Calm mornings at the beach...
The sea oats are already turning from green to gold to brown,
about to drop their seeds for next spring.
A Poem
Walking down my stairs,
I see a lizard.
It turns and looks at me,
tilting her head!
I wonder,
WHAT does she see?
By Me
St. Augustine Beach, © Laine Quinn
Do you come here often?
Nice view, hey?
What's your sign?
Do I know you?
Pigeons on top of the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, St. Augustine, Florida.
©Laine Quinn 2018
About America
By David Byrne
And I miss America
but boy can she be cruel.
I know how tall she is
without her platform shoes.
Nuff said..
An affair of the heart and soul...
Where waves crash
hearts are mended.
St. Augustine Beach, June 2018. © Laine Quinn 2018
Frog eggs!
Day 2, the little dots will soon be tiny tadpoles!
How life begins, began, begun! © Laine Quinn 2018
This little seedling rooted itself in the crack of my deck table.
That's how all of the forests began...
one seedling at a time.
"Life's longing for itself."
© Laine Quinn, 2018
A trick of the eye...
how close are they to the crashing waves?
No photographic tricks,
just a matter of perspective.
St. Augustine Beach, © Laine Quinn, 2018
(Zooming in with the phone, poor quality.)
Stop worrying,
be here now,
or the days will slip away
in the river of time,
and THIS is all we have,
This
NOW.
Just trying to take my own advice as I ponder the reflections at Moultrie Creek, 2.02.2018.
Happy New Year, and Welcome 2018!
(And so long 2017, and Good Bye!)
(Good Riddance!)
Leaving a difficult year and venturing into the unknown new one.
Learning to balance the bad news and sorrows with the joy and love that is all around.
Thanks to all for the Joy and Love that is all around!
Sunrise, Crescent Beach, December 26, 2017.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
Stay Safe and Strong!
Respect
That's the word that seems to be missing from the conversation
about harassment and abuse.
Respect.
That powerful men abuse their power is nothing new.
That we objectify beauty is as old as time
and isn't going away!
But throw in respect and that beauty is recognized as other,
as another person,
not mine.
It creates a healthy boundary, something that eluded my generation,
as we were taught to be nice to people
no matter how they treated us.
(Smile!)
Teach children to respect themselves and others,
and there will be a systemic change,
a change that has already begun.
It's all good.
Now that we are sticking together.
Cummer Gardens Statue, Jacksonville, Florida.
Every day the sun rises,
whether we see it or not,
the rotation of the earth allows for one sunrise and one sunset a day.
On the International Space Station the sun rises and sets about 15 times a day!
It's a shift in perspective,
a way different point of view!
St. Augustine Beach sunrise, last month, 2017.
Let the beauty that you love
be what you do.
Rumi
This was spotted on my way home from the beach yesterday evening...
My life is better than your vacation.
So, assuming a lot, like if any of that is true,
would you be the "My" in that sentence, or the "Your"?
Maybe a little bit of both, I hope!
The thing about evacuating ahead of a powerful, deadly storm, that may or may not be a direct hit on your world, is that you say
"goodbye" to your life, your things and your home,
not knowing what you will find when you return.
Here in St. Augustine, most of us have been lucky -
loss of power means everything in the refrigerator and freezer must be thrown away.
Tons of debris from the trees and the mighty winds that must be cleaned up.
Days of work lost.
Lucky to be sure.
Some have lost all.
It puts things into perspective, though, saying goodbye to your physical world.
You know first hand what is really important in your world,
and it can be summed up in one word-
LOVE.
We are lucky, those of us who can feel the love,
lucky indeed.
Crescent Beach, not a Hurricane! July 11, 2017.
A Beautiful sunny holiday.
Lots of families out to enjoy the beach,
playing, fishing, reading in the sun.
An overheard conversation about Hurricane Harvey -
on people's minds -
and another Hurricane barrelling toward the islands.
But life must go on, if we are to make sense of any of it.
Compassion and worry are alive, but so are joy and happiness.
Enjoy the moments!
Labor Day, Porpoise Point, St. Augustine, Florida, 2017
Rain to the left of me,
Rain to the right,
here I am,
stuck in the middle
with a view!
More from the Crescent Beach storm, 7.10.2017. That's the shrimp boat on the horizon!
In between the sky and the sea.
Rain clouds closing in from the south and the north.
Whenever a boat takes to the water,
there is a story to tell.
Storms, sea creatures,
and the one that got away.
There is always a story!
Crescent Beach, storms brushing by and a shrimp boat minding it's own business. 7.10.2017.
Lucky shot!
or
The Visitor.
I thought this might be the flower of the eggplant, because of the color,
but it turned out to be a Pipe Vine,
which is host to a certain caterpillar,
which turns into a beautiful
I will let you know if we get the butterflies!
After last night's rain, the larger caterpillars are missing in action.
But there are still some little ones.
Every June, there are two wonderful weekends of beautiful Music
at the Cathedral in downtown St. Augustine,
with the greatest acoustics and world class musicians,
it is heavenly!
Handel, Mozart, Haydn,
what can I say?
Thank You!
The Saint Augustine Music Festival, Saturday night.
Last call, last chance
Last song, last dance
Sometimes you just don't know when that's gonna be
Hold me baby, give me a kiss
Like tonight is all there is
Cause there's a last time for everything
It's a Brad Paisley song that someone mentioned in a piece I found somewhere,
and it stuck with me.
Can we really cherish our days and nights like it's the last time?
Why not?
This is our life, our time, our blessings,
why not cherish them always?
"Last Time For Everything", by Brad Paisley.
Sunrise at Vilano Beach, St. Augustine.
I didn't do it!
"HONEY", the new kid on the block looking guilty for no apparent reason!
The stage lights at the Gipsy Kings' concert on Thursday night!
St. Augustine Amphitheater.
A good time was had by all!
Isn't that sweet?
No, I didn't do it!
Replica of the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine Beach.
Hibiscus and Morning Glory on a morning bike ride through the neighborhood.
So many beautiful flowers blooming these days
and wonderful scents...
Ginger, Magnolia, Jasmine...
Hmmmmmmmm...
One beautiful day after another...
people go to the beach,
the waves roll in and out again,
pelicans fly in their lines.
Just another day in Paradise!
St. Augustine Beach, May, 2017.
Spiders and webs, what a brilliant idea!
How did Mother Nature come up with these things?
This spider is so curious that it is difficult to discern its head from its toe.
There are so many secrets in life to unravel, it's astonishing.
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, 2012.
Here today...
gone tomorrow.
Deck flowers, April colors, 2017.
When the web of your days and nights gets so tangled
that you start losing sleep,
is it really so complicated?
If you look your life in the eye,
it's not all roses and buttercups
AND
it's not half bad either.
All the loveliness, that is your life,
outweighs the self doubts and insecurities,
if you let it.
Breathe in the Troubles,
and breathe out the Joy.
It's really not half bad,
this life.
Just ask DJ...
...who has become fond of a certain flower pot with Rosemary.