Camera Critters 43

It's Camera Critters time!

Today it's birding in the backyard featuring the Eurasian Collard Dove.

We have a pair of Eurasian Collard Doves that visit us every morning.

They are beautiful.
One is camera shy.
The other seems to like having his picture taken.

They were the last of the birds to return after the hurricane.

Eurasian collared doves have been expanding their range for centuries through natural dispersal and human introduction. These natives of India began showing up in Turkey about 400 years ago, then moved into China and Japan. They arrived in Europe in the early 1900’s, in Britain by mid-century.

A caged-bird breeder brought Eurasian collard doves to the Bahamas in the mid-1970s, and those birds were released into the wild during a burglary. They spread to Florida by the late 1980s and to Louisiana by the early 1990s. The Texas Birds Records Committee first documented the birds in 1995, and today they are in every coastal county and throughout the state, though more prevalent in urban than in rural areas.

(Information from an article written by Gary Clark for the Houston Chronicle. Pictures were taken by me and Mr. Dragon on Thursday, January 29, 2009 in our backyard.)

I Have A Cold

What a title for a post! I Have A Cold. Well, I do. And this too shall pass. I know that. Meanwhile, I feel sorry for myself!

Quite a lead in for Surrendering to Creative Cycles, the next chapter in The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. The cold is a cycle of sorts -- it will end and I'll feel better about everything! Cycles I understand. By the time you have lived 5 decades on the earth, cycles became a part of you. Listening to the moon. Enjoying the seasons. Which brings me around to another quote I remind myself of often. It comes from Gardening At The Dragon's Gate. It goes something like this: "all four seasons of the year are present in the span of one day. Thus, spring is the dawn of the day, full summer is high noon, autumn falls at dusk and father winter oversees the midnight hour." Life is the same. I'm at the end of summer and entering autumn. I am nearing a crone and proud of it. I actually believe, at times, that I will make a terrific wise woman!

Creativity follows cycles, too. I wasn't very creative this last week and I'm blaming it on my cold, but I did get one journal page done.



This is Teddy. I moved the chair so that I could put my journal in it to take a picture. He decided that it was his chair and if any picture was to be taken it would be of him. Look at his eyes! Too funny!

Monday was the Lunar New Year 4707 - the year of the Ox. I am an Ox -- calm, hard working, with a resolve and a tenacity that at times is tiring! I didn't like how my stencils in the corners turned out -- too much paint (even though I thought I used very little) so I wrote over them.

My word for the year is LISTEN. There's a message to the cycles in my life -- LISTEN!

Happy Day Everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's the year of the Ox and I'm an Ox. I'm looking for good things as I will also celebrate my 60th birthday during the year. YeeeeeHaaaaaw!!!!

Camera Critters 42

It's Camera Critters time again. We've gone from the zoo (last week) back to our own back yard this week. These pictures were all taken earlier in the year and perhaps last year. At any rate, before Hurricane Ike. Seems like we are dating everything BI (before Ike) or AI (after Ike). I am pleased to report that all our bird friends made it through the storm and are back in our backyard at feeding time.

Ma and Pa cardinal have raised several little ones from a nest
in our duranta. Dad is sitting on a cage that we had
around a lime tree.

Mourning Dove


We were out working in another area of our postage stamp
backyard and were late feeding.
Normally, we do not feed on the ground, but the
birds were in such a hurry and making such a racket
that we tossed seed wherever!

Blue Jay and Sparrow

See you next week!

Engaging Your Creativity

Today the group at The Next Chapter is talking about Engaging Your Creativity, Chapter 3 in the book 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. I read a few of the comments this morning that my fellow members made, and found that I wasn't the only one who wasn't turned on by this chapter. Some of this may be my age. I'll be 60 this year and I've been through the pains of working in jobs that didn't interest me and spent a lot of time wondering where I'd gone wrong. I just fell into my profession. I worked in a hospital while I was going to university and once I graduated I just continued in the medical profession. I made a living wage and met Mr. Dragon - so not all was bad. And, it wasn't bad, just didn't *turn me on*. But I was successful enough to be able to retire (thank you Mr. Dragon), became a professional volunteer, which I really enjoyed, working with Ronald McDonald House, art centers, humane shelters. It really wasn't until the last 10 years that I've been able to do what I really wanted to do -- Asian art. Again, it's volunteer (mostly) -- doing research for the curators in asian art and is especially exciting right now because the galleries are moving into larger space. Lot's of research to do and I love it. I get to "lecture" (with a very little L) to the docents and try to teach them why I am so excited by this art -- ancient and modern.

I did relate to Jolen Godfrey (Independent Means, Inc.) when she said, 'For the last 20 years, I have watched when I have begun to bounce off walls, and that's real information that things are not great. Rather than put up with a really dysfunctional, unhappy life, I have at least been able to say, 'Uh-oh, things aren't right here, and I need to find something that will make me sane and more at peace with myself." Amen! That's usually when I'd start a new yarn project of some kind and escape into the meditation of the project -- calm, serene work.

I did find a few quotes that I especially liked, but have to say that my favorite was one by Dolly Parton, "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain."

This brings me back to last week and my list of things I love. I prepared the journal page (above) and have started to list them there (sorry,no picture -- I ran out of time today). Here they are (so far):

• teddy bears
• museums (all kinds)
• books, libraries, used book stores
• dragons, wizards, fairies, magic, science fiction, fantasy
• laughter
• art, yarn, crochet, knitting
• nature, birds, trees, critters, oceans, rivers, snow, flowers, waterfalls
• kitties,puppies, pets
• tea, tea pots
• soup
• Buddhism, meditation
• the color green
• anthropology
• the zoo
• chickens, deer
• cookies, jamoca almond fudge ice cream
• chocolate
• candles
• ceramics, hand built/thrown pots
• butterflies, dragon flies
• Chinese and Thai food, sushi
• music
• pink plastic flamingoes
• picnics
• college baseball, hot air ballooning
• champagne
• gardens
• snowmen
• walking barefoot

I'll leave you today with a quote from OFFERINGS: Buddhist Wisdom For Everyday:

"On the day that you were born, you began to die.
Do not waste a single moment more!"
~Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche