I chose the topic myself for myself this week. I figured I would make it easy and Heids, who is trying to play catch up chimed in (although she still hasn't updated her blog - naughty naughty). She took this photo:
It is at the entrance to her suburb - she loves all the textures of it and the character. An arbitrary fact: did you know that the growth of lichens, like the ones on this sign, are used to measure environmental health? And did you know their growth is densest on the south side of trees in the southern hemisphere, and the north side of trees in the northern hemisphere? It is one of the ways you can tell direction if you are lost in the woods.
I went a bit nuts on this theme I must admit, but here is my pic(k) for the week:
This is picture of it is of our beach - or actually, our bay. We have this long sandbank that sticks out into the ocean, the sea is on one side and a river mouth is on the other. This bridge, made entirely of wood and with a speed limit of 10 miles per hour, crosses the river mouth/bay. The kids LOVE playing here, you can catch horseshoe crabs, periwinkles (snails) and see a host of other kinds of life. They block off parts of the beach during the plover mating season, and turtle nests are flagged too. Here are the kids with a horseshoe crab Ryan found, a relic from the dinosaur era, you can't see the long tail it has clearly in the picture, but they are interesting creatures:
I also took a photo of our favorite thing to do after a beach visit:
If you look carefully on the left, you will see the sign for FarFar's. It is a local ice cream bar, they make all their ice cream on site and have a variety of interesting flavors, we pass right by it on the way home and what better way to end the day? If you ever visit our town and meet some of our friendly local's, they will all ask if you have been to FarFar's - they do have the best ice cream by far far!
What else? Oh yes, it is nesting season so we have had five turtle nests hatch in our yard - these are fresh water turtles and are either snapping turtles who are black, bigger than a rugby ball, they have a longish scaly tail like an crocodile and they snap. They have long necks and a pounds per square inch bite stronger than an Alsatian, so you shouldn't get too close. The other type we get are the painted ladies. I like this type better, they are smaller and their bellies are all yellow and red spots. You can pick them up safely and here is a mom who just finished making a nest:
Isn't she pretty? Other local things? This is a lighthouse in a neighboring town:
And a typical New England scene would not be complete without a big red barn:
Of course, you see that stone wall in front? Never mind, here is a better picture:
These too are very New Englandish, along with the spring daffodils growing in front. People now pay to have these walls built in front of their properties to enhance the feel and 'period' of the town, and you might think that years and years ago (because some of the walls around are hundreds of years old) land owners did it to demarcate their land, but the truth of the matter is that these rocks were left by glaciers and huge mounds of snow moving over the land, and when farmers toiled the land, the rocks got in the way and so they picked them up and moved them to the side of the field. A very logical practice now turned quaint and cosmetic hundreds of years later.
I think that's me for now. Heids did give me a topic for next week - it will be a toughie but I will give it my best shot!
Well, we are hideously late, there is no saving us this time around. My sister has been AWOL - absent without my permission or my say-so. I know she is busy, but I am important too aren't I? And everytime I am on the verge of notifying the authorities that she may be missing for real, I catch a one-line facebook post, or she sends me five words in an email. Here is her take on our theme:
It is a little kiwi - not a real one, but both my sister and I remember from long ago the miniature birds my mom had displayed in her living room. Being an avid lover of hiking and nature these seemed very much a natural part of the home my mom created for us. So I guess this little fellow was acquired by my sister to give my mom - he's rather cute.
I had visions of little hands, I love little hands, I think little hands are my favorite things about babies, that and the new baby smell (the clean diaper one). I went to take photos of the little hands of my children and discovered they were growing up faster than I realized. Ryan's hands are almost as big as mine and April's are no longer so little either. They grow up so fast, I always say you do not watch time pass by until you have children. Before children time is continuous, but when you have kids yesterday, today and tomorrow are clearly defined by photos of birthday cakes, graduations, events and then there are the clothes they outgrew from last year, shoes from last month that don't fit and hopes and dreams for tomorrow that change with their view of the world.
So, instead, I settled for another kind of little. My sister turned me on to it when I gave her the topic and she replied: I guess it is a matter of perspective. Perspective. What an unassuming word. How your day goes, how big or small a problem appears, how bad or good, rich or poor, catastrophic or hopeful, impossible or achievable any given situation appears always comes back to your perspective. And just to prove a point Mark was mowing the lawn the other day, actually, the grass was so long I say he was mowing the South Pasture Field and with the drone of the ride on in the background I went in search of emerging asparagus spears. You have to know where to look in our garden - and as I was brushing the long grass aside with its browny flower/seed heads I discovered something quite wonderful.
The grass wasn't browny at all, instead it had bright BRIGHT pink sepals, little white flowers with yellow middles. It was SO pretty. I grabbed my big talented camera for a few quick closeups.
The pinky red ones in front don't have open flowers yet, the yellow ones in the back do, and when you see them in a field the pink melts with yellow and becomes brown. Our eyes make them one color. Isn't that amazing?
No, I wasn't smoking it, just admiring it. I have never gotten so up close and personal with grass before. So, there is my 'little'. These teeny tiny little flowers that go unnoticed unless you stop to look for asparagus.
Another matter of perspective is our little business. South Shore Organics. We started a veggie delivery service the week between Christmas and New Year, in three feet of snow, when there wasn't lettuce to be seen growing from the ground for hundreds of miles, in the worst winter we have had in years, in a recession. If I had been cleverer I would have known it was impossible and crazy, fortunately for me, I am not very bright and didn't know anything of the sort and here we are, six months later and growing strong. Ignorance is not only bliss, but sometimes it to can be the father of invention if necessity is the mother.
Of course - I could not end my long winded and rambling post without another photo of little or a comment about another mother. The long awaited and much nutured cygnets have arrived! How cute are these little things? Mom was a little protective so I had to be quick but here they are:
Who ever said baby swans were ugly? See mom looking at me straight on, giving me the beady eye? Don't worry, thanks to the zoom feature I didn't really disturb them.
Now I can end the post. My sister promised of a new theme days ago but since I have not heard anything I am picking my own theme rather than nagging and adding to the crazy of her life. She can join in when she is ready, although I do miss her and I miss the glimpses into her life TUT affords me so I hope her absence is not too lengthy, after all, I am important too aren't I?
