A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Everyday Images #83

Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts.

February/March Prompts - Everyday Images #83

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colorful

moon

from above

river

delicate

neighborhood spot (quarterly)

minimalist

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colorful

moon

from above

river - does this count as a river? It's just a small branch at this point, but we enjoyed exploring this little bit of nature in a local park.

delicate - This necklace was a gift years ago, and I'm not even certain who gave it to me at the moment. I don't wear it very often because I'm worried that I'll snag the very fine chain.

neighborhood spot (quarterly)

minimalist - I have no idea what I was thinking when I included this prompt. It must have seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the year in my randomizer. Anyway, sorry if it stumped you like it did me! I think it's safe to describe my office as rather minimalist in design. I've added next to nothing on the walls to make it personalized. Not sure what that says about me?

And a few bonus photos:

We tried out a new to us restaurant recently - Filli Cafe - and it was so good! Elegant, almost exotic atmosphere, and delicious food. Their tagline is something like "from Dubai to the world" but I also saw some posts describing it as an Indian cafe so I'm not sure. I do know that their specialty drink is chai and the zafron chai I had was amazing. I also know that the menu featured quite a few shawarma and tikka dishes. Hubby had a shawarma wrap and I had their "columbus style flatbread" and both were delicious. Pretty sure we'll visit again!

From there we carried on to an area park that was new to us as well. Pretty nice for such an earliest of spring days.

The interesting geological feature here are these roundish rocks that are apparently naturally occurring. (Some 'millions of years' explanation was on the sign, I'm sure) They looked a little like big turtle shells.

In the evening we headed to the Blue Jackets game, and I pondered these 'naturally occurring' patterns in the clouds on the way. Haha.

There was a huge and enthusiastic welcome back for the players that had been at the Olympics, especially the Blue Jackets' own Zach Werenski who played for the gold medalist USA team.

March rolled in with snow! It wasn't a couple feet or anything, but it was enough to delay everything and really snarl up traffic on the first Monday of the month. That was pretty stressful for me, because I was supposed to be reporting for jury duty and the commute downtown took nearly triple the amount of time it should have taken, and I enjoyed absolutely nothing about driving to an unfamiliar downtown location under those conditions. Thankfully, I arrived still 'technically' on time, and since the entire system was running late, it was fine. I was there all week, through mostly gloomy weather. I did enjoy the fog, to be honest, and the views from the court building and the top floor of the parking garage. (See my 'from above' photo . . . above . . . see what I did there?)

Got to end off that week with another Blue Jackets game. The challenge for this one was finding parking and navigating the congestion downtown, as the Arnold tournament was going on, and the Columbus Crew were also playing.

I finally have a wallet that represents me pretty accurately.

I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.

March Prompts - Everyday Images #84

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scenery

on top of it

arched

fresh

Sunday Simplicity

at home (monthly)

spring

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Wednesday Hodgepodge - When (Not) In Rome

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Are you a naturally trusting person? Is trust built on logic or 'gut instinct'? Does everyone deserve a second chance? Elaborate.

I don't think I'm a naturally trusting person, because I am reserved and cautious about what I share when I meet someone new. I suppose I'm inwardly a skeptic but unless something strikes me wrong right from the beginning, I'll give people a chance to earn my trust. There's an element of 'gut instinct' to it, and generally I say to trust your gut when it comes to safety and to personal information; but that intuition is probably based more on logic than we might realize. I definitely weigh how trustworthy someone is based on the logical conclusions I can draw, but listen to my intuition and instinct as well.

Everyone deserves a second chance, but not everyone deserves a second chance with ME. I believe that everyone makes mistakes, and should get a chance to correct the mistake if possible. I also believe that everyone can change, so just because you lost my trust in the past doesn't necessarily mean you'll never get a chance to earn it back. But that depends on what you did to lose it. I'll forgive, but that doesn't obligate me to open myself up to someone who has proven themselves to be untrustworthy. Some people would just have to do a whole lot more to prove to me that they deserve their second chance FROM ME. And I can think of a number of examples of people that did me dirty in some way that I'm unlikely to trust in any significant way ever again, even though I've forgiven them for what they did, and I'm even still friendly with some of them. I just know the distance that I'm okay with and don't invite them any closer than that.

