To Be, or Not To Be

To be, or not to be,
a camel or human?

Thoughts of a camel, "I feel happy, content and fulfilled.

I'm proud of myself."

But most of all do you know what day this is?

"Beauty is not what you are on the outside,
it is the wisdom and time you gave away to
save another struggling soul like you."
Shannon L. Alder

If you truly want to know what's going on in America,

you have to step out to see for yourself.

Earlier I showed a few snapshots from our great together

The Minnesota State Fair 2017

but I uncovered even a grander insight while at

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival 2017.

High fashion is a nuisance.
Said the Merman.

Who knew there were boy mermaids?
There called merman!

Beware what lies beneath your feet!

His act is much like the spider drawing its prey into the web!
Only he lassos them with a rope!

"Do act mysterious. It always keeps them coming back for more."
Carolyn Keene

The Renaissance performer who is too afraid to overreach her/himself 

goes home with empty pockets!

One of my favorite things is to catch new (never seen before) skits that these marvelous hardworking performance artists come up with!

"When the world itself is draped in the mantle of night,
the mirror of the mind is like the sky
in which thoughts twinkle like stars."
Khushwant Singh

"Joy is the best makeup."
Anne Lamott

Happiness is a shared conversation.

Who knows what goes on in the mind of fairies.

One thing is for certain there are always fairies 

wherever there are children.

"You must give everything to make your life
as beautiful as the dreams that dance in your imagination."
Roman Payne




Some people believe walking in heels is hard but imagine walking on stilts!

High-Five!

"Everything is about energy.
The way you feel around certain people,
will tell you if this connection
needs to be stopped or not."

A wee little munchkin asked over and over before her Mommy finally answered.

"Mommy, mommy why do they have balloons on their heads?"

PoP! POP! POp!

"Not forever does the bulbul sing."
I think you'll enjoy his song.

Last but by all accounts not least

Note: If you're a fan of Donald J. Trump stop reading now.
Normally, I don't air politics here but lately
his shortcomings have worsened from unbelievable to unimaginable,

alarming right?

Well, even folks at the fair are retaliating. I have to share what a young woman probably in her 20's said as we gazed at this torture set-up.

Me: Oh my it's trump!
Her:  Oh yeah, that's who it is.
Me: May I ask who you voted for?
Her: (sheepishly) him.

Inside a castle dungeon torture chamber
the description reads as: Tongue Stretcher
1407 - 1735
Used on liars the
prisoner was
strapped upright and
a piece of leather
was sewn through
their tongue with a
rope attached then
weight was added
until they confessed 
or they lost their
tongue for good.

"Truthful hyperbole' is a contradiction in terms, 
It's a way of saying. It's a lie,but who cares?'
Tony Schwartz"

It's also the style of #45

You know you can hear him say this,

"Education is important but bigly
 winners is more importanter."
Somebody check my rating for today.

Thanks for stopping in I hope you're still with me.
Take good care of you.

Critters Reign

Good morning and happy Saturday to everyone.

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS


"The best cosmetic in the world is an active mind
that is always finding something new."
Mary Meek Atkeson

"Attitude is a little thing that makes all the difference."
Winston Churchill

"Ruh Roh!"

"As far as we can discern 

the soul purpose of human existence 

is to kindle a light 

in the darkness of a mere being."

Carl Gustav Jung

"Let out all the length of the reins,

in an all-embracing way,

 but be gentle and keep blunt monsters at bay."

"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle."

Winston Churchhill

No hour of farming is wasted that is

 spent behind the wheel of a John Deere as well.

Me

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers simple."
Dr. Seuss

We love our trees, hunt for tasty mushrooms,
catch fireflies only to set them free again
play catch with our critters
but this requires many nature romps! 

Can you believe I'm made of tiny pieces of paper?

Okay.
"You say freak, I say unique."
Christian Baloga

"Too much good fortune can make you smug and unaware.

Happiness should be like an oasis,

the greener for the desert that surrounds it." 

Rachel Field

"Minds that have withered into psychosis
are far more terrifying than any character of fiction."
Christian Baloga

This picture made with corn!

"Every man must decide if he will walk
in the light of creative altruism
or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks for stopping by your visits are such a delight.
Take good care of you!

Preparedness

I'm joining with Words for Wednesday.

I used all 12 words.

Onerous, meme, steadfast, yawp, copacetic, savant, and

akimbo, wreak, haphazard, advise, tare and vindicate.



"No one knows the future,
but the present offers clues and hints,
on its direction."
Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

Florida Keys, Key West, Florida.


"You may choose to look the other way
but you can never again say that you did not know."
William Wilberforce

"We are not preparing for the world we live in,
we are preparing for the world we find ourselves in."
Michael Mabee


My 12 words follow.

So many unbelievers now have an onerous lease
to be educated in climate change.
Many Stood Akimbo, Refusing to Believe.

