mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
St. Patrick’s Day Special – Irish Weather – The Musical – Narrated by renowned author – I.V.E. Mildew
March 17, 2017
— 1 Comment
St Patrick’s Day Special
#WeekendCoffeeShare Tempe Edition
March 4, 2017
— 9 Comments
high noon
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
If we were having coffee today I would invite you to sit by the pool at my fabulous air bnb accommodation in lovely Tempe, AZ. I am visiting the home of the Sun Devils because I love this town, even though the ASU/UofA traditional rivalry demands that I not. I have no wildcat loyalty, except during basketball season. I am glad to show you around this history filled place to share the reasons I find it so fascinating. I think you will agree that Tempe is worth a visit. We will stop at Tempe Farmers Market for our take out coffee and then take off for the Desert Botanical Garden for a special festive day.
I came up this weekend to attend a big opening party at the Desert Botanical Garden for a new butterfly pavilion. I am dressed in my Tucson Botanical Garden Frida shirt so I can be easily identified as a Tucsonan. I plan to spend the greater part of the day at the gardens, which are extensive and have good wifi throughout the space. I have a reservation to eat brunch at the restaurant inside the garden. This will be the kind of solo travel day that really makes me happy. I can stay as long as I want, which is always much longer than any other person wants to stay at a botanical garden.
Scottsdale Artists
Scottsdale Artists
Scottsdale Artists
Scottsdale Artists
Scottsdale Artists
Thanks for going to the party at the Desert Botanical Gardens with me today. I was particularly delighted that a group of artists were painting all over the garden. They all had different styes and personalities. It added a wonderful dimension to the already great day. I enjoyed every moment of the time. I took a real camera as well as two iPods, and used them all. I am very pleased with the volume of photos, as well as the quality. I plan to use some for fiction and poetry inspiration in the future. I hope you also had a good time seeing all the wildflowers and cacti in bloom. The desert is a flamboyant place, especially in the springtime.
Let’s take a break in the shade and enjoy some lunch at Gertrude’s Restaurant, inside the garden. I want to hear what is happening in your life. What is happening with your writing these days. Do you have new projects? How is the seasonal change where you live (if you are not at the equator)? I enjoy keeping up with the coffee crowd. If you, gentle reader, want to take part in this digital coffee drinking party each weekend, check in with Nerd In the Brain. Please feel free to read, comment, or submit your own coffee share post here. The group is diverse, worldly, and sophisticated.
#WeekendCoffeeShare
#WritePhoto Water Under The Bridge
February 23, 2017
— 7 Comments
beneath-the-bridge
Jumping along on stepping-stones, making an effort to stay dry, we cross the stream and climb the hill on the other side. Our party had broken up early because a sudden thunder-storm toppled the picnic table and sent the folding chairs flying everywhere. Collecting our belongings and soggy food we ran for cover. We found shelter beneath a railroad bridge that had been abandoned, and was crumbling into ruins.
This was once the busy main line that connected the industrial cities with the farms in the rules countryside. Passengers and freight traveled regularly on this railroad for both commercial and recreational purposes. Many wealthy city folks owned large estates in the country that employed hundreds of servants and maintenance staff. They came out for the weekends to fox hunt and throw lavish house parties. As the aristocracy lost fame and fortune, only the royals could afford such extravagances. The big houses were abandoned one by one. There was no work for butlers or maids, and few servants had other skills to sustain them. Everyone moved away from the area in order to find work or live within their reduced means.
The muddy water rushed down from above, carrying debris and some loose toys and lawn furniture and skeleton remains that had been swept away in the torrential downpour. The waste that society creates floated by in the current. Our history, our ancestors’ skills and dreams, were washed away before our eyes. When the sun came out again our spirits were still dampened. We slowly emerged from our muddy perch to search for our companions. The happy picnic by the brook had become a somber reminder of sudden quirks of fate.
This story is an interpretation of this weeks photo prompt by Sue Vincent. Please visit to contribute or meet other writers here.
