The Beckoning of Lovely

Several weeks ago I was tagged by a friend.  I was curious about those other souls she tagged.  

While checking out Anna's site I found she posted this most beautiful video, and she'd found it on the web.  It put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.  It's really that cool!  Watch it, and you just might agree that if more people in the world could come together and play or create we'd all find inner peace.  Thanks Anna! 

To Amy in the YouTube, my heart felt thanks for believing in others and sharing your dreams.   

Click on the PLAY arrow!  Go on.  No one has to know if you get teary eyed too!  

Shhh....

This morning I couldn't sleep.  I was up at 4:44.  I laid in bed for awhile and listened to the sounds outside.  Not much was happening.  After about 30 minutes, I heard some rustling in the leaves below my window.  Jack heard it too.  He moved his warm, fat body off of my legs to go look out the window and investigate.  It was probably an Opossum.  

I decided to get up and walk around the Burrow in the dark.  The floors are very noisy.  Old floor boards!  No need to worry about anything roaming the house at night unnoticed!  Of course curiosity got the best of Lily, and she came to see what I was doing from where ever she spends her night patrolling the Burrow.  I think Lily enjoys the basement.  She must be hoping to find another snake, or maybe a mouse.  

I looked out the back windows.  It's very dark.  Most of the wildlife seems to be lured into somber too by the peacefulness of the night.  The sky is clear and crisp.  The stars sparkle like diamonds above the canopy of leaves.  My stomach breaks the solitude with a low rumble.  Being up for almost two hours now, it's ready for some nourishment.  I don't seem to be able to convey to my stomach how nourishing this peaceful morning has been for my soul.  

I'd love to step outside onto the back porch in the dark.  Two things are keeping me inside.  First, opening the doors would probably wake everyone else in the household.  And second, if the doors didn't wake everyone then Jacks meows to come and join me would certainly do the trick.  Maybe at 7, when it's a more reasonable hour to rouse the teens.  

Survival of the Fittess - Tripod

I do know I have my grandma's genes in my blood.

I can't help it then, that the site of a deer excites me. This deer fascinates me! Just after we moved into our house I spotted it in our backyard. She may be a yearling, but I have not seen her with the rest of the herd to compare...I do know she hasn't had spots this year.

Last night I happened to have my camera at the ready, daylight on my side and her nibbling in the back yard.

~ :)

...genre...

Several weeks ago I confessed how much I enjoy classical music.  Well that is true, I do enjoy most other types of music too.  

I mentioned my love for rock, and Sammy Hagar.  I think going to a concert , being young, lustful and just five feet from him as he sang may have influenced this obsession of mine.  But I didn't mention my love of drummers.  Growing up I had a very close friend who played the drums.  I think his parents had hoped he'd be the son who would inherit the family farm.  Literally.  He was not one of those souls who could be tied down to the community we grew up in.  The area was too flat and lacking in opportunity.  He was too artistic and really did need to spread his wings.  I am convinced that had he stayed home he would have gone insane.  He was an always  smiling, funny spirited, big-hearted, do-whatever-he-could-for-you, friend.  He was three years older than me, but someone I always wanted to touch my life somehow.  Even now.  He is happily married with three children near my own children's ages.  At times, I wonder what he and his family are up to.  I'd love to reconnect more than we have.  

-----

I recall being excited for him as he went off to college.  We stayed close friends for several years after that.  He even came back to take me to my prom.  I feel like those were really my misfit days.  High school girls can be infuriating!  When they are freshmen they only date seniors and when they are seniors they won't date the guys their own age!  For me, I had another very good friend, who was male and my age, but I didn't feel like I could go to my prom with him because I worried he wanted to be more than my friend and I couldn't bear to break his heart anymore than I all ready had.  But he's another story for another time.  

My drummer friend and I had so many fun adventures together as I grew up.  Again, many, many stories I could write.  Each story is sure to put a smile on my face.  I have never told my friend that he helped me to love drummers.  I love to watch them in action.   I tend to focus on what they are doing as I watch; picking out their rhythms and feeling their beat of the song.  Even when I just listen to music, I seem more in tune with that background spine.  Maybe that's why I enjoy rock and roll so much.  Jazz inspired individual artists to 'strut their stuff.'  That inspiration flowed over into rock.  There is nothing better in my book than a drum solo.    I love them!  

While classical music calms me, other genre can ignite me.  

BTW, that long ago Van Halen concert I attended...nirvana!  

Siblings and generations...

Sister and Brother.  Six years apart.  Baby and Oldest.  

When they were little it probably made a difference that they were farther apart in age.  It doesn't matter now.  Six years is not that much time.  I wonder why the spread though?  Were there miscarriages?  Too much family around?  A lack of privacy?  Did a job keep the parents apart physically?  My FIL was born in 1925 and I wonder what the years and life were like back then.  How much did the economy influence his parent's lives?  

This Aunt has come for a short visit with her brother.  It's fun to watch them interact.  I find myself projecting my own relationship with my brother onto them.  Their relationship seems much more different than the relationship I have with my own brother.  It kind of makes me sad.  The reason for my sadness might surprise one; I am sad because I hope my brother and I don't ever become as distant as these two seem to be.  If these two didn't look so similar when they are together, you might not even know they were related.  They don't chat very often.  It's just enough to stay connected...a few times a year.  I don't want this to happen for me and my own siblings.  Yet I fear my youngest sib and I will be this way as we age.  I have trouble seeing the connections to one another we have in our current  lives.  There seems to be work that needs to be done to stop this from happening.  It's a two-way street I know.  Sometimes though, I feel like I am waiting for her to get on the road let alone start driving.  

I also just realized that the last time I was with my brother I didn't get a picture of us together.  Shame on me!  I need to remember to not only have my camera out, but to use it!  

The colour of the day...Red...

Today's secret is not really a secret, but I am indulging myself and going to see/listen to Joshua Bell tonight!  Twice in about six months!  I must be doing something okay since this is my SECOND free concert to see this fav-o-mine.  

Several weeks ago I knew he would be playing tonight and I thought the tickets would go on sale soon.  I mentioned to my family that I was considering getting myself a ticket.  No one seemed bothered by my thoughts to go to a concert alone.  Then on the morning radio I heard that tickets were going to be given away FREE starting at 10 am.  I had to go work with my first grade readers for a few hours, but I tried to remind myself to go just see if anything was available after school.  So, I went and taught then drove over to the box office...several hours after tickets had been released.  When I showed up there was only one other man in line before me and I heard him asking about tickets.  Just like before, sets of four were being given away and even though this venue was twice as big as the last time, there weren't many seats left.  

With that thought I asked for only one ticket.  The clerk seemed surprised.  She repeated "Just one ticket? You only want one?"  I said yes if there were any available.  

I will be in my seat by 7:30.  Row 36.  I don't know where exactly, stage left or right.  But I don't care!  I can go tonight and selfishly listen to the music!  I don't have to talk to anyone.  I can let the sounds fill my soul.  

The Red Violin is such different music.  I can't wait to hear it live!  I do so enjoy Joshua Bell.  How blessed we are in Bloomington to have this native return home and treat the tribes.  

Mixed emotions....Doing the right thing...

I find a lump in my throat right now as I watch my elderly, dementia laden neighbor leaving his house.  His son is in the unfortunate position of making a good choice for his dad.  I've been in those shoes before...it's not an enviable position.  Last Sunday several areas in our community lost power due to Ike's force.  I was not one of those unfortunate few, but across the street they did lose power.  It may be Saturday before it's back up.  My neighbor has had a generator his son set up to keep the basics in his house working.  He also has round-the-clock help.  There comes a point though where what one is doing is just not enough, the right thing and swallowing your pride join up.  I think I just witnessed that across the street.  

My own FIL went to bid farewell to his friend.  My FIL and MIL are a few of the people who this dementia brained friend still recall.  I remained a chicken, peeking from my window, fighting back tears for this scene I was watching.  My friend just left with his dad for a nearby retirement village.  

I was planning on making cookies and walking some across the street to my neighbor.  Now I'll have a little farther to go.  

Life.  Death.  The transition in between.  Balance can be hard to find emotionally.  

More laughs!

I have been forwarded a little political humor!  

Funny stuff!  It does a good job of summing up how things are every four years here in the good ole US of A.  

Check it out:  Campaign'n

---you'll definitely need audio!---

:)

A laugh for my girl friends!

Back in April, my sister sent me an e-mail with this photo attached.  

The following text was with the e-mail: "Edge Designs is an all-women run company that designs interior office space.  They recently had a project n NYC that allowed the women a free hand in all design aspects.  The client was also an all-women run company."  

It's worth clicking on the photo and seeing it in full screen.  Sorry guys, but this is funny!  

Lisa  :)

Pooped brain...

There comes a point where I want to write but my brain is just too pooped to keep my thoughts straight.  I am exhausted.  Physically my body is sore and tired.  I don't feel sleepy, but I don't think I can stay awake much longer.  Maybe tomorrow I can carve out some time just for me.  I have a million things I'd love to write about, but I just need some sleep tonight. 

zzzzzzz........

Happy Birthday, Sweetcakes!

Hope you have a great day my friend!  

~Lisa  :)

Curiosity!

The smells are just too good to pass up smelling!  

~Jack and Lily explore the wood-burning fireplace.  

Learning new facts about the Virginia Creeper plant...

My old house continues to educate me...

Being very near the woods, and allowed to have the flower beds turn a little wild, the Burrow has been in need of some serious weeding.  

Two weekends ago I spent an entire day pulling over-grown *pic.intheway*

Lambs Ear and Virginia Creeper from the front flower bed of the house.  The end results look good, but I still need to devote more time to my weeding task.  Finding the caterpillar (post) below was one of my treats that day.  I hate to admit to some people how many snake holes there are around the yard out front...I did not find any of Snakey's family or friends, but I did see countless holes around as evidence of their proximity.  

On Tuesday of last week I noticed I had some sort of a rash on my cheeks.  It was limited to just my face and I tried to back track what I ate, where I had been, etc.  I do wear gloves when I weed and I had looked up Virginia Creeper - just to be sure it wasn't Poison Ivy - I was pulling.  What I failed to note was that the berries of Virginia Creeper  contain oxalic acid.  (Don't eat these!  They are poisonous to humans and other mammals!)  For more info. on Oxalic Acid click here.  Apparently Oxalic Acid is a relatively strong organic acid.  Oxalate crystals are also in the sap of the Virginia Creeper vine and can cause irritation and skin rash!  When one pulls the vines, as in weeding, one may cause the vines to break and expel small amounts of sap.  I do distinctly recall wrapping the vines around my gloved hands and then yanking the heck out of the plants.  

Another mystery solved!