Halloween held all the fun with friends human and furry – and even one with feathers. I attended a Mahjoween gathering at the home of a friend on Friday, and she had rescued an injured duck from the highway on the way home from a birthday dinner in town the night before. She brought the hen to the sanctuary of her fenced back yard to protect it from predators before she released it back into a nearby lake, and this little lady took a liking to her oasis. Have you ever played Mahjong poolside where there was a duck quacking and paddling, happy to be alive in a saltwater swimming pool? Because let me tell you: it’s a little surreal. Someone yells “Mahjong!” and there is a congratulatory quack chorus happening like a drunk uncle’s loud holiday party laugh in the midst of all the cheers.
My husband and I spent quieter time at home with our three dogs on Saturday. Since we, too, live deep in the country and don’t get trick-or-treaters down our two/tenths-of-a-mile driveway, we still always prepare for the evening with a small bag of just-in-case candy and spend extra time playing in the yard with the dogs for exercise on a night when they won’t get to go back out again until much later – – just to be on the safe side. We secretly wonder how long the cupboard candy will last, between the two of us sneaking Snickers here and there.
This year’s tricks included Zoomies with the newbie, Jay, who is catching on quickly about what it means to have brothers and what it means to play. He’s had two main people play with him in his six years, then a couple of foster dogs including a Husky he detested (he does not like big breeds, according to the lady who was fostering him, which she discovered at the dog park where he’d lunged with terroristic threats at the fence dividing the big dogs and the little dogs). And now here he is, learning what it means to belong and have fun, zipping around in Funny Farm-style figure 8s.
What a treat to share life and admire the antics of the people and the dogs and the wildlife we love!
It’s hard to believe October is coming to a close tonight. The time will soon drop back an hour, and we’ll crawl in bed at 6 p.m. because it will look like 9 p.m. and we’ll have to convince our minds and bodies it’s all a cruel trick. We’ll be thicker into the holiday season as we seek coziness. There is already Christmas music playing in stores, and the bells will be ringing outside shops as we enter and exit, plenty before any Thanksgiving blessings are offered.
I have to keep busy, so I’ll be sewing porch goose clothes. I recently gave a pair of the 21 inch geese with fishing outfits to my brother and sister in law to go at their lake house on the dock, and I adore this trend of dressing a goose. We don’t get a lot of people stopping by this deep in the country, so I decided a 7 inch goose would be a better fit for me. I like having it up by the sink next to the coffee pot so I can feel the morning cheer. Something about a cute goose gets the day started with a smile.
I’ve made a few outfits already by using some of the outfits I purchased to make patterns for more in different styles and colors. I enjoy naming the outfits rather than the goose. It brings back all the feels of when I was young and got a new Barbie Doll. Back in those days, they came with a little catalog-style brochure of Barbie in all different outfits, and I remember dreaming of all the outfits I wanted for my dolls. Skiing Barbie, ready for the Alpine slopes. Business Meeting Barbie, ready to pitch a campaign. Teacher Barbie, ready to write on the chalkboard and explain some math steps. I wanted them all. This goose lets ME design the clothes and bring them to life on my late mother’s Bernina.
A friend’s daughter is a first-year teacher, and I will make a few for her teacher’s desk goose, too. Here is a glimpse of my first attempt at creating goose clothing.
The Daphne
The Betty Sue
The Georgia Lee
The Thelma Lou
If you’d told me a year ago that I would find joy in dressing porch geese in retirement, I’d have laughed out loud.
But here I am, filling bobbins and stitching rick rack.
Something about Halloween in a Mahjong group has us scrambling for spooky snacks like we’re back in the days of making party treats for our children. What is it about the childlike fun of playing a game that makes us feel so excited again? The assignment: Bring a Spooky Snack to Mahjoween on Friday.
