ups and downs

FOG RAIN WIND WARM  SUN CLEAR COLD SNOW

Today's warming with heavy rains has taken off some snow.

the weather is shifting - becoming colder and perhaps bringing new snow.  

Weather is not something we control.  

We don't even know what would be good for us.  

There is a big picture with the weather, but we only think out our door.

"Don't look for God in the sky; 

look within your own body." ~Osho

very Martha....

 Since we moved here 12 years ago, I have been picking up nuts 

on our walks in the woods.  

This has been a slow ongoing endeavor.

You cannot imagine the thrill of finding another nut.  

The earthy natural look rather than expense godads 
from WalMart or Pottery Barn.

early light

your colors?

Should you paint your walls yellow or bright red, greens ? 

What colors bring you alive? 

This girl leans toward blues ~ always has.  

Other colors are sneaking into my world, greens, purples.  

I am not big on the yellows and oranges.  

Maybe in time I will find some kinship.

some this and that of our cold

the pond in the dome has frozen which gives a wild reflection

 

Ice and acorns

365 and now

last year I found a website where you put up a photo a day.  

365 pictures.

  It made me take my camera out every day and shoot and shoot. 

 Some were worthwhile, many not, but it made me focus.  

Focus on the extraordinary but more on the ordinary.  

My world view is limited 80 acres overall, mostly the house, the fields, 

the vistas, the weather, the animals, us.  

It is a  small choice for my lens - thus a challenge to find a daily shot.  

I was  rather faithful to this for a spell, then lost it.  

In going back and reviewing I took some of my best pictures in this time.  

It made me work, be aware, feel, see and see beyond
~  
Light~ reflections~ color~ shadows~ patterns~ seasons~ movement~ closeups

Award winning?  no.  

Definitely pictures that please my eye, my heart, my soul,
 and really that is what this is about.  

Thus I am back in the saddle again, 

looking forward to carrying camera on walks, 

in the house,  focusing again on what is around me, day in, day out.  

slowing down and Seeing.

Some things I can capture.  

others like the wind are more difficult, but it is the challenge, isn't it?

Instead of posting on 365 

here is where I shall showcase my daily offerings.

Like all I do, what others think of me~ my work is not important.  

I am the artist.  

I am the critic 

and I am my own best audience.

Life is really simple

We make so much in life complex when it shouldn't be.   We think it to pieces and it ends up making us unnecessarily unhappy.Suppose we step back and begin at the beginning....  "this is my simple religion.   There is no need for temples:   no need for complicated philosophy.   Our own brain, our own heart is our temple: the philosoply is kindness." Dalai Lama

why not?

 a dose of MAGIC or....  

There are many many things wonderous things I believe in yet have not seen.  

Unicorns, fairies, trolls, angels, ghosts (oh I have seen one of those) 

There is a thin veil between real and other 

and 

Just because we don't "see" them does not mean that they do not exist.  

At night in the fields, in the shadows, at dusk and dawn, 

when the moon is blue, when the winds pick up ~ in the silence

slow down and be aware.

Les chats

Cats are easy overall.  

You don't have to walk them.  They are incredibly independent.  

They are there for you.  

You don't notice the moment a cat is in your lap or on your feet at night, 

but there they are.  

don't bother to say come here and sit, for that does not work.  

Cats do cat period.  You can try to change them.  

they don't buy into this at all period.

Cats have function.  Hunting one of their primary roles in life 

even though they may not not need to hunt.  

Nocturnal play, wandering.  Wild is so much a part of the basic cat.

Whereby dogs seem to have lost all the primitive behavior cats have not.  

They have wild built in and it does not go away in civilization.  

I can let Wooley out and with in moments she will have 

a squirrel, bird, chipmunk.  Food, no.  

She left home well fed.  It is inbreed and part of her nature. 

I have seen my girls in the top of trees and across fields, 

but they are always looking over their shoulder.  

They know that they are a part of the food chain.  

They know that a hawk or a fox is up chain from them and they are tuned in.  

I was told and I can't remember the when that cats will take on any negativity 

if you ask.  

I use them all time for this.  I am pissed at the world, or someone or feeling negative, 

I ask them to take it on.  

Cats can do this because they don't care.  Poof gone.  

If you asked a dog he would suffer it for they take everything to heart. 

CATS DON'T.  It is wonderful.  

You want to let go of something just hand it off to a cat.  

You could write it down and burn it 

so much simpler to rid yourself of it 

by sharing with the cat.

