What is new in MY World!

"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." - Martin Fraquhar Tupper

"I am never afraid of what I know." - Anna Sewell

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde

****************************

Have you seen birds in your neck of the woods already? Every morning I wake to the sounds of my own birds.. for the last few mornings I have listened as not only my own finches.. who are nesting.. sing... but also a number of yard birds singing a good morning as well..

I love birds.. I do have a few caged birds besides the chickens.. I have finches and dove.. and cockatoos.. I speak to them and they sing to me..

for several mornings now I have had early bird guests at the feeders just outside of my glassed in greenhouse-room-porch... they sing and chatter from their side of the glass.. My birds sing and chatter back.. one bird.. Lewis.. will stretch and show his beautiful wings to the wall of glass.. I think he might be saying that they are too near to his home..

If you look very close at the above photo you can just barely see a white dove sitting there.. she is rather hard to pick out.. every time I aimed at her with the camera she ducked down into the nest.. her mate was way over in the chicken yard gathering bits of fuzz and fluff.. they darted back and forth most of today.. flitting around.. avoiding me and the camera but stopping on top of the caged Dove every once in a while to coo back and forth with them..

Red birds and sparrows and house wrens.. some on the feeder and others ruffling around on the ground below.. the red birds tend to wait on the tree until there are a few of them and then they all swoop in together and take control of the feeders..

I was thinking that it was a little early for the spring birds to be back.. maybe they know more about the weather than I do?.. maybe they came back early to get the best birdhouse or nesting spot?.. But for what ever reason my yard has been filled with birdsong for more than a week..

I will set out saucers of water and clean and refill all the feeders.. I want my feathered friends to feel welcome when they visit here in My World! Have a great night!

Patsy

Guilty Pleasures~ Ten On Tuesday!!

"Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings." ~ Euripides

"Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil." ~ Plato

"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do." ~ Voltaire




Ten On Tuesday asks us today to name ten of our guilty pleasures.. I personally have more than ten to choose from.. I could most likely give a lot more than ten if I needed to.. Thankfully they only asked for ten so some of my secrets will still be safe.....

A guilty pleasure is something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it..Often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering you're lowest obsession or embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt....Fashion... music... reading material.. and food.. are all examples of guilty pleasures...

1-}~ Chocolate.. I love it.. especially dark chocolate or chocolate covered cherries.. chocolate covered orange slices are fine indeed.. brownies.. chocolate pie.. chocolate cake..chocolate! YES!!

2-}~ Coffee.. I can drink it from sun up to sun down and have even been known to take a cup with me to bed..lucky for me it doesn't keep me awake..

3-}~ Home baked bread.. with REAL BUTTER!.. yes I am aware that it is fattening.. but it's too late for me to worry about that.. if I am going to the trouble to bake bread.. I want real butter.. (and yes it is a lot of trouble to use a bread machine!..)

4-}~ Tequila.. OK you don't have to drink any.. that means there is more for me.. salt and lime would be nice but I can drink it without.. Now before anyone gets all in a snit..and thinks me to be a drunkard.. I love it but haven't had any tequila in about a year.. but if you were running out to buy me some.. get the good kind please!..

5-}~ Birds singing in my greenhouse room.. yes they are caged.. they have adequate water and food.. they are babied and petted and have extra large cages... all but one of them has a mate..the room is glassed in all around and filled with plants.. they sing constantly so I am assuming they are happy.. they even have baths where they splash and play in the afternoon sun... but yes.. they are caged...

6-}~ Old fashion dolls... Barbie and before Barbie and after Barbie.. Barbie's friends.. naked dolls and dressed dolls and yard sale dolls and flea market ladies.. I really love the 18 inch versions of old fashion dolls.. I will take any that are in your way.. I love dolls.. My wonderful husband usually gets me at least one for Christmas as do some of my children.. Yes.. I am too old for dolls.. but I do enjoy sewing and crocheting them clothes..and I do of course need one of every kind for a pattern design model.. Do you have a kind that I don't have????

