Weblog 126
July 06, 2008~ 12:00am
Anyone who knows me, knows I have a fascination with birds. It's their gracefulness....their freedom.....the way they look when resting alone on a branch
there's nothing quite as picturesque as that solitary splendor- the rounding of the body, the pointing of the tail and wings and beak. Even in silhouette, those creatures are perfect. Add song to the mix, and you have a whole traveling show in nature, one that's as close as your own backyard. Birds are the icing on the cake for me. They're that bit of extra without which the outdoors might feel lonely and uninhabited. Imagine this scene...in absolute silence.....
...no birds, no song in the sky, no tweetering busily in the brush. It's hushed. It beautiful certainly, but without the life that birds bring to it, almost scary pretty: dead, despite the color-- dead as a mirage.
Stories will often mention the lack of birdsong when they want to portray an ominousness, or some prescience of something dire about to happen. Indeed, the lack of birds-- and even their flying off in fall, does bring a kind of sadness-
for birds do symbolize joy- they're the sound of life. Just watch those creatures in their constant busy-ness and movement, tweets and trills and chirrups. They are the visible representation of what happens in the heart when it is light, and to have them leave is a sad, sad thing.
I'm learning more about them- seeing different types-- the blue bunting for instance, is a stunning, vibrant electric blue. And in watching the cardinals outside up close, I've discovered that they don't always have that sharp plume sticking up on their heads! I watch them scoping out the yard when I've just laid peanuts, and their topknots are flattened while they nervously wait in the tree, trying to sense if it's o.k. to hop on down. It looks like they're appraising the situation before they finally feel comfortable enough to strut on in and take what they want-- and they have red, rounded heads, quite cowed....lol....and they look so funny! Like someone who's taken their wig off, they look bald to me- or definitely hatless- and when they decide to dive on in, they strut full-combed and cocky.
Each day, so many details escape us unless we really, really look; unless we study, it becomes blur. Delight is in the details, so study closely-- and if you're smart, you'll start with birds. They're all around us. It's so easy to feast the eyes, and doesn't cost a thing- just a little time.
July 06, 2008~ 12:15am
Time passes so quickly.....maybe it's that I'm feeling my age more than usual- it's getting closer to my birthday again-- (and truly, I'm beyond fighting it or hanging onto youth- that's past now)-- so maybe it's that my son and grandchildren are passing through town again and seeing them just once a year, a person truly gets a sense of time's passage, but it goes so quickly, doesn't it? One day you're a queen.....(pass your mouse over the picture)
....and there it is......Crones-ville. LOL!!! No hiding from it, it's all just under the surface waiting to come out. Lord, I hope I handle the rest of this graciously, not some old fool running around in too much make-up.......(hey, wait a second! I already run around in too much make-up! Blimey! what's next? Hanging out at Chippindales? Fistful of dollars? ) LOL!! Oh... what's the use. The plaster is drooping is all, so suck it up and keep on goin'.....lots of folks have jowls. :)
July 07, 2008~ 12:00am
Today was the homecoming....hotdogs on the grill and potato salad and corn on the cob. Kids running around catching lightning bugs, and Eli's seventh birthday cake and celebration. I got to meet little Shiloh Sarai, my brand new 2 1/2 month old grandaughter, who took the world in with great gulps, twitching hands, barefeet and the most luminous blue eyes in the world. Tomorrow.....bright and early.....(ugh!)......lol.....a trip to
which is, according to the sources on their site
and right next door to Storybook Forest and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, near Ligonier Pennsylvania. I think I'll spend a lot of time watching baby Shiloh, since 'The SOAKZONE' is sort of out of my purview (I haven't been in a bathing suit in 20 years!)...lol...but I'm a good babysitter, and the trees and the walking will do me good...and I'll get lots of photos, and perhaps ride the ferris wheel or the rollercoaster. (And this time tomorrow night I'll be like an old hound-- run till it drops.) Good memories, though- gotta stock up on those to be sure. Wish me luck. And I hope the weather behaves- no storms, not too much humidity...Ligonier, here we come.
July 09, 2008~ 12:30am
Another day of grandkids and yard hijinks and fun. Yesterday at Idlewild was a delight- a long, glorious memory with plenty of snapshots to remember it. I think the image that sticks with me most, is the unearthly, magnificent GREEN of the pond scum....LOL!! No kidding, solid as glass, undisturbed except for the occasional bubble to signal a fish was underneath, or the surfacing of a turtle, completely camouflaged in the stuff himself......Bill was entranced
what wonderful colors! Like stepping over into Oz. Then there was the troll grave at the Billy Goats Gruff display in Storybook Forest-
(with Bill, all things spooky merit great study. He didn't want to leave that gravestone. I think he thought a zombie would pop out at some point.) And yes, here's Miss Shiloh in her stylish rose-colored bonnet, strapped to her daddy's belly and loving the look of the world around her
I believe she wore several different bonnet styles yesterday. Quite a clothes horse for 2 1/2 months. She was stylin', all day long. And the silver airplanes were a great hit. He's Matt and Gabe, ready for take-off.....
I fell in love with the sleeping pig at the Three Little Pigs display. Here's the smart pig who built his house of bricks, all tired out from all that work
Ain't he adorable? LOL!! Humidity must have knocked him flat. And there was the Crooked Little House, and the Sword in the Stone, and a real live Snow White sitting outside her cottage, which made wee Kay as excited as can be. Kay RAN THROUGH Red Riding Hood's house though, because the wolf was in bed wearing Grandmother's night cap. She babbled on about it on the way home... "I'll BEAT HIM UP, that wolf!" - her eyes as big as saucers. Mean witches and wolves are high on Kay's list for pounding. She's a hellion...
"A wonderful time was had by all." What nice words.....and true. A lovely, lovely day.
