Baby Animals

This last weekend was the county fair, so Sam and I ventured down on Sunday.  Had to stop in at the petting zoo...this year they had a baby zebra and a baby camel (not in with all the other animals, mind you, but in a separate pen).  They were so cute, but I wasn't able to get a good photo of either one.  However, I do have a couple of really cute baby animal photos to share.

Baby llama in the petting zoo...how cute is this little one?  Love the mop top.

Not from the petting zoo, but from a trip Sam just returned.  A new born axis deer, less than one hour old.  Native of India, also called chital deer or spotted Indian deer.  Look at those tiny legs!   And that face, awwwww.  

Tagged...I'm Game Again

What's a girl to do?  J-Lands latest game of tag found me.  I can't just ignore this, but truth be told mine just isn't all that exciting.  Maybe exciting is not the point.  And Sam did tag me...no sneaking under his radar!  But hey, I'm game.  So, here's the deal:

The rules are simple:

1) Go to your journal's archives.
2) Find the 23rd post.
3) Find the 5th sentence in that post.
4) Post that sentence with these instructions.
5) Tag five more people.

My 23rd post is titled 'Reflections,' and the 5th sentance is: A long time ago I met someone. 

Haven't we all?  Really Dona...geez.

Who started this game anyways?

Okay.  Now for the tags-

Karen:  http://journals.aol.com/karebear4x4/kbearsheart/

Diane:  http://journals.aol.com/lv2paynt/butterflygirl/

And another Diane:  http://journals.aol.com/jolie424/LuckyBegonia

Sandra:   http://journals.aol.com/labdancer51/SandrasScribbles/

Sara:  http://journals.aol.co.uk/sarajanesmiles/SarasDays/

 

Another Challenge Met

Okay Kelly, here it is.  Well, this only took me three times longer than Robin's did, but I finally finished it.  Whew, that was a tough one tonight.  See what you started Jimmy?!  A new, innovative and creative way to pimp someone's journal.  Me thinks you have perfected the art of 'thinking outside of the box.'

 

In MY WORLD it seems some days just fly by, while others linger and become the ADVENTURES OF AN ECLECTIC MIND; fast or slow, good or bad, THESE ARE THE DAYS I pray I'll always remember.   Spring is a time of renewal, but IN MY OPINION, fall marks the cycle of NEW BEGINNINGS; outside my VIEW FROM A FARM HOUSE WINDOW trees are alive with vibrant reds and golds, giving everyone a different PICTURE OF THE DAY.  I watch the leaves fall, slipping between limbs like jumbo-sized GRAINS OF SAND.   Children gather, joyfully bounding to and fro, calling out to one another, "Watch out for the BUTTERFLY GIRL!"  Off to one side sits a young girl holding a stuffed animal and I smile when I realize she's holding a KARE BEAR'S HEART in her hands. 

You can say my thoughts seem scattered, but I need to see BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN and these words are my way of SAVING SANITY.   SOMETIMES I THINK I'm the only person like that, but then like a LUCKY BEGONIA someone like me comes along with their REAL WORLD view of life and I don't feel like DAMAGED GOODS anymore.  In fact, on some  DAYS my imagination gets the best of me, feeding me the notion that I'm ALPHAWOMAN and I can do anything.  Hey look, here I am IN THE SHADOW OF THE IRIS and yet I'm DANCING IN THE RAIN.  Now there's an entry for my DEAR DIARY; but in my haste to write it down I can't read my own SCRIBBLES.  It doesn't make any sense BY THE WAY, and I feel like STORMS WHISPER AND OCEANS SCREAM; but then I remember its just a STUPID SHEET of paper.   Memories live on, but the best ones are tied to my heart with a bond as strong as DOCK LINES.

 

Now, I need to nominate...er, tag someone else to keep this going.  Check back later, this may require some thought.

Sweet Days of Summers End

While typing this entry, I heard a character on television say, "Winston Churchill once said 'The further backward you can look the farther forward you can see.'
Okay.  I've been wanting to write this entry for the past few weeks, but I struggled with it and resisted, unable to share or reflect on the little things that enrich my life and bring me joy, when so many people have lost so much.  Is it guilt, or just the feeling that singing my happy song would seem insensitive or inappropriate at such a time as this?  Either way I need to ground myself again and reconnect with my souls appreciation for those simple joys in life.  Get back to life.
Rewind.

Back a couple of weeks.  Labor Day weekend camping trip at the lake.

The night air is cool--long sleeve shirt, long pants--cool.  Early morning the air is crisp, but not too cool for shorts and a t-shirt.  And the days are warm, rich with the warmth of a thousand days of my summer youth.  I feel it the minute the trailer door opens, it gently tingles my skin.  I smell it with that first intake of morning air, I feel so alive.  There is just something about that first breath of early morning summer air; it always takes me back in time. 

Outside the trailer door, just a few steps away is a trail lined with blackberry bushes heavily laden with summer fruit; vines dripping with hundreds of berries.  Berries so ripe they burst in your fingers when picked, staining the skin a deep bright red.

 

Picking blackberries requires long sleeve shirts and pants, as the vines and leaves are thick with sharp knife-like thorns that prick and scrap tender skin. Those parts of the bushes right on the path are over-picked; all the campers have berry picking on their 'To Do' list this weekend. The biggest, ripest and sweetest berries are easily seen, but not so easily reached; those are the berries hanging high, just out of reach. I spent two days dodging those demonic thorns while picking the sweetest berries. Finally, Sam and I came up with a system; he used his height to reach up and cut the whole clusters from the vine, while I sat on the ground and plucked the ripened berries off each freshly cut cluster. We ended up with just over five gallons of berries. Just enough to make a couple of batches of blackberry jam.  :)

Late summer and early fall is a busy time for me. Aside from baking zucchini bread, I've been making jellies and jams. I usually make concord grape jelly, but our grape vine had to be torn down this summer when we replaced the outside deck in July. :( Hopefully it will grow back in a couple of years. Not one to be deterred, I made blackberry jam, green pepper jelly, and pear honey (aka pear conserves). Lots of yummy sweets!

Across the street at the Christmas tree farm is a peach tree, just dripping with fruit. I've had my eyes on those peaches for the past couple of weeks now. If I'm feeling ambitious this weekend I might just try my hand at peach preserves.
Maybe.

~*.......Affected.........*~

Frazzled                              
                                       Dis connected                                   Worried                   
                                    Busy           
                                  
                         Empty                
                    Burn out

                                                                   Me.

They sum it up.  And I'm not alone.  Those words describe how I've felt these past few weeks.  On any given day, normally I spend a great deal of my time reading and visiting other journals, and writing in mine.  But lately, all I've wanted to do is be a recluse.  Not me.  At all.

Work is a strain, all the time.  More so than usual and I've begun exploring other avenues to solve this.  But recently I realized the underlying cause of this funk may very well be due in large part to Mother Nature...Hurricane Katrina affected me a great deal more than any other disaster.

So many people, and animals, need our help....still.  Donate.  Find a worthy cause you trust, be it the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, the Humane Society, or any of the many social welfare non-profits.  They still need us (the last clickable link will take you to a FEMA page, which at the bottom provides a long list of links to voluntary and/or charitable organizations directly involved with Hurricane Katrina relief.).

If you can't donate money, then donate food, clothing, housewares, furniture, or even time.

If you can't donate the above, give the gift of life.  Blood.  People need blood, and after a disaster like Katrina, blood is in very short supply.  Don't forget to donate blood, if you can.  You may just save someone's life.

*1* Awesome Child

Every now and then we get an injection of hope for tomorrow, when the days seem dark and hopeless.

Today was one of those days.

