etsy charm...

birch tree in fog capelet

A quick post, as I'm too busy to give proper attention to anything!!!

This past Christmas, I stumbled upon etsy.com and found Ellita's Flying Snail. It was a delight to choose a few special gifts from her hand-crafted, artful, one-of-a-kind creations.

You may click here for perusing her current gallery of items for sale, or go to etsy.com to sample all their galleries.

huh???

An ad on NPR's Morning Edition this morning, as related by Fr. C:

"...sponsored by Scott's Turfbuilder, reminding you to sweep excess fertilizer off your driveway to avoid contaminating groundwater."

Hello. What about the part that actually goes into the ground...???

I'm as much of a fan of green grass as anyone. But it's time to find an organic way to make that happen. Here, a post that covers some of their efforts to do that.

adagio para cuerdas en g menor...

Albinoni's Adagio for Strings in G minor.
The nicest rendition I've ever heard...
perhaps because of the organist's interpretation.
There is no indication of the identity of the performing group.

When I went back to school in my mid-thirties to obtain a teaching credential in music, they stressed an interesting, new (to me) approach to music education. Simply stated, if instruction resulted in a 'feelingful response' to music, that equaled success. Yes, we taught basics and concepts, etc, etc. Yes, we talked about what music means, etc, etc. But to simply enjoy being awash in the sound was considered the highest experience for the student.

I came across the above video as I was traveling a bit through the blog world a few weeks ago - one of those '...a link off a blog roll off of a link off another blog roll...', etc. There were other options on YouTube. But I found myself drawn to the simplicity of this one, just because. I didn't need a slide show of nature scenes (though I enjoy them) or to watch orchestra members ply their art (though I find that to be amazing.). This one gave me a chance 'just to be'. And in that, I found myself to be one with the music. And just that.

brenda the polygamist speaks out...

What a horrid, sad situation in Texas. Of course, we want to, have to - and must protect children. Granted, that polygamy is basically a disgusting concept. Granted, the government's intention in taking hundreds from the Yearning for Zion compound in Texas is grounded in appropriate concern. Granted, that such naivety and passivity on the part of mothers and fathers is grossly unfortunate. Granted, also, I'm sure, is that a polygamist compound might just be a great place for a pedophile (or two or a score or more) to 'abide' and such should be prosecuted vigorously.

And, while granting that children generally do not admit to abuse when parents are around, yet I do not greet with joy the news that each child being held in state custody will have a lawyer...but not a mother. Hundreds of children who knew nothing about the outside world are having a cruel introduction to it. They now have no one they trust to interpret, in their own language and spirit, what-the-heck is going on. I understand why it can't be. But, it's sad and ultimately costly.

I wept while watching the news video of 'Marie' describing her heart break...how her son came to her in the night with a naive request that broke my heart also. 'Brenda' follows with a statement of what happened at the separation.

Granted, in this blogger's mind, that the whole polygamist thing might have been settled easily - and eons ago - if it were males of young age that were deprived of control over their deepest selves. And, granted, immediately, that young males are in some way also victims in the current situation.

elephant intelligence...

Skeptical? See below, a 'copy/paste' from the Self-Awareness portion of Wikipedia's page on Elephant Intelligence, even containing a reference to my previous post's video. The entire page is nothing short of astonishing. Sections on Altruism, Problem-solving and Death Ritual - particularly so. Required reading for Fr C and Felipe!

"Asian Elephants have joined a small group of animals, including humans, great apes and Bottlenose dolphins, that exhibit self awareness. The study was conducted with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) using elephants at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Although many animals will respond to a mirror, very few show any evidence that they recognize it is in fact themselves in the mirror reflection.

"The Asian elephants in the study also displayed this type of behavior when standing in front of a 2.5m-by-2.5m mirror - they inspected the rear and brought food close to the mirror for consumption.Absolute evidence of elephant self awareness was shown when "Happy" repeatedly touched a painted "X" on her head with her trunk, a mark which could only be seen in the mirror. Happy ignored another mark made with colourless paint that was also on her forehead to ensure she was not merely reacting to a smell or feeling.

"Extraordinary video documentation of an elephant painting a picture of an elephant - possibly indicating self-awareness - has become widespread on internet news and video websites. The quality of the painting is extremely high, leading many astonished viewers to doubt the video's authenticity. The website snopes.com, which specializes in debunking urban legends, lists the video as 'true'."

another wonder of nature...

Be sure to watch this to the very end! The artist's final, detailing stroke blew me away.



I would make a case for something more than a 'self-portrait', as this is billed on YouTube, but perhaps something deeper and more far-reaching: a sense of identity and recognition of tribe (though a group of elephants is poetically referred to as a 'memory' of such. Love it!). The elephant knows he's an elephant, is primarily interested in elephants. Don't humans paint mostly other humans? So he chooses to paint an elephant as a true reflection of what is essentially known to him.

Notice, he didn't paint a lion. But might yet do that if an elephant was holding one...??? (joke)

wildlife obsession...

