Let me introduce you to Kathy

I have a new blog URL listed on the sidebar under Great Places to Visit. The blogger is Kathy Rhodes who edited a great southern themed online journal, Muscadine Lines; a Southern Journal, until she ended that venture last year.

I was happy to have a couple of my pieces accepted by Kathy.

You can read them here:
http://www.asouthernjournal.com/Ezine/Archives/2009/2009v27beall.html
http://www.asouthernjournal.com/Ezine/Archives/2011/2011v36beall.html
I see where we can order a copy of the anthology of all authors who have been published on Muscadine Lines. My work is in that book.

Kathy writes about a trip she is on similar to the one I call the cruise from Hell a couple of years ago. I went with my sister and brother in law on a cruise that would take us up the New England coast and on to New Brunswick Canada and to Nova Scotia. It would have been a dream trip except I became ill standing in line for hours waiting to get on the ship. The computers were down.

And, on the ship there was a perfume shop that sprayed the crew members each morning with "fragrance of the day" so the entire inside of the ship was polluted with chemicals that I had to breathe. One day I'll write more about all that. But Kathy is enjoying her trip and I'm happy for her. 

Reading Kathy's post today reminded me we did have a couple of days when I was able to leave the ship and enjoy the fabulous countryside. I still go back in my mind to the drive above Fundy Bay and along the shoreline dotted with white houses and buildings that begged to be subjects for a large painting.

I learned also that Kathy lost her husband, Charlie, five years ago June 27.  So she and I have much in common. The anniversary of Barry's death is July 21. She has written a memoir,
Remember the Dragonflies, which she tells about on her blog. I want to read it. 

Visit Kathy at /http://kathyrhodes.wordpress.com/

Photos to Settle the Mind and Bring Peaceful Thoughts

You know how photographs can mirror your mood at times? Tonight I don't feel so much like using words but hope you understand my feelings and find something you like 

in a few of my pictures. 

Click on photo to enlarge.

A Place of Beauty in New Brunswick, Canada



From high above the Bay of Fundy where the river runs into the ocean.

We did not know that a boat and its crew had been reported lost in the bay while we enjoyed the spectacular view.


The clouds tempt me to grab a paint brush and capture this scene on canvas,
but the camera does a much better job. I fell in love with this place.




The skies have it today. They change the color of the water, the atmosphere and mood.

Canada is a country with a vast difference in landscapes from east to west. My all time favorite place I have been is the western part of Canada, the Canadian Rockies, but now I've been to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and fallen in love with the countryside of these provinces. We disembarked the ship at St. John and took a car up along the north eastern coastline of New Brunswick toward St. Martins. After stopping in Jere's Family restaurant for lunch of lobster rolls and excellent seafood chowder, we were told by a friendly customer to drive up the Fundy Trail since our time was limited. She said we would see fantastic views.
She was so right. I was captivated by the sky, overcast and gray which reflected on the water turned a turbulent dark pewter shade. I felt Barry there telling me how to shoot to get the best picture. And, I heard him say when the rain came, "don't get the camera wet."
So, from within the car, I shot a few more pictures but nothing could capture the sheer beauty of the cliffs, the bay and the wild sky.
We looked at brochures for rentals and discussed a future vacation in a cottage there, but secretly we knew we would not be back this way again.