On Thursday, I scoured the aisles of the grocery store. Cranberry Crackdragons were out of the realm of possibility, since there were no fresh cranberries to put powdered sugar on and pop in the oven to create a burst of tart sweetness with every bite. A candy corn shaped cheeseball was a consideration, and that shifted to a cheese puff- crumbed cheeseball in a pumpkin shape, but I was not in the mood to cut cheese. I toyed with the idea of cream cheese-filled mushroom eyeballs with pitted black olive pupils and sun dried tomato veins. But honestly, I’m just not all that creative when it comes to food. I’d threatened to bring Halloween Oreos or BOO-nana bread, but even I rolled my eyes at the thought of that kind of laziness.
That was when it hit me. A certain little seven inch porch goose the host and I bought as a gift for our Sensei (Mahjong instructor) as a gift got me thinking about the little witch hat and the way I could try to replicate those same size snack hats using Bugles, mini Nilla wafers, and melted chocolate chips with a peanut butter chip as a hat buckle. I rounded up the ingredients, satisfied I’d made the right choice.
First, I opened the bag and found the best-shaped Bugles that had a rounded opening at the bottom so they would stand on the cookies until the chocolate hardened. I did the math and planned for three dozen, and then laid out some extra cookies to put chocolate on. I made one prototype so I could see if it would work, and lo and behold, it did! I surprised myself. Even the Reese’s peanut butter chip stuck once I coated the top of the cookie, coated the Bugle and stuck it on, and affixed the chip onto the base of the Bugle.
Our teacher from Augusta is coming to be with us. We call her Sensei Susan, and she is coming even as one of her dachshunds is recovering from back surgery last week (and an abscess after that) and she’s had to cancel her tennis games. We’re so blessed that she is willing to travel two and a half hours to be with us and spend time helping us refine our strategies and skills.
We got her a small porch goose all dressed for Halloween that is perfect for her kitchen counter, to remind her how much we enjoy spending time with her. We’ll sew on some Mahjong beads and give it to her as we play the day away and make plans for a Thanksmahj and Christmahj. And we’ll add some festive Mahjong outfits each time we get together.
We’ve already been shopping for the fabric and the rick rack and hem trims. Get ready to see a gaggle of gregariously dressed game-ready geese! I’m hopping from the kitchen to the sewing room now……
Have I mentioned lately how much I love being retired?
One live book group organizer I’ve discovered recently that offers fabulous events is Bookaccino. You can sign up to get their newsletters to learn about their author talks and other webinars here.
I was blessed to attend the talk with Kathryn Stockett, author of The Calamity Club, on Wednesday night. Having just finished the book in the past week, I was thrilled that at the time of the discussion, the story was still fresh on my mind, and the characters unforgettable. As is so often the case, the ending of a great book never really coincides with the turning of its last page, but I was blessed that it did this time.
Three top things I took from this discussion:
Kathryn Stockett does extensive research on the time frame setting of her novels, and she likes to use characters’ voices to call attention to the social issues and the BS that needs to be called out.
She will not be writing a sequel to this book, preferring to leave the characters as they are for the reader to determine what happens to them next. There will be a screenplay.
She reads extensively, and was inspired tremendously by Eudora Welty, particularly the short stories “Why I live at the P.O.,” “The Petrified Man,” and the novel Delta Wedding. She also is a fan of the memoirist Mary Carr.
I’m rereading some excerpts of Gladys Taber’s books and also Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews. There will be Eudora Welty’s works appearing in my TBR Pile.
These sunshiny and warm fall days make a perfect backdrop for outdoor activities, and yesterday was no exception. The cool breezes blew as my friend Christian Jackson and I played Mahjong by her pool. Of COURSE we laughed most of the afternoon, and we even had a mahjong tile (Seven Dot) end up at the bottom of the pool and had to fish it out with a net. We got a little carried away. We’ve been busy preparing for our Wednesday morning Mahjong games at our local coffee shop on the town square; we hope to widen our net of players. Also, we are planning a Mahjoween gathering for Friday afternoon, poolside at Christian’s house.
