So excited

 

So.  Last weekend I pouted because I couldn't watch The Chiefs play on TV.

I mentioned to Donald that they were playing tonight and I was gonna miss the game again.

Well, one phone call later from Dear Husband to Spectrum and Voilà - I am ready for some football!!!

Chiefs vs. Seahawks

Tonight

And i Can Watch

I Love Don Barley

Loving vs. Hating

 

I love the positivity of Taylor Swift

Vs.

The hateful ignorance of

You know

Disappointments and Happy Stuff

 

First disappointment - The Chiefs game was not televised.  And I am not gonna pay $84.50 a month for that streaming channel.

Second disappointment - they lost.  17-20.  😥

But, i found a book written by one of my favorite authors that i somehow missed.  So I have 600 pages of bliss to dive into.

And i am reminded of this quote -

"… but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short."
      - - - Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)

I agree.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

❤ ❤ ❤

What's Up?

 what's up.

Well, up here on our mountain, not a lot.

I'm pretty excited about watching the Chiefs play this weekend.

I haven't been spending too much time at Facebook except for a couple of groups which are pretty drama free, and to check in on friends and family I care for a great deal.

I've read some good books.  Planning a couple of big trips coming up in the future.  Tried a few new recipes.  Just normal stuff.   

I recently read an interesting article in the NYT - some of you might enjoy it.

A Letter to the Future

Writing yourself a letter is a good way to identify the things in your life that matter — as well as those things that you can let go.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/briefing/a-letter-to-the-future.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck8.XqMn.nQebWNwUVwaz∣=em-sha

While I haven't written myself a letter, I have been writing this blog for a number of years, which might be viewed in the same way as a letter from me to me.   Looking back at some of these pieces, I'm surprised at the things I don't remember writing.

Not surprising is how my love of certain things rings as true today as it did when I first started writing Meanderings and Muses.  Poetry, for.one.  Paris for another.

Horizon (to Tristan Tzara) by Philippe Soupault

The whole town has come into my room
the trees have disappeared
and evening clings to my fingers
The houses are turning into ocean liners
the sound of the sea has just reached me up here
In two days we’ll arrive in the Congo
I’ve passed the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn
I know there are innumerable hills
Notre-Dame hides the Gaurisankar and the northern lights
night falls drop by drop
I await the hours

Give me that lemonade and the last cigarette
I’m going back to Paris

(translated by Rosmarie Waldrop)

Home, for another.

And.

I still feel exactly the same about the things I've written about that i don't love.  And i always will.

And I hope you're all doing well.

❤ ❤ ❤

Favorite Books through June 2025

Sister of my heart,  Lesa Holstine, posted her favorite books of the year (so far) at her blog.

https://lesasbookcritiques.com/favorite-books-january-through-june-2025/#comment-105564

It reminded me that I had not yet posted my own, so here 'tis.  A little late, but here, nonetheless.

Some of the books on this list may not be available yet as I read them as Advance Reading Copies through NetGalley. com, but they're available for pre-ordering and are worth waiting for.

Happy Reading!

 We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter

Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman

Apostle’s Cove by William Kent Krueger

My Beloved by Jan Karon

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Hunter’s Heart Ridge by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Mrs. Endlicott’s Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen

These Heathens by Mia McKenzie

Through An Open Window by Pamela Terry

The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

Painting by Kay Ritter

CONROY CENTER 2025 WRITER'S RESIDENCY

Remember this? 

 https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2023/08/me-writer-in-residence.html

A dream come true for me.

And now it's someone else's turn -

 

Shared from The Pat Conroy Literary Center Facebook Page:

CONROY CENTER 2025 WRITER'S RESIDENCY

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will offer our next Conroy Center Writer's Residency this October 22-29, coinciding with the 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. Located on a salt marsh, the residency at MarshSong Cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved lowcountry. The application period is now open, concluding on August 11. See details at https://conta.cc/4lgwovN (copied below)

