I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: photography

  • ’twas two weeks before Christmas (from 2018)

    ’twas two weeks before Christmas (from 2018)


    ...and all through the yard only Spike and I were stirring,

    Pretty and Charly were inside and warm.

    Pretty and I like to keep the pool open in the winter,

    but it has a much different look from summer fun and sun

    Spike keeps me company whenever I walk around the pool

    (I think he likes the cold, and I like his company)

    so beautiful, but Pretty battles the leaves until they’re all gone

    the bottom of the pool looks like a Rorschach test to me sometimes 

    even the bottle tree loses its colors in winter

    Spike is ready to go inside to check on Pretty

    While family members in the upstate of South Carolina have been without power this weekend after unusually large amounts of snowfall, we have been covered in grey clouds peppering us with rain, rain and more rain. Almost cold enough for snow, but not quite.

    I am reminded of Granny Selma’s motto: Sheila, we have to smile more on rainy days.

    ****************

    Back in the days before two new knee replacement surgeries in 2019, before the birth of two baby granddaughters ( Ella in 2019 and Molly in 2022) who already take swimming lessons in the summertime and love to play in this pool, before an elder dog named Carl whose primary mission in life has been to terrorize the equally cranky old Spike since Carl came to join the family in 2020 – Spike and I took to the backyard for early morning “walks” while I pushed my walker six times around our pool. 

    We moved to our house on Cardinal Drive in 2017 because our two-story Casa de Canterbury was too difficult for me to navigate fourteen stairs from one level to the next. Pretty found the house for us with her usual former realtor eyes – she had been in the business for seventeen years before the insanity of the markets in 2010 saw her return to retail at Mast General Store, a new store opening on Main Street in Columbia in 2011. She greeted customers, worked with super employees who became friends for life, and filled tons of candy into barrels every week for five years to create nostalgia mixed with modern taste buds as Mast became a cornerstone for changing the Main Street look and vibe of Columbia.

    The last picture of this piece in 2018 caught me by surprise because I had forgotten about the original hot tub hidden behind the two rockers under a small portico; hot tub gone, portico torn down to be replaced by a small screen porch the following year. Rockers didn’t survive, either, gradually deteriorating in the elements like my knees worn away by time. Pride Flags flew from day one in 2017, replaced with new ones through the years but keeping watch over the changes in our lives as surely as the shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.

    ************************

    Slava Ukraini. For all children everywhere.

    Pretty is merry at Cardinal Christmas in 2018

  • storms passed over us last night, but the sun also rises

    storms passed over us last night, but the sun also rises


    As reliable as our big shaking dog Spike is to predict inclement weather, often with more accuracy than the professional weather people in the media, last night’s storms were much less than he dreaded. We still hunkered down with our battery powered lights as the winds howled, the rain pounded the leaves off the trees – but today brought sunlight to mitigate the old blue norther that dropped the temperatures to levels in line with December in South Carolina.

    Carl assesses the leaf situation in our back yard this morning

    Carl wondered if the new dog would be friendlier than Spike

    Charly thought this dog looked familiar from holidays long ago and far away

    sniff, sniff – nope, no problemo

    *******************

    Look at what came to us yesterday afternoon when our little granddaughters went with their cousin to talk to Santa – thanks so much to the mothers of these children for sharing the joy (?)!!

    Daughter-in-law Caroline (l.) holds our two year old granddaughter skeptic Molly for her first chat with Santa while Caroline’s twin sister Chloe (r.) holds our four year old granddaughter Ella who appears to be planning something to stir the pot while Santa holds one year old cousin Caleb who is chill, going with the flow.

    Molly unconvinced, Ella ready to jump ship, and Caleb still chill

    let’s get down to the business of what I want for Christmas, Santa

    *********************

    So many storms around the world this year during a season celebrated for peace, love and hope; I wanted to share these pictures as a reminder that the sun also rises in time to bring us another day to be thankful for all creatures great and small – the most magical gifts we’ll celebrate in any season.

    Slava Ukraini. For all the children everywhere.

  • Gamecock women went to Duke – and so did we

    Gamecock women went to Duke – and so did we


    thanks to Gamecock Jennifer for great seats behind our bench at Duke game

    Duke took early lead, but Gamecock women finished with 77-61 win

    Pretty and I have made the 3 1/2 hour road trip from Columbia, South Carolina to Durham, North Carolina three times in the past eight years to watch our Gamecock women’s basketball team play the Duke University Blue Devils. The trip this year was unique with a new traveler on board: 23 month old granddaughter Molly. While older sister Ella performed in The Nutcracker ballet in Columbia this weekend, Molly had a number of firsts with us starting with our first road trip together.

    Molly’s mom Caroline always has her hair and clothes fixed so cute

    another first for Molly was staying in a motel room with her Nana and Naynay

    (she found Naynay’s Crocs next to bed and took off like a herd of turtles)

    Pretty and Molly outside Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University on Game Day, Molly’s first basketball game

    Molly happiest when looking at pictures of Ella

    Our personal record with the Gamecock women is now 2-1 at Duke (yes, we were there for the loss in 2016), but while the first two games we saw at Cameron were exciting, this third game in Durham was a winner not only because we won a basketball game but also because we shared a memory maker experience with two North Carolina friends who are ardent Gamecock fans as well as our first attempt to indoctrinate a new little Gamecock fan who now shouts “Cocks” whenever the people around her shout “Game.” Sigh. If only we could have had a different mascot.

    Gamecock women’s basketball won at Duke – and so did we. Go Cocks!

    **********************

    Slava Ukraini. For all children everywhere.

  • is a thing of beauty really a joy forever? not necessarily

    is a thing of beauty really a joy forever? not necessarily


    In 1818 the poet John Keats wrote “A thing of beauty is a joy forever…” from his first published book length poem Endymion, the name of a young shepherd boy in love with a moon goddess according to Greek legend.

    In 1954 Nat King Cole sang the title song for the movie Autumn Leaves which was also about a love affair but with a much more sinister plot twist involving mental illness. Think an older Joan Crawford in love with a much younger man played by Cliff Robertson. If she had been a teacher obsessed with a student, she might have been arrested. A love song that began in France (where else?) as a poem in 1945, crossed the pond as a song in America in the late 1940s by pop singer Jo Stafford whose claim to fame was “the wistful singing voice of the American home front during WWII and the Korean War” per an article in the New York Times in July, 2008; however, it was a piano solo by Roger Williams in 1955 that placed the song on the charts for six months.

    The falling leaves drift by the window
    The autumn leaves of red and gold
    I see your lips, the summer kisses
    The sun-burned hands I used to hold

    Since you went away the days grow long
    And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
    But I miss you most of all my darling
    When autumn leaves start to fall.

    Lah-de-lah-de-dah. Okay, I get it. I’m all about the beautiful leaves of red and gold, drifting by my window or just outside my back door or front door or on the carport or in the yard or most importantly…in my pool. So romantic except for the ongoing war with the endless leaves in the fall.

    Carl checking out leaf situation with me this morning

    the last reminders of summer covered with autumn leaves

    I fought the leaves, and the leaves won.

    but Pride flag keeps watch over us through every season

    The Thanksgiving season is a time of reflection for yesterday’s summer kisses, today’s beautiful leaves of red and gold that will bring old winter’s song with their brown colors signaling a thing of beauty may not quite be a joy forever. So I’ll miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall.

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  • Happy Birthday to the oldest Huss Brother!

    Happy Birthday to the oldest Huss Brother!


    Oscar was almost three years old when he signed this card for me at Halloween in 2011

    These pictures of Oscar and his younger brother Dwight who would be one year old the following January made me smile when I first saw them twelve years ago, and they continue to add smiles for me when I see them today. I named the little boys The Fabulous Huss Brothers when we lived three houses down from the Huss family during the time Pretty and I had a second home in Texas from 2010 – 2014. They were my first introduction to being a grandmother; their biological grandparents lived great distances from the boys so I shared some fun times with them as well as the closeness of family life that helped make my time away from Pretty and South Carolina a memorable experience.

    Every year their mother Becky sends me a Mother’s Day card from the boys (now three brothers with the birth of George in 2012):

    the Fabulous Huss Brothers in 2023

    Happy Fifteenth Birthday, Oscar! I hope you have your best year ever at school, with your extracurricular activities, with friends new and old – and especially at home with your family. Be kind to your mom, dad and those two brothers, too. You are loved. The whole earth is your territory. Explore.