2. 'Beware the Ides of March' . . . March 15th on the ancient Roman calendar, these words were made famous by William Shakespeare in play Julius Caesar. Caesar was assassinated on March 15th 44 B.C. Have you read any Shakespeare? If so, do you have a favorite? Have you ever been to Rome?

It's been quite a few years, but yes I've read a fair amount of Shakespeare and have enjoyed all of it. I like the comedies because the humor is so clever and yet so ridiculous in places. Maybe Twelfth Night would be my favorite because it's the first Shakespeare play I remember reading in school and I got a kick out of the wordplay and the obvious farce of it. Some of the speeches and soliloquies in the histories and tragedies are so memorable though. The St Crispins Day speech from Henry V is one that really stands out. When I taught high school English, that speech was studied as an example of persuasive argument so it has stuck with me. No, I've never been to Rome, but I'd love to see it someday.

3. Do you like a Caesar salad? If given the choice between a garden/house salad or Caesar which do you order? Anchovies or no? What's your favorite salad dressing?

No thank you on a Caesar salad! I'll choose the garden salad every time, and anchovies are a hard no in every situation. (This reminds me, one of our favorite local pizza places in Maryland was called No Anchovies. They did, however, have anchovies available if anyone actually did want them on pizza.) My favorite dressing by far is Thousand Island. If this isn't available, I can make do with Catalina or French.

Distantly related fun fact: The cocktail known as Bloody Caesar was invented at the Calgary Inn in Calgary, Alberta. I know this, not because I have ever had a Bloody Caesar (Clamato juice = blech), but because I stumbled across this info years ago and recognized the name of the hotel in my hometown. It's since been renamed the Westin.

4. Where do you typically work (or blog if that's easier) at home? Do you have a dedicated home office space? Are you happy with that space?

I blog and do the household work related to bills and such at my desk in the spare room. So it's not dedicated as only a home office. There's a sofa in here that folds down into a bed so it can be used as a guest room. I'm pretty happy with the space, all things considered. In my ideal world, we would have a dedicated office space, but it's not totally necessary, and this has served very well. I should keep it tidier though, but that's on me, not the space!

5. Snow drops, daffodils, lenten roses, crocus, hyacinth, or early tulips . . . what's your favorite early Spring flower?

I love all of them (had to look up what lenten roses are) but tulips are my favorite. I like having cut flowers in my dining room, but in spring I often get small potted tulips or hyacinth instead or in addition. I'm looking forward to the Tulip Festival coming up at the greenhouse and garden center where my husband works!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I looked in the archives to remind myself what I found out about the Ides of March a couple years ago for a Wednesday Quotes theme. The Romans had three set points in each month, based on the moon. The Ides was the first full moon of each month. The Nones is the 5th or 7th or 8th days before the Ides, and the Kalends is the first day of the following month. The Ides falls on the 13th of most months, but on the 15th in four months, including March. The Ides of March would be first full moon of a new year, and was the beginning of spring, which naturally meant feasting and celebrating. The Ides of March was also the day that consuls (state officials) took office. At least until 153BC when, for some reason, the consuls started their terms on the first day of January. And then, along came Julius Caesar and in 46BC he changed the Roman calendar to establish January 1st as the start of the New Year. Julius Caesar didn't get to celebrate very many New Years before he was assassinated. He was stabbed to death in the Senate house by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus on the Ides of March in the year 44BC, and of course that's how the date came to be such a well-known one. And it was obviously a huge event that changed the course of Roman history.

From WQ - The Ides of March in 2024.