7-}~ Donny Osmond albums... I have a few.. I want some more of those too.. I have an old record player that still plays.... I used to share this great music with the kids in my life until they said it sucked.. after that I just played it every single day of the long long summer for spite... I listened to some of them a few nights ago while Dave and I were finishing up the bedroom we remodeled..
it doesn't have a television.. it has instead our albums and my very old record player....

8-}~ Ice cream.. I love ice cream..don't even go there with the fattening thing again.. I've already said it was too late for that.. I love the kind that has a lot of STUFF in it.. like cherries and chocolate and stuff!.. I'll eat any kind except for butter pecan.. I like pecans and I like butter but not in my ice cream..

9-}~ Leggings with a long t-shirt.. I am well aware that those are for "young" people.. I have been told that they are out of style.. Of course everything about me is out of style.. I still have a few pair and sometimes I sleep in them.. sometimes I wear them all day and cut the grass wearing them and feed chickens wearing them.. I cook and clean wearing them too... Dave doesn't mind if I'm out of style.. sometimes I even wear them with my old Indian moccasins... maybe I'll wear that outfit the next time I come to a family gathering... at your house...NAH I wouldn't do you that way.. scared you though didn't I?

10-}~Video games.. Roll playing games in particular.. I love games that allow me the chance .. for a little while.. to be someone else.. I play all the facebook games..I love the Sims games... I have played nearly every roll playing game to be offered for free on-line.. I have been a farmer and an island castaway...A mafia king pin and a chef in a fine restaurant.. I have played all of the Final Fantasy games and worn out two PlayStation-2 consoles on roll playing games... I can be someone else for a little while.. I can even be an alien.. then with the flip of a switch.. I am still me... in my out of style leggings... in my old house.. with my cup of black coffee.. and my caged birds cooing and singing.. chickens crowing and Old records playing.. And in the end.. I like me well enough!! Have a great night!
Patsy

Thursday! I Almost have this Week Whipped!

"The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree."

"Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?"

"I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity."~ All By Ted Kennedy- 1932- 2009

1~} Edward M. Kennedy was born at Brookline, Massachusetts on 22 February 1932 and died at his Hyannis Port, Massachusetts home late on Tuesday night, 25 August 2009.

I was sleeping when my Television made an unusual toning sound that woke me up.. It was the "Breaking News Tones" I have only ever heard them a very few times so I knew something important or maybe even bad had happened... Ted Kennedy has died with Brain Cancer was the headline!

Born to a large; wealthy and powerful family, Teddy was the youngest of nine children. His three brothers all met violent deaths One brother, Joseph, died in world War 2. John and Robert were both assassinated. He won the US Senate seat his brother John vacated when elected president, at the earliest legal age of 30... a seat that he held until his death...President Barack Obama hailed Edward Kennedy as "the greatest United States senator of our time."

Even though his private life was undisciplined, marked by many affairs, drinking, and one never forgotten auto accident that nearly cost him his freedom as well as his political career... his performance in the Senate was always focused and effective. He was known for being among the most liberal of Democrats, and the Democrat most likely to Make a deal with Republicans to enact the legislation most important to him. He was a firm fighter for equal rights.. he was also working on the heath care issues before congress now.. He was also the Author of a children's book called.."My Senator and Me" that tells the tale of how a bill becomes a law.. The book is written from a dog's eye view.. One of His own dogs Splash..

Kennedy will lie in repose at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. A procession on Friday, August 28, will travel from the library to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica known locally as Mission Church in the Mission Hill section of Boston, where a funeral mass will be held. The four living former Presidents, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush will all be attending. President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy. Kennedy will then be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of his brothers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2~} This has been a long and exceptionally tiring week.. It began early Monday with Dave and I going to Augusta to pick up Coop's car from the shop.. and bringing it home on the trailer.. when we carried it over there it rode smooth.. coming back I think they had it out of balance or something.. Maybe because the guy at the shop drove it up on the trailer and didn't have it in the right place.. I don't know.. I am a woman.. I know nothing about cars.. except for how to pump gas.. I am expecting Cooper sometimes late tonight along with his girlfriend, Carly, Who I have never met... I imagine I'll have a house slam full of young men and women from tonight late until when ever they decide to leave heading back to New Mexico.. They flew here but will be driving back.... I always hate it when my kids are traveling.. I am ill at ease from the time they leave till they get here and ill at ease again from when they leave here until they call me and say they are safely home.... Way over there on the other side of the country!... me<~~~~~~~~~~~> them .... and just so we are clear on this.. New Mexico is part of the United States! I am always surprise when someone asks me if it doesn't bother me that both of my sons have chosen to live in another country... I would laugh if I didn't find it so sad that grown people don't know any better than this....just today someone asked me how often I had to renew my permit to go to see my sons.. I managed not to laugh out loud.. I didn't even bother to explain to this person who I know to have graduated from college... I simply smiled and told him that I renewed my green card every year.. "WOW" he said " I thought they were good for longer than that!"... I have the bed sheets changed on both guest beds since Cooper says he's staying in his own room and I'm offering them the other room since it has a bathroom right there in the room.. I have cleaned and polished... I have chicken salad ( his favorite food!) made and even have some put into containers for him to drag home with him.. I rode the lawn mower, which relaxes me, until it was pitch black outside.. and Now here I am! Crazy and worried till they pull up outside.. His friends picked them up so they might be tomorrow morning getting here...... I bet this is weird for all of you who usually find me so funny.. I guess the secret is out.. I am a normal Mom.. I worry and wonder about my kids.. I get uptight.. Every once in a while I even loose it.... But not tonight!

3~} I have decided to share with you three Haiku even though I have already shared some info on Ted Kennedy and some personal thoughts.. I have been working on a series of Haiku that have birds as their focus.. the first one is from that series.. the second one is simply because I can't see a dandelion without making a wish as I blow... Maybe it's the little girl hidden deep inside of me?.. The third one is from a walk in the woods Dave and I once took with all the kids.. we came upon a bluebirds nest in a dogwood tree deep within the woods.. for those who may not know it.. a bluebirds call is called a cheer... I hope you enjoy tonight's Haiku! Please let me know if you like them or if you don't... Have a wonderful day!
Patsy

~~~~~~

The Warbler

yellow- rumped warbler
feeds from a spider's web
sun shines on the dunes

written by: Patricia Sawyer
6-23-2009

