Instead, Pretend & Purpose

What is on the other side of the screen is singular. Nobody else can experience the actual you as you blog. The possibilities for cartoons of what we real bloggers look like when posting is immense. I will be surprise if somebody doesn’t draw them already. 

I am dressed in jeans, a blue flowy floral top, with my wet hair parted and twisted into two rolls held by claw hair clips. No make-up. Coffee on side table. Slippers on. Recliner back. (just took a sip of lukewarm coffee). Typing on my phone because too lazy to open my laptop. I am in my perch of choice, command center, plop down palace, nook on an angle. (another sip)

Instead of here I am and this is who I am, I just start typing. Posting is a pretend moment because how I feel isn’t the subject. I can lol without laughing. I can 😱 without screaming.  Many times what I post about feels like old news.

What’s the purpose of this post? 

Frequently, I have thought about not blogging. My heart just isn’t into it most days. I tell myself to stop whining, nobody needs to know that, it will pass. I keep going. 

Leaving comments is a struggle 90% of the time. Blog reading is half what it was. Posting replies is easier. Selecting subjects to post about balances between no don’t post that versus that’s interesting. 

The December 2025 blog pause, I hoped would help me decide what course to take. Continue as is? Focus on another blog? (I have about half a dozen.) Take a longer pause? Switch to a photo blog style? An artwork only blog? What happens if I find something great to post about when on a blog break?

Reflection Monday and Friday day and week of the year will continue. That’s the best I can do for now. 

Day 100 of Week 15 April 2026

Any day now

In 3 weeks, one third of 2026 will be in our past. The weeks at this point on day 100, don’t feel like they are flying by. At the end of March, the speed of time felt fast. Why not now? Are there months that are inherently slower? 

Sure. That makes sense to me. Early Spring has always felt easy, calmer, less intense to me than Winter. Anticipation of blizzards and freezing temperatures greatly decrease as the April days go by. 

Question: Is Earth’s rotation speed constant all year?

Internet search results: No

Climate change has slowed the rotation speed of Earth…at a slower rate than in 3.6 million years, according to LiveScience.com. 

Have a Lively Weekend

Dance

Play a board game

Talk with friends

Read about Earth wind patterns

Bake a custard pie

Tell a raincoat a funny story

Browse sleeping bags online

After a Novel

After you finish reading a book, do you ever have the sense of feeling eager to know what is next? 

After reading a novel, I feel like I just came out of a dark movie theater into daylight. Open to new ideas. From the narrative, images created in my imagination play as my brain voice with closed captions without the sound on. 

This summer’s reading list for me, will a variety of genres, a biography, and one re-read title, as opposed to all mysteries. 

Any recommendations for a biography is appreciated. Thank you

Summer Reading List in progress

Re-read: 1984, G. Orwell

Biography: Emerson: Days of Encounter, J. J. McAleer, Little, Brown & Company, 1984

Mystery Thrillers:

First Lie Wins, A. Elston
Heartwood, A. Gaige

The Old Bookmark

~~~~~~~~~~🌼~~~~~~~~~

I had to start over editing.

All the work put into editing this post disappeared. The page is not in browser history. Blogspot typing page is full of glitches. Add italics or underline is a major hassle. The cursor returns to the top of the page instead of where in the text you are typing. Huge glitch. 

Add Normal for the paragraphs is also a major hassle. Add photos places them on the top of the page instead of where you place the cursor. You have to cut and paste photos when typing and then adding pictures. 

The Benefit of Fake Flowers

Flowers are the best interior fake it tool for signaling one’s spirits to be in a good mood. I have all sorts of fabric flowers and greenery around all year. As soon as winter is over on the calendar, up goes the big forsythia and pussywillow stems. They are wedged into my vintage storm window and old cabinet door divider.

One of the most beautiful signs of Spring is a wild mass of real forsythia shrubs in full flower. On Route 7 in New Haven, Vermont and as you go south into Middlebury Vermont, there are rows of stunning forsythia. 

There was another location, but I think it was chopped down years ago. I see that happen on home renovation shows, forsythia and sometimes old lilac trees are removed as if they are useless. Sad it is. 

This is a good time of year in northern climates to plant forsythia in the ground. If you have the room, especially a corner where it can grow wild (no shape pruning), then check out your local garden nurseries for forsythia. 

Faux flowers

Happy April 2026 🤣

 

7 April 2026
No Words

As it happens, I fell back to sleep this morning only to wake up to snow all over the place. The birds are busy plowing through the white stuff to get at the last if this season’s birdseed. Bear have been sighted locally, next door actually. Therefore, I have slowed putting seed out. The last bag was emptied a few days ago.

Chili sounds good today. I’d like to have nachos for dinner.*  Problem is that I don’t want to go outdoors to buy the cheese. I am not interested in snow as I’m content to be done with it. 

So, I’m sitting here working on a new budget, figuring things out, creating a better menu and shopping routine. Paperwork stuff. 

In my working years I did a lot of paperwork as a retail assistant manager, customer service senior correspondent, customer representative, receptionist and such. Lots of paper, people and office dynamics. 

In it all, none were a career of choice. Single parenthood has it’s requirements. Being a frerlance artist, for me, was not an option. 

Lately though, as I watch social media videos, I think more on what life as an elderly lady do I want. This is my Hm? era, time to ponder the possibilities left in my end zone years. 

Career? As an artist and writer?

Why not.

What is your why not? Do you have one?

If not, then why not?

😎🤣

* Switching to mashed potatoes, ham and a green salad