My Toon Family

Did I ever introduce you to my 'toon family? I've been doodling around again, and have got them all together.

Of course you know my own toon. It's on the sidebar with my profile.

My oldest is Ruth. She has two children, Lisa and Joey. I did Lisa's toon on her birthday last fall.





Then comes my son, Joe. He is married to Jan and has two step children.










His step daughter is Monica, married to Jim.









And they have two boys, Jimmy and Joey. Joey is growing fast. I'll have to do a new one of him soon.









And step son, Frank. He's still a bachelor.


Then comes my second daughter, Rita. The cats are her kids.

And the youngest is Kitty, married to Mike. Their son is Isaac.





And then there is my "other daughter", Lisa, and her "Baby".

And of course, Wyetta, who is like a dear sister to me.


I really enjoy making toon strips for them, or just of them. It amuses me. I save them for myself, but often delete them from toonlet.com because strangers wouldn't understand them and they would think they are pretty stupid, if they are just family stuff. I also make the occasional one using other friends or fictional characters. If I make one of a rant about something that annoys me, or a funny one, I'll leave it to be seen by others, but I really like doing my family best.


How did he get in there?

Times They Are A-Changin'

Most of us have seen this cartoon before. It does speak volumes, doesn't it? We have been abusing our earth for a long, long time. It seems to me that Earth is striking back.

It's been a rough winter. The latest series of storms in the U.S. has most of us exhausted, physically and emotionally. And they say it will be a very wet spring. We will be looking forward to summer, but what will we find then? I'm sure I will be gasping for relief from the heat and humidity. What a sad picture I'm painting. I sound like a real pessimist, and that is not what I have been for most of my life - quite the opposite. Is it old age, or is it just a more realistic look at things?

Well, this time, in our little corner of the world, we lucked out. The terrible storm that I see did hit so many places very hard did bring us extremely high winds, but very little snow. And we didn't lose electric power this time. That wind did some weird things. At my house, it kept my front walk clear, but two houses down, my neighbor had to shovel out a couple of times. And while we had only light snow showers, up in New York my daughter emailed yesterday that they had 18 inches and it was still snowing hard. She said it had poured rain all the previous day and then froze at night. We had none of that.

After the first two blizzards, I drove up the Parkway and saw so many trees uprooted and branches down. The same was true in our neighborhoods. So sad.

Nature goes in cycles, and we know we have to expect extreme weather every so many years. But we have been ignoring the obvious results of our actions for so long, selfishly placing profit above all else, blinding ourselves to the needs of the very Earth and of Humanity. Are we ever going to wake up?

OK. Enough gloom and doom. It's just two weeks until Spring! Let's plan the garden and see if we can't be more positive in attitude and action from here on.

More Chickens

Just in case I have lost power by Friday (Yes, another storm and this one predicted to have very high winds.), I figured I'd schedule something on the lighter side. We have to have something to smile about.

In the event that you don't see a post for a while, it will probably mean no power again.

I see Blogger has decided to underline what I type. He does that once in a while. He also told me today that I am not currently following anyone. Oh well. I know better.

What? More of That Kid?

Indulge me. I'm a doting grandmother, and I like to post pictures of my grandson. It's about 4: in the morning, I'm awake, it's snowing again, and I just discovered more pics on Flickr from California.



Here's that boy again.

















When he got home from visiting the other grandparents, he went back to school, where they celebrated his fifth birthday again.




No need to comment yet again on his birthday. I just like to see the pictures. Heck, there are three new pages of them on Flickr. I could post them all. (Don't worry - I won't do that. Enough already!)

Thinking Green Thursday

Time once again for Thinking Green Thursday, hosted by Michelle.


In posts published on February 18 and 19, the Monterey Bay Aquarium blog, Sea Notes, told us about a tiny new addition to their exhibits. Her name is Kit, and she is an orphaned sea otter.

It is a rare event for the aquarium to place such a young animal on display. There were extenuating circumstances that allowed this to happen. If you follow the link, you will see a delightful, short video of her arrival, and read about the reasons behind this.

Sea Notes is a great blog, with many and varied topics concerning the oceans and bays and the creatures that live within them. Try it. You'll like it.

Graffiti

Today, as always, I read Lily Hydrangea's blog, Long Island Daily Photo. She posted a photo of a little graffiti, and it seems to have inspired a small discussion of the subject. This reminded me of a post I wrote more than a year ago.

My daughter was teaching English for a year in Veszprem, Hungary, and I went over to visit her. It was the first time I had been across the Atlantic. I was rather surprised to see the amount of graffiti everywhere. Much was political, some an expression of protest (such as, "No McDonald's here!"), and some was just plain nasty. But a great deal of it was really rather beautiful.

