Lucy Llewellyn Byard

Lucerne

Freelance Writer at Lake County Record-Bee

Writer and Photographer at Freelance

Featured in: Favicon

record-bee.com Favicon

msn.com

ukiahdailyjournal.com Favicon

spectrummagazine.org Favicon

rattle.com

Articles

My cats are rolling in the dirt

1 week ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

Noodle, the white polydactyl mother cat especially likes the dirt. I’ve started calling her Dusty rather than ChubChub due to her eating everything. Or Noodle, her given name because when picked up she flops like a cooked noodle. Claire, Noodle’s daughter, another white polydactyl cat is too prissy to roll in the dirt. Sox is too old to bother, but Honey the youngest and most adventurous, definitely loves getting dirty. She’s black and white but lately she’s black and gray.
Damn, I’m a failure. I didn’t read the instructions properly!

1 week ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

Six years ago, I had a colonoscopy, and the doctor said I wouldn’t need another one for 10 years. I figured that at 80 years of age, I wouldn’t need one, I’d be too old. Well, my primary doctor ordered a Cologuard test for me. That’s a colonoscopy in a box. So much for getting out of that. I’m not sure why I need to have more tests of any kind.
On a quest to catch ‘the big one’

2 weeks ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

While driving to Clearlake I saw people fishing from the shore, people in boats fishing. It reminded me of how I always loved fishing. A couple of decades ago I even went to Mexico by myself to go fishing. As I boarded the airplane headed to Cabo San Lucas, I imagined what a thrill it’d be to catch a marlin. Approaching the Cabo airport, the plane banked and the Sea of Cortez below sparked like a giant turquoise fishbowl. It had been 20 years since I last visited Cabo.
The Pope is dead but not forgotten

2 weeks ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

I had not thought about Pope Francis dying, until he did. The world seems definitely emptier now, without him. HeLRB-Z-byard-0426-COL- championed the poor and marginalized, inclusion at the Olympics, climate change and many other issues.LRB-Z-byard-0426-COL-I went to Italy when Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. I went with my dear friend BFF who was/is a devout Catholic.
Are you a circle, square or triangle?

3 weeks ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

During my college years (with a husband and 5 year old daughter), my aunt told me, “Lucy, most people are circles or squares, and you, my dear, are a triangle. I took that as a compliment. I didn’t want to be like everyone else. Ever. In high school, I got along with everyone. Even the teachers. I think I was kind of a goofy girl (in my mind anyway). I mostly just wanted to have fun.
Stitching together magic and memories

1 month ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

Have you ever donated, say a pair of pants that were too long, only to find out that magically a seamstress shop opens nearby? That happened to me. I gave away a great cozy pair of pants that were mislabeled for someone the height of a giant on stilts. I’ve also walked around with my favorite scarf that I bought while living in Sri Lanka, with a big hole in it.
Not going to trade in my cats

1 month ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

I took my mom to the 99 Cent store in Southern California where we lived about 30 years ago. She was practically blind from macular degeneration and so I was her eyes. She’d pick something up and ask me with her faint voice, “Is this made in China?”“Yes,” I said. So she put it down. She did this over and over again until I said, “Mom, everything in this store is made in China.” We left the store empty handed.
Planting time, for real this time

1 month ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

I’ve been willing the weather to get warm enough to plant my kale and lettuce starts that a friend gave me. I finally got my wish and put in six kale and six lettuce. They look so small and vulnerable, barely able to prop themselves up even with good soil around each of them. The first thing I do in the morning, even before feeding my four cats is go outside and see if they’ve survived the night. They have.
Party time up in the sky

1 month ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

I attended the Miramar Air Show at San Diego’s USMC base in 2002. The airfield was dotted with planes, jets, tanks, helicopters and men in uniform. F-16s screamed overhead and I was in heaven, a kid in a candy store. I almost did a cartwheel, but I refrained. After all it was Press Day, and I was a member of the press with an image to uphold. Hard-bodied Marines were everywhere, but better than that, just down the tarmac (within sprinting distance!) were my all-time god-like heroes: the Blue Angels.
Making writer friends for a lifetime

1 month ago | record-bee.com | Lucy Llewellyn Byard

I once had lunch with a dear friend who I met at the Santa Barbara Writers (SBWC) Conference, Charles Champlin. Chuck was a film critic and writer and I adored him as he was so smart and full of stories and kind. He would entertain people with stories of celebrities he knew and interviewed. We went to lunch at a famous Los Angeles restaurant. I can’t remember the restaurant’s name and I also can’t remember what we talked about, but I have to say it was an honor to be his friend.