(Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash)
Rain
by Dawn Pisturino
Drizzling rain
On the windowpane
Calms my stormy brain,
Bringing sunshine again.
~
My husband and I have both been going stir crazy with the gloomy, rainy weather. Plus, it’s freezing cold!
We welcome the sunshine!
Dawn Pisturino
January 20, 2023
Copyright 2023 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
(Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash)
Hello, Dear Friends!
I’m taking a Christmas hiatus and will not be posting anything until after New Year’s. May you all be blessed with happiness, prosperity, and the fulfillment of all your dreams in 2023.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Dawn Pisturino
December 24, 2022
Autumn to Winter
by Dawn Pisturino
The old year is fading
and Autumn blows
the misty clouds
of Winter our way.
My parents always came for Thanksgiving. Now that they are gone, I always think of them at this time of year.
Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.
PLEASE NOTE: I WILL NOT BE POSTING ANYTHING UNTIL SOME TIME NEXT WEEK.
Have a joyful and blessed Thanksgiving!
~
Dawn Pisturino
November 23, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
October Sunrise
by Dawn Pisturino
Orange cotton candy balls
Burst across the sky,
Playing peek-a-boo with Mr. Sun,
Slowly rising from his slumber,
A comical clown dressed in lemon yellow.
~
Dawn Pisturino
October 26, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Providing a hearty, healthy, nutritious lunch in a clean, sanitary lunch box or other container for both hubby and the kids was a housewife’s daily duty in the 1950s. The guidelines included the following:
Food Selection
Solids and liquids were both included in the lunch plan. Guidelines urged housewives to choose at least one item from each of the following groups:
Milk — in food, such as pudding, or drink.
Bread — whole grain used in sandwiches.
Meat, Cheese, Eggs, or Fish — used in sandwich fillings, salads, or main dishes. Left over meat loaf, pot roast, and other food items were often used in sandwiches in the 1950s.
Fruit — whole or diced in salads or desserts.
Vegetables — used in sandwich fillings, salads, main dishes, or whole. Crisp, raw vegetables preferred.
Surprise – cookies, nuts, raisins, or other special treat.
What Season is it?
~ In winter, include something hot, such as soup, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate in a thermos.
~ In summer, include cool, refreshing items such as lemonade, fruit juice, iced tea, or iced coffee in a thermos.
Tips
*Remember to include utensils, napkins, and straws.*
*Provide spicier, more flavorful food for hubby and milder but flavorful food for the kids.*
*The goal in the 1950s was to keep packed lunches appetizing, varied, and balanced nutritionally.
Menus
Cream of tomato soup
Ham sandwich with mustard and lettuce
Celery sticks and olives
Fresh pear
Cookies
~
Cheese sandwich with ketchup and lettuce
Tossed vegetable salad and dressing
Pickles
Whole orange
Cake
Hot cocoa
~
The National School Lunch Act, signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946, provides school lunches in public schools for a fee or for free. I don’t know nowadays how many kids still bring their lunches to school. I remember kids getting teased when they reached a certain age who still brought their lunches to school. My favorite part of lunch in school was the chocolate milk that came with the cafeteria lunch. And, in high school, we used to sneak off campus and hit the local Taco Bell. Many adults eat in the company cafeteria, if one is provided, or order fast food. But some adults still bring their lunches to work.
~
Information retrieved from The American Woman’s Cook Book, 1952 and the Internet.
Dawn Pisturino
September 19, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
My autumn decorations are up, and I’m already planning menus for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. My husband was recently diagnosed with borderline diabetes, so cooking will be a little more challenging this year. But we can enjoy the changing season and all that nature brings us. One of my favorite jazz standards that I always think of at this time of year is “September Song.” Originally introduced on Broadway in the 1938 musical, Knickerbocker Holiday, it has been performed by Frank Sinatra and other acclaimed crooners. Chances are good that you’ve heard it.
September Song
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I’d let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came
When you meet with the young girls early in the spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And a plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
Oh, it’s a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September
When the Autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days
I’ll spend with you
These precious days
I’ll spend with you
Songwriters: Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson. For non-commercial use only.
And then, there’s the beautiful “September Morn” performed by the fabulous Neil Diamond:
(For the lyrics, click here: https://genius.com/Neil-diamond-september-morn-lyrics)
This year, the autumn equinox will occur on Thursday, September 22, 2022. I’ve already treated myself to a generous cup of hot chocolate, which sounds crazy in the heat, but the temperature was actually pretty cool this morning.
And right now, we’re enjoying the last of the harvest moon in-between cloud covers.
Happy September! Autumn will be here soon!
Dawn Pisturino
September 14, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Night
The night was heavy with honeysuckle,
Warm and still,
Full of mystery and life,
An immense blackness
Stretching to Eternity,
Clustered with stars.