One of my favorite parts of playing out by the pool is being able to include the dogs in the fun. Two of Christian’s dogs, Barkley and Charlie, are diehard Mahjong partners ~ mostly for the snacks of sausage balls and all the hugs, and Charlie even smiles for pictures. Especially when he’s helping us celebrate wins!
celebrating wins
while playing poolside mahjong
is better with dogs!
Christian with Barkley
Me with Smiling Charlie
I also want to share a Postcard Poetry Fest poem today as well. Here’s a Dragonfly Haiku.
We are home from a weekend of camping, and what a joy to spend it with my husband and dogs at one of our favorite places! We left Friday evening with no trip to the grocery store, just our pajamas and toothbrushes and a change of clothes. We only took food we had on hand in the fridge and pantry.
That’s a big change from the first way we camped. We used to go all out with hanging string lights and decorating and doing all the camping things like making s’mores and having a thousand snacks. Now, we’ve learned that the more we put up, the more we have to take down. The more we prepare, the more we feel we must do. So now, we resist all temptation to put out more than our postside name sign that tells other campers who we are and where we’re from. We keep it simple, from the food to the decor to the clothes.
Over the weekend, I added another thing to my list of 100 Things to Do in Retirement. A necessary thing, but I would definitely not call it a favorite. It will go at the bottom of the list among the least favorite, and is there only because to do a fun thing, I have to do a not-so-fun thing.
I’ve helped do this task for years, but until this weekend I’ve not completed the whole chore of dumping the Wayfarer on my own. And it was a natural step in the process. I can drive it, back it into the campsite, and hook up the water and the electric. I can put out the slide and level the RV (okay, it’s self-leveling, but I’ll take it). And now, as of today, I can dump the gray and blank tanks all by myself.
I knew that I could venture out alone for boondocking with the generator, but now I feel good about setting up and staying somewhere for a few days if I get the urge to go on a solo camping trip or join the Girl Campers at a meet-up and make some new friends.
Nothing has to be a stellar work of art to participate in the Cascadia Postcard Poetry Fest, and it’s a good thing, since I’m no talented word or picture artist. But I do enjoy the peace and relaxation of colored pencils, watercolors, and other art supplies – – I think the arts and crafts days of childhood took strong enough root to stay with me for life, blooming like perennials season after season.
And the love of feeling creative has never been a more welcome time than as I began the monthly poetry postcard challenges that started earlier this year for me. Cascadia Postcard Poetry Fest, a Seattle-based worldwide event, was introduced to me by members of my small group Stafford writing group, so I joined this past summer and received my list of names of those to send cards. Registration for the 2027 PPF is underway, as you can see at the link above. The goal: write a poem a day on a postcard and work your way through the names, mailing one to each person on your list. Then watch your mailbox for the long forgotten joy of mail that isn’t all bills.
Throughout the rest of 2026, I’ll be sharing some of the postcards that I have mailed, along with some I’ve received. There is nothing like a smile at the mailbox from someone across the miles who takes time to write a poem and mail it your way! It’s a lost art just waiting to make its comeback!
Retirement officially began for me August 1st, so each second and fourth Friday, I reflect on the first year of retirement in two-week windows and what it’s like in this new chapter of life. This idea of retirement reflection was sparked when members of my writing communities and personal friends asked me how I would spend my time and if I thought I would get bored. At the beginning of my first week off, I used a green spiral notebook to make a list of all the things I wanted to do — something enjoyable each week, blending in some new hobbies and routines as well.
My late father said this about retirement: You don’t retire FROM something, you retire TO something, and you’ll be busier than you’ve ever been. He was right, and I love doing what I want to do when I want to do it and having the flexibility to travel and engage in new hobbies – or stay home in comfortable clothes and enjoy more relaxed pace on the Johnson Funny Farm.
