Sharing

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WHAT, you ask, is this big 'ol bird doing on this blog?

Well, I think this bird is breathtakingly beautiful...

...and I wanted to share with you the awesome talent 

of this photographer, Csaba Tokolyi

You're welcome!

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Agatha

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Those Bloody Happy People

"The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms 

with themselves that they don't give a damn."
- Agatha Christie

via John Gushue

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Print v Stupid

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comment not needed

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My Vote

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I hereby nominate this artist for Queen of Logic!

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~ ~ Happy Easter ~ ~

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Imagine finding this treasure in your Easter basket! This Fabergé enamel egg from 1890 is sure to send the hearts-a-hopping, as will the tale of the egg itself. Story goes that in 1885, the Russian Tsar Alexander III decided to give his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, an Easter Egg to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their betrothal. The Empress so loved her gift that Alexander gave the Mr. Fabergé himself full creative freedom to whip up the most delightful of Imperial Eggs for future Easter celebrations. There was only one stipulation – each egg must contain a surprise. Hmm, how’s that for sparking some Easter Egg Hunt memories?

via Simone LeBlanc

Impressive

 

I'm impressed by many people in this world.

Bethany Hamilton is one of them.

"Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid.
Courage means you don't let fear stop you." 

- Bethany Hamilton
(Shark attack survivor and professional surfer)

 

 

 

I'm Still There

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I have returned home from a vacation in the sun.

But strangely, I brought it back with me: the mental relaxation

I felt while I was there; the inner peace; the fun; the enjoyment of life...

I've been home 5 days and it feels like I'm still there.

Not my surroundings. Not my daily routine.

But something inside that says I feel so good I can barely stand myself, right here in my beloved Michigan.

Imprints made that will last forever.

So yes, kids - to answer your question from texts and e-mails:

I had a most wonderful vacation....in which I'm still reveling!

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In the Company of Elephants

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"There was once a man who worked with elephants. He rescued them from zoos and circuses in the States, where they’d been living for much of their adult life and brought them back to Africa, the continent of their birth.

Of the first three he brought back, the trip involved two Trans-Atlantic voyages on a cargo ship – his elephants conducting strange and unexplained communications with whales along the way – one died in Kenya, struck down by Salmonella poisoning, but the other two – Durga and Owalla – were released into the Pilanesburg Game Reserve in South Africa. Decades after they were captured as babies and taken half-way across the world, they were finally back home and in the wild. After spending time with them, helping them to readjust to their new freedom, he turned them loose and walked away.

16 years later this man received a phone call from the Pilanesburg Parks Department. They told him that one of his elephants, the one once known as Owalla but now just by a number, had been badly injured. She had been attacked at a watering hole by a hippo and had a large gaping wound on one of her front legs.  Driven mad with infection, in great pain and with her calf at her side, she was now in serious distress. For days, the Parks Department had been darting her from a helicopter, trying to bring her down with tranquilizers so they could treat the wound and attempt to save her life. It was becoming traumatic for elephant, calf and the Parks staff alike.

Can you help, they asked him, he flew to South Africa the next day.  Upon arrival, they took him straight to where Owalla stood. The vehicle was parked some distance away and the man got out. On his own with nothing between him and an elephant that had been wild for 16 years, he walked towards her. “Trunk up Owalla, trunk up”, he said softly as he approached. She stood motionless staring at him. On foot and in front of her massive bulk, this diminutive figure kept talking, kept repeating old circus commands that was once all she knew.

As he talked, she turned completely to face him and lifted her trunk high, Trunk Up Owalla, trunk up.  With him standing by her side, she allowed the vets to come close and clean her wounds, without tranquilizers, without helicopters and men afraid of what this crazed elephant might do. Instead, she stood quietly whilst obviously in considerable pain, as they cleaned and stitched the wound.

After days of this, when her wounds had healed sufficiently well and the infection had abated, the man said his farewell and walked away from her for the second time. This story has a happy ending, unlike many others, she continues to thrive in the Pilanesburg as the matriarch of her own herd.

I have been privileged to spend time in the company of elephants and this is just one of many stories that I’ve heard and witnessed about their courage, their compassion,  great sense of humour, sense of grief and of course their memory."

via Vision and Verb

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The aesthete

"He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes."
                             - James Thurber

via John Gushue

Facepots

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How late do people stay up thinking of

something like this?

Worn Out Limp Rag

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Nona, Italian Grandmother on my Mother's side, after

great stress, exhausted from work and a long hot evening bath

would say she felt like a worn out limp rag.

After a friend's funeral this week, the stressors of our industry,

trying to squeeze in getting ready to get away,

arrangements for the dogs,

arrangements for ride to and from airport,

arrangement to collect mail - 

making a list

and another list to check the first list...

It's April and it snowed today...

...and I feel like a worn out limp rag... 

All the plans of body surfing in the ocean,

running up streets and down beach fronts,

and my own personal review of the best

Pina Colatas in St. Augustine

may all take a back seat to a

chaise in the sun and a short beach walk.

I'm thinking that's all I truly need.

I get it, Nona.

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Him

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"Men always say the most important thing in a woman is a sense of humour.
You know what that means?
He's looking for someone to laugh at his jokes."

- Sheila Wenz

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Art on Monday - Photography & Thoughts

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Girly Girls

"Four girls - sitting at the counter. Each - sipping an ice cream soday thru an ice cream soda straw. Feet dangling from their high stools..not quite yet reaching the floor. All smile and giggles and laughter and light. Nothing in that moment..better.

Couldn't help but wonder about their paths..their journeys..what lay ahead. What would become of them? Who might they be? Where would they live..and how? For a quick flash of a second - I wandered back in time..wondered about me.

The one with the yellow hat. Somewhat the same..but just a little different? Or - the one with no hat at all...never quite able to keep up with the latest fashions..never quite knowing how to fit? Not - for certain - one of those in the matching pinks. Never was. Never am. Never will.

And - these girls? Who might predict? What their futures hold? Who might be left bruised and scarred by a  tumultuous adolescence..and who might sail thru unscathed and unharmed? Who might be rich? Who might be famous? Who might marry and settle down with a family - a predictable and ordinary suburban life? Who might remain forever single..and urban?

Nothing other than the silent observer. Sipping my grown-up coffee..from my grown-up cup. Feet firmly rooted on solid ground. I hoped. I imagined that wherever their lives may lead..whatever windy roads and bumpy paths were to follow - that somewhere inside this moment of sweet innocence and youth and carefree abandon they'd carry. That it would forever be."

All by Marcie Scudder - and the more I follow her, the more I'm smitten - I think she's really my alter-ego - or twin!

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Think Whatever You Like

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"Today she decided to be suitably ambiguous;

so you can think whatever you like about her."

The Story People 

via Brian Andreas

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