Love

"You know you're in love
when you can't fall asleep
because reality
is finally better
than your dreams."

~Dr. Seuss~
Happy Friday!
Love and hugs to Tiff and Matt!
xo

Zen And The Art Of Your Daughter Taking The Bar Exam

Ya' know, it's funny.
From a Mother's perspective,
little girls grow up so fast.
At the blink of an eye, they go from tiny and cuddly
to independent and productive.
On their own.
As I think back on the early days and education
there were so many milestones. Pre-school. Sweet little Merry Mushroom.
Then grade school. Cute lunch boxes and pencil cases.
And a teacher we'll never forget.
And a graduation speech.
Then it was Middle School..and her first real dance.
Before I knew it..High School. Work hard. Play harder.
College...Work really hard, play even harder.
Then ...came Law School.
Excitement and challenge. Wrapped into one.
Before I knew it, it was Graduation Day.
A stellar moment in my life.
I'm so lucky to have my daughter.
I often wonder: "How'd I get her?"
And so today, it's yet another milestone.
It's the infamous Bar Exam.
A new journey. In a new city. A new beat.
To all of the takers, everywhere...Best Luck. Fear not.
And to my little 'rolling stone'...
"This too shall pass, and so will you"!

With love and hugs.
And a tear!
xo

Atrium of Love

"I stopped believing in birds for a while.
A nun said my heart was broken,
before I even started dating. A parrot in an
unlocked cage waits to start singing.
To mimic off-key is song, but not
song of yourself. Before the cross of Romans,
men followed the flight of the swallows
to build temples, as nests for their gods.
But I can't live in city gardens, more poppys
along train tracks in Poland. I've learned to field myself
in countries, to rejoice the potato is to see the
pigeon as dove.
Divorce yourself from the body as burden.
You're an atrium of Love."
~Carl Sagan
1934-1996
American Scientist

Hope you enjoy the Mid-Summer Dahlias!
Keep cool.
With love and hugs.
xo

Rubrum Lily

A garden surprise!

Keep cool and carry on.
With love and hugs.
xo

This and That on a Saturday

What a summer!
Seems like every day just flies by at lightning speed.
There are so many little things I'd like to get caught up with.
My cookbooks are a little dusty.
My craft counter, while full of ideas, well it sits waiting for me.
Books I'd like to read....not started.
Rides I'd like to take....not yet.
Flowers I'd like to paint...a blank canvas.
Flowers I'd like to plant...sold out!
Windows to wash..never gonna happen!
When I stop and think of ..well, why not?
I think it's that ipad.

Then there's the Thunder Moon.
And Jersey corn and tomatoes.
The story of the picket line in Peapack.
The night job in Jersey City.
The farmer's market downtown. The debrt crisis.
The card shop. Yes, Etsy's on my list too.
I think it's that ipad.

And juicy, jumbo delicious Bing cherries.
So, I snuck in a Cherry Clafoutis!
And a few new photos.
And a couple of poems.
And laundry. And words. And email.
And new to me...Stumbleupon.
And that was this morning.
Yup, it's definitely the ipad.

So, I hope you too have an ipad!
And one fabulous weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
With love and hugs.
xo

NJ Champagne Region

Cheers! Coming to you
from the Millbrook Village Grapevines!


With Love and Hugs.
xo

The Turtle

breaks from the blue-black
skin of the water, dragging her shell
with its mossy scutes
across the shallows and through the rushes
and over the mudflats, to the up rise,
to the yellow sand,
to dig with her ungainly feet
a nest, and hunker there spewing
her white eggs down
into the darkness, and you think

of her patience, her fortitude,
her determination to complete
what she was born to do-
and then you realize a greater thing-
she doesn't consider what she was born to do.
She's only filled
with an old blind wish.
It isn't even hers
but came to her
in the rain or the soft wind,
which is a gate through which her life keeps walking.

She can't see
herself apart from the rest of the world
or the world from which she must do
every spring.
Crawling up the high hill,
luminous under the sand that has packed against her skin,
she doesn't dream,
she knows

she is a part of the pond she lives in,
the tall trees are her children,
the birds that swim above her
are tied to her by an unbreakable string.

~Mary Oliver~
...and she digs mushrooms in the morning.

With love and hugs.
xo

Another Holiday, So To Speak

On my kitchen wall
is a calendar.
I love my calendar.
It's a Susan Branch design.
She's artistic, whimsical,
thoughtful, most clever,
and considerate of all living things.
She posts cute artwork,
recipes, random thoughts, and poems.
She introduced me to the Moon Months.
She has a cute little home site on Martha's Vineyard,
where she writes, dreams, and explores.
And a home in California.
On the calendar today, she declares July 11th
as "National Cheer-Up the Lonely day"!
How sweet is that?
So, if you're lonely...cheer up!
And if you get a chance, check out Susan Branch!

She knows nothing about me, I just want to share her with you!
http://www.susanbranch.com/
Her website has singing birds!
Here's to the Lonely Hearts Club!
With love and hugs.
xo

Still

In the midst
of movement and chaos,
keep stillness
inside of you.

~Deepak Chopra

Happy Day!
With love and hugs.
xo

A Walk In The Park

Does your soul good.
Especially if it's with dear friends.
That you haven't seen for 12 years.
And then once more it's time
to say good bye.
My heart was sad yesterday.
It felt as if I'm always saying
good bye
to the people that I love the most.
But I'm OK now.
Until, we meet again.


To all of those I love the most.
With love and hugs.
xo

Happy 4th of July!

Milwalkee Style!

