mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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#WritePhoto Sunken Spirits
March 9, 2017
— 11 Comments
horizon
The excursion lasted for months. The tedium had begun to take it’s toll on the crew. Provisions had run low, and the boring meals of salt cod and oatmeal were getting on everyone’s nerves. The search for the shipwreck had turned into a nightmare. Now lost, after the GPS was washed overboard in the storm, they wondered if this island would be their final resting place. Landing on an uninhabited island, they questioned who had built the pillars on the beach that were now in ruins. They surveyed the beach and the inland for signs of human occupation, but found nothing more recent than the ruined pillars of stone. They could find no stones of similar type on the island either, which made them speculate that the stones had been brought to the island from another place.
They learned to catch fish in the lagoon and the ocean to survive. They had a fresh water spring to keep them alive, but there was little vegetation. Day to day life was a struggle that created tension and friction between everyone. There was not enough to eat, and there was little hope of rescue since they had no idea where they were. This Gilligan’s Island was all too real for this group who had never seen themselves as survivalists. When they sailed from Bermuda they all wore snappy nautical outfits and hats with matching logos. When the boat capsized in the storm they lost all the extra clothing, and most of them drifted ashore in pajamas and nightgowns. They found themselves without any of the comforts on which they had become accustomed. They feared the worst, but had not been brought up to even know about the worst.
In other circumstances they might have bragged to all their friends back at the club about discovering an island with stone ruins, then learning it was Atlantis. Under present conditions it was doubtful that they would ever see the club or their friends again. They had sunk their vessel out in the channel, and with it, their hopes and dreams. They started making up stories about Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle to pass the time while they slowly perished.
Please join a lively group of writers for stories inspired by today’s photo prompt by Sue Vincent. Read, comment, or submit your own story.
#writephoto
Old Town Scottsdale For History, Art, And Cuisine
March 7, 2017
— 3 Comments
Old Town Scottsdale
Old Town Scottsdale
The small section of town known as Old Town Scottsdale includes a park, a history museum, and a performing arts center. The retail establishments are known for western art and Mexican imports. Native American jewelry and pottery can be purchased, as well as contemporary cowboy and cowgirl fashion. There is a popular farmers’ market on Saturday morning, and many bars and restaurants are scattered throughout the area. Many of the businesses have been in the same location for decades. It is a tourist destination for winter visitors, especially baseball fans who come for Spring Training.
I visited recently for a photo shoot capture some architectural and botanical images, and brunch. I stopped at the centrally located information booth run by Downtown Ambassadors to ask a few questions. I inquired about the Mexican food dining options within walking distance. Susan Sentner and her sidekick Joyce were on duty greeting visitors. They were a wealth of knowledge as well as welcoming, warm, and witty. They helped me locate the perfect brunch for me at the Mission, and furnished me with a list of all the public art in Old Town. I had fun swapping stories with these friendly ladies. They greatly enhanced my knowledge of Old Town as well as my enjoyment of it. After my delightful meal I had run out of time to photograph all the public art pieces. I have saved the list and map for a future project when I return for my next visit.
Joy and Susan
There are volunteer ambassadors to greet and guide visitors at information carts located at both Main St & Brown Avenue and at 5th Avenue and Stetson, seven days a week, from October through May. They are proud of their city and have valuable insights to share with guests. If you go to Old Town make sure you take advantage of their free services to make the most of your visit. They know everything.
Susan Sentner, Ambassador
The Scotts
The Mission
The Mission Brunch
Blacksmith
Blacksmith
Old Town Scottsdale
Old Town Scottsdale
A Month Of Snail Mail
February 28, 2017
— 1 Comment
#InCoWriMo supplies
Today is the last day of #InCoWriMo, International Correspondence Writing Month. I just achieved one of my goals, which was to use all the 37 cent stamps I inherited form my mother in 2008. I had 18 left, and used them on an international package. Now I will be able to use forever stamps forever. I found out about this month by associating with some bullet journal people on social media. They write down and draw in their journals to be more creative and archive ideas for writing. I started the BuJu-ing, but am not very prolific with the journalling. I might get into it, because it is a very valid way to stimulate creativity.
I do make some iPad art, digital style, but have thought for a while the manual side of my skill set has been left to atrophy. Indeed, my cursive writing has become a thing of the past. I will never be able to compete with the pen pals with beautiful handwriting, but pen pals don’t compete. I have found that waiting to see what is in the mailbox as well as composing an artful response has become a real joy. I have just barely made a dent in the card collection with which I started the month. Inspired by my BuJu and calligraphy pals, I have bought some finger color ink and some sealing wax to make my mail more exciting and individual. Some new designer stamps will arrive in the mail soon, and today I purchased some international stamps to keep in touch with my new friends in Canada and England. The handwritten mail reveals more about the sender than digital communication. I have instantly become fond of my letter writing friends. I plan to write to them until all the cards are gone.
I have met artists of various kinds, gardeners, crochet and knitting crafters, a book binder, and many who are into botany and botanical gardens. I mentioned my botanical interests when I publicly listed my mailing address, so I attracted many like minded plant lovers. Now a group has been formed on Facebook for a combination of correspondence and poetry for the month of April. I think I can get behind that challenge also, since I already write 30 poems in 30 days for #NaPoWriMo in April. I might be really cool to write them out and decorate them ..and send them away in the mail. It is really kind of mysterious. I like many retro trends, but am surprised by how much I delight in this one. Do you write snail mail, gentle reader? I am still collecting addresses, so if you want a card..or possibly a poem, in the snail mail, give me your mailing address here. I would never share it with anyone else.
#WeekendCoffeeShare, Spring Farming
February 25, 2017
— 8 Comments
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden
If we were having coffee I would invite you to once again sit by the wood stove, which has been cranked up for a couple of days. This short cold snap may be the last time we need to burn wood this year. The quick warm up has caused all the trees to go into blossom mode. My peach tree is in bloom, and the apricot and grapefruit are budding up. Since I still had a large crop of ruby-red grapefruit on the tree I needed to act quickly to get them picked. It stresses the tree and the fruit will start to lose weight if I leave it much longer. I picked about 100 pounds, and took them to the farmers market. I am a member of a coop sponsored by our food bank that allows us to drop off our produce to be sold at the coop table.
It is great because small growers who do not produce enough to want to rent their own table use the coop to sell their fruits, herbs, and vegetables. I joined last year when I had too many grapefruit at the end of the season, and think it is a wonderful service to the community. I take extra herbs and citrus that turn out to be more than we can use. Others are doing it to increase income from home gardening. I came back to the market at the perfect time!! Tomorrow there will be a party at a brewery downtown hosted by the Arizona Small Scale Farmers Alliance, a ranger and farmer meet up. This will be a very fun event for me. I plan to attend and find out what is happening in local farmer land. I have also made my plans for wildflower safari to Tempe and Scottsdale in the beginning of March. One of my Air bnb hosts up there has a miniature farm with free range chickens and organic gardens. Guests are invited and encouraged to eat the produce and eggs. That will be interesting to see as well as taste. I want to see what farmers do in Scottsdale.
My trip to Maricopa County will include the opening of a new butterfly pavilion at the Desert Botanical Gardens for which they are having a party. It will be wildflower as well as citrus bloom season up there, so the sights and scents will be very exciting. On Sunday I will visit the Museum of the Musical Instrument, where I will see the exhibits at leisure the attend a classical matinée concert by the Phoenix Symphony. There are special exhibits about 20th century guitar art, and another about Woodie Guthrie. I could easily spend an entire day there. I am enthusiastically looking forward to my weekend away, not very far from home. I plan to purposely take some botanical/architectural images to use later as prompts for poetry or fiction. There will be plenty of subject matter from which to choose. I am still writing fiction once a week to Sue Vincent’s photo prompts, which gave me the idea to capture a few of my own for future use. April is poetry month and I always use an image with each of the 30 poems, so might as well prepare.
If we were having coffee I would be seriously pushing the grapefruit juice, and sending a few fruits home with you when you go. I want to hear about your week and writing projects. I know many of you are still in winter, and are probably getting tired of it. My early spring farming issues might not inspire much sympathy if you are still snowed in. Think of it this way. Soon you will be able to enjoy the blaze of color and flash of Phoenician spring without leaving home. I will bring it to you on coffee share. I only wish I could transmit the amazing aroma of citrus in bloom. It is sweet and uplifting beyond measure. Thank you for visiting this week. Take some spring vibes home with you.
If you want to join other writers and digital beverage drinkers visit Nerd In The Brain to hook up with stories from around the globe each weekend. Feel free to read, comment, enjoy, or submit a post of your own here.
#WeekendCoffeeShare
#WritePhoto Destined To Meet
February 17, 2017
— 16 Comments
summerhouse
The long trek to the remote village has exhausted the group. The backpacks grew heavy as they walked for miles in the woods. They had all come to be part of a writers’ retreat designed to spark creativity. The accommodations in the country were intended to take the group away from day to day concerns in order to concentrate on writing. Most of them came from big cities and were not accustomed to primitive conditions. They were told they would need to pump water and carry wood, but this sounded more romantic at the time than it was when they started scouting for fire wood in the wet forrest. The rain had drenched the woods, so all the wood was too wet to start a fire. They had no wilderness skills, and were weary and wasted before they even started the weekend. The emotions were tightly wound before they even saw the bunk beds in the attic where they would sleep, dormitory style.
