Category: #gmashavingfun

Simplicity vs. Elaboration

Posted on January 8, 2025 by JANET L BARKER

I’m leaving. Again. I’m melancholy. Again. I don’t want to leave. Again. But I do. Again and again. Everywhere I leave I love. Same goes for the people I leave. Like my visit with Julie and Ken two days ago or my Littles in… Continue Reading “Simplicity vs. Elaboration”

Category: #beachcamping, #californiastateparks, #camping, #central coast, #centralcoast, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #ilovecalifornia, #lifeizgood, #pismobeach, #pleasureway, #solowomencamping, #vanlife, #wintercampingalongthecoastTags: #camping, #campingfriends, #faith, #findinghope, #findinglove, #friendship, #godswhispers, #pismobeach, #pismobeachstatepark, #solocamping, #travelinggrandma, #trust, #vanlife, #writing, campingsolo, family, life, love, lovethyneighbor, mental-health, womencampingsolo

But today, it is.

Posted on May 26, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

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Moss hangs from a sea of aged oak trees, dancing in the wind outside my friends’ forest-shrouded home in Atascadero, California. I’m residing here for a weekish, babysitting their two precious mini dachshunds as their mum and dad vacation in Kauai. Their original dog… Continue Reading “But today, it is.”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, @retirementTags: #bestfriends, #dogsitting, #faith, #findingpeace, #friends, #friendship, #happiness, #housesitting, #lessons, #memorialday, #Nature, #peace, #poetry, #relaxing, @retirement, life, love, spirituality

This Life of Mine

Posted on May 10, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

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The Last Breakfast. The Last Sunset. The Last Frog-choral Midnight Concert. The Last Dinner with Friends. The Last Patch of Starry Quietude before heading south toward family and the past. “You could have stayed there forever, a small child in a corner, on the… Continue Reading “This Life of Mine”

Category: #camping, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, #teaching, @retirementTags: #California, #cambria, #camping, #centralcoast, #findinghope, #hope, #maryoliver, #Nature, #peace, #retiredgrandma, #solograndmascamping, #solowomencamping, #travel, #writersontheroad, @retirement, birding, birds, love, photography

Did I tell you…?

Posted on April 20, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

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Did I tell you, I’m working on a novel? I started it more than a year ago, but somehow, in my travels and wonky internet connections, lost the first five chapters. Which was a major bummer. So I ignored it, knowing I couldn’t recreate… Continue Reading “Did I tell you…?”

Category: #camping, #education, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, #teaching, @retirement, stepupandtakeaction, Uncategorized, unconditional loveTags: #cambria, #camping, #centralcoast, #solowomencamping, #solowomentraveling, #vanlife, #writing, book-review, book-reviews, books, fiction

Eclipse

Posted on April 8, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

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What links all these magnificent environments I’ve been blessed to visit? The common thread? Birds. Their song, while vocally unique to their breed, are joyous, unsolicited and a call to all to stop what we’re doing and listen. If you do, for more than… Continue Reading “Eclipse”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, coastal camping, unconditional loveTags: #cachumalake, #California, #eclipse, #faith, #findinggod, #findinghope, #grandmascamping, #Nature, #peace, #pleasureway, #santabarbaraparks, #solowomencamping, astronomy, love, nasa, solar-eclipse, sun

Ordinary Greatness

Posted on February 8, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

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Hope and sparkling crystals and all things magical and misty-eyed are Queen Melancholy’s cousin. Like George of the Jungle, I swing between the two, between longing for Kauai’s turquoise waters and Cambria’s soul-fortifying coast to the anticipation of missing the icy-slick-sidewalk-skating rink of Winter… Continue Reading “Ordinary Greatness”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, @retirement, unconditional loveTags: #babies, #cambria, #children, #faith, #kauai, #loveeverymoment, #newyork, #newyorkcity, #parenting, #thebigapple, #travel, #winstonchurch, baby, book-review, family, grandparenting, love, motherhood

Sit down and stay awhile

Posted on October 21, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

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This is the juicy part. The part I crave. My Tuolumne Meadows in Eastern Yosemite that happens after the first five days. Right now, it’s the first four days here on the outskirts of Sedona, camping in the same place that will be tomorrow’s first five days. Let… Continue Reading “Sit down and stay awhile”

Category: #education, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgoodTags: #arizona, #camping, #fall, #l, #peace, #pleasureway, #sedona, #solocamping, #solowomencamping

It all makes sense

Posted on October 20, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

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This is not the Sedona I remember from 27 years ago when my cousin Bevie and I flew here to celebrate my milestone 40th birthday. It was my first Destination Birthday, a splurge; I felt called to be in a place I’d never been before,… Continue Reading “It all makes sense”

Category: #education, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, @retirementTags: #camping, #campinggrandma, #newfriends, #openheart, #openmind, #pleasureway, #sedona, #solocamping, #UFOs

An unexpected gift

Posted on September 22, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

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How to you begin to describe the feeling? Kayaking on glass with a long-lost friend, being lifted, suspended in a cloud, in a misty dream you once had and forgot; picking huckleberries; crooking your vision up and down, left and right, to gaze at giant… Continue Reading “An unexpected gift”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgoodTags: #ancientredwoods, #elkprairiecreeknationalpark, #friendship, #ilovecalifornia, #lessonsfromnature, #Nature, #raybradbury, #stonelagoon, #takingachance, #theflyingmachine

Go with the flow

Posted on September 22, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

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Above, is a canopy of redwoods, an impressionistic painting made even more ethereal without my glasses. Ribbons of sun and blue and burnt sienna surround me. And the silence, padded silence. I’m in the womb of Nature. Protected. Soft. When I close my eyes,… Continue Reading “Go with the flow”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, @retirement, stepupandtakeactionTags: #blessings, #enjoyeverymoment, #humbolt, #ilovenature, #peace, #redwoods

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