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Conroy Center Writer's Residency, Fall 2025 ~ Open to Writers in All Prose Genres | Deadline: August 11 ~ “As was customary in their nineteen years of marriage, he left the grits on his plate untouched, an unexpressed but articulate declaration, rooted in geography, that the society he married into had not assimilated him. All the totems of Bull’s disenchantment with the South could be carved from pillars of congealed grits. Since they had married, it was a point of honor between them that Lillian serve grits and Bull refuse to eat them. What had begun as a joke between them had become a resolute ceremony fraught with competition and even with something deeper, something almost mythological that separated them.”—Pat Conroy, The Great Santini  WELCOME TO MARSHSONG COTTAGE Coinciding with the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will offer our next Conroy Center Writer's Residency this coming fall, available to writers of all prose genres. Located on a salt marsh, the residency at MarshSong Cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved lowcountry. The residency location is a guest cottage on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, approximately 15 minutes from downtown Beaufort and 15 minutes from the beach at Hunting Island State Park. The residency dates will be October 22 to 29, 2025, overlapping with the 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, which the selected writer will be invited to attend. TO APPLY FOR THE WRITER'S RESIDENCY Please submit the following by August 11, 2025, to contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org with the subject line CONROY CENTER WRITER'S RESIDENCY:  1) Grits or no grits? Are you Team Lillian or Team Bull? In 300 words or less—and in any form of writing you choose, tell us about your relationship with grits. Love them? Hate them? Have a favorite recipe or grits-flavored story?  2) Ceremony and mythology: Tell us about something of grand importance to your family or circle of friends which was treated as a kind of ceremony or mythology unique to your experiences. Got a tradition, custom, ritual, or habit that is idiosyncratic? Do tell—in 300 words or less and in any form of writing you choose.  3) Who are you? Send us a short bio, along with your contact information, up to 100 words, in first person prose please. 4) Do you have a favorite Pat Conroy book? If so, tell us which one, and why. Don’t have a favorite Conroy book? Then tell us which book by another author is closest to your heart and why in about 50 words. 5) How did you learn about this residency? Short answers welcome! 6) Finally, let’s have a look. Include a writing sample of your work, 3 – 5 double-spaced pages of prose in 12 pt Times New Roman or similar font. Attached to your email as PDF, please! Completing all sections of the application as directed is essential. Incomplete applications will not be considered for the residency. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of Conroy Center advisors. The selected writer will be notified by September 1. The residency is open to both published and unpublished writers. If you have applied before but not been selected, we encourage you to apply again. Pat Conroy was a mentor to writers in all stages of their careers and we wish to honor that legacy. ABOUT THE COTTAGE Learn more about MarshSong Cottage here. The selected writer must provide her or his own transportation. Residency is for the writer only; no guests or pets. WRITERS, WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR SUBMISSIONS! Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St, Beaufort, SC 29902 843-379-7025 | contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org View as Webpage

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Renewing your passport

Time to renew your passport?

I recommend doing it on-line.  

Right here - https://www.usa.gov/renew-adult-passport

Warning

Renew early. Passport processing times vary. And some countries and airlines deny entry if your passport expires in less than 6 months.

Even though they're saying there's a 4 - 6 week turn around, mine was in my mailbox in 2 weeks.

I did have to try several times to get a photo that they would deem acceptable, but I was determined and Yay, Me! finally got one that worked, so don't give up.

Nooooo - I'm not sharing a copy of the photo.  Suffice to say it is The. Worst. Picture.  EVER.

Truly.

Here's an interesting article from WSJ about the on-line renewal  -

https://www.wsj.com/business/us-passport-online-renewal-e58b51d1?st=eLG9KM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Fourth of July

 

With fear for our democracy 

The frail experiment that it was

That boasted Freedom with one hand 

And enslaved with the other 

Oh democracy 

You beautiful lie 

That oppressed hearts 

Have been trying to make true 

Pulling at 

the moral arch of the universe

With all the strength of hope 

Oh democracy 

You ghost 

You phantom 

You pipe dream 

You hallucination 

The truth of you 

Just an apparition 

In men’s hands 

Fly your flags at half-staff today 

You patriots 

Lighting fun sized bombs 

In the streets

To celebrate 

Liberty 

Fly your flags at half-staff 

The democracy 

You barbecue ribs for 

Is on her last breath 

Happy Fourth of July 

#LesléHonoréPoetry #FistAndFire 

#HappyFourth

A few random photos from our trip to Alaska

Did we love it?

We LOVED it!

It was more than I dreamed.

Magical.

Breathtaking.

Yes, we would, given the opportunity, love to go again.

We sailed out of Vancouver on June 6, stopped in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Icy Strait Point, Sitka, Juneau, Valdez, and Seward.

I originally posted these pictures in order from Day One through the end of the trip, but Blogger decided to do things their way, so welcome to a jumble of Alaska pictures including in various ports and on board our Viking Cruise.

A perfect trip.  MUCH better organized than these pics.

These first few photos were taken in one of the several museums we visited.

NO idea why Blogger chose to start off with these instead of leaving them where I placed them.  Harumph.

Me in Valdez with the yard sale suitcase we picked up after deciding to check our bags rather than travel back home with our carry on bags, which was a wise decision for a 20 hour trip home which included a bus ride and three flights before retrieving our car at the Charlotte Airport and the drive home to Boone.

Travel companions we originally met and on our Viking Christmas on The Seine Cruise.

Geri, Anthony, Arleen, Virginia, me and Donald.

Already talking about the next trip.

 

These pictures should have been at the top.

Arrival at Charlotte Airport to begin our latest adventure.

On Board - Yay!!

 My second favorite thing about our cabin.  First fave was our balcony.

Dinner at Manfredi's

Beautiful hand beaded bracelet from a museum gallery.  ❤

Thank you, Don Barley Honey

Tea with Arleen and Virginia

But i had coffee

Met one of Annabelle's distant cousins

There's an eagle perched on the pole, but he wouldn't look at me.

Eagle still won't look at me

On the final leg of our long flight home.

Donald has, of course, very good pictures on his camera.  I will post them here in the coming days.

But today, I rest.