I see hearts wherever I go

A few pix from the beach . . . heart shells . . .

A heart jelly fish:

I watched these little sand thingies scroll just under the surface. Here's one of their designs:

Pretty cool, huh? Back tomorrow. :-)

Day of Rest: Back from OBX

Mum's favourite house.

Back to regular posting. More beach pix tomorrow. :-)

OBX

A few pix . . .

No swimming.

Hooves!

Blogging will not be consistent this week, but I will post when I can. Have had fun taking walks on the beach & finding treasures with the kids. Am actually getting tan! :-) Back . . . sometime . . .

Day of Rest

Yesterday morning I awoke to my niece saying, "Wake up, Auntie Hal! It's TODAY!" We caravanned to the beach with Brother D & SIL. "We" being me, Mum & Pioneer Sister's kids. Trip was OK . . . the last bit of it was s-l-o-w. Snapped this pic as we were (not) driving by, inching our way through the last 5 miles of the journey. Niece was in the back singing,
We will, we will ROCK you, rock you. Very cute. Back tomorrow. :-)

New Labyrinth Painting

When I got into labyrinths, I built the Cretan/Classical because it was easy and didn't require math. This is my first attempt at drawing the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth. I've always been partial to the Cretan one prolly because it's the one I'm most familiar with. I'm rather enjoying this new one--less predictable when I'm tracing it with my finger. Where am I? I lose track and can't figure it out. It will be a painting. Eventually.

My nephew, Dimples, who is 8, is sitting here with me and says, "You could make copies of this and sell it and make money." Yes. Yes I could. "Maybe you could even put it in the newspaper." That's his marketing side coming out. ;-) Mum & I are heading to the Brother D's with Pioneer Sister's kiddliewinks today. And then! To the beach at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Really Cool Arrowhead

When I was 14, I lived across the river from where I am now. I was walking down one of the dirt roads after a heavy rain and I stepped over a washed out part of the road to find this:

Mum had a hippie-couple midwifery client at the time, Mary; and her husband Peter made it into a necklace for me. Just recently, I found out a little bit more about the arrowhead from my neighbor Stan, who is a bit of an archeologist. He goes on digs and has an AMAZING collection of arrowheads--and those are just the one he showed me in a yogurt cup in his car. He said that the milky quartz crystal is from one of only 2 places in VA: Madison County or Elkton. Which means my Native American warrior traveled a few miles--1500-2000 YEARS AGO. WOW. He also said that it's a triangle point, which is a specific kind of arrowhead and that that's how they date them. And lastly, the proper terminology for "arrowhead" is Projectile Point.

Because, you know, that's what Dances with Wolves & Laughing with Turkeys called them.

A New Normal

I thought I was just going to slap up before-and-after photos of my front yard and call it a Hair Wash Day. But I was thinking about Nadine, yoga gal, & author of one of my favourite blogs. She's going through some life challenges & I've been reflecting that she is where I was 2 years ago; leaving a relationship & moving to a new home.

This is the view of my front yard, my first visit to the house just to take a look:

This is what the yard looked like last week:

A bit shaggy.

The photo doesn't do it justice, because you can't see all the wild olive bush-trees that are along the perimeter of the road, obscuring the view for anyone driving or walking. Just in the 2 years that I've been here, they grew from scrubby little bushes to over my head, becoming a habitat for deer, skunks, & other creatures. It was so gradual. Like a lot of things are, that you don't notice; until it takes over.

So Neighbor Dave very kindly bush hogged:

That strip in the center of the field is my asparagus. The rest of the weed garden has been bush hogged. If I get adventurous enough, I can create a garden a bit smaller. Altho, I've been blessed by the bounty of other people's gardens. Zucchini is the most prolific for all gardeners, it seems. [Note to self: future post on the Awesomeness of Zucchini].

When I first moved here, I lamented that I didn't have a proper sunrise. I was used to getting up v. early & watching something like this:

Bay Sunrise.

It was my Normal. It was the start of my day, and I missed the ritual of it.

Remi peering in.

The funny thing is that when I went back to the bay earlier this year; same sunrise, completely different. I have a new normal. Not better . . . just different. It's what we get used to, and then we think that that's the way it's always been--or supposed to be. The truth is that I clung to those bay sunrises & my yoga classes because they gave me a peace that wasn't present in the rest of my life. This is today's sunrise:

My new normal.

Eddie's Marathon

"Um, YEAAAAAH. So here I am in Scotland."

Eddie Izzard, my favourite comedian, is running a marathon throughout Britain to raise money for sporty-type-thingies. It's a good cause, really. Stop laughing, Mum. I can support the idea of running without actually having to do it. I've been following Eddie on Twitter. Today is Day 23 & he will have finished Marathon #20. WOW! YAY, you!

Wedding

Saturday Mum & I drove to family friend Crossword Puzzle Mel's son's wedding in Fredericksburg. First things first on arrival: bathroom! But then I noticed that Mum's dress matched the bathroom decor perfectly. So I took her picture:

For those of you who might complain that I'm not close-up enough, I wanted to include the floral border. Then we went to visit the groom in the youth room & this was on the wall:


Seated in the church, waiting for service. The flowers were spectacular!

Ironing, anyone?

5 minutes before the wedding, the florist lights the candles:

Here's the non-GF cake:

The photo doesn't do the cake justice. These blossoms were done with icing, I think. Or plastic. Anyway, it was rather striking. As we were heading out of town, I stopped to get a picture of this:

Perfect on a wedding day, don't you think? :-)

CONGRATULATIONS
to the Bride & Groom!

