Upside Down or Not

Hello from the frozen tundra of (at the moment) sunny Minnesota which promises to dip back to -31 this evening.  We Minnesotans are a tough breed though, and other than a handful of probies (totally not prepared for these temperatures) everyone made it to work today.  By the weekend it will be a return to early spring (if only) with a high of 39 real degrees on Saturday and a high of 44 on Super Bowl Sunday!  Hooray! For the time being what's truly essential is staying warm!


Lesson learned. Taking photos is essential.

The things that keep me right side up during these upside down periods in life, are memories of the joys we share with family and friends throughout the years.


Hey you hanging upside down from a tree limb.

Even the weather persons described Minnesota weather as being 

upside down with such a discrepancy in our temperatures in a short time.

"Strength doesn't come from winning.

Your struggles develop your strengths.

When you go through hardships

and decide not to surrender

that is strength."

"Be ruthless! Say no to everything that is either not essential 

or doesn't add something of value to your life." Dee Waldeck

Just as the water reflects the stars and the moon. 

The body reflects the body and soul. Rumi

This next quote is something that has been heavy in my thoughts. It's like an upside down mixture of thoughts.

"Your task is not to seek for love,

but merely to seek and find all the barriers 
within yourself that you have built against it."

Rumi

Sometimes life surprises you, and when life turns you upside down

and you might just discover that this is the right way.

Thanks for stopping in. Enjoy your week and take good care of you.

Old Man Winter Defined Kind of For Mac

Our local newspaper referred to Old Man Winter this year as,
"All hat, No cattle." Of course that was earlier, not so much now,
as his brutal action, determined power, blustering substance and pretentious nature came to life once again.

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
Confucius


But when his back is turned,
On winter days like this 
Old Man Winter doesn't come to mind.

Winters come and winters go
but when the icy breath of Old Man Winter blows in
calmness quickly becomes calamity.

Dear Old man winter, who are you and where did you come from?

My own curiosity has prompted me to try and answer our blogging friend, Mac  after he recently left a question on my blog, "How did old man winter get his name?"

Wikipedia explains old man winter as a personification of winter, a colloquialism for the winter season derived from Greek mythology and old world pagan beliefs evolving into modern characters in both literature and popular culture.
Myths and Fairy Tales too.

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, 
nor man perfected without trials."
Confucius 


We humans are funny and for the most part we fight his blistering blizzard like temper-tantrums and the spiraling snow he drops upon us like heavy paperweights. 

Fight, fight, for what's right.

It's a magical winter-wonder-land for the most part, 
when Old Man Winter and his icy breath disappears.

Even Bunny statues ignore Old Man Winter's hammering
 as they throw on a hat and scarf and rest quietly
upon the fluffy white snow drifts in spite of him. 



Over time, the old gods of winter changed to new humanizing of the seasons including Old Man Winter.

This next description makes more sense.

Boreas (the purple winged-god) of the north wind who swept down from the cold mountains of Thrake (Thrace) was the Greek god of the north wind, and chilled the air with his icy breath. Depicted in ancient art as an old man, he was considered the bringer of winter and the cold. The old gods riding across lands on icy winds transformed to the more modern adaptations, such as Old Man Winter, or Russia's Father Frost.

We understand it's his frozen clutches grasping at anything just so he can rule over our winter-wonder-land and our only choice is to retaliate against him. 

"It's bad enough that Old Man Winter makes his bed

with sheets of ice and blankets of snow

But why do we all have to crawl in there with him?"

Susan Gale

A lovely Old Man Winter song here.

If one would carve Old Man Winter out of frozen snow this would be it.

"Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night."
Virginia Woolf

Luckily not a peep out of Old Man Winter to spoil this winter evening.

"Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake."
Sara Raasch

"Snow was falling so much like stars
filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness. "
Mary Oliver

"Old Man Winter" original song by Kathleen Healy


"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."
Victor Hugo

Honestly, I believe Old Man Winter derived from a comparison of the harshness of winter with that of a harsh personality, often severe in nature.

Critters and Just Because

Hello and welcome to 

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

Meet Inspector Sparkle, my daughter's kitty-cat 
putting her cat approval or not,
 on my daughter's new project.

I love these happy faces of my kiddos.

Wait,

I interrupt this SATURDAY'S CRITTER 

post to offer

 a Return of Winter

to Minnesota once again.

Lucky for us it was my weekend off from work, so a sleepover was in order!

It was zero outside but the sun offered us a warming comfort.

It was an all day adventure with lots of hot chocolate breaks
 while wet things dried!

Let's go sledding!

Mr. Minnesota Viking Fan! (His brother is a Green Bay Packer fan)
which makes things very interesting!

Back to a few critters!

Paul Bunyan, that mighty lumberjack
 loved his spunky little critter friend, Babe the Blue Ox forever.

"May you live everyday of your life."

Jonathan Swift

Children won't remember what you try to teach them
unless it's all hands on deck!

"A farmer is a magician 

who produces money from the mud."

Amit Kalantri

"Pursue what catches your heart

not what catches your eyes."

Roy T. Bennet

"It's a funny thing about life, 
once you begin to take note of the things
you are grateful for
you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack."
Germany Kent

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."

Jonathan Swift


If I can offer wisdom to share with our kiddos it would be this,

"Any day above ground is a good day."
Before you complain about anything, 
be thankful for your life and the things that are still going well."
Germany Kent


"Stay positive, all other choices are pointless punishments to your psyche."
Joe Peterson

"The positive energy and love we give to others,
heals our own wounds."
Angie Karan

Germany Kent offers this, which we've all read and heard
 but to follow it is everything.

How To Win In Life
1. Work Hard
2. Complain Less
3.Listen More
4. Try, learn, grow
5.Don't let people tell you it can't be done
6.Make no excuses.

and I add
Be kind
always
and always keep 
 your word.

Take good care of you.
Thank you for your comments
and spending time with me.

Everyday Offer Comfort

We can't take away another's sadness

but we can offer comfort 

and our deepest

heartfelt feelings

in their time of need and sadness.

Today we honored the life of Pam, who passed away unexpectedly, is my daughter-in-law's mother, 

and my friend, and was a woman who deeply loved her family and friends. 

Every loss of another in our life brings the importance of kindness,  to the surface and just how important those in our lives are to us.
Life is short and our journey takes unexpected turns.

 If we always do the best we can, every where in our day to day lives, and never hold "things" as more valuable than the people in our lives, and remember

people hold the most value. Yes, even strangers. Everyone that enters our lives arrives for a reason. Every person deserves to be honored. Everyone is or has suffered something, sometime, and if you lighten one person's burden today, you too will be uplifted.

When we leave people feeling better than when we first gathered,

 then we all feel comfort.

Here are some of the things Pam loved.

From being on the lake, fishing, bonfires, singing, music, God and her bible verses, angels and baking, gardening, helping those in need and spending time with family and friends. 
She may be gone from our sight, but never our hearts
and memories of times shared together, through thick and thin, sadness and happiness. 

We shall plant a tree in her honor by the water.

I took this photo and the next one from one of my favorite outings with our dear grandchild that we share! It was a notable adventure that day, so many odd and silly things came our way, and especially important was a duck in need at Lake Harriet that entered our world who needed all the help we could give it.

This sign in the window gave us pause and we had to capture it.


Take good care of you and every single being in your life
 shower them with love and kindness.

Language Without Words

One of my favorite languages, isn't words written or spoken.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Henry David Thoreau

"If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical 
would have something to do with a shortage of flowers."
Doug Larson

Honestly, the Snapdragon flower resembles the face of a dragon
 that opens and closes its mouth by a squeeze of your finger.
 

"Whatever you focus your attention on 
will become important to you even if it's unimportant."
Sonya Parker


So far this winter it's been unseasonably warmer, far less snow and more often rain and yes, this is still Minnesota. The winds are a bit gusty today, but they'll be heading out soon.

Even overcast, grey skies, barren, broad calm, bitter cold, or chilly days, and cloudless, hazy grey or even clear pale skies we snap pictures of it perhaps to prove ourselves wrong, that in truth there is always a silent spring existing within every winter.

On a canvas of grays and white 

 a red barn prevails in spite

of old man winter.

Your eyes assume there isn't any open water here,

 when in fact there actually is.

Look I caught myself in the window!

Actually dogs have a language all their own, and it's not just barking.

It's their body language and it overpowers words.

"Words are pale shadows of forgotten names.  As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts."
P. Rothfuss

"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are."
Jose' Ortega Y Gasset

Thank you, I enjoy all your visits and comments
Take good care of you.

Conversations With Critters

Good morning to all

and welcome to

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

Meet Mr. Distinguished

The eagle has no fear of adversity.

Joyce Meyer

Calm gathering, all champions of begging.

Often times when you

Put your expectations on conversations 
with your dog and your inner soul
 you find fabulous 
and sometimes dazzling
but always,
successful results.

Happy, handsome and most harmonious cowman

Woodsy conversations.
Listen to the trees.
and any wooden cowboys you happen upon!

Good conversation is as stimulating as black coffee

and just as hard to sleep after.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The sun, with all those planets revolving round it and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." 

and yet we humans often struggle with the most tiniest of things.

Galileo Galilei

Yep Misty requires many toys and all are
 under complete protection.

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Humans are sometimes, critters never.
You get what you see
and what you give.




Yesterday we enjoyed seeing 
How The Grinch 
Stole Christmas 
at the Children's Theatre and it was of course
the merriest time ever!

You bet the boys wanted to have their picture taken with
The Grinch and his dog Max (younger version) there was an older dog Max narrating in places throughout the play.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Dr. Seuss

What do you suppose he's thinking?

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

Thanks for stopping in
Take good care of you.