Monday Morning Musings:
“Sueñito, it means ‘little dream.’”
–In the Heights
Three crows sit on an uprooted tree,
gods, fate, or destiny?
Day to night, birth to death, changes come—
love and regrets,
of words unspoken, of dreams unachieved,
but in the balance of all things–
seeds are planted, and eggs hatched,
in fertile soil, with care and light,
life blooms, the cycle resumes,
Crow in Flight 
Crow in Flight
seasons spun in revolutions
of the earth, and thoughts that spark like stars,
the universe of the mind, our Milky Way inside
in glittering array. Sometimes enlightenment
comes our way,
dream-born, though dreams evolve
with the dancing of your heart and the echoes
of the stars,
the fire in your eyes
and reflections from the sky,
the whys and when return again
revolving into something new—
the evolution of dreams come true.
We are dust from the stars,
and rise from the sea,
we wing and dive–fate or fait accompli?
Ever-soaring dreams blowing
through earth, sky, and blue-water flowing.
It is definitely summer in southern NJ! Heat, humidity, storms—and then an occasional beautiful day. We went out once this week for a trivia night at a winery. We were not allowed to have our phones out during the rounds, so I only got this one photo.
Merril’s Movie Club—We watched two movies this week, and I would watch both of them again. One you’ve probably heard of, and one you probably have not heard about. Our friends invited us to a movie night at their house, so we could watch In the Heights. (We don’t have HBO, and they do. It’s also playing in theaters.) You may or may not know that I love musicals, and this one combines Lin Manual Miranda’s songs with old-fashioned movie musical choreography and vision. Dreams (and immigrants and DREAMers) is a recurring theme in the movie. All the actors are wonderful. My friend, Pat (the one in charge of rainbows) had a bounty of farm-fresh summer vegetables and made a grilled a vegetable lasagna. I made brownies because. . .well, chocolate.
Pat’s Grilled Veggie Lasagna 
Brownies
My husband and I also saw Undine, the most recent movie by German director Christian Petzold. (Rental through Amazon.) It stars the two leads from his previous movie, Transit, which my husband and I both really enjoyed. We also both liked this one, though maybe not quite as much. The movie is a sort of modern re-telling of the ancient myth of the water nymph, Undine. My husband, who had never heard of the legend of Undine, saw the movie as a metaphor of Berlin. So, it’s clearly not a movie for people who like straight-forward stories. It’s dreamy and has a beautiful score (mainly the adagio from Bach’s Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974), but also “Stayin Alive), and we had a great discussion about it afterwards.
We had some wine and cheese to nibble on while we watched the movie.
Yesterday and today: Merril's historical musings 
As always, a beautiful recap of the week just passed. Our weather has run the gamut as well, even going so low as into the lower fifties! While I wanted it to cool down, I didn’t want it to do so that much!
How fun to participate in Trivia night and movie night!
Thank you very much, Dale. We haven’t had a recent cool down–except into the 70s and 80s.
Yes, trivia night and movie night were both fun. 😀
We are starting the week off in the “feels like” 88 and the rest will fluctuate between 77 and 86 with chances of rain and thunderstorms. They’ve been rather piss-poor at predicting this year 😉
I bet they were fun!
They were fun.
All I know is that it’s hot and humid here now! 😀
Ugh. Wear the air temps 😉
Yeah, I skipped my morning walk. It was horrible even early in the morning.
Ugh. That is so not fun. I managed my run this morning but it was perfect weather. I am not going to complain!
😀
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Thank you.
Such beautiful poetry and illustrations, gorgeous photos. I too have been watching some TV , I haven’t seen The Heights yet. Mostly older movies for me. Have a wonderful day Merril , thanks for sharing your evening! ❤️
Thank you for your lovely comment, Rene! ❤️
My pleasure!
Beautiful musings today, Merril! I loved the photographs, too! We’ve been incredibly humid lately, but no rain.
Thank you very much, Jill.
We haven’t had as much rain as I thought we would.
‘we wing and dive–fate or fait accompli?’ Such a poignant question! I enjoyed your words and images Merril. Hope you’re managing to stay cool 😅
Thank you so much, Ingrid!
We do have a/c/–otherwise, I don’t think I’d be able to function.
We have it now, but we never did in Spain. Some days were so hot, all you could do was sweat!
I thought you might judge me for the a/c, but it’s so humid here–almost 100% right now, and it will be in the 90s F later today.
I wouldn’t judge you for that! It’s no different to using heat when it’s cold, it’s just unfortunate that we need to do it more and more, thus exacerbating the situation!
Yes, exactly!
Lovely! 🙂
Thank you so much, Linda!
Funny how we both wrote the same sort of poem today, but yours is so upbeat and mine is so dismal.
That is funny (or not). I will go look at yours. 😀
It’s almost an Oracle-like similarity.
Well, that’s about usual. 😀
True 🙂
After a mini heat wave, our temps are quite cool. (Oh, no, we’ve had our 3 days of summer already??) Your river and cloudscapes are looking particularly lovely. And I love that the bird who alighted on the wire so that you could photograph him has a red breast for a nice pop of color against the sky. Very obliging of him.
Thank you, Liz. That bird was very obliging. 😀
It’s still hot and VERY humid here. So icky. Hopefully you will get a few more days of summer. 😀
You’re welcome, Merril. I hope we get a few more days of summer as well. We wait so long for it!
I’m willing to share this heat and humidity! 🤣
“the evolution of dreams come true.” could describe most of your work. I have seen competitors at trivia quizzes sneaking peeks at their phones under the tables.
Thank you, Derrick. 😀
Daughter and son-in-law said that at a place they used to go to pre-pandemic, there was a regular group that went to trivia every week. They were good customers and tipped well, and so the staff never said anything when they had their phones out and won every week.