Monkeys in the Mail

My friend Jan (blogs at Little Pink Houses) sent me MONKEYS.

Look at the packaging of these little guys. Is this not the most wonderful package to receive in the mail?
The artistic drawing of Banana Liqueur came with a warning...
"Keep your banana liqueur bottled up and those monkeys should be just fine." Ha! I have it in writing so if anything happens, my lawyers will know who to contact. I don't have any banana liqueur but I've got Adult Chocolate Milk (Have you heard of this?) I will have to watch these little monkeys. You never know what  they might get into.
Jan found the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil monkeys at a garage sale because they reminded her of herself, my sister and me. She says she's the one who can't hear... but, according to the Prospector, I would have that honor. He thinks I should have my hearing checked. He doesn't know that I just have selective hearing.

 The last monkeys that Jan sent were monkey slippers and they are safely put away in a shoebox, in the closet, because Carl wouldn't leave them alone.
You have to understand that Jan and I have had a long standing debate on the subject of monkeys... their endearing qualities and their perceived similarities to humans. I have always been afraid of monkeys so I'm guessing that, in Jan's mind, I need to face my fears. I thought that I had "Faced my fears" when I watched all the Planet of the Apes movies. It was no help at all.
 I won't go into all the details but we have had this monkey discussion many times and I think that she believes exposure is the answer. Like giving someone who hates snakes a rubber boa or holding a real spider close to an arachnophobic. Yes, she's THAT kind of friend.
It's ALWAYS about monkeys! She must be a relative of Jane Goodall.

However..... These cute versions, of what I refer to as "Jan's Obsession", are something I can live with.
So... I asked them where there would be comfortable in my house.

They didn't like being on the edge of the begonia planter. Too precarious. 

They really didn't like sitting on the edge of the computer either. Too precarious... and  too much computer radiation. They ARE like the three of us. Worry, worry, worry...

This house plant was better. The view was good but that serpent made them nervous.

They felt overwhelmed by the big rabbit towering above them and they thought they might slip off of that rock.

So finally, after a lot of discussion and many opinions about which would be the "best" place to settle into, They chose this spot.

 They said that they could see me at the computer and were high enough that the dogs couldn't get to them.
I think that they liked the fragrance of the felted soap and the bear was something warm and comforting in their new home. It was the place that soothed their little monkey minds.
"Buddha described the human mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, carrying on endlessly. We all have monkey minds, Buddha said, with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention. Fear is an especially loud monkey, sounding the alarm incessantly, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong."
 ( see the credit for this quote here. Good article!)
Maybe they will settle down MY monkey mind and remind me to speak with kindness, see clearly and hear others with compassion and understanding.
Thank you Jan. See you soon.

Wordless Wednesday: Mothzilla

Solar Eclipse Excitement

Last night at 6.15 p.m.

A beautiful evening... clear and warm.
I waited with my camera.

Thunderheads were forming all day to the east.

To the south, the sun still lit the hills.
I was waiting for THE ECLIPSE.
 I waited for the sun to darken and watch everything become shrouded in eeriness . It was suppose to happen very soon... within fifteen minutes or so.
The Sacramento news folks were doing their usual overkill on this solar event.

They spent the whole new program talking about the eclipse and all the do's and don'ts to watching this amazing event. It worked. They got me really excited about the whole thing and because I didn't have smoked glass or special lenses to look directly at the sun, I thought that I would photograph the "darkening of the world" here at home.
As I have said before, we don't see sunsets from our place. We are on the east side of the hills facing East.
We only see sunrises. So, I waited.
Finally, I couldn't stand all the sitting and waiting and wanted to have fun like everyone on TV. I decided to drive to a point were I could see the sun. I drove into town and down highway 88 to a ridge were I could see to the west. I was also looking for what the experts said were shadow reflections of the eclipse on a wall. As I went through town, I spotted a tree that was casting a big clear shadow on the wall of our Post Office. It stood out from the road.  I pulled into the parking lot, got out and took some photos of  the tree and the shadow.

It was an exceptionally clear shadow and there was one branch that seemed to reflect light more than the others. I got closer and that was when I saw the crescents. The whole shadow of this branch (not the others) was covered with crescent shaped reflections.
Look closely...

I don't know why this was the only branch. I didn't even get a really clear photo of it. But the other shadows of other branches didn't have these little crescent, bird like reflections within the shadow of the leaves. Only this branch had the light shinning through its leaves. I'm not talking about the shape of the leaf shadow, but the small, sun lit, bird shape crescents in the dark areas. That is the Sun, with the moon eclipsing it . This one branch shadow sparkled compared to the rest of the shadows.
If you look at the first photo again, you can see that the branch that I'm talking about is fully in the sunlight. I guess that this is what they were talking about when they said that you could see the eclipse in some shadows. This site has some great information about the eclipse and shows some photos of the crescent reflections too. It also has some wonderful animated pictures of how an eclipse happens and why.

When I turned around in a cemetery up on the ridge, I got out and took a picture of my shadow. The news folks talked about how there were "auras" around some folk's shadows during the eclipse, so I wanted to see  

~my aura~

I didn't see any AURA, but I liked the fact that I looked SKINNY.  So indulge me on this one photo because it will be a cold day in hell before I ever look this skinny again.

As I drove out of the cemetery I aimed the camera at the sun (not looking directly at it) and took some photos.
When I got home I downloaded them and these are some of the photos that resulted from my blind camera action.

Both of these two photos were taken with the road as perspective. The photo above has a funny little rainbow reflection like yours TERI. Maybe it was really there. We have proof...caught on camera.

The last two were cropped in Picasa 3, my photo storage and editing program.  I was trying to see the eclipse. I didn't see it.
 What I see is a very beautiful center of our solar system. This amazing orb that is suspended in space.
Sometimes, when I really think about where we are and the immensity of the universe, it scares me..... but it also fills me with wonder. I think that whatever we do to try and make sense out of all this, giving it meaning and trying to understand, only helps calm our fears. We can't really know.
There is so much more to this world, this solar system, this universe, than we can ever know and we are a very tiny part of the whole.
Some of this thinking is scary and makes me feel like one of the photos that I changed to infrared. Infrared is, the dictionary says,  "using radiation having wavelengths longer than those of red light."
I believe it!

Now that's what I call an Aura.
And this...

What do you think? And what is that bump on both photos? An explosion on the sun? An expression of  anger from the insulted power of our solar system.
SUN probably didn't like the moon coming between itself and the Earth. Maybe it was upset and blew off some steam.
I have no idea. I only know that I wasn't really all that impressed with THE ECLIPSE until I saw these last two photos.
That SUN is a force to be reckoned with .
I never really saw the whole thing, but I don't think the Sun was happy about it.

The Bad Fairy of the Foothills is here Early.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. The Prospector generously took me out to our favorite restaurant for dinner.

It's Italian. It's a beautiful place. The food is delicious and the weather was beautiful.
I had gotten a card from my oldest son.

This card is a keeper. Oh yes!
My youngest son called to wish me a happy day and , all in all, it was a wonderful Mother's Day.
I even got a kiss from my magic goat.

I've been in the garden all week... watering, weeding and hoping for the pumpkin seeds to germinate.
They did...

The tomatoes are growing by inches every day.

I bought a cucumber (an Armenian Cucumber). The very pale, long ones. to go with all the tomatoes and lettuce. Oh, the salads there will be.

Look at this lettuce. It's so beautiful.

Once in a while I check for bugs and eat a leaf or two right there in the garden. This lettuce is delicious. Murph' and Brownie like it as well.
They are not discerning animals though and will eat anything that I hand through the fence. When I say " Hey, guys. Want some .... (what ever it is I happen to have.)?"  They stop in their tracks.

"Farmlady has some goodies for us."

I can see the wheels turning in Murphy's head. He always tried to be the goat closest to the fence. If Brownie gets in front of him he pushes Brown away. He's very serious about ~Special Treats~

Last night, after dinner, I fertilized the roses and watered everything in the garden behind the house, staying out until almost dark. 
I came in and started the dishwasher, cleaned myself up and fell asleep on the couch watching House Hunter's in.... I think it was the Bahama's.

I forgot about the BAD FAIRY that arrives about now. She turns herself into the EVIL SPIRIT OF THE WELL this time of the year. and becomes a constant problem all summer. Her other incarnation is FIRE.