Here are eight of the most recent things I’ve enjoyed in my first three months of retirement:
51. Kindred Spirits October Book Club – We met at our favorite coffee shop last night to discuss Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth and The Songteller by Dolly Parton. We talked about the power of story, the refusal of women to be thrust into a particular identity determined by the world, and the perceptions of aging women in terms of freedoms and restraints. These two books paired nicely as nonfiction and fiction text selections. Our book club has remained six strong, and we’re nearing the end of our second year together.
50. Watercolor Poetry Postcards – One of my favorite things to do is enjoy a watercolor painting day a couple of times a month. I like the watercolor workbooks by Emily Lex because she simplifies the process of creating art. Recently, I’ve discovered the YouTube Easy Design painters, who take viewers step by step through techniques. This month, I created postcards for my November postcard poetry challenge and also Bible bookmarks for Christmas gift bag items collected by a faith-based women’s recovery program in a neighboring state.
49. Attending two Stafford Challenge Guest Poet Zooms – C. Marie Fuhrman was the October Guest Poet on the Stafford Challenge monthly lineup of poets that we get to write with throughout the year. She used poetry by Joy Harjo to inspire us to write our own poems in our one hour Zoom session for October. Dr. Deborah Grayson kicked off a Poetry as a Healing Art series this month and brought spectacular prompts for getting us geared up for writing. I always look forward to these monthly evening events – I gather my notebook and pen, make a cup of tea, and log in to see the faces of other poets from all across the globe as we write together.
48. Open Write with my EthicalELA writing community – I’ve belonged to the Ethicalela writing community for nine years now, and each month we write poetry together for a few days out of the month (excluding April, when we write poetry together every day in honor of the Bard’s Birthday month – a/k/a National Poetry Month). This month, I wrote four poems inspired by prompts shared by rotating hosts throughout our writing community. You can check out the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com and click on Open Write to see what this community offers!
47. Making the Perfect Cup of Tea to drink while making mental notes about Things that Don’t Suck– For Christmas in 2025, I got one of those electric tea kettles that has the Digital Touch feature to make certain kinds of tea at their optimal temperatures. In Blue Ridge, Georgia in the fall of 2025, I picked up two tea mugs with the metal steeping strainer that lets us steep loose tea leaves directly in our cups for maximum coagulation with the water. When my late father returned from a mission trip to China in 2014, he’d brought back loose tea and given us a masterclass in how to steep it. It’s a retirement treat to be able to sit back with a cup and reflect on the day joyfully with at least the work demands removed from all the bad things happening in the world.
46. Daytime Movies – It’s always been a weekend thing or an evening thing for us unless we were on a break, but being able to take off in the day to go see a movie is a guilty pleasure!
45. Decoupaging Candles and Bookmarks with Wildflowers – It will take about 6 weeks for my own pressed plants and flowers to be ready for projects in the traditional plant press, and I don’t own a microwave plant press, so I found a Utah-based flower farm as a source for pressed wildflowers and ordered a selection based on birthday month flowers. These are the plants I’m using currently to create decoupaged candles and bookmarks. It’s fun to feel the energy of creativity and see the beautiful transformation of candles as I work. I also love how something as simple as a bookmark and a touch of greenery and some flower petals can create the loveliest page markers.
44. Plant Pressing – I hauled out the old plant press and gathered wildflowers and greenery from all across the Johnson Funny Farm, including my sister-in-law’s zinnia gardens. I pressed plants for using in decoupage projects.
Here are the previous things I’ve added to my list of 100 Things I’m Enjoying in Retirement. I’ve reversed the order, going backwards in time to the beginning.
