Another Point of View

In recent weeks I have heard many views expressed as to possible fates to which those in charge of things at the infamous BP might be consigned. I believe I have expressed a few myself. But on June 9th, my youngest daughter came up with a really interesting one. In her blog post entitled Spiders and the Spill, she has said, "I think all the BP officials should be sentenced to a life of gardening." Yep. Gardening. It has something to do with her questioning the seemingly prevalent belief that humans are for some reason far more important than anything else living on our earth.

Give it a read. You might like it.

Poetry Month

In honor of Poetry Month, I refer you to my daughter's current post, and to her recommendation of a site called Split This Rock Poetry Festival.

Once again, I am not staying on line too long these days because my computer is overheating. Although, since our weather has cooled, it isn't quite so bad. It still cuts out on me within a very short time. Sorry I can't visit too many of your posts.

Poetry Class

Blogger seems to be having a little trouble with our reading lists. After we publish a post, it does not appear right away on the lists.

Yesterday, the 4th of March, I discovered that my daughter had published the day before, although it had not yet appeared on my list. She often publishes light posts about things that her son says or does. This one is different.

Please visit her blog - the post dated March 3rd and titled "an audience for poetry". It does not contain any poetry. But it offers a brief look into a world that our children do not, and should not know.

Kitty

Have I mentioned recently that my youngest daughter is rather amazing? All of my children are, each in her/his own way. They never cease to amaze me. But today, it's my youngest. Well, "amaze" isn't really the right word because I've always known the kind of person she is.

Today I received an email addressed to all the family from her. It concerns the fact that her son will soon celebrate his fifth birthday. I would love to post it here, but I won't do that unless she tells me I may. But I will say that it reminds me very much of the website she and her husband had before their wedding, when they requested that their family and friends NOT give them gifts. They asked at that time that those who felt they must give gifts make charitable contributions in their names instead. That isn't what she has asked this time, but it is in a similar vein.

I have great hopes for this little guy. With parents like his, how can he not become someone really special?

I always love receiving emails from Kitty. And I always have to smile when I read the quote that always appears at the end. It is this one:

"The source of my difficulties has always been the same: an inability to accept what to others seems natural, and an irresistible tendency to voice opinions no one wants to hear..." - Isabel Allende

I often think that I should use that one myself.

Shadow Shot Sunday #59

Time again for Shadow Shot Sunday, hosted by Tracy at Hey Harriet.

Once again, my daughter, Kathryn, has sent me shadow pictures that I love. Her family went picking strawberries, and this was what she took at the strawberry fields.

For Poetry Lovers

Have you heard of the on-line Chicago Poetry Tour?

This from my daughter, Kathryn:

"hey, here's a cool idea http://www.poetryfoundation.org/gallery/walking-tours/chicago/index.html"

I haven't explored the whole thing myself yet - just had a taste of it last night. But if poetry is your thing, by all means, give it a try.

Think Green Thursday #8

Gina, aka The Pagan Sphinx, and Michelle, of Rambling Woods want us to Think Green Thursday. I think that's a terrific idea. Join in. Just show us your ideas of a way to Go Green, or contribute a photo you've taken.

I can't seem to stop tooning. My tired brain hasn't come up with anything very special to post about, but I do love to toon, so here's another one. Click on it to enlarge.



I said I couldn't think of anything special to post today, but there are a few other things. For one, I would refer you to my daughter's blog, Fetal Positions. She has posted several pictures of last weekend's camping trip into Big Sur territory in California. Just a small sampling of what Mother Nature is all about, and a plea to the governor not to close the State Parks.



And, just because I think it's such a great suggestion, may I add that last week, our blog friend, Paz, told us about biodegradable bags from poopbag.com, so you can also go green when cleaning up after your dog.



Oh, yes! And while I'm at it, HAPPY WORLD OCEANS DAY ! I think it was the 8th, but it's never too late to celebrate. Do visit Michelle for a wonderful post about our oceans.



This is becoming a little ridiculous. My "nothing" post keeps growing. There are just so many wonderful people and their wonderful nature blogs! I have just visited Tootie on Sanibel Island. Her posts about sea turtles are always interesting, and today she gives us so many beautiful pictures and even videos. It would be well worth your time to visit.

Isn't our world exciting!

Think Green Thursday #6

Our friend, the Pagan Sphinx, hosts Think Green Thursday for us each week. I think she has a wonderful idea here. In the short time the meme has been in existence, I know that I have discovered some new and better ideas for helping our world and ourselves. Have any good thoughts that might help us all? Please join in.

