Granddaughters

My granddaughter took this picture up river when she and her photographer friend, John, went up to check out the

A musing morning

Daughter Pat took this picture of a sand dollar lying on a beach. It is like this morning, peaceful and very quiet as the fog is in thick and low, only the silhouette of the trees shows through the eerie mist. The houses are dark, not a light bulb on, as their 'people' sleep in. You can well imagine the alarm clocks ticking and soon they will be up and getting ready for the new day, some to work and some to play. There is no wind this morning, not even a slight breeze at the moment, so the stillness brings about a feeling of calmness and serenity. I am thankful to have slept soundly and late this morning, as my usual wake up time is around four or five A.M. It is now six A.M. and I am wondering what is in store for me today. I'll do a chore or two around the house and I may even pull a few weeds in the garden beds, although I think some clipping needs doing as the bushes have grown wild and wide this year. If the girls are available, maybe we can plan a beach walk and see if there are any more sand dollars waiting to be picked up and treasured.

On mornings like this, I wonder why everyone in our world cannot wake up to such peace and quiet, but I know as soon as I pour my cup of coffee and put on the morning news, the realism will seep in and the words and pictures will be of all the strife and misery on going in our world. Even in our little town isn't free of it as the local politicians agree to disagree. Speaking of politicians, I wrote to Congressman DeFazio about the possibility of the Muslims building a mosque on ground zero and my views of how wrong this is and the response, now via e-mail, was his views on spending. His office staff is trained well . . . I still do not know how he stands on this particular subject. I heard yesterday that building is already started near ground zero; we'll probably read about it at the opening ceremonies. No life is not FAIR as the parents and friends of the three thousand plus who died on September 11, 2001 protest and go unheard. As the saying goes, 'there is something wrong in Denmark' only this time the mark is ground zero. If you have any thoughts on the subject, write your representatives and let me know what kind of a response you get. I hope at least one or two of our illustrious leaders are watching over us.

So today, may you have a calm and peaceful day . . . don't turn your television, radio, or blueberry so you will remain that way. Stop and light just one candle . . . it may be the one to set our world into a peaceful orbit. Hope, isn't that a lovely word? Faith, now there is another one, Charity, yeah, added it to your list of to-do today and make your day the best one yet. Hugs to all.

Bird Watch II

Sunday proved to be an interesting day as the fire trucks pulled up to the big open field where the mill is, and where the deer reside. Someone tried to put a huge fallen tree on fire. Some of the boy in the neighborhood are still playing with fire crackers so that may be how it got started. It was nice to see our volunteers out doing a great job of putting the fire out.

Meanwhile a tiny leaf from the flower was hanging by a thread and it reminded me of the poem I wrote telling of a leaf daughter Pat and I watched on a tree in a parking lot when we stopped to have some coffee. We pulled in and noticed one leaf spinning and twirling around and eventually found it was hanging by a spider's thread. This little piece of leaf was doing the same dance yesterday and it made me smile.

My neighbor Jim was overseeing his wife Laverne's efforts to do some gardening. I could hear her yelling, as he is stone deaf, and he kept talking so there was no getting his attention to wave a hello my way.

Back to the birds I talked about in yesterdays blog. Believe it or not there are a couple of birds on the pickets but I don't know how to change the lens to get a closer picture of them, just hoped you could spot one near the bush. Later on there were four more but I'm not fast enough to catch them.

Just to prove I did stand out there and wait patiently for the birds to come and feast on the special blend for the birds which I buy at our new bird store. It is quite a place, lots of wonderful garden art as well as every kind of bird seed to feed our native birds.

You can see the little glass bird house on the slat of wood between the side and back fence pickets and the bird house on the stump of the pine tree which I miss very much . . . and the little wooden dilapidated bird house behind the bushes. All waiting for company.

And here are the beginning of the flock that will sit on the wires and watch and wait until I disappear so they can swoop down and in seconds eat every bit of seed I put in the bird houses. Usually there are dozens of birds sitting on all of the wires. I think I counted twelve one day, just waiting, and watching for me to disappear. I am afraid this is the best I can do with my little camera and my effort to show you 'my birds' in the back yard. I stood out there in the sunshine getting all the vitamin D, I could absorb and I stood over the railing of the porch with camera in hand for a good hour. I was patient, and quiet and figured they would get used to seeing me there and fly down to their waiting banquet . . . but . . . only one dared venture down and when Jim's dog 'Knee-High' let out a bark or two, they took off and left me there and all I got for my troubles was these few pictures and a sun burn. I did see a few hikers dressed in their straw hats and using their walking sticks go by. They were together one minute then on opposite sides of the street the next, um . . . wonder if they had an argument. There were a lot of dog walkers and a few stopped long enough to wave when they saw me standing on my porch.

