A Passion for Nature

Procrastination Game March 15, 2008

I read about it here.

The Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

There are probably many answers.  Maybe there is not enough wind in tropical forests, or not enough animals in northern forests.  Perhaps there are fewer animals in northern forests simply because the trees don’t offer nectar rewards because they use the wind.

Questions:

1. Do you know what book my quote comes from?
2. Do you want to play (/procrastinate)?

Getting Old Ain’t for Sissies March 11, 2008

So, the results are in:  I have “several small stones in an otherwise normal gallbladder.”

Please post no horror stories about gallstones!  But if you have any encouraging stories, I could use those right about now.

P.S.  I’m miserably behind in reading your blogs… been reading about gallstones instead.  I’ll get back to you soon…

New Template – What do you think? March 9, 2008

I wanted a two-column, fixed-width template that would allow me to post the “medium” sized pictures from Flickr without having to resize them.  I found only 2 in WordPress.  Of the two, I preferred this one.

(more…)

Six Word Memoir February 28, 2008

She never cared much for sun.

Adam tagged me for a new meme in this post. It’s a six word memoir, inspired by Hemingway, who once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words.  He came up with:   For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Here are the meme rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

4. Tag five more blogs with links.

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

If it sounds like fun, consider yourself tagged!

P.S.  I think another blogging friend tagged me for this a while ago.  I wasn’t ready to play then.  This time when it came around, I instantly had an idea…  Apologies to the first tagger, and for forgetting who that was…

P.P.S.  That’s me with the crossed arms.

Joyfulness January 12, 2008

Sixteen years ago today, this gorgeous, fun, energetic person came into my life… and I couldn’t be happier.

I love to travel with her… she’s a great travel companion:  interested in everything, curious, loves to explore.

She’s artistic, too, exploring many media – paper-making here, but also painting, drawing, jewelry-making, knitting…  Even food…  (Maybe tomorrow I’ll post a picture of her Pirate Ship birthday cake!)

She’s brave, too, and works to overcome known fears.  Last year at the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage, she managed to get comfortable holding snakes AND showing them around to the crowd during Rex’s presentation.  I was pretty proud of her:

She is also a very thoughtful and loyal friend.  Later today, the house will be filled with her friends, and while their energy will zap my own, I will enjoy every minute of it!

Happy Birthday, Maddie!
I love you!

Update!  Here’s the Cake:  (Click on it to go to Flickr where there are notes and explanations!)

Humbled January 7, 2008

I feel humbled to have been selected by Montucky for a ROAR for the Powerful Words award.  When so selected, you are to offer 3 tips for writing, then nominate five others.

Three Tips:

1. Passion:  Write about what you love, what inspires you, that which you cannot ignore.
2. Precision:  If you don’t know, look it up.  If you can’t find the answer, leave it out.  This applies to content, as well as to language.
3. Poetry:  I don’t mean this in the classical rhyme and rhythm sense…  Still, the things you write should sound good.  Read it outloud before you click the “submit” button.
4. Personality:  (OK, I’m an over-achiever and couldn’t leave it at just three… sorry!)  Don’t be afraid to reveal a bit about yourself.

Five Nominees:

1. Nature Remains:  Nina writes about the natural world in a way that sometimes brings tears to my eyes.  (I’m kind of a softy, though…)
2. Somewhere in New Jersey:  Laura shares her passion for nature, as well as tidbits about all aspects of her life in her blog.
3. Dave Bonta:  First I started seeing his photographs on Flickr.  Then somehow by accident I found his blog at Via Negativa.  And from there… my absolute favorite MUST READ EVERY MORNING website, The Morning Porch.
4. Body Soul and Spirit:  Ruth writes a very thought-full blog about her life and observations in southern Ontario.  She often provokes me to think about things in a different way.
5. Summer Butterfly:  OK, I’m biased.  She’s my daughter.  Still… I think she’s a pretty good writer and I’m proud of her!

P.S.  Wonder where these awards come from?  This one came from Seamus.

Seven Random Facts Meme December 15, 2007

I’ve been tagged by Laura (Somewhere in NJ) with a meme to list seven random things. I’ve done a variation on this before (click here if you care).

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Random Facts:

1. I don’t know what plant makes these seeds.  (Do you?)
2. There are few problems that can’t be solved with Dark Chocolate.  This may not be true for the world at large, but it is certainly true for me.
3. Before the next 12 hours is up, I will have hosted (hostessed?) two birthday parties at the Audubon Center.  (Do you think children’s birthday parties are totally out of control in this day and age?)
4. Our house really needs to be painted…  or sided…
5. The weather folks promise that we are about to get blasted with up to 20 inches of snow…  I couldn’t be happier.  (I hope I remember to put the snowshoes in my car before I leave work…)
6. I’m growing my hair.  I have this image of me as an old woman with a long gray braid down my back…
7. I never liked oatmeal as a kid.  Then I discovered stone-cut oats.  I’m hooked!

Seven People whose random facts I will be curious to read:

1. Deb at Dryad Art
2. Summer Butterfly
3. Sioux
4. Nature Woman
5. The Scrapper Poet
6. Roundtop Ruminations
7. Nina – Nature Remains

If I didn’t list you, it may be because I noticed you were already listed elsewhere…  And hey, if you weren’t, there’s no reason you can’t participate anyway.  You know you want to.

Holiday Projects – Part 2 – Baking… December 6, 2007

Yeah, so my friend Michelle gave me this Amish Friendship Bread starter…  I can see you out there smiling.  You’ve had some before, too, haven’t you?  It looks innocent enough to start with… just one little cup.  And for the first few days, all you have to do is “mush the bag” – stir things up a bit.  On day 6, you add some flour, sugar, and milk…  On day 10, you divide the starter and oh my gosh… do you ever have a lot of it!  One cup to keep, 3 cups to give away, and another almost 2 cups to bake with.

I don’t have enough friends to keep this going forever…  I mean seriously:  3 friends every 10 days.  I decided not to give any away (unless you’re reading this and you live close and you want some – Call me!).

Last night I baked a cinnamon coffee cake which I’ll take to Audubon for the Guys.  This morning, I’m experimenting with Banana-Nut Loaves.  When I get home from work, I’ll make the Lemon-Poppyseed experiment.

I’m going to keep it going this month baking every 10 days.  I’ll freeze the loaves and give them away as Christmas presents.  (Try to act surprised.)

Holiday Projects – Part One – Felting! November 25, 2007

Well, it’s that time of year.  Time when I just have to make things… things to sell, things to give away, but basically just things to keep me busy ‘cuz it’s too darn dark outside to take photos!  Ha!

One of my favorite things to make is felted soap.  It’s a bar of wonderful Yardley glycerin soap all wrapped in its own wool washcloth.  Great for exfoliating!  Maddie and I make them to sell at Imagine! in Bemus Point.  The shop owner even talked us into offering a workshop so others could join in the fun.  (I hope this doesn’t mean that our soaps won’t sell anymore… hmm…)

We had a blast teaching 4 new friends this fairly simple technique.  I don’t have to tell you the technique, because you can google it and find lots of instructions…  Though some of the sites give far more complicated instructions than we do… You’ll just have to take the class to learn our easier way!

Once we all understood the basic technique, we applied it to new items.  We felted jingle bells – to fashion into ornaments or let the cat play with.  We felted some old Christmas ornaments.  (Be careful when you rinse… a big change in temperature can cause the delicate glass to break!)

To make the ornaments a bit sparkly, I sewed running stitches with silver thread adding beads every few stitches.  I think they’re gorgeous!

I’ll re-attach the ornament hangers after I’m done beading.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I’ll just put them in a basket or bowl on the dining room table!

What are your holiday projects?

Just for Fun November 18, 2007

Ruthie played along with the Book Cover Meme.  It looked fun, so I’m playing, too.  To play, go to Amazon.com’s advanced search and type your first name into the Title.  Look through the results for the most interesting book cover and post it in a blog entry.

Here’s mine:

Book Description
Come along with Jennifer and her friends to the sea of the very best dreams, where they build a castle out of moonbeams, dance with pirates on a red-sailed brig, and count every star in the sky.

With Tom Paxton at the helm and Elizabeth Miles painting magic in the sails, this trip to dreamland is nothing short of enchanting.