Share Your Thankful World…11/21/18

This SYW Challenge comes from sparksfromacombustiblemind

She says: I will post four or five different questions each week for you to answer.  

Are you an Early to bed, early to rise person, a night owl and day sleeper/dozer, or an ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead’ person?   

I don’t. Sleep that is. Well, I do, I mean I must, right, or I wouldn’t still be here at 70. But I have never been able to pull off anything considered normal or regular, apparently not since I was 18 months old. So it was perfect to have a job for almost 40 years that had me “on call” 24/7.

My sleep record in recent years is almost 5 hours in one stretch. Usually it’s way less. I often sleep in two segments…2 hours in, I wake up and am ready to roll since my body thinks we’ve just had this great nap. I trick it, into thinking we are up for the duration and do something inane for a while and then we go back to bed and usually pull off a longer stretch.

For the last 18 years I have had an almost daily NAP! A ritual started as a way to connect with my slightly feral cat. We got to the place where I could say, “Zorro, wanna take a nap with me?” and he would beat me to the bed…and then wait for me, no matter how interrupted I had been.

Zorro passed away in September from kidney disease.

I have not had a nap in 82 days. I still can’t do it……

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I get really wordy when I haven’t slept. Can you tell what kind of a night I had last night?

 

What are some misconceptions about your hobby, should you have a hobby?

Uh, I raise Giant Spiny Australian Leaf Bugs that get to be about 8 inches long.

What do YOU think of that?

 

 

A penguin walks through the door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?

Dance lessons start in five!

 

Aliens have landed…do they come in peace?

They’re not Here, They’re not Coming

From the Arizona desert
To the Salisbury Plain
Lights on the horizon
Patterns on the grain
Anxious eyes turned upward
Clutching souvenirs
Carrying our highest hopes
And our darkest fears

They swear there was an accident
Back in ’47
Little man with a great big head
Splattered down from heaven
Government conspiracy
Cover-ups and lies
Hidden in the desert
Under endless skies

Well, it’s a cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold
Post, postmodern world
No time for heroes, no place for good guys
No room for Rocky The Flying Squirrel

They’re not here, they’re not coming
Not in a million years
Turn your weary eyes back homeward
Stop your trembling, dry your tears
You may see the heavens flashing
You may hear the cosmos humming
But I promise you, my brother
They’re not here, they’re not coming

Would they pile into the saucer
Find Orlando’s rat and hug it?
Go screaming through the universe
Just to get McNuggets?
Well, I don’t think so, I don’t think so
It’s much too dangerous, it’s much too strange
Here in a world that won’t give Oprah
No home on the range

Well, it’s a cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold
Post, postmodern world
No authenticity, no sign of soul
The radio won’t play George and Merle

They’re not here, they’re not coming
Not in a million years
‘Til we put away our hatred
‘Til we lay aside our fears
You may see the heavens flashing
You may hear the cosmos humming
But I promise you, my sister
They’re not here, they’re not coming

To this garden we were given
And always took for granted
It’s like my daddy told me
“You just bloom where you’re planted.”
Now you long to be delivered
From this world of pain and strife
That’s a sorry substitution
For a spiritual life

Well, it’s a cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold
Post, postmodern world
No place for sentiment, no room for romance
Bring back the Duke of Earl

They’re not here, they’re not coming
Not in a million years
Turn your hopes back homeward
Hold your children, dry their tears
You may see the heavens flashing
You may hear the cosmos humming
But I promise you, my brother
They’re not here, they’re not coming

They’re not here, they’re not coming
Not in a million years
‘Til we put away our hatred
And lay aside our fears
You may see the heavens flashing
You may hear the cosmos humming
But I promise you, my brother
They’re not here, they’re not coming

Lyrics from Genius

 

What are you really, incredibly thankful for this week?

My husband, my son Michael, my grandsons Julius and Luca, all of whom live with me in a house I have owned for 43 years.

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I don’t know how I could be any more grateful for a building than I am for this 110 year old, funky, maze of a house that has supported me, more than 40 other people and countless animals living here over all these years.