On Saturday morning they awoke to find no staff at the summerhouse. There was a sign left on the screen door that said, “We have gone to town. Now you go to town.” This naturally infuriated the writers who had come to be taught some kind of creative trick to unlock their talent. “Go to town? What the hell does THAT mean?” Left to their own devices, they scattered into space to figure out what to do. Sitting under the shade of a large oak tree Emily spotted Eric. He was wearing a velvet coat, leaning against the trunk of the tree, casually smoking a pipe. She approached him with caution, but when she clearly saw his handsome face she was instantly smitten by this stranger in the woods. She wondered why he was so calm, cool, and dressed like a person from a different century. He explained that these woods are haunted with the ghosts of writers who never pushed themselves beyond their limits. They are the real ghost writers. They can never be free because they dissed their muse while they were alive.
When Emily awoke back in New England in the 21st century she knew she had just met destiny in a dream. Her muse, Eric, would be her greatest asset, and it did not matter that nobody else could see him. He was hers alone. He faithfully pushed her to work with words every day. Their tryst was a gift from the creative creator of creation, and would last forever and ever.
To enjoy more interpretations of this photo by other writers, please visit Sue Vincent, who provides these in fleek prompts each week. Read, comment, or try your hand at fiction here.
#writephoto
Digital vs Manual Skills
February 16, 2017
— 1 Comment
post cards from the world
The journey into my stationary drawer and the the mailbox this month is a very healthy investigation into my skills. #InCoWriMo is a challenge in correspondence by hand, by snail mail during the month of February. I have received the most beautifully written letters from around the country. I am so impressed with some of the cursive that I tried it myself. Good grief, was I ever bad at it. It is not like riding a bicycle, it does not come back naturally. I was never great at penmanship, but I could do it 50 years ago. I am not sure when I switched to printing, but it probably was in architecture school. When I attempted to write longhand it was incredibly challenging, and I only lasted a short paragraph before I abandoned hope. I also notice how very addicted I am to spellcheck. I halt in the middle of writing a word by hand, and no magic feature steps in to spell for me..I am almost disabled by this. I have personally lost my own skills by not practicing them. It is not too late for me to recover lost skills of youth.
My new pen pals have shown me that I lean to hard on digital skills. If the internet goes down what will become of me? I must balance my creative life by spending some of it by hand on paper..I can still take a picture of it and post it on instagram. I used to sew, draw, write songs and poetry, all without computer assistance of any kind. I even had a treadle sewing machine at one point. I made my living as a production potter, throwing pots on a kick wheel. I was such a home grown/ hand made/ alternative economy hippie that I did now own a television. Now I hear people talking about going back to the old Nokia un-smart phone to regain balance in life. I don’t really have a phone addiction so much as a general digital device issue. Balance for me will involve spending more time writing by hand. I need the tactile therapeutic value of putting the pen on the paper. The muse responds differently than when it is coming through a keyboard. My manual muse needs encouragement. What about you, gentle reader? Do you still write by hand?
#WeekendCoffeeShare Moving The Feast
February 11, 2017
— 9 Comments
Barrio Bread
Barrio Bread
The movable feast known as weekend coffee share is itself on the move. Our gracious hostess Diana has arranged to hand off the coffee party action to Nerd in the Brain next weekend. We will still be a band of writers bonding over digital beverages and stories on the weekend. I am sure the move will not disrupt anyone. Thank you Diana, for finding us a new address to continue the party. If we were having coffee today I would invite you to taste some of the bread I just brought home from Barrio Bread. It is still warm, made from local grains, and crusty like crazy fire . I just had a smoked mozzarella sandwich, grilled, with all the trimmings. I can whip one up for you while you relax and tell me how you have been and what you have planned. We are very proud of this bakery, and would love for you to try our local organic, totally groovy food products. Our city is a UNESCO culinary heritage city because of our deep agricultural traditions and knowledge. I love to show it off to tourists.
It is warm here, and the peach tree is budding out. The grapefruit is still very full of fruit, although I am juicing like crazy. I hope you will help yourself to a big glass of ruby red grapefruit juice, with or without whipped vodka, as you tell me about your writing this week. Mine is rolling along, with the weekly photo prompt working for me very well. This week I wrote a short poem, still on the depressing side, a thinly veiled reference to current politics. The prompt picture was a fire, which gave lots of leeway. I wrote about pants and vanities on fire, since I feel this is our current backdrop for news in the real world. I plan to continue the once a week fiction with Sue Vincent’s prompts because it is inspirational to read all the other takes on the same picture. I do want to write more fiction someday. This is a good warm up for that day. I like taking a break from just the facts.