April 17, 1987; August 29, 2022
Birdie, birdie in the tree,
Are you lonely just like me?
Rise into the morning sky
And fly, birdie, fly!
Tired of the verdant bough,
Hanging low with apples now?
Look, the yellow sun is high.
Fly, birdie, fly!
I wish I could fly like you,
Sing a song or maybe two,
Flutter softly my good-bye,
And fly, birdie, fly!
When the moon began to rise,
I would leave the darkened skies,
Fold my wings where I would lie,
And die, birdie, die.
Up to heaven I would go,
White and pure as new-made snow,
Safe beneath the father’s eye:
Fly, birdie, fly!
All the world would miss my song,
Sweet and pure and not too long,
Partly triumph, partly sigh;
Fly, birdie, fly!
1985
Dawn Pisturino
June 9, 2022
Copyright 1985-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
[Note: I turned this into a children’s story, but this actually happened to me one summer when I was small. It’s an experience I never forgot.]
~
Amy leaned over and smelled the sweet, honey-like fragrance of the tiny white flowers on a leafy green bush. It was spring — her most favorite time of year — and the big backyard was alive with blooming flowers, buzzing bees, and orange-and-black butterflies playing among the wild dandelions growing in the grass.
The butterflies were called monarchs, and Amy looked forward to their arrival every spring.
As she peered deeper into the bush, Amy spied a small green object hanging from a slender brown twig. She reached into the bush and broke off the little twig. She held the object gently in her hand, admiring the delicate green color. Near the top was a hard ridge tinted with yellow that seemed to sparkle like gold in the warm spring sunlight.
Amy had found a butterfly chrysalis. Some people call them cocoons. They are also called pupas.
Amy had learned a lot about butterflies from her teacher at school. She knew that female butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of plant leaves. After a few days small caterpillars, called larvae, eat their way out of the eggs. They finish eating the eggshells — their very first meal! After that, they attach themselves to a leaf and eat and eat and eat until they become too big for their skin. They shed their old skin, a process called molting, and then gobble it up to get important nutrients. Mmm — delicious!
Caterpillars continue to eat and grow and shed their skin until they have done this four times. Now, they are about 2 inches long. But they still have a long way to go before they turn into beautiful butterflies.
The caterpillars take long walks in search of the perfect place to rest. When they find it, they weave a sticky, silky attachment called a silk button. This allows the caterpillars to hang upside down and begin a process called metamorphosis.
For the last time, the caterpillars shed their skin and emerge as a small, oval object called a pupa, chrysalis, or cocoon. This is the third stage in the butterfly life cycle.
Amy realized what a precious treasure she held in her hand. She gathered a handful of grass and leaves and covered the bottom of a large glass jar. She carefully laid the little green cocoon to rest in the soft little nest. Then she punched air holes in the lid with a nail and screwed it on top of the jar.
She placed the jar on a table next to her bed, where the warm spring sunshine would shine through the bedroom window and warm the little green cocoon.
Every day, she looked at the little cocoon in the jar, and waited. Amy knew that the caterpillar’s body inside the chrysalis would dissolve into a liquid and the cells of the adult butterfly begin to grow. The little cocoon became more and more transparent as the immature cells developed into a full-fledged butterfly. Pretty soon, she could see the orange-and-black wings of an adult monarch inside the chrysalis.
One morning, Amy woke up and glanced at the big glass jar next to her bed. But something was different. The little cocoon was broken and empty. Sitting next to it was a brand new orange-and-black butterfly with white markings on its wings. It was the most beautiful monarch butterfly she had ever seen.
The butterfly sat on a dry leaf, slowly moving its wings up and down. Amy watched in fascination, amazed by the miracle of nature she had witnessed in the big glass jar.
But the glass jar was no place to keep such a delicate and fragile creature. She took the jar outside, unscrewed the lid, and watched the beautiful butterfly flutter away.
Dawn Pisturino
June 8, 2022
Copyright 2008-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
ALL PHOTOS BY DAWN PISTURINO.
We got enough rain this winter for the cactus to blossom. It truly is a lovely sight when the desert is in bloom.
(Rose-colored blossom on a prickly pear cactus. Photo by Dawn Pisturino.)
But those cactus needles are nothing to mess with! They hurt!
Creosote bushes are indigenous desert plants with deep roots and waxy green leaves which help them to retain moisture. They mostly stay green year round. But, in the spring, they burst forth with lovely yellow flowers that brighten up the landscape. On the downside, these yellow flowers mark the start of allergy season. Nothing lasts long in the desert, however, so we enjoy them while we can. Achoo!
Have a lovely day, wherever you are!
Dawn Pisturino
May 3, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
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