...what else is a puppy to do in the sun ?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Berry-time ! .. and the Circle of Life
It's been an absolutely wonderful weekend...blue skies, bright sun, slight breeze...all in all, a great weekend to be out and about in the great outdoors. We had already noticed the abundance of green unripened fruit in the blackberry brambles this summer, and with it being a bumper crop in the works, I persuaded DH that this year we needed to pick enough to make a batch of blackberry wine...we need 15 pounds for the 5-gallon carboy....so, earlier in the week my daughter and I had been out and picked several pounds – I did manage to get 3 pounds in the freezer and left the rest for munching.....she managed to demolish the remaining 1.5 pounds in a day, leaving DH somewhat disappointed as he likes to eat them as well, so he had to go scope out the back field and did bring home another bucket full...Anyway, once the sun was no longer directly overhead yesterday, the three of us went out to pick more fruit – came home with another 6 pounds, and planned to head out early Sunday to pick more before the sun started beating down on us again. It's unbelievably incredible the amount of fruit out there...you start picking on a couple of stalks, and every time you turn elsewhere, or bend down, or move a branch, you find more and more and more....by the time we called it quits for today and headed home, washed off what we brought home (each of us had a bucket to start the morning with), weighed it and packaged up what we needed....and yes, still managed to leave 3 pounds of blackberries in the fridge for eating and to make smoothies with tonight. Total count of fruit harvested this weekend: 18.25 pounds....yes, eighteen plus....and we could have continued to pick if our buckets hadn't all been full .....
Being out in the woods and fields picking fruit is in and of itself a great way to spend the day....add to that the fact we never left our property, we heard/saw evidence of the multitude of wildlife that we know is there (and I am sure with our crisscrossing the berry fields, spooked several of the smaller creatures such as the mice and squirrels, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our newest neighbor, a small hawk). For that matter, this morning at one point I left the field and wandered down an old trail and further back into the woods....told my hubby later on that I had heard something “purring” at one point while I was stopped. Now, given the fact that this is a ways out and in woods where there is known to be numerous assorted sizes of predators, I highly doubt that it was someone's family pet....and we know for a fact that there is a bobcat, or family of, living in the immediate vicinity. Was I worried?...no...a purring cat is a contented cat, so since I was not disrupting a hunt or getting into a rock pile that could potentially hide a den, I think the big cat just watched me go about my business and left me to it without showing itself....Because I know we have these in the area (along with fox, weasel/fisher, hawk, eagle, coyote, and occasional bear), I am very conscious of where I go and keep my ears and eyes alert to what is around me as the last thing you want to do is come up unaware on a mother bear with cubs. So, other than my encounter with the unseen cat, the hawk flew over our heads several times to see if we had jumped anything of interest, and we did see a small red fox at the edge of the sandpit...yeah, the hunting for our local predators is fairly decent. There is abundant small rodents, rabbits, grouse and partridge, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, turkeys, deer, and moose.
The circle of life...we find evidence of it every time we head out into the back woods...occasional small skulls after they have been bleached by the sun, antler scrapings on saplings, multitude of hoof prints crossing the old railroad bed near a known wild apple tree that quickly show small and large deer as well as the occasional moose (several sizes of these as well)....we have also chanced to find the partially eaten remains of a deer or moose on occasion near the trail (found usually because of the smell emanating from it) which because of it's size had to have been brought down by something fairly fast or large, which ultimately becomes food for many of the smaller predators once the hunter has had his fill.....Even the plant life shows the pattern of life and death....what once was a great open field is now not quite so wide, the small saplings that used to line the edge have grown tremendously and now form a canopy above the slower-growing plants...DH and I were just talking about that this week while walking down the old railroad bed about how we could 'see' into the woods whereas we had not been able to do so several years ago......the forest is growing up, the undergrowth that had originally clung to life after the forest was originally logged – this has reached up and taken hold of their position as the next generation of future logging, all that remains as undergrowth now is that which thrives in the cool and damp beneath the canopy....the ferns and moss, and the baby trees that need the protection from the weather that now shelter under the parent trees .....life at the edge of the woods as we see and understand it, each plant or animal or bird, all following their own cycle of life that may or may not culminate in their landing on our dinner plate or heating our house ........
