On the way home.....

....on Friday evening....the sky was so amazing....and the sea was flat calm so it was hard to pick out the horizon. This is looking due north....
And this is looking directly west.......

More eye photo-art

If the eyes are the windows to the soul I wonder what mine say....
Sad.

Goodbye

Tears stream down your face.......
When you lose something you cannot replace.....
Tears stream down your face.......and I.....will fix you.

This morning

Lying, drifting,
So close to sleep,
Yet unable to surrender.
Smiling, my head on your shoulder,
You sleep so soundly.
The beat of your heart
Lulling me and yet
Anchoring me in wakefulness.
The rise and fall of your chest
Rocks me gently and
Your breath in my hair
Sighs a lullaby.
I look up and kiss your chin lightly and
Your arm around my shoulder
Squeezes gently, unconscious assurance
That all is well, that I am safe,
Silently requesting that I stay.
I know I will not find sleep like this
But my fingers move across your chest
Feathering a silent but conscious assurance,
“I’m not going anywhere.”
We sigh in unison.
I smile and begin to drift again.

When my mind finally half-rouses and
I open my eyes to blink in the shade-filtered dawn
I am still floating in my dream-memory.
I swear I can feel your heartbeat, your breath, your touch,
Smell the warmth of your sleeping skin.
So I close my eyes to deny the start of the day
And linger with you a while longer.

43. Seriously?

Wednesday marked my 43rd birthday. Damn. What on earth happened? Where did all that time go??? In the picture above I am 4 or 5 and my brother and I have invaded my parent's bed on Christmas morning to open our stockings (which, for as long as I can remember, always had a tangerine in the toe!)
The picture below was taken at a friend's wedding last summer. Nearly 40 years later and I still have the same smile! Although thankfully I have finally perfected the art of keeping my mouth closed when smiling. At 4/5 it is only open a little bit...but my word, through my teens, 20's and 30's I smiled with my mouth wide open as if I was at the dentist saying 'Aaaaaaahhhhh...' whilst he told a really funny joke. Seriously, you would think by looking at those photos that every single moment was just pure 'YAAAYYYYYY!'
Maybe it was.
This year, with my birthday falling mid-week...and let's face it, what's to celebrate about 43?....I agreed to babysit Lucas for Jill.
He was my hot birthday date. We had a blast, wined and dined (read: pizza and apple juice), had some great conversation (about how Eli had hit him at pre-school and didn't that make Eli a bad boy who would be in BIG trouble with his mummy and daddy?), we read poetry (well, Dr. Seuss 'Oh the Places You'll Go'), and after a good night kiss........
......he crashed. Typical date really.
Eventually I took myself off home (i.e. once mummy came home) where I put on the Roxy slipper booties that Cindy gave me for my birthday. Even though it's like 75F right now. But there's something magical about them, you feel girlie, and cuddly and they are so soft you want to pet them. And with shorts they're pretty sexy!!

What a lucky girl I am!

I spent yesterday grinning from ear to ear. Despite doing boring, mucky house chores all day I was the proverbial Cheshire cat.
Why?
Because of this man....
Hot hot hot!! And handsome, and funny, and smart, and sexy, and sweet! The most wonderful man in the world. And I am lucky, lucky, lucky!
I told him that for some reason this is one of my favourite photographs of him in uniform, I don't really know why...he says he looks like a "rat-bag"....No way!
Yesterday morning we got to have a lovely long talk on the phone and frankly, you might as well just go ahead and sprinkle me with fairy dust!
Sure we have email, and that daily contact is lovely, but there is nothing like an actual conversation, the interaction, the sound of his voice, his laugh.
To think that I just might be able to see him in two weeks....only TWO WEEKS!....even if it's just for a few days....even if it means flying to Atlanta....even if he'll be busy with army stuff during the day...still, to be with him again....just the thought makes me dizzy and giddy and swoony with joy.Because, if not Atlanta.....then there's nothing for sure until April 2010....and I don't think I could stand that.
I can hear you saying 'Lucky? Doesn't seem so lucky to me!'
Well, that's just how wonderfully special this man is. A telephone call from him lights up my whole world and sets the butterflies a-flutter. Every. Single. Time.
And I'm lucky simply to ever have met him.

Just another Sunday dinner at Minton...

Not that we ever need a reason to have a big dinner at Minton...in fact it's fairly commonplace...but we do seem to like pretending that there's a particular reason. This past Sunday it was in John's honour. He has been back in Bermuda for the past month visiting his sister and her new baby, Robin. Since he left his wife behind in Scotland and has therefore been footloose and fancy free, he has spent a fair amount of time at Bruce's. Afterall there is always something going on, a laugh and a drink (or ten) to be had, and it's never been a favourite with the wives...probably something to do with the ever-flowing booze!
Well, John is returning to Bonnie Scotland on Thursday so we just HAD to have a big roast dinner! Lamb with roast potatoes, parsnips, onions and squash, brocolli and cauliflower with my 'spashal' cheese sauce, brussel sprouts and homemade gravy. DELISH!!
As it turns out Bobby is heading back to San Diego on Saturday, giving us two reasons to celebrate...uh...hang on...not celebrate exactly. More like...um...oh, you know what I mean!
And then Lecia announced that the day was the three year anniversary of her arrival on the island. So, yes, celebration is the right word there. Until we realised that, given Bermuda's six year limit on work permits, we were actually marking the half way point of Lecia's Bermuda career. Hmmmm. Oh well, we drank and made merry anyway!!
Unfortunately I was the only person working the next day so I had to remain relatively sober, but the others? Noooooo. Full on, as we say in Bermy.
Now Shona, the beautiful dog above, is ball-mad and spends all her time attempting to draw you in to a game of catch, or kick, or anything. Here she is having dropped her ball on Bobby's temporarily vacant chair and is looking from Lecia to the ball, the ball to Lecia, and repeat ad nauseum, while Lecia groans and says no, repeatedly ad nauseum.
Well, it never takes long for Bruce to come up with something new and different to torture me with and in his infinite drunken wisdom decided it would be fun to see if we could get Shona to take the ball off my head. Right. Can you see her in the bottom right corner...eagerly watching where her precious ball is? Can you see those teeth?
It took her a few tries to figure out what she had to do....launch herself at my head, using the back of the chair as a touch point, and snatch the ball back with whatever force necessary. That ball would be hers once more, never fear!
Well, dear John was taking the photos and there are tons, all a variation of the theme above, with Shona poised in mid strike, and me cringing. But the time when she actually did it? That last time when her fangs scraped across my scalp as she scoopped up the ball as well as a wad of my hair? That moment when her jaws enveloped my head and I screamed and pooped my pants?
Nada. No click. No flash. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
What a waste of newly highlighted hair and clean knickers.