A Nest Amid Thorns

One Week Later

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:15:00 +0000

I've actually continued knitting. Many times I've started projects in a whirl of dedication, only to drop them when the demands of working full time press in. This past week was very busy at work and I ended up having to work six hours on Saturday, something I NEVER do, and won't be doing again for a long time, if I can help it. Weekends are sacred. I still managed to sit in the backyard today, take some cute bird pictures and continue knitting so that the back on my sweather is now 7" long. It has to be 16 1/2" before I change the knitting pattern and begin to get ready for the upper back and sleeves.

We have a couple of Common Yellowthroats in our back yard this year. A male and female. These are warblers found all year round in Florida, especially in the Everglades. Not so much in back yards, but I'm so pleased to host these two. They are usually bug eaters and shun feeders. They are not interested in seeds, like the Painted Buntings, the Grackles, Bluejays, Redwings, Sparrows, Doves, Parrots, etc. etc. (in other words, everybody else but warblers). They strictly like their protein. Since I don't use insecticides, and I'm getting ready, once birding season is over (and they go back home) to fight an infestation of white fly here, there is plenty for them to eat.

The mockingbirds are different. They like seeds, bugs, peanut butter, and, I'm proud to say, leftover cooked yams. I witnessed a fight over the yams. Mr. or Mrs. Mockingbird were NOT going to let anyone else have any of the orangey, yammy goodness. We saw the mockingbird in the yard today, and they usually begin to like protein towards the end of winter, when they begin mating and building nests. For this reason, I put out a big spoonful of crunchy peanut butter on some branches for Mr./Mrs. Mockingbird.

Imagine my surprise when the little male Common Yellowthroat flitted over to the branches with peanut butter and began sampling. Not only did he sample, he came back for seconds and thirds. Below are some pictures of him eating the peanut butter:

The male has an adorable black mask as you can see in the pictures. They are beautiful little birds. The female has a bright yellow belly, but no mask.

Earlier in the day we had a visit from some parrots that rarely come to our yard. We get the VERY common Monk Parakeets, which are not only in Florida, but, due to the way they build a communal nest, they live all over the country, even in cold places. Since they all sleep together in a bunch inside their big nest at night, they stay warm. There are other parrot species in Florida, however, that have established themselves. It always starts with an escapee that survives, finds a mate and - voila - you have the beginning of a new species settlement of parrot. There are wild Macaws here, Blue Fronted Parakeets, Red Cheeked Parakeets, and many more. One of the escapee species here is the Nanday Conure or Black Headed Parakeet. A small group of them came to the seed feeder in our yard this morning. We can tell the difference when they are flying in, because their screech is lower and more gutteral than the Monk Parakeet's. They also sound a lot like the Blue Fronted Parrots and we came out once thinking we would see the Nandays, and there were some Blue Fronteds on the wire over our backyard. Here is a not too good picture of the Nanday Conures at our feeder this morning. The second picture was taken by my husband. They are pretty big parrots - not as big as Macaws, but bigger than Monks. I love to see and hear them. They have red legs and all parrot's colors are just beautiful.

I hope everyone has a blessed week, taking one day at a time and not worrying about tomorrow....

Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:22:00 +0000

I have been fighting a low level depression for a long time now. Many days are wonderful, but the thoughts in the back of my head - the sad ones, the hopeless ones - are always ready to pop out and ruin things.

I've done two things to combat this. The most important is the application of this verse - 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,"

Christ does not want us to concentrate on the tragedies of this fallen world, and since I am a child of the 60's, it's very hard sometimes to NOT give credence to the negative thoughts and feelings I have. The philosophy "if you feel it, it's real", or "just let it all hang out" is what was ingrained into me in school (of all places - a private Catholic school.....who would have thunk it?) and in the society of my growing up years. So all these years since then if I have a thought I don't try to cordon it off or control it - I just let it go, and take the consequences. Well, this year is going to be the year of thought monitoring in my own head. I forget that The Adversary is always trying to help keep us off balance and to take away our joy in Christ in whatever way is most effective for each individual. Keeping that in mind, I'm "taking every thought captive", looking it over and then, if it passes muster, letting it go, or, if it doesn't pass muster - out it goes.

The second thing I've done is to stop talking myself out of doing creative things. Believe it or not, the voice in my head says, "oh why bother - you're the only one who'll appreciate it", or "there are more important things to do" (which I usually end up not doing either....). With friends like my thoughts, who needs enemies??? Anyway - I have now begun to knit a sweater for myself. Even in South Florida, it gets cool outside and some work places keep the A/C at insanely cold temperatures, so we actually do use sweaters here.

I searched online and found free patterns at "Lion Brand Yarns". Below is a picture of the sweater I am making:

The type of yarn recommended is Lion Brand Homespun yarn, which just happened to be on sale at Joanne's Fabrics yesterday.

Here is the beginning of my sweater in the colors I love the most:

The colors that make my eyes drool are indigo blues, some greens and purples. If those colors are all together somewhere in the right hues, my eyes are so happy they can't tear themselves away from whatever object or objects comprise that combination.

Just touching the wool, handling it and working with it are sensory experiences and I'm letting myself enjoy every single aspect of creating. Some of my knitting is a bit rusty, so there are a few stitches that look a little "off" because I forgot what I was doing and began to knit on a row I'd already almost completed in perl. I had to tear out those stitches and redo them - and I don't pick up the stitch with the needle in just the proper way for perfection and no detection of "accidents". That's ok - I'm not a perfectionist. I'm happy with "almost perfect", actually, as long as it isn't really noticeable.

I also treated myself to some beads with which to make necklaces and matching earrings for myself. This is so incredibly easy to do and the colors and textures can be magnificent. Here are 2 sets of necklace/earrings that I made yesterday afternoon:

I have to practice my object photography, since - unless you click on the picture to enlarge it - these are hard to really see well. Since it is such a beautiful and cool day, I thought I'd photograph my things outside.

Such an inexpensive and simple pleasure. I can't wait to wear these. Just knowing that I made them will make wearing them more special. I do have to confess that, just as in the knitting, the clasps on the necklaces aren't professional looking - I need to refresh myself on connecting the clasps to the wire for maximum protection as well as professional appearance.

I used the money my mother gave me for Christmas to buy the wool and the beads above. I purchased other colors of wool as well as beads, so I have a lot of projects I can work on when I am ready.

I'm also thinking of getting the indigo dye out again and finding some old castoff white button shirts of my husband to dye and then wear. My husband also wants me to dye a large piece of muslin for him to use as a photography backdrop.

Speaking of photography, I offer a few shots of the lovely Spot Breasted Oriole that practically lives in our back yard, as well as a cute little bee that flies sort of like a hummingbird.....quickly from one spot to another, where he then hovers and slowly moves into the flower he is pollinating.

Hope your Sunday is either bright and warm inside or outside, depending on where you live.

Reading Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Since I had 2 weeks off at Christmas time as well as an extra week when I was sick with bronchitis, I did a lot of reading.

My all time favorite of this holiday season was, "Nothing Daunted, The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West " by Dorothy Wickenden. The picture below is copied from Amazon.com - don't try to "Click to look inside" - nothing will happen.

This turn of the century (19th to 20th) true life story is interesting historically in it's presentation of the still-isolated sections of the Great West at that time. While much of the West and the Great Plains had been sadly cleared of it's aboriginal inhabitants and parceled out to white settlers, there were still portions off the beaten track that reflected an earlier, more pioneering time. Such is the small town of Elkhead, reached at that time only by the famous Moffatt railroad in Northwest Colorado and then by horse. While many other parts of America were passing beyond the "one room schoolhouse", Elkhead had a brand new school that needed teachers for it's single class of all ages. Also, while many schools were beginning to require some sort of teaching training and "Normal" schools were educating primarily women to become accomplished instructors, the Elkhead school was happy with 2 young girls from the privileged class that may not have had a background in teaching, but were well enough educated themselves to impart the necessary knowledge to the country students.

One of the young women was the grandmother of the author, while the other was the grandmother's lifelong best friend. I loved reading about their central New York State upbringing and then their boredom with post-school life. They didn't want to do the typical thing, which was to get married and have children right away. They wanted to make a difference somewhere while at the same time having an adventure. I highly recommend this book for readers that enjoy the history of the American West.

Next, I consulted the blog of one of my favorite people - Coffee, Tea, Books & Me - for "cozy book and film recommendations".

I purchased "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George. This was a "cozy" book recommendation and I love mountains, so it was a no brainer. The story was a surprise to me. Not only does it take place in my birth place stomping grounds - the Catskill Mountains - the time period covered is during my childhood. A much more exciting childhood than I experienced, and one which I would have LOVED to try - at least for a day or two before getting scared. The hero is a teenaged boy whose New York City parents let him "run away" to his grandfather's land in the Catskills. Although the house is long gone and so is the grandfather, the land is still in the family. The boy makes his way to the land with lots of wilderness training and knowledge under his belt and makes a successful stay for one whole year - 4 seasons worth - in the mountains. What is "cozy" about this? His house. He finds some old growth fir trees and finds a way to partially hollow out a section of the the huge base of one, essentially carving himself out a small home inside the tree. Using only what he can find in nature he fashions a stove (he finds clay that will harden) with a pipe that carries the smoke out a small hole in the tree. He makes a bed from strips of bark on a wood platform and finds deer that have been killed by hunters but never retrieved for the bed coverings, as well as clothes and a door to his tree house. (Lest you think he takes the entire dead deer and drapes it over things, he skins it, of course, and uses every part of the carcass he can.) He finds all kinds of plants to eat and catches a baby hawk whom he trains to hunt for him. The details are fascinating and the coziest part is the first major snowstorm. Our hero has prepared all summer long for winter with lots of smoked meats and stashes of nuts and roots. He has a working stove that provides warmth and uses birch bark to write on. He uses a turtle shell with oil in it for light. That first blizzard is a whopper of heavy snow, wind and ice cold temperatures, but our hero is warm and very pleased with himself inside his comfy tree house. Needless to say I loved this story.

