Standing Into Danger: July 2024

Friday, July 5, 2024

Summer Along Piney Creek

Summer in Colorado is glorious, but then every season is.
My favorite season here is typically the one I'm in,

and right now summer is in full bloom, so favorite it is!

"My" Upper Pond Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado USA

June 29, 2024

Things have eased enough that on Saturday I took a walk along Piney Creek.

I can't remember the last time I did that, probably just before we cruised the South Pacific.

What a difference eight months can make!

The last time I strolled along my beloved creek,

I was having trouble walking and seeing.

Now I'm back to my old self.

Well, I still have to build up my muscles again in the gym,

but I'm working on it.

Saturday was lovely with puffy clouds in a vibrant blue sky,

the deep blue sky that occurs at 6,000 feet in our arid climate.

June 29, 2024

My only concern was that some of the cottonwood trees are getting really huge,

and they're lurking over the path, hulking with danger.

Some have fallen in recent years, and one fell over the path into the park last year.

Its jutting limbs have been trimmed back,

but its massive trunk lies half hidden in the grass as a warning.

June 29, 2024

This cottonwood tree is one of my favorites, and it worries me the most.

Its enormous trunk leans toward the path,

and its weighty limbs hang above me as I scamper to safety.

It is easily as wide as it is tall.

I still can't resist a quick look inside the cavity marking the spot of a lost limb.

In the past it has housed birds or squirrels, but it is empty this year.

June 29, 2024

The trees following Piney Creek are plains cottonwoods (Populus deltoides monilifera),

a subspecies of the Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides).

They are native to Colorado in elevations between 3,500 and 6,500 feet.

I missed cottonwood sex in the park this year.

The trees are dioecious, bearing male and female catkins on separate trees.

The reddish-purple male catkins release pollen into the wind

which carries it to the light green flowers of the female catkins.

This occurs before the cottonwood leaves open so the pollen can spread unhindered.

Showy Male Catkins

Along Piney Creek

April 30, 2022

Opening Female Catkins

Along Piney Creek

April 30, 2022

After pollination the female catkins develop small green capsules

that burst open and release cottony seeds far and wide.

A single female tree can disperse tens of millions of seeds,

a seed event that can look like snow flurries in the wind

and cause cottony drifts scattered on the ground.

Bursting Capsules

Along Piney Creek

June 29, 2024

Cottonwood Seeds Waiting to Fly

Along Piney Creek

June 29, 2024

Cottonwood Seeds Floating in the Air

Along Piney Creek

June 25, 2018

Drifting Cottonwood Seeds

Along Piney Creek

June 25, 2018

Over the years I have been watching the milkweed plants expand their territory.

This is a good thing, because milkweed a vital resource

for migrating monarch butterflies and many other insects.

Blossoming Milkweed

June 29, 2024

I reached my turnaround point, the upper pond in our stretch of Piney Creek.

I've walked to this spot hundreds of times over the years, and I never tire of seeing it.

Serene Beauty

June 29, 2024

As summer progresses all the lush greenery will age and brown.

The scenery is ever-changing, but remains captivating.

Flourishing Grasses

June 29, 2024

Lush and Vibrant

June 29, 2024

I'm so grateful that I can walk much better and see clearly again.

I will make the most of this new lease on life.

Almost Home, a Half Mile to Go

June 29, 2024

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday, Gillena's Lunch Break. and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

For Rain: Herbs ~

Roll'd, a Vietnamese restaurant in St. Leonards Forum Plaza,

serves great food like this soup.

Roll'd was a lifesaver when Terry and I had white pneumonia.

It's located in St. Leonards, a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, Australia.

Food for the Soul

Roll'd, the Forum Plaza

November 6, 2023

For Tom: Aloha ~ I just want you to know, Tom,

that your Aloha theme has me very homesick for Waikiki!

Beautiful Kūhiō Beach Park

Waikīkī, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

February 24, 2024

For Gillena: Family ~ I don't have a beautiful granddaughter like you,

but I have many wonderful nieces and nephews.

This is my niece Natalie who has overcome more obstacles than anyone I know.

Here she is getting her doctorate! A veterinarian!

She proves that grit and determination can overcome anything!

Have a great weekend!

OOPS! If you read this and saw baby pictures from last week's post,

then you know I forgot to do my final edit,

and you know I write new posts by using the previous post as a template.

And I forgot a face for Nicole. I'm just going to let it go.

It was a lovely July 4th for Terry and me. What can I say?

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be

Friday, July, 12th 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

IWSG: Wednesday, July 3, 2024 ~ These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are JS Pailly,

Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue and Natalie Aguirre!

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.

I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.

This month's featured question is:

What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, Writer, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy July, Everyone!

And Happy July 4th to all our American members!

Everybody Loves a Fourth of July Parade!

Breckenridge, Colorado, USA

July 4, 2018

When I write, I use Microsoft Word, even though I have always been a Mac user.

The reason is simple: Nearly all editors require

writers to submit their work in MS-Word format (.docx).

I think it just makes sense to use the publishing world's de facto standard.

Mac or PC? Always good for a passionate discussion!

I use Dictionary. com and Thesaurus.com frequently.

Dictionary.com is a favorite because my spelling is forever scrambled

by living in both Canada and the USA,

and my accuracy in spelling is not aging like a fine wine.

Also, I want to make sure I am using a word with the correct meaning.

I've lived in many places in North America,

and sometimes a word carries different connotations in different areas.

Thesaurus.com is a favorite, because I'm often looking for

a precise shade of meaning when choosing a word.

Also, Thesaurus.com helps me overcome using clichés.

I have frequently been criticized for using too many clichés,

and it's a challenge for me, because I don't always recognize clichés as being clichés.

You can't beat a using a dictionary to improve the accuracy of your words

and a thesaurus to increase your voice in your manuscripts.

My favorite thing that I can't live without and use daily when writing is a pen ~

so old school, I know! 😂 Is that a cliché? 😂

I come from a line of letter writers, diarists, and memoirists on both sides of my family.

But no one matches my brother Roy

who has written daily in his diary since his late teens.

He sits down each evening with a glass of cognac and his diary and writes without fail.

Roy sometimes carries his diary around with him,

because he likes to keep score during card games in his diary, especially when he wins.

We all have our quirks!

Roy scores a game in his diary, while Terry doublechecks his math.

Guys, it's just a game! ~ but then it never is just a game in my competitive family!

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

December 8, 2018

I on, the other hand, have been more inconsistent.

I've also written in my diary since my mid-teens,

but sometimes life gets so busy that I drop out of the daily habit.

In recent years I've written in my diary pretty regularly.

I struggle with distraction and time management,

but I'm missing fewer and fewer days.

One reason is I like Julia Cameron's recommended practice of Morning Pages

which is handwriting three pages of whatever is on your mind each morning.

As I get older I find this very helpful for maintaining the fluency

of my creative thinking and my handwriting with a pen.

I am haunted by the memory of my mother struggling to sign

"Love, Sara" on a Christmas card and asking me to show her how.

She couldn't form the "L," as renal failure robbed her of more and more.

The most important reason is writing in a diary calms me down.

I don't write with the intention of someone ever reading my diaries.

I write to record my days, sort through things, vent, dream,

and capture whatever strikes in my squash court of a brain.

Physically picking up my pen and putting it to paper also validates me as a writer.

Writing doesn't have to be published to be worthwhile.

The Diarist Fueled by Coffee!

Aurora, Colorado USA

June 29, 2024

In closing I'd like to give L. Diane Wolfe a high five for

her multi-genre romance book In Darkness

which was released as a paperback on March 24, 2024.

It's a compilation of four ebooks Diane published separately

starting with The Vampire on February 7, 2023,

and followed by The Shark (May 9, 2023),

The Werewolf (September 5, 2023), and The Alien (February 6, 2024).

I waited for the paperback edition, because I like to read a physical book

propped up in bed in a circle of light cast by my lamp.

I have read romance stories about humans and vampires, humans and werewolves,

and humans and aliens, but a human and a shark?

I give Diane credit, she pulled off such an implausible pairing!

Jewels, an introverted and dedicated aquarium employee, meets Clarence,

a talking great white shark, and an increasingly close relationship develops.

Trust and communication can bridge great divides!

I enjoyed the three other novellas included in the paperback In Darkness.

In each story, Diane takes one of her human protagonists,

Anna, Vicki, or Liz down unexpected paths

by upending familiar expectations for vampire, werewolf, and alien romance.

In Darkness is definitely a fun and thought-provoking read.

Available at Dancing Lemur Press and Amazon as well as other booksellers.

Wishing each of you an enjoyable IWSG Day.

It will likely take me more than Wednesday to complete my visits to your blogs.

I enjoy these visits every month!

A big thank you to our great co-hosts today.

Have a healthy, happy, and creative July!

Just a heads-up ~ In an effort to visit more of you on IWSG Day,

I'm going to visit around first and then reply to comments.

And I will reply!!!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be July 5!🤞