#writephoto
#WeekendCoffeeShare Wildflower Wanderlust
February 19, 2017
— 5 Comments
desert in bloom
If we were having coffee today I would invite you to sit by the wood stove, which has been burning all night because it is cold, and raining again. This winter has been the best rainy time we have had in Arizona for years. The rain has fallen gently and steadily here this year. Erosion is minimal because the water sinks into the soil when it is not a big sudden chubasco. We are doing better than Southern California, where the terrain is steep, and the ground is saturated with water. The coast is land-sliding into the sea, which is a big freak out. For Arizona, we are recovering from major draught, but are still in it. The African daisies are in bloom in people’s yards here in the city, and the desert will soon be completely in bloom because of the wet weather.
Please sit back and let me serve you some coffee or tea to keep you warm. Tell me what is happening in your world and your writing. Are you making progress on your writing goals? I am keeping up with my once a week fiction writing, still threatening to break out into more than once a week. I wrote a dream sequence this week which was fun. I am also keeping up with my pen pal exchange in #InCoWriMo. I was happy that some of you here gave me your addresses so I can send you real snail mail. The month of February is not over, so if you want mail in your box please give me your address here. I have no reason to share it or use if for any other reason, so your secret is safe with me.
Many of my pen pals have a common interest in gardening and botanical gardens. I have received cute miniature water color of flowers, and other wonderful gardening themed correspondence. One of my fabulous pen pals is the educational director of the Buffalo, NY Botanical Garden. I am really enjoying this exchange. It has made me think about botany around the country, and the arrival of spring. Our wild flower and flowering tree season is a super quick flash of vibrant color that increases in intensity in direct proportion to the amount of rain in the winter. I have both driven through and flown in a small plane over wildflower displays that have truly taken away my breath. The California desert has some very exotic and super psychedelic plants that bloom when there has been rain, so this year will be a spectacular show of nature’s fashion. Arizona will be very colorful also. This has moved me to start checking into Air BnB availability, and think about itineraries. My favorite spa is in Desert Hot Springs, right down the hill from Joshua Tree National Park, one of the most exotic landscapes in the world. I love to be there in the spring when everything is blooming. I have not decided if I will go, but I am starting to dream about it, so chances are good that I will do at least a short wildflower trip. I could just go down the hill to Tempe, and I could catch a lot of seasonal color, as well as see what is up at the Desert Botanical Garden, which has plenty of blooms itself.
Do you go on botany excursions, for fall color, dogwoods, or wildflowers, gentle reader? You don’t have to be a botanist to enjoy them.
Our weekend coffee share has moved to Nerd In the Brain. Please join this jovial and talented group of digital beverage guzzling writers who get together on the weekend to share our thoughts. You are welcome to read, comment, or contribute to the movable feast here. Thanks for stopping by today.
#WeekendCoffeeShare
History of Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2017
— 3 Comments
Saint Valentine
In February everyone’s heart turns to love… and chocolate… but mostly to love. February 14 is the day we show those special people in our lives how much we truly care. But did you ever wonder why? Who was Saint Valentine? And why is February 14 so special? Well, let’s have a look at the history of Valentine’s day and see if we can find out…
Who was Saint Valentine?
According to legend, Valentine was a priest who lived in Rome during the third century. At that time, Emperor Claudius II, who liked going to war, discovered that married men didn’t make very good soldiers. For some reason, they were more concerned about staying alive and providing for their wives and children than about enlarging the empire for him. So, he simply outlawed marriage for men of soldiering age.
But Vicar Valentine was a romantic at heart. He couldn’t bear seeing young lovers…
View original post 588 more words
Fermented Full Moon Fun
February 13, 2017
— 1 Comment
Luke’s Pizza
Luke’s Pizza
towel toss
Luke’s Pizza
Hop Shop menu
The Metal Arts Village has a party every month with open artists’ galleries, live music and food trucks. This month was special because there as a DJ’d yoga class in the parking lot, and some acrobats on silk fabric hanging from a big tripod. The crowd was happy and the entertainment was fantastic. The fuel that kept the fun going was as ancient as human partying itself–fermentation. Beer is a fermented beverage, and pizza dough is a fermented grain product as well. Brewers and bread makers often combine to use the leavening from a beer in a bread. This kind of artisanal food production is rampant in Tucson, which is a happy thing for us. I am not the biggest beer drinker, and try to keep my pizza eating to a minimum, but do indulge when the time and the quality is right. Full Moon Party at metal Arts Village is just such an occasion.