Next, I downloaded a free book onto my iPad, which I use like a Kindle (it was my husband's and he has moved on to greater things, so I have inherited the original iPad). It is called, "Adventures in Contentment, Adventures in Friendship, The Friendly Road" by David Grayson. This is about a farmer in the early part of the 1900's in New England who leaves his farm and goes wandering incognito. This farmer is married and his wife tries to talk him out of going on his trip. My only problem in reading this is imagining his wife trying to hold everything down, doing all the farm chores as well as her own while he galavants. I'm sorry to say as much as I sympathize with Mr. Grayson wanting to "get away" in this very different way, I feel for his poor wife left behind and in charge. If Mrs. Grayson had wanted to do something like this, I can imagine the disapproval of everyone at the thought of a woman taking off on her own and wandering the countryside. Even so, I'm enjoying his side of the story and pushing visions of a very annoyed and put upon Mrs. Grayson out of my mind, probably in much the same way Mr. Grayson does in the story. Each day he finds someone who invites him to stay to dinner and then to overnight, and these lovely new friends are all assisted by Mr. Grayson in some way, either physically or mentally. I didn't finish this yet, but the first 6 chapters I have read are delightful. They recall a time in America when one could do as he did and not only not be afraid of harm, but know that a welcome is just a house away when one is "on the hoof". I read things like this to escape from the present which is rather awful to me socially. While I sure do appreciate modern conveniences, I'd give anything to be able to go back in time to a more civilized time. It's really not all that long ago, actually.....

Happy 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:58:00 +0000

I like one of the headlines on "The Drudge Report" web site - "Hope the Mayans were wrong." In any case, I'll just take one day at a time. Somewhere between Christmas Eve and this past Wednesday I picked up a full blown head cold with chest cough, etc. My ribs hurt from coughing, but there is only a low fever, so I'm just taking over the counter meds. I can't sleep at night because as soon as I lie down, I cough. So I have to sleep sitting up, which hasn't worked well.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go back to work after 2 weeks off, so this cold has lousy timing. I can't smell anything, I'm continually gacking something up or down (phlegm-wise) and the only thing that tastes good is hot hot tea. I feel like I've been hit by a bus......(although never having REALLY been hit by a bus, thank God, so not ABSOLUTELY sure what that feels like).

All the Christmas things are just as they were on Christmas day and I won't be putting them away probably until next weekend. That's ok since I love to buck convention and enjoy the beauty of the colored lights long after their prescribed time is over.

Not too many thoughts are squeezing their way through my cold, so it's off to find a comfortable chair and maybe a chance to catch up on sleep for a little while.

Merry Christmas!!

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:20:00 +0000

For the last 15 years (except last year) my husband and I have gone to the Rusty Pelican on Biscayne Bay for Christmas Eve dinner. This year we made the usual plans and invited some friends to come with us, never imagining that the place had been ~~ruined~~ "renovated". 7 million dollars later, gone were the lovely white linen-covered tables, the courtly waiters, the fishnets hanging from the ceiling with beautiful colored balls in them. Gone was the piano, the little wooden cubbies for two against the wall facing the bay. We knew something was wrong when we approached the entrance. No more the wooden deck like ramp with a beautiful goldfish pond next to it, covered by a wooden roof. None of the magic and romantic touches that spoke of Miami's past on the seacoast. We used to arrive just before dark and watch the sun go down. Then the lights of Miami's city skyline across the bay would come on with the addition of Christmas themed decorations on the sky scrapers - and it would all be reflected in the bay.. The food was always delicious and more than we could finish - a totally delightful and special experience every year. Until this year.

When we entered the parking area, there were 3 loose dogs - Rottweilers - just roaming around. Perhaps that should have been out first clue. Next, the whole entrance way was concrete and steps....all the cozy wooden ambiance was gone. We walked in - at least they didn't cover over the wooden floors - those are the only thing that remains of what was a wonderful place to dine.

Now, before we went, my husband called to make reservations and THAT should have been our first clue, actually. The phone was answered by what my hubby thinks was a service who assured us that there were absolutely no available reservations, which had never happened before. So hubby went on line and found their web site, never imagining that all was changed. He was able to make reservations for 4 with absolutely no trouble - we decided to eat early since we assumed there were no reservations for later, so we set the time for 4 pm, figuring there would be plenty of time to watch the sun go down and enjoy the meal.

As we entered the dining area, there was a giant wine refrigerator on either side of the walkway that went from floor to ceiling - a lovely warm blinding aluminum silver color (yes, that's sarcasm). As we entered the dining room, I noticed all the fishnets and colored lights were gone. It was slowly dawning on me that things had changed mightily. The walls were bland and painted white with kitschy fifties type designs in place of pictures. Where there had been aquariums full of brightly colored fish and low lighting, now there was a blank bright white wall. All the dark wood interior had been stripped away - no more cozy for-two cubbies. Even the tables were different - no crisp white linen tablecloths - and the style was reminiscent once again of bad 50's kitchen furniture.

The hovering professional waiters were gone, replaced by teenage girls whose service was slow and haphazard (they didn't even tell us that dinner wasn't available until 5PM and handed us lunch menus). By now I was thoroughly disillusioned. I saw a TV hanging from a wall down at the other end of the dining area and thought, "This is nothing but a fancy schmancy sports bar now." The last thing I want to see in a romantic restaurant is a TV hanging from the ceiling.

Now for the food. What a disaster. The Rusty Pelican has now become one of those poshy places that puts tiny tiny amounts of highly embellished food on your plate and charges you an arm, a leg and a couple of feet for the pleasure (I use the word loosely). Not only does the place look like every other place in the world with no distinctive Miami feel, but the food is lousy on top of it - and very expensive.

As we sat around the table and looked with dismay at the menus, we could not pick anything that sounded even remotely good. First of all, it was sandwiches and salads and appetizers, mostly . No basket of hot fresh rolls and butter covered by a heavy white napkin. I ordered the Crab Cake(s) - the menu used the plural, but there was only one cake. I also ordered the Calamari. My husband found the steaks listed on the bottom right of the menu in small print. The cheapest steak was $32.00. We used to come to the Rusty Pelican and expect to spend about $100.00 with tip for the two of us - and leave satiated with delicious wine, food and dessert. My friends ordered the Seafood Scallops as an appetizer and both husband and wife ordered a steak.

When the waiter brought the Seafood Scallops, we just about burst out laughing. We could almost find nothing on the plate but some colorful sauce. The "scallops" were shaved pieces of sea scallop - 3 of them, covered with some decorative herbs and sauce. When I say shaved, I mean LESS than 1/4" thick - 3 pieces. The calamari was rubbery and the sauce was hot, as in peppery. I cannot eat peppery food, and was not aware that the dipping sauce for the calamari would be hot, so I ate them plain. There were about 12 breaded pieces of calamari - not bad for a small appetizer. The crab cake tasted pretty good, but when I finished sharing my crab cake and calamari - I was far from full and I was not going to order an expensive steak on top of the appetizers that I thought would fill me up. Surely 2 appetizers should be enough. The steaks came for our friends and for my husband and I had a bite. It was overdone and not a mile within the deliciousness of the steaks at Longhorn's. With the steak a small scoop of mashed potatoes and a small scoop of some sauteed vegetables was served - and that was it.

We all agreed that the restaurant wasn't just disappointing, it was awful. The waitress brought us some cards advertising their desserts, but we decided to forego that ripoff and head out. We didn't even bother with coffee. 3 steaks, 3 appetizers and 4 glasses of wine - the house wine - the bill was $207.00 - and that was WITHOUT a tip.. Imagine if I'd actually had something measurable to eat!!

I hope people look up "Rusty Pelican" and find this post. I dislike ostentatious and overblown show with no substance and that is what this "new", "modern" Rusty Pelican is - we all think it's more like the Shaved Pelican.

On the way out to our car we passed another couple going in. He stopped us and asked how we liked the "new" Rusty Pelican since they hadn't been there since it re-opened. We told them if they liked the old Rusty Pelican they would not like it now and let it go at that.

OH - and Merry Christmas everyone!! We went to the lovely evening service at our church after dinner, so that made all the difference.

Tomorrow it's up to Lake Placid, FL to see my mother, father and sister and her Significant Other, to share a delicious dinner and gifts, and to enjoy the peace and quiet and the Old Florida feel of the place. Last time we visited, we got up extra early and went to our favorite wildlife viewing spot. We saw deer grazing and all kinds of songbirds and warblers, and just being out in nature was soul healing.

Hey - It's Almost Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:44:00 +0000

Boy, life sure passes fast when you don't write from October to December. I just took a short hiatus into reality, which wasn't much fun....but I'm back for today, at least.

I'd love to write regularly, but since I work full time and feel as if it sucks all the energy out of me, by the time I get home, there's nothing left to blog with.

I'm now off for 2 weeks for Christmas Break - YAY!!! I've got the Christmas Tree up (it's smaller this year - about 4 feet high and much easier to decorate, not to mention much cheaper), presents are wrapped (I've got to do more tomorrow).....and I'm ready to make Chex Mix and bake fudge and cookies next week.

Meanwhile, it's Saturday night and I'm on vacation. Hubby and I watched one of the cutest movies I've ever seen - Mr. Popper's Penguins. I'm a penguin lover; well, I'm an animal lover and penguins are amongst the most adorable animals ever created, to me.

I have as natural as possible a back yard in a suburban area for the critters that may drop by, and I have a soft spot for all birds (even rock doves, a.k.a. pigeons), squirrels, possums - whatever stops by. To me, the ultimate creature as far as cuteness - I hate to use that word, but it's the only one that fits - is penguins.

A few years ago, my husband treated me to a visit to SeaWorld in Orlando, with a special behind the scenes look at the penguins. I got to pet one - I could have stayed there all day. They are just......adorable - I don't know how else to put it.

Anyway - the movie, "Mr. Popper's Penguins" is totally unrealistic and is a lovely story with great real and animated penguin segments - it wins my award for "Best Nice Story/Comforting/Sweet/Funny Movie".

