Wordless Wednesday

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BOO! (Happy Halloween!)

Have a great day and a great evening! :-D
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Y is for YELLOW and for YOU

I love yellow--it's such a cheery color. Of course, I don't want to be a yellow-bellied sap sucker (otherwise known as a wimp) (But I am, sometimes, anyway!). I like yellow warblers in the yellow birches. When I was doing my horse research in Idaho, I had a hawk next above me and a yellow warbler nest in the same tree! YAY!

I like YOU, too, if you're here reading this, because otherwise, why would I bother? THANKS! :-D

I like yummy, yummy is a pleasure to eat.

I like YAY! That means something has happened worth celebrating. I like YEBA because that means I am celebrating with my Filipino friends. Yippee and yahoo are good words too.

I like yoga and do some every morning and sometimes other times.

I like youth and wish I could stay young (fat chance). I'd like to grow younger physically but keep the accumulated wisdom (hah).

I love Yellowstone National Park. What a great place, especially off-season!

I like the Y-chromosome for giving my a foil for my double X.

I like Yahweh and Mrs. Yahweh for being so loving.

I like reading about the medicine men of the Yaqui.

This is page 2 of my 26-page meme on things I like with letters of the alphabet backwards. If you join me, let me know so I can read what you wrote. I am way behind on my email and commenting so be very patient 'til I get caught up.

Happy Halloween

Little Sketch by me. Hope you have a great day and a great evening!

Nashua Creek

Biker Buddy and I often walk along Nashua Creek, which runs through the center of Belle Isle. Yesterday was rainy and windy, but we went anyway and were glad we did. The wet leaves were all saturated (with rain and color) and the wind was exhilerating. We had a great time.

See two sets of four more pictures from this outing here and here. Click images ot view larger.

Another Meme, part 1-Z is for Zoo

FeeFiFoto (what a great name!) tagged me for another meme. Being an uncompliant dob, I can't follow the rules. You can read about them here, or do it your own way. Essentially, you tell something you like starting which each letter of the Alphabet. Backwards--or not. I like doing it backwards, as FeeFi suggested, but I am going to do ONE a day, or ONE whenever I have time, starting with Z.

Z--I love going to the Zoo--it is fun to see and photograph the animals. I don't like the fact that they are in captivity, but in some cases, if they weren't, they'd be extinct.

Z-Zebra--pronounced ZEB-ra (not ZEE-bra)--I loved the Zebras in Europe, where you could theoretically safely cross the road. It was very theoretical, however, with crazy drivers and narrow narrow streets. I liked them so much I took a number of photos of the striped zebras, but none happen to be handy and but the handy dandy otter from the Detroit Zoo is.

Z-Zamboni--I recently heard on NPR that Charles Schultz had two Zambonis. Who knew? There's one near here and sometimes when we are out walking, Biker Buddy peers in the window at the ice arena and watches it. I liked to do that too--at first, but all right already. What I used to like at old home town was the "snow" they left outside in the summer. Reminds me of alpine glaciers and my horse research in Idaho.

I'm not officially tagging anybody, because memes can be a burden if you're busy, but if you have time and happen to be reading my blog and want to play along with either my version or Feefi's, let me know. Blue Rose? Nadine? Berrybird? JoAnn? Coffeypoy? Anyone?

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hope you have a great day and evening!

Continuing Sketch of a tree

This is a tree in Liverpool, NY, at OLP--Onondaga Lake Park. I keep making sketches of it. For some reason, I really like it. Click image to view larger. for Steve at New Orleans Daily Photo even though it is not a dead tree.

Screech Owl

We were very excited last year to see a screech owl in our neighbor's tree.  Last night, we saw one in our own tree--saw it fly to a hole, go inside, come out and fly away.  It would be very exciting if it would nest there.

What's for breakfast: cranberry pancakes with Lingonberry Syrup

MMMmmm. I got the Lingonberry syrup at The Village Market. In parentheses, it calls it partridge berry. I've eaten our partridge berry, and they taste like damp styrofoam, so my interest was piqued. I bought it, and yummy yummy yummy good.

Wikipedia says: The Vaccinium vitis-idaea – often called lingonberry or cowberry, also called foxberry, mountain cranberry, lowbush cranberry, and partridgeberry (in Newfoundland and Labrador) – is a small evergreen shrub in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bears edible fruit. It is seldom cultivated, but the fruits are commonly collected in the wild. The native habitat is the circumboreal forests of northern Eurasia and North America, extending from temperate into subarctic climates.