You can leave home and leave a cat for a time.  With a dog this is so not possible.  

My mother did not like cats and cats did not become a part of my life until I left home.  Many many many good felines have been my friends 

(if one can say that).  They accepted me.  I feel that an honor.

Some have walked with me and many have sat with me.  

Best part of cat is the purr.  No hiding it. It is the essense of cat.

 You want to know if your cat is content, you will know then the purr sets in.  

 It is the ultimate in contentment. 

Hunting.

Hunting

take stock

Against the sky, by the sink....spring magic in winter.
Stock looks lovely and smells like Cinnamon and lasts 5-8 days.  

menopausal women

I and many other women are menopausal and as such we don't sleep well.  We wake up in the night.  I don't fight this.  It is a fight I can't/won't win.  I actually enjoy these nocturnal times, sometimes moments, sometimes longer maybe hours.  I don't watch the clock.  What I do is meditate, pray and listen.  I talk to God and I listen to God.  My best lessons come at night.  I ponder my life, and what is going on around me -  my neighborhood, and my town, and my state and New England, and beyond to the universe and all that is part of  this from the family to the grasses, birds just everything.
  

I work bringing love and peace to me and all the rest.  

My feeling is that while I am awake, my female family and friends and from high school, college and down the road here in town are also awake 

doing exactly what I am doing .... 

this huge wave of menopausal woman all over the earth, 

we elders, wise women, we Crones 

taking care of the world at night. 

I am convinced that we, the menopausal woman of the world, 

are the glue

 keeping the universe from spinning out of control.  

A wonderful meditation this.

 I have no clue our numbers (which are growing).  It is a really big number of woman at night in the quiet who are working with ourselves and god 

to understand, heal and make us and the world better 

and I believe we do.  

Is this crazy or is it sheer wisdom?  

It is a thought that came to me at night.

 I really absolutely totally believe this is the time when God speaks to me

and imparts the most wonderful learning.

Blessed Be.

for whom?

Blogging 

 a word for something that did not exist before the 1990's.  

Definition- Noun: A web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information etc on a regular basis. or a verb adding material to a blog.

An online diary of sorts?  For me?  For others?  Masses or me?  

There are blogs out there that speak to the world and needs, 

cooking, photograph, travel, you name it, someone blogs it.  

Some are sublime and some incredibly painful.

Some I follow regularly and would miss if they were not there.

BUT today's question is~  Why do I blog? 

Is it ego or merely a spitting out of my thoughts that seem to need a home. 

It is about me so ego plays a part..  

My feeling about this MY blog is that I needed a place

 to put random thoughts and pictures and findings

Guess I could have scrap booked or kept a diary.

On-line is easy and accessible so on-line it is.

 So far it please my soul.  

Obviously I have a need to say stuff, not necessarily to be heard. 

I have found writing my thoughts helps me sort though life.

When the need comes, here it gets said.  

When a fine picture or pictures  speak to me, here they are put

 If a wonderful quote or poem comes into my life,

 I may add my thoughts or add a picture, and put it here.

  

then there is the creative, artsy side of blogging-- Colors, size, centering.  

Love love happy happy playing with this AND again fills a need.

I can come back and refine what I have said 

 I can make something go poof after considering it awhile.  

Refining and poofing both important aspects.

So Face the winds works for me.  

 incredible words I felt needed to be written down way back

 I can go back and check to see what wisdom, beauty seemed so important

 3 months, 9 months ago.  

Revisiting is allowed and maybe encouraged.  

There it is MY thought for today.  Yup, That is it in a nutshell.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart....

When I worked at Birthwise and my students were leaving
to go to their preceptors,
I gave each of them a heart with a note
"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." Confucius
Years later students would return and tell me they held on to their heart. 
Now that made my day and me smile.

And then when I discovered Good News and Random Acts of Kindness
I decided to give hearts to other people.
No rhyme or reason to this just a gut feeling, this person this day.
I decided to give two hearts, one for them to keep and one to pass on to someone
else that they would decide on when the time was right.

Ripple, ripple, Keep it going.  
Most times I don't hear what happens, but every now and again I do
and it makes my day and it makes me smile.

designing woman

kitchen which we bought cheap from Home Depot when we built needs redoing.

That is my Christmas present and my winter project

and 

it seems to be being a bit of a pain so far.

power of nature or the winds of change

Snow was soft, flurry, easy to move and then nature brought us wind.

Wind packed our snow and sculptured the snow.

Not so easy to move now.

OH  oh so beautiful.