***
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Anyone who knows me, knows I have a fascination with birds. It's their gracefulness....their freedom.....the way they look when resting alone on a branch
there's nothing quite as picturesque as that solitary splendor- the rounding of the body, the pointing of the tail and wings and beak. Even in silhouette, those creatures are perfect. Add song to the mix, and you have a whole traveling show in nature, one that's as close as your own backyard. Birds are the icing on the cake for me. They're that bit of extra without which the outdoors might feel lonely and uninhabited. Imagine this scene...in absolute silence.....
...no birds, no song in the sky, no tweetering busily in the brush. It's hushed. It beautiful certainly, but without the life that birds bring to it, almost scary pretty: dead, despite the color-- dead as a mirage.
Stories will often mention the lack of birdsong when they want to portray an ominousness, or some prescience of something dire about to happen. Indeed, the lack of birds-- and even their flying off in fall, does bring a kind of sadness-
for birds do symbolize joy- they're the sound of life. Just watch those creatures in their constant busy-ness and movement, tweets and trills and chirrups. They are the visible representation of what happens in the heart when it is light, and to have them leave is a sad, sad thing.
I'm learning more about them- seeing different types-- the blue bunting for instance, is a stunning, vibrant electric blue. And in watching the cardinals outside up close, I've discovered that they don't always have that sharp plume sticking up on their heads! I watch them scoping out the yard when I've just laid peanuts, and their topknots are flattened while they nervously wait in the tree, trying to sense if it's o.k. to hop on down. It looks like they're appraising the situation before they finally feel comfortable enough to strut on in and take what they want-- and they have red, rounded heads, quite cowed....lol....and they look so funny! Like someone who's taken their wig off, they look bald to me- or definitely hatless- and when they decide to dive on in, they strut full-combed and cocky.
Each day, so many details escape us unless we really, really look; unless we study, it becomes blur. Delight is in the details, so study closely-- and if you're smart, you'll start with birds. They're all around us. It's so easy to feast the eyes, and doesn't cost a thing- just a little time.
July 06, 2008~ 12:15am
Time passes so quickly.....maybe it's that I'm feeling my age more than usual- it's getting closer to my birthday again-- (and truly, I'm beyond fighting it or hanging onto youth- that's past now)-- so maybe it's that my son and grandchildren are passing through town again and seeing them just once a year, a person truly gets a sense of time's passage, but it goes so quickly, doesn't it? One day you're a queen.....(pass your mouse over the picture)
....and there it is......Crones-ville. LOL!!! No hiding from it, it's all just under the surface waiting to come out. Lord, I hope I handle the rest of this graciously, not some old fool running around in too much make-up.......(hey, wait a second! I already run around in too much make-up! Blimey! what's next? Hanging out at Chippindales? Fistful of dollars? ) LOL!! Oh... what's the use. The plaster is drooping is all, so suck it up and keep on goin'.....lots of folks have jowls. :)
July 07, 2008~ 12:00am
Today was the homecoming....hotdogs on the grill and potato salad and corn on the cob. Kids running around catching lightning bugs, and Eli's seventh birthday cake and celebration. I got to meet little Shiloh Sarai, my brand new 2 1/2 month old grandaughter, who took the world in with great gulps, twitching hands, barefeet and the most luminous blue eyes in the world. Tomorrow.....bright and early.....(ugh!)......lol.....a trip to
which is, according to the sources on their site
and right next door to Storybook Forest and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, near Ligonier Pennsylvania. I think I'll spend a lot of time watching baby Shiloh, since 'The SOAKZONE' is sort of out of my purview (I haven't been in a bathing suit in 20 years!)...lol...but I'm a good babysitter, and the trees and the walking will do me good...and I'll get lots of photos, and perhaps ride the ferris wheel or the rollercoaster. (And this time tomorrow night I'll be like an old hound-- run till it drops.) Good memories, though- gotta stock up on those to be sure. Wish me luck. And I hope the weather behaves- no storms, not too much humidity...Ligonier, here we come.
July 09, 2008~ 12:30am
Another day of grandkids and yard hijinks and fun. Yesterday at Idlewild was a delight- a long, glorious memory with plenty of snapshots to remember it. I think the image that sticks with me most, is the unearthly, magnificent GREEN of the pond scum....LOL!! No kidding, solid as glass, undisturbed except for the occasional bubble to signal a fish was underneath, or the surfacing of a turtle, completely camouflaged in the stuff himself......Bill was entranced
what wonderful colors! Like stepping over into Oz. Then there was the troll grave at the Billy Goats Gruff display in Storybook Forest-
(with Bill, all things spooky merit great study. He didn't want to leave that gravestone. I think he thought a zombie would pop out at some point.) And yes, here's Miss Shiloh in her stylish rose-colored bonnet, strapped to her daddy's belly and loving the look of the world around her
I believe she wore several different bonnet styles yesterday. Quite a clothes horse for 2 1/2 months. She was stylin', all day long. And the silver airplanes were a great hit. He's Matt and Gabe, ready for take-off.....
I fell in love with the sleeping pig at the Three Little Pigs display. Here's the smart pig who built his house of bricks, all tired out from all that work
Ain't he adorable? LOL!! Humidity must have knocked him flat. And there was the Crooked Little House, and the Sword in the Stone, and a real live Snow White sitting outside her cottage, which made wee Kay as excited as can be. Kay RAN THROUGH Red Riding Hood's house though, because the wolf was in bed wearing Grandmother's night cap. She babbled on about it on the way home... "I'll BEAT HIM UP, that wolf!" - her eyes as big as saucers. Mean witches and wolves are high on Kay's list for pounding. She's a hellion...
"A wonderful time was had by all." What nice words.....and true. A lovely, lovely day.
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