January 2025 IWSG First Post Of The Year, And From France!

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Bonne Annee as they say here in France, but with an accent on the first "e" in annee. It looks funny without it. Happy New Year, as we say in the States! We've been traveling since December 5th, 2024, so I missed December's post. Can't say I'm sorry because, yes, traveling! I'm sitting in the Pyrenees mountains in a "gite", like an AirBNB and it's quiet and beautiful, serene and a good place to start out the new year. I miss my children, yet know they are doing well and are happy in their lives. I miss wanting to write and have decided to talk to my doctor about some meds I've been taking to see if what I am suspecting is true. Since I started taking them I have no desire to use my imagination. It's disheartening. So, that is what I plan to do after my return to the States. 

Meanwhile, the question for this new month in this new year for the IWSG group is:

Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

My Dad. I admired him greatly. He was strong, handsome, loved my mom, and seemed a good role model. He was my Dad. As an adult my opinion did change, but not in a cut-and-dried sort of way. He was still my Dad. I loved him greatly and respected his force of character. Yet, as an adult I could also see less positive traits and I became aware of how his anger had played a real part in my growing personality. So, I saw him as a man, a human who had failings as well as strengths. I think perhaps we all go through this with our parent, and also idols along the way in life. People are, after all, perfectly imperfect. 

Please go and visit the websites of our wonderful and brave co-hosts this month and thank them for being here for us all:

Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles

To begin this new phase of life, here are a few photos of the trip so far. I hope you enjoy them. Here's to wishing you every good thing this year...

The cathedral in St Bertrand de Comminges 

My husband in the Pyrenees, his heart place.

The Pyrenees...

Engres & Bourdelle Museum in Montauban

A Bourdelle sculpture in the museum 

Us in Toulouse

One of the many light figures at the Village de Noel!

Projected on the side of an historic building

My husband and me

With our friends Titou and Gilles in Perpignan, in the JOB mansion

My favorite meal: Confit de Canard!

On the Mediterranean...

November Is Not Tidy IWSG

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Co-hosting this month! I love being able to contribute back to this group. By the time you read this the election day voting will be done, but not the election itself. I won't go into all that means because it will be different for all of us. I will leave it to our poet Walt Whitman who wrote this for a very long ago election, because it still holds truth for this newest one...

May peace be with us all.

Please visit and thank our co-hosts this month:

Diedre Knight, Kim Lajevardi, JQ Rose! and me!

The question of this month is: What creative activity do you engage in when not writing?

I garden, crotchet, sometimes knit, build photo albums for family calendars, and photo books for family, reliving trips or special moments... Like these below. Our niece married the love of her life in October. Here are a few photos reliving the amazing experience that came to mean so much not only because we love them so much, but also because it was able to happen in spite of the destruction surrounding us from Helene. 

"First Look" and a private reciting of their vows to each other.

The "fairy-like" atmosphere they (we all!) created.

The weather was perfect and sooo many friends and family came. We were all blessed...

October Has Blown In With A Vengeance IWSG

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 I didn't know what I was going to write about this month. I waited until the words came, now, and the first word is Helene. This world has so many disasters happening in it right now, that to say this one is so completely horrible and devastating feels almost surreal, not reality. But most of my family, and a LOT of my friends have been hit hard. I am so grateful that so far everyone is alive and doing all right, everything considered. My sister has power again, but no internet. The roads are starting to be cleared so my parents can come down off the mountain they live on, for now, but cousins are stuck, brother and sister in law are stuck, can't get out to get food or water or internet service, and are hoping to be relieved soon...

My issues are so small, except for this. My family. My friends who lived through the devastation are very important, and so their issues have become paramount for me. Please, help in any way you can, donating, sending prayer, sending positive and healing thoughts, whatever you can, please do it. And, not just for this most recent disaster, but for all of the conflicts happening all over our planet. Because we are all human, and eventually, what happens "far" away from us, affects us in one way or another. 

Life lines are a part of healing and rebuilding. IWSG is a life line for a lot of us, keeps us in, even if it's only a toe in the water at times. I am grateful for this medium and all it offers to us. So, on to that part of this post.

October 2 question - Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What's your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.

Well, my favorite ghost story is Evangeline's Miracle, my first published novel, so guess I don't need to give the reason why! Please give it a shot if you like ghosts, from the past and present...

And, please go and thank our other amazing co-hosts this month for being there for us!

Kim Lajevardi  http://kimlajevardi.com/  

Diedre Knight  https://pensivepenspost.blogspot.com/ 

J Q Rose  http://www.jqrose.com/ 

An Oregon Coast Sunset September 2024

IWSG September Disappointed

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So, yes, late again, and, to boot, disappointed in myself. Not only because of being late, but because I can't seem to find the rhythm I had writing before we left. Not. One. Word. And, the feeling/question I have is, what is my purpose? All my life I have had a purpose. I've heard this is what happens when one reaches a certain age, so maybe I'm right on schedule. I feel so unmotivated, and yet, when I ask myself do I want to stop writing all together, my body seizes up and my eyes bug out. So visceral a feeling of "Oh No!"

How do I make peace with myself about this? Both my husband and I are feeling the after vacation blues and wondering what do we do now? It's not like we don't have things to do! We do. Just... something is missing. 

I will leave it there and move on to more important matters like IWSG co-hosts and visiting and... and I don't know what else, yet. Whew.

Beth Camp, Jean Davis Yvonne Ventresca, and PJ Colando!

Please visit them and thank them for helping out this month!

I won't be answering this month's question. Instead I wrote the above questions and will endeavor to answer them at least by next month, I hope... 

August IWSG & Home

 

IWSG

Happy hot August, yuck. After spending 6 weeks down under where it is winter, and a mild one at that, coming home to dry heat and dry air conditioning is taking time to adjust to. Also being jet lagged doesn’t help! However, it is nice to be home and sleeping in my own bed. I had hoped to have the energy to write my post yesterday but sleep deprivation will change the best laid plans. And I’m writing on my iPad because my son stole my mouse so my desk top is unavailable till too late! This won’t be a long post.

I didn’t have any time to write while away; never had such a busy vacation before, so once my head is cleared (and I have my mouse back!) I will be hitting the keys with gusto because I’m eager to re-orientate to my Celtic world…

I hope your summer is going well. 

The question (s) this month are:

Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?

No I don’t at this time. I might change my mind, but for now I just use MI (My Intelligence!)

The wonderful co-hosts for august are…

….the iPad is not letting me cut and paste right now…grrrr

So, please go to the IWSG website and look up, Featherstone, Kim Lajevardi, Dièdre Knight, CJ McKenzie, and Sarah-The Faux Fountain Pen! Please thank them for co-hosting!!! 

Hope you enjoy a few photos from the trip!