OnceUponForever

2008-10-28T12:17:00.001-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

SUNRISE AND FOG OVER THE POND

2007-06-04T05:46:00.000-05:00

We had a beautiful sunrise and fog on the pond
a few weeks ago...I know, I am sooooo behind in
posting. Having health problems and still looking
for a house.

Looks almost 'swampy' doesn't it?

Even Stormy seemed impressed, and as soon as I saw the photo below in my view finder, I knew I had a caption for it. Also wrote a 'little' poem for it.

LITTLE POEM :-)

Is that You God?
Are You watching over me?
Slow down that fox,
As I hurry up a tree.

GRANDMA'S EASTER COLD SPELL

2007-04-10T08:29:00.000-05:00

Spring seemed to be coming along on schedule in Oklahoma and then wham! Mother Nature hit us with another blast of Winter. I cut all the Irises that were blooming and the buds in hope that they will open indoors. The Daffodils had already stopped blooming. I'm sure they would bloom longer if they were in a cultivated flower bed. However growing along the edge of the woods, they are soon overtaken by weeds, briars, and the shade from the leafing trees. We have learned to enjoy their early burst of sunshine yellow while it last.
Mother says this freeze is what her mother called the Easter cold spell, and it came right on time. Happy Easter!

Regardless of the temperature outside, the clouds can always put on a show, as shown by the photos below the collage.

EASTER SUNDAY 2007

2007-04-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

HAPPY EASTER!

This Easter greeting is to my grandchildren, Carl and LeAndra Jackson, Cindy Johnson and Darienne Spradling.

I think of you every day, and more than anything in this world, I would like to see you, talk to you, or even get a letter or email from you.

Your Mimi and I are sending love, hugs and kisses.

Hope you are having a great Easter!

Love always,
Grandma

OKLAHOMA ICE STORM

2007-01-24T10:27:00.000-06:00

The photos here were taken after a record setting ice storm in our part of Oklahoma back in January, but due to so many different things happening in my life, I never finished drafting the blog entry.

Today we have once more set a record. This time a record cold for Easter, so it seems appropriate that I finish this blog at this time.

During this ice storm and the many, many days that it ‘hung around’ I was more glad than usual that I have had to retire early. I find no joy in the fear I encounter when trying to drive a vehicle in the ice or even snow. I love everything else about a winter snow, as long as I do not have to get behind the wheel of a car.

There were three different levels of icicles
hanging from the roof outside the laundry
room window.

The old tomato plants on the deck and the dead
tree branch I was going to break up for firewood,
made interesting ice sculptures.

This dead plant was incased in ice and sparkled
like a diamond tree in the sun

This was looking out the breakfast room
window at the pond which had been dry all
Summer, now filled with ice and snow.

This close-up of a twig shows the thickness
of the ice. It also reflected the sun beautifully.

CATS!

2006-11-16T21:29:00.000-06:00

This is about Stormy and Mama Cass. Stormy was little more than a kitten when I found her huddled on the back deck one morning after a night of terrible thunderstorms. Because we signed a lease that stated, 'no inside pets,' I could only keep her in the garage while I waited for an opening at the SPCA.

We would bring her in to feed her each day, and after watching Mother with her and hearing more laughter than I can remember in a long time, I knew we had to move.

So we are looking for a house to buy that we can fill it with cats if we want. I am going to miss this house so much. We can never afford a place with anything like our "Thirteen Acre Woods." However, Mother is going to be 85 the 22nd of December. How can I not give her this simple thing that makes her so happy?

Shortly after Stormy came, an older cat began to hang around outside and I fed her. When 10 inches of snow fell in one day (unusual for Oklahoma) I brought her into the garage too. It appears that she is 'with kittens,' so we may have a start on our houseful of cats already :-)

Stormy, looking for something to attack.

"Hey, what are you doing up there?"

Checking out sales for catnip.

"Mama Cat" or Mama Cass rolling over for a tummy scratch.

Eating outside, before she became an inside cat.

STRANGE CLOUD

2006-10-30T12:06:00.000-06:00

I have never seen a cloud formation quite like this one, and none of the pictures I took really do it justice. It was not stormy that day at all...not even a shower.
Standing beneath it looking up into the center, reminded me of the movie "Independence Day." Spooky!

A FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE

2006-10-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

Actually, we do not have a hen house, a hen, or even any chickens. All we really have is one spoiled old dog and a stray kitten who is hiding in our garage illegally since our landlord said we could NOT have a cat__period!

However, it would appear that we have a family of foxes near by. According to the Oklahoma Wildlife Authority, the red fox lives in dense woods near open fields. Our dense woods consist of a thin circle of trees around the thirteen acres, but we do have open fields with grasses high enough to hide even a fox’s bushy tail. So they could have been here all of the fourteen months that we have lived here, but it has only been the past few weeks that we have seen them.

Our first encounter was one dark night when Kodiak (the spoiled old dog) chased out from under the front steps, what I thought at the time was a Siamese cat. All I was able to see was a blur of something light colored with a dark tail and legs. Because it had only been a few days since a stormy night had left us the stray kitten, I thought perhaps there had been more than one. The next morning I looked and looked for it, but did not find a sign of another cat anywhere.

Two days later, I was on the front porch taking pictures of the changing leaves, when Kodiak begins to whine. I followed his gaze toward the trees and thought, ‘Oh, a small dog the color of Kodiak.’ But when it raised its head and looked at me, I knew I was seeing my first red fox. It was beautiful and did not seem to be afraid of me or Kodiak. I backed slowly in the door to get Mother, but when we returned, it was fading into the trees. At no time did it seem afraid or in a hurry to get away . . . even when Kodiak finally decided to bark and go closer. It must have gauged from experience how far his chain would allow him to go.

Later at the computer I googled Oklahoma Red Fox and found a picture to make sure that was what I had seen. I also found a picture of a young kit (baby fox) and realized that I was looking at the ‘Siamese cat’ from a few nights before. What a surprise. There must be a den near by, and it was only then I realized that I had stood on the porch with my mouth hanging open, staring at the fox, with my camera in my hand, and took not one picture!

But I was to have another chance . . . actually two more chances. Once as I sat at my computer and glanced out the den window, I saw it again in the front yard. When I moved in my chair to pick up my camera, he must have detected the movement for he stopped and sat down looking in at me. Because the window goes all the way to the floor, I knew if I stood up and moved toward it, he would leave. So I snapped pictures from my chair, about nine feet away, and of course they were terrible. When the fox began to walk away, I went to the window to follow him only to discover there were two of them! The lighter colored one (that I have decided is the female) was sitting about twelve feet from the front porch and looking in the window at me. As I began to snap pictures, she got up and walked into the trees. The darker (male) fox hurried into the high grass, in the other direction and emerged only seconds later out by the apple tree.

I was so afraid that I would not get another chance, but yesterday the male was back. This time behind the house and I took many pictures through the South breakfast room window. When he went to the front yard, I hurried to the front porch and was there waiting when he arrived. He stood for a long time letting me take pictures before he moved into the trees.

Now my quest is to find the den and get some photos of the babies!

THIS IS ONE AS HE 'POSES' IN THE FRONT YARD

THIS IS THROUGH THE WINDOW IN BACK

THIS IS ANOTHER IN THE FRONT YARD. HE WAS GETTING READY TO SCRATCH...HE DID A LOT OF THAT!

THE LEAVES THEY ARE A' CHANGING!

2006-10-03T14:58:00.000-05:00

We do not get the beautiful fall foliage in this part of Oklahoma that they do in the southeastern part of the state, and even there it is nothing like New England. Still the leaves are changing and falling fast. One good wind storm and the trees will be mostly bare. So today I took pictures of the changes, and tried to capture a couple of hawks gliding overhead. I also tried to get a photo of one of the 'leaf showers' that occurs sporadically, but it was hot outside and I have been 'sickly' for a few days and just not up to waiting around.

Now . . . all excuses made, here's what I DID get. LOL

SMALL FALL FLOWERS

2006-09-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

Not Spring flowers, but Fall flowers....well, maybe
weeds or wildflowers.....but still pretty!

Even when things are dying, there is beauty. Do you suppose there is a lesson for us there?

BLUE SKY and COTTON CLOUDS

2006-09-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

Most of our yard has been mowed now and some of the fields, so I went to take some photos of the progress. However, the sky took center stage...such a beautiful blue and the clouds were balls of cotton scattered as far as the eye could see.