There are two things I would like to mention today, and I am borrowing both from other people.


The first thing I am stealing is from my daughter, Kathryn. She has done a short post today about receipts. It seems at first glance like a very small thing. But when you stop and think, it adds up to a tremendous waste. She cites one store receipt she received which was over a foot and a half long, for just one single item. We are all familiar with endlessly long receipts from drug stores, office supply stores, and others. Not long lists of purchases, but ads, coupons for things we will never buy, etc. Some of these receipts are on regular paper, and others are on non-recyclable material. And what can we possibly do about this? Maybe - just maybe - if enough of us protested this kind of thing we could get the chains of stores to cut back. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic in this. Maybe not. We have to start somewhere, don't we? Speak up. "They" won't do it. We ARE "They". If we don't do it, it won't be done.


My other topic for today is something I know little or nothing about.

Hybrids, hybrids, hybrids!

I cannot claim any knowledge at all concerning automobiles.
But I have great confidence in Tom and Ray. I'm sure many of you must know them from NPR's weekend program, Car Talk. I love their show, which is very amusing, and does offer sound advice about your car, via call in's from their listeners.

I subscribe to their Car Talk Plaza email newsletter. The most recent issue does concern hybrid cars, and I can't imagine that there is anyone more knowledgeable on the subject.


Now I don't care what you say, I think that's funny! In their own comedic way, Tom and Ray may have some valuable information to offer you if you care to visit their site at the above link. I wouldn't even attempt to re-word it here.

Surely there are some of you out there who may be thinking of a new car. I wish I could be one of you. And surely, the fuel efficiency alone would make enough sense to lead us in that direction.

Poetry

My youngest, Kitty, is having a full month in February. she is doing a poetry reading, and is also conducting a poetry workshop to benefit Isaac's pre-school. I had placed all the details on my blog earlier today, and it made her a bit nervous. Please forgive an over-enthusiastic mother. A few of you made nice comments, and I'll pass them on to her.

I'm still going to try to get her to let me print some of her poetry soon.


Another daughter, Rita, just informed me I missed Langston Hughes' birthday, February 1st.
Well, I can rectify that at least. Here is a poem by Langston Hughes.

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.


Poem: www.PoemHunter.com

Blogiversary

It's been a whole year! I can't believe that has happened.

I'll bet no one remembers this:

Monday, January 7, 2008

Just getting started. I must admit, I haven't thought this through. I'm not even sure I really want to blog. Several people have urged me to do it and I'm not sure why.

Well, let's see. I do enjoy putting my thoughts on paper. I love photography, and think I would enjoy posting photos along with my random yammerings, just for my own enjoyment if nothing else. Guess maybe I'll give it a shot. I love reading blogs. Have a list a mile long, and feel as if I know these people who regularly come into my living room via their blogs. One is my youngest daughter and another my closest friend. Oddly enough I learn a great deal about those two by reading their blogs. Wonder what they may learn about me by reading mine?

Don't think they will learn much about me from this entry. It's going to be very short. I must gather my thoughts a bit and decide just what direction this will take - what purpose it will serve (if any). I assume some people will read it, if only out of curiosity, and I don't want to bore them to death. OK. I'll get back to you later.



What amazes me is that five people actually commented on that! Of course, four of them knew me: Lisa, my daughters Kitty and Ruth, and the girl who had been my maid of honor. The other was Ralph, from Homespun Headlines, who is still commenting on my posts today, God bless him. And my second post had three comments, two referred by those people. One was sent by Lisa: Laura from Somewhere in New Jersey, who is still a friend.

It was sort of an accident that I got started at all. I'd been stumbling around on line and hit the wrong buttons. When it told me I'd actually created a blog, I guess I was in a crazy mood, and said "What the heck - why not see what it would look like?" Oooops! Now I've done it! What shall I say? But I went on to write about my name, and my kids, and my husband, and then seemed to have a few more things to talk about so I just kept going. Here I am, 380 posts later, still talking.

It seems to be like therapy for me. I was old, and tired and discouraged and sometimes lonely. Now I'm not. Well, yes, I'm even older, but that's inevitable, isn't it? But now I have a whole community of people I feel are my friends. You just can't have enough friends! I love you guys! Thanks for being out there.

What I've Been Reading - and Happy Birthday, Mike!

Well, really, only a very little of what I've been reading today.

First, I visited Maithri's blog, Soaring Impulse. I found inspiring words there, as always. He gave me much food for thought, starting with the words of David Hawkins: "What you are for empowers you. What you are against weakens you." and going on with his own thoughts on the theme of Power: "I don't fight against prejudice. I fight for love and tolerance and the celebration of diversity."

I think that I must try hard to remember his words.


In a lighter vein, I have also been reading, as always, my daughter's blog, Fetal Positions. She has decided to do a retrospect she calls Flashback December. I got a chuckle from it. Maybe you would too. The little guy who started it all is now fast approaching his fourth birthday.

Haven't read much more today. Still not feeling too great, though much better than yesterday when I was really out of it.


Happy Winter Solstice!

And Happy Birthday Mike!

A Pause for Poetry

Don't know why. I guess thinking about Maya Angelou did it. Got me thinking about poetry again. I have a poem framed, on my bedroom wall. My youngest, Kitty, wrote it for me in 2003.


How to Write a Poem for Your Mother

First, create many unsuccessful drafts.
follow ideas into oblivion,
metaphors into cliche hums and mumbles.
Next, check your email.
Read your new messages but don't answer any.
Sing rainy day songs she taught you.
Wish in passing that you could whistle.
Wonder if it's her fault you can't.
Plant marigold seeds in the rain like she would.
Bring the open seed packet close to your face and sniff.
Know it smells like her.
Open and close your journal several times.
Write the date on a page then decide to change pens.
Look at a calendar to find out exactly when Mother's Day is this year.
Re-read all the starts to poems you've begun for her in the past -
they talk about fireflies and butterflies, Tagore and Milne.
Find potential in wings and words and light and flight.
Decide having potential is like being told you are "nice".
Convince yourself you're washed up as a poet.
Spend time wallowing in this thought.
Pull the covers over your head and sleep.
Dream you are with her
walking arm in arm
through beautiful grey Budapest.




I love my poem.

I guess it sort of explains the marigolds I have started to use as my profile picture when I got tired of looking at my own face. We did spend some time together in beautiful Budapest in the spring of 1995. I have no picture of us together there. I do not look particularly happy in this one. Maybe the sun was in my eyes.


Kitty was teaching English as a second language to students at a gymnasium in a little town called Veszprem, near Budapest. The girl has always amazed me. She arrived there not knowing a word of Hungarian.
Learned it fairly rapidly. (Well, she had to know how to ask for potatoes in the market, and how to ask for ice cream. And only a couple of the teachers on the staff had any English at all.)

She learned to love the kids she was teaching that year, and I'm sure they loved her too. She also battled the local folks at city hall until she got to help the kids in cleaning up the graffiti and painting a mural in a pedestrian tunnel in town. That took some doing! Fighting city hall is the same world over I guess.



















She isn't in the pictures. she was behind the camera.


I hope she didn't waste too much time with the covers pulled over her head. I do think she is a wonderful poet. And a prolific one.I wish that I could publish more of her work here, but that could compromise her chances of publishing elsewhere.

Well, enough of this for today.

Maya Angelou - and Human Rights

One of the heroes in my life is Maya Angelou, because of her books, her wonderful poetry, and mostly because of what she has done with her life. She suffered through some terrible experiences early in her life, but in spite of,or perhaps because of them, she has spent her time and energy bringing hope and inspiration to the rest of us.

Today Maya Angelou and her good friend, Norman Lear, will be honored with the Marian Anderson Award, for humanitarian leadership by an artist. One of many honors received by this wonderful woman. Well deserved.

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I was very happy to read in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday of the thousands who turned out Saturday for the Human Rights Rally at City Hall. I also heard from Pagan Sphinx and from Cunning Runt, of a similar successful rally up in Northampton, Massachusetts, and from my daughter of others out in Salinas and in other cities in California.

On a much smaller scale, I was pleasantly surprised at the positive reception to my own small post on Friday. Restores one's faith in human nature a bit.

I understand that at the rally in Northampton someone carried a sign that read, "Separation of Church and Hate". That one really got to me. It is so sad that people who believe themselves to be God-fearing and morally upright cannot understand that their hatred makes them anything but what they profess to be. God created all of us as we are. Man created laws that say He must have made a mistake.

Shadow Shot Sunday #23

It's Sunday again in Australia - the start of a new week. But I'm going back in time. I took this picture quite a few years ago. That's me on the left, and my daughter, Kitty, on the right. We are standing on the boardwalk behind the old Cape May City Convention Hall, looking down at the sand. I'm sure there must have been shore birds that we were watching, and I'm sorry that they are not in the picture. They must have made some interesting shadows themselves.

I have always liked the picture. In fact, I use it as a screen saver. It brings back pleasant memories.



