☮ Catching Up, Birds, Flowers and Activism ☮

Greetings fellow Earthlings.  I am back.  I spent all last week writing my sister's obituary, making a funeral notice, writing a eulogy to deliver at her memorial service and finally scanning photos of her life, enhancing and cropping and uploading into PowerPoint and selecting music to go with it.  Then on Saturday our family gathered at the River View Cemetery for the burial, then to the chapel for the service.  My brother Robert spoke first, telling about being twins with Roberta and all their exploits from birth through high school.  I shared my memories of her life, I was nervous but did it for my sister.  A reception followed with hugs from all the friends she made over the years.  We gave her a proper send off.  She was loved by many.

I will now show you what's going on around the old farm place.  The apples on the tree are turning red, we're fully into August and time marches on.

We got a few more bird feeders to keep up with the demand by our avian friends.  Most of our visitors are these pretty Goldfinches.  

We also get a few rarer birds, this one is a Black Headed Grosbeak.  I got this with my big Lumix camera and sent it to my friend Shirley to identify.

We sit on the deck and watch the birds and fish and it brings us peace.

I was looking for something the other day and came across a Ziploc bag with some old photos from when I was 12 and had climbed Dog Mountain while a Girl Scout at Camp Wind Mountain in Washington.  

I also found this photo of me, a young mother, hippie chick, at our booth at Saturday Market, selling beaded chokers I'd made and macrame plant hangers and keychains.  See the playpen in the back?  We took the kids with us. Dayle made wood mirrors to sell, too.  Oh the good old days.

On July 20th our country celebrated the 50th anniversary of our moon landing.  I had a friend I met in Hawaii, Loa, she invited me to New Orleans to enjoy Mardi Gras and to stay with her parents with her.  They both worked at Boeing which made parts for the Nasa space ships and were given two of these coins.  They gave us one.  Isn't that amazing?

The back of the coin tells more.. it's really something.

I made another bracelet, using faceted Ethiopian opal beads.

I potted this pretty coleus and am enjoying watching it grow.

The deck, flowers, fish and birds are helping me heal.

The aroma of the Jasmine is a balm for my spirit.

The sound of the water soothes...

My darling granddaughter Paige is in the cheer squad and they had a cheer camp this summer.  Aren't they adorable?

I love the pure joy in this photo!

I just finished this book and it was very good.  I can recommend it.

NOW... to what is happening right now.  This weekend there were two more horrific mass murders committed, one by a white supremacist terrorist and a the second by another homegrown murderous terrorist.  They used military style assault rifles designed to kill the most people the fastest.  Something needs to be done NOW.  The worst part is there WAS an assault rifle ban and President Bush let it lapse.  President Obama tried to re-instate it but it was blocked by a Republican controlled Senate.  The National Rifle Assoc. is PAYING those people NOT to let a ban go into effect.  If you want to see less mass murders by a bunch of losers who are full of hate - then VOTE.  Elect people who CARE about us.  Not ones who just want to line their pockets with NRA and Russian money.  

OK.. I love you all.. please be safe and be careful.
((hugs)), Teresa