SUNSET BEFORE THE STORM

2006-09-21T23:55:00.000-05:00

Waking from a late nap (not sleeping well at night) I saw the most gorgeous clouds out the dinning room window. By the time I got my camera, the best of them were gone, blown away by the wind announcing the approaching thunderstorm. Still, I got a few, before the darker clouds blocked out the sunset completely.
Can’t win them all, I guess, and we do still need the rain.

THE CLOUD DRAGON AND THE SUN

2006-09-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

A Cloud Dragon chased the sun one day,
And the sun hid in a tree.
But the dragon waited ‘til the sun came out,
And what a fight I did see.
But the Cloud Dragon won,
As he swallowed the sun.
I was awed at such a feat.
Then with a mighty shudder,
He coughed out the sun,
And it landed . . . a tiny stone,
At my feet.

A WALK THROUGH THE THIRTEEN ACRE WOODS

2006-09-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon was the first time I have explored the back part of our acreage since getting my camera...the weather has just been too hot. I only went out to take some pictures of the toadstools, but was lured from one spot to another. The following collages are just some of the pictures I took.

Picture one is fungus on a vine and two is a dead tree in
our 'pond.' Three and four are the toadstools.

Picture one here, is a view of the house from the
'woods' and two is a very large sewer pipe. Three and
four are rock edges where someone must have started a
garden.

Pictures one and two here are yesterday's sunrise, and
three and four are sun spotlights through the leaves.

All four photos here are of a dying pecan tree. I don't
know what to do about it, and the owner is selling the
place commercially. It isn't likely that very many of
these trees will survive any kind of commercial
development. Progress...So sad.

SOME OLD PHOTOS

2006-08-31T07:17:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos that I didn't get posted when I took them. None are more than a month old

I have never been able to get a butterfly picture that I was happy with . . . until now!

.

A delicate looking toadstool went from this to . . . this in less than five hours. How sad.

You can never have too many cloud photos.

My rain/dew drops are getting better, but I need something more interesting than weeds to be reflected in them.

Another collage using Picasa's multi-exposure setting. This is really fun to work with.

The rain was pouring from the sky and the roof, but I caught this one in mid fall.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2006-08-30T07:59:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Yep, that day has come around again and I'm still here! I suppose that statement will become more congratulatory as each year goes by, although 63 isn't "old" by today's standards. There was a time I fully expected to live into my 100's, but with my health problems, I am forced to be a little more realistic. Still, I intend to enjoy every minute of every day to the fullest.

Here is how Nature wished me a happy birthday. My favorite things to photograph, fog and sunrises.

OKLAHOMA RAIN

2006-08-28T10:03:00.000-05:00

Oklahoma received some much needed rain this past weekend and I took lots of pictures.

Regardless of how hard I tried or how patient I was, lightening just didn’t seem to strike twice for my camera.
I did get this horizon lightening glow shot, but even during a spectacular show after dark of almost constant lightening, I could not capture another strike. Ah, no matter.

In Oklahoma there is always another thunderstorm.

LIGHTENING GLOW ON THE HORIZON.

THIS HAWK (I BELIEVE) COULDN'T DECIDE WHETHER TO SEEK SHELTER OR STAY FOR THE RAIN.

THIS FLOCK OF BIRDS HEADED STRAIGHT INTO THIS STORM CLOUD...NOT WAITING FOR THE RAIN TO COME TO THEM, HUH?

The yard light added an ominouse look to these storm clouds as it grew draker.

THE SUN FOUGHT VALIANTLY... BUT LOST....FOR NOW...

BORED ON A SUMMER DAY

2006-08-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

I really need to get a life! LOL

This is my dog Kodiak. He is Chow/Shepherd mix and nine years-old. For a poem about how I bought him, check out my website in a few days. He will have his own page.

We were sitting on the front porch watching a summer thunderstorm yesterday, and I had run out of pictures to take of clouds and rain drops . . . even the empty bird nest way up in the eve of the A-framed porch.

The only thing left was Kodiak. He is pretty patient with me for a while, and I know when I should stop...but I didn't. He decided that lying in the rain was better than staying to be photographed.

To paraphrase a credit card commercial:

One Canon Power Shot camera........................$150
Doctor visit for 'playing in the rain'..................$235
Knowledge that dogs can't read........................Priceless!

YOU WANT TO TAKE A PHOTO OF ME?

SURE, I GUESS SO, BUT MY HAIR IS A
MESS FROM THE RAIN.

IS THIS MY BEST SIDE?
OMG! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I HAD
EYE BOOGERS? YUCK!
DON'T USE THIS ONE, PLEASE!

I AM SO HUMILIATED!!

HEY, AREN'T YOU KINDA' CLOSE?

WHOA! TOO CLOSE!

I WONDER IF THIS IS HOW LASSIE GOT
'HIS' START?

I'M PRETENDING YOU AREN'T HERE.

PHOTOGRAPHY THIS, OLD WOMAN!

ESSAY: IF I HAD A DAD

2006-08-21T23:34:00.000-05:00

Darienne Spradling – 3rd Grade

If I had a dad he would be important to me. We would do a lot of things
together. He would help me and my family. I would love him a lot!
My dad would spend time with me. We would go to the store together. He
would buy stuff for me and my family. He would take my family and me to
dinner. We would go on camping trips together and he would set up the tent.
On my birthday he would take me to a fancy restaurant.
My dad would help me and my family. He would make money for us. He
would help me with my homework. He would help me with my chores.
I would love him a lot. He would love me for who I am. He would look after
me. This is the kind of dad I want.
Now you see why he would be important to me because we would do a lot of
things together, he would help me and my family and, I would love him a lot!

This essay was written by my ten and half-year-old granddaughter. It won first place in her grade level for the Tulsa area schools. The dad she is writing about is my son.

However, you see, she isn’t my biological granddaughter and as everyone is so quick to point out, she is not my son’s biological child.

Still, from the time she was eight months-old until about a year ago, he was ‘that’ dad she described in her essay, and those are the things they did together. He was there when she cut her first tooth, said her first word, took her first step. He went with her mother to take her to school for the first time. He was that proud ‘father’ with the video camera. That was him and his camera again at her Christmas programs, plays, parties and Kindergarten graduation.

For eight years her mother and my son dated, lived together, broke up, and went back together. The one constant thing during this time was my son’s devotion to Darienne. Even when the ‘final’ break came and Darienne’s mother moved out, she allowed Darienne to stay temporarily with my son, because she worked nights, and did not want to interrupt Darienne’s school routine.

My son continued getting Darienne up each morning, fixing her breakfast and taking her to school. He was there when she got off the bus in the afternoon and helped her with her homework and fixed her dinner. Afterwards he would take her to spend a few hours with her mother before her bedtime and before her mother went to work. Then it was back home to tuck her into bed and get ready for the next day.

The ugliness that brought all of this to an end is private and between my son and his ex-girlfriend. And besides if I start to write about it I would in all fairness have to present both sides and that would take much too much space. Suffice to say, there was never any violence or threats of violence from either party until much later when Darienne’s mother new boyfriend threatened my son’s life. That is definitely too much to go into here and not really relevant to anyone but me (a worried mother.)

I would like to point out here that I could present both sides fairly. Although my son means the world to me and I love him with all my heart, I also love Darienne's mother. I will always be grateful to her for the years that she allowed me to be Darienne's grandmother. Somehow, I wish she could understand that this was not just a 'role' I took on and can just put aside. In my heart, I became Darienne's grandmother the first time I kept her overnight and rocked her to sleep. It doesn't take shared DNA for love to grow, and separation nor time can kill it. In that way, I guess you can say, "Like mother, like son." Neither of us can just stop loving Darienne because the courts say we have no 'rights.'

For six months we were not allowed to see Darienne, but my son’s persistence with letters and phone calls paid off and we were finally allowed to see her for a few hours every other Saturday. Then another disagreement and the visits and all contact stopped. That was fifteen months ago. This time my son’s persistence with letters and phone calls resulted in a Protective Order being filed against him for harassment! (It was dismissed.)

One of the truly sad things about this is that Darienne’s biological father quit making any attempt to see her when she was around three years-old. At about age four or five, she asked my son to promise that he would not ‘ditch’ her like her father did. Little did he know that he would not be allowed to keep that promise.

We live in a world over flowing with deadbeat dads and too many fathers who seem to care little for the children they spawn. On the other hand, here is a man who wants nothing more than to continue to be the ‘father’ he has always been to a little girl who obviously needs and wants one desperately. However, because he was not the ‘sperm-donor’ he does not exist in the eyes of the courts. This is so very sad for everyone.

A LETTER TO MY GRANDCHILDREN

2006-08-18T17:02:00.000-05:00

In a three-day time frame, I built my first web site, decided to delete it, reconsidered, and compromised by redoing it. It is now what I wanted from the beginning, a place to store my writings and photos. That isn’t entirely true. If that were the case, I would have a password and it would not be a public website. I do want to share what I have created with other people, I suspect most writers and photographers do. Still, there is more. In my heart of hearts I hope that wherever they are, Carl and LeAndra (two of my grandchildren) might happen onto the site and know that regardless of what they have been told, I am still alive and love them as much as ever. Also that theirUncle Dusty has offered many times to buy their plane tickets to come for a visit, but we've had no reply.

Not one day has passed since they were taken out of my life (three years ago this month) that I do not think about them and miss them. I hope they are happy and safe and loved...that they have remembered to ‘make lemon-aid’ whenever life has tossed them a lemon. (Kids, do you remember how we laughed about that to keep from crying when the court gave your dad custody?) I really don’t like lemon-aid anymore, how about you?

Carl, I know that you are driving now and I hope that you are careful and courteous on the road as well as in life. May your dreams of college come true and some day we will visit the beautiful buildings you design and laugh about the flower box and ‘chair’ you built from scrap lumber that last summer we were a family. Always treat people fairly and expect only from them, what you are willing to give in return.

LeAndra, how is it possible that you are fifteen? Wasn’t it only yesterday that you were a skinny long-legged little girl gathering up the stray cats and dogs in the neighborhood? I believe it was questionable sometimes as to just how ‘stray’ they were. Please follow through with your plans to be a veterinarian. You have the intelligence and the heart and you have so much more to give the world than children. Not that I am apposed to having great-grandchildren ___ someday.

We had ten wonderful years together . . . well, some good and some bad. Never forget that I love you and always will, regardless of time or the distance between us. Nothing, and no one, can ever change that. Remember the Christmas I gave each of you keys to the house on dream catcher key chains? The card that came with it said:

Home is where the heart is,
A saying, oh so true.
You are always in my heart,
And my heart is always with you.

This is still true today. Keep it close to your hearts with the memories we share, until we can be together again. No matter where I am . . . no matter how much times goes by . . . my home will always be your home.
Love you both forever,
Grandma

The link to my website is: http://home.earthlink.net/~norvonaj

HOW DID I GET HERE?

2006-08-13T09:03:00.000-05:00

FROM THIRTY-FIVE TO SIXTY IN LESS THAN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

HOW DID I GET HERE?

How did I get from there to here?
Where did that youthful woman go?
I only looked away for a moment,
When Life said, "Come go with me."
How did I get here?

When did the curves and firmness melt,

Into bulges and winkles and flab?

When was the moment my energy required,

At least one mid-day nap?

How did I get here?

What turned my young dimpled smile,
Into an old-woman’s perpetual frown?
Who replaced the twinkle in my eye,
With cataracts and a nearsighted squint?
How did I get here?

In my mind’s eye and in my soul,
Things have remained the same.
I still love fluffy white clouds,
And the smell of a Summer rain.
How did I get here?

The ‘me’ I see when I look inside,
Has not changed, aged or died.
She still loves and dreams and hopes
And often wonders out loud,
"How did I get here?"

I’m going on a quest today.
Looking in all the places I know.
To find this woman of thirty-five,
And bring her back here with me.
Except...just where could "here" be?

Written by Norvona Jackson

8/13/06

POETRY

2006-08-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

Today I am unhappy with my poetry.

Last night I read Billy Collins' The Night House. THAT is poetry!

Sometimes when I read great poetry---sometimes---I am inspired to write, and sometimes I am ashamed to pretend that I can.

So I went back and read some of my old poetry. This one, I wrote four and a half years ago, this one, I still like. It is not great---but I like it. I am not ashamed to say that it is my creation.

LOVE CAN’T

Love can’t taste of singing hearts,
Or smell like painted dreams,
When paper flowers are vased in shame,
And die from silent screams.

Love can’t write a laughing voice,
Or hear a sunrise bold,
When paper dolls are folded twice,
And left out in the cold.

Love can’t feel the moon’s pale glow,
Or catch the stars that fall,
When valentines are made of glass,
And thrown against the wall.

I can’t know the love you feel,
Or hope to understand,
If you don’t speak what’s in your heart,
And reach out for my hand.

Norvona Jackson 1/29/02

SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

2006-08-06T21:17:00.000-05:00

Often things surprise us or turn out to be not exactly what we had expected.

A thunderstorm rumbled around us yesterday with much thunder, lightening, and wind, but left us without so much as a drop of much needed rain. I hurried out to get some cloud pictures and it was only when I downloaded them that I saw I had captured this lightening bolt. Many times I have tried to photograph lightening without success, and this time without trying, I did it!

Sometimes life is like that.

When one of my clients spit in my face during a counseling session, it was just another day in the life of a mental health worker, until a few months later he died unexpectedly from TB. That’s when my life changed ever so drastically.

Thankfully, I have never developed TB, but as my body's immune system struggled to contain it, I was plunged with a full menu of other illnesses. For example, asthma. Having never had an asthma attack in my fifty-year life, I was suddenly in and out of the hospital and ER weekly. The heavy douses of steroids used to control the asthma, brought on diabetes and hypertension and aggravated the rheumatoid arthritis I have had since having rheumatic fever as a two-year-old child.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when I had to retire at fifty-five. If it were not for the two grandchildren my mother and I were raising at the time, I would have retired from life as well.
However, fate was not through with me yet. The long absent father of my grandchildren won custody and took them away from me. Still there was an upside...I threw myself into writing again. It became my salvation.

When Mother became very ill and was in the hospital a great deal, I simply moved into her room with her. I could not have done this if I had been working or if the grandchildren were still with us. The unexpected became something good...sort of. We weathered a very bad year or two, and now we enjoy each day as it comes...the good, the bad, and the unexpected

MULTI-EXPOSURE PHOTOS

2006-07-25T18:32:00.000-05:00

I'm having fun playing around with photos. The ones below were created in Picasa2 with the collage mode, multi-exposure. At the very bottom is a collage of all the pictures used in the multi-exposure ones. Can you tell which pictures were used in each college?

You never know how they will come out and some just don't have any intrigue to them at all...these do...at least to me.

JESSE HERRINGTON'S JOURNALS VOLUME FOUR

2006-07-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

A STORY OF FICTION SERIALIZED IN FOUR EPISODES FROM A NOVEL BY NORVONA JACKSON

Journals moved to my website http://home.earthlink.net/~norvonaj/

JESSE HERRINGTON'S JOURNALS VOLUME ONE

2006-07-16T06:24:00.000-05:00

A STORY OF FICTION SERIALIZED IN FOUR EPISODES FROM A NOVEL BY NORVONA JACKSON

Journals have been moved to my website. http://home.earthlink.net/~norvonaj/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON

2006-07-02T16:26:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON
from Mom

I know this birthday’s not been much fun,
And it’s hard to find a happy thought...one.
Though I have search hard and racked my brain,
I can’t think of a thing to easy your pain.

Should I be funny? Try to make you laugh?
Stretch a skinny balloon into a giraffe?
Put on a wig, big shoes and a red nose?
Or give you a hug from our Dari Rose?

Nothing feels appro. Nothing feels right.
If I make it serious or I make it light.
But one thing I know that should bring you cheer.
Today you’re 39. You’ll be 40 next year!!!!!
07/02/06

NO LONGER NEEDED a poem

2006-06-26T10:17:00.000-05:00

NO LONGER NEEDED

The kids are grown,
And have long since moved away.
That old rusty swing set,
Out by the apple tree,
Sits in the choking weeds,
No longer needed.

Yesterday’s laughter,
Echoes and catches sometimes,
In a soft summer breeze,
And in my mind,
Or sometimes, in my throat.