It was nice to be outside and watch my world go by, then Pat came by and picked me up for dinner at Panchos where granddaughter Erin and her friend John joined us. Later I got to see the twelve hundred pictures they took of the wedding, unbelieveable how many photographs were taken and what a job it will be for these two photographers to put a wedding book together. The bride was lovely, the groom handsome, the backyard wedding was set up for family and friends; the cake a masterpiece; the children making the usual grimaces when you are looking for only a smile and from the looks of the photographs I would say that a great time was had by all, a day to remember and hopefully they will live happily ever after.

So today, the start of your new week, think about what kind of a week you want to have . . . make a list and start with the hard things first, accomplish what you set out to do and the next thing you know it will be hump day and another weekend to go out and play in the sunshine. Take good care of you. Hugs to all.

Birds

Beside the tall bush, another Rose of Sharon, which has grown over the top of the backyard fence, there is a piece of wood, a slat nailed between the side and the back fence. One I learned about the hard way as I stooped over to weed and came up and whacked my head more than once. Anyway, I taped down the broken bird house . . . I say broken for it is lacking a roof which disappeared in moving it around, but it still works wonders for feeding the birds. I think they like the glass sides.


On the pine tree stump is another bird house, well made, but the birds do not like it as well. I cannot imagine why, maybe it is not as open, although it is wider and well built. It was gifted to my granddaughter who thought it should find its place in my back yard. There is another rickety old bird house that the birds ignore all together and a good wind will knock it over before winter is over.

Several times in the course of the week I walk outside with my bag filled with bird seed and fill the little houses. I love to watch the birds and I have been trying for weeks to get a picture for my blog. I wanted to be able to share the fun of bird watching. It is not to be as they are very smart creatures and no matter how softly I walk or how carefully I try to photograph their antics, I am outsmarted for the slightest noise sends them flying away to the wires above the fence where they line up and wait for me to go away so they can get back to the business of feeding their little fat bellies. I watch them fly down from the wires and each one takes a spot on the fence post. They line up and wait to see if it is safe to go to the bird house and feast. There I stand inside the glass doors, camera in hand, and all I have to do it press the button and they hear the click of the button and fly away.



It make me aware that they have great hearing, and always on the alert. I tried sitting out on my chair with a book so they would get used to a figure on the porch, but they sit on the wire and watch me, or fly up into the big tree in my neighbor's yard, or on his roof top and watch. As soon as I go away, they signal each other and make a bee line for the food and have a party. So I gather they are smarter than I am and there will be no photograph session. It's too bad as they are cute little budgie birds and there is one that is different, a thinner all yellow headed beauty, probably the Marilyn Munroe of the crowd, and possibly the one who warns them when I click the camera to try for a picture of them lined up on the fence top. I haven't seen the humming birds this year but I have seen that 'huge' snake with it's yellow stripes . . . huge is an overstatement as it is just a garden snake but I don't like snakes and am afraid of them so it looks pretty big and scary to me.


So today, a beautiful Sunday summer morning, grab a cup of coffee and go outside and check out your back yard, maybe you will be able to snap a picture or two of the birds in your yard. If so, send it on, I'll post it. Meanwhile, I wont give up and will keep trying to catch the birds off guard. . . good luck to me, that is not about to happen as they are really truly gifted in how to protect themselves from predators from sneaky cats to those big persons walking around with shiny cameras in their hands. I thought it was only we humans that didn't like getting our pictures taken. Make your Sunday a day of rest, you probably could use one. Hugs to all.

Visitors

In far away Zambia the Mfuwe Lodge was built next to a mango grove that a family of wild elephants have always visited in the month of November when the fruit is ripe. Every year the matriarch, Wonky Tusk, leads the pack to the grove, as she has for years, lodge or no lodge the mangoes are a feast they refuse to do without. They stay for four to six weeks and eat the mangoes at least four times a day, so folks come from miles around to watch them amble through the lobby. The lodge owners put up a barrier to protect the visitors. What a sight to see. I cannot imagine being that close to a wild elephant, never mind a whole pack of them. I guess the whole idea is that they will not bother you if you do not bother them and woe be tie you if you eat the mangoes. It looks like a perfect place to vacation to, well the elephants think so.

So today, Saturday all over again, like the herd of elephants who never forget, our week flies by and we have another weekend to do what we please. Here in Brookings it is Kite Festival time and there will be crowds of people over at what I call Gull Field, but it is really "Kite Field" as the gulls take it over by the hundreds when the high winds blow in from the sea and they do not want to battle the currents and just glide along like they own the area . . . come to think of it they do. We have had perfect summer days this week and today is going to be another one and the kites will fly high and dance in the wind, a pretty sight to see. If you had thought about it you could have planned your vacation time here and I would have treated you to fish and chips at the Hungry Clam and a walk around the Port to watch the kites fly high and free. . . well, maybe next year. Hope you have a fun day today doing what you love to do best. Hugs to all.

