Sacred Life Sunday: Kikipotamus the Hobo's Visit Winds Up...And She Leaves the happyluau

Finally, just over a week since Kelly left, and I'm finally putting up the few photos I took. I also made a rather silly movie for OTV, but it was representative of the entire visit in that we were having fun doing ordinary things.

The pictures below are of the day Kelly made a special meal for me and LoveHubbie. There are many special memories of that day, including the love and concentration with which Kelly did all of the time-intensive preparations, the lessons I learned about keeping the energy good in my home, and the memories of a lovely meal and great conversation. LoveHubbie used his extensive barbecuing skills to grill our grass-fed steaks and added a special layer of happiness to the evening.

Here is the movie, which is 4:18 long:



This winds up my blogging about Kelly's visit. However, I want to blog a series next about lessons I learned while Kelly was here. Many of them are things we both learned about mindful eating and I'm excited to share them with you. I'm hoping that we can even practice some of them together--those of you who are interested--more about that soon.

Thank you to everyone who cheered me on in my mushroom post :)  You have to be quite an expert to try to eat mushrooms--you really have to know what you're doing, and I do not, so I'd never eat them. I do eat local mushrooms that I buy that others have identified though. Some of the ones along my driveway are so ugly and slimy that they could not be made appetizing to me no matter what had been done to them.

Here are just a few more pictures:

I hope you enjoyed these :) Wishing you a wonderful weekend filled with blessings, joy, and peace, xoO

Sacred Life Sunday: Winter Storms

Leah painted "The Key to Winter" and featured it on her blog today. It's the type of artwork that I could stare at and contemplate and see new things in at different points in my life, I'm sure. I don't know much about art, but I would describe this painting as "rich" and "full" and even, "stunning".

Saturday night as I write this we are getting ready for a winter storm. Power outages are anticipated. For us this means not just no power, but no heat, water, or bathroom facilities. Most people who live here just take all this in stride, but it bothers me. Everything from feeling the chilly wind, to the dark gloomy days, to the snow that clings, to not being able to walk my driveway because of the snow and ice, to....worst of all...having no control. Being ripped away from the things I care about and use to connect to the rest of the world, like my computer. From my books. From warmth. Water. Light.

My thoughts have been going down this dark path today.

I would like to be in the flow as I was when I went to Texas. For some reason, the fear of snowy storms makes it much harder. Even so I've decided to do the same thing that I did in Texas, just with much greater challenge. Be present, feel what there is to be felt, and go through the whole process, however it ends up.



Of course, I also bought (ordered) a book to support me. This one is called "Winter: A Spiritual Biography of the Season"---a book of short essays on winter---and has sections like "Winter As a Time of Sorrow and Barrenness", Winter As a Time to Be Scoured and a Time to Succor the Scoured", "Winter As a Time of Shoring Ourselves Up", "Winter As a Time of Delight and Play", etc. Each section is filled with stories by fine writers like Annie Dillard, Rachel Carson, E. B. White, and Kathleen Norris. Hurry, Amazon, hurry...I so need this...today!

I don't feel jolly; I don't feel moved by the obvious beauty of the snow; I just feel cold and barren (but not depressed) and empty and dark. But now I realize that Sunday is Winter Solstice, and for some reason this gives me some peace. And I look at Leah's painting and feel like everything will be okay.

The Work by Byron Katie has helped me to accept reality, to challenge my thoughts---the ones that cause me to feel any type of stress. It provides an emotional and intellectual challenge that keeps me on my toes with the entire rest of my life. I think I will go and do some work on some of my thoughts about this. Or...even better...I think I'll go to bed. I'm coming down with a cold and maybe the sleep will give me the energy for a whole new perspective tomorrow, on Sacred Sunday, Winter Solstice.


~Photos by LoveHubbie Mark

All Snowed In

~All Photos by LoveHubbie Mark

Sacred Life Sunday: A Walk in My Garden

I found out from a wonderful Reiki reading given to me by Lori-Lyn--long distance--that I should be out in nature more, so today LoveHubbie and I spent some time wandering, relaxing, and taking pictures.

I got to use my new Mino Flip Ultra (the next generation after the regular Flip Ultra) for the first time, another free gift from Amazon for doing all those reviews (1,273 over 10 years---so I've worked for it!). It is a little hurky-jerky probably from my lack of skill, and not because I have the shakes or was woozy. People have said that some of my Amazon videos were very movement oriented and made them ill, to my chagrin; I'm hoping that this one is enjoyable. From my point-of-view (taking it and making it) it seemed meditative and peaceful...If anyone has any filming tips for me, I'm so open to them.

I'm posting this early because I will be walking in my garden on Sunday, too, and it seemed a fitting end to what is for many people a noisy and crazy weekend. Not here. We don't do noisy here. Crazy is another matter. I treasure the peace and sounds of nature that I experience in my garden. I thought you might like something calming and soothing before the week starts.

So r--e--l--a--x...I hope you feel good as you stop to smell the flowers...this video is 5:40 long:

Moss and Hoes

For those of you who live in the country, this may be of interest. Then again, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you probably already know this. If you live in another part of the country, you're probably glad you don't live here :) Another step in our moss removal from our driveway yields...well...poor results :(

Hoes

Here is a video I did about my life post-NaNoWriMo via YouTube. This is a high-quality video (hopefully not blurry...I'm striving to improve with YouTube) and I'm expecting it to load quickly and display well.

I'm also experimenting with a few special effects (just a few) to make my Friday night more exciting. And yours as well.

I've noticed that with YouTube my videos can be a little longer. It takes less than an hour to process from beginning to end, even for a longer video, whereas Blogger took much longer and was unreliable and buggy, often necessitating loading and reloading for hours. Thus, I'm a YouTube fan :)

I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend!



UPDATE: Video quality is much improved, but still has a way to go...all suggestions welcome!

Homemade Fire Starters

This is obviously not a Thanksgiving post like the umm...7 posts below this (yes I went a little crazy, but just a little...just call me super duper grateful!) but since some of you might be sitting by the fire, I thought it might be useful. This video will be of interest to you only if you have a fireplace or woodstove and would like to learn how to make homemade fire starters. The video is just over 2 minutes long:



Sorry about that constant hum in the background. That was my roof being cleaned. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have to clean our roofs or else the moss will grow under the shingles and actually pull them up. I'll bet you didn't know that unless you've lived here :)

My Garden

Here are some pictures of my garden. All this is the work of our creative and very artistic garden angel Angela, and Hubbie. It was originally designed by my friend D.






~All pictures by Me except for the Foxgloves by Hubbie Mark

A Walk On My Driveway In Pictures

Since I've hurt my knees, I've had to walk on flat surfaces. Thus, I've been walking up and down my driveway, which is 1/4 mile round trip. I end up walking about 5 miles a day there, but spread out over the whole day. Here are some pictures from my walk yesterday, and ending with a few from tonight. I hope they load quickly...and of course, that you enjoy them. I've been impressed with people's photoblogs of their trips. Even though I haven't gone anywhere, my driveway is pretty special, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here I am starting out:




Below is a yew tree that is hundreds of years old. They are apparently somewhat rare and "symbolic of sadness", according to Wikipedia. We have two that I know of on our property. It does look a little sad, but lovely, doesn't it?



Now this is how my driveway curves---back and forth---leisurely and beautifully.




Towards the end there is a small scenic field bordered by tall trees.




Sometimes the trees are dead, but they still stand tall and can eventually become "snags" for wildlife to inhabit. This tree is not yet a snag, but it's definitely on its way out. I still like how it looks.




This is one of my favorite trees. I think it's a maple. D will know and tell me :) I have two views of it, because it's just so gorgeous:





I'm almost back at the house. Here is our graveyard for our beloved pet chickens who have died: Henny Penny, Harriet, Harriet 2, Ebony, Angelina, and Clementine.




Here is the same driveway this evening. I love how the light shines through the trees. It's a long band that cuts across the driveway,




and through the field,




Here are two closeups of the band of light from the setting sun:





And here I am positioned right in the center of the light band with my back to the setting sun. I like the effect of the long shadow. I did this on purpose:




I hope you enjoyed the walk. Not as glamorous as some trips, but in its own way, spectacular.


~Pictures by Me with My Newly Found Camera

Big Snowflakes

We are currently having a snowstorm in Washington with humongous snowflakes. Ginormous snowflakes. Then the sun comes out. Then it snows some more. Then it snows while the sun is out.



Here are some pictures I took with my cell phone of my front and back yard. The heavy flakes fall s-o s-l-o-w-l-y from the sky.

That's the most interesting thing happening here.

Keeping the Home Fires Burning

I've learned a lot lately about the practice of firewood management. Our home in the woods is heated by firewood. You'd think this would be pretty straightforward, but it isn't if you've never lived in the country before. Monday I started a small fire in the house trying to dry out our wet wood. Previously, due to improperly burning wet wood and "green" wood (which is not actually green, just not "seasoned" or aged outside for at least six months), we stained our white ceilings with black sooty patterns that follow the beams of the construction work on our house. Plus we were cold a lot of the time, since wet wood and green wood just don't burn well.

We bought a wood hoop to dry our wood indoors and I developed a rotation and drying system for doing so. First I bring the wood in...er, well, hubbie does. And he stacks in in the round log rack. Then I stack the split pieces in front and alongside the woodstove. The fire on Monday allowed me to discover and correct for a bug in that wood drying system. Now I stick them far enough away from the woodstove so that when they fall over, they won't hit the woodstove and catch fire. Throughout the day I turn the pieces so that they dry, which takes about 1-2 days. In the meantime we burn purchased (manufactured) wood from Safeway. I rotate the pieces so that the ones that come "up" are the dryest ones. I think I've gotten it down now. It is a small success, but one that gives me an amount of satisfaction disproportionate to its size. Now, to train hubbie in that system!

~Picture by Husband Mark