Being out in the woods and fields picking fruit is in and of itself a great way to spend the day....add to that the fact we never left our property, we heard/saw evidence of the multitude of wildlife that we know is there (and I am sure with our crisscrossing the berry fields, spooked several of the smaller creatures such as the mice and squirrels, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our newest neighbor, a small hawk). For that matter, this morning at one point I left the field and wandered down an old trail and further back into the woods....told my hubby later on that I had heard something “purring” at one point while I was stopped. Now, given the fact that this is a ways out and in woods where there is known to be numerous assorted sizes of predators, I highly doubt that it was someone's family pet....and we know for a fact that there is a bobcat, or family of, living in the immediate vicinity. Was I worried?...no...a purring cat is a contented cat, so since I was not disrupting a hunt or getting into a rock pile that could potentially hide a den, I think the big cat just watched me go about my business and left me to it without showing itself....Because I know we have these in the area (along with fox, weasel/fisher, hawk, eagle, coyote, and occasional bear), I am very conscious of where I go and keep my ears and eyes alert to what is around me as the last thing you want to do is come up unaware on a mother bear with cubs. So, other than my encounter with the unseen cat, the hawk flew over our heads several times to see if we had jumped anything of interest, and we did see a small red fox at the edge of the sandpit...yeah, the hunting for our local predators is fairly decent. There is abundant small rodents, rabbits, grouse and partridge, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, turkeys, deer, and moose.
The circle of life...we find evidence of it every time we head out into the back woods...occasional small skulls after they have been bleached by the sun, antler scrapings on saplings, multitude of hoof prints crossing the old railroad bed near a known wild apple tree that quickly show small and large deer as well as the occasional moose (several sizes of these as well)....we have also chanced to find the partially eaten remains of a deer or moose on occasion near the trail (found usually because of the smell emanating from it) which because of it's size had to have been brought down by something fairly fast or large, which ultimately becomes food for many of the smaller predators once the hunter has had his fill.....Even the plant life shows the pattern of life and death....what once was a great open field is now not quite so wide, the small saplings that used to line the edge have grown tremendously and now form a canopy above the slower-growing plants...DH and I were just talking about that this week while walking down the old railroad bed about how we could 'see' into the woods whereas we had not been able to do so several years ago......the forest is growing up, the undergrowth that had originally clung to life after the forest was originally logged – this has reached up and taken hold of their position as the next generation of future logging, all that remains as undergrowth now is that which thrives in the cool and damp beneath the canopy....the ferns and moss, and the baby trees that need the protection from the weather that now shelter under the parent trees .....life at the edge of the woods as we see and understand it, each plant or animal or bird, all following their own cycle of life that may or may not culminate in their landing on our dinner plate or heating our house ........
Thursday, August 12, 2010
the realm of possibility
Found something interesting last night while reading….for a change, just reading for the sake of enjoyment, in this case a book I had read some time back but recently started re-reading. It always amazes me that in doing so, something new ‘clicks’ and makes the mind race in new directions….To preface this, I ought to tell you that I am a huge fan of the King Arthur/Camelot/Merlin novels – fantasy/magic/romance….what more could one ask for? In any case, what I am currently reading is “The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley and enjoying it immensely. Came across this passage that was supposed to have been instructions from the Druids to the young priestesses of Avalon…”..If you would have the message of the Gods to direct your life, look for that which repeats, again and again; for this is the message given by the Gods, the karmic lesson you much learn for this incarnation. It comes again and again until you have made it part of your soul and your enduring spirit…”
Wow…there is power in those words...”…that which repeats, again and again…” All too often something happens in our lives that we, for what-ever reason are not looking at it beyond the surface projection. Take for example running into a friend you haven’t seen for some time but everything clicks into place like no time at all has parted you. The conversation picks up where it left off…the point in your relationship has neither stagnated nor rescinded into the distant past, it just is and moves forward from here. You connect with someone you knew through work, someone who had jokingly (you thought) said you needed to come work for him…..now you start to wonder at the wisdom of this thought when he returns and again proffers the same thought.
