Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Pause & See ~ Morning Light


I love the shortening days and the opportunity to see the sunrise at a reasonable hour.  I have to admit I was a bit grumbly this morning.  I awoke to the sound of rain.  Somehow my forecast hadn't included rain for today.  You see, I did 6 loads of laundry yesterday thinking this would be my last outside line drying time for a while.  I had thought it would be dry today...oh bother.  Guess it is going to get a few rain rinses.  When I went to take Runa out I saw this beautiful sky!  Grumblies were all gone!  I ran and got my camera.  Wearing my robe and muck boots I ventured out into the cold drizzle to get a better view across the field.



It was breath taking~~~





I stood there just soaking it all in and watched the light come on.  There was a soft drizzle and I was getting a bit chilled.  I started think about my morning coffee and turned to head back to the house.  This is what was behind me ~~~ A spectacular rainbow!







I no longer felt the cold.  It was just so beautiful!  I took a stroll down to the pond to see.....







My camera does not do the sight justice.  The sun shone on the autumn leaves at just the perfect angle to create a burst of golden light.  Longfellow's Poem speaks to this moment so very well...


The Rainbow

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 


I try to see something new each day. The art of seeing is essential to any creative work in my humble opinion.  My favorites are the ones that stop me in my tracks!  Like so many folks I have a very busy mind that I struggle to quiet.  By creating this practice it has given me many opportunities to pause and be with a new wonder.  I love to wonder about wonders.  These little seeings can be just the jolt my creative process needs to get out of a rut.  But mostly, they provide a pause which is that moment of peace I need to heal from a frustration. These seeings are grounding for me and bring me to the present.  I will admit to laughing out loud with joy over some of my discoveries, they are a moments of childlike wonder!  


"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"             ~~~Buddha



Monday, October 27, 2014

---Shop News--- Technical Difficulties = Moose


A new herd of Moose Puppets are back in my EcoCutie Shop--Yeah!  I have to admit it took me longer than I had hoped.  I had the usual distractions --- FINISHING the Gardens...well nearly <---next blog...I hope.

I hope, because I am having technical difficulties these days.  It all started when I nonchalantly updated my 2011 iPad 2 with iOS8.  Guess my "old" iPad is not limber enough for this operating system.  Now I feel like I am on dial-up internet during a big freeze... I get random freezes now.  Oh well, I thought, I do most of my work on my desktop.  Late last Thursday night I got a blue screen on my 2007 Vista Desktop.  The next morning after posting it on FB I was informed by several reliable techie sources this is know as the "Blue Screen of Death"!  Ah, how melodramatic, except I wasn't feeling very mellow about it!  I got into sort of a tizzy.  I had been planning to upgrade and go over to the Mac-Side this fall....that was until my son's college book bill came....

I spent Friday in DIY crash course trying to understand DH's Windows 8 laptop.  Windows 8 is the number one reason I am going to Mac.  If I have to learn something new it might as well be Apple.  DH uses his computer mostly to read the news, email, and watch a video now and then.  I had all sorts of tangles trying to get a few programs loaded.  I kept breathing and telling myself, "If I can warp a loom, I can do this...this isn't harder than teaching my Self to weave...."  I took some programs off my Vista and did a systems restore.  It is working for now and I am rearranging some of our finances so I can get the new Mac Mini.  Limitations may happen and blogging will go down on the priority list.  So if you don't hear from me you will know why!


Blue Screen of Death


I was a bit cranky by the end of Friday.  May face had been in front of screens for too long.  I decided to turn everything off, make a cup of tea and just look at a real window for a while.  We were having a wild rainy Nor'easter.  I felt better after that.  I spent the evening creating in quiet.  Just my little weavette loom, handspun yarn, needle & thread.  I made these little beauties for gifts.  I really enjoyed creating them so much that I hope to make some more for the Emporium shop this winter.  It was fun to dive into my huge collection of doodads and create off the grid so to speak.



I continued with the off the grid theme and finally finished my Mooses!  It was quite a lovely rainy day for sewing.  Computer woes does have the benefit of "showing" me how much time I have been spending "there" instead of "here".  Feels like time for a re-evaualtion of my use of TIME!  Always, a silver lining!  





Puppets make fun tree toppers too!