 

 

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https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2018/11/19/share-your-thankful-world/

October Photo a Day Challenge,catching up, days 16 through 19

16. Macro,micro

17. Landscapes

18. Green-orange-yellow

19. Clouds

 

Macro, micro…sort of. I just loved this teeny tiny blossom…

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Landscape. Much to my neighbors dismay, I do NOT landscape. Hey, when it grows wild like this why would I? Maybe I did take it too far when I planted flowers in a toilet in my front yard, but I was making a point. I have lived here long before their houses were even built.

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And at our other home, Nature does a much better job of landscaping than we could anyway.

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The landscape between our two homes.

Oh we tried landscaping…lined the driveways with rocks and boulders. I even planted 30 Primroses along this lower driveway.

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Not really sure which of our “landscaping” visitors had a problem with all those flowers but hey lasted literally TWO DAYS!

It could have been dinner for any of these guys…

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We did have to put in a retaining wall of huge rocks, but it was so ugly, I have been slowly filling it with succulents that so far, no one is eating. It will take me YEARS to fill in all the crevices and cracks but then it will be beautiful!

In the mean time, the boys and I will continue to haul Beach Rocks from the San Juan Islands to landscape the little side yard…

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Green, orange, yellow.

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Clouds.

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There. Caught up.

 

https://citysonnet.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/october-photo-a-day-challenge/

Lens Artist Photo Challenge 10/8/18 Windows

I think this might be cheating (or maybe just a shortcut) but I cannot get WordPress to cooperate this morning. It is refusing to give me access to my own photos.

But I remembered this post I did about my house, quite a while back and thought maybe it would qualify.

Here’s a quote from it. I hope you’ll want to read the rest and see my favorite windows.

She has 32 windows. From 20 of those, you can see right into other windows in the house.

Just think about that for a minute.

https://chosenperspectives.com/2016/06/14/my-house-as-a-life-chapter-one/

Thanks.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/393045/posts/2022284190

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/lens-artists-photo-challenge-14-windows/

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge-Fences

I went looking for photos of fences but just don’t have many. Then it occurred to me that I live in a neighborhood where there are none.

I like that.

My house is the oldest one around for many miles. It’s on a long, dead-end street. We have a neighborhood email and phone list. We keep in touch regarding unusual neighborhood activity (fake solicitors, coyote and bobcat sightings, lost or found pets, etc.) For Halloween and other holidays, the children (and now grandchildren) on the street are the priority with trick-or-treating and caroling! And next weekend is our annual cider-making party. We usually hand press about 50 gallons of juice from the apple trees my neighbor and I share!!

This is the boundary line between my closest neighbor and myself.

I mean, if there were fences, how could we wander through each other’s yards to see each other’s gardens, and to say Hi? Or to watch out for each other, or take a short cut to the next street over?

And how would we check on each other’s animals?

 

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Henrietta, out of her protective custody…

and to photograph flowers?

or be inspired by yard art?

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How would the deer get into our yards to clean up the wind fall apples?

I love my street and my neighbors. There just are not many fences on my regular, daily trails.

But I did finally find these in my files…

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a house I lived in for a while many years ago…but the fence is new
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this caught my eye on a drive last winter
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watching sunrise from a nearby blue berry farm.

 

So my conclusion is apparently…Fences? For me, no thanks..

 

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/lens-artists-photo-challenge-10-fences/

Check in from ChosenPerspectives 3/24/18

a little busy these days.

at the tail end of a five year long project.

 

We went from THIS…

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to THIS…

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So almost done…right??

Oh wait…there’s THIS…

 

Well, we still have 4 days until our best friends show up for an extended visit!! They helped us build this, from the ground up!!

 

FOUR DAYS!!!!!

YIKES!!!!

 

Maybe I’ll keep them outside for a while. It looks almost finished from out there!

Casa compound

We’ll put them in the B and no B, the building on the right, until the inside of the Casa is all ready! (It’s not really leaning like it looks)

Whew! What an accomplishment!!! I am so proud of James!!!

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Sigh…………..