Expert, knowledgeable savants advise describing these recent hurricane memes as something unprecedented, epoch-making in fact;
 on the brink of destruction only days after Harvey swept across Texas.
Again faithful landowners ready themselves for another vengeful hurricane, this one named, Irma as her unforgiving yawp could be heard as she
methodically wreaked havoc in an unwavering, haphazard motion like a determined copacetic tare forcing her way across our land vindicating all climate change believers.

This year, it's not like any hurricane they've ever seen before.



Yet in the end, these diligent folks endured, survived Irma's akimbo attack to now begin their onerous tasks in a steadfast order to bring their lives back to some sort of normalcy.  

Discharging a debt of gratitude 
that through it all, they are alive.

Florida Keys

"There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."
Steven Wright

Unless of course there is a raging hurricane reaching for landfall.
Therein lies all the difference of standing on shore. 

"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
"The more things change, the more they are the same."
Think about that. 

Sending healing energies to all effected by these recent disasters,
 hurricanes
 and raging fires.

Sixteen Years Later

Sixteen years later, where are we now?
Are we any better off?

Of course this,
Remembrance to 9/11 
We Shall Never Forget

Ours lakes, and waters abound.
Again, we find our way to Lake Harriet in Linden Hills.
Some close by, many from afar.
But we gather together, stronger united.

"Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality is."

Ansel Adams

"The deepest rivers make least din,
The silent soule doth
most abound in care."
William Alexander

"Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty.
Act with integrity.
The greatest problem with communication is 
we don't listen to understand.
Roy T. Bennett

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
Ernest Hemingway

Listen for what's behind the words.

Music isn't just to be heard, it's to be felt.
But even more important
it's meant to be remembered
long in our memories.

Music is a wonderful association to relive 
what we once experienced.

Please,
Don't hide your face.

Be free.

"Our selves are rough and unrehearsed

 tales we tell the world."

William Alexander

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, 

perhaps it's because he hears a different drummer.

Let him step to the music he hears,

however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau

There isn't anything we can't do 

it's only a matter of doing. That is all.

Always,

let your rock bottom

be your

trampoline.

March to the beat of your own drummer.

Important fact.

About photography, to carry us day by day.

Capture things.

You may want to recall them years later.

True fact, not fake news.

"There is one thing the photograph must contain,
the humanity of the moment."
Ansel Adams

A look at the backside of this year's Minnesota 9/11 Tribute.

I ask you, what more is there that we can do 

to make things better?

"You have not lived today
 until you have done something for someone 
who can never repay you."
John Bunyan

We can be who we were born to be. No matter what that is.
Imagine anything is possible.

and just think,

"The nice thing about say baking alone in the kitchen before dawn,
(or quite frankly doing any little thing, like writing or drawing)
is that you can talk to yourself like a crazy person
and no one suspects you're a crazy person."
William Alexander
and Me


Our children hear us cry
go be you
no one can be a better you.

and yet where are we?

Hawthorne ends the story this way;

He failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time,
and, for living once in all of eternity,
to find the perfect future in the present."

and this,

I have to admit my best part of the evening is watching folks, especially the children, and couples with their wicker picnic baskets, and the American flag proudly waving in the wind.

2017 Minnesota State Fair

It's always sad once the state fair opens in Minnesota 
because it pretty much closes the door to summer.

Welcome 2017 Minnesota State Fair

and

The Scarecrow edition

If you want to know what's happening in the hearts and minds of a place
then go to the fair and view their scarecrows.
They are always reflective of the current events.
So what are my fellow Minnesotans thinking?

Note: No pails (or kitchen gadgets) have been harmed in any of these scarecrow creations.

"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
Seneca

"You can't fix yourself by breaking someone else."

"When nothing goes right, go left!"

"Sometimes me think, What is a friend? and then me say,

Friend is someone to share the last cookie with."

Cookie Monster

Don't forget to feed the birds in the winter too!

Are you keeping track of the number of pails?

I CD your eyes!

"A recipe has no soul
as the Cook
must bring
Soul to the recipe."

Have bike will travel.

"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."

We cannot change the cards we are dealt.
Just how we play the hand.
That is all.

"For I consider brains far more superior than money
in every way.
You may have noticed if one has money without brains
he cannot use it to his advantage
but if one has brains without money,
they will enable him to live comfortably to the end of his days."
L. Frank Baum

We are free to turn it on or tune it out!
It's all up to us.
Learn, listen, hear, read and learn some more.

We would be so in the dark without our medias!

Use with caution but use.

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
the smaller version.

Bemidji, Minnesota

See yourself.

Look closely into my mirror!

As a matter of fact I do cook, sew, I hold the record in threading a needle and cook some more.

Don't forget to enjoy some egg coffee!

If you haven't tried it

why not? It's delicious.

Kitchen gadgets are my life!

Don't forget to step outside away from the scarecrows.
 You'll find a path to the looking glass,
and enjoy a cup of tea with the Mad Hatter.

Last but not least of my scarecrow selection is the

Cutest couple at the fair this year is,

And

I think Minnesotans have it put together pretty well in this day of age.
What do you think?

I hope you remember these charming little faces all day long!
Thanks for stopping by
and
Take good care of you.