So, is there some truth to these words found within a book of pure fiction?..or is it fiction? How many times do we unconsciously or even consciously, refuse to see the pattern emerging before our eyes? Is it possible that something exists beyond the normal scope of things that moves us towards something or someone, and for whatever reason we deny this pattern of events? Is the truth beyond our scope of imagination? Are we too level-headed to allow the non-rational to take hold??
…and there you have it…I accept the fact that there are things/beings beyond this plane of existence…I am learning to listen to, and to watch for, the clues that come my way. In the faith that I was raised in, this would not be an acceptable alternative, to follow or believe in what used to be called ‘the Old Ways’….but there is something to the earth magik’s, and listening to the message resonating from the ground beneath our feet and the skies above us…..what patterns are we missing that has been repeating for some time now, who’s call continues to grow stronger because we have not heeded it as of yet? What changes could be wrought in our lives if we stopped and listened, just this once…?
Wow…there is power in those words...”…that which repeats, again and again…” All too often something happens in our lives that we, for what-ever reason are not looking at it beyond the surface projection. Take for example running into a friend you haven’t seen for some time but everything clicks into place like no time at all has parted you. The conversation picks up where it left off…the point in your relationship has neither stagnated nor rescinded into the distant past, it just is and moves forward from here. You connect with someone you knew through work, someone who had jokingly (you thought) said you needed to come work for him…..now you start to wonder at the wisdom of this thought when he returns and again proffers the same thought.
So, is there some truth to these words found within a book of pure fiction?..or is it fiction? How many times do we unconsciously or even consciously, refuse to see the pattern emerging before our eyes? Is it possible that something exists beyond the normal scope of things that moves us towards something or someone, and for whatever reason we deny this pattern of events? Is the truth beyond our scope of imagination? Are we too level-headed to allow the non-rational to take hold??
…and there you have it…I accept the fact that there are things/beings beyond this plane of existence…I am learning to listen to, and to watch for, the clues that come my way. In the faith that I was raised in, this would not be an acceptable alternative, to follow or believe in what used to be called ‘the Old Ways’….but there is something to the earth magik’s, and listening to the message resonating from the ground beneath our feet and the skies above us…..what patterns are we missing that has been repeating for some time now, who’s call continues to grow stronger because we have not heeded it as of yet? What changes could be wrought in our lives if we stopped and listened, just this once…?
Saturday, August 7, 2010
the Tattoo
Tattoos are very interesting things. When you see someone with one, the mind starts wondering what it is, does it symbolize something or was it just because everyone else had one? …does it say something about the owner, or it is just an arbitrary image picked at random because it fit the space?...does it have a mate on someone else’s body like a name or the other half of a Mizpah coin? …are they just a single item or part of an ever-expanding complex of images?
My two best friends and I had decided we were going to get a tattoo when we turned 50…well, he went ahead and got one to add to his collection; she and I are still debating it, talking stage still, wondering about the cost, when to do this, where to put it, etc….and yes, we are all OVER 50 now, but I figure if my mom could get her’s at 67, I have some time..lol.
A tattoo is a very personal thing, for me at least. It needs to say something about ME, who I am, what I stand for, what my interest(s) are….and by this, nothing run-of-the-mill, ordinary, artsy-fartsy, carbon copy of some-one else’s…..So, where do I begin? Because when all is said and done, the thinking has been ongoing for some time now. I have definite ideas of what I would like to have, just not finalized to any one image – and that is all I plan to have is the one….so, who am I , really? I have bits of all kinds of images dancing in my head, so here is Me trying to make sense of it all…. Simple, clean lines, very straightforward and uncluttered, with gentle curves as opposed to angular/boxy lines. Spiders, simply because I am a spinner. Angels and/or fairies, because I have a fascination for the mystical/mythical beings that inhabit our world. Rocks, representing stability and solidness but sometimes hiding their beauty within like geodes. Celtic knots, the intricate weaving of cords that look at once solid and impenetrable yet easily pulled open and apart, representing the ties that bind us together and how much are lives are intertwined. Trees and/or plants, what symbolize life and growing things. Stick figures of people or hands enclosed in a heart reflecting my love of family and friends. An image of diverging paths/roads, because I have always followed my own path -- as my sister said, walked to the beat of a different drummer – and the family euphemism of my “taking the scenic path’ because I got lost (yes, I took the wrong way to get somewhere, but we eventually despite the 80-mile round trip misstep, got to where we needed/wanted to be)……
See what I mean ? …not such an easy task to define ME in a single image, there are simply too many facets comprising the Me that is ME….So, the thinking and reflecting on these images continues as I try to make some sense of it all, as well as come up with a way to pull them all together in a cohesive unit that truly will say ….. Me.
My two best friends and I had decided we were going to get a tattoo when we turned 50…well, he went ahead and got one to add to his collection; she and I are still debating it, talking stage still, wondering about the cost, when to do this, where to put it, etc….and yes, we are all OVER 50 now, but I figure if my mom could get her’s at 67, I have some time..lol.
A tattoo is a very personal thing, for me at least. It needs to say something about ME, who I am, what I stand for, what my interest(s) are….and by this, nothing run-of-the-mill, ordinary, artsy-fartsy, carbon copy of some-one else’s…..So, where do I begin? Because when all is said and done, the thinking has been ongoing for some time now. I have definite ideas of what I would like to have, just not finalized to any one image – and that is all I plan to have is the one….so, who am I , really? I have bits of all kinds of images dancing in my head, so here is Me trying to make sense of it all…. Simple, clean lines, very straightforward and uncluttered, with gentle curves as opposed to angular/boxy lines. Spiders, simply because I am a spinner. Angels and/or fairies, because I have a fascination for the mystical/mythical beings that inhabit our world. Rocks, representing stability and solidness but sometimes hiding their beauty within like geodes. Celtic knots, the intricate weaving of cords that look at once solid and impenetrable yet easily pulled open and apart, representing the ties that bind us together and how much are lives are intertwined. Trees and/or plants, what symbolize life and growing things. Stick figures of people or hands enclosed in a heart reflecting my love of family and friends. An image of diverging paths/roads, because I have always followed my own path -- as my sister said, walked to the beat of a different drummer – and the family euphemism of my “taking the scenic path’ because I got lost (yes, I took the wrong way to get somewhere, but we eventually despite the 80-mile round trip misstep, got to where we needed/wanted to be)……
See what I mean ? …not such an easy task to define ME in a single image, there are simply too many facets comprising the Me that is ME….So, the thinking and reflecting on these images continues as I try to make some sense of it all, as well as come up with a way to pull them all together in a cohesive unit that truly will say ….. Me.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
fairy name !
...found a link on a mail list to discover your Fairy name...all right, I'll bite, might be interesting to see what the generator comes up with based on my name....
Your fairy is called Gossamer Moonfrost
She is the moon goddess's messenger.
She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.
She is only seen during the first snow of winter.
She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has beautiful blue butterfly wings.
Get your free fairy name here!
...how very neat is that!...only seen during the first snow of winter, and I was a winter baby too!...and now I spin, so keeping spiders near is a good sign.
Your fairy is called Gossamer Moonfrost
She is the moon goddess's messenger.
She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.
She is only seen during the first snow of winter.
She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has beautiful blue butterfly wings.
Get your free fairy name here!
...how very neat is that!...only seen during the first snow of winter, and I was a winter baby too!...and now I spin, so keeping spiders near is a good sign.
Friday, July 9, 2010
If you could see what I see
Seems like it was just yestahdee I walked through my house, though it is very apparent I must have been sleepin’ some-where ‘cause I certainly would not have set up my house this-a-way…oh my stars, who put avocado green and pumpkin orange in my kitchen ?! …where did my nice solid wooden ice chest go to, I wonner….and all those doors on the walls ! …and how is a body supposed to sit on them spindly little chairs? Couldn’t have been very big folk living here….