World War II Posters

My e-mail this morning had a dozen posters from World War II, which brought back a memory or two of growing up with a few minor sacrifices on our part like using stamps for sugar and learning to drink coffee without it. Going without a few luxuries we couldn't afford anyway. Putting our pennies into war bonds and stamps to help our men who were over seas fighting for freedom, first for our allies then for ourselves as Pearl Harbor came and shocked us into the real world. The posters were many and so well done as a call to arms for everyone. I'm not seeing posters today although we have been in wars constantly since World War II and there does not seem to be a let up for our future generation. On September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorists took down the twin towers in New York City killing three thousand Americans and visitors from other nations. We lost 39 of our fighting men in Afghanistan in June and there have been no words or posters in their behalf. Well, the tea party folks have a few signs and are pretty clear on how they feel about what is going on in America. They are in the frying pan and being called raciest but we know they are patriots who are trying to wake us up to the facts, something is wrong, very wrong in America these days. It is time for the artists to get out their tools of their trade and come up with some posters to remind us to be patriotic and fight for our rights. The Women fought for our right to vote and we finally got it . . . how many use it? How many appreciate those women who suffered greatly but fought on until they got us freedom to be first class citizens and not chattels. There was a recent e-mail with an attachment showing pictures of these women who were jailed, beaten and treated like enemies of the country. Let's hope they didn't go through all that in vain. Most of us cannot join a service and fight but we can and should vote but not without paying full attention to what is transpiring around us. Words can be cheap or meaningful and the silent words of a vote can change our world for the better if we pay attention. My what a few posters stir up and I was not going to be political today.

So today, stop, look and listen and learn something about what is happening in your neck of the woods. Here in Brookings we have a couple of 'big shots' one male, the other female, fighting loud enough for the newspaper to print words and pictures, such an example for our children. What we need is a poster showing them how they look to the public they are supposedly serving. Oh well, politics, death and taxes . . . never ending . . . go out build the economy, buy a banana split for desert and enjoy every fattening calorie in it. Hugs to all.

The Shocker Band

Son Michael, in the middle plays guitar, sings a little, as Scoot, on the right, writes songs by the thousands and John on the right, drums a mean drum.

Here is John G. with his drums and he is very talented.

Mike, Scoot and John resting on their laurels. It takes a lot of energy to play for hours and hours.
Scoot had posted these pictures on Facebook so I took the liberty of copying them. These men have been playing music together for many years and have played at a wedding or two. They do get up on stage and have come a long way since they first started out. Scoot and John have always had full beards and Mike has one now and then and recently spouted a sort of goatee which I'd like to take by the shank and cut it off.....but I haven't cut his hair since he was six. I wonder if 'cutting remarks' would do the trick. I doubt it. It reminds me of the day I walked into a restaurant with Chuck on one side and Mike on the other . . . both men in leather vests, chains dangling from their belts and looking pretty hippy. The waitress did a double take as we walked in and I'm sure she thought I was a hostage of some kind. She wanted to call 911, I'm sure, but she stayed calm, took our orders and kept an eye on our table all the while. She really wasn't sure if I was a captive or not. A prime example of 'you can't tell a book by its cover' as these men are hard working, hard living and good men who live by a creed they believe in. They are good friends and take care of each other which is nice to see.

An Alaskan Brown bear , look at those claws . . . wouldn't want to meet this fellow on the pathway. Son John took this picture in Denali.

Mt. Whittier, Alaska. A study in blue. It has a feeling of serenity, and look at the snow still on the mountain and it was taken only last week. Summer in Alaska.

So today, enjoy your summer day. I hope it isn't too hot where you are. Our days have been really perfect this week. We couldn't ask for better summer days. Yesterday we went to the Port and had to wait a half hour for our fish and chips at the Hungry Clam. The tourists are in town so that means lots of hungry people and they discovered where the best fish and chips are. Granddaughter Erin is here on a visit and we treated her to lunch out. She loves fish and chips although I think sushi is her favorite. We'll have to take her out for dinner before she leaves and treat her to some of those delights of rice, seaweed, shrimp and stuff . . . yuck , well everyone can't love sushi. It is okay . . . but . . . let's face it I like my fish cooked. As we have learned over the years, everyone has their own tastes and that is a good thing, so when you plot and plan a special treat out, go and have your own favorite food and enjoy it. Hugs to all.