Extraordinary Things Begin to Happen

When you let your guard down.

Being an artist is possible at any given moment. 

We tend to forget we're capable of anything. 

Michael Birawer - artist

This piece - Calm Before the Purple

Just before the Minnesota Vikings played The Wisconsin Green Bay Packers 

We do not believe in ourselves

until someone reveals that deep inside us

something is valuable.

E.E. Cummings

Ready-set-go- Grab paint, brush, open white space, you decide.

 "If someone listens, or stretches out a hand or whispers a word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen."

Loretta Firzaris

Artists and merrymakers are enthusiastic about little things

happiness being the result of personal effort and

splashing that joy about one stroke at a time.

Cheerfulness is the atmosphere in which all things thrive. 

Jean Paul

A good friend is a connection to life. 

A tie to the past,

a road to the future

the key to sanity in a totally insane world.

Lois Wyse

This time of year I capture all those marvelous gifts of nature that soon for me will be covered in snow and ice.

Sometimes the little things in life are more than enough.

Lorretta Firzaris

You haunt the forgotten parts of us that linger in my soul.

Angie Weiland-Crosby

When darkness branches to your soul, light still finds a way to rise.

A. Weiland-Crosby

On the shore of nature's magic, I dreamed summer knew no end.

That being said-

Don't become so involved with life's duties that you neglect the pleasures of adventures and goodness of ordinary things all around you.

Me

Thanks for your visits they mean the world to me.

Take good safe care of you.

There is Nothing Like Looking

 Happy Tuesday September 22, 2020 is

In honor of Hobbits Today is Hobbit Day. 

"Keep your spirits up, hope for the best, and with a tremendous slice of luck you may come out one day and see the Long Marshes lying below you."

J.R.R. Tolkien

"Far over the misty mountains cold....  In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look. But, it is not always quite the something you were after." - J. R. R. Tolkien

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

J.R.R. Tolkien

"He who tries to shake a tree stump, shakes only himself."

African Proverb

"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning, or that it is a morning to be good on?"

J.R.R. Tolkien, From the Hobbit, Or There and Back Again.

 

"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him."

J.R.R. Tolkien

"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Play follow the leader.

If you see someone falling behind, walk beside them. If you see someone being ignored, find a way to include them. Always remind people of their worth.  One small act could mean the world to them.

"It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keeps the darkness at bay,  Small acts of kindness and love." 

J.R.R. Tolkien

"Where there's life there's hope."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Even for us during this COVID-19 time. Keeping our spirits up is key.

"Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend, are soon told about." (taken from The Hobbit, Or There and Back Again.

Little did he or any of us ever imagine this virus business of 2020.

Are you as curious as I am as to what J.RR. Tolkien would have to say about all of this?

We must be grateful for all that we have and do these days.

Welcome to the Grocer's Table in Wayzata, Minnesota.

The tables outside were filled and inside there were two other tables of folks dinging besides mine.

So far I haven't ordered anything that wasn't delicious, especially their soups. They are over the top in my opinion.

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song, above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

J.R.R. Tolkien

I took the photo below in Excelsior, Minnesota basically just across the lake from Wayzata, and where you can still catch a boat excursion. Masked upon boarding of course.

I'm thankful for every chance of normalcy as we once knew it

 

Spend as much time as you can with loved ones and friends, it's crucial.

Thank you all for finding time to stop by 

Your comments mean the world to me!

Take good care of you.

 

 

Beyond Our Shadowy Scope Among Critters

and SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

Life is and will forever be a curious subject of observation combined with living, and yet, more importantly, our memories, which is, the sum of us. 

Me

Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.

Amit Ray

It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.

Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Jesse James Gang rode into town but there to meet them was,

The Sheriff  James Glispin of Northfield.

Another yearly event to remain dark this 2020.

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. Live, love, your present.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Soren Kierkegaard

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The magnificence of my skeleton is hidden by the weight of my flesh.

Vera Caspary

We need the skeletons of other stories to understand our own, sometimes.

Lauren Groff

Because it's true: more than the highlights, the bright events, it was in the small and the daily where she'd found life.

Lauren Groff

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

(Just wander beyond, way beyond your shadowy scope.)

Thank you for your visit, and may the joy of happiness follow you everywhere you go.

Explore, Experience and Repeat

 If you cherish every experience, good or bad,

 you'll never have a bad day. 

Aaron Lauitsen

Love is an energy that is addictive, contagious and free.

Earn it, chase it, give it to those in need.

Aaron Lauitsen

and of course it's 

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS 

Water splashing over face, flying off floppy ears,

and those random splashes everywhere 

brings merriment where it nears.

For one minute walk outside. Stand or sit there in silence.

Look up at the sky and contemplate

how amazing life is.

It's in those quiet little towns where we wander about and,

at the edge our journey, I know you'll agree that we'll capture not just great places but the salt of the earth in people we may never have met otherwise.

Somebody to leave the light on, for you.

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

J.R.R. Tolkien

So many journeys waiting. Be bold. Be brave.

and so what kind of steps do I make in a great day at work and play?

This.

Just a slight breeze of autumn in the air outside and inside as well.

Something we could all agree on is this.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Thanks for bringing me the joy of your visits.

May you all stay safe and take good care of you.

Laughing Meerkats

"I love learning new things that will never be put to practical use."

Jackson Rathbone

 Good morning and welcome to

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

First meet the Happy Birthday pups!

Meet Emme

and below is Bugsly

These pups belong to the kiddos (my grandchildren) below, who all happen to be celebrating their mother's birthday in the state of Washington! So I get to puppy-sit again!

Let the critters begin.

There's something about looking into the eyes of Meerkats, for me, they just warm my heart.

Meerkats are catlike carnivores that are a part of civets and mongoose family.

Can you believe that Meerkats are quite shy? 

Meerkat: I'm pretending to be a Prairie Dog.

Visiting a Zoo allows us to meet those animals we might never see up close.

Some folks may call me a prankster. You know scaring people from behind, or giving them that eye we're so good at! But we're social, diurnal and live in gangs of 2 to 50, forging for food, caring for our young and guarding our territory.

So especially since Covid-19 came into our lives and my face to face visits with my grandchildren diminished drastically through texts I asked them to capture various things.  Like, "Go outside and take a photo of something that catches your eye."

So I'm sharing some of Karina's photos for my critter post today. Enjoy.

My grand-daughter Karina, she loves being a dancer, but she's also a huge fan of sharing her bird and nest photos with me!

As a matter of fact she takes a lot of pictures!

Under her deck this spring she discovered a Robin's nest!

and so she kept watch over it.

You can imagine her enthusiasm when she discovered the eggs hatched!

Of course she had to share a photo of the mother Robin!

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing more is doing more. 

Washington Irving

and so what I believe of these Meerkats is this, taken from the words of Matshona Dhliwayo

I have a small message but a big audience.

I have a small title but a big education.

I have a small purse but a big gift.

Animals teach us more than they'll ever learn from us.

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

Washington Irving

Thanks for stopping by today.

Take good care of you.