DO NOT STAND BY MY GRAVE , AND WEEP

Florence Blume - A Ghost Story {Merrickville} Annabelle&M © 2023

Do not stand

By my grave, and weep.

I am not there,

I do not sleep—

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints in snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle, autumn rain.

As you awake with morning’s hush,

I am the swift, up-flinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight,

I am the day transcending night.

Do not stand

By my grave, and cry—

I am not there,

I did not die.

-Clare Harner 1934 

When words and music touch my soul...listen

Mariage d'amour - Paul de Senneville

@batandmaggie @hauntedwalk @rideau_walkingtours @painteral613 @writerswarmth 

#painting #blackandwhite #catart #spooky #halloween #storypainting #bookstagram #instagood #beauty#beautiful#merrickville #haunted #afterlife #supernatural #cemetery #graveyard #Annabelle&m #love #moon#moonlight#florenceblume #trees #ghostadventures #spookyseason #blackcat #picoftheday #instadaily #art #poem#donotstandatmygraveandweep 

A SUMMER NIGHT IN OCTOBER WITH KNIGHT RIDER

A summer night in October arrived last Tuesday night, unexpected and without the bugs.
It was like summer had never left with a temperature of 27.3 degrees on October 9thand as the day passed slowly into evening the balmy air wooed us to go for an evening ride on the Triumph.
I think summer was teasing or maybe October was just playing a game of masquerade but no matter who was creating the night magic we weren't about to miss it.

There was no plan, we just escaped into the night.

Riding along the Rideau River up to Merrickville was like life had passed into a dream and I joked with Stan how the night ride made me think for a moment I was riding with Micheal Knight, The Knight Rider. Earlier in the day Stan had gotten another needle in the eye so I didn't think he was up for a ride but I was wrong and we took a shot in the dark ride with one headlight and one good eye : ) Without question the ride turned out to be the best ever taken on the Triumph, for both of us! The night was filled with magic, mystery and haunting intrigue.

But all good things eventually come to an end and when I thought the ride was over when Stan turned off hwy 43 and was heading back home he completely and unexpectedly caught me off guard, slowed down, veered off the darkened Burritts Rapids' road and turned up Cemetery Hill.

He turned the engine off and in the quiet and still cemetery he asked me to pick three tombstones.The shadowy granite, almost lost in the total darkness of the quiet grounds enclosed around me making it hard to distinguish the cold stone from the dark black veil of the evening. I found myself a little scared but so elevated in my curiosity in continuing to seek and find some lovely tombs hoping they would reveal some hidden secret. The game was on, the two old folks were having fun.

Stan followed me around the graveyard ,the breeze among the branches of the encircling wood sighed but I heard nothin more but the snapping of a few pics and then he spoke: “Ok, I think this should do it. Let's go home and see what we got”
But what I discovered I noticed even before I got home , actually it was the only stone of the four I picked that I was able to read the words.

On the tall spire shaped monument the inscription read “An Officer and a Gentleman” , very strange and spooky I thought because what I read was related to the night's events. Us playing a game like two juveniles with no restraints, young again. We were the perfect age tonight to enjoy a summer's night in October hopefully will never forget. The perfect age like Richard Gere had said in a quote I read on Instagram . Oh and by the way if you don't get the connection, Richard Gere was the officer in An Officer and a Gentleman” : ) and below is his quote........

“I am old but I am forever young at heart.We are always the same age inside. Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, you can only live it once. Do not regret growing older, it's a privilege denied to many!”

I know this story really sounds made up but I never set foot in that cemetery before October,9th/2018.
Wow, should I dare say someone from beyond reached out and left this for me to ponder on?

“The lovers have grown old and grey” forever young at heart remain❤️
Well, taking that ride with Knight Rider on an October summer night was a thrill; I forgot just how old I was!


Happy to be here with you Stan!

STRESSED OUT ~ TAKE THE RIDE

Love The Bike!

At last, the wait is over! Father and daughter took a chilly motorcycle ride on hubby's Triumph 900 yesterday, 40 minutes after he landed from Saskatchewan. Two weeks ago the weather was beautiful, warm and perfect for riding. While hubby was away at work I drove our truck, which totally is my pet and caught myself waving at the riders on the motorbikes that passed me on the road as if I was on a bike myself and immediately wishing hubby were home, only because he’s got the biker’s license : ) Who would have thought a bike could do this to a girl, for that matter, an over the hill gal like me?

I never thought after 40 years my love and passion for motorcycles would still be with me but taking that first ride on the bike when hubby took me to Merrickville was beyond exhilarating. The pastoral countryside in Plein air was breathtaking, literally. The scents of burning wood and freshly cut grass were extensions to the visual experience only to evoke more of my undying love for the open fields of the countryside.

Once you take that first motorcycle ride there is no going back, thou maybe back in time to when you were twenty-something for there is definitely something magical about riding a motorcycle. It makes you forget time, space, unhappy thoughts; your mind becomes an interior pastoral, sylvan landscape and what therapy that is! And one step beyond it would be riding with the warm wind in your hair.

Thinking back, I was brought up on motorcycles and Vespa’s back in Italy when I was a mere five-year-old child. My uncles Mario and Titti would offer me rides on their bikes in exchange for cigarettes I would have to loot from my sleeping mother who worked the night shift at the hospital.

And then I met my husband 14 years later all because I asked for a motorcycle ride on his Kawasaki 400.

So I suppose it really shouldn’t have been such surprise to me how much I adore riding!

I'm next Stan!

Playing Hangman ......