Rocks, with Ms. Goldeneye

Please click on image for a larger, unpixelated view.

Update: Sorry, apparently clicking takes you nowhere. More blogger woes.



"Rocks, with Ms. Goldeneye"

This photo is for the JorgDotOrg PhotoHunt: A Mineral (with an animal for an extra point).

I went to the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing for the first time last evening since my kids were little. The mountain goats were very cautious about me, but they posed nicely.

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The ledges

Note: I have had reports that the first 3 photos have not loaded for some readers. I don't know the reasons for this, but if the problem persists after my next post, I'll contact Blogger.

Click on image for a larger view.



I drove 30 minutes after work yesterday, the opposite direction from home, back to my childhood home town, Grand Ledge.


I grew up in this little town of 7,000 people, where the sandstone ledges line the Grand River just two blocks from the house where I lived.



As a girl I could walk down the street any time I wanted (usually with a sibling) and stroll the 1.5 mile river path. I loved it.




The quiet is almost eery, and yesterday I felt the old subtle trepidation that something (or someone) was peeping out at me from one of the caves. Or like Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam, I could hide under this tree ledge (above) and be protected from something evil.



Climbers "top rope" climb these ledges. No rapelling or lead climbing allowed.

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War is a mind-set

Just read about another bomb in Antalya, Turkey. So I'm going to share what I read this morning:

"In certain cases, you may need to protect yourself or someone else from being harmed by another, but beware of making it your mission to 'eradicate evil,' as you are likely to turn into the very thing you are fighting against. Fighting unconsciousness will draw you into unconcsciousness yourself. Unconsciousness, dysfuntional egoic behavior, can never be defeated by attacking it. Even if you defeat your opponent, the unconsciousness will simply have moved into you, or the opponent reappears in a new disquise. Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists." [my bold]

- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, page 74-75, Penguin Books, 2005

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Pears in the rain

If photos appear pixelated, simply click on image for a better view.

(I'm experimenting with photo size. I'm happy to have the larger format. But I'm unhappy with the pixelation. Hmm, back to the drawing board. Update: After some feedback and more experimenting, it doesn't seem to matter with what tool I load the photos, on some people's computers the photos are pixelated; on some they are not.

Don canned spiced pears from those that had fallen to the ground. Cinnamon stick, cloves and ginger (and a little cognac to make them more interesting).

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Dean Johnson's farm

If you don't have animals on your little 5 acre farm (except for our elegant barn cat Bishop, above), then you have to visit your neighbors' animals if you want to rub shoulders with kashmir goats, Texas longhorns and a llama.



This mama, below, wouldn't leave me. I thought I was going to hurt myself on the electric fence.



The photo scavenger hunt blog I used to post on went defunct, and now is back, and the theme this week is "an animal." So I have to get busy. Unlike my blog friend Rauf who must have thousands of exotic animal photos, I'm challenged in this department. Plus, we're supposed to take the pics the week of the hunt, and not cheat using old photos.

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New Paris post

There is a new post on my Paris Deconstructed blog. Check out a church you probably never heard of.

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Happy me, to birthday . . .

No, it’s not a typo (it’s not supposed to read “Happy birthday to me”). It’s sort of like an Emily Dickinson line with a strange verb: to birthday.

It’s just my way of saying that on this, my 50th birthday, I have as much happiness as anyone can stand, and “to birthday” in this life is a gift I deeply appreciate.

• I am happy to be half a century old and be healthy and of sound mind (mostly).
• I am happy to have a smart, handsome, handy, faithful, funny, healthy husband of 28 years who treats me like a (Leo) queen.
• I am happy to be mother of a woman and a man who make me proudest for who they are, not what they have accomplished (which is a lot).
• I am happy to be part of an extended family that is incredibly loving and supportive, and crazy when necessary.
• I am happy to have friends who love me very well. Yes you. (Family included.)
• I am happy to live on a splendid little farm with animals, birds, trees, stones, buildings, paths, chairs and a nature spirit that has bid me welcome from the moment we first met.
• I am happy to work at a job I love (mostly).
• I am deeply, intensely happy, even without all these things, at least I believe that I am. If I was like Job, and all this was taken from me, would I still be full of joy?
• I am happy to be connected to Life.

I could make a list of 50,000 things I am happy for. The point is, I share my happiness with you today. Happy (my) birthday – to YOU! AND, thank you for the gift of you.

(Can you guess why I chose the photo, above? Hint: there is more than one reason. First, do you know what it is?)

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