every once in awhile my courage slips anyways.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

🙂

Photo: the spiky tendrils of a zucchini blossom in my garden. Isn’t it both scary and lovely?

in the garden


lavender with bee, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

I spent several hours this weekend in my garden. It was bliss. I pulled weeds, watched insects, and chatted with my neighbors. I also ate mostly out of the garden because I was on my own and I’m quite content with a lunch of grilled zucchini.

I know everyone isn’t as enthusiastic about gardening as I am–what are your magical/blissful spaces and places?

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
~Marcus Cicero

Photo: Bee on the lavender bush near my sidegate. If you look carefully, you can see my red bike parked just beyond the fence slats 🙂

And the winner is….

I put all of your names in my magic blue bowl (note the recycled paper…):

names in the bowl

And stirred it around and picked one:

the winner

But there are two winners for this context, Bonzai (the name I picked from the bowl) and Sarah Rose Evans, because I liked her name suggestion the best. FYI, my camera is now “Frieda,” named for artist Frieda Frida Kahlo.

For the winners: please email me (phddillyATyahoodotcom) with the flickr URL of my photo that you want printed and a shipping address for me to send it to you!

For those of you who didn’t win…another blog giveaway coming VERY SOON!

lightning at sunset


lightning at sunset, originally uploaded by wvs.

I suppose I’m pretty easy to impress–a simple shot of a flower can have me thrilled for hours.

But this pic…wow. Just wow.

The photographer has a blog that I follow daily, just for inspiration.

like a breeze among flowers


pink lisanthus, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this quotation that ‘wilderness’ left in a comment on a blogpost recently:

“I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times, but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.”
-Helen Keller

Photo is a close-up shot of pale pink lisanthus flowers in my garden

like a John Hughes movie

in his arms
This month John and I will celebrate 19 years since we met and fell in love. Most days I feel like I am a character in the very best John Hughes movie ever.

Park pose, 1990

PS: To all my new readers who have left recent comments–I’m enjoying your thoughts, insights, and experiences. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post(s)–it means a great deal to me. I wish I had the energy right now to respond to you each of you individually. Give me some time to heal and I will look forward to visiting your blogs and getting to know you better soon. 🙂

fingers


fingers, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

This pic was taken nearly a year ago, showing a finger wound that CatGirl bandaged with some lamb’s ear and a sprig of flowering Mexican sage. So sweet.

I ambled out towards the garden tonite and had conversations with nearly a dozen different neighbors. We spoke about death (one friend recently lost a colleague), about how I am watering my tomatoes (too much), about housing costs in Irvine (too high!), and about what a beautiful night we were having. Too lovely!

🙂

dancing


dancing fuschias, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive… and part of the living, incarnate cosmos.
~D.H. Lawrence

This fuschia plant is one of several outside outside my kitchen windowsill. When I see bright fuschia flowers I always think of ballet dancers–with their bright tutus, pirouetting on one leg.

Have I told you that when I stand at the sink and wash dishes, I put on my iPod and dance? It’s such a great way to make an unpleasant chore fun. 🙂