The Life of Mrs. Miles

HEAVY METAL KIT - alphas

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A blissfully uneventful and satisfying day, yesterday. Simply raked my little heart out down on the bottom level of the property. Its a flat, wide section which used to be a railway bed in the olden, golden days. My rake swept away a great depth of cottonwood leaves, opened up underneath the trunks and combed the grasses into long tresses, like a pale golden horses mane. Raking is very rewarding to me. It's good for my soul. To be in the elements and listen to the lapping waves and little animals scurrying about really relaxes me. I forgot to mention that when Becky and I were on our walk on Wednesday we heard a great scurrying and we stood still for several minutes, to discover THREE squirrels chasing each other in a humourous tag game!

Another thing I saw, was while I was eating my lunch on our patio yesterday - two birds, I assumed a mom and baby, though the baby was strangley bigger and puffier than the female. The female had a red stripe on her head and was kept busy placing food in the other's mouth. Bonnie informed me later that in all liklihood it was a female bird feeding a male - I did not know they did this!

RURAL FARM SCENE

I also saw a 'bird first' for me on Wednesday, when working with Bonnie, too - which I neglected to mention. It was colored grey and orange and had a very cool song. Bonnie and Roman told me it is a Say's Phoebe, and she's a returning bird. Used to be she had a mate and they would make their nest inside the garage. Later on, when they had babies, the babies would hang out in a building next door, spending most of their time perched atop some old stored windows. We did not see any mate along with her this year tho. You can learn more about the Say's Phoebe and hear her song by clicking HERE

CHOKE CHERRIES IN BLOSSOM

Our forth Picasa Photography class last night - and people are just soaking it up. It takes over a good hour just to set all the computers, projector and equiptment up, and print out class notes - but its worth every second. Our 'students' - every one is an adult, none younger than 35 - some seniors... every single one is benefitting from the course and its so rewarding to see their faces light up! Last night's lessons covered creating web albums, emailing pictures and printing. Google makes it so easy, for free!

SASSY STARLING! right in my window!

My heart is moved to speak of hope today. Seems to me that without hope, we simply exist. Simply existing is not living. We all need to believe there's more to life than just breathing and eating and getting through each day. Some days are TOUGH, so if we don't identify our HOPE... we are distracted by the little nigglers that rob us of our JOY.

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My hope is in my Lord an Saviour. When the small icks in life overwhelm, I work hard to fix my eyes upon Him - and its' like the old song says:

So turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

My good friend Becky has been periodically publishing some exerpts of Voice of the Martyrs on her blog - and they always bring focus to me. When I get caught up in the minutea of daily life, hearing what some people have to go through, merely to proclaim their faith in public - it humbles me - and gives me new hope that there's something much more profound than today's problems... that what others go through in the name of God, makes my troubles pale in comparison. Won't you pray for these brave, courageous and faithful people? I promise, while you're praying for others, our own problems seem to fade away! Who of us, in the Western Hemisphere can even imagine being BEATEN and TORTURED for merely proclaiming our faith?

Why restless, why cast down, my soul?

Hope still, and thou shalt sing

The praise of Him who is thy God

Thy health's eternal spring.

-Nahum Tate

Trust the past to God's mercy,

the present to His Love,

and the future to His providence.

- St Augustine

IF WE LOVE GOD, OUR DEVOTION WILL NOT REMAIN A SECRET.

"Let your light shine before men in such a way

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father who is in heaven. "

Matthew 5:16

Today in History:

0330 - Constantinople founded

1752 - 1st US fire insurance policy is issued - in Philadelphia

1792 - Columbia River discovered & named by American Capt Robert Gray

1850 - Work starts on 1st brick building in SF

1858 - Minnesota becomes 32nd state

1871 - John Herschel - cataloguer of southern hemisphere stars - dies at 79

1916 - Einstein's Theory of General Relativity presented

1929 - 1st regularly scheduled TV broadcasts (3 nights per week)

1947 - BF Goodrich manufactures 1st tubeless tire - Akron - Oh

1951 - Jay Forrester patents computer core memory

Birthdays in History:

1722 - Peter Camper, anatomist

1888 - Irving Berlin, dreaming of a white Christmas

1904 - Salvador Dal¡, surrealist

And here's a handy hint which Bonnie told me about when gardening the other day. If you are working in those heavy leather gloves which gap at the wrist - simply snip the tube off of an old pair of socks and slide them up your arms, elimenating the gap! This saves you getting itchy bits in your glove fingers.

BARB'S HANDY TIP #259

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