I drank a glass of excellent stout aged in a bourbon barrel as a starter. Bob had a more bitter stout, which he stuck with for the day. I switched to a cappuccino stout from Lagunitas Brewery that made me happy. We sat with a couple drinking a red pilsner that was yummy also. This is the kind of place where people taste each other’s beer, no fear of cooties. Our table companions were interesting and cool with two dogs under the table. We enjoyed chatting with them. We all noticed Luke of the pizza truck trowing a towel in the air, pizza style. From a distance is certainly looks like dough. I went to investigate the situation and enjoyed learning about Luke’s dough and fermentation process.
He uses a sourdough proofing to create an amazing crisp thin crust. His wood fired oven takes 4 hours to heat up, but once it is hot the pizza cooks quickly. We ordered the pesto pizza from the menu and added jalapeño and garlic. This rates as one of the pest pizzas we have ever eaten. We will now become groupies of Luke and follow him around town when he parks at breweries and events. I can highly recommend this pizza with Lagunitas cappuccino stout..it is dreamy on the tastebuds. It would be good with any beer….or without beer.
The flying acrobats were fabulous, but the night was still young. One of my favorite artists in Tucson had set up a table top sell little stuff from her garage, and I was able to buy a piece of her art for almost no money. I now own an original signed Lynne Rae Lowe metal sculpture, that was derived with an amazing story. It is a Shabbis angel. She is highly symbolic, and now has a place of honor in front of a lamp I made myself. This is huge, and unexpected. I bought her on Shabbat, right before sunset on Saturday, then I walked home. OY!!!! Magic Moon!
Full Moon/Eclipse in Leo: The Return of the Feminine
February 10, 2017
— 1 Comment
Time to shine
The Full Snow Moon/Eclipse in Leo + Comet 45P/ Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
February 10, 2017 at 7:32 p.m. EDT
Comet 45P/ Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
This is one of my favorite times of the year, the Snow moon, and with a fresh blanket of snow in my neck of the woods in Brooklyn. I think it’s the first real snow I have seen all winter here, and I really love the show mother earth put on today. We have an amazing portal to higher things opening on this Full Moon, and I am in awe of its generosity, opportunity and potential. Contradictions, upsets, openings, beginnings and the containment of opposites, so we can peel back the layer of mist that has caused so much confusion to us all. So many things going on. Let’s get to it!
Personally, Leo moon in the 12th house means it’s a time of finding out what makes you shine, what your…
View original post 1,670 more words
#writephoto Pants And Vanities On Fire
February 9, 2017
— 9 Comments
bonfire of vanities
We watched them huddle around the fire to confer
About the plot they hatched to silence her
Laws and rule books were tossed in to burn
The flames grew large and the wind swirled
The bonfire of their vanities was burning in space
They were enveloped in a hellish backfire
There was no remedy for the sudden change
With pants all aflame they tried to conspire
We could neither believe them nor save them
They were consumed by their own vanities.
To participate by reading or writing a post about this picture go to Sue Vincent’s blog. She generously provides a new photo for inspiration each Thursday. Some very creative writers participate, and it is fun to see how the same picture inspires completely different responses in each writer.
#writephoto
Looking Forward
February 9, 2017
— 1 Comment
The Leo Moon is all bright and shiny today, happily soaking up all the attention she can get and encouraging us to do the same. She exchanges witty remarks with Mercury in Aquarius first thing this morning before basking in the pleasure of a trine to beautiful Venus in Aries. The warmth of the fiery […]
Aquarius New Moon
January 27, 2017
— 1 Comment
AQUARIUS NEW MOON sees a lonely configuration in the sign symbolizing many. Today, January 27th, the Sun and Moon dance together in the skies, like during every New Moon, but because their conjoined lights don’t have any major aspects to other points or planets, it’s hard for that light to shine, at least in groups […]
via AQUARIUS NEW MOON FORECAST FOR EACH SING — Anya’s Astrology
mermaidcamp 