Spinner of Yarns, Weaver of Dreams, & Sewing to Mend the Soul

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Sunday, October 19, 2014

~~~Gratitude~~~ 35



So easy to be grateful for 35 years with my best friend.  We spent a sublime day at Popham Beach, Maine to celebrate.  It was a simple observation of our time together.  We have never been much on ceremony.  For years we would give our selves building project for our anniversary.  Now restfulness is what we desire.  35 years ago we made a choice on a beach in Alaska.  Our vow was simply to chose each other among the many in the world we could chose to make a life with.  Later we made it legal with a justice of the peace but, that day has never really mattered to us.  It is that choosing that got us through many challenges over the years.  Like so many we have had our struggles.  But, I truly, believe it was that simple act of choosing each other over and over again that has kept us together all of these years.  Now we are ready to enjoy the comfort that comes after so many years together and much personal growth.

We had not been to Popham Beach in over 30 years!  It was a choice on a whim on a very warm day in October.  We packed a picnic and enjoyed a drive through Maine with peak foliage colors to entertain us.  We arrived at low tide and the expansiveness of the beach took our breath away.  I don't believe I have physically been in this much openness in many years.  We walked a lot enjoying a warm wind and the sound of the surf.  At one point, near the end of our stay, we sat in the sand with our backs against a drift log.  The wind was just enough to move the sand across the beach in way that felt and looked ...I don't know...sort of unworldly.  There was an abstract transcendent feeling ~~it was sublime~~~

Here is a photo journal of our lovely day at the beach~~~




















~~~
It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 
I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 
I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 
~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

Friday, October 17, 2014

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ Everything is Just Duckie!

Egg #1

Awhile since I last talked about the ducks.  It has been a bit of a frustrating season.  It seemed to take forever for egg laying to begin.  Finally, this week I got my first smallish duck egg.  Two eggs today!   

I lost 4 ducks to a mysterious predator.  I am down to 8 ducks but, that number seems to be holding.  They were being picked off near their duck pond.  I thought if I could get them to go into the big pond they would be safer during the day.  It was a bit of a rodeo herding them...and then when Runa & I finally got them up in the big pond they would all run back to their little pond.  We had a very dry September and the little duck pond dried up.  THAT, definitely, convinced the girls to use the big pond.  I haven't lost another duck since then.  I have been locking them up earlier and I never leave them out if I go away for the day.  Luckily, for them I am home a lot.  

Duck Herding


Fortunately, the duck pond dried up during DH's vacation.  So he had fun with his tonka toy!






A few tense moments avoiding frogs and there were 2 crayfish rescue missions!




The weather remained dry the pond wasn't filling even though he hit a spring.   DH got the bright idea to use a hose and gravity feed water from the big pond to the little pond.  Three days later it was full!  We are keeping the hose running until freeze up...which doesn't seem to be coming.  We haven't had a hard frost yet!




The duck drama has died down and with the warm weather we have taken some moments to just enjoy the duckadoodles.  They are wicked cute!  Our home entertainment center!







Ducks

I
From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,
Beautiful comical things
Sleeping or curled
Their heads beneath white wings
By water cool,
Or finding curious things
To eat in various mucks
Beneath the pool,
Tails uppermost, or waddling
Sailor-like on the shores
Of ponds, or paddling
- Left!  Right! - with fanlike feet
Which are for steady oars
When they (white galleys) float
Each bird a boat
Rippling at will the sweet
Wide waterway…
When night is fallen you creep
Upstairs, but drakes and dillies
Nest with pale water-stars.
Moonbeams and shadow bars,
And water-lilies:
Fearful too much to sleep
Since they've no locks
To click against the teeth
Of weasel and fox.
And warm beneath
Are eggs of cloudy green
Whence hungry rats and lean
Would stealthily suck
New life, but for the mien
The hold ferocious mien
Of the mother-duck.

II

Yes, ducks are valiant things
On nests of twigs and straws,
And ducks are soothy things
And lovely on the lake
When that the sunlight draws
Thereon their pictures dim
In colours cool.
And when beneath the pool
They dabble, and when they swim
And make their rippling rings,
0 ducks are beautiful things!
But ducks are comical things:-
As comical as you.
Quack!
They waddle round, they do.
They eat all sorts of things,
And then they quack.
By barn and stable and stack
They wander at their will,
But if you go too near
They look at you through black
Small topaz-tinted eyes
And wish you ill.
Triangular and clear
They leave their curious track
In mud at the water's edge,
And there amid the sedge
And slime they gobble and peer
Saying 'Quack! quack!'

III

When God had finished the stars and whirl of coloured suns
He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones;
Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then
He made the comical ones in case the minds of men
Should stiffen and become
Dull, humourless and glum,
And so forgetful of their Maker be
As to take even themselves - quite seriously.
Caterpillars and cats are lively and excellent puns:
All God's jokes are good - even the practical ones!
And as for the duck, 1 think God must have smiled a bit
Seeing those bright eyes blink on the day He fashioned it.
And he's probably laughing still at the sound that came out of its bill!