I gotta question

These tiny orphans were rescued by this patient pup's owner, Barb.

I don't speak cat, but I wonder what they are thinking and saying. Yes, I know the LOLcats aren't for real, but still it seems there is some communicating going on here.
Are the little ones asking the usual millions of questions youngsters ask.
What is this stuff called? Are we there yet? Why do you look like that and we look like this? Are you our Mom? Why do we all talk different? Will that stuff get me?
When do we get eats?

Or are they more like the LOLcats.

"I get it now,
we pee in the litter box
you pee in the yard
and humans pee in your big water bowl."

the old west,acording to us

Long ago and far away in that not always carefree land of childhood, we played cowboys and Indians alot. I was always an Indian, you might call it typecasting.
We roamed the hills and fields behind our house raiding and pillaging and always taking time to talk about the latest western movie or TV show we had watched, and adding fresh details to our "stores of knowledge" about the olden days. Our guns, knives and bows and arrows were made from found objects, which made us one motley looking crew indeed, I do wish someone had taken a picture of us, with our "finery", but no one ever did. I remember my headress was a piece of green fabric with some other strips of fabric tied to it. The Cavalry officer had an old fedora and old belts for bandoliers and a sword that really looked a lot like a piece of wood. The cavalry scout actually had a feather in his hat. I think the hat may have belonged to his Grandmother and he just removed most of the veil and flowers. leaving the feather plume. There were. of course, a few coon skin caps, and a couple of cap pistols, but most of it was "made do". Not so sure that the people of 100 years before hadn't used similar techniques .

Later in the summer , a few weeks before school started, the carnival came to town. We were very excited about the rides and the games, and one year an arcade. At the one side of the huge arcade tent off in the corner were several machines that looked alot like refrigerators, they had images of "the Wild West " on them. If you put in a penny and turned the knob you got a postcard, with an old West scene or portrait. I got Geronimo.

\
“Geronimo’s Cadillac”
Michael Martin Murphy


Well they put Geronimo in jail down south
Where he couldn't look the gift horse in the mouth
Sergeant, sergeant, don't you feel
There's something wrong with that automobile
Governor, governor, isn't it strang
They didn’t have no cars on the Indian range
Warden, warden, please listen to me
Be brave and set Geronimo free

Chours

Whoa boys, take me back
I want to ride in Geronimo's Cadillac
Whoa boys, take me back
I want to ride in Geronimo's Cadillac
Let me ride, let me ride


Warden, warden, don't you know
Prisoners have no place to go
They took old Geronimo by storm
Ripped off the feathers from his uniform


Jesus tells me I believe its true
The red man is in the sunset too
Took all his land, now they won't give it back
And they sent Geronimo a Cadillac

v


That's Geronimo in the top hat, driving a 1905 Locomobile Model C. this was taken on 6-11-05, when he was still imprisoned, this and other photos were taken that day for the press of the time.

More of Ivy's story

Ivy poured hot water onto the instant coffee in her favorite mug, and added a splash of chocolate milk, with this she washed down some ibuprofen. Three days of yard work had left her with more aches than muscles and joints.
Settling into her favorite chair she watched the misty rain, knowing that even though she would complain bitterly about how it was setting her gardening back, she welcomed the rest. The planter of mini daffs were waiting to be planted out by the front door. Lightening flashed in the sky over Jackass hill, electric lace shooting across the early morning sky. the old man who lived up there with wife and 14 children, made the carvings used by the furniture company in the next town, until it went out of business. The old woodcarver also raised mules, very good mules so everyone said, after his death they all got loose during a thunderstorm and Will took her and the children and helped round them up.
Rain was dashing against the window and ivy sunk deeper into her chair and wrapped the afghan around herself, smiling contently at the fierceness of it's beauty. this was just one of those days she was going to have to find something else to do. A good day to get the bills in order and perhaps write a letter. A better day to daydream.