There are people walking thru my house, one of whom has a pin on his jacket that gives his name and somethin’ that looks like ‘reel-ter’…I’m not knowing what that is, but he is talking up my house somethin’ fierce – “…..hand-turned wooden moldings throughout the house…..” and somethin’ that sounds suspishusly like “..shabby sheeke..”, what-ever that might be, though it do seem to be takin’ the young-folk’s attention. I ‘member when my man made those door-frames, he did like to work with his wood, said it felt alive in his hands. Me, I am thinkin’ he had imbibed a little too heavy that day…..and the man did like his lickor, tho’ he tried to hide it from me. We used ta’ have a shed out back with an outhouse attached to the side. My man hid his wiskey bottles there so I wouldn’t find them, but I knew where they were, and if I was thinkin’ he was imbibin’ a little too much I took steps to fix that…..I tried puttin’ sand in the bottle a coupla’ times, filled ‘em with water, put bugs and werms in one, ‘til I saw the bottle already had a werm…the smell of that one near made my eyes burn…when that didna’ work I took ta’ dumpin’ the bottles so they’d be empty….when I’d had enuff of his drinkin’, I brought the bottle in and smashed it on his head – yup, my man decided it was safer to stay sober after that one. I still chuckle over that one…made my man clean up my floor and scrub the lickor off’en it afterwards….he ne’re took another drop after that.
But where was I …? Ah, yes, visitin’ my house…strange that I can go thru the kitchen wall and be in the pantry…a bit dusty it is, and cobwebs, and …yuck, mouse droppin’s beneat’ the shelf…some-body hasna’ been here in a good bit if the critters have taken residence. The top shelf still has my ole butter churn and my most favoritest skillet made of black iron that my man gifted me with one year…that pan was some hevvee but it cooked so good…..as I go back thru the wall my kitchen, my good stove is gone. When my man and me first lived there we have a big wood stove that had a well in the side of it for heating water…the boys knew they hadta’ scrub their faces and hands ‘afore they came to dinner and lack of hot water was not an exkusse ! So, the folks are still walkin’ thru my house and talkin’ with the reel-ter about the size of the rooms and age of the strukcher, and how much land came with it, and how much could they talk the owner to come down on price….Land sakes alive…who’d a’ thunk my house would genn-ah-rate such talk? They seem nice folk, a bit long in the tooth perhaps as I dinna’ think there are chillun’ livin’ with ‘em….The man is talkin’ ‘bout settin’ up a work-shop – seems he does things with wood like my man useta’, and the woman is sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout the big room in front up-stairs that has a big winder in it now, somethin’ to the effect of “..good light for my quiltin’…” so perhaps wont be too bad. I followed the folks down the hallway. What useta’ be the babee’s room now has what the reel-ter called an “..n-clozed tub an’ show’r…..porcelin’ base…original claw-foot…” – well, at least the ones who put it there knew qualitee. The lady is sayin’ that it smelled like babee powder…’course it did, I was very liberal with that wit’ my babee’s, and I blew some off the winder when they came in the room….
{..fast-forward several months…}
I hadta’ walk thru my house again…time to say good-bye to it I am supposin’…the man and woman who I had seen wit’ the reel-ter are in the house now. They still have lots of boxes to open it seems, but the room up-stairs with the big winder with all the light is in use all ready….there are new shelves with fabrics – yes many fabrics of so many colors…and the woman is hummin’ as she cuts and stitches and cuts some more…..there is a big wicker rocker in the room now too…with a quilt hangin’ over the back…and an orange tabby-cat in the chair lookin’ at me. His eyes are bright and clear and he sees me. He knows I am here and mean ‘im no harm…it is a good room, a happy place – the woman has seen to that…. I can be happy knowin’ my house is in good hands now…..time for me to be movin’ on I am supposin’….
