The Mag - Giggles Of Course

From the archives of- I hope you understand this.

"I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh."

Maya Angelou 

THE MAG

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream."

Jake Sully

Image for Magpie tales.

PALAIS de FOLIES
Just for fun


Mark my words
One Fine Day
and another Skyfall away
the Academy Awards 
will feel the earth move
and then
you'll see 
 hold your breath and count to ten
when
the 88th Academy Awards
in all its Glory
 as Empire 
will Strike Back many chords
live from Jurassic Park.
So, "Forget about it" Hollywood-
Jurassic Park
is way better 
to honor that shady-Grey flick
you know will see Oscar
next year
while live streaming
and tweeting on the twitter
we'll all
 be over 
this year's tighty-whities
after all
chains and whips and sex stunts
so vivid this Mama refuses to ever go see it.
Snap away 
all you want daughter
 Dakota, some of us may 
be Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
seeking thrills by day
on rides 
 like Alice in Wonderland Coaster
or better
 a Dark Knight Coaster
always runs daily
from Independence Day.
Just remember
you never have to see
what you don't want to see.

Speaking of seeing-
Bring on those tasty stunts
or rather
 planned ambush attack 
fade in Jack Black
Ooh La-la
fade out Jack Black
 by that old Cinderella shoe
(you really had to see)
it all truly makes our
La La La La 
Lipstick lovely
day, Ooh La-la
scrumptiously 
delicious!
See you next year
Old Academy
award of merit, Oscar.
Or, shall we say uncle,
Oscar?


Note:  All joking aside, last evening's 87th Academy Awards show was by far a pleasing performance.  It had me glued (phone free) all night.  Except, for puppy potty breaks.  The first time in years I didn't feel the biting urge to write the Academy, or swear I'd never watch it again.  Major bonus, no repulsing fashion errors either.  A worthy moving pictures presentation.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday -

Hello and welcome to another Scavenger Hunt Sunday

MAKES ME HAPPY

To be styling!  Happy as can be.

HIDDEN

Stranger on the bench, hidden.

"Not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one, 
an excitement burning with a cold flame." - Patrick Suskind

ONE

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."

 - Max de Pree

MODERN

DESSERT

"Time goes by fast, and people go
in and out of your life so quickly,
so you should never miss the
opportunity to tell these people
how much they mean to you."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson


It's true, and that includes every single one of you that wanders by here.

Getaways, Lake Wales, and Rolling Up, Really

Greetings from the deep freeze of Minnesota.  

Of course I know this photo isn't from my world.  It seems Mexico and Florida are the major escapes this February, for many fleeing from our frozen tundra of an existence.

Don't worry, I'm still here.

But a girl can dream right?  

The photo below is my sister-in-law and nephew on his short leave, and it happens to be the last time I flew to Florida. 

It was in November!  Look Ma no coats, gloves, boots or socks!

You probably guessed by my title that this next photo is also from Florida.  It's my, just visiting Florida via the Web.

Welcome to Lake Wales, Florida.

Historic Bok Tower
The 205-foot-neo-Gothic and art deco Singing Tower carillon described here.


Why post about Lake Wales?

My belief, When you need a vacation, but can't take one,
 the next best thing to being there is
visiting by way of YouTube and other Web sources.


You should remember by now, I'm a fan of any and all abandoned things, and Lake Wales has a stately old grand hotel in refurbishing stages and one very unusual phenomenon.

First, did someone mention hotel?
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, is a historic hotel in Lake Wales, Florida.  See photo below.

The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel aka Hotel Grand

Checking out that site shows all the dirty little secrets involved in this major process.

Now for the unusual.

Does gravity or an old feud with alligators have anything to do with this mysterious phenomenon?


Don't laugh, watch this video for yourself, and see that vehicles do roll backwards up hill while in neutral. 

Welcome to Spook Hill, nestled within Lake Wales, Florida.
You can take a 7 minute tour of Lake Wales here.
and another "It's the simple things in life" so worth doing.

I've had castles, greenery and abandoned places worthy of rebirth on my mind lately.  Of course once you have castles and abandoned buildings in your thoughts, the next logical thing is, unusual, or off the beaten path kind of places.

I know we'd have much more to discuss if we were in England, or Wales, when castles come to mind, but most of us aren't that lucky.

So, I hope you enjoyed this place, not too many miles from my front door, okay 1,550 miles to be exact.  Maybe you've been to Lake Wales, but if not you just may want to see it for yourself.


The next video is especially for skeptics.
The truth about this unusual phenomenon may be solved in this video at Spook Hill in Maryland.  

In the Wind - Good Fences

What's that flying in the wind?

"Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life." - Marcel Proust

No matter how fierce the wind blows.
Or how hard it bites against our face, with -25 wind chills, this week.

GOOD FENCES

This something seems to be hanging on a rope.

Could it be a message on a rope?

Wait for it, here it comes again.

I just had to hang such a sweet Valentine from our 5 year old grand-delight-daughter, Lyra.

She made it just for us.

The giving of love is our truest gift.

"Let us be grateful to the people that make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

The Mag - On Being Incautious, or Not

" I must make clear that I do not belong to that weird group of people  who travel to remote places, survive the bacteria, and then publish books to convince the incautious to follow in their footsteps." - Isabel Allende

A secret is never kept outside of one's whisper. 

