Florida Recap

I've arrived back in Italy and I'm happy to be home although the ten days in Florida were a whirlwind of family fun.

My granddaughter, who is now seven, celebrated her birthday a little early with extended family. She decorated the cake creatively with her cousin to many giggles and oohs and aahs.

I had time with my sister-in-law, deepening our friendship and talking lots about our present and future role as elders in our family and our communities.  She throws a great party as well. Love that woman.
Also with my nieces (all but one ) and their growing families as all generations build relationships with one another. Time to relax, talk, party and walk/run for a cause together is good for the soul.

My niece had a casino night for fun before the wedding so I had a chance to dress up and have a good time with my Honey who flew in from Italy.

And the big event was my niece, Danielle's, wedding with my daughter, Kelly, as Maid of Honor. They've been close growing up and remain good friends now. My granddaughter got to be a Flower Girl and she was thrilled with her beautiful dress and fancy hairdo. My grandson wore his spiffy hat in the spirit of the day and looked all of a sudden so much more grown up than ten.

The photographer caught a nice shot of the three of us sitting on the stairs.

It's always a treat to be in the love bubble of newly weds so close to Valentine's Day and I celebrate them and the hope they represent that committing to love brings sweet rewards. May it be so.

6.7 at 67

For the marathon in Jacksonville, Florida this year I ran in the relay with nine family members. I ran the third leg that measured 6.7 miles with my daughter to celebrate my 67th birthday. Like last year, the day was unseasonably cold at 34 degrees despite being in the 50's or 60's before and after race day. Nonetheless two teams of five family members in town for my niece's wedding (she's the one in her headpiece and who is now honeymooning in Italy) linked up with each other to run/walk the five legs. Here's how we looked before shedding layers at the start of our respective legs.

We had fun and supported a great cause since this is the National Marathon to End Breast Cancer and 100% of the proceeds go to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for breast cancer research and treatment. Our teams were named "Peg's Pals and Peg's Pals ll" in honor of my Honey's sister and my friend, Peg, who died of breast cancer five years ago. We joined 10,000 others, including survivors, for this marathon, half marathon, 10K, and relay. A welcome home tribute, a hot tub for the brave and a barbecue for all, followed at my sister-in-law's.

I ran well, had fun and look forward to next year. Running three times a week to ready myself for this yearly event keeps me healthy and happy. How to do this until 100 injury free will be the topic of another post.

Leaving Trinidad

Some photos as I end up my visit to Trinidad that I haven't yet shared but are fabulous favorites.

Newly hatched Little Hermit hummingbird (about the size of a raisin):

Taken on a hike:

Poinsettias growing wildly at a neighbors house.

A final portrait with the grands from a dinner by the sea:

Sunset photo with my daughter:

Giving river rock tattoos:

Water vine drink on my birthday hike to a waterfall I had never seen:

Cacao pods of various varieties:

Goodbye Trinidad and Tobago.

I'm in Florida for 10 days now to visit family and attend the wedding of my niece.

Woven with Desire

We were woven
with desire, you and I,
enticed by promises
to explore friendship 'til
flickers fanned to flames,
hearts unpacked of baggage
brought to this union, clamps
undone, bulldozed of notions
not exact to our particulars,
which missed us, served up
another story. Ours-
a simple giving to each
other, prayers projected
but exceeded.

This is woven from word lists of the inimitable Shay over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads and offered for the G-Man for Friday Flash 55.

Sunset Roost

Sunset Roost

mud ooze
holds mangrove trees,
herons soar, great egrets,
at dusk returning flocks of red-
scarlet ibis



This is inspired by Marian over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads who taught us about Cinquains on the weekend and is offered today for Open Link Monday. I visited the Caroni Swamp in Trinidad yesterday to see this remarkable sight.

After Friday 55

Is it too late for Friday flash 55?
Phantasmagoric happenings
kept me from yesterday altogether.
It's carnival in Trinidad next week
and steel pan competition finals
now; swarms of people, loud music,
exotic costumes, dizzying dances, bacchanal
unimaginable to one from cooler climes.
Glitz and glitter, glam and clamor,
calypso, soca, frenetic,
jump up madness.

Besides a day late Friday Flash 55, this is in response to Laurie's prompt word: phantasmagoric over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads. The photo is my granddaughter and her best friend in sparkly outfits.

In Praise of Research and Researchers

See those tic tac sized eggs in the incubator? They're Little Hermit Hummingbird eggs and the first photo is one of them candled; the slight red patch is the three day old heart of this soon-to-be hummingbird which I saw beating. The next photo shows the scale to weigh them and the data on the two latest eggs. Two "dummy" eggs replace them in the thimble sized nest so the mother continues to sit on them. Once hatched in 16 days, they will be placed back in the nest and mother will feed them insects and nectar multiple times a day to grow them from a shriveled raisin sized hatchling to a full sized hummingbird in 17 days. It must be fast because they're so vulnerable to predation in their nest close to the ground and attached to the back of a fern frond. They're in the incubator to begin with because they're even more vulnerable as eggs and because Julian, the researcher who lives in a house on my daughters property for four months a year, will swab the inside of the hatched egg for DNA for his research.

This is Julian's seventh year studying these tiny hummingbirds in the rain forest of Trinidad, recording their mating songs and dances, collecting data about these little known and shy birds by watching them, banding them and trying to trace paternity. The Little Hermits live in leks, one lek for their life, and males display for the females by dancing and singing their hearts out in an effort to be chosen by a female for mating. Each lek has its own song and, if a male moves to another lek for some reason, he learns the song of the new lek. Imagine. No one knew this before. As for what more this research will teach us about these hummingbirds, birds in general or the world around us remains to be seen but already it has increased the sense of awe in those who talk to Julian, including me and my grandson pictured below helping make the bands for the hummingbirds. Perhaps it's enough.

Won't You Celebrate With Me - Lucile Clifton

won't you celebrate with me

BY LUCILLE CLIFTON

won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into

a kind of life? i had no model.

born in babylon

both nonwhite and woman

what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up

here on this bridge between

starshine and clay,

my one hand holding tight

my other hand; come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.

I offer this wonderful poem by Lucile Clifton on my birthday and invite you to celebrate with me. With obvious differences we, nonetheless, also make up our life here between starshine and clay. We are shaping a kind of life with no model as the largest cohort of women elders yet. I was born in the first month of the first year of the baby boomers and we'll be a force to be reckoned with if we choose. Let's choose well and wisely. I'm excited about this prospect of building with you an elder culture; how fortunate we are. I'm grateful for life.