The lilacs were finally starting to bloom, the darker purples first and finally the delicate white ones, how they would soon perfume the air. Sometimes Ivy would bring a few into the house, but they were best enjoyed out side. During breaks in the rain the tiny hummingbirds would come to the flowering quince for a sip of nectar. One might think that a drop of rain could knock these creatures out of the air. Ivy watched and dozed off, awoke and watched some more. Reality melted into story, and time was something she could travel through.



Will's voice floated over the field of ripe dandelions, the silken seeds floated like snowflakes and clung to their clothes, "Ivy, I have something to ask you. would you be this carpenter's wife?". Ivy startled, she was back in her living room, again. She looked down at her hands, studying them
looking for awhile, as if they held the answer. She looked intently at the photos of Will she had placed around the room, and then back at her hands. Her strong and capable hands, he said "your strong and capable hands love of my life" and then he was gone.

The "what" Moon???

I might see lightening tonight, but I most likely will not see the full moon. this Full Flower Moon is shrouded in controversy as this excerpt from http://earthsky.org explains.


Your calendar probably says that full moon is Tuesday, May 17, 2011. But – depending on where you live and what time you look – you might see a fuller moon tonight.

That’s true for us in North America. Full moon falls at or close to sunrise on May 17 for us. So tonight’s moon is slightly more full than the moon tomorrow night – even though the calendar says that tomorrow is the full moon. This happens pretty frequently because astronomical almanacs typically tell the full moon time in what’s called Universal Time – standard clock time at Greenwich, England. For us in the Americas, Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is some hours ahead of our clocks.

This months full moon is also known as the Milk Moon, the FlowerMoon, the Planting Moon, and the Hare Moon, I was going to call it the Lilac moon,however in view of this neat fact from Earthsky, who also provided the cool picture....I think i will dub this full moon, The Inner Nerd Moon. Not so romantic or picturesque as the other names, but this time it fits.

If I can't see the Moon can it see me????

Rain, rain go away!

And it is raining, still raining, rain as far as the weather radar can see.
I don't want to think about the rain, but it reminded me of something.

Before I started school my world had been a simple one, no one ever got dressed up, or looked even remotely like the people in movies. The men wore work clothes and the women wore cotton dresses, usually protected by an apron.
Then I started school and saw the other side of town.
Curiously one of the first rhymes we learned was
"Rain, rain go away
come again on
ironing day."
Why ironing day, and did those well heeled women actually do ironing?

Quarter Moon

THE MAN IN THE MOON

He used to frighten me in the nights
of childhood,
the wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft
I could not imagine such loneliness, such coldness
But tonight as I drive home over
these hilly roads
I see him sinking behind stands of winter trees
And rising again to show his familiar face
And when he comes into full view
over open fields
he looks like a young man who has fallen in love
with the dark earth
a pale bachelor, well-groomed and
full of melancholy
his round mouth open
as if he had just broken into song.

Billy Collins

My room was alight with the soft glow of the quarter moon, what a beautiful sight it was suspended there above the treetops. And I felt like there for a moment time stood still, and I was one with all of the other people throughout time who looked up at that shimmering crescent.

lunch on a sunny day

Mother's Day is a wonderful holiday. But it is also a greeting card holiday, and I have never really observed it. But this year, my son surprised me with lunch at my favorite Restaurant yesterday, and this morning Hubby made breakfast for me. I have spent much of the day looking for what ever it was they broke, because well this just doesn't happen. If there is any note taken of this day it is a bucket of chicken or something like that. So I am understandably worried, and just a little bit thrilled.

As I was getting ready to leave my my son said to me, I'll drive you to the store, you can take pictures on the way. Not that that never happens, actually it happens pretty often, anyway he said something about needing to make stop on the way so when we turned the wrong way as we left the driveway, it also didn't seem unusual. About 10 miles down the road I asked "Where are you going?" "I'm taking you to lunch for Mother's Day, and I know how much you don't like crowds, so we are going today. Look at that house!"