THE MAG

"Write what should not be forgotten." - Isabel Allende

Shh!

Keep to yourself what should not be told. - me


 INCAUTIOUSLY or NOT
My Magpie told through secrets 
from around our world.
Guess I, can't keep a secret.


The wing slap heard around the world.

To be or not to be 
attacked by a Chupacabra halfway around the world?
Or not?

Yes, it's to be
there's a very lovely-famous Batkid due in our world.


Oh crumb, I'm so over this rumor/secret that was to be
and cornered the market all over the world.
Groves of women cried their eyes out that it was to be.

Yet for me
I'd really rather be whirled 
out of this world
by reading anything the Government deems classified in our world
or by knowing the real dirty little sticky secret 
behind no gum ever being 
sold in any Disney parks around the world.

Doesn't that sound juicy to you too?

White - Thematic Photographic

Colors shine for themselves.

WHITE

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

Wikipedia describes the color white as having five basic colors often associated with it-  cream, eggshell, ivory, Navajo white, and vanilla.  But then there's the lighting of a room where the shade of white enters, color number 6 and don't forget that lighting can cause a pure white to be perceived as off white, making that 7!

Cloudy white.

The afternoon sunlight causing white to shine a bluish shade of white. 

Shades of white on my drive home last night.

        From my passenger window, pulled over and not driving.    

Still pulled over.  My side view.

           

         From my front yard.
No real bright sunlight, yet a bluish shade of white.



From this morning, what's mostly white is actually in truth, grey.

The shade of white is the purest light to my eyes.

                   WHITE- The color of milk or fresh snow due to the reflection of most wavelengths of visible light, the opposite of black.

Experts estimate that we can distinguish perhaps as many as 10 million colors.

Live by Flora, Fauna and Foma

"Live by the foma* that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." - The Books of Bokonon.  * Harmless untruths. (Bokononism) 



SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY 

WRITING
(which must include, reading)
Winter= Double library hours
My Week's read.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, again 
Expect to gather solace reading authors like Vonnegut, especially when our world is
(need I say where it's headed?)
I didn't think so.

Also (because I'm pleasantly writing in this genre presently
Travel Writing
One from my own library.
and
The NEW books section always lures me to at least one
necessary read.
(Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things)

I believe the library is like a candy store.

I can't help myself sometimes, must have this and this

but at least- it's all free.

Must hurry to read.

"Books admitted me open-handedly, as people for their most part, did not.  The life I lived in books was one of ease and freedom, worldly wisdom, glitter, dash and style."- Jonathan Raban

To be an excellent writer/reader, one must learn to color out of the box as well.

CURLY

Oh the gifts of flora that calls wistfully to fauna, that our nature so freely offers.

Oh these lovely, curly clouds and wavy branches so delicately posed.

PATTERN

Patterns.

MY VIEW

View of winter driving.

View from winter playing.

We just landed at the bottom of the hill!  Misty chased us all the way down.

LOVE

For love of life.

For love of capturing art. (That's my reflection in the photo)

Living,

AS  ONE PLEASES

No harm in that.

I believe
living a brave, kind, healthy and happy life,
is the way.

Six Word Saturday Happy Heart

FREE HIGH-FIVES

TAKE ONE GIVE ONE

SOLVE ANY CONFLICT USING ICE CREAM

OR

LISTEN TO E.T. SOUNDTRACK

WHILE BIKING

AND

 TRY THAT SHARING ICE CREAM AGAIN.

TREAT EVERYONE LIKE
A SUPER HERO.

Super Hero Flash Mob seen here

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, enjoy.

This is your life!

Use it!

Linking to Six Word Saturday

Not Saying I Don't

Not saying I don't know, there are over a zillion, truly worthy places begging to be captured close to home.   I hope you enjoy a few of my pictures from last weekend.



Welcome to the streets of Winona, Minnesota.  Winona, was named after Princess We-Noh-Nah, daughter of Chief Wa-pa-shaw.

Not to mention all the Randomness of art placed around our neighboring towns adding to the already existing charm of historic buildings.

Did I mention Minnesota has picturesque bluffs?  Even during winter they have a charm of their own.

"All that we have to do is decide what to do with the time given to us." - J. R. R. Tolkien

"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities." - J.R.R. Tolkien

One of 35 places for worship.  

The Basilica of Saint Stanislaus Kostka

It truly deserves seeing inside as well.

But not everything was in welcoming mode.  About 1 A.M. on this Saturday a raging fire roared in downtown Winona.  Fire investigators were still on the scene when I shot these two photos.



These two pictures below were taken the day after the fire.

Nobody was hurt in the blaze.

"But all the while I sit and think
of times that were before
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Not sure if the "Mason Jar" will see live faces or ever hear laughter again.

"Darkness must pass, a new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer," - J.R.R. Tolkien


Still good ice skating!

Under the gritty mud soaked snow lies the beach.

Yes, there are many faces to every piece of art.

You see truthfully, my meandering soul begs to retrace that long old highway that every summer growing up our family would travel all it's worthy way to Florence, Arizona to visit my grandfather.

That old highway being    (road trip with photos here) and ( Road trip planner here)

There still are places nestled along the old Route 66 and I swear this summer we'll track them down.

The Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman, heard here.

'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.' -  J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lost Road