The Life of Mrs. Miles

JUDY BLUE BEADS

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Well, my husband plumb walked my little legs off yesterday. He'd invited me to come with him to school in Oliver - 20 minutes away, and promised me a walk with 'pretty scenery' at the end of it... Usually I walk with my Becks on Wednesday, which I missed, but a date with my hunny is tops on my list as I know it would be for Becks and L. We just loves our husbands as our best friends!

Well... I anxiously awaited the afternoon session to finish at school (1-3) anticipating the walk, polishing my lens on my camera, making sure I was ready for the great photography and the relaxing visit and walk. Little did I know it would actually be a mini-marathon... we walked for miles and miles and I would have mere seconds to snap photos and I would return to school with a damp, sweaty & smelly self...

I did get a FEW good photos though, which I will share tomorrow!

I received an email yesterday from Janet Barclay who's list (featured in House and Home magazine and which I put in Wednesday's blog) of which documents you should/shouldn't keep when spring cleaning... Janet sent this comment:

"Thank you for sharing my tips for managing personal documents! It's important to note that these are only guidelines, and appropriate government/institutional authorities should be consulted for specific policies and regulations. "

HANDMADE CAR FROM MY SISSIE NINA

We arrived home late, after school and the drive home and I checked the mail. What should I see in the box, but that bright red tag with a key that says there is a PARCEL in there... I'm getting more parcels at this new home than I got during our nine years at our old home - you think the postal people were just saving them up for me over the years? (LOL!)

It was a parcel from my sister Nina - a GOODIE PARCEL filled with special treats! Included were two nice coffee mugs (she sent some last Christmas but one BROKE in the mail :( ), some lovely scented candles (now distributed about the house and in the linen closets and EVERYWHERE, some special Vancouver Island teas and some Anna's biscuits - they taste like almonds and oranges and look like flower shapes! Ohhh Neens, thanks to you and your family for this... you sure spoil! And you sure know what I like! (HUG, HUG!)

OUR DAUGHTER MELANIE'S GARDEN

I'd asked our daughter Melanie to buy me a pair of gardening gloves from a discount store... and she did. Later, she phoned and asked if she might use them to plant a little garden of her own... I was tickled and said YES! She sent this photo of her little garden plot, from her cell phone. Its so sweet - she included a big catnip plant for our little Grandcat Winston. We want photos of the Grandcat with catnip Dear... by the way, your not getting our Grandcat hooked on anything are you???

MADISON AND JORDANA

Don't you just love their names? These are our two nieces who just got to do every kid's dream - got to Disneyland. Its funny but my sister-in-law Judy and I picked the exact same picture for our blogs - great minds think alike, right Sis? These are two cute girls and you can load up on pics and news of them by visiting Judy's blog by clicking HERE... (yes, this is who the kit is named for!)

ROBIN IN THE RAIN

It rained all day yesterday - we even got a good thundershower... it was awesome to cozy up in the house all morning, getting some indoor chores done. I feel safe in our sturdy new home, watching from the windows as the wind lashes the waves across the lake. It's a good reminder to me that it's like being under the wing - God is my shelter, while the storm rages all 'round. I 'specially love the peace after a rain, when the sun comes out and lights up the shiny clean earth... I feel the cleansing deep down within!

Every valley drinks,
Every dell and hollow:
Where the kind rain sinks and sinks,
Green of spring will follow.

Yet lapse of weeksBuds will burst their edges,
Strip the wool-coats, glue-coats, streaks,
In the woods and hedges.

by Christina Rossetti

"he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth."

2 Samuel 23:4

My friend Bonnie compiled a list for me of things she might do on a typical afternoon on the property - she has allowed me to share it with you:

April 19, 2007

THINGS I DID:

Picnic lunch in my Grotto (special place, peaceful area set aside for self)

Watered my trees and Boston Ivy

Picked up garbage along the lakeshore

Salvaged all the driftwood I could find

Re-enforced all my beaver barriers

Pulled out noxious weeds - digging roots up with a piece of bone I'd found

hounds tongue

knapweed

Found large rocks to re-enforce barriers at the base

THINGS I HEARD:

Cranes (Sandhill) flying north above me

Ring-necked Pheasant up in the bush

California Quail sneaking through dry leaves and underbrush

Waves gently lapping along the shore

tiny Frog, croaking

WHAT I SAW WHILE AT THE BEACH:

Deer tracks

Pair of nesting Mallard Ducks

Pair of common Merganzer Ducks

American Coots in a larger group - sticking together for protection from Bald Eagles

Chickadees

My "Lonely Loon" who comes every year

Osprey hunting for fish

many cobwebs, all spotted with tiny black flies

A cluster of mushrooms, the tops were cup shape, facing up, rather than down.

Saskatoon bushes in blossom

Sumac, starting to bud at the tops

Choke Cherry blossoms starting to form

Poplar leaves all new, shiny and sticky

Cave-like open area at base of old tree trunk, cherry pits covering its floor

Blue sky above me, with grey puffy clouds - to the NW & E, dumping intermittent showers

WHAT I DID'NT SEE

no people. no one around or on the lake

HOW I FELT WHILE AT THE BEACH

The calmness of being alone with nature

Grateful for who I am, where I live & what I have

The release of toxins from negative emotions; anger hurts, resentments & frustrations

Grateful to God for all the healing environment he has provided me.

Have you, like Bonnie, ever used nature and being alone to help you rest/relax/heal? Would you care to share? Why not send a comment and share your experience! You can comment or email me directly at lalalime.blogspot.com

Today in History:

1765 - 1st US Medical school opened

1797 - Jamaica discovered by Columbus

1830 - 1st regular steam train passenger service starts

1898 - Camp Merriman established at Presidio

1919 - America's 1st passenger flight (NY-Atlantic City)

1923 - 1st nonstop transcontinental flight (NY-San Diego) completed

1952 - 1st landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole

1971 - Natl non-coml Network Radio Begins Programming

1971 - Nixon administration arrests 13 -000 anti-war protesters in 3 days

Birthdays of Note:

1874 - Francois Coty, perfumemaker

1892 - Sir George Thomson, demonstrated electron diffraction (Nobel 1937)

1941 - Nona Gaprindasvili, of USSR world women's chess champ (1962-78)

BARB'S HANDY TIP #252

Online Video Guitar Lessons- using YouTube!

Truly - it does not get any easier than this.

You will find lots of useful guitar lessons and information here - it's all free, but if you can afford to donate then please do - it will help me to make the site bigger and better in the future.

JUSTIN GUITAR