I then looked up my partridgeberry and Wikipedia said: Mitchella repens , or Partridge Berry, is the best known plant in the genus Mitchella. It is a herbaceous woody shrub, occurring in North America and Japan, and belonging to the madder family (Rubiaceae).
This evergreen plant is a creeping, but not climbing, vine, 15-30 cm long. The evergeen dark-green leaves are opposite, ovate to cordate, with a pale yellow midrib. The petioles are short. Roots may grow at the internodes, forming loose mats. It is part of the undergrowh vegetation in many forests. It has dimorphous, twin white tubular flowers (grown from one calyx) with four petals, covered with fine hairs. They grow axillary at the end of a branchlet. Each flower has one pistil and four stamens. While in one twin flower this pistil is short,in the other it is long. With a short pistil come long stamens, or vice versa. This dimorphy prevents self-fertilization by one flower.

These are the ones that taste like damp styrofoam but are wonderful in the woods and in terrariums. The cool thing about these is that every two flowers forms one berry.

I learned that there are many plants called partridge berry, which is why we have scientific nomenclature, so that there will be less confusion.

Other posts today:

Wolcott Mill
Red maple

Wordless Wednesday

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what I had for lunch: stir fry with croûtons

I can't eat toast because I don't like dry toast and I can't eat butter.  Today I made toast and cut it into pieces and mixed it into a stir fry.  It was delicious and I am so glad I tried it.

Pushcart Nomination

I just got nominated for the next Pushcart Prize and am very excited, honored and pleased. Of course being nominated is not the same is being chosen. But it IS still an honor!

The Pushcart Prize - Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of our annual collections.

I was nominated by editors Amy Lawson-Cassady and John Beck of Coevolution2: Shivering through the Details (the MNP 2007 Anthology).

Here is the poem that was nominated (and is published in the above-mentioned anthology):

A Jungle of Light


As he is dying, my father furiously
paints. Instead of the small invisible strokes
he used earlier, precise as a photo, he splashes
light on the canvas with a wide brush,
bold and bright.

When he looks inside, he says, all is darkness
and vultures circling. But beside him,
still wet, a painted phoenix
circles the sun. It pulses with brilliance,
yellows, oranges, and reds.

Crouched over his easel, he paints
the sunroom he'd always wanted
but never had. Looks out from a jungle of light
and leaf to a succession of mountains gold on gold
on gold in the setting sun.

When he can't stand any more, he sits,
and when he can't sit, he paints lying
curled on his side. Water lilies, in another new painting,
each flame white, green and gold. Light defines
the leaves and liberates the water.

He paints a self-portrait, a bit of ink blue,
black, purple and plum. Drenching him with light,
a sun rises inside his heart. An absence of paint
creates the light. And the paint is absent;
it's missing, more and more.


Mary Stebbins Taitt
for Joseph Ciaranello (my father)

The Invisible Trail: Sidewalk Saturday

These were taken in my own front yard--on our sidewalk. I am so fascinated by the tannin prints left by fallen leaves. I know I've already said that and perhaps you are tired of these, but I never seem to tire of them.

The first shot is from a lovely elm in our far front, next to the road. Ulmus americana. The second two are silver maples, Acer saccharinum. Click images to view larger.

Quick Sketch Retro

Fr Monday Artday's retro theme, a quick and sort of pathetic sketch with ball point and water-color pencils. Poodle skirt, saddle shoes, pop-it beads and teased hair.

The Invisible Trail: October leaf

This is a post for the old blog, The Invisible Trail. I am posting posts for that blog here now. Eventually, if I ever have time, I will move the posts here and shut that blog down. One of the things I always loved doing is going out in search of Autumn color--leaf peeping, so to speak. This year, we had some bright color early, but it's been generally pretty dull here since then. A few pretty leaves here and there and I'm trying to notice and enjoy them.

Today was Biker Buddy's birthday, and we were very busy.

Thinking ahead

I did not take this picture, it is from the bulb catalogue.

Let me explain.

I rode my bike to the dentist. (OUCH! ;-( )

Then I rode my bike to the nursery and bought some bulbs. Biker buddy dug while I pointed. We planted 4 daffydowndillies (big ones), 4 early red tulips, 4 late red tulips, 8 snowdrops. 10 grape hyacinths and 20 Wolf's bane or winter aconite. Dunno why it's called wolf's bane but I hope to look it up. If I find out, I will let you know.

I'm very excited and looking about 5 months ahead 'til all the new flowers start coming into bloom. YAY! Also repotted my geranimum form the outdoor planter into a pot and brought it in and planted 3 ivy's in a long planter for the stairway window, yay!

Blog Action Day for the Environment: We hold the earth in our hands

Today is Blog action day for the Environment.

The earth is in our hands, and as individuals, families, communities, states, nations and the world, we need to make wise choices--and are often failing to do so. The current administration is allowing the environment to take second place to big business. These choices could cost us our lives and/or the lives of our children, grandchildren or great grand children. We need to act now to save the world. Write your president, congresspeople. Write your state and community representatives. Driver smaller cars. Throw out less trash--buy less trash. Avoid conspicuous consumption, buy what you truly need. Live simply so that others might simply live. Consider the alternative. If each of us makes small and large changes in our lives and encourages our communities and nations to do the same, we CAN make a difference! Now, before it's too late!

Nadine sent this, too.

I would like to say, without tooting my own horn too much, that I have worked in the environmental field most of my life, as a naturalist and environmental educator. I feel that my work teaching others about the environment is crucial work, because no one can save the world alone, we have to do it together, and for that to happen, we have to know, understand and care.

Happy Halloween! This is cool!

Happy Halloween to All!

(The top one (above) is the first one I made! The second is the second--for two "classic" pumpkin looks.)

Nadine sent me this:

This is cool. You carve your pumpkin and then it lights up. The candle moves (unlike the one in my picture.)

click here.

Shoot me already

I have so much to do but I keep being distracted by what seems like a simple task but turns into a time sink and then because of insomnia etc, I screw up on top of that. This is the result, but NOT the intended result. OK, shoot me already. Now I have no time left to explain.

I saw on Coffeypot a meme which by the way was very funny the way he did it. One of the questions was, if you you could have one person in the world die, who would it be? I think it's an offensive question and I don't want to wish death on anyone. (I did that once and they actually died and I've been feeling guilty, though not regretful, ever since--and I had nothing to do with it.) However, if there WAS one person who I would ship off to another distant planet somewhere, one with air and food and water so they wouldn't die, but couldn't hurt anyone, it would be George Bush. I think he is doing more harm to the world than all the terrorists combined. Of course, if I was at the World Trade Center, or knew someone who was (I only knew people who knew people), maybe I wouldn't feel that way.

I would ship all the terrorists, rapists and abusers there too--anyone who abuses their wife, children, employees, friends or animals. All the thieves including corporate thieves. All the advisors to George Bush. The vice president. All the oil people in Iraq and elsewhere. Anyone who wants to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. All the mean people. They would all have a good time together and probably totally ruin whatever poor planet they got sent to but this one could finally begin to heal. Oh wait, maybe that planet is more important than those evil people. I'll have to send along an army to keep the polluters in line. People who are mean and bossy and like enforcing rules.

I don't like to talk about politics on my blogs because I am afraid that 50% of the few readers and visitors I have will leave permanently and never come back. I hope if you are a bloggy friend, you will stay one and allow me that right to disagree with you and I will allow you the same.

I'm not doing the rest of the meme--I wasn't tagged anyway and I do not have time!

Well, I am still here so I might as well say part of what went wrong with that image I never intended to waste so much time on anyway--for one thing, I sandwiched several images, and one set has straight horizons and one didn't and that made everything off by just a little. Very annoying. And a waste time, but there it is. What a dunce. I hate it when I'm a dunce. I seem to be more and more often. This post is starting to sound like it should be on Unbearable Darkness instead of here. OK, gotta RUN! AK!

Sidewalk Saturday/the Invisible Trail

Tannin prints; another new post from what used to be the blog called The Invisible Trail but is now being moved here. I am fascinated in the fall by the way the leaves give up their tannin and make leaf prints on the sidewalks. Click images to view larger.

Paper Cat

I made this last night for Monday Artday when I was having a a terrible all-night bout of insomnia. If you want to make one of your own (OH BOY), click here or here for a blank template. (It brings up ads, too, but you download a pdf and print and color it or modify it.) If possible, use card stock to print it for better results, paper is harder to work with. Click image to view larger.

Wishing you Love

I've bitten off more than I can chew so bear with me. And have a great day filled with love and happiness.

Death at the Spiral Grove

Something is killing the trees at The Spiral Grove, which I consider to be a sacred place. Acid Rain, Global warming, a new pest? I don't know, but it makes me sad! :-(

This is one of the posts I have moved from The Invisible Trail, a blog that I plan to shut down because I don't have time to keep it up and no one goes there anyway.

The responsible culprit may be the alien woodwasp! :-(

Alien woodwasp that could threaten nation's pine trees found in Fulton, N.Y., by Cornell researcher

By Susan S. Lang

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.

read more.