~~~~~

Wish

dandelion spores
scatter with a breath's wind~
I make a wish

written By: Patricia Sawyer
6-23-2009


~~~~~

Miracles

deep within the woods
a white dogwood blooms~
a bluebird cheers

written By: Patricia Sawyer
6-22-2009

Three for Thursday! short and sweet!

"Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them."
- Adlai Ewing Stevenson

"The investigation of the meaning of words is the beginning of education."
- Antisthenes

"Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own."
- Carol Burnett

Good Evening and welcome to a short and sweet three for Thursday. It is just beginning to storm here so I will keep this as short as possible. Otherwise I will be knocked off-line over and over and By the time I have posted I will hate the rain and the internet and my computer. I will be saying words that will invite lightening to strike me in my nasty mouth... In order to avoid the likelihood of all this unpleasantness; I will simply share with you tonight three of my Haiku.. I will then watch the lightening from the safety of my bedroom window... No getting kicked off line.. no swearing.. no angry lightening striking me from the beautiful red sky...

~Yes I did say red sky. the sky here is red and fades to an almost lavender as it dips behind the trees across the dirt road from me.. I have never seen a sky quiet like this one... Beautiful and yet just a tiny bit UN-nerving for some reason.. birds are sitting on the ground as the winds begin to sway through the tree tops.. I have always heard that if the birds rest on the ground then a bad storm is coming your way... I am glad that I don't fear storms..... ~

Short and sweet.. Please enjoy my haiku tonight.. I hope that each of you have safety in whatever storms life may toss your way.. Have a great Night!

Patsy

Run Away

copper curls rest on
a bulging backpack pillow~
stars light the night sky

written by: Patricia Sawyer
6-16-2009



Stormy Night

rain beats out a song
drumming on a hot tin roof~
frogs croak with delight

written by: Patricia Sawyer
6-16-2009

Fiery Fingers



a lit Lucifer

falls from a fumbling fist

the burned oaf gawks



written By: Patricia sawyer

5-27-2009

Three for Thursday!

"Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements." ~ Giacomo Puccini

"Motivation is an external, temporary high that pushes you forward. Inspiration is a sustainable internal glow which pulls you forward." ~Thomas J. Leonard

"I learned ... that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." ~ Brenda Ueland

~I bet everyone is surprised to see more from me so soon. My computer decided it liked me for an extra hour tonight so here I sit thinking about what would be good to write about on Thursdays.. A lot ob bloggers have a different theme for each night. There are a few for Thursday; but being me and my normally contrary self; I didn't like any of them! Well I like them but they wouldn't stick with me.. or I wouldn't stick with them.. we would simply loose interest and then Thursdays would be a wash till I figured out something else. So tonight begins my very own~ "Three for Thursday!" ~ Thursday night event. Each Thursday I will have three of something on my blog.. It might be pictures of something or maybe someone.. It might be questions with answers.... I could share with you three of my thoughts from that day.. I could find three riddles.... Or Maybe I could write three Rhymes... And Maybe IT could be a combination of three but you'll get three on Thursday.. For as long as I can anyway! We will of course always begin with three quotes...

1- (thought)~

Tonight's quotes are about inspiration. People often ask me where I get my inspiration for a poem or a story. I wish I knew. I have dreamed poems and got up from my bed to write them down. I have felt them tumble through my mind as I drove eighty miles an hour to keep from being late to work. And I have cried for no reason and wrote words that I had no idea were in my heart. I really do wish I knew where some of the things come from.. they just come.. Even the un-invited ones come.. The sad and lonely ones come.. But thankfully the happy hopping silly ones come too! ( like inspiration can actually hop and skip into your work!?)

2- (haiku)~

A Delicacy

the cast iron skillet
sizzling over the blaze
legless bullfrogs roar

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
5-7-2009

3- ( Picture!)

Feeding the Birds

Mother's Day!
1992
Hunting Island State Park!

~ though we didn't know it then; those truly were good days!~

So there ya go! Three for Thursday! This week I gave you a good example. I hope you are having a great Day today. Try to be an inspiration to someone today if you can. Enjoy new foods if you get the chance. You never know until you try it. Hold the precious memories of your children close. If you are raising children , please give them good things to remember. Inspire them to become the best that they can be. Allow them to also inspire you ! Laugh often, Love as many as you can! Have a great day!
Patsy

Magic

No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth. ~Harry Houdini
The real secret of magic lies in the performance. ~David Copperfield

Today being the birthday of Harry Houdini made me think of Magic and Magicians. I don't really know much about magic myself. The most magical thing I ever did was to cause a boiled egg to fall into a milk Bottle for my sixth grade science project. One of my older Brothers, Jimmy I think, showed me how to do it. I of course thought it was great. Unfortunately the Judges didn't agree. I had planned on hanging the Blue ribbon on my wall but am sad to say I didn't even get an Honorable mention. I do have one sister who can make half of her pinkie finger magically disappear and even though I know how she does it, I must admit that it looks very freaky to me.. I try to turn away every time she does it. I also have a brother who is always pulling quarters from all the little children's ears.. There have been times since I was grown that I wanted to call him and see if he could pull some from my ears as well. I used to think think that he must have huge pockets. Then one day I saw him getting change secretly handed from another brother as the group of kids kept getting larger.

