Where Does Time Go?

I have never really been blessed with remembering years.  Like, 'the blizzard of '68' or the 'flood of ;75' or whatever...  Basically I remember the year I was born (the number, not the event), the year I graduated - and that's really about it.  I am intensely visual, which isn't always a blessing, so I remember people and events, just not the year it happened. 
It's amusing to me to find that what my parents and grandparents etc always said, is now exiting my own lips.  Where did the time go?  They grow up fast. 
I have been intensely blessed to watch my nephew and nieces grow.  It boggles the mind how fast it is happening though.  Can someone please slow it down?
I laughed last weekend when these two nieces were out.  They love doing dishes.  And lucky for them, Auntie always has dishes to do!  I remember cringing inside as I'd let them three years ago.  But in no time at all they've become super competent and a real help at ages only 4 and 8.   

Today I Flew a Kite

Fairy forts and kites. Thats what i spent an afternoon doing with my three year old niece. It was a perfect day. We had a 3 hour window before a storm and tornado watch where the wind was perfect for flying the kite. (we didn't even know a storm was coming. Ignorance is bliss *shrug*.


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Even Chickens Need Some Lovin'

I have had the incredible divine privilege to be part of some sweet little girls' lives in a more regular way lately. They amaze me. Three little girls - 1,2 &3 years old (not sisters!) and the depth and breadth of every emotion they go through each day is astounding. Intense. Brief. Maybe we could learn something, hmmm. At least the brevity of holding on to... Anger, Grief, Fear....and the ability to fall down so hard, have a quick cry and then get on with the business of living. I could go on and on. But instead, here are some pics. Much better than my prose.









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St. Patrick's Day Guiness

I was a little disappointed on Saturday that I didn't get to celebrate St Patrick's Day in the "way of which I have become accustomed". Saturday is usually my busiest grooming day. I did a couple dogs and then looked at my calendar and grinned - I'd booked a labradoodle named, Guiness. Get it?
He was a goofball. I think a leprechaun put a little something in his kibble that morning. I love his shaggy look the best, but I understand his parent's desire for low maintenance with such a hyper guy. They spend a lot of time at the dog park with him, so low maintenance is wise. Just not as cute. See what I mean?......




And here he is after my clippers removed his sweet character-fur......




Really, it's the same dog
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Snow Surprise

So Friday when I was looking at the weather report and listening to the radio off and on they didn't say much about snow...
Today I sat in the sunporch and finished the Darwath trilogy by Barbara Hambly. (Actually I didn't know it was a trilogy. I thought it was a cinqology - as in five. So I was looking forward to finishing the third book and the downloading the fourth - because while searching I saw that there was a fifth. Logical, right? But when I looked up the series, I couldn't find the fourth! In my head I began grumbling about how yet again the library had an incomplete series and I'd have to buy the fourth book. Incidentally, our library system is amazing. It is a conglomerate of dozens of libraries and you can take out books from any of them - order the one you want and they send it to your library. I love my local library. Capital L love it. But. There are times when they order in incomplete sets of a series. And, although I should know better by now and check before I start, I don't. My brain can only do so much, you know? Oh, another awesome thing abot our monolithic library system is that they are hooked into the Overdrive system where you can download audio and ebooks onto your iPod or pad or kindle or whatever. Well, this time the library did NOT make a mistake. There are three books, then there is a fifth book - a lesser character from the first three is the main character and the main characters from the first three are not. Sorta makes sense. Only sorta. Okay now, I am going to close this bracket, so don't let me throw you off here - I'm sure I've broken some cardinal law with this long rabbit trail, but here goes.). I'd never heard of her, it she's really good! She Would absolutely kick butt in Scrabble. I learned SO many new words reading from her. Big words. And I don't think they are in the thesaurus words. And I don't know why I haven't heard of her - when I checked her out on goodreads and Wikipedia, she has written a plethora of books. (felt I should use a big word to honour miss Hambly). I'm gonna read more of her. Well, at 5:30 I left the sunporch, had dinner and retired to the living room to surf the net and watch Harry's Law. I am so tempted to take a bunny trail here, but let's just say I really enjoy Harry's Law. At about 6:30 I went into the kitchen and whoa! Snow! Like two inches at least! I looked out and saw some of my ewes standing in a single line facing southwest. I thought maybe they'd caught an equine fever or something and put their butts to the wind. It really amused me so I grabbed my camera and went out to take a picture.


One thing led to another and I'd taken 57. I love digital. Remember using film cameras? It seems so long ago. Now with digital and photoshop, anyone can be a great photographer.
Here are a few more shots that amused me. (yeah, yeah it's easy to do).



Dahla one of my goats. I messed around with the shutterspeed and it turned out pretty neat.






Mamma! I'm hungry!




Ahhhhhh


Three hens got caught unawares, too. I'll have to get the eggs before the dogs do in the morning.
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Still here

Yep we're still here - the sheep and I. The list is long for why it's been a while since I've posted. I feel sheepish making excuses. Like a student trying to think of a real good one for why the paper isn't done.


I haven't been too busy - although I convinced myself of it often :o). I had a fairly quiet winter. Yeah, I know it's still winter - but that is just a Julian technicality. The ladybug and the fly bouncing around on my sunporch window say differently. My cleaning/organizing/decluttering/THROW THIS *&%$ AWAY hormones say differently. You know how scientists say that it's a thing in a birds brain that causes it to migrate? Well, bird-brains aside, I think I've got a thing in my brain too - spring cleaning. Spring fever. Ask any 2nd grade teacher - they'll confirm the validity of this thing.
I know we'll have some major snow still (actually, I'm really hoping we will), but in my mind it is Spring. So who knows, maybe this brain thing is tied into my desire to write as well. I have been doing lots of writing lately. More than in the dead of winter when having the desire would have been nicer - definitely more convenient.
So, we'll see. It grosses me out to think that my house is harbouring flies. Year round.

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Self Pity

I've been feeling sorry for myself today. It's a little complicated (or not, maybe) but as soon as I told myself this, which I did, thinking I was being productive in the ending of this pity party, I felt guilty. And that slickened the slide into a worse frame of mind. Someone said to me today that instead of feeling sorry for myself, maybe I was, on another level, being compassionate. Huh. Initially this comment just confused me and as i began to mentally dismiss it as a little, "out there" I paused. Normally this friend has really solid thoughts and ideas. Definitely worth some time to think about it and since I should be washing my windows, I've naturally found time to do something else! So, It's been rolling around in my head collecting bits of this and that and as I roll it off my fingers into cyberspace, this is what I've come up with:
I may not be a starving orphan in a third world, things are still sometimes not fair and sometimes things are just plain sad. So feeling sad isn't out of line. It's just that I'm not very comfortable with being sad. If I were comfortable with it, that would be self pity, hmm?
I guess that's the extent of my profundity, so now to tackle the windows.

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