Through the Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Little

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?