Have I mentioned I love penguins? I saw a video once of a real penguin somewhere whose owner would put a backpack on him every morning and he would walk to the local fish mongers. The fish store owner would give him some raw fish snacks and also pack up a nice big fish in the backpack for the penguin to take home. He lived in his own little shack full of ice.....

To be honest - in reality, I don't think any animals should be kept in captivity. I have a Cockatoo that I wish I could bring to Australia, his native country, so he could fly free and be what he is supposed to be.....

But for total escapism, an unrealistic (at least as far as the penguins - the family story is altogether possible), heart warming story - Mr. Popper's Penguins is absolutely wonderful.

Annoying Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:40:00 +0000

If you've read my previous post, you know about my color/shopping issues. My next problem is kind of hard to describe.

For years I've wanted to be a REGULAR Bible reader. That means a "quiet time" every morning with Bible, notebook and various (colored) writing utensils.

But every morning during the work week I get up at 6AM and I can't keep my eyes open. On the BEST days, I actually pull out the Bible and get set up. And then my cat jumps in my lap and knocks things down and my head is lolling backwards as my eyes close inadvertently. And that was before I had to be at work at 7AM. I used to doze from 6AM to 7AM in the good old days and then wake up, get dressed and be at work by 8AM.

Those days of missed opportunity are gone. Forget it now. As soon as I get up at 6AM I have to GO GO GO to be at work on time. Unless I suddenly begin to have tons more energy at a much earlier hour, this is not going to work....in the morning anyway. I'm 55 and I don't think I'm going to suddenly have more energy any time soon. Also - I can go to bed early and STILL be sleepy in the morning. It doesn't appear to be a lack of sleep issue.

In the afternoon - I get home at about 3:45 - I'm beat. I used to have energy when I got home, and sometimes I still do - but if I sit in my chair it is GUARANTEED that I will fall asleep, even while reading a scintillating book. I sometimes come home and work in the yard or do laundry or cook a great meal (few and far between) and those are the days with lots of energy. On those same days, if I sat down to read, I'd be asleep in no time.

So here I am.......not a regular Bible reader and it's about TIME for me to make a change!! Afternoons are going to have to be the time for now - and I have to make it happen.

Oh - one more thing. If the house is a mess, I cannot sit down long or concentrate on what I'm doing (like Bible study) because a voice in my head keeps making me look up and I can barely restrain myself from picking up or straightening this and that - and why bother just doing two small things when the whole house needs to be done. I think, "I'll just do the dishes." Then I think - "I can sit down and enjoy my reading, study, etc. when I'm finished cleaning." And then, of course, I give in and clean. Of course, the older I get, when I'm finished cleaning, I'm in physical pain and very tired, with Biofreeze on my achy parts and a heating pad. Ain't no solid mental work going to be accomplished after physical labor.

This, I think, is the Martha syndrome. If I could only KEEP it clean - but with 4 cats, 2 birds and a husband, including my own bad habits, it's not been possible so far.

I think maybe I have to tone down my expectations. I want to do an in depth study, not just read. I have a tendency to do nothing if I can't do it "right" (by my definition), and that is why I don't just read one chapter. If I don't prepare and have a plan, I just skim the page and I'm not concentrating. I'm thinking about the day ahead and I've finished reading and don't remember a thing I read. Sometimes I'm aware this is happening and I start reading the chapter over, but after 2 sentences, my brain has gone down a rabbit trail again. Maybe I have a bit of ADD? Maybe I'm just nuts, but this inability to stick to my resolution to read every day and KNOW what I'm reading is driving me even more nuts.

Impulse Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:07:00 +0000

I have what I think to be a unique "problem". This problem has to do with color, specifically several colors in "color order" like a color wheel.

I was the child who, when receiving a box of 64 Crayola crayons, rearranged them in "color order" before using them. And then, I would just look at them because the array of tints made my eyes happy.

I have not changed. If I am in the Office Supply store and some clever salesperson has arranged printer paper in waves of ascending color against one large wall, I am transfixed and just want to BUY. Worse, if there are reams of paper that have several shades available in that one package.....I cannot resist. I have to remind myself that I have more paper than I will ever use, thanks to years of this same issue. Next, there is the pen and pencil aisle, filled with even more danger. There is always a new company coming out with the ultimate gel pen or felt tip pen or artist's pen, and the packages are arrayed in blankets of surging color that literally call out to me, "Buy Me." I also have to restrain myself because I have a collection of colored gel, ballpoint and felt tip pens that fills my desk, having given into this urge many times in the past. I've taken to storing them by color, no matter what type or brand they are. All the greens together, all the blues together - and it makes my eyes dance with joy to look at them. Write with them? I'll probably never use them all.

That's only one store and only one genre of purchase. As you can imagine, every year at "back to school" time I can't resist buying some of the notebooks with beautiful colored covers when I see them displayed like this:

Then there are clothing stores.....

And stores that sell bath and bedroom supplies:

And sewing and craft stores:

I'm doomed. So....I also have a bin with all different colors of yarn to make a granny afghan in the old fashioned style, with black edging. I've gotten maybe 12 squares done in the past 2 years.

And finally, the piece de resistance.....multi colored lights. Things of bright color that light up too? It's almost too much. A few years ago, my mother got me several light up pens for Christmas - their barrels, when a button was pressed, were clear and went through several light color changes. The decorative solar balls in our back yard glow different colors. So you can imagine that Christmas is a dangerous time. There are always some colored lights in our home somewhere, and I don't mean packed up. For the past 5 years, we have a set of tiny colored lights hung around the top of our living room walls and we put them on every night.

I'm sure everyone thinks Christmas lights are beautiful, but I think I have some sort of disorder. Whatever it is, color, especially in "color order" like a rainbow, makes my eyes delerious. If I'm in any kind of store that displays colors as shown in this blog entry, I'm instantly distracted and I have to stare. I have a light up keyboard on my computer that glows in 7 different colors - I usually pick purple. I'm just curious if there is anyone out there with the same level of color insanity???

Decision Headaches and The Rule of Electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:02:00 +0000

I logged in today to upload pictures that have been sitting on my desktop cluttering it up for weeks now. Now I can put those photos in their regular storage place and get them off the desktop.

However, when I logged in, I discovered that Blogger had lots of updated features, which is great if you have tons of time. I work in an IT department and am constantly faced with updates both soft and hard. When using Microsoft Word, for example, I have to remember not to click in the place I used to for a specific command - no, Microsoft has moved it around, changed the look, redistributed pretty much the same features in an "updated" package which must be repurchased. We duly repurchase and prepare to retrain our poor employees on the changes to the software they just got used to using. Hey - I guess it's job security, but when I come home and want to have a little leisure time on my own home computer, I find the same thing.

Blogger changed the look of the "dashboard" - it was fine before, but someone wanted to change the look. Ad Sense has been updated - the old one won't work as well. Then there's Google Analytics, which instructions, for the life of me, I can't figure out. I need software that is intuitive, i.e., it can be figured out by "playing around" for a little while. So I said to heck with Google Analytics until I can devote the brain power to understanding their directions - which will probably be never, and by then, it will be called something else and work differently, anyway.

It's getting to the point where I have to prioritize my online choices. Do I want to spend 2 hours trying to get some add on to work on my blog.....or do I just want to blog?

I'm a sucker for bells and whistles, that's the problem. The bigger, faster, better, brighter, more colorful, more choices available, the more I usually like it. But this growth phenomenon has morphed into a monster that I don't have the energy to combat. If I had my druthers, I'd have every feature available on my blog and I'd become rich, of course, from the ad revenue. But I need a secretary to do that and I haven't got one. I also don't have a maid to clean my house or care for my four cats and two birds and one husband. Time is at a premium and it flies even if you're not having fun.

I think I'll just blog. If someone reads me, great. If they don't, great too. I'm going to forget about ads and linking to ads and BlogHer and other fancy dan things - and just Keep It Simple Stupid.

I've gotten to the point with a lot of many-choice items where I can eliminate the extraneous quickly. A selection of 22 styles of drinking glasses in 14 designer colors? Within about 30 seconds I can narrow it down to what I like and if there is more than one, another 30 seconds will decide the final winner. But the world of computers is just too varied, changing and complicated for me to make really educated choices.

The hardware is changing all the time. What was a fabulous processor two years ago is now totally passe. Computers usually have a practical and useful life of about five years before it's "too slow", "too outdated", etc.

There are new hardware inventions constantly. Every year there is a new iteration of IPhone, then there are competitors who up the ante. Then there is the IPad and all it's siblings fighting for first place.

How about the social sites? There is Facebook, Twitter and a whole host of other similar sites for people to report their latest activity, like burping.

Has anyone figured out Google +??? It is an only-by-invitation Facebook competitor which makes heady claims. Limiting access to only those "invited" is a come-on for those computer users who want to be first on the bandwagon. I finally was able to get an "invite" and signed up. I haven't been back. I find it off putting that this is "invitation only", and it's no better than Facebook, which I (mostly) know how to use. I watch younger people than myself whip through all the possibilities like posting pictures, "tagging" someone, accessing Facebook and all it's features through their phones, etc. and I just want to scream!! There's too much to learn and I'll never have the proficiency that so many users have.

My mother always bragged about how smart I was, what a high IQ I had, etc. and now I often feel dumb as a stump, outshone by computer users who have a very shaky command of correct grammar or historical facts, but can whip through HTML and scripts and setup options like Einstein on speed.

END RANT

Some Pictures from October in the Backyard

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:23:00 +0000

I'm going to throw a bunch of pictures up taken from my backyard during the month of October. I've been so crazy busy at work that when I come home, my brain is fried and all I want to do is shut my eyes. Blogging is the last thing I feel capable of doing, although I'd love to devote much more time to it. This business of having to go outside the home to make money to survive is just not my dream, but it's a necessity. I have SO many projects I'll never get to because all the hours of the day when I'm at my best are spent for someone else's benefit, not my own. Crab crab crab - that's what I feel like......a big, fat CRAB. So enjoy the pictures - they were from quiet moments when I was resting from the incredibly exhausting stimuli of this insane world.

Haven't Written in Forever

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:26:00 +0000

I wrote this tonight, while listening to music from Eric Bibb. His spiritual music is grass roots, down where the rubber meets the road.

Anyway - here is a poem I wrote called, "Coming Home".

His Words are.....

Sharp words

That cut to truth

A fierce wind that

Commands the spirits of dread to vacate.

Listen to them, listen to them, o son of man.

Do you fear?

Are you like all of us, tied to these bodies of bone and blood?

Do not be a fool

Doubt not your Father…..

He is……like your earthly father….sun-burned, eyes looking toward the horizon, scanning impossibilities-

He swings you up over his shoulders, above his head.

Unafraid, leading the way, you trust him.

Doubt not your Father…..

He is……sweet like your mother, soft and comforting, all-knowing of what makes you tick

Rocking you, over and over, blue faded blouse, threads thinned, softly rubbing your face

On each backswing.

Smell the hot sun holding the earth in its embrace, sitting in the shade on the porch, rocking, rocking.

Hear your mother’s voice….your father’s voice…..crooning magical songs, songs that make whimsical pictures in your mind’s eye…….cows jumping over the cheesy moon, buffalo on the range.

Doubt not your Father…..He is where you are, no matter where the hell that is. He goes ahead of you into the fray, from birth to death.

At death, He lingers around the edge of your vision, just waiting to be seen. He sits in the side chair patiently, while the children of Jacob surround your bed, some wailing, some solemn.

He pulls His pocketwatch out of his bib pocket, He’s got plenty of time, Time belongs to Him.

Your vision is thinning, your children are keening, the Medical Establishment is Doing It’s Job – waving shiny silver instruments over the blood and bone.

He leans forward, knows the moment has come.

He lovingly takes your hand and your eyes become clear, staring over the heads of the human race,

Above the ceiling tiles to the blue beyond you are racing, hand in hand with your Father.

It’s over. Canaan is over, finished. You’ve laid your burden down and have come home.

Atala

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:54:00 +0000

This past fall I achieved one of my life goals, which is to see a Painted Bunting. Not only was it fulfilled, but the bird and a few friends lived in my back yard for the winter, until mid May. It was magic.

In the butterfly world, I've wanted to get Atala butterflies to my yard for a few years. We purchased Coontie cycads 2 years ago for this purpose. Only 2 plants because they are expensive. I tried planting seed one time, but you have to peel the orange flesh from around the seed and after I buried them, animals and birds dug them up and finished off the rest of the pulpy flesh and the seed. Besides, they take a LONG time to grow. This type of plant is supposed to be prehistoric, as in dinosaur times, so they are used to lots of time.

I've also seen Atala butterflies in my yard on different occasions - one at a time. A single Atala might be resting on a bush in my yard - I think I even got pictures of one before, but none laid eggs and the Coonties remained untouched.

Finally, this past week, I spied an Atala butterfly hanging around my yard. Not only was she hanging around, she was laying eggs on the larger Coontie plant we have. Most butterflies lay one egg at a time and don't take much time doing it, but Atalas take minutes, not seconds, to lay eggs, and they don't necessarily lay one at a time. I was thrilled to see several tiny round spheres on the underside of one of the Coontie leaves after Mrs. Atala left.

This morning, either the same or another female Atala returned to my yard and laid more eggs on the other Coontie plant.

My husband immediately looked at me and said, "We have to buy more Coontie." He promptly went inside and looked up local nurseries that might have the plants - believe it or not, for a Florida native, they are very hard to find.

We located some at a large commercial nursery where I never would have expected to find them. We tried the local ones, owned by individuals, but no luck. My favorite nurseries are family owned, sell home grown veggies and sometimes chicken eggs, too. They often have native plants and they aren't employees - they own the joint.

But, anyway, we found what we needed at the Big Box Nursery. We bought 2 more plants at $30.00 each, which, on a limited budget (which stretched to allow the purchase of an extra unplanned plant, as well as 2 smoothies) was enough for this weekend.

I'm looking forward to the Atala eggs hatching and tiny caterpillars devouring the Coonties, which will recover. Besides, I only bought them for the butterflies - they don't exist in my yard for any other reason.

Here are some pictures. First - Mrs. Atala - isn't she beautiful?

Here are the eggs she laid.

Next, a Julia butterfly, then a Polydamous and finally, an Oleander butterfly that looks like a wasp.

Some gratuitous flower photos - I LOVE them!!

Another weed favorite - a tiny brushy flower that comes in lavender, bright orange-red and yellow. I often let them be if they are in amongst other flowers and not on mowable territory. Some of those "weeds", like "Frog Fruit" and the green "Shrimp Plant" grow all over the place and are larval plants for butterflies. White Peacock butterflies lay eggs on the frog fruit and Malachite butterflies - another butterfly I want to get into this yard somehow, along with Ruddy Daggerwings - lay eggs on the green Shrimp Plant weeds. I have to go to a local park once I let a bunch of green Shrimp Plant weeds grow, and try to find some Malachite caterpillars. I've seen them at Tree Tops park, but not the caterpillars, but then I have to look in a book to see what their caterpillars look like.

A Mexican Daisy (or Sunflower, can't remember which) that hasn't opened up yet. Very modest.

Mexican Petunias are beautiful, hardy and self seeding - they will spread through your entire yard if you let them, and they are beautiful. Below is one that hasn't opened yet. Every day new flowers come out in the morning, and by afternoon they have fluttered to the ground. By late evening, you can see tomorrow's buds getting ready.

A species of Milkweed with ants on it. We didn't have as much luck with Monarchs this year. We had plenty of Milkweed and plenty of caterpillars, but some didn't live to make their chrysallis and we found them dangling from where they had begun to shed their skin. Some, I fear, were eaten. I know Milkweed is supposed to make them unpalatable to critters, but perhaps some of them get used to it and eat them anyway. I have seen Assassin bugs around - they kill caterpillars and they've taken a toll on the Monarchs and the Yellow Sulphurs.

A Spanish Needle that hasn't opened yet. I think we have a lot of ants - maybe I should do something about them?

Don't see many honey bees these days, sadly. Below is one fellow on the Spanish Needles. I wish I could do something to keep bees from getting diseases that kill them, like put medicine on their flowers, but I'm afraid that's probably not feasible.

WHAT?? 2 Days In A Row???

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Remember how I said I had lots of plans yesterday? Well......my husband and I found the horse farm (thanks to him) and got the manure ("if my baby wants horse sh...., then I have to get horse sh.....for her").

The manure was in a semi-enclosed area and there were empty horse feed bags to fill. My husband did the shoveling and I did the bag holding. We took 2 partially filled bags (so we could lift them). There's more where that came from!!!

Once we ran a few other errands and got home, I donned my garden apparel - men's boxer shorts, a baggy shirt, socks and sneakers, along with my trusty new sun protecting hat from the Army/Navy store. I raked. I weed wacked. I raked some more. It was 90 degrees. I drank a lot of water. I rested. I raked some more. Finally, the piece de resistance. I got out the lawn mower and mowed what was left. Hubby then took over and mowed the area behind our fence (we should have built our fence farther back, but we thought we had to leave a "right of way" for the power folks - turns out we didn't.) God only knows what the heck was growing out there.....then he mowed the front yard and we were finished.

I immediately took my bougainvillea scratched, very dirty, sweaty and hot body into the shower and washed every square inch. After this, I drank copious amounts of seltzer water, grapefruit juice and powdered vitamin mix and crashed in my easy chair in front of my computer.

In between all this activity I found time to take my camera outside and photograph a few more flowers and growing things.

Without further ado, here they are. In my anti-Morning Glory choking Stephen King vine war, I noticed that the old tree trunks all the way in the back were sprouting mushrooms galore. A few days ago we were in drought territory - not a mushroom in sight. Today - after a few days of lots of rain.....a veritable cornucopia of mushroominess. I couldn't get over how some of them looked like high rise condos for bugs. I liked the color of them, too - too bad they're most likely dead poisonous.

Next - YES - Blogger is letting me type in between photos today!!! More flowers:

These are very very tiny pink flowers that appear for about 2 hours a day in the morning and then disappear. I have no idea what this plant is, but I saw it growing in the grass this spring and fell in love with it. I pulled some up and put them in a pot with good soil, and there they grow. I want to transplant them in the same area where I have the Sensitive Plant growing - they can jockey for position.

Last - another lavender like annual and another view of my Sensitive Plant flower with it's leaves underneath it, so you can see what the leaves look like, too.

Next job - spreading some of that horsey gold around the plants that look a little lackluster.

It's A New Year, Fiscal-Wise

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:47:00 +0000

Actually, it feels like more of a new year in this season than after Christmas. The rainy season has just begun after a belated start during which I had to water my flowers every day to keep them from burning in the scorching sun. Now I can relax as by the afternoon each day, it becomes overcast and thunderstormy.

I've got lots of plans on my plate - plans for improvement food wise and budget wise. We're trying to save money as quickly as possible, barring a few necessary purchases, "just in case". I want to spend less on food in these days of inflation, and I need to be more creative, not to mention I actually need to cook more often......a task I do not enjoy after working all day. I think I'm going to befriend my crock pot a lot more closely since that appliance offers a lot more carefree cooking.

Meanwhile, I went out yesterday morning and took some pictures of some of my favorite flowers. Without further ado, for those poor souls who still peek in here to see if I have posted at all, here they are:

First a few shots of a bee on my lavender Crape Myrtle (Mirtle?)

I can't seem to write in between the photos, so I'll just describe them all from here. After the 3 bee pics is a close up of Black and Blue Salvia.

Next, my purple Buddleia, which does well, and then seems to fade. Maybe it's not meant to hang around all year. Sigh.

After the Buddleia is a pretty Caladium leaf.

Then a close up of a Chenille flower, which dies back at the first major cold front in the winter - and comes back in the spring.

Next - I'm not sure if this is a coral vine, since I have another vine that looks nothing like this that is supposed to be a coral vine. Whatever - it is for the butterflies and in the winter, when it blooms profusely, it has lavender flowers and then a more mature reddish flower, in two stages.

Of course, my favorite color of Lantana - the brilliant orange and red native species.

Brand new milk weed bulblets that are waiting to burst into red flowers.

Porterweed, which is a favorite with bees and butterflies every morning. By afternoon, most of the little flowers have fallen off and the stalk is getting ready for next morning's blooms. If you look carefully above the purple flower on this stalk, you can see little purple dots where flowers will grow next.

A miscellaneous purple annual - some sort of lavender, I think. Can you tell I like purple?

My pretty little Sensitive Vine flowers - they are like little bright lolly pops.

Two pictures - one close and one farther away - of a shrimp flower.

And finally, a Sunflower tree or Tithonia Diversifolia, which basically grows if you break off a stick of it and throw it into the ground. It has grown so large that I have to move it to another spot if I can. It was an experiment that went all too well.

And that's it for my flower photos update. Tomorrow - rake the back yard from all the trimmings I've done (and will continue to do all summer as everything grows like a Stephen King monster) - and then mow the parts that are still roughly considered "lawn" - very roughly. This will be followed by a trip to a local horse farm where I can pick up 50 lb bags (call 911!!!) of horse manure FREE!!! And my hubby thinks this will be fun.....thank God. I'm going to have fabulous butterfly plants all summer - and then, watch out come September, when our veggie growing time begins.

I have to build another 8' by 12' raised bed and fill it with dirt and - FREE!!!! (not the dirt) horse manure. Then I'm going to grow lots of veggies this winter......my favorites? Green beans and tomatoes - my two great successes this past year. My heavens, did we have spaghetti sauce or WHAT? The green beans didn't grow very well, so the few green beans that popped out every few days went immediately into my mouth raw before even making it into the house. They tasted SO GOOD I long for one now - but not one from the store or frozen....no - one of those fresh from the no-pesticide veggie garden ones that were looked after by my own greedy, loving eyes........

I'm Not Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:17:00 +0000

There have been times in the months since The Big Change at work - new bosses all around - that I have WISHED I had passed on to glory, a.k.a., heaven, but corporeally? I'm still here.

I have not felt like writing at all because I've either been totally bummed out, exhausted or wanted to write about my job itself, which isn't too smart - so I wrote nothing.

Well - I've had a week off. My husband had a conference to go to in Naples, FL, so off we went. We stayed at a beautiful beach resort and I lolled around our room and/or the beach for 4 days. It was quite literally - heaven.

I downloaded my first e-book on the iPad I inherited from hubby, who bought a newer Acer iPad type thingy. I read the entire "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. Although it was a bit hard to follow at times because, for the sake of the loveliness of the prose, sometimes it wasn't clear who "he" was in various conversations - but after awhile I noticed that it always turned out to be Thomas Cromwell (which is the subject/hero of the historical novel). She painted a very vivid picture of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and other assorted Boleyns - and most of all, a very human Thomas Cromwell. If you look him up in an encyclopedia or on the web, dry history states that he was a brilliant self-made man (he was born a commoner - no nobility) who rose like a shooting star to power as Henry VIII's go-to man. Cardinal Wolsey had that job first, but as with many Medieval tyrants, if you made a wrong step you didn't just lose your job, you were imprisoned in the Tower (read damp, mildew, disease, filth, rats, etc.) and then you were either beheaded (this was the nicer way to go if the King felt a little remorse over killing you) or you were hung until almost dead and then, while alive, cut down and laid out and drawn and quartered - your belly was cut from ribs to crotch and all your internal organs were pulled out.

What absolutely astounded me - and would astound me about anyone who takes their chances in such a dicey game - is that once someone fell from power and was murdered, there was always a likely person or really, many likely persons, in line to take their place. The pull of power and riches and fame must have been the drawing card - but when you see what happens to the losers (and they were all losers - no one pleased the king for more than a few years), you'd think there would be few willing replacements.

Then there is the whole debacle of Henry VIII, who tired of having a docile, plump middle aged queen (Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the famous Ferdinand and Isabella of Columbus fame) and wanted a male heir for his throne. I did not realize that Henry VIII's father, Henry VII (not much imagination on names) was the first Tudor, who seized the throne by battle with Richard III, a Plantagenet. The Tudor dynasty only lasted until Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's fiery little daughter - a total of 118 years. The absolutely ridiculous nonsense Henry trumps up in order to get the Pope to annul his 20+ year marriage to Catherine is laughable, except an entire country was held in thrall while Henry came up with new slants on his basic idea, each more ludicrous than the last. Until he split England off from the Roman Catholic Church, which upset the people of England very much, but who cares, right? There was no divorce, but, evidently, annulments were not all that uncommon. The reasoning is that some trumped up condition would be thought of so that the Pope could rule that the "marriage was never valid". Most annulments were done within a short period of time - an "oops, made a bad mistake" of maybe at most a few years, but not the over 20 that Henry and Catherine had shared.

Henry had his share of dalliances with the nubile young "ladies-in-waiting" of various royals living in his household. I believe Anne Boleyn was a servant of Queen Catherine, Henry's plain and pudgy wife.

Looking at this story from the distance of about 6 centuries and the status of women in the West today, it is hard to imagine actually wanting to get involved with a king of that period. Women had no rights of their own, so in order to prosper, have pretty things and an easy life, one had to court nobility, and one had to be nobility in the first place, to do that. Anne Boleyn was well educated, intelligent, sharp witted and, of course, avaricious and ambitious. She was also very attractive, vivacious, very flirty and basically, full of herself. You'd think she'd have been smarter in her choice. Actually, she wanted to marry a member of the nobility, Henry Percy, but the king did not give his permission - and this was supposedly before he was attracted to her. It was Cardinal Wolsey and Henry Percy's father who really nixed the match - the Boleyns weren't high enough nobility to rate marriage to a Percy; and maybe Henry VIII was behind the whole thing because he wanted Anne. In any case, she wanted to marry Percy, but when that door was closed to her, she aimed for the very top. Anne's sister, Mary, had been Henry VIII's mistress for a while, and when Anne saw how he dumped her and the affair didn't benefit Mary in the least, it actually tainted her reputation - Anne decided for marriage and nothing less. So she was coy and flirty and got Henry all hot and bothered and then said, "I'm a virgin and want to remain that until my marriage." She drove him to defy the Pope and split from the Catholic Church - and also to murder a lot of people she didn't like or who didn't like her. What she forgot was the risk - don't give the King a male heir that lives - end up with all the others in the Tower. When he got tired of her, he didn't waste time. The day after she was beheaded, he married Jane Seymour, who died in childbirth.

If I were a woman in the early 1500's in a Western country (God forbid anything else), I would have chosen a nunnery I think. I bet they were relatively clean, peaceful and no royal machinations could screw up your life. I have a feeling, though, that you had to be more than a commoner to make it into an abbey as a nun. So, basically, if you were a female commoner, you stayed a female commoner. Not so, a man. Unusual, very talented and driven men like Thomas Cromwell could rise above their humble births.

So let's see, what was the idiocy that Henry VIII tried to convince the Pope to believe (and everyone else in England and the civilized world)?

The main point was that since there was a passage in the Old Testament, Leviticus 20:21 "If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless." Catherine was married for 5 months to Henry's older brother Arthur, who died without having sex with Catherine - there was something wrong with him, but it's hard to figure out what from sketchy records of the time, although in Spanish documents it is claimed he was frail and weak and other documents say he was a full head shorter than Catherine, who was already short. The OT verse means not to marry your living brother's wife - a.k.a., adultery, but our bright boy Henry thought it meant any kind of brother, even dead - and that marrying Catherine according to this passage meant he had committed incest. To be fair, when Arthur died, Catherine was a widow for 6 years until Henry VII died. At that point Henry VIII, at least 6 years younger than Catherine, obtained a special grant from the Pope to marry his brother's widow - so you did need permission from the Pope to marry someone who had already been married into your family.

No one read the Bible back then - not Old Testament or New Testament. The Church jealously guarded Bibles - only priests or bishops had access to the actual Bible, as opposed to prayer books. The Church also was the sole decider of interpretation - there was no Bible Study, so to speak. So Henry was totally unaware of the verses in the OT that tell brothers to marry the widows of their dead brothers so that the dead brother has someone to carry on his legacy - or something along those lines. This was Henry's attempt to prove his marriage to Catherine had never been valid. No one agreed with him, no one followed his logic, but of course they all told him he was absolutely right and they agreed 100%. It's either that or the Tower and a gruesome death. If I had been of the nobility of that time, I would hope that my family would have stayed as far away from the court of the King as east is from west. Once you were noticed by the king, you had to play the game of puckering up to kiss his royal behind 24 hours out of the day, and you never voiced an opinion that differed from his. It was hard keeping up, because when he changed his mind and did a turn-around, everyone else had to have that same miraculous re-think.

For years, while Henry chased Anne Boleyn around the castles, the Pope - poor Pope Clement, who really wished he had never become Pope and who didn't want to offend anyone, and was in a tough spot, being the prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, kept putting off making a decision. As a matter of fact, Pope Clement never did approve or disapprove of Henry's annulment from Catherine. Clement didn't want to upset Ferdinand, Catherine's father, King of Spain and he didn't want to offend Charles V, Catherine's nephew, who held Clement hostage. There were suggestions of, 'why don't you just take a second wife like they did in the OT', except Henry would have none of it - he wanted a legal male heir to carry on the (cough, choke) glory of the Tudors - an heir that no one could challenge after Henry VIII was dead.

As we all know, Henry eventually gave up on the Pope and decided he was his own pope in his own land, and he separated the English church from the Roman Catholic Church. At the time this was absolutely unheard of - the Catholic Church had been around for 1400 years and no one defied them before. Perhaps if there had been a stronger Pope at the time, one who would have invaded England, Henry would not have proclaimed himself the head of the church in England. If you think that Henry agreed with the other Reformists, like Martin Luther, you are wrong. Henry wanted everything the same - he just didn't want the Pope or anyone else telling him what he could or could not do.