This morning a local radio station implemented a fund raising event on the streets, broadcasting via remote in a community appeal for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.  I listened with interest all morning, making a mental note of the location.  Just before lunch I heard the DJ tell us about a very remarkable six year old girl right here in my community.  Touched by the recent events this child wanted desperately to do something for the hurricane victims, but lacking financial resources she was faced with a problem.  So, she made some drawings, then ventured out into her neighborhood, on a door-to-door appeal to her neighbors asking them to purchase her drawings.  The excitement in the DJ's voice was uplifting as I heard him announce that little girl sold all her artwork and single-handedly raised $100 for the relief fund.

Six years old.  Faced with a problem, she let her  lead her and by simply doing what children do every day, she found her solution.  That is 1 Awesome child!

Bless her .  God Bless that little girl.

 

~~Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.  -John Whitehead.~~

~~Where there is great love,
there are always miracles.
-Willa Carter~~

7 Things...

If anyone was going to tag me, somehow I just knew it would be Robin.  It's days like this that I can really picture Robin and I playing playing together as children...mind you given the age difference it would most likely be me baby-sitting her but I was a fun baby-sitter.  I'm procrastinating...can you tell.  Okay, here goes....

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die  
1.  Tell my story.
2.  Travel to Alabama and run my fingers over Martin Luther King's words etched in the Wall of Tolerance at the Civil Rights Memorial Center
3.  Retire, buy a motorhome and enjoy my remaining years traveling the country with Sam.
4.  Swim with dolphins, preferably near land (have to be careful how I word this one).
5.  Go back to England and visit Ireland this time.
6.  Live to tell my great-grandchildren about my life.
7.  Begin a positive ripple effect.

7 Things I Can Do
1.  Be helpful.
2.  Multi-task.
3.  Day dream.
4.  Love, unconditionally, with all my heart.
5.  Trace my family roots back to the 1600s.
6.  Make you laugh.
7.  Find the magic and see the beauty in every day things.

7 Things I Can't Do 

1.  Tolerate hatred or ignorance.
2.  Know when to say no to helping others.
3.  Uphold my boundaries.
4.  Play a musical instrument.
5.  Ignore the internet at home.
6.  Stay angry at someone I care about.
7.  Let go of sentimental objects.

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex
1.   Deep eyes.
2.   Caring heart...demonstrated through actions.
3.   Sense of humor and playfulness.
4.   Intelligent sensitivity (emotional intelligence aka EQ).
5.   Common ground.
6.   Children come first, before others, including me.
7.   Respectable stability.

7 Things I Say Most Often
1.  Sounds like a plan.
2.  Hmmmm.....
3.  Okay.
4.  Hello?
5.  Huh?
6.  I can do that!
7.  You know...
7 Celebrity Crushes (in no particular order)

1.  Tom Berringer
2.  Harrison Ford
3.  Kevin Costner
4.  John Travolta
5.  Kevin Kline
6.  Bobby Sherman
7.  Mickey Dolenz (see, I said I can make you laugh!)

Easy Week #22

If it's Tuesday, then it must be time for Kelly!

EASY - like Sunday Morning!

Here's my question of the week.  Answer it in your journal and come back here and leave me a link in the comments.  I'll post your links on Saturday and we'll start over again next week :-)

Tell me.....

"Are you having nice weather for Labor Day Weekend?"

You said it Kelly.  Georgeous is the word.  We spent the weekend camping in the mountains by a lake; it was sunny every day.  More on that later.  Tried to rain a bit Saturday night, but it just spit a few sprinkles...just enough to spark a couple of verses of 'Rain Drops Keep Fallin' On My Head' a couple of times.

All in all, a wonderful weekend.  Yet the entire time, my thoughts often turned to what's happening in the after math of Katrina.  Having someone in our camping party named Trina probably had a lot to do with that.  Then there was the motorhome parked right behind us; painted on the side in big bold letters was the word Hurricane.

Seriously.

These Days

Words fail me.

Others often say it best.  Borrowing from Jimmy...

Click on the links below.

J-Land Cares

Hurricane Katrina Missing Persons Board

Hurricane Katrina: Safe List (persons who have reported themselves safe)