Photo by Joel Henry from Unsplash
Photo by SGR from Unsplash
Photo by Maurito Nixon from Unsplash
Photo by Maurits Bausenhart
Photo by Ian Dooley from Unsplash
Blessings…
Celestial,
Earthly, Oceanic,
Terrestrial, and Personal…
Blessings!
Copyright© 2924 by Cheryl Batavia
May nature’s blessings fill our hearts with joy.
May we live in harmony with nature.
May we cherish and preserve nature’s gifts.
In October, from Russia, Katey and Joe,
came to Florida twenty-five years ago.
Friends and relatives sent gifts of welcome.
Hanukkah and Christmas gifts filled our home!
That January, when Katey turned five,
we agreed that a book was the best gift to give.
On Katey’s birthday, when Papa came home,
the birthday plans all came undone!
When Papa came in, Katey was overjoyed.
Between Papa’s feet was a Barney toy.
From the wheelchair, Barney saw his new place.
A gigantic grin spread over Papa’s face.
Katey kissed Barney’s purple cheek,
and the talking dinosaur began to speak.
In his goofy voice, Barney said, “I love you.”
It was unmistakable, Katey loved him too!
We lost Papa six years later in January,
weeks before Katey’s eleventh birthday.
Barney lived with Katey for twenty-three years.
His demise last year left Katey in tears.
This year, I found on Amazon,
Katey’s Christmas present, a Barney clone!
Barney now lives in Texas, where he’ll say,
“I love you,” to Katey every day.
Recently, I recovered over a thousand photos and found these. They gave me a chuckle, and I hope you also enjoy the old photos.
Copyright© 2024 by Cheryl Batavia
My late husband, Drew, and I adopted Katey and Joe from Russia in October, 1995. We lived in Miami Beach, and Drew, AKA “Papa,” was a very devoted father until his death in January, 2003. Katey now lives near Dallas, Texas with her older sister Ellen, a cat, a dog, and two other roommates. The new Barney, the Purple Dinosaur, joined the household in 2o19.
Ellen and Katey visited a ranch…E-I-E-I-O!
And on this ranch they had some cows, E-I-E-I-O!
With a moo, moo here and a moo, moo there.
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo, moo!
Ellen and Katey visited a ranch…E-I-E-I-O!
Adapted from the traditional children’s song, “Old McDonald Had a Farm.”
Photos by Ellen, Katey and friends.
With a neigh, neigh here…
and an oink, oink there…
Here a mew, there a mew…
Everywhere a mew, mew!
Katey and Ellen visited a ranch. E-I-E-I-OOO!
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my daughters from Texas and I visited Zoo Tampa and had a wonderful time. On Wednesday, they visited the ranch of some of their friends in nearby Arcadia. I stayed home to rest and prepare for Thanksgiving dinner the next day.
I love the photos Katey and Ellen shared from that trip. Katey and Ellen love horses and volunteer at a ranch in Texas that uses horse riding therapy for disabled children. The pig in the pictures is a rescued wild pig. Cats and kittens on the ranch are very affectionate. One in particular seemed to want to go back to Texas with Katey. They also fed peanuts to a friendly squirrel!
After a quiet Thanksgiving and a dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, and ice cream, we rested up for a boat tour and dinner overlooking the bay in Punta Gorda on Friday. Robert was supposed to go with us, but the weather was a little cool and windy. On Saturday, we took a water taxi to an island restaurant, then had decadent deserts in Boca Grande. The girls went for a swim at the beach near the lighthouse.
Katey Batavia, Ellen Maher, Cheryl Batavia on the water taxi.
I have been under the weather, so we didn’t take the road trip we had planned, just some day trips nearby. Allergies and a sinus infection, followed by 24/7 migraine headaches for several months have slowed me down. I recently had an MRI, which ruled out the most serious possible causes of the migraines. A neurologist’s visit is scheduled for March to follow up. Meanwhile, a prescription for migraines from my family doctor should ease my pain. Hopefully, next year, my daughters and I will take our usual road trip.
Katey Batavia
(My memories from the 1990s)
On the eighth night of Hanukkah,
We’re celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa.
Candles will shed soft light
on the faces of our family tonight.
Children light the menorah carefully.
Their father smiles approvingly…
A quiet moment lingers like a dream…
before latkes, applesauce, and sour cream.
Enjoyed by glowing candlelight,
Hanukkah gelt is a sweet delight.
Children eagerly await
opening present number eight.
We sing,”Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel.”
Our pennies are on the table.
Spinning dreidels with Grandma, it’s clear,
“A great miracle happened here!”
Copyright© 2020 by Cheryl Batavia
Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights that commemorates the rededication of the second temple. There was enough oil in the temple lamps to burn for only one night, but miraculously, it burned for eight nights. “A great miracle happened here!” is the message conveyed by the Hebrew letters on the dreidel. A dreidel is a top that is spun in a traditional gambling game. Our children and their grandma played for pennies.
