Missed the Bluebells

Darn! We missed the blue- bells in all their glory! I did get a great shot of the bluebells on April 6th, but when I took Willow to see them, we only found a few be- draggled rem- nants, as seen here, under the mayflower umbrellas.

To see the lovely bluebells, and a picture of Willow mushroom hunting, click on this website & scroll down a little:

http://theheartlanddaily.blogspot.com/

Mid-air Collision

Some people say that cats

are sneaky, evil, and cruel.  

True, and they have many 

other fine qualities as well.  

~Missy Dizick

TODAY IS NATIONAL PET DAY!

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER!
(Katmandu & KittenYahoo were adopted as sister-kittens.)

In My Garden

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  

My garden of flowers is 

also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  

The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, 

and the dreams are as beautiful.  

~Abram L. Urban

Read A Road Map

We just concluded READ A ROAD MAP WEEK. One of my favorite, time- wasting hobbies is reading road maps and atlases. I'm probably one of America's foremost armchair travel experts. I love to plan long trips around the continent, imagining the places I'd go and the things I'd see and do if I was independently wealthy and could travel anywhere I wanted. One place I'd definitely want to visit is the Pacific Northwest.

Happy Easter!

Dickeyville Grotto, Dickeyville, Wisconsin

"BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED."
John 20:29

HAPPY EASTER TO ONE & ALL!

Willow Woodsprite Comes to Stay!

 

Willow Woodsprite showed up yesterday 

and stole my heart away!  

She's custom-made...designed and created for me 

by my good friend and fellow-artist, Kathy Hall.

One of the best things about little Willow 

is that she loves the same things I do: 

hiking, nature, wildflowers, sunsets, butterflies, 

rocks, trees, the changing of the seasons, 

long talks, and the full moon. 

Willow isn't just a signed, collector doll 

made by the most talented of all doll-makers...

WILLOW IS MY NEW LITTLE FRIEND!

Stay tuned for the further adventures of Willow Woodsprite! 

A Fine Mess of Mushrooms

     While we've only found two (yes, 2!) morels after traipsing over our 35 acres of woodlands, a very disheartening prospect, my husband has been able to hunt more secluded woodlots on the farm where he works and has brought home several nice batches of the "land fish" for our suppers. I don't know why their old-timer name is "land fish." They don't taste anything like fish. Maybe it's because they're fried, and often in the past we've found so many we could make a meatless meal from them and some biscuits and gravy. Now, with the dwindling pickings, we can only enjoy them as tasty
hors d'oeuvres, which we gobble down as fast as they come out of the frying pan.

Dig This!

CC circa 1981

My playlist was chosen as today's Noon "U-Tunes" on 100.5 FM --- WYMG (Springfield's Classic Rock).  I won Lunch for Two at Secret Recipes in Chatham.  I never win anything!!!  I'm a winner!



My songs were:
 SOMEBODY TO LOVE -Jefferson Airplane 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIkoSPqjaU4
MAGIC MAN - Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwKuYWVMvo 
ME & BOBBY McGEE - Janis Joplin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHRg_iSWzM&feature=related

YOU'RE NEVER TO OLD TO ROCK N ROLL!

CC's Believe It or Not!

I was surprised to discover this tree with a metal fence post sticking out of it the other day when I was mushrooming. It's beside an old shed where we kept our horses when we first moved here 24 years ago. I guess when my husband was building the temporary corral, he leaned a fence post against a small tree where two limbs separated, and after two and a half decades --- the tree has grown completely around it! There's at least a foot and a half of solid tree above where the post juts out.

Beary Alert

Here's my dog, Beary, alerting on poor Katty. In the next instance after I clicked the shutter, he pounced on his cat and shook her like a rag-doll.  I guess Katty likes it, or she'd make herself scarce when Beary's outside! She has only herself to blame for teasing him so!

White Trout Lily

Here is one of the lovely spring wildflowers I photo- graphed on yesterday's mushroom hunt. (I got skunked on the mush- rooms!) It's the WHITE TROUT LILY: also known as Adder's Tongue, Dog's-tooth Violet, Serpent's Tongue, Trout Lily, Deer Tongue, and Yellow Snowdrop.  I found it very interesting to read that in Native American nature lore, the Onondaga women used the leaves as a temporary birth control method in the spring, to avoid giving birth in the most frigid part of winter. There's a lot of wisdom in that idea!

It's Hard to Be a Boomer

Photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org/  Thanks, Jon!

 Besides being April Fool’s Day, today is BOOMER BONUS DAY for everyone over 50.  “Baby Boomers” is the generation made up of the approx- imately 79 million babies born between 1946 and 1964. World War 2 was over, our boys were coming home, getting married, getting jobs and starting families.

 IT'S HARD TO BE A BOOMER
by C.C. Godar

Your hair's falling out ...maybe some teeth as well.
You forget where you put that box of old photos.
Those clothes you loved no longer fit.
Some of your friends may have passed on too.
Memories fade and the old bones ache...
It's hard to find the enthusiasm for much any more,
and you sure dread another birthday rolling 'round.

Today's your day to CELEBRATE!
Don't regret growing older.  
It's a privilege denied to many.
Keep a twinkle in your wrinkle, 
and never forget, you're always 
the same age inside anyway!

To all my Boomer friends out there, 

this beautiful song's for you:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzXyoeKOcx4