Tagging Critters

Good morning critter fans and welcome to Saturday's Critters with Eileen on Sunday!

Everybody's got something weird about them.  - Haruki Murakami 

Time passes far too quickly one must linger in thought or lose all perception.

I'm a good puppy for my groomer, Heidi. She talks to me in a most happy, gentle voice but -

I love being home best of all! 

From out front of our house -

We find more critters. Home is where birds sing-

Butterfly look-a-likes gather.

And we laugh and laugh!

And no matter what-

home is where We 

feel love.

Make today ridiculously amazing or be square!

Enjoy your day and take good care of you.

Bedazzled and Good Fences

"My experience is that the teachers 

we need most are the people 

we're living with right now."

Byron Katie

My world today.

"The grass as bristly and stout as chives and me wondering when the ground will break and me wondering how anything fragile survives."
Anne Sexton

GOOD FENCES

The 30th is fast approaching.

We're busy making plans to celebrate Memorial Day-
and also visit Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Chasing Gnomes.

Peeking through fences.

Enchanting 

and mystifying.

"The world can give you these glimpses 
as well as fairy tales can,

the smell of rain,

the dazzle of sun on white clapboard

with the shadows of ferns 

and wash on the line,

the wildness of a winter storm when in the house the

flame of a candle doesn't even flicker."

Frederick Buechner

Do you remember my fence from last week? 
Well here are a few more shots of it in other areas.

Ckick here for an inside looksee of 11005 203rd St. West

google earth view here

This is a view of the property from inside the garden center next door. 
They are the current owners of the property.

"Just the mere sight of some things make me sigh 
which always leads me to poetry or words longing to be said."

Below is an unexpected treasure, a patch of daisies growing wild and free.  On my first mow of the year I saw this circle of something growing, and it appeared more like daisies then a weed.  So I let it grow.  Am I ever happy I did.
In the 90's I planted a few daisies not too far from this spot that I dug up from the back woods of our property, but they eventually disappeared.  Until this year.

"It's the unknown that draws people."
E.A. Bucchianeri

"But they say if you dream a thing more than once,
it's sure to come true."
Walt Disney
12 Princess Stories

Here's to happy days 
and 
"Brighten up the world like a little sunbeam."
Terry Practchett

A Sure Footed Journey and Critters

Where are we going today Mom?

Thoughts from a tire, or three.

There was a day when I went round and round and round but now-

There are always choices in life.

"Free your mind and be in flow of life's ups and downs
Be accepting of wherever you are on your journey."
Karron Waddell

Welcome to
another
SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

Unexpected moments
can be silly and strange, 
but so worthy to share.

Well, just goes to show, not all opossums stay out of trouble.
See baby opossum found in the strangest of places here.
This is a true story- I read it in the paper, before seeing it on the web!

Be careful where you tread little one.

Officer Snodgrass and his latest apprehension.
Oops! Gotcha! 


"What we find changes who we become."

"The journey transforms the destination."

Peter Morville

"An expert is one who knows more and more
 about less and less
until he knows absolutely everything 
about nothing."
Nicholas Murray Butler

"There are no rules of architecture
 for a castle in the clouds."
G.K. Chesterton

"Life is not what you alone make it.

Life is the input of everyone who touched your life

and every experience that entered it.

We are all part of one another."

Yuri Kochiyama

1921-2014

(She would have been 95 years old this year)

"Life is far too important a thing 

ever to talk seriously about."

Oscar Wilde

Wherever your journey takes you today enjoy and be safe.

Bloggers Unlock Doors

I'm sure you'd all agree that blogging is by far one of our greatest assets, and not just for all the incredibly wonderful and beautiful folks we meet along the way.

So, if I haven't said this before-

Thank you bloggers, too many to name, but you know who you are.

(you're reading this right now)

I'm also thankful for the insights, pictures and resources you bring us.   I've been gifted by many book reviews here, serving up delicious morsels even in our often hectic lives, yet  always stirring something so marvelous inside that we run out and get it.  (Thank goodness for libraries.) 

A major thanks to where this post is going today, 

to TexWisGirl aka Theresa at

GOOD FENCES

She's brought so many of us together

 but she also invokes a mission 

in each of us to get out there 

and snap and share some fence photos.

Oh my, the places I know I've gone to
 or discovered just to accomplish that.

Here's this week's choice after work yesterday.