There are people walking thru my house, one of whom has a pin on his jacket that gives his name and somethin’ that looks like ‘reel-ter’…I’m not knowing what that is, but he is talking up my house somethin’ fierce – “…..hand-turned wooden moldings throughout the house…..” and somethin’ that sounds suspishusly like “..shabby sheeke..”, what-ever that might be, though it do seem to be takin’ the young-folk’s attention. I ‘member when my man made those door-frames, he did like to work with his wood, said it felt alive in his hands. Me, I am thinkin’ he had imbibed a little too heavy that day…..and the man did like his lickor, tho’ he tried to hide it from me. We used ta’ have a shed out back with an outhouse attached to the side. My man hid his wiskey bottles there so I wouldn’t find them, but I knew where they were, and if I was thinkin’ he was imbibin’ a little too much I took steps to fix that…..I tried puttin’ sand in the bottle a coupla’ times, filled ‘em with water, put bugs and werms in one, ‘til I saw the bottle already had a werm…the smell of that one near made my eyes burn…when that didna’ work I took ta’ dumpin’ the bottles so they’d be empty….when I’d had enuff of his drinkin’, I brought the bottle in and smashed it on his head – yup, my man decided it was safer to stay sober after that one. I still chuckle over that one…made my man clean up my floor and scrub the lickor off’en it afterwards….he ne’re took another drop after that.
But where was I …? Ah, yes, visitin’ my house…strange that I can go thru the kitchen wall and be in the pantry…a bit dusty it is, and cobwebs, and …yuck, mouse droppin’s beneat’ the shelf…some-body hasna’ been here in a good bit if the critters have taken residence. The top shelf still has my ole butter churn and my most favoritest skillet made of black iron that my man gifted me with one year…that pan was some hevvee but it cooked so good…..as I go back thru the wall my kitchen, my good stove is gone. When my man and me first lived there we have a big wood stove that had a well in the side of it for heating water…the boys knew they hadta’ scrub their faces and hands ‘afore they came to dinner and lack of hot water was not an exkusse ! So, the folks are still walkin’ thru my house and talkin’ with the reel-ter about the size of the rooms and age of the strukcher, and how much land came with it, and how much could they talk the owner to come down on price….Land sakes alive…who’d a’ thunk my house would genn-ah-rate such talk? They seem nice folk, a bit long in the tooth perhaps as I dinna’ think there are chillun’ livin’ with ‘em….The man is talkin’ ‘bout settin’ up a work-shop – seems he does things with wood like my man useta’, and the woman is sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout the big room in front up-stairs that has a big winder in it now, somethin’ to the effect of “..good light for my quiltin’…” so perhaps wont be too bad. I followed the folks down the hallway. What useta’ be the babee’s room now has what the reel-ter called an “..n-clozed tub an’ show’r…..porcelin’ base…original claw-foot…” – well, at least the ones who put it there knew qualitee. The lady is sayin’ that it smelled like babee powder…’course it did, I was very liberal with that wit’ my babee’s, and I blew some off the winder when they came in the room….
{..fast-forward several months…}
I hadta’ walk thru my house again…time to say good-bye to it I am supposin’…the man and woman who I had seen wit’ the reel-ter are in the house now. They still have lots of boxes to open it seems, but the room up-stairs with the big winder with all the light is in use all ready….there are new shelves with fabrics – yes many fabrics of so many colors…and the woman is hummin’ as she cuts and stitches and cuts some more…..there is a big wicker rocker in the room now too…with a quilt hangin’ over the back…and an orange tabby-cat in the chair lookin’ at me. His eyes are bright and clear and he sees me. He knows I am here and mean ‘im no harm…it is a good room, a happy place – the woman has seen to that…. I can be happy knowin’ my house is in good hands now…..time for me to be movin’ on I am supposin’….
Monday, July 5, 2010
Independence Day
We went to a local private inn that was hosting fireworks. Always a sight to see from the top of the hill where the Inn sits over the lake...and there was a bit of breeze at the end that blew the smoke back over us.
We get to celebrate our independence because of boys and girls in uniform, and you often see the phrase "Freedom isn't free", and it's not, it is bought at the cost of a life sometimes.....Thank a Veteran, or a current Military member for their service, and yes, this is something near-and-dear to my heart: My father served in the Navy; my brother was in the Marines; my husband was on board a Navy vessel during the Gulf War; my eldest son is the National Guard; and my younger son is in the Army having already served in Iraq once and deploying there again this year...This proud Maman is thankful for what they have done, are doing, and will do to allow us the freedom to continue to celebrate our independence......
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