New Do

I'm showing a pic because I don't know if I'll be able to duplicate the styling of it after I wash it! Was going for something a bit shorter; like first season Ellen, not short hair Ellen, now. Anyway, I was flipping thru a magazine and luckily actress Lisa Rinna got lip reduction surgery, because there was the hair I wanted!  So here you go:

How to Destroy a Sea in One Generation

Mother Nature doesn't like a smart ass. ~Bruce Lipton

The Aral Sea: The what? Where? I'm sure I knew its name and whereabouts when I had it on a geography test back in my youth. But I was recently reintroduced to it by Bruce Lipton. He showed a map of the Caspian & Aral Sea. You can see it if you go to Googlemaps. The thing is, if you look at the map, you'll see the Aral Sea. And if you click on the satellite image, you would expect to see this:

Satellite image from 1985.

 Instead, you get this:

Satellite image from 2008.

 Here's another comparison:

It's shocking. Once the size of Ireland, it has shrunk by 90%. You can read more about it here, along with some videos. How could this happen?

The thinking goes like this: let's divert the rivers that lead to the Aral Sea for other things, like cotton farms.  The saline content is rising? The water is receding? Toxic build up of heavy metals and pesticides? No more fishing industry? OOPS.

And there you have it. How to destroy a sea in one generation.

Luray Caverns

Just a few pix. It's really AWESOME down there!

Raw photo, undoctored.

Much better, thanks to my PhotoShop guy. (No link).

M&M Monday

Picking up the girls after a week at Mystic Pet.  :-)

The girls came running--er, fast-walking. Maggie was actually jumping up and down! Gareth said that the girls were in the groom room and he whispered to Lena, "I think Millie's my favourite. She's so quiet." I think it's cute that he's whispering--you know. In case they heard him.

My Ellen friend Aida from San Diego came for a brief vizzie with her friend Chardane.

The girls say hullo to Chardane.

Hullo, Aida!

Gareth said that Maggie doesn't eat her food. She does that at home; sort of letting Millie woof her food down and then she plays the Snarly Food Bowl game. Eventually she eats her food. Anyway, so he hand fed her. So then I got her back after a week of hand-feeding, and she won't eat! So then I hand fed her, at which point, John says, "Well, I guess she's training you."  So I have food by the water bowl in the kitchen, and their individual bowls in the LR. And Maggie does this:

*sigh* Ripping into the dog food bag.  Silly girl.  :-)

For Aida: It's a New Day!

A few pix of sunrises, since it rained her morning here!

A pic of the clothesline from yesterday.

Namaste Mr. Squirrel

Sunset over the woodshed from last night.

Purpley-pinkish sunrise.  :-)

And then!  Just like that . . .

It gets a bit foggy.

Deer in the foggy field, this a.m.

And then! The fog starts to clear. . .

BEAUTIFUL!

Convo with Mum

A couple weeks ago, Mum came to help me clean my windows. And by "help," I mean, she cleaned. And I cooked. Anyway, she's v. thorough and industrious and gets every-last-spot. So I have sparkling windows, and she got a good meal out of the deal.

She'll be looking at this and saying, "Yes, but I still know there's a slight streak where I couldn't reach!"

So we were taking a break, having a proper cup of tea, and she looks over at this:

Mum: What are your plans for that hideous poodle?
Me: Plans? I need plans?
Mum: Yes. Plans. What are you going to do with it?
Me:
Mum: You're not going to keep it.
Me: Yes?
Mum: [eye roll] I cahn't stand people who dress up their dogs in frilly things. They're dogs.
Me: I think that's supposed to be the poodley-part of the poodle. It's not a skirt.
Mum: Well, it's wearing ear-rings.
Me: I think they're the ears.
Mum: Well! Then they shouldn't be so sparkley!
Me:

Good thing she didn't see the other artwork stacked behind it:

Sparkley.  ;-)

Back to more windows:

And another PTB (Proper Tea Break) and the convo goes:

Crown Wearin' Mary

Mum: What's that statue with the crown?

Me: That's Mother Mary.
Mum: Well, I know that. 
Me: Then why did you ask?
Mum: What's it doing there?
Me: In the window?
Mum: Why do you have it?
Me: Because I like it?
Mum: [eye roll & a something indiscernible about dust-catching-useless-knick-knacks]  *sigh*

And then it was to The Poodle: Part 2:

Mum: What are those things at the bottom?
Me: The feet?
Mum: No! Those golf-clubby things!
Me: The feet?
Mum: Well, they certainly don't look like feet.

THANKS, MUM!  For the laughs and the cleaning and all of everything that makes me so grateful that you're my mother!  :-)

M&M Monday

Not many more days like this:

Lazy-dazy open-door porch days. Maggie inside with me, Millie catching some Zzzzssssss

Millie overlooking her domain. Or sleeping with her eyes open. She does that.

Like here. Yup. She's asleep.

In the meantime, Maggie heard the camera click on, so she turned her head!

The girls hangin' in the Mystic Pet yard.  They just WAG-WAG-WAG their tails when they see me loading up the car to go somewhere! They know the Spoil Fest with Gareth is about to begin!