Which spring flowers are your favorite? Or do you have a fun Rome-related piece of trivia to share? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Libraries. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

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Monday, March 9, 2026

Currently . . . March 9, 2026

The "Currently" link-up at the beginning of each month is now hosted at Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa. Our new hostess Amy posts a set of action verb prompts for the month and writers respond. So, without further ado, here are this month's prompts and what's happening currently . . .

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Before I get into it, let me briefly explain that yes, I reordered the prompts, and I did that because my answer to "saving my life" was kind of a heavy, so I didn't want to lead off with that! Also my Currently "template" starts with this one and I'm used to starting with it:

Loving - Things I'm loving right now include:

Hockey - it's countdown to playoffs, and every game matters! The Blue Jackets have a chance to grab the wild card spot and we sure hope they do!

Foggy mornings. And sometimes foggy afternoons and evenings. I really like fog, though if it's really thick it's stressful to drive through.

If it's hockey playoffs, and the mornings are often foggy, that means spring is on the way, and I'm loving the hints of green, the growing number of birds to be seen, and the blue skies and warmer days.

Cleaning/Purging - I've been having trouble keeping up, but I am working on cleaning up everything around the desk and purging all the papers we don't need. I've tossed a lot, and will be tossing more as I finish up with taxes. (Taxes were on hold while I waited for a corrected document, and then all of last week because I didn't have the brain power ability to take that on after spending all day in court.)

It's about time to do a major fridge and pantry cleanout and reorganize as well. Hopefully sometime this week.

Planning (trip wise) - I have a trip planned for the end of this month, for Sweet Adelines Regional competition. I'm sharing hotel with three other chorus members, and I'm not the "room captain" this time, so my travel plan basically consists of deciding how early I'm heading down on that Friday and if I can carpool with someone else or not.

More personally, the family is working on vacation plans for a trip to Niagara Falls for our summer family get-together. My parents are planning to join us this year, so that's exciting, and why we've decided Niagara Falls area will be a better choice than Gatlinburg, which we had originally considered. That planning got stalled thanks to my being in court all week, so we need to get that moving again and book one of the houses we've narrowed it down to.

Saving My Life Right Now - During the past week one of the things that's been saving my peace of mind is the American judicial system. Oh, I know we've been hearing a lot of corrupt and obstructionist judges that insert themselves into political questions, because that makes news. What doesn't usually make the news is the many trials by jury happening all over the country every week, and the weighty matters that are being considered and decided by jurors that are taking seriously their responsibility to reach fair verdicts, under the instructions and guidance given by the judges. I spent the week serving on a jury for a case of murder. Everyone, including the judge and the lawyers on both teams, very conscientiously fulfilled their responsibility to follow the law and do justice. It was hard, heavy, and sad work to reach verdicts. In the end, we did, and while I don't think we could say we were happy about our decisions, we were all settled that we had considered every question before us with full gravity and addressed every doubt.

So why is that "saving my life"? Because that roomful of diverse citizens that respectfully and thoughtfully - and sometimes passionately - worked their way to unanimity on those questions represents to me that there is a sizeable "jury pool" of people of many backgrounds and beliefs and experiences that love and respect this country and its laws enough to do the hard work necessary to preserve justice and order. I don't know the religious viewpoints of the others on the jury, but it wouldn't surprise me if others besides me prayed hard about our deliberations. I'm encouraged that the vast majority of criminal cases are decided by thoughtful, responsible jurors. And also, they were just wonderful people and I wish it made sense to hang out socially with them.

Taking a Break From - All the seriousness and weight of a week of jury duty, and making this week a more fun and lighthearted week! I started shaking off the mood on Saturday when I went to womens conference with some ladies from church, then to the hockey game in the evening. We went out to lunch with friends after church yesterday (my relationship with Jesus and my connection with church is always saving my life, by the way), and I didn't put pressure on myself to do a whole lot yesterday afternoon and evening. I'm back to work this week (I guess I took a break from work for a week, but it sure doesn't feel like it was a vacation!) and overall I'm expecting this week to be low-key, even though I have plenty I need to do at home!

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Here's a short Coffee Break Reading List . . .