43. Virtual Author Reading for Time in the Landscape
42. Author Readingfor Anna Roseboro’s Book Study
41. Indie Bookstore Shopping
40. Dock Time on Jackson Lake in Georgia
39. Adopt a Dog
38. Train Ride to See Fall Foliage
37. Cabin for a Birthday Celebration in North Georgia
36. Fall Baking
35. Hosting Open Write
34. Kindred Spirits September Book Club
33. Mahjong in Blairsville, Georgia
32. Daytripping for Lunch and Small Town Adventuring
31. Hiking the Appalachian Trail
30. Camping at Vogel State Park
29. Lunch with Friends
28. Almost-Birthday Pedicures with my Sister-in-Law
27. Mahjongg Regular Group Formation
26. Stafford Challenge Writing Workshop
25. Stafford Challenge Small Group Zoom Meetings
24. Dolly Parton Tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee
23. Labor Day Camping at F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia
Yesterday, I shared a little about the Poetry as a Healing Art series that began this week as part of The Stafford Challenge. You can still sign up (registration is free) for the remaining sessions here at this link. Dr. Deborah E. Grayson led us in some prompts on Tuesday evening to inspire writing as therapy. One was a soundtrack of our lives, which I wrote about yesterday, and today I’ll share three more inspiring ideas from Tuesday evening’s session.
Dr. Grayson asked us to consider where we find healing and to write about those places in response to the “salty times” of our lives – such as divorce, death or illness of a loved one, or loss of a beloved pet. Many people responded that in addition to poetry, healing is found in scripture, in reading books, in art, in nature/gardening, and in playing or walking with pets. I agree with all of those and would add coffee and conversation with friends and loved ones as well. I love travel and seeing new places and parts of the world and find that travel often offers new perspectives that can bring healing.
She also inspired us to create a Prescription for Loneliness. My first go-to is reading. I find that when I read, I’m keeping company with characters and authors. My book club sisters and I meet each month to talk about our reading, and that’s a lovely time shared with others! Getting outside with my dogs also keeps me in good company when my husband is at work and would be #2 on my prescription list. I shouldn’t admit this, but Hallmark movies somehow make me feel like I’m a nicer person, and those have a medicinal effect on loneliness too. Grayson explained that all of these items on our brainstormed lists can be used in poetry, such as list poetry.
Finally, our concluding activity was to spend a few moments and write a list poem. We could use our Prescription for Loneliness ideas, our Playlist of our Life ideas, our places we find healing, or we could write one like poet Andrea Gibson made in the days before she died after a long battle with Ovarian Cancer in July 2025. Her poem was entitled A List of Things that Don’t Suck, to Make Your Day a Little Brighter. I’ll begin my own list with 3 that come to mind:
Things that Don’t Suck
A rescued dog who rolls belly-up in the grass, kicking his legs toward the sky in happiness in the autumn sunshine and you think you see him stop for a second to offer you a smile of gratitude.
A playlist of great songs made especially for you in retirement, sent to you by your daughter.
Last night was a fabulous kickoff of the Poetry as a Healing Art series that is being sponsored by The Stafford Challenge. These sessions are free, and you can visit this link to register for the remaining sessions if you are interested. Dr. Deborah Grayson led the first session and took us through the many ways that poetry can heal hurts, instill hope, and inspire creativity.
Of the many activities and prompts that she led us through, one of my favorites was making a soundtrack of our lives. The chat thread lit up with so many fabulous songs, and I’ll bet there were 200 songs listed by the entire group of participants in attendance.
Earlier in the day, my daughter sent me a Spotify playlist to enjoy in retirement, particularly while I’m working on creative ventures such as painting our decoupaging. You can click here to listen! She’s so thoughtful and creative, and she knows I love all these songs.
What a treat to have music and those in our lives who share lyrics – which is, of course, poetry – with us to celebrate the moments of our lives. Poetry IS a healing art, and one for which I remain ever so grateful.
For Mallory and everyone reading today, go to YouTube and listen to a song from my playlist just for you:
I Love by Tom T. Hall ~ enjoy it!
take the time today
to create a soundtrack of
your life ~ share a song!
‘
I took a picture right as my daughter shared the playlist, and she replied: perfect timing! She knew I would be in the middle of something creative right at that moment when she sent it.