This morning I woke up to, "Don't turn any water on, flush the toilet or take a shower. The well is dry."  
Now this was not good. I had to be at the Master Gardener Tomato Plant show and workshop in an hour and a half. The Prospector had plans to spend the day at the Auction House in town. He was set on outbidding everyone for a used trommel (mining equipment).
Well, guess who got to take his place at the Auction while he waited for the well guy to come and give us an informed opinion on what was wrong?
I left for a quick run to the Tomato Show (grumbling all the way) to see what they had .. and then, on to the Auction. We planned to do a telephone bid, with the Prospector on one end and me on the other. I have to say that this was met with a lot of disagreement at home this morning, when he first asked me about doing it. But I finally caved, and walked into the Auction House trying to act like I wasn't the ONLY WOMAN IN THE WHOLE PLACE . It was an auction with lots of ladders, shovels, tool chests and miscellaneous "man cave, garage" stuff. It was not really my antique, thrift shop style.
 About an hour into the Auction I got a phone call. 
It was the Prospector saying that the well guy had come and gone. We (That would be me.)  used too much water yesterday and the well shut down. The guy said that the water level was coming back up and everything else looked good. He said to let it recover for about 24 hours and then be careful about using too much water at one time. Lordy! I knew that! I just forgot about the EVIL SPIRIT. It wasn't hot enough. It wasn't time for water conservation yet.
 I was glad we weren't looking at thousands of dollars, that we didn't have, to fix something that we absolutely cannot live without. But, I was even more relieved that the Prospector was going to get in his truck and come down to the auction, saving me from all the strange men and doing his own bids. 
He came, he got into a bidding war with one other person and ... he lost his trommel to an old guy with a dog. 
It was that BAD FAIRY turned EVIL SPIRIT of the WELL and there was nothing we could do about it. 
She is up to no good. She's a bad one.... and carries matches in her back pocket.

Wordless Wednesday: Persimmons at a Tender Age.

Does Mr. Collins know my Grandson?

Child Development

As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs
and sauntered off the beaches into forests
working up some irregular verbs for their
first conversation, so three-year-old children
enter the phase of name-calling.

Every day a new one arrives and is added
to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead,
You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor
(a kind of Navaho ring to that one)
they yell from knee level, their little mugs
flushed with challenge.
Nothing Samuel Johnson would bother tossing out
in a pub, but then the toddlers are not trying
to devastate some fatuous Enlightenment hack.

They are just tormenting their fellow squirts
or going after the attention of the giants
way up there with their cocktails and bad breath
talking baritone nonsense to other giants,
waiting to call them names after thanking
them for the lovely party and hearing the door close.

The mature save their hothead invective
for things: an errant hammer, tire chains,
or receding trains missed by seconds,
though they know in their adult hearts,
even as they threaten to banish Timmy to bed
for his appalling behavior,
that their bosses are Big Fatty Stupids,
their wives are Dopey Dopeheads
and that they themselves are Mr. Sillypants.

~Billy Collins~

( Picture of my oldest grandson at three years of age. He's seven now.)

To take care of...

To NURTURE (vb) 1. to care for: feed, nourish  2. educate, train # : foster.
I like this definition. It's all encompassing and for some of us, who didn't take to raising children like a fish to water, I want to say that the hardest and most wonderful effort I ever made was raising two amazing human beings... our sons. It was an awesome responsibility which was never taken lightly and I became a better human being because of them.
The bottom line is, and was, LOVE. It is what directs all of our best endeavors. It's what keeps us going in the right direction and turns all our mistakes into knowledge.

So, to those of you who NURTURE children, gardens, animals, a home... who foster children or take care of old parents or relatives... The ones who care for the poor and disadvantaged in this world... To those who teach and mentor.....
Thank you for all your efforts.
You should be proud.

Myself

A River Far Away and Long Ago

The river

of my childhood,

that tumbled 

down a passage of rocks

and cut-work ferns,

came here and there

to the swirl

and slowdown

of a pool 

and I saw myself...

oh, clearly...

as I knelt at one... 

then I saw myself

as if carried away,

as the river moved on

Where have I gone?

Since then

I have looked and looked

 for myself,

not sure

who I am, or where,

or, more importantly, why.

It's okay...

I have had a wonderful life.

Still, I ponder

where that other is...

where I landed,

what I thought, what I did,

what small or even maybe meaningful deeds

I might have accomplished

somewhere

among strangers,

coming to them

as only a river can...

touching every life it meets...

that endlessly kind, that enduring.

~Mary Oliver~

Wordless Wednesday: Some Days are like Shelling Hardboiled Eggs

A quick trip to Marysville, some Baby Goats and a Full Moon

I drove up to Marysville, a small town north of Sacramento, to visit my friend "C" on Saturday. She was house sitting her brother's home for a week and invited me to come up overnight. So I packed up and left the mountain, drove down to the valley, then up highway 5 to highway 99 and found her brother's place with only one unintended side trip that would have taken me east to Reno, NV.  I took a wrong turn off the downtown Sacramento freeway. I realized that I wasn't going north anymore and turned around, losing only about 15 minutes or so. I, obviously, don't do this very much and I had never been to Marysville before... ever.
I finally arrived at my destination and "C' greeted me with open arms and lunch.
This is Max and Milly. Milly has the long ears.

Max is 'C"s dog and the father of Milly. Milly belongs to her brother. They are Havanese breeds and the liveliest little dogs ever. I didn't have time to miss Carl and Cutter because I was entertained by these two little pups during my whole visit.
We went into Marysville for dinner. This town is suffering from the economic downturn. Its main street has many empty buildings and it just looks kind of down and out. It's sad to see a small town looking like this.
After dinner we took a drive out over the railroad tracks to the east.  We passed lots of orchards. This is still a very rural community. It was getting late so we turned around and came back into town.
We drove back to the house, played with the dogs and walked out to the beautiful rose garden behind this lovely home.
That evening we talked, laughed and even cried a little , sharing the things that old friends share with each other... the things that you know you can express with a person and they will understand. It comes of knowing someone for a very long time. It's a good feeling. I can be myself with "C". I don't have to make excuses or be afraid to tell her things that I don't always tell others. She accepts me for who I am.  What a gift that is.

The house is on at least an acre and backed up to an orchard so it feels like it's out in the country. It's a lovely big home.
The home is elegant and decorated beautifully, so the last thing I expected to see was an indoor chicken coop... but there it was, in the corner of the screened porch.

This one stays really clean because the chickens are...

CERAMIC CHICKENS... No cleaning the coop... no rooster crowing, but you have to buy your eggs at the store. Bummer!
 It was cute though. I wonder what would happen if I put one of these ceramic chickens in with mine. Napoleon, our rooster, would probably have a fit trying to figure that one out.
I had charming accommodations and slept well Saturday night. Sunday morning we said our goodbyes and I headed back to Sacramento.

I drove west into Yuba City hoping to find a closer road around the Sutter Buttes, which is considered  the smallest mountain range in the world. This is a fascinating range that rises up out of the flat central valley in Sutter County like a strange, misplaced mountain.
The Buttes are so interesting.  I had never been this close to them before and wanted to take some pictures. I wasn't in familiar territory and didn't have a good map so I decided to pass on finding a road around the mountain range... so, I headed west. I got gas in Yuba City and then drove over the Feather River, finally turning south on highway 99, and headed for Sacramento.
By the time I reached Sacramento I was starving. It was lunchtime, so I decided to go into Elk Grove, grab some lunch and stop by another friend's house to see her new goat babies.
Oh GOAT BABIES. This will give you a dose of cuteness that you may not recover from.
I was greeted by my friend and at least thirteen babies with their moms and the old white pig that didn't seem too concerned about all the little ones running around.
He was laying in the shade and sleeping.

The little goats were not...

Some were learning how to use the hay feeder. This one was sure that jumping in with all four feet was the answer.
Some were a little more practiced at it.

And one even posed for me.

Maybe she just didn't want me watching her. Oh the cuteness!
These are Alpine goats. They are milk goats. You can learn more about them here.

Look at this little one lying in the grass. I mean... don't you just want to lie down and play with her.

Are they not the most lovely little creatures? Look at those eyelashes.

They like to be held.

But they still want to be with their Mom. This Mom had quadruplets. The little black one on the right is hers too.
That's a lot of babies to deliver. Oooff! Nice job Mom!

I love this photo. Jane's hand show the love that she has for these animals. These are the hands of a true farmgirl.

  I love these hands. There is a special beauty in hands that are work worn because they take care of others.  It's my favorite photo of the day.

This doe wasn't happy about my presence.

I got the impression that she was telling me I needed to leave and to take the camera with me.
Jane said that she is one of the "cranky" ones. I think she is just opinionated.  Look at her. She is just about ready to say something. I expected something to come out of her mouth at any minute.

And then there was this little guy who would not leave me alone. He tried to eat my shirt sleeve, nibbled on my jean pocket, pulled my shirt at the edges and then this...

The little kid just hunkered in between my legs and stood there. I rubbed its back and sides and he/she (I can't remember which now.) just stayed there. How cute! I wanted to take him/her home with me.
What enchanting little animals.
Jane has named a couple of them. She wants to keep those two, but the rest are either spoken for or going to be sold. When they're this cute you want to take them all home with you. It would be really easy to confuse "want" with "need".
I thanked Jane and drove home. I was really tired on the way home, but after dinner I felt revived. I stayed up late so I could take one more picture.
I set up my tripod, waited patiently in a lawn chair for the beautiful, full moon to rise. It did... and it was worth waiting for.

 It was so beautiful and I sat watching in wonder at this moon that circles our Earth. I sat there for a long time taking pictures and just watching it rise into the night sky.
It was so much easier to be outside, by myself, knowing that the Prospector was inside and close by.
He was snoring... but he was there.
AND...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON! I know you don't want me making a big deal out of this on my blogpost but we love you and we want you to know that we wish you a very happy day.
Come up soon.
Love, Mom and Dad