Monday montage

Good day my friends, I hope all is well! It will most probably be another busy one for me this week. Today I am scheduled for a second job interview with the company that held the job fair last Tuesday afternoon which I attended. We shall see what happens - keeping fingers crossed and praying that it goes well. 🙏

I am planning on doing some house cleaning upstairs sometime this week and doing all of my baking and preparing for our Beltane ritual celebration as well. 

Had lunch with my friend Deb at P.J.'s on Friday ... 💜

Delicious grilled chicken salad ... 👍

Deb's daughter Rayann posing with her mom ... 👪

I found this cool old video of "Mr. Jimmy" before he joined the Led Zeppelin tribute band Led Zepagain. The fascinating thing about this performance is not the lead singer, but Mr. Jimmy's show. The attention he pays to each and every detail (including Page's blue suede shoes), every single nuance with how Page dances on stage, etc. is simply astounding! This particular version of the song Kashmir was taken directly from Jimmy Page's stage performance with Led Zeppelin at the Knebworth Celebration Day concert in August of 1979.

This is the real Jimmy Page...

This is Mr. Jimmy Sakurai's show ... I really LOVE THIS VIDEO! 💗💓💙💚💛💜

A Sunday song on a rainy day today ...

The afterlife: Where spiituality meets medical science?

Last night while browsing through, oddly enough, some Led Zeppelin music in YouTube videos, I came across an interesting one of an interview with a Neuropsychiatrist and Neurophysiologist named Peter Fenwick who had written a book about his extensive research regarding end of life phenomena and near death experiences. The book is titled, "The Art of Dying" and he talks about the connection between spirituality and medical science. I plan on ordering this book on Amazon. It just sounds so very intriguing (and once I began watching this interview, I could not turn it off because I found it to be so informative)! ☺

Fun Friday!

Greetings all and happy Friday to you! It was another busy week. On Tuesday I attended a job fair, on Wednesday I took my mom to have her car dropped off at her garage for yearly inspection and yesterday I took her to pick it up after it was finished. 

Sometimes if there is a really good bargain on their items, I order some odds and ends from the Victorian Trading Company website. I found these cool mermaid items on sale for a great price!

A large mermaid magnifying glass ...

And a pair of beautiful crystal Swarovski mermaid earrings ... 💗

Also, since Trixie seems to be spending a bit more time hanging around in the garage, I picked up a cheap small dog bed for her at Walmart and placed her favorite green crocheted blanket in it. She has been using it ever since! 😻

Last night's quick meal - French bread pepperoni pizza ...

This weekend I plan on doing some more cleaning up in the basement - I have a lot more work to do yet! 😩

Have a great day everyone!

Simple, easy-to-make Maypoles for Beltane

Yesterday, I decided to make my own little Maypole's for Beltane using some simple little items that I bought at our local A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts Store - a couple of wooden candlestick holders (unstained) and a bag of tall wooden dowels. I used my craft glue gun and a few glue sticks to attach the dowels to the holders and then decorated the pole with different colored ribbons and some artificial flowers ...

They are not very fancy, but they will work just fine. Besides, there are no stores that sell them to buy anywhere where I live. I will place one on our altar for our Beltane ritual next weekend and I will also set one in my living room upstairs along with my other seasonal decorations and symbols.

The origin of Maypole dancing dates back to the Pagan times, and the Maypole was basically a phallic symbol. Trees have always been the symbol of the great vitality and fertility of nature. For this reason, Maypole dancing was strongly associated with fertility.

💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞

Wordless Wednesday

A little Tuesday groove music!

Featuring Akio "Mr. Jimmy" Sakurai! ...

Monday montage: On an Easter Day ...

(These are tulips from around the side of my house that  recently bloomed this past week.)

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. We were all invited to Brett's cousin and her hubby's place for a wonderful Easter Day dinner. We had a delicious ham, mashed potatoes, corn and other cooked veggies, gravy, hot buttered buns ... Mmmm, yummy GOOD traditional PA Dutch family Easter holiday dinner! And, we have plenty of leftovers for the next couple of days ...

The family ...

I was asked if I could bring lemon cupcakes for dessert. Could I? - lol!! So, on Saturday afternoon, I baked a dozen or so and decorated them with candy flowers and Jelly Belly beans ... needless to say, I ate far too much and am now back on my strict diet for at least the next week. 😞

And, I also made two Cherry Chip cakes (equal to one regular sized cake) ...

As for Trixie's Easter feast? Some leftover grilled chicken from Saturday night's air fryer dinner. She gobbled it right up! 

And now, here's a few new "Trixie pics" - you can see by these photos that she is such a sweet little kitty ... 😸

😻 HIGH FIVE!!! 😻

And last, but not least two old pics of me and my brother taken on Easter morning just before heading to church service when we were just kids ...

Have a great Monday all!!

In loving memory on Easter Sunday ...

It is hard to believe that it has been 22 years since we lost our friend Mike. He was my first real love whom I had dated for five years before I had gotten married to Brett  - we were engaged for two of those five years. In short, he was tragically killed in a single engine plane (along with a former high school mate who was also a friend of ours and the pilot) which had crashed on Easter morning in March of 1997. It was a devastating accident and he was and is still missed by so many of his family and friends. 

Yesterday, one of my close friends of many years (since elementary school actually) posted a remembrance pic on her FB page and so I thought it fitting to share my own personal post as well here. I have included some special pics from my album in his loving memory ... 🙏

Me 'n' Mike at my parents house for a Fourth of July cookout - circa 1987. The first pic above was from 1985 taken the week we began dating - he was an usher in his friend's wedding and I was invited as his guest date. 

Rhiannon, my friend Dave (Deb's hubby), my friend Judy, and Mike posing for a pic at a karaoke nite back in 1996. This will always be one of my favorite photos of them all together!

Mike and I when we worked as bartenders at a local rod and gun club years back. We were both very actively involved with the club - he eventually served a couple of years as President and I was elected as Secretary.  This particular photo was taken at a Halloween Party held there one year. 👻

Mike and his family were the entire reason I was introduced to the joys of living with cats - through him and them, I learned to love and appreciate these magnificent fur babies and it has been a labor of love ever since. This is an old pic I took of Mike holding two of the kittens they rescued and brought inside as house kitties - Bummer and Brandy.

So many memories- both good (and perhaps not so good at times), but they are the one and only thing which will always remain in our hearts and our lives that no one or nothing can ever take away from us. Things said or even left unsaid no longer matter for me anymore - our love for him will continue on -  until we merry meet again someday.