The duck couple floating in the liquid gold of morning sun...

The pond wildlife community never ceases to amaze. Mr & Mrs Duck remain at the top of the completely adorable list. No sign of nesting. Unfortunately, I glimpsed a large (aren't they all) Canadian goose behind a tree on the south tip of the island in the prime breeding spot - sitting still for hours and facing the opposite end as if the better to see interlopers approach over the bridge. I hear geese can be verrry protective of their young. And even though I'd rather see the ducks on that prime spot during nesting season - and know that border collies are considered to the most effective geese-nuisance 'ridders' in the world, I'd fear for Lucy's safety if turned loose on the island at this point.

I have wildlife-viewing obsession and am currently completely over the top when it comes to turtles. With our small but wonderfully powerful binoculars, I spied a large turtle sitting with the above-referenced goose yesterday. Odd couple!! What I want to is to be able to snap a picture of that with binocular clarity and mega close up perspective. A picture taken from the deck is a safe photo bet, as long as I move noiselessly: turtles and ducks will skedaddle at the least little sound (I've even seen deer from way across the pond lift their heads when I simply open the deck door). But a bit too far away. Once, I was successful in going out the front door and coming around to the back, moving as silently as possible on the grass to surreptitiously take a turtle pic from land's edge. Closer... better. The best, but riskiest: from the end of the protruding dock. If you ever want to see 18 turtles hit the water in a split second, that's the way to do it. But then you get to watch their little noses moving just above water level as they swim about and ultimately heed the call of the sun's heat to return to the warm grass.

So, I've seen them - and tried to photograph them - in all their glorious charms, watching their numbers grow from one to 25 on a very fortunate day...observing great variety in sizes as their young join them...admiring their silver-gray backs when dry and warm...and glossy blacks when first coming up from the pond. Yup. Completely bitten by turtle obsession.

Admiring their own reflections?

Meeting of the tribal elders?

Probably not listening to a speech from the robin;
but - as they normally do, simply facing the direction they arrived out of the water.
Ideal/efficient for exposing their backs to the sun?

The day I counted 25 of them: varying degrees of size, dry/wetness.
A wee one on the far right perhaps coming up for a first day in the sun?


The island seems to melt into the opposite shore...
as turtles spread out across the nearer edge
we are most fortunate to have in our view.

Springing...

..though not completely sprung. Branches budding...curtains fresh-air billowing...garden fever possessing. But mainly pond wildlife captivating...

addendum to previous post...

A commenter has brought up an excellent point.

In case you can't access the linked article in the previous post (Grrrrr....I find it irritating when you must 'join' to read something educational...or otherwise. When I'm done with 'My Day' I'll try to find a way to post the referenced articles in the previous post.) below is a suggested 'alternative' timeline/list of vaccinations from a naturopathic doctor quoted in the article. Babies have immunity from their mothers for quite some time. Perhaps infants can be spared some unnecessary assaults. Even veterinarians are now advocating moderation in pet vaccines.

1. No vaccinations until your child is two years old.
2. No vaccines that contain thimerosal (mercury).
3. No live virus vaccines.
4. The following vaccines should be given one at a time (not as a combination vaccine), every six months, beginning at age 2:
   1. Pertussis (acellular, not whole cell)
   2. Diphtheria
   3. Tetanus
   4. Polio (the Salk vaccine, cultured in human cells)

i've been scooped...

This hippie arm chair health expert has been scooped. Thank goodness. I mean...when you have not one but two blogposts on a subject in 'saved drafts'...well, that's pathetic.

So here* on Dr. Mercola's website you can read an e-article by Dr. Russell Blaylock on the dangers of excessive vaccinations, with an important response from Dr. M following it. Vaccines have (thankfully) been in the news lately, with the awarding of damages to a family whose daughter became autistic after her 18-month-old set of shots. Myriads of parents have been insisting that their son or daughter was a perfectly normal (or above normal) child until that point. The reply: Oh, but autism generally shows up at that age. Yeah. That's the point, they would say. And - 'convulsions' following the administration of multiple-innoculants cocktails really aren't damaging to the child. As if...

While acknowledging that vaccinations have historically done great good, in truly human fashion we have gone overboard with them and done wrong. Let's face up to it**.

Dr. Mercola is a naturopathic doctor and he can be over-the-top. I generally appreciate that in him! When he offered to pay a 'reward' of over $20K to any adult who would drink a cocktail of vaccinations on The Schedule for children from birth and up - adjusted for weight, of course...well, I know people might think that's just being sassy. But...why has no one taken him up on it?

I might just add that when this Boomer was born, the number of vaccinations was far less than even the 1976 number.

*It could just be my computer...or it could be that Dr. M's site is getting slammed with so many hits that it's now taking a long time to load. Or...maybe he will insist you join his email list. I may need to post the articles on my next blog entry. Let me know...

**But it's likely the threat of law suits and huge amounts of $$ being awarded that keeps the establishment averring their safety.