Summer Ends #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Our theme this week is: You Pick.  But I am choosing as my theme today, last week's theme, which was:  It’s the end of the month, summer is drawing to an end unofficially. Share songs that make you think of the end of summer.

Songs for the end of summer, many times, deal with the end of summer romances, or a nostalgic look back at summertime.  So here's my selection.

The Boys of Summer, Don Henley, from 1984.

Summer Nights - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, from the wonderful Grease soundtrack.

Summer's Almost Gone - The Doors, from 1968.

Famous Last Words - Billy Joel, from 1993.

Last but not least, out of ideas, I decided to look up the number one song for the week of September 21, 1976 (50 years ago) and came up with this:

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry.

This song has nothing to do with the end of summer, but it carries a lot of nostalgia for me.  My spouse was undergoing technical training for his military job.  We would go to the enlisted persons' club and listen to live music and perhaps eat supper there, and this is one of the songs the cover bands played a lot.  Call it an end of summer song.

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me. 

Late August Stroll #ShadowshotSunday

Today, for #ShadowshotSunday, brought to us by Lisa at This and That: A Blog, I'm featuring some shadows from two late August walks in a park.

Picnic bench.

Trees and clouds. 

A wildflower that my iPhone photos app identifies as heal-well. 

Update: since my Friday Skywatch Friday post which mentioned the 2026 tornado count in my state of New York, that number has been updated to 22.  I hope September is calmer.

Have a shadow photo?  Why not join us at Lisa's link above?

 

Thunderheads #SkywatchFriday

Where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, it has been a stormy week.  But we've escaped a lot of the severe weather that the central and western part of the state has experienced in the last few days.

As of last night, we've had 18 confirmed tornadoes so far in New York State since the beginning of the year.  

I took these pictures on August 27.  

Thunderheads.

Let's zoom in.  

Pinkish sky right before sunset, taken through trees.  Sorry for the blur.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had on and off torrential rain.  We got at least four inches, and my spouse and I were caught in one of the downpours trying to get to an appointment.  A bit over an hour away, the New York State Fair had to close because of flooding. 

Our storms Wednesday night came after sunset, and I wasn't going to go out there at 10pm with lightning flashing and lighting up the sky.

Hoping for better weather for all in September.  

Joining with Yogi and other skywatchers for #SkywatchFriday. 

Monarch Time #WordlessWednesday

One of our local libraries has an aquarium set up with monarch butterfly larvae developing. They’ve had several become butterflies.

Here are some pictures of their set up. The larvae are the striped caterpillars, and I hope you can make them out in these pictures.

If you are interested, here is more on the life cycle of a monarch butterfly. 

You can see one towards the right middle of the picture.  I apologize for the glare. 

These are milkweed plants, which the caterpillars feast on until their next stage of development.  I see at least three in this picture.

The enclosure itself. 

This is the Vestal Library's certificate of recognition from the Monarch Waystation program.  The program states, in part:

"Monarch Waystations are intentionally managed gardens that provide critical breeding resources and food sources to support monarch butterflies throughout their multi-generational, 3,000-mile migration.....As of 11 August 2026, there have been 57,969 Monarch Waystation habitats registered with Monarch Watch."

The very first monarch waystation was established in 2004 at the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas. 

 

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
 

Goodbye Dolly #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music, and (sadly) another induction into Rock and Roll Heaven.

Seems like we are having inductions almost every week now, and this one is especially sad. 

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Our theme this week is: It’s the end of the month, summer is drawing to an end unofficially. Share songs that make you think of the end of summer.

But I am going to go in another direction today (I'll save this theme until next week, hopefully).

Dolly Parton passed away on August 25 at the age of 80.  I had blogged a short tribute to her on Wednesday, and it's time to feature some more of her music.  Dolly Parton, in her lifetime, was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  This amazing woman first sang at the Grand Ole Opry (the longest running radio show there is) at age 13, in July of 1959.  She was introduced by Johnny Cash as "a little girl from East Tennessee".

She was so loved that our national flag was lowered to half staff for the week following her death.

I'm devoting this entire post to her music.  First off are a couple of songs familiar to many of us.

9 to 5, sung and written by Dolly Parton, who also starred in the movie of the same name.  This song was used as the closing of the Grand Ole Opry's tribute Saturday to Dolly Parton.

From 1971, a deeply personal song, Coat of Many Colors, about her childhood.  A duplicate coat made by Dolly's mother is on display at Dollywood, the theme park Dolly developed as a tribute to her East Tennessee roots.

Next, a lesson rooted in Dolly's philosophy of life..  

Better Get to Livin', from 2007, is a fan favorite although not considered one of her greatest songs. 

My Tennessee Mountain Home, from 1972. 

One of the Music Moves Me bloggers, DrillerAA from Driller's Place, introduced us to this song last week.  I am including it as another side to Dolly Parton, who was a deeply religious Christian and recorded a number of gospel songs.  This is her cover of He's Alive, a song originally by Don Francisco.  Dolly heard this song on the radio while traveling in 1989 and decided to record it.

Finally, I had to include a live performance of what was probably Dolly Parton's signature song, Jolene, perhaps because of the introduction.

And that's a wrap! 

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me. 

Late Summer Flowers #ShadowshotSunday

Today, some late summer flowers. 

These are pink turtleheads. I bought one plant at a farm market in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012.  I also bought a white turtlehead but it didn't survive.  Turtleheads are a native wildflower to where I live, but I found out recently that while the white turtleheads are native to where I live, the pink ones aren't.  However they are native to where I bought the plant.

Finally, (hiss boo) Japanese knotweed in bloom.  It's lovely when in bloom.  But:  it  was brought over to the United States as an ornamental and erosion control plant around 1873.  By the 1930's it was considered a major problem.  It reproduces vegetatively and is found on all continents except Antarctica.  The only good thing I can say about it is that the honey bees make from it is delicious.

Joining up with Lisa at This and That: A Blog for her #ShadowshotSunday. 

Three Colors of the Sky #SkywatchFriday

A quiet post today showing the different moods and colors of our sky. 

After sunset August 21. 

Peaceful park scene August 23.  Spouse and I had spotted a bald eagle but weren't able to take a picture with it visible.

August 25, storm clouds.  This picture was taken in color.

Watching the every-changing sky is a beautiful pursuit, never ending, never boring.

Joining Yogi and other sky watching bloggers for #SkywatchFriday.