Of course I had to pull over and park my car 

upon noticing a rusty fence holding back 

a most luscious greenery.
(just a few miles from home too)

Lots of wildflowers and pretty weeds.

Another fence too.

Darn it.  More times than not that ugly 

Private Property sign gets in the way of a good hike.

Why is the good stuff always locked away?

But look, it's for sale.

and this property borders Lake Marion.

Sad thing is, they want to take away nature and plant another box store or shopping mall there.  


Then I have to include those fabulous book reviews.
(and the king of reviews)

I'm closing with his latest review 

the blog Musings (Sage)

who brought to my reading attention

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
by 
Caitlin Doughty

(her topic blends nicely with the book I'm just finishing
Bodies We've Buried
Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World's Top CSI Training School)


What intrigued me is that she's writing about her first six years in the American funeral history and her stories are true and the people real. Although she notes, "Several names and details (but not the salacious ones, promise) have been changed to preserve the privacy of certain individuals and to protect the identities of the deceased.

"The silence of death, of the cemetery, was no punishment, but a reward for a life well lived." 
Stories and lives to be learned and remembered.

- that was her last line last which exactly sums up how I feel now as a grown-up (as a little girl I always feared cemeteries)

"Courtesies of a small and trivial character
are the ones that strike deepest 
in the grateful and appreciating heart."
Henry Clay

What We Do

I'm joining with 
WORDS FOR WEDNESDAY

Mark Koopmans has generously offered 3 sets of prompts
I'm using 2 sets in Italic blue.



What we do in Minnesota 

when Mother Nature toys with us.

Many Minnesotans fly to a warmer Disney location, and text silly emojis to those back home.  I'd say in this old family photo we're each
one of a kind fashionista 
all living it up, while the folks back home
 are languishing bitter wind chills
 and loading up their morning carpool to slug
along in rush hour traffic.



Normally, this time of year,
if you're not off to Trinidad for a delicious Trinidad Bratwurst seen here,
you might wallow in spongy mud on your knees planting seeds 
and setting a spindle garden angel or gnome in place, for good luck.

Or, maybe you're off to Victoria's Secret for summer jammies 

 and buying a new umbrella since April usually leaves us
 watered seasonably 
by spring showers.

(I seriously think we had warmer days last winter than we're having this spring. Silly right?)

Oddly enough, we've had a couple of 90 degrees days this spring and folks hit the beach.

Only to put their winter coats back on two days later.

What!

Cover your new plantings and growths 
we've got another frost warning for tonight.

Truly not a ghost, just one example of coverage against

 the harsh touch of Mother Nature.

"Come with me into the woods

where spring is advancing

as it does, no matter what

not being singular or particular

but one of the forever gifts,

and certainly visible."

Mary Oliver 

Or, take a stroll along a Minneapolis avenue 
and capture some dancing statues.

"To pay attention this is our endless and proper work.

Instructions for living a life.

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it."

Mary Oliver

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

Mary Oliver

This post from May 17th 2014 says it all.

"And I say to my heart: rave on."

Mary Oliver

So, how is your spring going so far this year?

More Than a Camera

My camera

is a memory-keeper.
A stash of events
and moments from my world of
people, animals and places.

My own special treasure trove.

"The curious thing about photographs is this-
Those looking in can see where we've been
 but they'll never feel what we've experienced."
Karen Sather

"What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment

that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce."

Karl Lagerfeld

Fishing buddies taking a selfie.

Did you know that the word selfie was announced as word of the year in November 2013 by the Oxford English Dictionary?
I've also read that Australia invented the word selfie, read here.

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera.

You bring to the act of photography 

all the pictures you have seen

the books you have read

the music you have heard,

the people you have loved."

Ansel Adams

Special moments we desire to remember.

Playing with the light.

Pictures are like planting seeds.

Here, while planting real seeds that will grow 
we're very hopeful.

Anticipation makes the heart strong.

Not so sure we can grow any Robins with that shell!

"Sometimes things become possible

 if we want them bad enough."

T.S. Eliot

Fairy and Gnome extremely hopeful while planning their garden.



Hard work and determination
 and not allowing anything
 to get in the way of what we truly want-

Gets us to that place.  
Be all that you can be, does have it's advantages, doesn't it?

My son is the one standing on the right side.

Take good care of you 

and keep your camera close

so it can keep up with you.