Day of Rest

Flowers from yesterday's wedding. Report tomorrow. Have a SWEET day!

New old painting

This is the original painting I did for my Healing Labyrinth Path CD:


This was the first one I did. When I paint, I add flower essences into the rinse water so that those frequencies go into the painting. Because that's the way I roll. ;-) Anyway, as I've been rebuilding the labyrinth website, John Morgan, who knows a bit more about graphic design, worked on the original to brighten it up. I must say that I'm quite taken with it. It still has original texture, but the colour is more vibrant, making it pop. The red represents the red raspberries I used to have in my first labyrinth, and the yellow dots are dandelions that I put in there especially for Dave Dobson. His aunt told a story that when he was 3 years old, he ate a dandelion. Once. That was all it took to learn that dandelions don't taste so good! As I've been circling back to labyrinths--as I am Labyrinth Gal, I've been thinking about how much has changed since my first CD, almost 3 years ago. The updated labyrinth graphic reflects those changes. Thanks, John. And thanks, Dave, wherever you are.

BEAUTIFUL. :-)

The Labyrinth Path

The Labyrinth Path
Walk with a sense of humour;
it will ease your burdens.
Walk with a sense of ADVENTURE,
and be open to new possibilities.
Walk with a sense of GRATITUDE,
and be receptive to ABUNDANCE.
Walk with a sense of JOY,
and experience JOY with others.
Walk connected to the Earth,
and be grounded in your world.
Walk connected to others,
and have LOVE in your heart.
Walk with intention,
and create your reality.
Walk with God,
and find your place
in this Universe.

Not something you see in the Big City

Tractors & livestock & greased pigs, oh my!

Saw this last weekend on the way to the fleamarket. Have you noticed that things that are familiar to us are normal? And things that are normal don't get our attention as much as things that are different or new. Greased pig contest; normal to a whole tribe of people. Your tribe, Dune? Prolly not. Mine, either.

What's normal for you that others think is weird? Doesn't everyone Reiki a car battery when it dies? No? Doesn't everyone know that high fructose corn syrup is evil? No? Doesn't everyone's mother vacuum the roof? No? Well. Normal to me. ;-)

I looked out my window . . .

I looked out my window, and what did I see?

I saw a--what? You can't see it?

See? Another bear!

I took these off my back porch.

He chowed down on some twigs & berries, and then lumbered off. Can you see him lumbering off?

No? He's right here:

The recent bear sitings are enough to entice me to buy a fancy-pants camera.

Sycamore Crash

I was walking to my postbox yesterday morning, when I saw this:

Poor tree!

I called Neighbor Dave & he moved it out of the way. This is not the first tree that has crashed down. Of course, if I were Mum, I would have happened upon it in the dark, when it was raining. And I would have whipped out my travel chainsaw to stack it neatly by the road for my winter firewood. ;-)

Look behind you!

We had a bit of excitement yesterday. Eldest niece & I were outside taking some pix in Mum's backyard, when all of a sudden she points behind me & says, "Look! A bear!" I turn around with my handy-dandy point & shoot camera:

I got nothin.

Brother D came out with his fancy-pants camera:

And got this photo:

See? No? They are faster than you'd think!

Here's the little guy.

We were being careful because there's always Mama Bear nearby. We did see her back there. My SIL hightailed it to the house with the kids when we saw the Mama Bear. I told Brother D, "Oh, you're high enough up there. She prolly won't go after you." Sadly, no more photos.

Eldest niece wanted to write a letter to her friend about seeing the bear. "How do you spell dear?"
Me: D-E-A-R.
A bit later, "How do you spell bear?"
Me: B-E-A-R. There's your lesson on the wackiness of phonics. If it's dear, how can it be bear? Wouldn't you say dare or beer? Eldest niece says this is the best visit to GranAnne's ever.

On the way home, coming down my road, darting across the road: a bear. TWO in one day??? WOW! Imagine a fabulous photo of a big bear, because, of course, I got nothin'. Too fast for me.

Day of Rest on the River

Some days are just perfect. :-)

B-Day Blog

When I was a young gal, I was Danny's nanny. This is a picture he drew on a T-shirt when he was in first grade. He married a first grade teacher, and I used this picture to make their wedding card. Today is his birthday. :-)

I wish you RAINBOWS
and SUNSHINE
and lots of LOVE.

In Honour of Mum

It Mum's birthday today.

She is sprinkled throughout this blog with life lessons. She's been mother & wife:

She travels to faraway places & sends hilarious emails.

Hand-stitched with dental floss.

Mum is not sentimental and she loathes nick-knacks. One birthday, I gave her this hideous "What-a-mother-means"plaque:

On the back of it, I taped a Lowe's gift card; v. practical. Like Mum. Here she is with Atlasta, a.k.a. Brother D, Area Man:

She is grandmother:

Unspecified grandchild receive GranAnne smooch!

Construction worker. She really does change lives:

Queen Anne in Hungary for Habitat.

Animal Tolerator:

"Yes, you're very sweet. Now go away."

I cherish our not-meaning-to-be-funny conversations, where she ends it with, "Oh, shut up," in that v. proper Queen's English accent:

At Mum's Dinner Dance.

Blow out your candles,

Pioneer Sister's famous chocolate cake!

and Make a WISH!!!