There was an underpass not far from the school, and its walls were covered with graffiti. Kitty decided something should be done about it, and she spent many hours with local officials in an attempt to get permission to do it. If you think it is hard to get anything done at "City Hall" around here, you should try it in eastern Europe. But she finally succeeded.


She rounded up a crew from among the students at the gymnasium (high school) and they white washed the whole area. Then they repainted it with a bright mural they designed themselves.





I posted these pictures before, but you may not remember them from back in 2008. I think they are worth a second look. At least, I am enjoying the memory.

Afghanistan

Sadly, we have now reached the total of 1000 U.S. troops killed in the war in Afghanistan.

It's Official

Isaac is officially five years old! His other Grandma baked him a strawberry and vanilla cake, and he celebrated with her and Grandpa, his mom and dad, and aunts, uncles and cousins.




He had a great day, playing in the snow.

























And they also went to visit the Magic Wings Conservatory and Gardens.



















He is officially a big boy now.

Shadow Shot Sunday

It's Shadow Shot Sunday! Can't believe I almost forgot it this week. Dealing with all this snow seems to have me all discombobbilated. Anyway, Tracy is hosting for us, so go visit her and see everyone's great shadow ideas.

I guess the best I can do today is shadows of bare trees on the snow.




But then, just because it's his birthday (February 20th - since Australia's Sunday is our Saturday), here is a picture my daughter sent of my grandson. He is five years old today!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ISAAC !

Thinking Green Thursday

Michelle hosts Thinking Green for us each week. She lives on the east coast of the United States, in New York. I think she is someone I would really like to know better. Michelle stepped up when it became impossible for Gina, the founder of this meme (and another really super lady) to continue hosting. Michelle had some doubts about doing it, but wanted to try. She still has some misgivings because there are not a huge number of people who participate each week. But it is such an important part of our lives today. Selfishly, I hope that she will continue the project because I so love reading her posts at Rambling Woods Green. I also love all of her other posts at Rambling Woods - The Road Less Traveled. They are beautifully written. Michelle's talent for research into her subjects and her beautiful photography surpasses most I have seen. The natural world is dear to her heart.

It is true that very few participate on a regular basis, and this is discouraging. It is a challenging meme, and I find it difficult myself. But it can bring us some remarkable ideas and interesting facts. One name we almost always see is Autumn Belle, who writes from Malaysia. I do look forward to her posts. It seems that her home is in a very environmentally aware area. (I only wish that I could say the same.) She is full of marvelous suggestions for going green. We also hear from people like Crafty Green Poet, and Green Earth and Me and My Camera and others from time to time.

Everyone who joins us, either occasionally or faithfully every week, obviously loves and is concerned for Planet Earth. Some simply post a single photo of their beautiful world. These photos tell their own stories so eloquently.

I often feel that my own efforts are very inadequate, but I want to keep trying. The only way that we will save our world is to keep trying, and to support and encourage one another in our efforts. Please join us from time to time.

Webcams, Change in Weather, Isaac

First, thanks to Michelle for a lead to eagle and owl webcams. They look great. I love watching and waiting for the eggs to hatch and the chicks to grow.
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Really happy to report we had nothing but rain over night. There was a little melting of snow as a result. This morning they are telling us things about "flurries" and "showers", so I'm hoping for the best, and feel much better about it.
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My daughter posted more
pictures of Isaac, taken in California. I guess she's showing them before going on to those of their their New England trip. I'm enjoying the sunny photos at the pool, including his current love - his best friend's little sister.















The pipe cleaner man is his portrait of his dad.







Of course I'm also looking forward to the new ones to come. Especially those of his fifth birthday.



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Oh boy! Here's the first pic.



It's the first time he has ever seen snow actually falling.

Weathermen and Digging Out

Gee, I wish the weather people would stop assuring us that today's storm will "hardly be any problem at all". I know it isn't bringing us anything like what we've had in the past week. But don't they realize that ANY more snow and freezing rain is just too much after what we've had. The longer this continues, the harder it is to take, even if "It's only a little".

Meantime, I got a call Saturday from Kitty, the California contingent, to tell me they made it safely to Massachusetts and the other grandparents. There is snow there too, but only 5 to 6 inches. Perfect for Isaac to play. She has started blogging again, so I'm hoping for further word on their visit there.

And yesterday, Rita came with her shovel and dug out my handicap ramp, etc. Here she is, working her way up, seen from the window. Couldn't do it from the back door down, because we couldn't even open the back door. It will be so good to be able to actually go outside again! And think of it - I'll even be able to put out the trash! But the car isn't going anywhere yet. This is the view down the driveway. That is still deep snow for at least 30 feet, with ice at the end.









Rita took the icicle picture at her house, from her front door. I love it.