Monday, April 23, 2012

Weather Whiplash

Yesterday was beautiful, although it was was too hot for this time of year.  The bees were buzzing happily in the blossoms and it felt like Spring had finally arrived.

But by early afternoon clouds had moved in and it started to rain lightly.  As I left my studio to walk down to my house, it was snowing lightly and my poor little witch weather vane was getting cold!  The weather people are predicting snow only above the 7,000 foot level so, hopefully this bit of snow will turn to rain. 

I had more pictures for this post, but ... (don't read any further, dear readers, I'm going to yell) ... BLOGGER WOULD NOT POST THEM!!!  BLOGGER, THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, NOTHING, WRONG WITH THE OLD FORMAT....QUIT FIXING THINGS THAT AREN'T BROKEN!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Seeing Beauty...and Other Things

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucuis

This is a close-up of a Pepper Tree. They don't grow up here, but they grow all over down in the San Bernardino Valley. In the upper center of the hollow I see what looks like the little face of something...Other. I also see what looks like a tiny hand with one finger upraised. I didn't see it until I uploaded the photo. Maybe it's the tree's spirit, or its guardian spirit. Or maybe it's just a trick of the light. Hmmmm...

Monday, April 16, 2012

Just One?

Even though it looked like this up here just two days ago, the snow is melting really fast.

In a sunny, protected spot, these violets are already free of the snow and doing just fine. These are special violets, so I'm much more grateful that they made it through the snow storm. Why are they special? Not because they're a unique hybrid or anything like that. They're just regular garden violets, but I transplanted them from my mother's garden...and she's not in this world any more. She passed in January of 1994. Every year, fewer of the violets bloom and the size of the patch shrinks, even though I never pick any so each blossom can make a seed head. I suppose someday soon there won't be any blooms at all and, while that won't be a huge tragedy, the joy in my world will be a little less for their passing.


Maybe I should pick just one blossom and press it?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Completely Crazy

O wind, where have you been,
That you blow so sweet
Among the violets
Which blossom at your feet.
The honeysuckle waits
For Summer and for heat
But violets in the chilly Spring
Make the turf so sweet.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

The violets and the other flowers which are blooming right now (not many; just daffodils and a few tulips) are soon to covered under a not so comfortable blanket of snow and buffeted by not so sweet winds. We got a mix of rain, snow and sleet yesterday, nothing today, but the weatherman has predicted that the mountains where I live will get 8 inches to a foot and a half of snow tomorrow. At least my apple trees haven't blossomed out yet, thank goodness. Snow is not unusual for April up here, but usually we don't get so much of it.

I wish the weather would go back to behaving the way it did when Ms. Rossetti (1830 - 1894) lived. I'm sure spring was still unpredictable back then, but I know it wasn't as crazy as it is now!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Reason For Cats

"Cats were put into the world to disprove the dogma that all things were created to serve man." Paul Gray

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

And the Insanity and Hatred Goes On...

The latest attack on women is over the Violence Against Women Act.
The last time this program was reauthorized, it passed nearly unanimously through the House and Senate — but incredibly, the ALL-MALE REPUBLICAN BLOCK on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted down the bill.


That's right: Republicans are now standing in the way of reauthorizing an incredibly popular and successful program that has reduced domestic violence rates by 58% since it was first passed in 1994.

Voting to defund Planned Parenthood, redefine rape, and block access to contraception has not been enough for anti-woman members of Congress — they now want to block funding for victims of domestic violence.
Although Republicans in the House blocked the first attempt to reauthorize this important program, a victory in the Senate would put more pressure on the House to pass the legislation.

There is a petition at CREDO to let the Republicans who are blocking this bill that their actions are unacceptable. Click below to automatically sign the petition:

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5542989&id=37722-4199556-W9NQq8x&t=10

Or, if you're not comfortable signing an on-line petition, please send an e-mail to your senators and representatives to let them know how outraged you are by the misogynistic actions of the men who are voting against this bill. 

5.1.14 - It did get saved, some time ago, thank goodness.
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