one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. Hans Christian Andersen is probably best remembered as the author of classic fairy tales. But it is his words concerning the importance of sunshine in life that I especially love. So when I was nominated by fellow Love Well Live Well blogger, “Miss Happy Spirits”, to receive the Sunshine … More Just living is not enough…
There is a surprising exotic bloom on the lawn of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT, a place once frequented by the Lyme Art Colony and known today as America’s center of Impressionism. Dubbed the Anticipator by its sculptor, Matthew Geller, it combines bionic metal limbs with a Star Magnolia tree planted in … More Exotic Bloom a Biomechanical Hybrid
Henry James defines “Summer afternoon … Summer afternoon” as the “two most beautiful words in the English language.” That may be, but “Wildflowers and the sea” are a close second … if not first. Marsh mallows with loosestrife, photo by Mary O’Connor © 2013
Homeira Walter not only knows how to make people smile, she actually helps them do so. Now, eight months following the destruction by Hurricane Sandy in her home town of Monmouth Beach, NJ—and after eight months of reaching out to help make things right for others—Homeira has received the first Sweet Spots in Glass Award. Created … More First Sweet Spots in Glass Award Winner Knows How to Make People Smile
I came upon this ray of sunshine, skipping from sunrise to sunrise, refusing to set, to leave me alone. — from Dreams of a Wingless Child by Mary O’Connor © 2007. ********** Photo © 2013, Mary O’Connor
Symbolically, Acacia trees represent immortality, innocence, initiation of life. Considered sacred by the ancient Hebrews, its wood was said to be used by Moses to build the Ark of Covenant. A thorny tree, it is believed to have been used to make the crown of Christ. On the Serengeti, where this photo was taken, it shelters the … More Serengeti Sunrise
“Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it.” – Herman Melville Photo by Mary O’Connor © 2013
This iconic Stars and Stripes symbol of our country’s independence was seen in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at the annual classic car show on Father’s Day. Today, as the entire nation mourns the loss of the nineteen ‘Granite Mountain Hotshots’ killed Sunday in Arizona’s Yarnell Hill wildfire, the poignancy–and heart wrenching irony–of the nation’s flag of freedom flying at the sky-end of a fire … More Stars, Stripes and Firefighters
One of the sky theater’s most popular performances is that of the rainbow. An optical phenomenon of refracted sun rays reflected in air borne droplets of water, rainbows tell us a storm is over, a clear day is ahead—or, for the wishful thinkers and idealists among us, that there is a pot of gold at its … More Big Screen Performance
Sanibel Island, Florida, with its 17+ miles of beaches ripe with coquinas and sand dollars, is a favorite shelling beach. So, too, are is the sand of San Jose Island, Texas, with its olive shells and wentletraps, lightning whelks and sundials, and of Silver Strand State Beach on Coronado Island, California, littered with silvery oyster shells, … More Treasured sculptures of the sea
Life Is Full of Sweet Spots 