Since I am a Christian, I think I see the hand of God in history, especially from this distance. I believe that those people we would really look up to and honor are never the wealthy, the famous, the ones that everyone notices. So there are no books written about historical nobodies, but I'll bet if there had been, the stories would have been a lot better - maybe not so much entertainment value, but perhaps some integrity. Henry, in spite of his own agenda, performed God's agenda - the first major split of the Roman Catholic Church, so that the Bible could become a commonly read book that everyone could access.

So.....I give this book, "Wolf Hall" a 2 thumbs up - very well written, even if the subject matter reminded me of the insanity of government both in the past and, of course, today. I can see how human nature just has not changed one iota - it's still the same game, except, thank God, you just lose your job, not your head or your giblets.

The Aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:43:00 +0000

I'm wearing Carpenter Jeans today. They have lots of pockets and loops. I may invest in a few pairs. My job can involve sitting at my desk and imaging or cleaning up computers, or preparing an image for the server. It can also - and often does - entail getting under desks to see if wires are plugged in properly, putting my hands in dusty places to check things, etc. In short, I can't dress up to go to work, so Carpenter jeans would be just fine. I can wear a more attractive top, but pants that can get dirty and take a bit of a beating are necessary.

I don't think I'll ever leave my desk again without my radio AND my cell phone, so - lesson learned.

The nice things that happened yesterday? Yes, there were nice things. A young man I work with who is very much a mans' man, not a softy at all - asked me if I was upset and proceeded to try to comfort me. When he could see I was crying (I hate to admit I did that at work, but the older I get the it seems the less strong I can be), he came over and stood next to me in my chair and put his arm around my shoulders and patted me a bit, trying to make me feel better. Knowing this is not his normal modus operandi made it so nice. It was very touching to me.

My other young coworker, our department secretary, brought a bag of jelly beans in and tried to give me copious amounts of sugar, knowing I LOVE that now and then, and that I love jelly beans. She tried to save my butt by texting me and calling me on her cell phone, but she did all she could in that area.

At the end of the day before she left, she gave me a hug. She also told me that things weren't as bad as I imagined.

I do have a tendency to beat the living poo out of myself when I do something I know is downright stupid and I have NO excuse whatever.

So today will be better - onward and upward, folks.

Oh- and the last nice thing. The boss lady herself, after we were alone and everyone else had gone home - it was my late day.......said she knew I had been upset, but that I had to find a way to remember things. She also wanted me to know that during the busy day she had not spoken to me, and it was not because she was angry, but because she was so busy. She didn't have to say any of that - she didn't want me to think she hadn't spoken to me because of any hard feelings.

I was able to apologize and explain that I had no excuse and I knew it - and I'd certainly carry my radio and cell phone from now on - AND put a calendar on my phone with beeps to remind me of meetings AND signs at my desk.

So the day ended not as bad as I made it out to be yesterday and I did indeed go to bed within an hour of coming home. Today is a new day and the saying, "this too shall pass", has proved true.

Boy do I wish I had nine more years under my belt so I could retire!!!! Nine more years before I ante up 30 and can say, "sayonara" to the full time working world.

You know what else? I had been so distracted lately that I had not prayed through the Our Father on the way to work in a few weeks - think I'll catch up on that this morning as I drive.

Hope everyone out there is having a wonderful Wednesday, which is ALWAYS better than a Tuesday.

Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:35:00 +0000

Tuesdays are usually not good days for me at work. Monday is ok; after all, I've just had a weekend off. But Tuesday, so far from next weekend and a reminder that I have to do this again for 3 more days......somehow it just usually doesn't go well.

Today was the king of bad days. For the past few months, we've had a dynamic new boss who is revamping our entire department and the way we operate - a much needed change. I admire this boss a great deal - she is nice, she does not make anything to do with work personal, and she is fair.

So what's the problem you say? Well, at 55, I must be aging fast. By the way - the boss lady is just about the same age - or older than I am, but she is a juggernaut, a hard worker, very dedicated and on top of everything. She also has a Master's degree and has taken leadership training. Me? I'd love to be home growing veggies, trying to fix up our house, reading, homemaking, etc.

Five years ago after a great upwards run at my job, where I had been in an important position for over 9 years, pretty successfully, everything changed. A new director came on board at that time and his secretary wanted her own people, not to mention the outgoing boss left things a bit messy as far as rules go, for which I was held accountable. Not very fair, but that's often the way it is.

I was placed in a department where I have been woefully inadequate for a long time. I've learned quite a bit, but I don't have the technology background to enable me to grasp more complicated things quickly - I don't have the frame of reference. I was put there by the director because it was the only other job on location that had the same salary grade.

So, I'm getting older, I feel less than equal to my job - and for five years nobody really cared because our department was ignored and no one really cared what we did. That sounds like it might be nice, but it was a downer and a discouragement, and the stress of knowing I not only wasn't equal to the job, but couldn't learn what was necessary unless I went back to college (an idea that horrifies me)......wasn't fun at all. There are some courses I could take within my system that would allow me to understand things better but - get this - the main one is taught by my husband's ex-wife. I don't think I could take that course....I would be too uncomfortable. So... I was the dumb one in the department. Still am to a certain extent.

So - onboard comes Ms. Dynamic - she wants me to learn all I need and has made workers from another location available to teach and demonstrate in between their copious work load. I have learned a lot more and have been treated like one of the team, someone who has strengths and can do more with training.

Today there was a meeting that I knew about, scheduled for when I arrived for my shift. I got there, evidently said, "are we still having a meeting?", which I don't remember, and then promptly moved on from the answer, which was affirmative - and went to try to get some of my work load whittled down. I'm not working as fast or as accurately as would be liked - and I'm trying very hard to do better.

I think I'm just getting tired of working, tired of constant changes where one never knows how one will fit in after all is said and done. And these changes are probably going to happen again in a few months, with yet another new boss.

I forgot the meeting completely. I went off to do a work order in a different part of the campus - and if that isn't bad enough, I forgot to carry my radio OR my cell phone so I could be contacted. I have a tendency, when carrying radios, wires (I work in technology), tools, my keys, directions for certain fixes - of leaving something somewhere and having to retrace to see, where I left it.

I need a tool belt or a fanny pack or pants with lots of loops to hang things on, I guess.

So on top of missing the meeting, they called me on the radio - no response because, of course, my radio was on my desk. They tried texting and calling me, but of course, my cell phone was also on my desk.

When I made it back to my building about 45 minutes later, my boss was coming out of the room where the meeting had been held and said quite disapprovingly, "where were you - we tried to contact you....etc. etc." She did not raise her voice or even sound angry - just disgusted maybe and disappointed. in my performance.

Me? I was mortified, so embarrassed I could have willingly been sucked into the earth and felt better, not worse. I don't believe in making excuses when there are none and the whole fault is mine. There's no one else to blame, no traffic detained me, no emergency took precedence over the meeting - I just plain forgot completely.

Rest of day? Tearing up from a total feeling of absolute mortification, fear that I'm losing my mind and my working edge, fear that I'm getting senile - you name it.

So after making it through a full day feeling like I'd be happier walking into traffic, I'm home, taking a Xanax and going to sleep very soon - this day needs to be done for me.

Praying the Our Father

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:07:00 +0000

I stumble with prayer a lot of times, wanting to cover all the bases and not leave anything out. I realized one day while reading the Gospels that Jesus taught His disciples the perfect prayer. I was originally taught, being a Dispensationalist, that this prayer was more appropriate for the age of Israel and not for the Church, but I have come to think differently. It is the perfect prayer.

First, you direct the prayer to your Father in heaven. You can say, "Our Father", or you can say "My father". I like to personalize it and improvise to make it mine every day. So, while the basis stays the same, the improvisation, personalization changes as needed. For instance:

(Our Father Who Art in Heaven) - "My father, who lives in heaven, who lives perhaps in all the universe or multiple universes and all the dimensions"...

(Hallowed be Thy Name)..."Your Name is above all names; you are above all, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, You are eternal and beyond human understanding"

(Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven)..."Father I don't know if the Rapture is an accurate Biblical teaching, but I pray that Your historical agenda be accomplished, that the return of Your Son is coming very soon, and that Your will be done on earth in spite of man's negative volition. You make the evil do your will even though they are convinced they are winning against You, like Hitler, like Nebuchadnezzar. The harder they weave their webs, the more they are carrying out Your eternal will. May Your will, the perfect will that does not take evil into consideration, be done on earth within my lifetime......when Jesus returns."

(Give us this day our daily bread)..."Give me this day what I need to accomplish Your will, whatever those needs might be. Take care of my physical needs and those of my loved ones. As bread is basic to life, so the Word is basic food for my spirit - help me to recall Your words and Thoughts as I move through the day."

(And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us)..."Father I confess my sins of.....(fill in the blank)....and I ask that You enable me to forgive those who try to hurt me, who are against me. As I forgive, I will be forgiven. If I have not forgiven anyone, then I am not cleansed from sin and sin will separate me from You."

(And lead us not into temptation)...."Father protect me from those things that will bring me down, cause me to fall away from Your plan for me and the happiness that entails. You know what my tendencies, my Achilles heel is - protect me from that temptation."

(And deliver us from evil)..."Father this world is growing darker and darker with unbridled evil. Protect and deliver me from the darkness and those that revel in it."

(For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forevermore. Amen) "Father - it all comes down to You. My life, my eternity, everything I am and everything I have or will have. I pray these things in Christ's name. Amen"

I know that was long and somewhat tedious. Maybe it isn't all correct Biblically, but God knows the heart and He can discern what I mean. Every day it is somewhat different, different words might be used or different ideas, but the basic parts of the prayer cover everything.

What more could we want other than - our needs met, protection from temptation and evil, our sins forgiven and for Jesus Christ to return as ruler. Everything is covered.

If I pray this on the way to work each day, the day is indescribably better than if I do not.

