The Life of Mrs. Miles

November carries a beauty all of it's own... as I walk outdoors I notice the shift of lighting. The lake seems bluer – must be the contrast of the bright yellow leaves of the cottonwood trees in the foreground. Each leaf seems punched out crisply as they flutter precariously at the ends of each branch. The branches themselves give them up reluctantly – but when they do, the leaves dance away on the sharp, biting wind. They caper in the draughts as if they're playing to a conductor's wand as he directs a dramatic piece of music.

They settle in a golden layer, covering the green grass beneath. Once the ground begins to claim them, they start to fade to brown, in spots and splashes until eventually they're merely spidery brown skeletons upon a soggy stem. And then, they're nature's porrige – nutrients and a protection for the grass to be fed upon when spring is ushered in the following year.

On the trails I find an intriguing micro-world has come to life! What appears the eye as a blanket of mouldering brown fodder is suddenly tranformed to a three-dimentional mushroomscape! Due to the large mass their 'lids' hold, they simply lift whatever's on the roof when their stems push upward. The result is a canopy of leaves, grass and even gravel, ground – just off the ground. Its almost like a trick of the eye – only the persistant and patient eye gains the reward!

So this is part of the beauty that November has for me. Stay tuned for more!

Words of Wisdom I've read today:

Deuteronomy 32

1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain

and my words descend like dew,

like showers on new grass,

like abundant rain on tender plants.

3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,

and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong,

upright and just is he.

*****

I hope you enjoy this fall poem which came to my attention recently:

My father was first to hear

The passage of geese each fall,

Passing above the house so near

He'd hear within his heart their call.

And then at breakfast time he'd say:

“The geese were heading south last night,”

For he'd lain awake till day,

Feeling his earthbound soul take flight.

Knowing that winter's wind comes soon

After rushing off those wings,

Seeing them pass before the moon,

Recalling the lure of far off things.

Richard Peck

*****

My brother Barry (see my Sis-in-Law's blog) sent me these thoughts to ponder...

Only in America do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America ......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America ......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America ... .do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

EVER WONDER ....

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin ?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Barb's Rope Camping Elements

download

These are the last of the REQUESTS for rope elements I've recieved... please, leave a comment if you have a rope-y request, I'm game!

Barb's Handy Tip #314

Transform Pixel to Vector – online!

Wow – handy little site I must say! This would be of good use for some of you scrapbookers, in particular!

This site converts bitmap images to vector art - it's an online auto-tracer. Just upload your image and we will vectorize it for you. Vector art is useful because it allows you to scale an image without making it blurry or pixelated. Vectorization (aka tracing) is the process of converting a raster image to a vector image. Raster images are pixel-based, whereas vector images are represented by geometric shapes such as lines, circles and curves. The site is currently tuned for tracing logos and photos.

Input: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF

Output: EPS, SVG, PNG

(click words for some...)

VECTOR MAGIC