Blog 19: She Returns

 

REWIND TO OCTOBER 2021  "I enjoy writing this blog, and will come back to it at some point. For the time being though, I am putting it on hold. It has been a few months since my injury on June 8, 2021 and the road to recovery is still unknown. Certain activities and movements are difficult and remain a challenge. Pain and fatigue are real. I continue on the path to recovery with caution and calculation."

Fast Forward to November 2022. I am still recovering from my injury and resulting surgery, with continued limitations. It has not been the improvement I would have hoped for or expected. I haven't been able to get back into the swing of anything really.  Optics don't tell the story.  For now though I won't either.  It just seemed worth mentioning, as I try to resume writing my blogs. 

 

We have been back in San Diego now for just over a year. The journey we took over a few years prior, beginning in 2017, resulted in some gains and some losses from the experience.  One of the gains had to be the opportunity  to  explore and live in different climates and altitudes, with beautiful and diverse landscapes.  

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. Foresight, though, is often clouded with wishful hopes, in contrast with 20/20 hindsight. Ultimately, like Dorothy says,  "There's no place like home".  Once that thought became louder the focus for the future began to change.  

 

According to the Byrds, "To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven." The tough part is making the turn at the right time.   

Speaking of birds, the birds featured in  Robin's Return seemed to know the lyrics to the song too, "there is a season". *   In the high desert of Arizona, birds completely disappear during the cold, and snowy winters.   In warmer weather, the quail would parade their babies through the yard, and dad would sit on the block wall protecting his family with a watchful eye.   Before winter arrived, there were many feathered visitors to our backyard, and you really felt the silence in their absence. One day, with the winter advancing toward Spring, I heard a lot of squawking and chatter outside. I went to the window to investigate, and to my surprise, saw a large flock of robins that had descended upon this tree all at once.  I ran to get my camera, and even though a few had flown away in the meantime,  was lucky to capture this.  They left as fast as they came. I wondered, were the robins sounding the coming of Spring? Me think so. In my opinion, you can keep your hesitant groundhog. This was a much more spectacular and impressive way to welcome Spring. 

*  The image above began as a photo, but was transferred to canvas using a method called photo transfer.  Combining acrylic mediums and paint, the end result gives the image a unique and sometimes aged appearance that I like. 

Here are a couple of short clips of our common visitors.  

Joni Mitchell wrote:  "You don't know what you've got til it's gone."   I cherish my friendships and the people that have been in my life for decades. That couldn't be replicated, and I discovered I didn't really want to start over.  Coming home, has given me a new appreciation for the area I spent most of my life in. 

Before we move on from Joni, she offers this as well.  "Pave paradise, put up a parking lot."  Sorry San Diego, you aren't perfect.     Since we have been gone, you have paved a little more of paradise and fostered a housing market that bears no resemblance to what it was before we left.  Still, we are here, and have no plans to leave again.  You're stuck with us.

Meanwhile, the paint brush has been calling.   Right now, I am limited to what my elbow agrees to, which is not always predictable.   In the meantime, I will continue to work on my blogs as I am able (although typing can cause issues too) and working to keep my websites current.  See the links below. 

Just a reminder:  "Put away the DDT now..."  "Leave me the birds and the bees PLEASE!." Or is it the Byrds, and the Beegees PLEASE? " 

Just telling "it like it is", Aaron Neville.  Had to. 

UNTIL THE NEXT TIME

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Carol Shamrock Art