worship in the great outdoors

So will I build my altar in the fields,

And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,

And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields

Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

HMMPH!

OUCH!

SHE IS SO MEAN!

SNOT.

it's summer by the bay...wish you were here

my westie--- the chick magnet

if i was gay, or a guy looking to meet ladies, i would definitely use brodie as my chick magnet.

all you have to do is take him out for a walk, and it never fails.

some woman will cross the street,

or come off her porch,

or, as was the case tonite,

stop her vehicle to approach and shmoozle up my dog.

the other nite it was 2 women on riverside drooling over him and raving about his cuteness!

he draws women like no bogo sale i've ever experienced!

hmmm....guess i better not let dennis out for solo walks with the brodester. might lose both of 'em...

sacre bleu!!

it's bastille day!!

but i have to go to work?!?

Zut!!

plus it's lundi, the longest day of the week....

before and after

these were fun flowers to play around with except for the glads.

they are so stiff and like to stick out like sore thumbs.

have never liked them much anyway--all those years of having to dump out old funeral flowers while cleaning the church in grade school turned me off glads--every arrangement was glads and carnations stuck in a papier mache vase like stiff soldiers.

boring.

it's deja vu all over again

niagara road trip today

my trip up north to niagara today brought this cartoon to mind.

actually it wasn't a bad trip, but for the entire 65 miles, or so it seemed, i was trapped behind a meandering caravan of tourists, most of them with illinois plates.

the group in front of me would pull off into a local junque shop or ice cream place and another several would then pull out in front of me as a wagon train of suv's, big sedans, and tundra handlin' trucks. (apparently gas prices are not a concern for them.)

gas at the local station in niagara on the border with the u.p. was $4.24 a gallon----highest i've seen yet! hope the touristas brought plenty of gas cash or plastic so they can make their way home again...

remember the them music for the show "rawhide"?? caught myself humming it on my way thru wausaukee ;>)

"head 'em out, folks, some of us are workin' today"

my second career as garden consultant: why i am highly qualified....

have designed 2 projects this summer.

the first was a huge one for st. paul's church--couldn't have done it without den's help.

the second was a redesign of a yard/garden for a friend.

my "consultation visits" require sitting outside in the area under discussion with good coffee and something sweet.

i've 3 people on my waiting list.

(must get my new fence stained before having any more fun designing.)

the best part of this blossoming career is spending other people's money!!!

no, actually the best part is letting my creative self out of it's box---a life spent doing nursing as a career has been flexible, well-paying (well enough for me), and spiritually satisfying, since it is a form of ministry when done correctly----but, well, you have to do it indoors, don'tcha, and it's tough to get real creative with vaccines, syringes, s.t.d. paperwork, bedpans and i.v. tubing.

and the use of creative writing when doing documentation is pretty much verboten in all the places i've worked.

and i never once got to choose hospital room and bedding colors, or put together a selection of healing music to play to my patients.

so this other little gig i have going on, designing schemes, selecting plants, doing flower arrangements for people, is almost like giving them a gift from my little soul.

hope your "fourth" was filled with peace

This is my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the oceans,
And sunlight beams on every cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

Oh, hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

can't help myself...

i try not to blah, blah, blah-g about politics, religion, etc. because nobody really cares what the other guy thinks anyway. but seeing this on gma gave me heartburn.

a grand jury decided not to press charges on this man, joe horn, who killed 2 men who were in process of burglarizing his neighbor's house.

if you have a chance, go to the gma website and watch the video clip. the 911 call tape chilled my blood.

he shot 2 people in cold blood and there will be no charges filed.

did i mention it happened in texas? and that the 2 burglars were illegal aliens?

ah, then, never mind. perhaps they are expendable...less than human in the eyes of many upstanding folk...maybe if they had bothered to learn our language they could have screamed "don't shoot! don't shoot! we are unarmed!".

(i am being extremely sarcastic. and i am done now.)