With love and hugs.
xo

July

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me-a sky,air,light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic-or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what I knew: I can.
~Breathing the Water~

To the Best July. Ever.
You can.
With love and hugs.
xo

Emily

I've been blessed.
Over the past 24 years of my Real Estate career, I have met so many wonderful people. I get up close and personal, after all, it is their homes that I am involved with. I hear so many wonderful stories of children and husbands and in-laws and pets and secrets.
I'd like to share one secret with you.
I have a lady client who is Ninety years old.
She is bright, and witty, sophisticated, she's a naturalist, a hunter, and a pilot. Like airplane pilot! She's won all kinds of Bridge awards with her card skills. She lives alone on a beautiful secluded 90+ acre estate. She drives all over the tri-state area just to play Bridge.
She's a Mother of 4 adult children....a few rather local, and one as far away as Peru.
She is always dressed to the nines. Even just relaxing in her own living room. Listening to the birds. Her skin is beautiful; her eyes sparkle. Her heart is wide open, and, her smile radiates contentment.
So yesterday, as we were wrapping up our little visit together, and I was secretly admiring her grace and beauty... I just had to ask her... 'So, Emily', "What is your secret?"...She is very soft spoken, and after a brief moment I thought she whispered.."Tranquility". Oh, Okay I thought. That sort of makes sense. Tranquility. I repeated...."Tranquility"?? "Oh, no, no, no she said....it's WHISKEY"!!
What a Pip!

With love and hugs and Cheers!
xo

gratitude

"The Place I want To Get Back To"

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and the first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
lets see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but anyway harmless;

and so they came on their tender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to that same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

~Mary Oliver


I am so happy to have learned about Miss Mary Oliver.
Have a Happy Kind of Tuesday!
With love and hugs and gratitude.
xo

Just words

"On some hill of despair,
the bonfire you kindle
can light the great sky-
though it's true,
of course,
to make it burn
you have to throw
yourself in."

~Galway Kinnell


Happy Weekend!
With love and hugs.
xo

A Long, Dark Night...

Or should it read..
"Zen and the Art of Driving
Into a Tornado"...
Or; "The Night the Whole Town
Turned Black"?

My commute home is rather short.
15 minutes tops.
Rather uneventful on most days.
Unless I happen upon a bear.
Or a random Poppy.
Or a rainbow adorning a beautiful sky.
Or a magnificent sunset.

But yesterday, all hell broke loose.
I drove into a tornado.
Just as she touched down.
With phenomenal fury.
I have to say, it was the scariest drive of my life.

I have never seen such wind.
Or torrential rain.
I was blinded by a wall of water.
Blowing trees, flying garbage cans,
dismembered limbs, huge limbs, wires snapping in every direction.
And fire.

And then...a total blackout. And an eerie sense of quiet and calm.

The stregnth of the storm stopped me in my tracks.
Literally.
I prayed that I would make it home safely.
And once again I was reminded that my life
can change in one split second.
And there are situations completely
out of our control.

And today is a new day.
It's ours to enjoy!

So, here's to poppies and rainbows
and safe arrivals...
to everyone!
With my love and hugs.
xo

Spring into Summer

"Solstice"

"Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life's fullness. It is a serenely powerful time in which the beauty of the natural world can infuse our spirit, bring us alive to the present, and perhaps awaken a deeper sense of relatedness to the community of life, to the Earth, and to the cosmos."
-Paul Winter

Happy Summer!
With love and hugs.
xo

Father's Day

A sweet and fragrant bouquet
in honor of all of the sweet Dads.
The Dads whose tender, loving hearts
and tender, loving hands
have molded such beautiful children.
It's a hard job.
It's one that never goes unnoticed.
A particular thank you
to my Dad, and my children's Dad.
The best by far.

With love and hugs.
xo

Hope

Happy Friday!
With love and hugs.
xo

Time

We need time
to dream,
time
to remember,
time
to reach
for the infinite.
Time
to be.

~unknown~

With love and hugs.
xo

Cruisin' Along

Life's Honeysuckle Highway
in search of
the Strawberry Moon!

Sweet Tidings!
With love and Hugs.
xo

Happy Tuesday!

Sunshine and blue skies to you!
And...don't forget...
Raise your flag!

With love and hugs.
xo

I Love My Harley

I belong to a club.
Ladies only.
Motorcycle club.
Dangerous Curvz, that's us.
Yesterday we all took off
and attended the
Motorcycle Safety Club's
Experienced Rider's Class
at the County College of Morris.
It was an all day safety exercise
in stability, swerving, stopping,
acceleration, curving, weaving,
swerving, stopping, acceleration
and stability.
Over and over and over.
It was exhausting. And invigorating.
We all rode our own bikes in the class.
Unlike the beginner's class where they supply
the bikes. If you want to call them that.
Suzuki 250. No Harley's!
Luckily, the rain held off,
I guess that's because
we were all prepared for thunderstorms!
The morning ride down Route 80 was misty,
a bit foggy, but relatively quiet.
Except for the roar of the Dangerous Curvz!

Happy Monday!
Got Bike?

With love and hugs.
xo

Being Me

"Some mysteries I'll never understand:
the way the earth rotates around the sun,
three minutes shorter every day.
Or the way the dead are gone.
Or putting down the phone.
Or turning a corner.
The future: that's another whopper.
We can never know what we can never know,
except, that
whoever you are, and whoever I am,
you made it alright to be me."

Driving Lessons 2006

Happy Weekend!
Hope you're wearing some happy feet!
With love and hugs.
xo

Sir Charles

"If you don't live it,
it won't come out
of your horn."

~Charlie Parker

Happy Heat!
With love and hugs.
xo