The Most Beautiful Video EVER

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:36:00 +0000

This has to be the absolutely most beautiful video I've seen yet. "O Come O Come Emmanuel" plays in the background - instrumental, while the video plays out showing Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem. It makes me cry it is so very lovely. Joseph tries so hard to secure a place for Mary to give birth - and finally, he has to settle on an animal enclosure. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you happen to like the hymn, "O Come O Come Emmanuel", do yourself a favor and watch this - I've watched it about 10 times and after I post this, I'm going back for more. The best part about it all? It's true. Jesus did come and He did live to show us His way, and He did pay the price for our sins in His death. The human race need not fear death - He has conquered sin and death. And it all started by God allowing Himself to be limited to the body of a human being, from birth to death.

What a miracle. My mind cannot encompass the whole idea. I am in awe of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Great Freeze

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:21:00 +0000

It's not even technically winter yet!! It's still December 13 and winter begins on December 21, officially. I know not many people will feel sorry for us South Floridians, but feel free to feel sorry for my flowers, my plants and the critters that are here and may not be able to withstand freezing temperatures.

It's been a lot of years since South Florida has had temperatures like this before Christmas. And back then, I didn't own a back yard full of butterfly and hummingbird plants, most of which determinedly like warmer temps.

So tonight, when I get home from work, my husband and I will take the blankets and sheets (pretty much the sum total of my "linens") that I folded and left on the porch from last weeks cold weather(why put them away when more cold temps are coming??).....unfold them and attempt to drape, pin and tie them over my large and small vulnerable bushes. We have to get out the ladder so my husband can throw a sheet over the top of the trellis.

It's supposed to be very windy tonight - so others in the neighborhood could be watching my sheets fly by in spite of whatever we do to keep them in place.

I love cold weather. I love when it gets into the 50's at night. To us, our critters, the wild things and the plants - that's cold enough. You get a little cozy inside, you have some hot chocolate, you maybe go for a brisk walk to enjoy the cool air - and you sleep with the windows open to get that crisp, sweet air flowing over you as you put a few extra blankets on the bed.

I do NOT love it when it gets into damaging temperatures. The farmers down here have lots more at stake than I do. I may not have enough blankets to put some extra on my bed because they'll all be in the back yard. It sure looks funny when the bushes are all covered up. I'm not taking the sheets and blankets down tomorrow morning either - it's going to be just as cold tomorrow night, so the bushes get to huddle in the sun tomorrow with their "coats" on.

I wish I could just press a button and a giant dome would rise up out of the ground just in front of our fence on both sides and keep going until both halves meet in the middle. Voila - house and yard in a bubble. Or just yard. Then we could control the temperature, much like a greenhouse - and we wouldn't have to fumble around in the wind on ladders with sheets, blankets, safety pins and clothes pins.

I can hardly wait for January, when it is normal for us to get a few extreme cold fronts. The fact that it has begun in December does not bode well for the rest of the winter.

Christmas Lyrics

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:01:00 +0000

My husband has an endearing/sometimes annoying habit (mostly endearing) of picking a song - usually Christmas or Amazing Grace or Home On The Range or Oklahoma - his repertoire is quite limited. He'll sing the tune of the song, but put another song's lyrics in instead. So, We Three Kings tune is sung, but the lyrics are Amazing Grace - and he embellishes and adds/subtracts his own words as substitute to the established lyrics. In short - he is a music rule breaker. But I happen to think it's quite clever - we are made for each other, after all.

Yesterday, on the drive to downtown Miami, we got in a boisterous exchange regarding the lyrics to "Let It Snow".

My husband thought that the couple in the song were walking somewhere outside in the snow together, which is patently wrong - he cannot have listened correctly to the lyrics. And so we started.

"Oh the weather outside is frightful,
And the fire is so delightful"

"I don't think there's a fire outside unless they're homeless people, sweetie."

"Sure - they could be walking home after being somewhere that there WAS a fire."

"No," I say, "it's a present tense fire, not past tense."

"You're such a literalist" he says.

I toss off the thought that she should not be letting her boyfriend drive home in the snow - he'll get in an accident. Especially since the song was written in 1945 and the roads were usually windy two lanes (no super highways back then).

My husband says, "How do you know they're not married?"

I say, "Because he's going home after their date. If they're married that's pretty strange behavior."

He says, "Maybe they're at his house and SHE has to walk home."

Me - "Oh - that couldn't be in the 1940's. That would go against all conventional ideas at the time of the roles of women and men. It would be improper for her to go to his house, and he could never let her walk home alone in a storm - you know that. What a dumb idea!! And even if there was a lout in the 1940's that would behave that way (and I'm sure there were), it would not be a feature of a widely known, popular song. The song would reflect the better mores of the time, not the worst ones."

He reluctantly agrees.

He finally got me, though. "How do you know he's driving a car home? Maybe he's walking?"

Aha. Let's check the lyrics

"And since we've no place to go,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I've brought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I hate going out in the storm,
But if you really hold me tight,
All the way home I'll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying
And my dear, we're still goodbyeing,
But as long as you love me so,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

Darn. He's right - there's no mention of a car. He's probably walking home in a small town. Sigh - the small towns of 1945 before huge thick ribbons of bland, banal highways connected everyone everywhere.

But they're not married, obviously.

And she's not walking home, it's him, of course.

And they're not walking together (he thought since she was holding him tight all the way home he'd be warm - that they were walking together. Really clueless.)

My husband has some wonderful talents, but musical ability, both tonal and lyrical, is not one of them. But he sure keeps me laughing and we sure have a great time discussing these oh-so-important subjects.

Miami River Cruise

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:29:00 +0000

I know I haven't written here in a while. I could say I've been busy, but I haven't been any more busy than usual, really. The actual truth is - I wasn't motivated enough to post about anything. I even went on a brief vacation to Myrtle Beach. When I go through the pictures from that lovely interlude, I'll post about that.

Today, hubby took me on the Miami River Historic Cruise - an early Christmas treat. I love history and although there is very little left of old Miami along the river, I like to imagine what it used to be like. Those are my favorite stories - about the early Miamians who had a jungle around their house and panthers in the back yard. It must have been beautiful, but buggy, at least in the summer.

Without further ado, here are today's pictures from the cruise up and back down the Miami River.

The picture at top is all that is left of some Indian Chieftain's palace or worship center from 2000 years ago. It is the Miami Circle, right at the meeting of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. This must have been the only cleared area for miles and all around it must have been jungle.

Below is what is at the mouth of the Miami River and Biscayne bay today. I guess it's beautiful in it's own way, but I always prefer nature and the original way things were.

Below - the Miami Skyline - pretty impressive if you like city skylines.

Above - what is left of a wall created for a big Bicentennial plan that fell short. This wall is just at the north entrance of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay.

Above - Julia Tuttle's house. This is what was originally on the North side of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. It was part of Fort Dallas.

The building above was slave quarters in the same area on the north side of the Miami River mouth. In the 1830's William English built a plantation here and these were the slave quarters. Later, during the Seminole Wars it became part of Fort Dallas. Today this building resides in Lummus Park along the Miami River. You can see the picture below on Flickr. It is not my picture.

Above and below - Fort Dallas in the early 20's

Above is Sewell Park - a little piece of land on the Miami River that looks like it should. The land back of the river slopes up on a limestone shelf - interesting in an area that is characteristically flat. This is called Sewell Park after E.G. Sewell, a four time mayor of Miami.

Two photos up - the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami next to a much more modern building.

Above is what the original dredge marks along the Miami River look like from 100 years ago. that is limestone and the dredge cut right along the edge to both widen and deepen the original shallow river.

Above shows some rare greenery along the Miami river. The little hillock looks interesting among the trees - wonder where it led?

Above - original Miami River edge - at least the rocky part.

I cropped out the city looking edges and just left the trees and the old house. It's a commercial building today, but it looks like I imagine the old river might have looked before all the greenery was bulldozed.

Above - the Miami River Inn bed and breakfast. It's the only bed and breakfast in Miami. I cropped out the bottom of the photo because it shows what is across the street from both old wooden buildings that comprise the bed and breakfast:

Above is the uncropped view of one of the wooden houses. Sigh.

Above - a canal that leads to an Indian cave - yes, a small cave - that is next to Sewell park, but is on Indian land, so it is not open to the public. To the left is a piece of a brochure about the Miami River, specifically about the "Indian Cave".

The piece of land above is more inland. It is the original site of the tower shown below in the old postcard view. It was called Car Dale Tower. Look at the clothes on the ladies - it must have been the 1890's - that's ancient history in Miami.

An old dingy along the river. It's seen better days, just like the river it's on.

Two photos up - a very small condo of three stories, facing the river. Each had different color closed curtains, so I thought it made an interesting picture.

Under that photo is a scan from a book called,"Highways & Byways of the South", published in 1904, so the picture is earlier than 1904. I believe a Seminole Indian is one of the peole in the boat and it is coming down the Miami River from the Everglades. Below is a map of the Miami River up to the point of the "Miami River Rapids which is indicated by the small number 18 on the far middle upper left of the map. The rapids are where the original boundary of the Everglades were. From the Everglades, the river dropped about 6 feet gradually and that difference made the rapids. Remember, you have to click on the image to see a larger view of it - this is true of all but the old images in this post. Unfortunately, some of the old pictures I've copied from web sites do not enlarge when clicked on.

Above is another scan from the same book as above. It shows a man about to enter the rapids. You see how shallow the river was. It didn't have very solid banks in some places. This man is just coming out of the Everglades and heading to the coast. The rapids, such as they were, are in front of him some feet away.

Above is "Musa Isle", another attraction that once existed along the Miami River not far from the original entry into the Everglades.

Below is one of the only remaining WWII training buildings left. It's in pretty bad condition and so are the old docks.

I did take other pictures, but they are pretty much all the same story - "progress" in the form of development. I love to imagine what it must have been like from the remaining records of early settlers. Dirt roads, jungle like growth everywhere, lots of wild animals - and the beach, river and ocean clean and pristine, unpolluted by chemicals and sewage.

Looking South at the mouth of the Miami River, which is pointing west. I think the house is Brickell's - lots of jungle like growth. Look into the distance - just more of the same. It must have been wonderful right on the beach. Today this whole area comprises the Miami skyline (picture above).

Above is an early view of Miami Beach, South. A little different than today's Art Deco area.