Hanukkah is celebrated for eight nights. At sundown, the Hanukkah menorah is lit. One candle is lit on the first night. Another candle is added each night until, on the eighth night, all eight candles burn. Children receive a present on each night of Hanukkah.
A traditional Hanukkah food, latkes are grated potato pancakes fried in oil often served with applesauce and sour cream. The oil symbolizes the oil that burned for eight nights in the temple lamps. Hanukkah gelt is chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. Our family also enjoyed chopped liver on matzos (similar to crackers) and matzo ball soup at Hanukkah.
Zoos of yesteryear…
grim prisons for animals
innocent of crimes.
Entertainment for people…
Animal exploitation.
Zoos of the present…
appropriate habitat,
animal rescue,
endangered animals raised
to be returned to the wild.
Forward-thinking zoos
enlightening the public,
classes for students,
funds raised for wildlife preserves.
Golden Rule for animals!
When my daughters visited from Texas recently, one of our excursions was to Zoo Tampa, rated the number five Zoo in the US. We participated in a “Feed the Rhino” experience and learned about how Zoo Tampa’s breeding program is helping to prevent extinction of the Indian Rhino. The “Feed the Rhino” animal encounter and photo purchases also raise money to support this program. Katey Batavia, Ellen Maher, and Cheryl Batavia.
Cheryl feeding collard greens to a young Indian Rhino. Notice the prehensile lips and short horn that distinguish Indian rhinos from African rhinos.
We enjoyed a ride on the old-fashioned carousel. Katey posed on a carousel animal.
On “safari” through the African animal enclousure, we relaxed on a tram riding past elephants, giraffes, storks, and painted dogs.
West Indian Manatee entering the viewing area. We also saw a beautiful manatee mother and calf in the aquarium/reptile exhibit. Zoo Tampa has a manatee rescue program for manatees injured by boat propellors. In spite of boating laws to protect them, some accidents still occur.
American flamingos wowed us in the Florida native animal area. They now live in the wild in Everglades National Park after a hundred-year absence from Florida in the wild. They unexpectedly reappeared about twenty years ago. There is speculation that they came from South America. Photo by Karolina Bobeck from Unsplash.
Endangered Florida panthers are featured in the Florida exhibit. Florida panthers are being bred in captivity and are rarely seen in the wild. Bobcats, also featured in the exhibit, have adapted to living near people and are a common sight in suburban Florida neighborhoods.
A sun bear was a delight to watch as he played with a toy that dispensed a snack.
Afternoon meeting on the primate island.
Ellen and Katey. Photo by Cheryl.
Heading home from Tampa. Sunset from the St. Petersburg Skyway Bridge. Photo by Katey Batavia.
We had a great time at Zoo Tampa! Rhino photos by zoo photographer, other uncredited photos by Ellen and Katey.
Copyright© 2023 by Cheryl Batavia
Two years ago my daughters and I visited a lovely Florida zoo for rescued animals. If you missed that post and would like to check it out, click here:
Animals at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park & Poems about Some of the Animals
I found these photos today and thought people might enjoy them.
Downtown Miami, night-time view from our hotel room. The two glowing buildings in the center are the beautiful concert hall and opera house. We attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for these two lovely buildings when we lived in Miami Beach. I later attended some concerts there.
The law firm where my late husband practiced law was located in the Intercontinental building on the left. The sculpture in front of that building is a monument to the Challenger Crew who died in a space mission accident. The tile we bought in support of the monument is still there.
Katey on the white marble slide near Bayside where she used to play as a child. She would slide over and over again until her face was flushed, and we made her take a rest. It looks as if a lot of children have loved it since then!
Katey met a new friend, “Clifford, the Big Red Dog,” at the Miami Book Fair. Katey and her brother had named our dog “Clifford” after him when they were very young.
Cheryl and Katey Batavia at the Miami Book Fair. The Hanging Out with Wild Animals books were on exhibit there.
House in Miami Beach where our family lived for seven years when our children were young.
I confess,
the house is a mess!
I need to clean; I need to shop…
Now’s the time for posting to STOP!
‘Cause soon Ellen and Katey
will visit Robert and me!
A long-awaited visit,
I’ll post it!
Celebrating the lives of our grandparents, whose positive influence has continued throughout our lives and in the lives of everyone who loved them. Photo by Jamie Street from Unsplash
High on a hill, in a historic graveyard
overlooking a quaint Pennsylvania town,
we went to say our final goodbyes
to our grandmother.
After the crowd had dispersed,
my brother, sister, and I lingered.
We each threw a handful of earth
into the open grave.
There was something satisfying about doing that.