We rode on through town and then through the woods on a well traveled back road lined with old houses and new camps, and more than a few farms. the sly was alternately clear blue, then fluffy clouds then grey with a few raindrops, raindrops even feel from what appeared to be cloudless sky, I was so very much hoping to se a rainbow, but at least I saw a windmill, a model of one anyway



My son turned to me and said"You know, this is the first time we have ever come here when the sun was out." And he is right, for some reason we never go out to eat on sunny days. After an excellent meal, sweet potato fries, hot turkey salad,,,love that Diner Food.

Rainy Sunday Pictures Taken our the car window

one thing lead to another

Sunday night, I settled into my favorite chair , saying, mostly to the plants, as sleepy spouse was on his way to bed "There is never anything to watch at 10PM on a Sunday night." I turned on the TV and there was "60 Minutes", talking about people making money on 2012 fears, well why not, personally if the world is going to end , well i don't want to be there to watch it. Also i don't want to be one of the survivors who eeks out a pitiful existence for awhile, then gives up and dies in misery and despair. Sooner or later those folks who are paying the big bucks to wall themselves up in Mountains somewhere until after the cataclysm is over will need to come out into the world....and what they find, probably won't be worth finding.
It's all to smarmy balmy vague for me. I mean it is so easy to say the "text on the stone" concerning the events of 2012 "is too badly eroded to read"......well damnation, stop letting the dog pee on it!!! In no way am i belittling the danger of earth being hit by solar flares, or asteroids, errant comets, mysterious plagues, and it is only a matter of time before the Yellowstone and/or
Krakatoa calderas erupt again, the New Madrid Fault breaks or Kumbra Viejo slides into the ocean causing unimaginable tsunamis, there are numerous other things both natural and man made that easily could happen and eventually will happen.
Throughout history there have been many things that deeply altered the world. forever. The burning of Alexandria, and fall of Rome, the "Little Ice Age", the Plague, invention of the gun, steam engines, assassination of Lincoln, electricity, the telephone'; need I go on??
Oh yeah, can't forget the TV and the remote control. I changed the channel to hear a news reader state"people will remember where they were" and that got my attention as scrolling across the bottom of the screen
'OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD'

May day

When I was in grade school we always make little construction paper baskets, and filled them with dandelions, violets, whatever blossoms we could find, to be hung on doorknobs for May Day. I think, that to some extent the rise of the Soviet Union and it's May Day show of Military pride, may have made this loverly custom, less popular, or perhaps it was just the natural order of changing times that caused May Day to fade. It seems to me a holiday perfect for overly fancy greeting cards, howsoever, alas. I don't recall ever seeing a modern one.

My ancient soul celebrates it now as Beltane, or Walpurgisnacht, a cross quarter holiday. While we here in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate it our counterparts in the Southern celebrate, Samhain or Hallows.

Beltane celebrates fertility the beginning of the growing season, with with the exchange of flowers and lighting bonfires, reuniting ourselves with the land after the the long cold months that follow Samhain have separated us from the land. And the blessings of a May Day rain, can made this day all the more wondrous On this day the as with its counterpart Samhain, the veils between the worlds are thin. At Beltane the queen of faerie-folk rides abroad on her white horse, enticing humans to follow her into her enchanted realm. The decent into winter and the dark and hungry times of the the year are reversed at Beltane, Abundance returns.

I find myself seeing balance in the including a bit of Samhain, in my celebration of Beltane, as one does follow the other.







This was thoughtfully sent to me. Thanks Connie!

Bless, O threefold true and bountiful,
Myself, my spouse, my children.
Bless everything within my dwelling and in my possession,
Bless the kine and crops, the flocks and corn,
From Samhain Eve to Beltane Eve,
With goodly progress and gentle blessing,
From sea to sea, and every river mouth,
From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

Be the Maiden, Mother, and Crone,
Taking possession of all to me belonging.
Be the Horned God, the Wild Spirit of the Forest,
Protecting me in truth and honor.
Satisfy my soul and shield my loved ones,
Blessing every thing and every one,
All my land and my surroundings.
Great gods who create and bring life to all, I ask for your blessings on this day of fire.
~ author unknown