Above is the Miami river on the left, in 1913. Already by that time, the Miami River canal was being dug and dredged.

Just contrast the pictures above with my photos - just a little different, isn't it? It's like any big city - like Manhattan - it's very difficult to imagine the original.

Oh - and if you are curious about what Manhattan was like before the white man came - this is a fabulous web site where you can look at any address in Manhattan and see what it was like - literally at that spot - before 1620.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Just a quick post to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving day. This afternoon it was a bit dreary out and rainy. I would never have thought to go outside to photograph anything, but, as I was typing on my computer I glanced out my window and saw.......a hummingbird darting near my Cape Honeysuckle bush.

I think it was a female Ruby Throated, since she had no ruby throat. That's about the only kind of hummingbird you see in South Florida in the winter (they are migrants here) - that I know of. She - or her kin - has been here before. Last year, to be exact. There was a tiny female Ruby Throated last spring who was so tired she was resting with her eyes closed on a branch in our yard. Even though she was resting, she rocked side to side a little bit, kind of like a child with ADD who can never sit still.

We have lots of bushes that hummingbirds like. The Spot Breasted Oriole loves the same things. While he chews the whole flower to get the nectar, the hummingbird pokes her long beak into the center of the flower to sip.

I'm going to have to keep a sharp eye out because I know there are lots more critters out there than I ever see.

For instance, after I came back into the house, I happened to glance out the same window again - and I noticed a "flower" on the bougainvillea that didn't match the colors of the other flowers on the same bush.

I got a closer look and knew it was an unusual and beautiful moth. Back out I went to photograph.

I'd like to say I got a good photograph of the hummingbird, but I did not. I can prove she was here, but the photo is from way too far away and is blurry as well as shot against a too bright background. But I've got time and patience and I'll be looking for her every day now that I know she's here. The photos of the moth came out MUCH better. Here they are. Remember to click on each to "embiggen" them.

Yup - you can tell it's a hummingbird, but that's about it. I'll be watching for her and for better photos!!

A beautiful Io moth. Above - wings closed.

I touched her/him - and he opened his wings so I could see his "eyes", meant to scare off predators. After that I left him alone, not wanting him to feel in danger here. How beautiful!!! I love the fuzziness of the head area.

Musical Words

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:41:00 +0000

Some words are just fun to say, aren't they? Words like "serendipity" or "jaguar" (pronounced the British way, which adds a syllable - Jag-you-are). Some word combinations sound like something else and if you have a punnish sort of brain, you'll immediately think of the alternate meaning. For instance, you're in a prayer group and the leader says, "Let us pray". In a split second I see a head of lettuce in my mind's eye and the words look like this in my head, "Lettuce pray". And I absolutely LOVE the name of those huge orange industrial machines that you see on the road every now and then - Asplundh. Aaahs-ploond!!
like a German sneeze. Every time I see one of these vehicles I HAVE to say the name out loud. Several times. Yes - I'm weird. I know.

One of my all time favorite word "treats" is the names, past and present, of most UN leaders. These names, many of them, are just SO fun to say, so musical.

Here is a Wikipedia page that lists them all from the beginning of the UN.

The first one is pretty normal in an English way, so no fun there - Gladwyn Jebb, although the name ,"Jebb" brings to mind Jed Clampett (I know Jed is not exactly the same as Jebb, but it sounds similar). "Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jebb, poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed".......

The next name? I have no idea how to pronounce it. Trygve Lie. It looks like it might be fun, though. Since both Mr. Jebb and Mr. Lie are from the late 40's to early 50's I did not hear their names repeated on the news (I was born in 1956), so I have formed no attachment to their sound. Hnmmmmm - Trig Vee Lie (or Lee??). That definitely has great promise, if that's how the first name is pronounced. The last name could sound like either Lee or Lie and it would still be cool. I think TrigVee Lee is going to be a new fun name to pronounce for me.

Dag Hammarskjold. Hammarski-old. Dag. It's ok, but it doesn't light my word spark. The "skjold" part makes me want to yodel a little.

U Thant. NOW we're getting somewhere. "Hi, what's your name?" "U". "No - not me, I'm asking YOU what your name is" "U".

Yeah - I love that one.

Kurt Waldheim. Boring. German with possible shadows of Nazi Germany over it. Wald means "woods" in German. I don't know what "heim" means, but it's unattractive sounding. Many German words are silly sounding, like a run-on word. For example - "Schutzstaffel", which was the full word for the feared "SS". "SS" is evil sounding...."Schutzstaffel" sounds like a German dessert. Blitzkrieg sounds like what it is - powerful, awful, frightening. How about the full word for Nazi? Nationalsozialistische. Nazi sounds scary. Nationalsozialistische sounds spitty, like there is spray when this word is spoken (and there may have been, who knows?).

Javier Perez de Cuellar. Totally normal. Lovely name, Spanish and very musical, but no fun whatever.

My all time favorite - Boutros Boutros-Ghali. You think I'm weird? Wait until you hear this. One of my 10,000 nicknames for my cat Squeebles is "Boutros Boutros Ghali". Why? I have no idea. I like to make songs out of my cat's names and nicknames, so this particular nickname for Squeebles goes like "Boutros (2 low notes the same) Boutros (2 same notes one step up) Ghali (the "gha" part is one step up and the "li" part is one octave and one step up - I'm NOT singing this for this post). Then the song ends with "golly golly gee, golly golly gee" - use your imagination for how it sounds. Note to self - need to get a music program for my computer that will allow me to insert simple tunes into my blog posts.

One time, years ago, before my present husband (who is equally nutty) and I were married, but dating, I thought he was on the phone when it rang. I picked it up and said, "Boutros Boutros Ghali" and the person on the other end made a funny noise, stuttered and said my name tentatively and fearfully, like he'd dialed the insane asylum by accident. I was extremely embarrassed and proceeded to try to explain my nuttiness. It did not go well.

Then there's Kofi Annan. Lots of coffee jokes there.

And now (drumroll) - Ban Ki-moon. "By the light......of the Ban Ki-moon" "I want to spoon", etc. etc.

I've just begun to play with this name, so that's all I've come up with so far, but it is DEFINITELY fun to say.

And that, my friends, is all for today. (Oh - I meant no disrespect for any of the above named gentlemen).

A Beautiful Day!!

noreply@blogger.com (Suze) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:48:00 +0000

Today South Florida got it's first real cold front. The past few days it rained quite a bit and felt quite summery - humid and warm and wet. Then yesterday morning, the wind began to blow from the northwest and it had a slight cool feel to it. The clouds began to move away fast. By the afternoon, the sky was clear, deep blue and the air was crisp and bright. A total about-face in weather! Last night I lit the Chiminea in the back yard for the first time this year. It was windy and cool and the stars were quite clear, even in the city where it's difficult to see stars because of the light pollution. The wood smoke smelled so wonderful - I could just sit and watch the flames for quite a long time - so soothing. We're going to light it again tonight - maybe I'll take some pics of that.

Meanwhile, since I knew it was going to be brisk today, I knew hubby and I would want to get away into the out of doors, so on the way home from work yesterday, I made sure we had sandwich and other picnic items. When I arrived home, I made sure our camera batteries were all charged up and packed the digital cards, lenses and lens cloths in preparation. Now all we had to do was get up with a minimum of preparation and off we could go!

We left the house this morning at around 7am. It was still windy and the air was very cool. I had on a short sleeved shirt under a long sleeved sweatshirt and we still had to put the heat on in the car. Mmmmmm - it felt delicious!!

Once we got out of town, it felt like a burden was lifted. We could see out over the Everglades grasses; there were great blue herons and little blue herons in the canals. There were hawks and belted kingfishers on the electric wires. We decided to drive I-75 to the Snake Road exit, which is also known as route 833. Once we passed the Indian town, we were out in the beautiful boonies on a two lane road, very little traffic - and lots of lush trees lined the road.

Here are some pictures I took. One is of an orange moth I happened to notice clinging to a plant off the road. I was able to pick him/her up and put the moth on my hand. What an absolutely gorgeous moth!! Well - here come the pics:

Isn't that a cute face above? I love the feathery antenna and the fuzzy orange body. It's called a Pink Striped Oakworm Moth. I'm not sure if this is a male or a female. The female is supposed to be brighter and a little larger, but since this is the first of this species I've seen, I have nothing for comparison.

Next up is a White Peacock butterfly. One of these pictures shows the face clearly and the others focus on the lovely green spot on his/her back.

Next, farther west on route 833, we saw these two unlikely "friends" munching on some roadkill. The black bird is a black vulture - pretty unattractive bird; but the other is a Crested Caracara. Great name and distinctive looks. I believe he is the best looking carrion eating species in the Western Hemisphere, but I could be wrong. Love the big red "nose".

I was too far away to get a good sharp closeup of the Crested Caracara, but you can see his eyes and coloring pretty well here.

Above are a few ducks that were in a canal as we entered Immokalee. I think they are Blue Winged Teals, but I see no evidence of the little blue wing spot, so I don't know.

We continued driving, turned onto route 846 and headed past the Hendry Correctional Institution, where we've seen deer before, towards Immokalee. We had never seen Ave Maria, a completely new town built by the founder of Domino's Pizza, based around a very Catholic college. Ave Maria is a conservative Catholic college. The professors and everyone who works there must acknowledge that they are practicing Catholics. The campus is lovely. My husband took pictures which I believe he will post. There is a town center with lovely shops in three story townhouse type buildings. They are painted bright yellow or ochre - all earth colors and are quite attractive. The 2nd and 3rd stories are living quarters. There is a Publix, a Fire dept and EMT dept., an urgent care facility and a few neighborhoods of new houses. There also appears to be a school - perhaps elementary or high school - we couldn't tell from the name of it. The whole area is just beautiful. It looks like someone just plopped a pretty new town right down in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty much what they did. Ave Maria isn't far from Naples, so the beach and city life is nearby. After getting coffee at the Ave Maria Bean and touring the college bookstore, we decided to head home. It's just about time to light the chiminea and toast some marshmallows - hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!