My grandmother had always loved growing things
in that Pennsylvania earth; she had placed a headstone
years before, planning to join my grandfather here.
We stood for a few moments in silence
as the cemetery worker waited to fill the grave.
Our grandparents were gone.
It was the end of an era.
When I think of my grandparents today,
in my mind’s eye, I can see the graveyard
high on a hill, and a pink granite headstone
engraved with a heart and both of their names.
Copyright© 2023 by Cheryl Batavia
Photo by Eve Ellen Maher
Copyright © 2023 by Cheryl Batavia
Earthly Days
is available on Amazon &
Barnes & Noble
https://a.co/51DGEok
Soft cover and Kindle editions
“Cactus-Tailed Cat” is one of the poems that will be appearing in Earthly Days. It was first published on this blog in 2020. In that photo, the cat had a tail made of a cucumber!
Here is the poem as it appears in Earthly Days with a new photo by my daughter, Eve Ellen Maher, the cat’s current owner. Ellen is an ordained chaplain, following in her grandfather’s footsteps. The cat now has a real cactus tail.
This is the second in a series of three posts about my paternal grandparents.
Vintage Phonograph. Grandma was a “flapper” with bobbed hair and rolled-down hose, and she loved to dance! I don’t know how my grandparents met, but it might well have been at a dance. Maybe they listened to music on a phonograph like this. Photo by Sudhith Xavier from Unsplash.
Grandpa, born about 1898, worked in steel mills all around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a young man. He bought an early car and travelled to Chicago to learn how to maintain it. There were no repair shops then. In a time when most people didn’t go to school beyond the eighth grade, Grandpa had graduated from high school. He loved to read and continued to educate himself throughout his life.
My grandmother, about ten years younger than Grandpa, was only able to attend school through second grade because she had to take care of her younger sisters while her single mother worked. At twelve years of age, she went to work as a hotel maid to help support her family. In her teens, she worked as a lifeguard. During her brief time in school, she had learned to read, and, like Grandpa, she continued to educate herself as long as she lived.
Sweethearts,
Roaring Twenties.
Flapper, aged seventeen,
ladies’ man, aged twenty-seven,
were wed.
Wild days…
Prohibition…
brewing beer, making wine…
before they got religion and
reformed!
Hard times…
Great Depression…
working to raise two sons.
Hard work, sheer determination,
true grit!
Grandma:
gardener, seamstress,
home nurse, cleaning lady,
restaurant cook, Sunday School
teacher.
Success,
prosperity,
respectability…
Grandpa in construction bussiness…
Good times!
Empty Nest.
On the dresser,
just two photos displayed…
Methodist preacher, state trooper…
their sons!
Big dreams!
My grandparents,
always flipping houses,
painting, papering, plastering…
Moving!
Dream house!
Grandma, Grandpa…
joint effort, as always,
rehabbing Grandma’s childhood home.
Last house!
Grandkids
spending time there
made childhood memories:
fresh eggs, strawberries, handmade clothes,
laughter!
Retired.
Grandfathering,
fishing, golfing, dart games,
classes, reading, enjoying life…
Happy days!
Married
fifty-some years.
Did they love each other?
Public displays of affection…
not seen.
Grandpa,
when diagnosed
with Parkinson’s Disease,
patiently taught Grandma to drive.
That’s love!
Grandma,
when Grandpa died,
placed a carved-heart headstone,
pink granite with both of their names.
That’s love!
Grandma
had a business.
Gift shops carried her handmade
Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls.
Lovely!
Grandma,
for twenty years,
lived to bring others joy,
hoping to join Grandpa one day.
That’s love!
Copyright© 2023 by Cheryl Batavia
This is the first of three posts about my paternal grandparents.
Cotton Field. Photo by Trisha Downing from Unsplash
Cornfield. Photo by Lucas van Oort from Unsplash
Our childhood memories of countrysides,
Victorian homes with yards where we once played.
Your life among the cotton fields so wide,
my life where corn grew tall and cattle grazed.
Like Tarzan, you were skilled at throwing knives,
while I was catching tadpoles, climbing trees.
Deploying fireworks, you blew up cow pies,
while I stepped barefoot onto honeybees!
Pursuing education on our terms,
you excelled at math; I wrote poetry.
You hid your crushes; I, in vain, liked nerds!
Trombone for you, and piano for me.
When biking days became old memories,
your driver’s permit fulfilled all your dreams!
When driving, I proceed quite cautiously,
and you still drive like you are seventeen!
Delightful swapping stories, Delta Boy!
Lives parallel in fascinating ways.
This Mountain Girl found a decade of joy
with Delta Boy, just living out our days.
You grew up eating catfish; I ate trout.
In spite of this detail, it all worked out!
Copyright © 2023 by Cheryl Batavia
❤
*We’ll be the same age, 74, until September 20th! Haha!
Gulf Coast Poet 