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Showing posts with the label Halloween

A Roaming Stone

The leaves pictured above have yet to drop off as I hunker down at times feeling less like a wispy leaf about to gently fall and more like a stoic stone on a mission to update my kid's picture e-book told in rhyme. Turning it into a print-on-demand option, too, years after its initial publication, remains an ongoing process. But even stones roam and are side-tracked, as I was recently, visiting Vancouver and enjoying a lovely walk that took me across the Burrard Street Bridge. My photos below are of sights along the way while my poem for Poets and Storytellers United reflects on life's flow so often propelled by forces beyond our own as we search for stability, direction and meaning.
The bridge I walked on was originally completed in 1932. I love its art deco style.
After much hesitation, stops and starts in the 90's, final bicycle/walkway lanes were added with upgrades in the two-thousands. Sounds a bit like the evolving of my book.
The design and pumpkin orange touches are pleasing to my eye but there was/is controversy over the highrise rental apartments being built by the indigenous people who own the land the project sits on by the bridge. You can learn more about it HERE.
There are many pretty shoreline views to see when crossing over False Creek.
On a sidewalk nearby there is a mosaic by Bruce Walther who had depicted the bridge in anticipation of the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
There have been glitches in getting the current version of my kid's e-book formatted correctly for various platforms and making it available everywhere. Bridging old and new technology can be frustrating and has me loving and loathing the process. Human assistants are rare and I feel like a very tiny stone tossed into a sea of digital codes. 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 


Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

October's List

Halloween is fast approaching. The seasons do fly by, don't they? It was time to refresh Penelope with a spookier look. As always, she is bewitched by the journey. This, along with a glowing moon peeking in my window and a prompt from Poets and Storytellers United to "write from the point of view of October" inspired my few words below.

Now I am the master of the moon
I will grant its face a solemn phase
Sweep the sky with a witch's broom
Paint the leaves so they will amaze.
Spreading spells of chill and gloom,
I will let some fall, stray into decay
Weave into this mix, cozy cocoons
Midst the sobering kiss of October

October's moon beamed through the glaze of the glass like a mystic orb. 
   
Leaves huddled. In keeping with the season, a shop window in White Rock got scary ...
    
thanks to the artistic renderings and great work of a friendly not-so-spooky painter.
   
Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Season Of Nightly Enchantments & Cats

"Get bewitched by the journey." - Penelope Puddle
   
Here amid the stars, we are minuscule voyagers in a vast cosmic sea on a puzzling planet we barely understand. It is a beautiful, magical and terrifying place all at once. Of course, humankind can be scary, too, and what better time to show that side than Halloween at October's end when children bang on doors "demanding" treats (in Canada they usually ask politely), dressed as goons and witches while stray cats roam and pumpkins, like constellations, abound under light of the haunting moon, which happens to be the apt word-prompt this week from Poets and Storytellers United.
   
Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 


Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

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Hitched To A Bewitching Journey


Birth starts our time to shine … some get lucky breaks, others misery, most a bit of everything inbetween. I don't want to get grim at this bewitching hour but birth is also the start of dying. Although some rest in regal corners and others in unmarked graves, we cozy up to the elements together, converting to matter and, some say, pure spirit.
The moon teased the night sky, a glowing yet clouded crystal ball shrouding the future.
Poets and Storytellers United had me contemplating death and life with the prompt, el Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), when souls of the deceased rejoin family briefly for a celebration. (I should note Day of The Dead, despite similarities, is not Halloween in Canada on October 31st, a time for treats, costume-wearers, spooky lawn ornaments and black cats.) It's fine to pick a special day but loved ones are never far from my thoughts. Family that passed away as well as cherished friends, and dear pets, all flit in and out like ghostly gusts in my head while I absorb and am absorbed by the scenery.
      
Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.


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October Forever: From Venice Beach To Crescent Beach

The sky was dark in Venice and a little spooky in the West Los Angeles community. Somehow I missed seeing the canals and bridges reflective of its namesake in Italy.
Night arrived and a sense of Noir filled the Venice air which is reflected in the mural (above) painted on a parking lot wall. My visit was in late August but it seemed a bit Halloween-ish, when I look at my pictures, and more like "October", the Poets and Storytellers United prompt. If I were a month, I would be October … summer still lingering in places yet on the cusp of a deeply foreboding but great winter mystery.
It wasn't just black and white in Venice or nearby Santa Monica. Murals and street art covered a vibrant spectrum of colour and designs as part of beautifying initiatives. 
Back home (below) I found autumn in its early transformative stages at Crescent Beach where the frailties of life, still lush, were changing for all to see.
Why is it that a random toss of nature so often lands like a work of art?
I was glad to see the pumpkins and puddles back ...
but not so sure about the decorative spiders.
Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 


Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

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Poetic Injustice & Scary Seasons

"Evil doesn't sleep, it waits. And in the moment of our complacency, it blinds us." Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Do you ever get as angry as the character above looks when thinking of gobal affairs? In keeping with the Halloween season and Storytellers' prompt "scary quotes", I recalled a line from "The Rings of Power" and how it resonates regarding Putin playing his neighbors for decades forming dependencies, showing his "friendlier" side, while all the while intending to invade Ukraine which must fight-on bravely for its independence.
There's also the climate crisis and a lack of rain we've been experiencing in my area. People have enjoyed the sun but vegetation needs the drops that started to fall just this morning. The heron sculptures were free of concern, even about potential rust. 
The ducks floated calmly in circles on the ocean.
A log rested on the shore like an abandoned whale's tail.
Seahorses swayed ever-so-slightly in the mild breeze, leftovers from a great vacation.
It's been a while since my husband and I sought to pretend being scary in our truly beautiful but dangerous world. Check out some spooky Halloween costumes HERE.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United and Saturday's Critters. Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.
HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT