Life is Fragile

That past few weeks has been a roller coaster ride and it doesn't look like it's going to be stopping any time, soon.

We had a wonderful time in Kansas at "Seussical the Musical".  Our own little Thing 1 played her part so well...the entire cast did a wonderful job.  I still haven't sorted out the photos and I attempted to videotape some of her parts with my camera camcorder.  It's a really good camcorder but, as luck would have it, I ran out of memory.

We were stunned to learn a couple of weeks ago that our closest friends' 32 year old son was suffering from a brain lymphoma.  Within a week he was put into a drug induced coma.  He died, yesterday.  He leaves a devastated  mother, father, sister and brother and a lovely young wife.  No children.  There are no words...

I haven't been able to concentrate on much else which is why I haven't been posting.  It's going to be awhile, I think.

Also, since our smoothie business ramps up to warp speed during the summer, there will be little spare time.

On a happy note, our eldest granddaughter is graduating from high school, this month, so we're headed to Nebraska for that celebration.  We'll be seeing all four children and their children and many, many old friends.

Maybe I'll snap out of this sooner than I think I will.  I hope so.

I'd like to do the Photo Finish Friday posts, if nothing else, so we'll see how that goes.  I'll catch up with your comings and goings, as well.

Thanks for listening.

The Wood Ducks on Lake Mary - An Update

How time flies!  Back on April 11th I posted about our wood ducks and their house hunting adventure.

This morning we watched as the happy couple waddled up the beach and Mrs. Wood Duck flew into the nesting box.

Mr. Wood Duck flew with her but as she was entering the nesting box, he banked and circled around (a beautifully executed maneuver) before landing back on Lake Mary.

Since we've been away from home, we weren't sure if she had finished laying all the eggs and would be sitting on them the rest of the day OR if she was simply going to lay another egg and leave until tomorrow.

We watched for maybe five minutes when suddenly she popped her head through the opening.   She sat there for a minute or two and then flew out in the direction of the lake.  As she was approaching the water, Mr. Duck flew up from the water to meet her and they winged their way across the lake.

She'll fly into the box in the morning, sit for several hours and then leave until the next day.   If that's the case the "jump" won't happen until the around first of June.  There's a really, really great video of the jump on the Wood Duck Society web page.  You will love watching it!

Maybe she hasn't finished laying, though.  We're going to try to see what happens tomorrow morning.

This is the only shot I got and that stupid branch was partially covering her face. Plus it's another of my many "through the window" shots which means the quality is iffy. But my mantra is "better a less than perfect capture than no capture at all".

You've just gotta love Mother Nature...she produces best reality shows ever!

Kansas City or Bust

I'm leaving for Kansas, tomorrow.  The eleven year old actress in our family is in another play..."Seussical the Musical".   She was a hit in "Alice in Wonderland" and is cast as Thing 1 for this production.  She hasn't a lot of lines but said that it's been so much fun and she and Thing 2 have great supporting roles.

From Alice in Wonderland

So since the week of the play is busy with rehearsals every night after school, and with daughter Margo away at the theater, too, I'll be holding down the fort at home with her little brother in tow.  Margo has become an expert stage hand for The Culture House school of theater.

Here's a synopsis from the web page:

The story centers around Horton the Elephant, who finds himself faced with a double challenge--not only must he protect his tiny friend Jojo (and all the invisible Whos) from a world of naysayers and dangers, but he must guard an abandoned egg, left to his care by the irresponsible Mayzie La Bird. 

Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping and a trial, the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him, the only one who recognizes "his kind and his powerful heart." Ultimately, the powers of friendship, loyalty, family and community are challenged and emerge triumphant, in a story that makes you laugh and cry.

I'm excited.  If I can capture some decent pictures or a short clip, I'll share it when I get back home!

Stay tuned!

1920 North Dakota Prairie - Photo Finish Friday

1920 Minot, North Dakota

I'm going through old photographs, as time permits.  I need to put them in photo albums but I'm also scanning them into the computer.  I'd like to store them somewhere in "the cloud", if I can figure out how to do that.

In the process, I've come across some very old, very cool family photos.   This one is of my paternal grandmother with her two daughters, Mamie and Marvyl and my father, Keith.  Dad was born in 1919 so that's him in the middle.

Talk about Little House on the Prairie!

Photo Finish Friday created by Leah of The Goat's Lunch Pail...a fun way to end the week! 

Wood Ducks - Househunting on Lake Mary

The wood ducks are back! This morning Jack and I had the pleasure of watching them set up housekeeping for the season. It was amazing to see how they decided to choose this particular nest.

To give you some perspective, this is a photo of the group of three trees down by the lake on our property.

The tree with the wood duck house is the center tree in this photo.





For the past several mornings there have been four or five "couples" cruising up and down the lakeshore on house hunting missions.  Almost everyone who lives here has a wood duck house or two so the options are plentiful.

This morning Jack was watching as one of the females flew up to our house and landed on the roof!

She sat there for ten or fifteen minutes trying to decide if it would work for her (I guess).

She would poke her head down toward the entrance and look inside.  Then she'd pace around a bit and look, again.

In the meantime, Mr. Wood Duck flew into that tree on the left (see where the branches cross each other in that first shot) and sat watching her.  It's hard to see him in this photo but he's there.

Every so often Mrs. Wood Duck would cock her head to the side and glance up at him!  I'm quite certain she was looking for some input from him.

How cool is that?


He was probably sitting up there thinking, "So make a decision, already!"

She inspected it from every possible angle.  Well, it's a tough decision, I'm sure.   And she needs to get those eggs laid but you just don't want any old house.

After all, she'll be sitting on those eggs for about a month.

According to The Wood Duck Society the hen duck will lay one egg a day until her clutch is complete...generally about a dozen eggs.

Here she is about to fly off the roof....

She makes the leap....

...and enters the house!


We were incredibly lucky to be able to witness this activity, this morning.   Mr. Wood Duck will return for her later today when she leaves the nest.  Tomorrow morning she'll return.

I hope I have the chance to watch her because she will fly at full speed into the entrance.  Why she doesn't break her little neck is a mystery.




April 18, 2012:
Many, many thanks to Hilary of The Smitten Image for honoring this post as one of her Posts of the Week.  Hilary is a remarkable photographer and she's brilliant at word play.  Her blog is always beautiful and lots of fun!

Quotes I Like - On Relaxation

Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Washington

I'm in the middle of a million projects and every room in this house is untidy.  Not dirty.  Untidy.  I hate untidy.   I can't concentrate when things are untidy...in my house or in my head.

Got me thinking about relaxing...something that we humans often think is a waste of time. But it's not. Relaxing is essential to our well-being. These few quotes are not only giving us permission to relax, they're explanations of why we must.

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials."Lin Yutang

“Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.” Chinese Proverb

"We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things [but] there are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper." (Note: Just reading this is soothing, don't you think?)
James Carroll

“Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand – relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.”  Osho

And this next one is probably my favorite...

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits. "Satchel Paige (1906 - 1982)

That Satchel Paige was one smart cookie...after I tidy up a bit I think I'll just sit...

A Gaggle of Geese - Photo Finish Friday

The dad, the mom and the three little ones

I wonder what Mother Goose is telling Father Goose...it looks as though he's straining to hear her.  This family of five was just strolling leisurely along the shore of Lake Mary.   It made me smile.

Actually, I learned that a gaggle of geese is seven or more...and there are only five here.   A flock of geese is an even larger number.  So...this would be a family of geese, I'm thinking.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all my bloggy friends.

Photo Finish Friday.  Created by Leah of The Goat's Lunch Pail.  Thanks, Leah!

Beached

Last year we were bemoaning the fact that our beach was under water.  Like this....

And this:  

That was in August 2011.  We'd had the snowiest winter in years and it rained incessantly that summer.  I posted about it HERE.  It wasn't pretty.

I don't think we had even one foot of snow this past winter and we've had hardly any rain, this spring.  The beach now looks like this...

Note:  Those are wood ducks swimming around.

And this....I took this picture this morning.

See where the sand looks a little darker?  That's where the lakeshore normally begins.  This year, the docks will have to be put out farther so the water will be deep enough for the boat lifts.  You have to be able to lower the boats into plenty of water or you'll go aground!

Who knows what it will look like in another month.  We might have even more beach which will mean we'll need a longer dock.  I hope that doesn't happen.

Poor Mother Nature...she has her work cut out for her.

An Antique Sewing Machine....Still going strong!

While we were visiting in Washington...after we left Chateau Poulet...my sister asked if I could help her modify a coverlet for the bed in one of her guest rooms.  I said, "Sure!"

A friend had given her a sewing machine and it was all set up and ready to go!  As luck would have it there was a part missing.  It was the "throat plate", if you're familiar with sewing machines.  If you're not...well, it's a flat piece that covers up the opening  um...never mind.  Let's just say there was a piece missing and I couldn't use that machine.

So I asked her if she still had our mother's Singer and she went up to search through their attic to see if she could find it.   A few minutes later she returned with that old sewing machine...boy, the stories it could tell!

It's a beauty, isn't it?

My mother brought this sewing machine with her when she came, with me as an infant, to the United States to settle down in North Dakota with my father.

It had/has one stitch...forward.  I could be wrong but I don't even think you could adjust the tension.


It wasn't/isn't loud...just kind of ... rhythmic.  Smooth as silk.  A very pleasant whirring sound.  Today we would call it white noise.


Our mother stitched many a child's outfit on that sewing machine.  And many a Christmas dress ... well, three of them since she dressed the three of us like triplets!

We always had the prettiest prom dresses, too.

Probably every curtain we had in our house was fashioned on that machine, as well.  And slip covers and bedspreads.  You name it and mom could create it.

The light and the motor

We wrote down the serial number and Jack did a little internet research...we think it was made in 1938 and possibly in France.

According to the History of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, Singer introduced it's first practical electric sewing machine in 1889!

I Googled for antique sewing machines and there are a gazillion of them out there...on eBay, etc.  But so far I can't find another that looks just like this one.  I'll keep trying!

Now, my memory might be playing tricks on me but it seems to me that this was originally a treadle sewing machine and that my father added the motor and the light at some later date.  It's just like something my father could do.  He was a genius when it came to things like that.

If I ever find out, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, we got the coverlet fixed in a jiffy!  That old Singer was just as good as new.

I'm kind of glad the throat plate was missing on that new sewing machine!

Fog on Lake Mary - Photo Finish Friday

Spring has been bizarre, this year...we've had warmer weather here than they've had on the West coast or down in Arizona!  But combine warm air and a frozen lake and you'll see fog more often than not.

Here are some shots from a few days ago...Notice how the color fades as the fog moves in.

A wide band of fog rolling over Lake Mary

It's getting a little closer

It's here...we can hardly see the beach!

 The ice has all but gone out, now.  Just a few little bits floating around.  Spring has sprung!

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah from The Goat's Lunch Pail.