I am enjoying my correspondence challenge #InCoWriMo more than I imagined I would. I have gotten mail from several people I do not know, and a couple I know in on-line relationships. It is a blast to both send and receive the snail mail. Most of my pen pals have great penmanship and sealing wax, etc. I admire it, but that is not what I have to offer. My correspondence has enclosures and a little bit of art. My biggest advantage is all the cards and specialty paper I have collected around the world. I have started to enclose extra postcards so my pen pals can send them forward, and I get rid of twice as much collected choice paper. I also send a temporary tattoo and my biz card. Today I mailed some hollyhock seeds to Kentucky to a perfect stranger…Perfect!!
#InCoWriMo
I send or hand deliver more than one letter a day. I may get carried away with this and just keep mailing letters until all my paper is gone. It is so much fun, and I do have the supplies. I am meeting people and getting such a thrill out of checking my mailbox every day. I guess it is like riding a bike because I used to be a big letter writer, but not for many years. If anyone in coffee share wants to receive mail from me in February please send me your snail mail address on this secure form. I promise I have no reason to share it with anyone and will only use it to send you handwritten notes and surprise gifts from my exotic stash.
If we were having coffee today, I would recommend the grapefruit juice and invite you to stick around to go with us later to the local beer garden and metal arts village where there will be yoga with a DJ followed by live music, fire performers, stilts, acrobats on silk, and lots of hipsters. We will rock the full snow moon in our summer clothing. It is free and all in the hood. Stay and soak up Tucson before you go back home. For those of you who want to read, write, or post this week visit Diana here. See you next week at Nerd on the Brain. Cheers!
#WeekendCoffeeShare
#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
Vibration Platform Routines
February 7, 2017
— 1 Comment
I have been using my vibration platform for at least 15 minutes each day for a few weeks. Some days I do it in different positions for 30-45 minutes. I have been experimenting with speeds, and programs, as well as positions. I have been enjoying it and think it is having a positive effect on my general health. I found a couple of good videos to teach me various new options. This smooth moving sequence above looks like a vinyasana…constantly in motion. I like the idea of using a mat for traction on the floor behind the platform. I am going to incorporate some of these ideas and positions into my routine.
My neighbor Heidi has been using it also and we both like it. We talked today about finding more material to try on our platform. I am crazy about the Philippine version below of vibration plate class. This is used like a vibrating step…wild!! He also does an eight count then changes position. I have been holding positions as long as I can, like squat, backward bend, etc. I see the fun of changing positions constantly, but we will use different music. There are other demo videos on Youtube with more ideas for those of us who love to vibrate. These new ideas keep it fresh. I am a big fan. Have you tried the power plate, gentle reader? It is an efficient way to get a great workout in t short time and drain your lymphatic system at the same time. I bought it for the lymphatic drainage, and now I find I love it for the way it makes me feel. FUN!!
#WeekendCoffeeShare Food Festival Fun
February 4, 2017
— 7 Comments
Savor
Savor
If we were having coffee today in Tucson I would invite you to sit back and enjoy a cup of your favorite beverage while you tell me about your week. I am drinking iced roiboos tea and relaxing after attending our favorite food party of the year. The Tucson Botanical Garden is the venue for this culinary fiesta each February. Chefs, restaurants, caterers, distillers, brewers, and food providers of every kind set up stations to offer tastings to the guests. We pay $65 per person, then roam around the gardens eating and drinking, tasting our way though the wonderful options. The quality is outstanding since the purpose is to show off and find new customers. It works well for everyone. We always find a new place or product to try that we might not otherwise have discovered. This time we found an excellent Mexican restaurant we have not tried, and much to my surprise, there is a distillery making very tasty gin downtown Tucson. Who knew? The event lasts for 4 hours, but I believe I would burst if I stayed for the whole time. We lasted for about 2 hours before we called the Uber.
I am interested in your latest news about your writing projects. Some of you have inspired me to try my hand at writing fiction. I wrote another piece this week based on a photo prompt, and once again it was dark and disturbing. I surprise myself with these eerie, haunted stories. I plan to continue if only as a form of self analysis. I am discovering a part of my brain that makes up dark stories. I hope I will be able to make it create some brighter, funnier stuff. My fiction muse is stuck on horror.
I have started to write and mail correspondence daily. The International Correspondence Writing Month, #InCoWriMo, challenge involves people from around the world who send each other mail. It is much more fun that I thought it would be. Some old friends are sending mailing addresses, and I have collected some from the website. My most ambitious pen pal choice is a professional calligraphy artist in Florence, Italy. My handwriting is not that great, but I own an amazing collection of cards and stationary from around the world to send. I am using colored markers, and may start to do little drawings or write poems to the people I have never met. I am enjoying the process and think it is a good way to prime the creativity pump.
If you want to prime your creativity pump, or read some interesting writing, visit Diana’s blog on the weekend. Read, comment, or submit your own post here.
#WeekendCoffeeShare
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