January 30, 2007

What to my wondering eyes should appear???

It does seem a bit early…
Could spring really be here?

A Green Revolution

“For the Lord has a case

Against the inhabitants of this land,

Because there is no honesty and no goodness

And no obedience to God in the land.

[False] swearing, dishonesty, and murder,

And theft and adultery are rife;

Crime follows upon crime!

For that, the earth is withered:

Everything that dwells on it languishes –

Beasts of the field and birds of the sky –

Even the fish of the sea perish.”

Hosea 4: 1b-3

Global warming, environmental disasters in the Old Testament???

Perhaps we would make progress if we went to the heart of the matter, our hearts.

January 26, 2007

This is the view this morning of the road.
I didn’t keep the window open very long…

January 24, 2007

I added some of my recent watercolours to my website:

http://geocities.com/djd_fr/

Frequent Flyer

This is a bird we often see in our garden. Sometimes they even use the window as a training video, attacking their reflection for hours on end. When that happens, I put up an extra curtain that reduces the reflection so that they don’t wear themselves out and stop for a bite to eat.

Here is where I got the photo:

http://environnement.ecoles.free.fr/images/mesange_charbonniere.JPG

January 23, 2007

First flakes of the winter this morning !!! It doesn’t seem to be sticking anywhere other than the Velux, except maybe on the roofs of unheated outbuildings. Seeing snow fall lifts my mood – I am still a kid.

January 20, 2007

Yesterday I realized I hadn’t clicked on the hunger site since the holidays.

I am embarrassed. I don’t know how I forgot that. I usually click on there once a day. The advertisers give the money that goes for food for hungry people. It is a simple small good deed that only takes a minute of my time.

http://www.thehungersite.com

January 18, 2007

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-mE1wdb4wbKencCsbAvfH_XupMZbXTnDhe.h0Jw–?cq=1&p=1637

A link to Larry’s blog on large numbers.

He says 6 billion is being spent per month, on the war in Iraq, I believe. This particular large number happens to speak to me since it is approximately the world population. Instead of war, a dollar could be given to each and every person in the whole wide world every month.

Until the deficit comes due.

On another subject: I guess I am irremediably marginal, proven once again. None of the top 10 tag words are in my tag cloud.

Take a rant on the downside

I think I must be sick. My favorite seed catalogue arrived some time ago and I haven’t even opened it yet. It kinda’ feels like cabin fever but we haven’t had a single flake of snow. I am going to “déblatérer” and see if that helps. This has nothing to do with “blattes” which are an insect. Déblatérer means to go on about something, to rant.

I bought a skirt on sale (after trying on 6 things, I bought 2). I can’t remember the last time I bought something, nothing ever fits or only makes things worse. Shopping is usually very depressing to me. I need therapy after going to the store. I got home with the skirt and checked to see if the top I remembered that might go with the skirt actually would, and yes, that looks like it will work, but they are both a drab purple and I think this outfit could use something to tie them together, to brighten things up, and it is a top that needs something over it. So I ordered some yarn to crochet a vest. Now that I am working on it, I think it’s UGLY, gaudy, why am I making such a thing???

It’s pouring rain, so not a day for laundry. Yesterday we had a few hours where the weather lifted a bit, but the laundry was the same when I got it in as when I put it out. I scraped up some mud from the driveway; that kills my back, but there’s still a lot of it left. When it’s done, it looks like maybe somebody lives here. We still need boots to get the cars out of the garage or else look like country bumpkins when we go in town. Blacktop is not at the top of the list – might be 20 more years before we get that. So I start thinking what are we doing here, so far from all our family, and yet, we are blessed here, with a warm house, garden, peaceful surroundings, it’s like I don’t appreciate what we have.

I dreamed I got off the bus. (In real life I would have to walk over 6 km at 7 in the morning to catch a bus.) I was in a big city and the whole place was jammed, the bus wasn’t going anywhere. I had planned three errands, but decided it would be better to change my plans. As I walked forward, I remembered that I hadn’t paid when I got on, so I mentioned this to the lady driver, and she said that was OK because it wasn’t worth making me pay for such a short distance. As I got off, I exchanged with another woman on look what we have done to society.

Somewhere in this dream, or thinking before awakening, it came to me that when we get rid of stuff, we are giving up dreams. That makes me feel sad, even if perhaps they were dreams that no longer correspond to our reality. I feel bad for people who say “when we retire, we are going to…” and then don’t get to do it. I am looking forward to our shelving unit we have ordered from a carpenter. I will be getting my books out boxes after almost 20 years. I don’t even know what books I have anymore. I plan to buy a few more – hopefully a couple of the kind I have always wanted but never felt I could/ should spend the money on – those encyclopedia ones on plants, maybe a bird guide. I just like knowing their names. That’s kinda’ how we humans started out, isn’t it, giving names to everything.

Ever looking for balance, what is needed, what is superfluous, what would be best, since we only get this one life. Sometimes it’s hard to deal with so much freedom.

TV

A long time ago, we realized that we had a weakness for television. We would always be watching it, even if there was “nothing” on. So we decided not to have a television. However, when we are on vacation or visiting family, it so happens that we watch a bit. I was somewhat shocked and feeling violated by some of the images we saw recently. One could be watching an innocuous game show or a documentary and then with no warning all kinds of other images are flashed in front of one, in broad daylight, under the cover of advertising, things one might not want to show to children. I’m starting to think that if it says for a film “not suitable for children under 10” then I am likely not to appreciate it either, even if it has a message or deals with an important issue needing change. The images are embedded on one’s brain, whether one realizes it or not. As with food and the physical body, where you are what you eat, so it is with the mind. What are you feeding your mind?