Author Archives

Opinionated writer with hopes for a better future for all plus a big helping of skepticism about humanity.

• BALLS, NERVE, AND חוצפה

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/27/2023 • ( 4 )

  

  “You’re one tough broad,” my friend told me. I recognized this as a compliment. Maybe you have to come from New York or New Jersey to “get it,” but I got it. “Tough” includes brave, determined, and hard to kill…. Read More ›

• BROKEN PIECES

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/27/2023 • ( 14 )

  

  Fandango’s Provocative Question #199 After you break parts of you, are you ever the same again? This is the question du jour. Have you ever fractured a bone (or bones) that was serious enough to require inpatient hospitalization and a post-operative… Read More ›

• BLACK & WHITE FENCES AND GATES

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/27/2023 • ( 6 )

  

  CBWC:  Fences and Gates

• RICE PILAF WITH CREAMY SHRIMP SCAMPI

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/27/2023 • ( 8 )

  I bought two pounds of frozen shrimp for last night’s dinner. It was supposed to be cleaned and deveined, ready to defrost and cook. About half the time, I actually get properly cleaned and deveined shrimp. The other half, the… Read More ›

• SHARING MY WORLD

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/26/2023 • ( 7 )

  

  Share Your World 23rd January It’s a rare day that I only get to this prompt so late in the week, but we’ve been running around and we aren’t done quite yet. Do you find it relatively easy to fall asleep… Read More ›

• DEEP IN THE HEART OF MEDICAL MADNESS

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/26/2023 • ( 5 )

  

  I’m not sure why we find ourselves in these periods where we do nothing but go from one doctor appointment to the next. Everything clumps together. On a positive note, we get everything done and then things usually calm down… Read More ›

• THE GREAT WHITE HURRICANE OF MARCH 11, 1888

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/25/2023 • ( 4 )

  

  It has snowed every night for the past week but only a few inches at a time. We often get more snow (or rain) later in the day, but every morning when I get up, the ground and the deck… Read More ›

• BIRDS IN THE BUSH WITH SNOW

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/25/2023 • ( 2 )

  

  When it snows, you can see how many dozens of birds live in the forsythia hedge in the backyard. I couldn’t get sharp pictures. This was one of the times when the autofocus couldn’t figure out where to focus. Between… Read More ›

• THE INDOOR GARDEN

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/24/2023 • ( 10 )

  

  FOTD – January 24 – The Indoor Garden Only the Anthurium and the Green Orchid are in bloom right now, but there are buds on two other orchids. They are not close to blooming yet. They need a few weeks yet,… Read More ›

• WINTER BIRDS IN RAIN & SNOW

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/24/2023 • ( 2 )

  

  When I got up and went out to feed the birds, it was pouring — and warm. Less than an hour later, the temperature dropped and a pretty heavy snow was falling. Tomorrow it’s supposed to snow and rain in… Read More ›

• WINTER ARRIVES (SORT OF)

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/24/2023 • ( 4 )

  

  It rained like mad in the morning. An hour later it was snowing like mad. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world. I processed two photos in black and white. It’s a monochrome world in winter. It’s not a lot… Read More ›

• THE QUICK WAY OUT: DIRECT CREMATION -GARRY ARMSTRONG

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/24/2023 • ( 1 )

  

  I was driving along I-95 in Connecticut when I spotted the billboard for “Direct Cremation.” Traffic was just slow enough for me to read a few lines of the pitch. It promised no fuss, no delays, no middle men, red… Read More ›

• ON A GOLDEN AFTERNOON – IN JANUARY?

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/23/2023 • ( 15 )

  

  I looked out the window and the light was golden against the trees. It’s not the color you usually see in the middle of winter. I associate that color with autumn and sometimes summer. Maybe it was because of all… Read More ›

• MORE YELLOW-GREEN ORCHIDS

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/22/2023 • ( 3 )

  

  FOTD – January 22 – Yellow-Green Orchids I should have been taking pictures of our little snow, but I was, instead, pulling veins from the middle of supposed cleaned and deveined shrimp. But I did get some pretty pictures of the… Read More ›

• “THAT’S NOT WHO WE ARE”

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/21/2023 • ( 22 )

  

  Lest we forget, this is a flashback to January 20, 2021. Every person who gets interviewed on television says the same thing. It’s the current mantra about “the U.S.A.” The hooligans who rioted in our Capitol are not really who… Read More ›

• A NEW CAMERA, A MACRO LENS, AND A YELLOW-GREEN ORCHID

  By Marilyn Armstrong on 01/21/2023 • ( 15 )

  

  FOTD – January 20 – A new camera and a yellow-green Orchid Somewhere in the middle of the madly medical week, the camera I’ve been waiting for showed up. I’m sometimes astonished at Amazon’s packing. They send me a bag… Read More ›