glimpsesbymelanie

I have two big dogs, Obi Wan Kenobi (brown) and Charley (black and white).

Obi Wan is 8 years old, Charley is about 2 years old. For safety reasons I have to keep them in a fenced yard. Early in the morning, around sunrise I take the two of them out to the pond and fields for a run. Charley runs like the wind for awhile then, plunges into the pond and swims around a bit. He jumps out and take off running again. The closest Obi gets to the water is to get a drink. When there are frogs around the edge of the pond Charley jumps and stomps at them to make them jump into the water. It is a wonderful way to begin my day.

I have always loved being outside. This is one of my three ponds. I have an old lawn chair on the bank where I sit and watch the dogs and listen to the avian choir. That early in the morning the fish are jumping as well as the frogs. This is also when I talk with my maker. It is my church. I can clean all the cobwebs from my brain, wash the sorrows from my soul and lift up my prayers to God to give us the strength to get us through these hard times. This is the sunshine on my shoulders.

I truly hope you have a special place where you can go within your heart and soul and build your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Through our faith and love we will get through this.

In case you don’t know it, my birthday is New Years Day. I usually spend that day celebrating with my daughters. Sharon Anne, my first born, lives in Orlando, Fl. and Mary Beth, my second born, lives in Phoenix, AZ. This year we celebrated with a cruise to the Bahamas and what a celebration it was. I am there, I was taking the photo.

I know this is after the fact but, my site is changed and I am trying to figure out how to post this to facebook and my email followers. If you get this will you please put a comment so I will know it went out. Just say, “I got it.” I hope you will have access to all my writings.

I haven’t written anything here since August last year. My piece was titled, “Waiting for the storm”. I went to the dictionary on my computer for a definition of storm and this is what I found.

1. a violent disturbance of the atmosphere
2. a tumultuous reaction
3. an uproar or controversy
4. move angrily or forcefully in a specific direction
5. suddenly attack and capture

Seeing these definitions it seems to me we are in a storm now. We have been told to stay in, hunker down and stock up on needed supplies. It seems to me that we are in the midst of the biggest storm I have experienced in my 80 year lifetime.

In these times we need to reach our to our loved ones. We don’t have to leave our homes to do this. A long time ago we wrote letters, sent cards and called each other on the phones. We can still do these things and we have new ways of communicating with technology, emailing, texting, skyping etc.

My site has gone through an update and I am trying to figure how to do things I use to do such as add photos. Now that I have all this time on my hands I will be writing more. Here’s hoping everyone stays well during these trying times. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you will do it again.

So do you listen to the weather reports?  Do you take bets on how accurate they are, will it rain, will it storm, will there be strong winds or will it be a beautiful day?  I don’t know about you but it seems to me that the predictions were more accurate before they got all the new doppler radar and fancy equipment.  Many times when they say we will have rain we don’t get it.  I know they don’t mean in my area or on my farm they just mean somewhere.We have been needing some showers to water the gardens and wet the ground a little and add some fresh water to the ponds.

  I went out to the mailbox this afternoon as I do daily.  I turned around and was headed back to the house when it sounded like a lot of traffic coming  up the road.  I got to where my car was parked and stood there.  The sound got louder and louder.  All of a sudden I knew what the sound was, the wind began to blow, the leaves began to fly and the temperature dropped about ten degrees.  I stood my my car, closed my eyes for a minute, as dust, twigs, and leaves were hitting me and just stood there and felt the wind on me.  It was very exciting.  I looked overhead and saw that I was under  a giant oak tree that, if the wind hit it just right, could drop a big limb on top of me.

I decided to move.

I actually thought that maybe I should go inside but I had this feeling of rejuvenation welling up inside me. It hadn’t begun to lightning so I stayed a little longer. I had a little talk with God and reminded Him , not that He needs reminding, how much the ground needed some moisture, as well as the trees and other plants. I stood there awhile longer listening and watching the wind move everything around. Finally, I decided to go into the house. I wasn’t in there two minutes and the clouds opened up and dropped a down pour on us. I was very thankful.

Don’t you hate when that happens.  It is nearly 5:00 in the morning and I have not been able to go to sleep.  I am not worried about anything but I just can’t get my mind to relax and let my eyes close.

It has been a very long time since I last wrote on this site.  My daughters no longer live in the same state so it means more traveling.  I don’t mind that because I love to travel.  I have been on cruises, they have been on cruises but in December of 2018 we went on our first cruise together.  My daughters went, my grandson and his girlfriend and the inlaws of my younger daughter.  We went to the Caribbean Islands.  I would like to cruise with them again.  My grandson actually surfed aboard the ship.  There is about anything you could ever want to do on cruise ships.

I am still working at the library, doing photography and doing my woodworking.  I have recently started going to concerts and really enjoying them.  We started a book club at the library and that is going well.  Once a month on a Friday night we host a game night for the community.   We cook a meal, the people buy the food and then they play games, mostly card games.  It is a lot of work but it gets the townspeople together for a good time.  There was an old piano in the building that didn’t work so I took it apart and made a place to put dishes and things.

I am going to stop for now.  It is almost time for me to take the dogs out for their run.  I hope you enjoy reading this blog.  I promise to write again soon.  Maybe I’ll tell you about the newest endeavor, wine making.  Talk to you later.

Gee whiz!  I can’t believe the last post I wrote was August 24th.  I knew I had been busy but, that’s ridiculous.  Since I wrote about loving the weather we have had a hot spell, dry spell. rain spell, another hot spell and now, once again it is the weather I love.  Autumn is my favorite time of the year.  ( I think I have said that before).

Soon it will be the holidays and we will be traveling.  We may be traveling to the homes of friends and family to share meals, laughter, joy and love.  I love the festive part of the season but, not the commercial part.  I would love to feel the thrill that I felt as a child.  We didn’t get big expensive toys.  I remember always getting underwear.  It was so special just being together, going to my Grandparents, eating a huge meal, although a kid can’t seem to overeat.  I loved going into the woods and finding just the right tree.  We always had cedar.  We would decorate it with big colored balls, lights, rope and those twisted metal icicles that were blue, green, red, gold and silver.  The first gift that went under the tree was to my Mom from my Dad.  The card said, “To Sugar Babe”.  It was the last gift after all the rest had been given out.  We all knew what it was.  Oh, the memories.

Okay, it is time to come back to the present.  We aren’t having a game night this month because people have too much to do.  We are having another luncheon December 5th.  The menu will be similar to last year, finger sandwiches, salads, desserts and drinks.  It will be from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Old City Hall.  There will be a charge.  It will be in the News Democrat and on the radio.  There will also be flyers around town.

On December 12th there will be a Christmas Bazaar from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Old City Hall.  There will be a lot of vendors with all kinds of handmade items.  There will be food and drink.  Come and do your shopping with us.

I am going to sign off for now.  Since I can’t slow time down I really will try to slow myself down enough to write again soon.   I do want to leave you with a thought:  There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.  Until next time.  Melanie

It has been 20 days since I last wrote down my thoughts.  I have had plenty of them, I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and write.  I have really been busy.  I have been working on things to raise money for out library.  It takes a lot of time to plan and prepare for events.  Thank goodness I have excellent volunteers who help.  We had our most successful “Game night” to date last Friday night.  Our crowd is growing and we are very thankful.  Our next event, “Street Fair” is going to be on Saturday September 12th from 8:00am to 3:00pm.  We will have vendors selling handcrafted items, food and games.  There will be live music from 1 to 3 PM.

I put a shop of my handcrafted wood items on Etsy a couple of weeks ago.  Here is a sample of what I do.  I also make pens, pencils, seam rippers, letter openers, chain pulls and key chains.  After I had a couple of sales I needed to add some more photos of new items.  In the meantime, I got the bright idea to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  BIG mistake.  My software that I use to download and edit my photos didn’t work anymore and that wasn’t all.  I spent 3 days sitting at my computer trying to make things work like they had with Win 7.  I was about to the point of reverting back.  I think I have figured things out now.  I am a stubborn old Coot.

