Saturday, January 15, 2011

Winter Creek

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was 45 degrees at noon, and the girls were antsy. Penny was verbally complaining. Belle just looks at you with that look. You know the one if you have animals. So I bundled up, fired up my 4-wheeler to loud barks and yelps and dances of great approval, and pocketed my camera.Here is the view from my place .




Bob has been running the girls for a long while now, as I find the cold makes the sinus infection I have had worse. I try masks, but the cold on my face really hurts. He has been talking about "tracks through the creek the whole way, in slush that has hardened." I said what kind? He thought raccoon. I think he's right. But the odd thing is the tracks go back and forth. Wonder what that little critter was up to?





Maybe this coon is old, like me. Maybe it goes one way, then forgets what it was after and then turns back again. One thing is sure, he's making tracks!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Twenty Eleven and the lottery

So we've made it to another year.

When the promise of a new year fresh and clean stretches before us, it feels like a storm has passed. The sun comes out and there are rainbows and bluebirds...

It rained today. Ah, well. It held off this morning long enough for me to wash the bird poop off the truck. Bluebirds?

Monday I go back to work, and I did enjoy my time off. I feel better, and finally took the last of the antibiotics today. I have read a few books, the one I am currently reading I am passing on to my brother, and my nephew if they haven't already read it. Charles Kuralt's AMERICA. He spends a year going back to the places he loved while traveling the country for CBS.
January was New Orleans, but February was Key West. Nostalgia set in. March was Charleston, S.C., and April , New York and Virginia combined. But, May was Grandfather Mountain, N.C. I have been there as well and could see what he wrote in my minds eye. He said, " I have always felt at home in the mountains. I don't know why."
I get that. I love the sea and the Keys, but the mountains settle me.
He proceeds to talk about the things my brother and I always talk about in the woods. The flowers and the trees, a woodpecker a raven, or a deer. Which bird was that, or did you hear that? Thats an owl. Kuralt says, "I can't identify many birds by their calls, one of the gaps in my knowledge I want to correct someday. I'd rather know bird songs than French."
I get that too. I spent months tracking and marking turtles here on my property. Each time I would spot one was like finding treasure.
The next chapter will be Alaska, a place I have always thought I would like to see. My 'bucket' list has visiting all the National Parks as my #1 to do in the still 'long' list. Riding in a hot air balloon is another. I figure I have plenty of time...
Bob and I play the Mega Millions, and one thing we love to do is talk about what we would do if we won. Our first thought is always family. My siblings and his would all benefit as would our neices and nephews. There would be no worry about houses and vehicles, for they all would be able to afford both, as well as college for the children. It's a lovely mind game we play, and as Bob says, 'someone's got to win, why not us?'
What a different world 2011 would be if we were to win the lottery, although beleive it or not, I would finish the year at school because of the little guy I am responsible for, and Bob would finish the jobs he has set. Then he starts designing a fishing boat, but I want a deck boat.Ok, both !
And so the game goes. If you can't dream, why have a mind?
I have already won the lottery of life in so many ways, and I am thankful and grateful for each new day and for all my family and friends.
But seriously, Mega Millions would be a blast !
~~~~~~~~~~

About Me

My photo
union hall, S.W.Virginia, United States
Newly retired from Franklin County Public Schools.Prior to that I was a cosmetologist for several years.