If you would like to join in with your own photos for Shadow Shots, please follow this link, or click on the logo on my sidebar. Chasing shadows is fun!

Thank you, "Harriet", in Australia, for hosting Shadow Shot Sunday and putting together collages of the photos used each week.



And thank you so much, Tracey. How very kind of you to give each of your participants the Super Sweet Shots Award! It's just one more reason to love your Shadow Shots Sunday meme.

Another New Blog! And Other Stuff

Wow! Everyone is doing it! Dianne doesn't need my promotion I'm sure. She already has a huge following. But in case you hadn't heard, she is starting a new photo blog called Do You See What I See. I know it will be great. She's been into photography for a while, and she's good. Very innovative.

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My daughter, Kitty, left word on her blog, Fetal Positions II, about a new line of goods on the market, all related to the now infamous phrase, "That One". It's pretty darned funny. I'm too cheap. I made myself my own little logo thingy for my sidebar. But they do have some really nice shirts and hats and such.

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I think the birders are here in Cape May in full force now. I had forgotten for the moment that they were coming. Happened to drive down to Cape May - well, actually up, to Cape May Point this morning. I'd intended to do the nature trail or something. But when I got there, the parking lot was crowded and there were lots of people on the hawk watch platform, and bicycles were rolling everywhere, and people were walking around shouldering expensive looking cameras. I'm a rather solitary soul when I head out to meet Mother Nature, so I just said, "Oh, well" and went home.


I saw quite a few butterflies flitting around, but not any real swarm of monarchs, so I guess they aren't ready to take off on their migration yet. Soon.

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Haven't posted a Dave Walker cartoon in a while. How about this one:

His Cartoons for Blogs are free for the taking.

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Gee, but it's hot again. I put my a/c on this afternoon. I sure hope it cools off this weekend as promised by the weatherman. I am not fond of a/c weather. One nice thing about the warmer weather is, today I found this out on the back deck.








I had thought they were all finished. I hadn't even looked at them recently, nor trimmed off that little dead stem, as you can see. I really should be paying closer attention.

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My cousin sent me another good email yesterday. He called it "Oddball Stuff" -


For all You Folks Who Have Difficulty Converting Units:

Ratio of an igloo's circumference To its diameter = Eskimo Pi
2000 lbs of Chinese soup = Won Ton
1 millionth of a Mouthwash = 1 Microscope
Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananasecond
Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
Time it takes to sail 1 nautical mile per hour = 1 knotfurlong
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
Shortest distance between 2 jokes = 1 straight line
456.3 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
1 million microphones = 1 megaphone

Strange Definitions:

Eye Dropper - a clumsy ophthamologist
Heroes - what a guy in a boat does
Left Bank - what the robber did when his bag was full of money
Paradox - 2 physicians
Parasites - what you see from the Eiffel Tower
Pharmacist - a helper on a farm
Polarize - what penguins see with
Primate - removing your spouse from the couch in front of the TV
Relief - what trees do in the spring
Rubberneck - what you do to relax your wife
Selfish - what the owner of a seafood store does
and our favorite:
Sudafed - litigation brought against a government official.

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Well, I don't suppose any of my posts of odds and ends would be complete without a chicken joke. It just doesn't seem right to end without one. So..........

What is this? A chicken joke without chickens? How can that be?




Hey! You'll have to ask Doug Savage, It's his cartoon, not mine.



I like it anyway.

Blog Posts

My daughter did another blog post yesterday. In fact, she did two.

She lives 3000 miles away. We email, we telephone, but it isn't enough. When she does a post (which isn't nearly often enough because of her busy life these days) it means so much to me. It gives me just a little insight into what she is thinking these days, perhaps how she is feeling. I probably read too much into it. My imagination carries me a little too far. But it's something.

I miss her.



I have another daughter who lives 200 miles away. Within easier traveling distance, yes. But due to circumstances, we do not see one another very often. I miss this daughter very much. She is the one most like me in many ways - although I must admit, at one time or another, I feel each of my three daughters are "most" like me. I even feel that about my son at times.

She does not blog any more. Has not for a number of years. I wish she would, but her writing style is very different from her sister's. She goes for humor in her writing and her speech. It is more likely to hide her feelings rather than betray them. I need to talk with her, to see her face to face.



I guess that today I am just missing having all of my children together.

Happy Birthday, Kitty

This morning I called my daughter in California, since it is her birthday. She tells me they had birthday cake at breakfast! Partly because Isaac was begging for it. Mostly because she and Mike are busy, busy, and there are other things to do when he gets home tonight. They haven't even had time to celebrate their anniversary yet. That was earlier this month. They have decided to have anniversary month instead, and manage to celebrate later. If not before, they have reservations for a couple of nights in a lighthouse hostel, the last week of the month.


We were bemoaning the fact that stores have grown so BIG. Way too big, so far as I'm concerned. I have to plan which items I'm going to buy in a supermarket - those at this end of the store, or those at the other end. I just can't walk all the way to the back. It's too far for me any more, even though I use the shopping cart sort of like a walker. That helps. Department stores are too big too. Some have motorized scooters for old fogies like me, but I don't like them. There are always things piled in aisles that obstruct them, or crowds get in the way. And sometimes people don't plug in the scooters when they're finished with them, and the power will run out when you're halfway through the store.

Then there are super big stores that swoop into a neighborhood and drive out all the nice little shops that I love. This also applies to craft shops and book stores. I wanted to cry when our small bookstore went out of business. Also, a huge craft chain moved in nearby, and all those little guys left too. I can't shop in the big new one. That is just waaay too big, and the sales people don't know the stock well enough to direct you to anything. I had hoped they would carry the Artful Blogging Magazine that has an article about Caroline's Crayons in the new issue, but no such luck. I know that Border's carries it, but that isn't within my driving range. One of my daughters will find it for me.

Anyway, it's Kitty's theory that sooner or later, all of this will turn itself around, and we will start to move back to the smaller businesses again. It seems to be happening in California, where just about every small town now has a market night, when you can stroll through the town's main street, buying fresh produce, and just about anything else you can imagine. Of course, in California the produce is fresh all year 'round. We don't have that advantage here.

Kitty writes a column for her County paper about whatever cultural events are going on each week. This week there was much about the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas. She was unhappy with it because it concerns a big Mexican Festival - free (with admission to the musem). We wonder just who this is aimed at. Certainly not the poor Mexican families with whom Steinbeck himself was so concerned. There are so many of them in Salinas who work the farms. But they will not be able to afford the admission to bring their children to the festival.

Also big doings down on Cannery Row, where they opened Doc Rickett's lab for a day. He was a famed marine biologist and Steinbeck's friend. (co-author Sea of Cortez) My daughter is educating me in these matters.


So anyway -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KITTY.
I love you.

My Girls

My New York daughter called me yesterday. She asked me if I was still hearing voices in the attic. Yes, I am. We decided it must be the dish on the roof picking up someone's radio. We got a little silly about it, and she suggested that I start my own radio station, using the dish. She says the station's call letters could be WBLOG.



California daughter put up pictures on Flickr. This one was taken during Monterey's July 4th celebration. Pretty cool, huh?



New Jersey daughter celebrated her birthday Sunday.
We don't get the whole family together very often any more. Her brother and sister-in-law took her to a birthday breakfast on the way home from church. Then she and I had our ice cream cones later.



The weather changed enough that I drove up to the Point on Saturday night. The Villas Girl (who is sort of my other daughter) goes almost every evening, walks the beach, watches dolphins leaping, and chats with whoever is there. I didn't do all that, but watched the birds and bunnies and the kites flying over the water. Got a few nice pictures of the sun going down.

Of course I had to run home before it went all the way down.
I turn into a pumpkin if I try to drive after dark.

KITTY

Kitty did a really nice blog post for me today.



I love that girl. She has brought me joy from the moment she was born.



On February 20, 2005 she brought me more (with a little help from Mike).



And it just keeps coming.

Thank you, Kitty.



Give that boy a big kiss for me, please.

Photo on Request

My daughter, Kitty, emailed me today with the suggestion that I post a photo that I took years ago with my trusty old Pentax. I think it's a fun photo. Always liked it. In fact, at one point I even had some cards made up with it. It's on my bedroom wall, and it always makes me smile.



So, for Kitty, and for my own enjoyment, here is my grasshopper. it was taken outside my front door at the house that is now owned by my daughter, Rita. As you can see, I got right down there eye to eye with the creature. He didn't seem to mind posing for me. In fact, he pretty much ignored me and my camera and just continued sunning himself, letting the world go by.

No summery pictures in Kitty's blog today, even though it involves sunny California. She and Mike went looking for snow so that Isaac could learn what life is like in other climes. It started my morning off with a chuckle. Don't guess Kitty was chuckling when they met the Sheriff of Mariposa. (Why does the fact that "mariposa" means "butterfly" crack me up?)
But I'm reasonably sure that Isaac's first experience with real snow will be something he will remember as a fun thing when he looks back on it years from now.