World Harmony Run 2012 - USA

On our way to Missouri we drive thru a very small town called Wickliffe, Kentucky.  We’ve passed thru so many times we barely see it as we drive along – it’s our halfway point and we just want to keep moving.

Last time was different tho.  As we approached the “T” intersection we saw a man running up the hill towards the intersection carrying a flaming torch!  This was certainly different.  And in a parking lot at the intersection was a van with some logos on it. 

Of course we had to turn around to see what it was all about!  ;-)   As we pulled in, a different runner was heading out towards the bridge to Illinois.

The two remaining men were quite happy to talk to us.  They are part of a large team made up of member from all over the world who are taking part in the USA World Harmony Run… not (as one put it) any of that ‘world unity stuff! 

Basically, the run is to promote world harmony as in “we’re all different but let’s agree to disagree and just get along!”  They are invited to visit schools, churches, and other such places to talk about how we could all get along.

And we can agree with that. 

After an interesting visit, we all went our own ways.  On the way out we passed the runner as he crossed one of the bridges. 

As you read this, they will be in Amarillo, Texas.  If you are interested in learning more and/or seeing if they will be traveling thru near you (roughly a route that goes thru Amarillo – Santa Fe – San Diego – San Francisco – Seattle – Rapid City – Chicago and back to New York City), you can visit their web site at:  http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/usa  

Burning Energy!

I just had to share some photos of Little Hoss and Little Bird at the Chesterfield, Missouri park I mentioned yesterday. 

There is a really nice playground the babies love.  This shot is one of the few times they actually stood still!

There is one apparatus that has a series of tubes, ladders and runways.  The kids loved climbing around in it.  In fact, it was kind of hard to get them to leave…

“Oh no!  Here comes Mom!”

“You can’t catch me!  One step closer and I’m heading down this tube to the other side!”

“Is she gone yet??”

But when we mentioned it was time to go swing, they were outta there!

Those kids adore swinging.  Isn’t the look of determination on Little Bird’s face fun? 

She loves going fast and high….

Whipping hair and all…

Little Hoss wanted to swing with me for a while. 

If I could only plug into their energy for just a little bit.  Oh, the things I could get done…

Sis had a great idea of taking shots of the babies holding letters that spell out “Mamo” – their name for their grandma.  It took 3 cameras taking a LOT of photos to get the four we needed. 

Most of them were similar to this…

Hoss loves to climb “up”.  So on our walk down to the lake, he insisted on walking along the retaining wall.  He got a kick out of being ‘taller’ than me.  Won’t be all that long before he really is!

Best part of the day?

Just being with family.

The Awakening

I was in Missouri over Mother’s Day weekend and we made an outing with my sister’s family to a park in Chesterfield near the mall.  It’s a great park with a playground and a nice walking trail down to a lake.

And there is a wee bit of sculpture…

…tho the sculpture is not the least bit ‘wee’!  It is 70 feet long and 17 high at its highest point. 

It is called “The Awakening” by J. Seward Johnson (grandson of the founder of Johnson and Johnson Company).  It is depicting a giant struggling to come up out of the ground.  It reminds me of some of the Greek myths of the Titans. 

It’s a great place to take some fun photos. I’d love to take Little Bird and Little Hoss back for a photo shoot with some props to make some silly pictures.

 

These two are going to have to be framed up together!  LOL

Pinterest Inspired: Succulent Bird Bath Garden

I’m slowly working on getting my yard back into shape after neglecting it last year.  Our “bird garden” is one of the areas I’m really working on. 

A combination of cheap construction and being left out over the winter resulted in our large birdbath cracking and crumbling down one side.  The smaller two birdbaths are still in good shape.  I was prepared to throw the large one in the gully until I saw some fun succulent gardens on Pinterest. 

I had some succulents leftover from last year and I picked up a few more so I would have several different varieties.  .  Some of the plants are draping and a few will be more upright.  In a few weeks it should be very pretty.

I put down a layer of rock (leftover from my landscaping) to give drainage.  Then planting soil.  I spaced the plants around in a patchwork manner to give it visual interest. 

The two smaller bird baths will continue to hold water.  The fluttering of the visiting birds will splash water down on the plants.

The planter at the bottom is another Pinterest inspiration.  I used bags of garden soil for the base.  I stabbed holes all the way thru with a pitchfork for water drainage.  Then I wrapped the bags in weed cloth and cut away the top of both weed cloth and plastic bag. 

From there, I planted annual directly in them.  Then I mulched the bags.  The weed cloth wrap keeps the mulch from slipping off the mounds.

I love the way it turned out

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Shed Progress...

After bringing some order to the SE corner, we turned our attention to the NW corner.  We picked this area since it has the shelf that holds “things”.  And we need to put away a LOT of things. 

We cleared the floor area in front of the shelf and started getting containers set up to hold all of those “things”.  These old locker baskets are great for organizing, as are plastic shoe boxes. 

Even tho we are continuing to make progress in the shed although I’m starting to wonder if we’ll get it done.  There is so much to be done in there… and so many other things are demanding of our time and attention too. 

But it looks so much better than when I started… and I know I can and WILL get it done shortly, even if not by the 31^st. 

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Shades of Blue

One of the things we enjoy about watching our bird feeder is seeing birds we’ve never seen before.  We’ve had several unknown flying visitors this spring.

There are several of these bright blue birds coming to the feeder now. 

They are small… not much bigger than a wren.  And they aren’t in my book of “eastern” birds. 

Then the other day a bird smacked into the large window on the deck.  Himself went out and brought her/him to recover.

She/he was a beautiful shade of teal.  After admiring her for a while, we let her go.

Does anyone know what kind of bird these are?  Is this a male and female or two different birds?

Looking Thru Purple Colored Glasses...

In the early 90s one of my hobbies was writing pen pals.  Most of them were from overseas but I did have a few from the US. 

There was one US woman I had been writing only a short time, so we were still in the “getting to know you” phase where you are deciding if you have enough in common to be pen pals.  One day I got a letter that made the decision for me; for no particular reason this 20 something woman (with no children) ranted thru most of her letter to me about how much she hated Barney the Purple Dinosaur. 

She ended up with something on the order of “what do you think about it”? 

In my brief answering note, I said “I don’t watch Barney as his target audience is preschool children.”  And that was my last letter to her. 

Flash forward about 20 years. 

I now watch Barney. 

I have bought a Barney toy.

I sing the Barney song along with Little Bird and Little Hoss as we hold hands and sway to the music.

And I adore Barney… because those two sweet babies love Barney.  You know what… it’s OK. 

There have been criticisms leveled at the program that it is too nice and too sweet and too happy. 

Seriously??  Too happy??  Isn’t that what the world of a preschooler is supposed to be like?  Safe and happy and simple.  Soon enough they will be hitting school with the real world of bullies, and stress, and being made to feel inadequate. 

But not now… not yet. 

“I love you, you love me… we’re a happy family…” 

That’s what a pre-schooler needs.  And that is what Barney delivers.

 

 

 

 

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