A playful wind,
Lonesome for youthful energy,
Pushes...but with little hope,
At the eerily still swings,
And soon give up.
For there is no need.

Once upon a...
Has it really been that long?
Since childish squeals,
Mingled with squeaking chains,
Made the sweetest music.

Sometimes lately,
When the dishes have been washed,
Beds made, and laundry,
Temporarily put on hold.
I go outside,
To the swing set.

And there...alone,
Among the burr and thistle,
I stand for a long moment,
Holding to the rusty chains,
Of an old faded swing.

Waiting...listening...
To something, clearly remembered.
And in that magic circle,
Of refreshed memories,
I close my eyes,
And am not alone.

Once more I hold,
Those grass stained hands,
And kiss a jelly smeared cheek.
Giving first-aid hugs,
And ‘all-better’ kisses.

Slowly I walk...
Back to the waiting laundry.
One last look,
Over my shoulder.
Am I...today...like that old swing set,
No longer needed?

Norvona
06/24/06

THREE MORE RAYS OF SUNSHINE

2006-06-25T09:37:00.000-05:00

...MY GRANDDAUGHTERS:

These three cutie-pies are my granddaughters. The pictures are very, very old! The sweetheart in the picture bottom right, had her fifteenth birthday last month. The lovely little lady to the left was ten this past February, and the darling cherub above them was also ten in January.

They, along with my grandson, are my heart; and they fill it with love and me with joy. I wish so much for them and am excited to see where their lives take them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDSON!!!

2006-06-23T06:12:00.000-05:00

Today, this towheaded seven year old is seventeen! He is my oldest grandchild and only grandson. I have three lovely granddaughters, one fifteen, and two ten year-olds.

In this photo my grandson is experiencing the wonders of his first over night camping trip and a view of Lake Murphy State Park.

It is easy to see that he inherited my love of nature and hatred of shoes. :o)

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart! Where ever you are. I love you and hope you got the collage and poem I sent.

THUNDERSTORMS AND POETRY

2006-06-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

We had a bit of a storm a couple of days ago, but a beautiful sunset followed. I made this collage from some of the pictures I took.

I love thunderstorms. One of the first poems I wrote as a teenager was "Nature’s Army."

First comes the rain,
A drop at a time,
Softening the ground,
For the army behind.

Next is the wind,
......................

Sorry, can’t remember the rest. I have an old yellowed copy of it somewhere. I’ll find it and finish posting it.

My mother who is 84 has written hundreds of poems and can remember almost all of them, word for word. I can’t remember the ones I wrote last week! The mind is a terrible thing to lose.

One of the projects that I have planned for this blog is a collection of family poems. My paternal grandmother wrote what she called ‘songs.’ They were poems that she sang in her rich Cherokee voice. She died at 93 and was sharp and witty almost to the end. She could remember her poems also...I must be the weak link!
Norvona

A BLOG IS BORN

2006-06-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

Once upon forever,
In a land not far away,
An old grandma newbie,
Created a blog to say . . .

Hi, I'm Norvona. "OnceUponForever" is the signature of a series of children’s picture books, which I have been working on for several years. It is also the way I begin every story I tell my grandchildren, and I have always liked the philosophy it implies.

Most likely these stories will never be published commercially, and are intended for my personal use only. I may however post them on this blog from time to time and will accept all comments in the spirit they are intended.

However, today I have set up this blog for another purpose, to post a movie/story I made using Microsoft PictureIt! Express 9 and my very first digital camera (so I am still very much learning how this whole digital thing works.) It also includes a poem I wrote especially for the photos and background music from the CD of Mendelssohn's Twelve String Symphonies.

The view was from my back deck this past Wednesday morning. I hope you enjoy it.
Norvona

PS: I haven't been able to find a way to download the movie directly to this blog. I have worked on it for hours, took a nap and tried again. My eyes are crossed and my IQ has dropped at least 25 points. So I have used 'yousendit' and hope that the link works. Looks as if you will have to do the copy/paste thing. Good luck. It certainly was easier to make the movie than to make it accessible. Could very well be a short 'movie career' for this 'Cecil B. DeMiles.'
Feb. 3, 2010....It's been a long time coming, but here at last is the video. I may try this again now that it is so easy. :-)