We had gotten baby chicks this spring to raise.  They are really beautiful.  I don’t remember the breed names but, I think one of them is Rhode Island Red.  They were supposed to have been sexed.  Someone didn’t know what they were doing because out of 16 we had 3 roosters.  When they finally got large enough we could tell which ones were roosters the largest one began being a little aggressive.  As he grew (beautifully) into full blown rooster hood he got more aggressive.   When we went outside we had to carry a stick.  After he jumped a friend from behind one afternoon it was decided that we had a big pot he would fit into.  He has been cooked but, not eaten yet.  Beauty is not everything.

I have gone on long enough for now.  I hope you had a great weekend.  I intend to enjoy this wonderful weather we are going to have this week.  I will leave you with this thought for now;  No action will bring you no change.   Until next time.

Well, I have spent the last two days in my workshop getting things made to display at Daymar Thursday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.  They are having a craft fair.  Here are 3 ice cream scoops, 1 pizza cutter, 3  1 tbs coffee scoops, 3  2 tbs coffee scoops and 2 of my favorite pens.  I will have other things for sale that day, several kinds of pens and pencils, letter openers, seam rippers, key chains and chain pulls.  I love working with the different kinds of wood.  One kind I have smells like chocolate when I am turning it.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with some of the volunteers at the library.  We have lots of things to talk about with our fundraisers.  There will be bingo at the old city hall Saturday afternoon from  1 to 4 PM.  I expect to have a lot of fun.  Feel free to come join us.  I would be very glad to see you.

I saw something on the internet the other day about an older woman that said there were 5 things she wished they had done.  She said:  !). I wish I had allowed myself to be happier.  2)  I wish I had stayed in touch with friends.  3).  I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.  4)  I wish I didn’t work so hard.  5)  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.  Do you feel this way?  Are you happy?   Have you contacted an old friend lately?  Do you express your feelings or do you hold them in?  Are you always working and don’t allow time for being joyful?  Are you living your life as you really are.  I hope you can stop, reflect and look into your heart and find how you can do these things.  I hope you have a wonder week.  I wan to leave you with this thought:  “Look for the GOOD in everything and you will find it”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines passion as very strong emotion, an intense sexual love, or an intense enthusiasm for something.  Do you have one passion or many?  I don’t know that I have many but, I do have several.  One of my passions is family.  As I’m sure you do too, I believe I have an extraordinary family. We are all over this country but we still stay in touch.  Another passion of mine is music.  I have been around it all my life and have found much peace, comfort and happiness in it.  When I was in the hospital there was a channel on TV that played wonderful music all night.  It had beautiful photographs displayed as it played.  I had it on every night.  The nurses came in every two hours to flush my port that the chemo was going through and this music helped me go back to sleep.  Music is good for my soul.

If you have seen my blog before you know that photography is another passion of mine.  One of my favorite things to photograph is nature.  I never cease to be amazed by it.  Just look at the colors,shapes and detail in natureEverywhere you look there is wonder and awe.

I also have a passion for living and, to me that means that I truly want to make a difference.  I want to bring a smile to the face of someone who is sad, I want to give hope to someone who is discouraged and I want to give my help to those that need it.

I would like to know what some of your passions are.  You can reply to my blogs whenever you like.  I would love to hear from you.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I will leave you with this thought:  Who you are makes a SHINING difference.

What did you think you were going to do this morning when you got up? If you are still employed you knew that you were going to work but, can you know what other things might happen to make your day go differently? Are you the type of person that has to plan every little thing and get bent out of shape if they don’t go that way?
I hope that somehow you can work some flexibility into all this. You know that old saying, “Everything happens for a purpose.” Do you believe that? We can’t always figure it out at the time but, eventually we will understand.

I began writing this morning and now it is evening.  I thought I might work in my workshop today but didn’t make it out there.  Someone responded that they didn’t know I made turned items.  I will be at Daymar College site in Russellville from 4-6 PM on August 6th with turned items for sale.

As you can see, I didn’t place these photos where they should be.  I will have to learn how to do it all over again.  I hope you had a great day.  Let me leave you with this thought, “Peace will come when the power opt love overcomes the love of power.” Jimi Hendrix