Many years ago I lived near a Magician in a small town. He was very old and wrinkled. His few white hairs covering none of the thick blue veins running across his pale scalp. He had the loudest Birds I had ever heard all penned together in his back yard. I was terribly afraid of him and of his birds. I had to pass his house while walking my son to school and He would always call after us.. "Come here! Come and talk to me! My House is too quiet!"
We would walk along quietly until we were almost to his house.. We would speed up as soon as we were near and be almost running when we got there.. Many times we trotted By his porch trying to outrun his calls. The more he called the louder the birds called. The louder they called the faster Anthony and I ran.

He had never done anything to scare us really. And even though his looks were frightening He was no more scary than the Crypt keeper on TV and we Loved the ugly little Crypt Keeper.. But Granny who lived between us and him had told us many times that he had sold his soul to the devil for the ability to do magic. She said he could never die. She told us that he was hundreds of years old And Granny, who wasn't really my Granny at all, had us convinced that it was so. She loved to tell us all about how he had traveled the world with witches and spells and those awful birds as his only companions. I was an adult and I did know that she was just telling tales. But still I feared that old man and his birds. He had peacocks and roosters. There were pigeons and doves. He had Flamingos And several Black Birds. Big ugly Black birds that some mornings would be sitting on the porch rail as we came up the sidewalk nearly in a run.

Finally there came a morning that I had walked Anthony to school and was headed home. Just as I got right in front of his house he stepped right out in front of me stopping me dead in my tracks. I could feel my heart beating like crazy, the blood pounding in my ears as he shouted at me.. "Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" I was so sure he had planned to kill me and feed me to his birds. I asked him twice "What did you say?" He smiled a crooked smile and said.. "Sugar.. do you have sugar?" He spoke loudly but slowly as if I was dim witted. I managed to pull myself together enough to answer. "yes, Sir I have sugar at home." Praying he wasn't going to follow me there. I hurriedly offered to run and fetch him a cup. I ran home and got two cups of sugar just to be sure he was satisfied.. I didn't want to offend a soulless man. He thanked me very loudly and I began to realize that he thought I was deaf or at least very hard of hearing.. He told me that he was baking cookies and begged that Anthony and I stop back by after school and share some with him.

We talked about it that afternoon as we walked along together towards his house and our home.. We decided that he most likely wasn't going to eat us. And Home baked cookies were a good reason to stop for just a few minutes and see if he was really as scary as we thought. After all we reasoned he was hundreds of years old so we should be able to outrun him. When we got to his house he had a table set up on the front porch. He had cups of coffee for himself and me. He had a glass of Milk for Anthony but offered to change that if Anthony wanted something else. I hoped secretly that Anthony would ask for juice. I so wanted to see if he would cast a spell on the milk But Anthony just nodded that Milk was OK with his mouth stuffed with still warm Cookies. That afternoon he showed us a few of his birds and told us their names. He never told us his name.. He said everyone called him the Bird Man or they called him Wizard. So that day over cookies we began a friendship with Mr. Wizard.

Mr. Wizard died many years ago. He took sick not too many months after we all ate cookies on his porch; surrounded by the birds who were until us his only companions. He left his house to the town to be used in some way to help troubled children. I moved away before they ever did anything with his house. They sold most of his birds. The peacocks went to a zoo. The flamingos that screamed so loudly went to an exotic animal farm. The doves and the big black crows they simply turned loose to go back to the wild. Last week I rode by his house.. I almost didn't recognize it with the bird pens all gone and the wheelchair ramp. I looked twice at the porch thinking to myself how he would be pleased to see them there. All the girls. One with hair the color of peacocks blue feathers and another with Pink flamingo curls. Sitting on the porch rail was another with raven hair standing on end. Stuffing Her mouth with what appeared to be cookies. A tall glass of milk resting near her hand.. I heard them laugh together as we waited for the traffic light to change. Just as we drove pass I turned and watched as a dove came from the roof and sat down on the end of the porch where some one had hung a feeder. And I thought of My magical friend who I was told could never die. And I realized that the magic we create everyday will live on long after we are gone. Because the magic of life lies within the love we share. Share a little kindness and love every chance you get.
Created a little magic in some ones life when you can.
Have a magical wonderful day!
Patsy