Celebration

 

Today was a celebration of colors.  This morning a male cardinal came to feed at my bird feeder.  It seemed to me he was redder than usual.  A bright red red!  Then after he had been here a short time a flock of yellow goldfinches stopped by.  And they were not just yellow but yellow yellow with touches of black on them. Spring is barely beginning here in upstate NY but these bold vivid colors brightened my spirit with thoughts of all the colors and textures to come.

Then right above them was a squirrel eating the new beginnings of blossoms on the maple tree.  Now I been observing and warring with the squirrels for at least 25 years and I’ve never seen this before.  I told you today was a celebration.

I decided some years ago that I have the right to declare my own celebrations.  I don’t have to wait til July 4^th, Christmas, or Mother’s Day or any of the rest.  The first celebration that I declared was when some friends and I went on a boat ride to see manatee in the Florida waters.  On the way home, dolphins joined us.  They followed us and jumped through the waves caused by the boat.  It was an awesome sight.  I just had to declare April 4^th, 2008 a Celebration.  And that’s not all, as we neared home a rainbow come out.  That was the icing on the cake.  When outstanding things happen that leave you with your mouth open – it’s a celebration.  At least it is in my world.

And the celebration this day did not end with that lovely morning.  Later that day about sundown I drove to a playhouse to see Robin Hood.  I left early so that I could stop and take pictures if anything presented itself.  Just beyond the playhouse is one of my favorite trees.  I have trees that I call mine even though they are on somebody else’s land.  I feel we have a special affinity.  I went to see my tree in the evening light. It is dead or dying so there were some branches very bare and there were vines growing up it.  It looked like a ghostly sculpture, especially in that ending of the day light.  In the background was a bank of trees, some evergreen and other just beginning to bud and bloom.  A gorgeous array of colors.  My visit with my tree added to my celebration. 

While at my tree site, I noticed red winged black birds.  The first flock I’ve seen this year.  I took picture after picture even though they were far away and the evening light was dim.  The results were not good  but it was an event to add to my day of celebration of color.

I drove back to the parking lot of the playhouse and as I got of the car I saw another beautiful sight.  There were three weeping willows and the leaves were that beautiful chartreuse spring color.  I took several pictures and I liked the results.  Another color to add to my day.

I finished my day with the entertainment of Robin Hood.  It was done by a local theater group and a  friend had a part in the play.  I met his wife (a friend of mine for about 40 years) and we comfortably sat together as only old friends can and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The colors of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, all the other characters and Sherwood Forest were all the colors of the spectrum. 

Now that was a day to celebrate.  I declare April 22, 2011 My Celebration of Spring Colors.

 

I can't wait to see what my next celebration will be.

Tough Old Broads

I hang out with a group of tough old broads. Me, 75 years, Ann, 70 years, Chris, 70 years and Geri, 68 years. Yeah I know, that’s old according to what we thought when we were 20, 30 or even 40 years old. But now that we are there at that grand old age – it’s just a number. We still think we can do whatever we want whenever or however. We are spending a week together at Ann’s island home in Florida. We do this once a year to celebrate our birthdays and to renew the bonds of friendship. We spend every day doing our favorite things. But tonight was especially impressive. I’ll tell you about it but first I’ll lead up to it by telling you the events of the day.

We celebrated Chris’s birthday today. We followed the schedule she set. She still works so she wanted a relaxed day. We started at 10 AM with the Legacy Workshop which I led. For two hours, we discussed our lives in intimate detail. Today the topic was “You”. The assignment was to write about any of the topics that were on the worksheet and that we had shared, dissected and listed the pros and cons about at class. Tomorrow we’ll share our written work.

After workshop time, Chef Geri made a delicious, colorful and healthful lunch. This was followed by an hour or two of free time.

I chose to use the golf cart for a tour around the island. Of course I had my camera and was especially looking for birds and flowers. This was the first time I was to use the golf cart this visit. Well, I put my foot on the accelerator and the golf cart took off like a race horse. Now I’m prepared for a slow stop-and- go speed so that I can inspect all the sights and possibilities for a photograph. Instead I had my foot on the brake very hard just to keep from flying. I stopped – checked all the things on the dashboard that could be pushed or pulled or turned. Nothing made any difference. I turned around and went back home. I told Ann, the owner of this runaway, and she said, “I’ll check it out”. She went out and soon after, I went to the porch to see what was happening. There was Ann riding around the driveway, and the golf cart was behaving properly. I thought it was the old “car won’t run right, take it to the garage and it runs perfectly” but Ann assured me it wasn’t. She said that the accelerator was stuck in high gear, she just pulled it up from the floor and all was fine now. But to make sure, she came inside, found WD 40, went out and liberally applied it to the accelerator. I let out a big sigh of relief and said to myself, “ok, that’s taken care of”. I took the golf cart and started off. I had not gone far before I saw a red bougainvillea leaning against white steps. It was so graceful and beautiful – a perfect picture. Further down this sandy road I saw an osprey nest with mother osprey caring for eggs or babies – I didn’t know which. She was perfect for a picture – very blue sky behind her, her big woody nest and her green eyes in a steely gaze. Wonderful! I’m having a great time carefully looking everywhere and seeing things many people walk right past. Ohhh there goes a little green butterfly. I try and try to get a photograph of him but he moves too fast. Oh well, there will be other days. On my way back home I have the good fortune to see a big white heron swallowing a frog. It was a marshy area so the colors were beautiful. It took the heron several tries. I took many photographs, in fact I took many photos of all the above and other things that interested me because of the color, lines, light and/or unusual activity. The island is a paradise for a photographer. The colors are so vivid and the light is so interesting.

Our next activity was to take our new rafts out into the ocean, right in front of Ann’s house and float around for awhile. Geri had found an electric air pump and pumped up all the rafts. After enjoying the warm water and conversation for awhile, it was decided that we needed some liquid libation. We sent Geri, our expert bar tender, inside to make and bring out martinis. Clever Geri put the drink in water bottles so they would fit in the cup holder of the raft. So we swayed, rocked in the waves and laughed and joked.

Chris remarked that it was her best birthday ever! We all agreed.

But the day was not over. We came in, showered, dressed and lounged around for a couple hours, and then went to a fancy restaurant. Delicious food, service and company --- nothing could be better. But I skipped an important development. Geri and Chris walked over to the restaurant and Ann and I came in the golf cart. We got to the restaurant, parked on a slight hill. The emergency brake would not hold – it kept rolling back. Finally we rolled to a flat place (in somebody’s driveway), took one of the rocks lining the driveway and put it in front of the front wheel to keep it from rolling. I worried that we would get in trouble with the owners. Ann, who is a resident of the island, assured me that it would be just fine. We left it, with me still worrying but assuming that Ann knew the habits of the island. We went in and spent a wonderful hour or so having dinner and swapping stories.

Then we had to face facts. Ann and I explained our problem with the golf cart and asked Chris and Geri to come and help us push the golf cart out of the driveway. They did and we discovered another problem. It wouldn’t start! The battery was dead.

We had to get it home. It was late, about 10PM and nobody or nowhere to ask for help. There was nothing to do except push it home. Physically, the walking and pushing was more than I could do so I got the lucky job of guiding the golf cart home. Chris, Geri and Ann pushed up hill, down hill, and through sandy places all the while shouting encouraging words to each other to keep pushing. I hope you remember we had just been to a fancy restaurant and were all dressed up – including dressy shoes. Once going up a hill, it was too much, I had to get off, push and then jump back on as we coasted down the hill. We finally got home.

BUT we were not finished. The golf cart had to be recharged so that we can use it tomorrow. Ann took charge, pulls back a seat on the cart, pulls out the big battery, finds where to plug it in on the cart and then realizes that she needs an extension cord to reach the house plug. She finds one and plugs it in.

Next she persuades her reluctant cat to come inside. We are all tucked in for the night. Praises be!

We did not eat dessert at the restaurant because at home we had a delicious carrot cake all decorated for birthdays. The night before, when we celebrated Ann’s birthday, we carefully sliced off four pieces. Tonight we were really hungry for our special cake. We put candles on it as usual, sang Happy Birthday to Chris, sliced the cake and ate – enjoying each bite. Chris’ eyes gleamed with pleasure as her special day was ending.

Celebrating our birthdays together during this week is such a wondrous occasion. We are family and these celebrations help keep that bond firmly in place.

We will eat birthday cake again tomorrow to celebrate my birthday and again the next day to celebrate Geri’s birthday. The cake is going to last just that long.

This is just one day out of seven, so you can just imagine the goings-on the other days. Next Wednesday, we’ll leave going home with more stories to tell about this unusual group of friends.

Yes, this group of “Tough Old Broads” still believe that we can do whatever we want. So we just do!!