Jump for Joy

It’s officially summer here in this part of the world and it’s Friday!  This photo was taken on my sunrise foray onto the beach when we were in Miami Beach.  This young lady, Samantha from @Revived_Living, is a former competitive gymnast who was having some photos taken for her website; she is now a health and lifestyle coach.

Hope your weekend is a joyful one 🙂

 

Sitting, fishing and finding a new spot

Patience and something cool to drink helps too… hats are optional.

 

Fishing for Father’s Day

On our road trip we came across the Hoover Mudflats boardwalk in Galena, Ohio where we stopped to explore.  It apparently is a popular fishing spot as we saw several people coming and going laden with chairs, rods and bait.  While there were others there fishing, this little guy – who was torn between just playing with the hook-less rubbery lures or picking up every pole that was set out – caught my attention.

His father, the gentleman in the chair, was there to introduce the little two year old and his older brother to the joys of fishing along with their uncle.  I stopped and spoke with him about the usual things like what can you catch in here, what bait are you using, etc.  This fishing foray was part of his Father’s Day present; a steak dinner was going to be the other part on Father’s Day.  I told him how I still had fond memories of my father taking me fishing and how I enjoyed it until I became a teenager and wanted no part of it even though one of my chores was to clean and cut up any fish caught and brought home.  I became quite skilled at getting that chore over and done with as quickly as possible!

We traded fishing tales laughing about how messy scaling and gutting fish can get and compared notes on how to filet a fish.  He told me that on YouTube there is a tutorial on how to filet a fish in 30 seconds.  Who knew!  His older son caught a sunfish while I was still there and I got to see a skill being passed down, how to grip and unhook a fish.  He was a bit nervous about doing it but with his uncles help managed to do the catch and release.  I gave him a high five for it.

This brought back memories of being a little girl and staring at that floating red and white fishing bobber waiting for it to wiggle while my father sat in the shade watching me at the lake in the park.  I was so proud when I caught a fish and showed it to him even if that fish was all of 4 inches long.  Back then he had to unhook the fish, I hadn’t quite developed that skill yet.  I have a lot of memories of my father; most very good and a few not so good as in getting busted for coming in late from a dance and of course when he became ill and I had to assume the parental role.  But at this moment the memories of my father were all wonderful and it was beautiful to see another father and child making their memories.

Happy Father’s Day.  May it be a good one for and to you.

 

This is a Gar fish.  Most fishermen do not like them as their presence scares off the fish they want to catch.  They have a mouth full of very sharp teeth and unlike the sturgeon they resemble, their eggs are toxic to humans.  Nasty buggers!

Impromptu Jam Session

As mentioned in my prior post about becoming part of a jam session in the park, here’s more from it.  The sax player is Don, a local central Ohio resident who plays in a band.  Doug, the guitarist, is from Pennsylvania and was visiting his non musician – well, at least  he wasn’t playing any instruments that day – friend, Bill, the gentleman in blue sitting on the steps.   Doug teaches music as well as plays musical gigs.  As fate would have it,  Bill and Doug came to visit the rose park that day with Doug deciding to play some songs at the pavilion.  Along comes Don to the park and upon hearing the music came to see what was going on, asked about joining in, went back home for his sax and the band began to play.

Enter one photographer (how fortuitous that we all converged on the same park at the same time) who at first just took photos of the guys until she was asked did she know some of the tunes – which she did.  We sang Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and more.  There were some park visitors who stopped to listen and applauded for us while others just walked past with a smile.  We were all enjoying ourselves, especially when we began making up our own lyrics to Dylan’s Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.  Phew! Talk about thinking fast on your feet for that one.

It was a magical musical moment in the park.  Cool, man…

 

 

The ocean…

I grew up around rivers and lakes which while nice never enthralled me.  When I finally saw an ocean I was overcome with the beauty and enormity of it all.  Staring off into the horizon where the sky kisses the water;  that was and still is a beautiful scene to me.  As much as I love swimming and splashing in the ocean, I can be quite content just sitting there listening to the sounds of the waves; sunrise before the masses descend upon the sand is the best.  Of course when it’s a crowded beach there are a lot of sounds that do not fall under the header of ‘peaceful’ but such is humanity and a beach on a warm sunny day.

So whenever I can, I try to visit an ocean and feel renewed.  Plus fresh seafood is definitely a major bonus.  Cannot beat that!

 

Masked

No, I don’t mean layer masks in Photoshop, I mean on the Cedar Waxwing’s face.  I’ve seen pictures of these birds before but until this day did not think I would ever see one live let alone enjoying oranges.  The waxwing part of their name comes from the bright red wax-like droplets on the tips of their wing feathers.  They look ready for a masquerade party with that black mask across their eyes.

(I hope that Mother’s Day has been a pleasant one for everyone; DH doing all of the cooking has been wonderful.  I know that there are many of us who no longer have our mothers or that special mother figure and that makes the day bittersweet and my heart goes out to those moms who have lost the ones that called or would’ve called them mom.  I miss my mom but I give thanks that I am called mom and nana.  I am thrilled that Facetime and Skype were invented so that while I’m not there with my progeny who live about 7 hours away, I can still see and speak to them.) 

Orioles

The sanctuary has an aviary that guests can walk through to view and interact with the song birds.  The Blue Jays and Orioles will sometimes eat from a visitor’s hand, decide to inspect your bag or even land on your head…which is what happened to DH with a Blue Jay.  Cheeky bird!