spring has sprung . . .

once again i am going to try to maintain putting my thoughts here, as it is always a positive way to sort out ideas and opportunities that come my way.

i have posted a link to my polymer clay site so that i can use this blog for topics that catch my interest or about which i can give my thoughts and opinions.

one of my favorite sayings by daniel patrick moynihan is . . .

"everyone has a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts."

so as i post i will certainly try to give my opinion on what i believe are known facts, and not try to push my opinions as if they were facts. occasionally i hope to also have some photos and tell some of my stories.

but for today this is enough to get me going. see you tomorrow!

it has been a long time. . .

i had very good intentions about posting to this blog, but as you can see, they fell a little short.

as i sit and look out my window early this morning and see how much snow fell last night and that it is still snowing, i think about all those folks who feel they must risk life and limb to get somewhere this morning. i wonder how we got to this frenzied world we live in today. but i also know that we do what we need to do to fulfill our commitments to what we believe to be important to our life.

for example, today i feel no need to get out and clear the driveway, i don't need to be anywhere today, and for the while i am, in fact, snowed in. however, last saturday i was out there at 6:30am clearing the driveway praying that the plow would come and clear the lane i live on so that i could get out to hear what turned out to be a most rewarding concert. i went to hear a rehearsal -- valery lloyd-watts playing rachmaninoff's variations on a theme of paganini with the kingston symphony orchestra. it was absolutely wonderful in so very many ways.....

so i guess the answer lies in our priorities. and obviously we all have different ones. however, that still begs the question -- how did our world get to be the way it is... with environmental destruction a daily thing, with people rushing madly about to work at jobs they really don't like so that they can pay their bills, with the rich getting richer and the poor be damned, with the food industry feeding us chemical food lacking in all the basic nutrients we need so that we rush to the pharmaceutical industry to purchase drugs that will -- they say-- make us healthier and happier and more fulfilled.....and on and on this merry go round we call living.

i don't think so. back to the snow falling, it seems to me we have totally lost our connection with nature, and certainly with our own nature. we are a part of nature, not above it nor in control of it, as the several major recent natural disasters have shown.

the important thing is that we are all a part of this world we all have created. and so to fix it, we all must be part of the solution.

i hope to be better at putting my thoughts to paper here if for no other reason that to feel that i have done something positive and am doing my best to be part of that solution so that our wondrous and beautiful planet can survive, and that means us too.

an amazing thing happened. . .

i am posting two photos today, to show my absolute amazement at finding a nearly exact replica of my little dog koki...

here she is above, nearly 16 years old, having put up with diabetes and cushing's disease for nearly 4 years, so you must take that into account... my wonderful girl went to the rainbow bridge to wait for me about three years ago...

the this photo, above, is of sophie, a lovely little dog i met last weekend... well, you can imagine my complete astonishment when i saw this little beauty... sophie is a year and a half, about a third koki's size, but otherwise, i could have bet she was koki reincarnate!!!

wow. . . thanks to sophie's mom who was very kind also...

memoir writing. . .

what a great day!

a good friend and i went to a class tuesday on writing memoirs. The teacher was super --
'orrible, actually! -- at the kingston seniors association.

i wish i had a photo to show that we had a wonderful day with a fascinating group of 10 --each of whom had warm and special stories to tell. it was wonderful to meet them all and learn so much about how memories are so significant, and why we all need to write our stories.

we heard funny stories and sad stories, stories of courage and personal difficulties, as well as those of great humor and delight in life's events. we learned how cathartic it is to tell our stories; how to heal from the sad and difficult ones, and how to laugh and share with each other through all our stories.

all in all it was a lovely day, and i hope to go back in the fall to take an eight week course also taught by Marilyn.

thanks again to all of our group for a very warm, special, and sharing day.

i loved it!!!!!

sumac

sumac -- the bane of my existence these days. why? well, it seems that it wants to grow where i don't want it to. a bit of explanation here....

i live in the middle of a hundred acre woods, with a lovely pond to look at and lots of hardwood trees, and even a meadow or two. about 10 years ago, i built my home on top of a hill overlooking my pond. earlier this spring, i pulled out a few small sumacs at the front of the house. much to my amazement, the next time i looked out the window, it seemed, the entire space that you see here was covered with 2' to 5' sumacs!

now, don't get me wrong, i am a nature lover, and conservationist; but there are many other places around here the sumac can grow, so why right up to the house and cover the windows?

well, i took matters into my own hands and went out and hacked down about 100 sumacs, from those about 12 inches high to those over 8 feet! but how to get out all that root? the mind boggles, but i left all those i cut down there, hoping that without sun they won't grow back.

it seems there might be a life lesson here. . . and any tips on keeping the sumac at bay would be most appreciated!