12/31/2011

Take me home...

Posted on 12/31/2011 by

3


 ~ by Jaime Ellsworth from the Black Dog series ~


No photo for the finale of my December Views...this is really what's on my mind tonight...
animal shelters and all the precious ones that need homes.
So I just want to speak about this,  a subject that's dear to my heart.
It's a subject that has a whole lot riding on the concept of tomorrows, new years,
...yes, yours and mine, but more to the point,
theirs.


This illustration comes from the Friday Harbor Animal Protection Society website and
I get a lump in my throat whenever I see it.
The APS is located just across the water from me & they do a mighty fine job finding homes
for wayward furry ones.
Like so many animal rescue organizations, they are relentless in their efforts to garner support,
donations, adopters, volunteers, media attention - all for the sake of providing a temporary haven
until new homes can be found.


I get crazy passionate about helping sometimes, often feeling stuck within my own time frames
and lack of resources or logistical worries.  Oh, and then there's the two fur gals here already 
who may not understand, "the more the merrier!"
Yeah, that might be an understatement.  Still,
I've had some wild thoughts the past couple of years about one day fostering dogs here on our rural property...
lots of room to run, a safe place for calming down,
for learning a tiny bit of manners before heading off to a forever home ...
a few more dogs that wouldn't have to stay in a shelter.
Just a dream ...
 for now.


Let me share with you a small thing that  can   been done easily
(here comes the part where I sound like a commercial, so forgive me)... it's a simple "click,"
a free good deed.
It's been easy to remember since it's the first "click" I do after logging onto this glowing box each day.
Here's the deal...
the Animal Rescue Site has asked for help in clicking daily to meet their quota
of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
It takes about 20 seconds to go to their site and click on the purple button that says,
'Click to Give FREE Food & Care'.
This doesn't cost  us  a thing because their corporate sponsors & advertisers use the number
of daily visits to donate food to abandoned & needy animals in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site ...

The Animal Rescue Site


If you've read this far, I thank you for that.
Time now to raise a glass, me thinks...
to all of you,
and to all of them!


Kindness is the
language which the
deaf can hear and the
blind can see.
~ Mark Twain ~


January 5th, 2012 ~ UPDATE  ~ from the Animal Rescue Site:   in 2011,  free Clicks helped fund a total of 68.06  million  bowls of  food for needy animals! 

12/30/2011

Night riding...

Posted on 12/30/2011 by

4



Although not too festive myself this season, the jeep always gets a wreath
so there it is...it's tradition.
It's a wonderful thing that something so simple can raise the spirits
and one of the best reasons to carry on with traditions in the first place.
See who's sitting there in the passenger seat?
I think she likes the vantage point.


We have an expression out here called "going to America"...
it's what the islanders call the mainland and we travel there by ferry.
It's a forty minute ride, mostly in calm waters buffered by the other islands, but every now & then
the journey can get pretty hairy.  On this night, 
it was dead calm...


I love the night crossings in winter.
The ship's crew turn out most of the lights so you glide along across all that black water
with the hum & rattle of turbines surrounding you...

I stayed in my car and looked at the bones of the ship.
Took lots of pictures *up*...
is that an odd thing to do?  I never thought so before until I put it in writing...
oh well, that's the truth of it and not the first time I've gone a bit nutty with my phone camera.  
I'm addicted to my phone camera.
Yup, truly.
There's so little control over it, it actually ends up being completely freeing.
The picture is never framed as I intend it to be, rarely turns out the way I imagine,
like in this photo above where it captured some ghost images off the windshield...
I never saw them.

: : :

Only one more day left of my December Views...
what a blog experience this has been!  I'll write more about the process later, when it's a new month
in a new year...
but in the meantime, see you tomorrow  :>]]





the whole thing started back here...


12/28/2011

12/25/2011

Some notations for within and without...

Posted on 12/25/2011 by

4




keep looking closely,
determine - with intent - what is important,
let all the rest go into soft focus...



and always keep the light on,
for you never know who might grace your doorstep ...




: : :

Warmest greetings of the season to all who visit here!

: : :




~  December Views  ~
to see this series from the beginning, it began here...


12/23/2011

Wild peace...

Posted on 12/23/2011 by

4




The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.  For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry













To see this series from the beginning, start here...


12/21/2011

12/20/2011

12/17/2011

12/16/2011

12/15/2011

12/12/2011

12/11/2011

12/09/2011

12/07/2011

Let sleeping dogs...

Posted on 12/07/2011 by

3

rest.


Little dawg had herself a day.

I've just joined an irrestible get-together.  The timing could not be more perfect...
intrigued?  You can come along, too - it's happening all month long.

It's a   q.u.i.e.t.  get together for those who love to make images,
a photo challenge of the very best kind
and it's especially appealing considering the time of year.
Read the whole explanation:

~  December Views  ~

So, just to say, something different is going to happen along the Path for the rest of the month
 and I've no idea where it might lead...more photos definitely, maybe one a day
if I can keep my mojo in gear.
 Or maybe only photos
...oh, wouldn't it be nice to not feel the need to write?
At this gathering
"...there are no rules...the intention is to allow yourself to enjoy the quiet, to allow a month
of no stress creativity and to share a bit of your world with others
in a completely different way than you usually do.
Exciting and relaxing."

Sounds pretty darn good to me.


Many thanks to hippy urban girl [hug] for being a gracious hostess
and sharing some light.





12/05/2011

The light...oh, the light!

Posted on 12/05/2011 by

12



Light is at a premium in December...
we all begin starving for it,
run out into it whenever it makes an appearance.
And because the sun stays so low in the sky, never even reaching the tops of the trees
at this latitude,
illumination happens - details appear - that can't be seen at any other time.


Seed heads show off their fancy petticoats.
Gotta love a plant that flowers non-stop for six months
and does THIS for the other six!
She's Clematis tangutica 'Golden Tiara'...and I adore her...
she was planted to cover a pergola & she's making quite the valiant effort.


After de-leafing themselves, the trees reveal some hidden plumage of their own...


so much lichen...I'm not sure how some of the trees continue to hold their arms up!


I grew some lichen in my window.

Not really.
I am finally learning to knit and this is a new project...lacy scarf...more like pea soup in color
than "lichen" but it has a similar wispy quality when held up to the light like this.
You knitters, don't look too close - it's ridden with  big mistakes  beginner's errors.  
The best way to learn anything, I suppose...
keep on going.

It's been a long year of learning about stitches, of all sorts.
Stitching together and stitching apart.


Remember early in the year when we were all choosing our
Word For The Year?
I chose FOCUS.
I'm not sure why.  It seemed important at the time.  Sometimes you just have to stick with a thing.


I hadn't thought about that word for a long time until I took these photos yesterday...
made me ponder...
started me thinking that if I haven't gained more focus, at the very least
I know that I've paid more attention.
And that's just fine.

I hope you're enjoying the light, too, wherever you are...


11/26/2011

Walk a mile?

Posted on 11/26/2011 by

15


First question I asked of self,


would I offer to walk a mile in someone else's shoes if I knew their shoes
were as uncomfortable as this?

Second question of self...
why do I even need to ask such a thing?

Life...so damn difficult at times.  Hard for every single one of us in one way or another, 
all these struggles that take hold.   Ages ago, while in conversation with someone,
I said that everyone bore pain in their own way and sometimes others could see it
and sometimes they could not...
that it was easy when
someone wore their wounds on the outside - obvious and hard to ignore - 
like a burn or a bad scar,
but what about the wounds that weren't visible?
They're still ever present, 
there is just no way for another person to know.
We often don't tell.   Can't tell.    But they are with us nonetheless.

So back to this shoe and the sudden avalanche of emotion...

I need to ask 
because
 I need to remind myself to never forget compassion  

and too, when compassion doesn't come when I myself might need it most,
I need to forgive what others cannot see.


********

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

~ Mary Oliver ~





Photo credits:  Woman's slapshoe, 1625-1649 AD, England, The Greig Collection of Ladie's Shoes;  The Story Teller, mural project for Fellini Gallery, Berlin, by Michael Vincent Manalo.


10/28/2011

Hunters & gatherers...

Posted on 10/28/2011 by

22


While the light continues to wane, so does the harvest from the garden.
All that remains has been cooking up mighty fine...
my favorite soups, made from everything local.
If true confessions be known, these are my personal elixirs of life.


The nights are much colder now yet I don't even care...what a year for fall color!  
Such extraordinary veins on thus copper-toned ninebark...


Seed collecting is underway


for everybody who lives here.

And we are all greedy.


These chickadees are quite tame, almost TOO tame...
hard to get anything done in the garden because they will find you wherever you go.
They'll land on your shovel or the brim of your hat, your glove...and if they're not landing on you
they are scolding you incessantly, "WHERE ARE MY SEEDS???"
So I gave in and set up this impromptu feeding station on a fence post
right next to the veggie beds.
Cheeky devils.


I've resorted to some other rather drastic measures 
like covering seed heads with used dryer sheets.
Who knew that one of the beloved foods of chickadees would turn out to be my 

I'm not alone in my ways...
if you want a good chuckle, go see what my blog friend, Kaite, gets up to
with little nylon sockettes in her garden Down Under.

We do what we must do.



Home is where your hair is.

(you've heard that old saying, haven't you?)

After many years of scattering my hair trimmings around the garden
finally,
I've discovered evidence that it's been put to good use.
It's the little things in life that make things homey, that can
make your day.



Doesn't take much to make her day...
best shotgun rider ever.


I wonder if she can pick up radio transmissions from Canada with those ears?


We went looking for these.
Well, I did anyway...she's not much for sticks.
Frisbees and wabbits, now that's a whole 'nuther story.

Hoping for good tannin in bundles...


...ingredients for more stories.  This time, written with
bracken, salal, red amaranth and wild blackberries.

More end-of-the-harvest cooking.




Before I forget...the dryer sheets prevailed
and I did claim my due share of that Angelica seed (quite the bounty!) 
so if you are stateside & would like to try this lovely specimen in your own garden
let me know via email.
I've plenty of seed to share.


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