Balloons Plus

Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date prompt for this week is Balloons,

and I was curious to see what would turn up in a search for "balloons" in my photos.

It was a fun trip down memory lane.

Floating on a "Balloon"

Waikiki, O'ahu, Hawai'i, USA

February 2, 2018

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Public Market with "Balloons"

Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

October 23, 2023

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

A Big "Balloon" on Brighton Pier

Brighton, United Kingdom

May 27, 2016

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

A Protest near the Parliament Buildings

Wellington, New Zealand

October 30, 2023

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

The El Cortez Celebrates Its 80th Birthday

East Fremont Street, Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

November 6, 2021

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Lobster Trap Floats ~ "Balloons"

Digby, Nova Scotia, USA

August 1, 2019

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Fourth of July Parade

Breckenridge, Colorado, USA

July 4, 2018

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Balloons for Sale

Rocky Mountain Airshow

Arapahoe Park and Aurora Reservoir

May 30, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Crew for the US Air Force Thunderbirds ~

Just Because I Admire and Am Grateful for the People Who Serve Our Country

Rocky Mountain Airshow

Arapahoe Park and Aurora Reservoir

May 30, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

US Air Force Thunderbirds ~ Flying Upside Down

Just Because I Admire and Am Grateful for the People Who Serve Our Country

Rocky Mountain Airshow

Arapahoe Park and Aurora Reservoir

May 30, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

US Air Force Thunderbirds

Just Because I Admire and Am Grateful for the People Who Serve Our Country

Rocky Mountain Airshow

Arapahoe Park and Aurora Reservoir

May 30, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

A Great Hotdog!

Food for Rain

Arapahoe Park and Aurora Reservoir

May 30, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Help for Heroes

Horse Guards Parade, St. James's Park

London, United Kingdom

June 8, 2014

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Photos with "Balloon"

Working on My Memoir

Aurora, Colorado, USA

January 3, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Terry at a Video Poker Tournament

Laughlin, Nevada, USA

February 10, 2018

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

So many happy memories!

I hope that your life is rich with memories too.

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday, and  Nicole's  Friday Face Off. 

For Rain:  Thanksgiving Dinner with Balloon ~ 

Dad carves a turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner.  

The house in the painting over my father's shoulder is

the Forestry Department Building where we lived in Lansdowne House.

Dad Carves a Thanksgiving Turkey

Donnie, Me, Dad, Barb, Roy, and Bertie

October 8, 1962

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

For Tom:  Aloha ~ "Balloons" 

It is a rare day on Waikiki's beaches that you don't see a floating ring.

Floating Rings

Waikiki, O'ahu, Hawai'i, USA

February 2, 2018

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

For Nicole:  Parade Faces ~ 

Every March the Honolulu Festival Parade moves down Kalakaua Avenue

to celebrate Hawai‘i’s cultural ties to the Pacific Rim region.

Participants and visitors gather in Waikiki from all over the world.

It is fabulous fun and culturally rich.  

Parade Faces in the Honolulu Festival Parade

(The Penghu Islands form an archipelago in the Taiwan Strait.)

Waikīkī, O'ahu, Hawai'i, USA

March 8, 2015

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Have a great weekend! 

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be 

Wednesday, May 10th. 🤞 

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

 

 

Blossom Time

Springtime in Colorado is hard to beat!  

Western canyon lands, mountains, foothills, or high plains, it is beautiful.

I love stepping outside my door when the crabapple, plum, and cherry trees

are in full bloom, and their sweet scents are carried on a warm breeze.

Springtime on the High Plains

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, CO, USA

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Plum Blossoms

Heritage Eagle Bend

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Blossoms

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

When the blossoms burst, I'm out to capture their fleeting glory.

Our Street

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Crabapple Blossoms

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

I love to stand under a canopy of fragrant flowers 

and listen to the bees bopping from one blossom to another.

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Springtime on the High Plains

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, CO, USA

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Soon the ground will be littered with blossom snow and baby leaves will burgeon.

The blossoms may vanish, but my memories won't.

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday, and  Nicole's  Friday Face Off. 

For Rain:  Crown ~ 

We saw this portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in the Charbonnel et Walker Shop 

at the Old Bond Street end of the Royal Arcade Shopping Mall 

in London in June 2014, as we searched for boxed candy.

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 11

The Charbonnel et Walker Shop

 Old Bond Street end of The Royal Arcade 

London, United Kingdom

June 2, 2014

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

For Tom:  Aloha ~ 

Often Terry and I saw outrigger canoes on the ocean at Waikiki.  

This group is paddling a Hilton Hawaiian Village outrigger canoe.

An Outrigger Canoe from Hilton Hawaiian Village

Evening Paddle

Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

January 24,  2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

For Nicole:  Modern and Ancient Faces ~ 

Terry had reached museum overload at the British Museum in London.

I knew when I spotted him that I'd been gone too long 

taking a last look at the Assyrian Exhibit which I love.  

My mother had told me about ancient Assyrian art when I was a young girl.  

She and I both saw the exhibit in the British Museum, but not together. 

    

The panels of the Royal Lion Hunt come from the North Palace in Nineveh, 

an ancient Assyrian city in Upper Mesopotamia, 

located in the modern-day city of Mosul in Northern Iraq.  

The panels date to about 645-635 BC.  

Museum Overload

The British Museum

London, United Kingdom

September 2019

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Part of a Panel from the Royal Lion Hunt ~ Nineveh, North Palace, Room C

Assyrian, about 645-635 BC

The British Museum

London, United Kingdom

June 6, 2014

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Panel from the Royal Lion Hunt ~ Nineveh, North Palace, Room C

King Ashurbanipal (with bow) in His Chariot

Assyrian, about 645-635 BC

The British Museum

London, United Kingdom

June 6, 2014

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved

Have a great weekend! 

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be 

Wednesday, May 10th. 🤞 

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

 

IWSG: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 ~ Distractions, Distractions!

 

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.






To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are Victoria Marie Lees, 

Kim Lajevardi, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine!

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.

I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.

This month's featured question is: 

How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy May, Everyone!

I hope you are each doing well and moving forward with your writing goals.

Things are going well for Terry and me.

I love springtime in Colorado, despite the whiplash

from snow to warm and sunny and back to snow repeatedly.

It's the time for me to do battle with birds trying to build nests on our deck and porch

and for shaggy muleys to emerge to munch on the fresh greenery in our neighborhood.

Yummy Clematis Vines! 

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

April 28, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Seriously??? 

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

April 29, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

I had my eye operation on April 15th, and I can see so much better!

I was a little worried the morning after my surgery,

when I looked down and saw I had four feet, one set in front of the other.

Our stairs to the basement have fifteen steps, and now there were thirty.

When I tried to go down, my back set of feet were on a higher step, 

and my front set on the next one down. 

Recovery has been entertaining, if nothing else.

Two weeks out, and I have single vision almost everywhere. 

I can't wait to see my eye surgeon next week.

Gorgeous Blossoms and Heavenly Scented Breezes

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

This month's question is a fitting one for me:  

How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?

The short answer is yes, distractions do derail me.

My brother Roy calls me his beautiful butterfly.

He says I flit from flower to flower, never really stopping to light on one.

My sisters are blunter.  They call me The ADHD One.

A Passion Butterfly (Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae) on Purple Trailing Lantana

Honolulu Zoo

Waikiki, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawaii, ⁨USA

February 29, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Butterflies like me often struggle with two opposite symptoms of ADHD,

distractibility and hyperfocus.

Distractibility is when your mind is easily diverted from what you should be focusing on,

while hyperfocus is the ability to focus on something for hours at a time.

I can flit all around the house doing lots of small things, anything but writing,

or I can be sitting at my computer writing and a spot on the kitchen floor,

a crooked picture frame, or something on the tv or out the window

can distract me from what I should be doing,

I may not remember that I was writing for hours.

More Garden Goodies! 

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

April 28, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Hyperfocus, or bingeing as I call it, can work wonders for writing ~ except ~

when I crash and burn after many hours of having forgotten to eat, sleep, or shower.

Terry has often plunked a sandwich or a slice of pizza

on the counter beside my computer when I'm bingeing on writing.

Then he leaves me to my madness ~ lol!

Hyperfocus can prevent me from writing as well, 

because I can be concentrating so hard on doing something, completing something,

that I refuse to go on to anything else, even if it is really important.

I can get angry or frustrated if someone (like Terry) interrupts me.

Lovely and Fragrant Crabapple Blossoms

Heritage Eagle Bend

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

April 23, 2024

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

I'm painfully aware that I've not been making good decisions about how I use my time,

and this year I've been working on spending more time writing, especially on my memoir.

 

I'm using incrementalism, breaking up tasks into small steps,

and doing one step of a task per day.

Doing this can add up to a lot accomplished in a week.

Watching the action at Tembe Elephant Park is a great distraction!

I've been watching the park's webcam daily for years.

I just might be its most faithful viewer in the world ~ lol!

Screenshot April 26, 2024

Because my memoir writing can feel overwhelming, I've taken a slightly different tact.

I've committed to writing for ten minutes a day.

But nine times out of ten, I end up writing for hours during the day.

I'm finding that two hours is about all I can handle in a writing session right now. 

Unscrambling the mess of research documents, manuscripts, letters,

and blog posts can be flat out exhausting.

But some days I'm managing a morning and an afternoon session. 

So this butterfly is making progress!

The next book I hope to sign is my memoir!

(Meanwhile, I'll happily sign any anthology I can!)

Aurora, Colorado, ⁨USA

June 23, 2020

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Have a creative and fulfilling May!

Enjoy IWSG Day!  And a big thank you to the co-hosts!

Just a heads-up ~ In an effort to visit more of you tomorrow, 

I'm going to visit around first and then reply to comments.

And I will reply!!!   

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be soon!🤞