My new blogs

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and
http://jane-thejourneyisthereward.blogspot.com/

Lovin' the cooler weather

The little house's windows are all wide open and the cooler air is streaming in.  No need for any AC and no need for the heater yet. This would be Chamber of Commerce fall weather in Georgia!  It's so easy to talk long walks now - my five mile trek to/from the QuikTrip is two hours of wonderful weather and sing-along-out-loud great music (oh yes - and good exercise, too).

Surprisingly, all this crisp air makes me actually want to cook.  I'm thinking about tummy-warming soups and stews - black bean and sweet potato chili, broccoli cheese soup, creamy corn and chicken soup, white bean and chicken chili, french onion soup with bacon and sherry, mexican taco vegetable soup, beef stew - all with crusty bread or sweet cornbread.  Yum!  Now if I just had someone to cook for.....

Oh say does tha-at star spangled ban-ner-er yet wa-ave!

Early mornings are crisp this time of year, so walking outside is wonderful and today included a short hike up Kennesaw Mountain. The best part of my hike was the joy of seeing the thousands of flags that, in remembrance of all those souls lost ten years ago, have blanketed the battlefield since last Saturday.  I just had to take a picture of that beautiful sight!

I'm always proud to see our flag displayed and take time to snap pictures in places where others are just as proud to see her flying. I took these next pictures while on a road trip through Montana and Idaho.  I love these pictures and  the everyday nature of our common patriotism. Seeing my flag never gets old!

 

Ten years ago

I left home about 8am ten years ago, ready to begin the long drive to our Orangeburg office. One of our employees there had been murdered by her boyfriend several days earlier, leaving a bewildered 3 year old son, an overwhelmed family and a host of grieving friends and co-workers. Her funeral was on 9/11 and I was on my way to her service. I was listening to Capt Herb voice the traffic conditions on 285 when the first news of the first airplane came on WSB. My first reaction, as it always still is when anything happens, was to call Bob. He was at work at Lockheed when I called and we initially talked about how it was probably a very errant small plane with a likely incapacitated pilot. Incredible and incomprehensible new information poured out over the next few hours and Bob and I spent those first hours talking together on the phone.

It was a tiny church packed with loved ones and co-workers, huge bouquets of flowers on the altar and even more carried in by mourners, and words and music that lifted the heart. With all the unspeakable turmoil that was happening at that very same time in three places northeast of us, all of us in that church were united in glorious song to honor one single life – but we were also fully aware of the other events, so our prayers were also in honor of all the other lives being lost that very day.

I tried to be strong, for her family, for myself, but began to feel the enormity of it all and tears fell as one glorious voice began this spiritual -

Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I am weak I am worn
Through the storm, through the night lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near
When my life is almost gone
Hear my cry,hear my call, hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When the darkness appears and the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand, guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

About three hours after it had begun, the beautiful service ended with everyone standing, clapping and singing this joyful, hopeful gospel song together -

Oh, bye and bye bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home beyond the sky
Far from the land of worry and pain sickness will never come again
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

Bye and bye, oh. bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home byeond the sky
Livin' in sunshine of his love thinkin' of the wonder from above
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

When I reach that city, city so bright and fair
All of my friends and loved ones are gonna welcome me up there
I'm gonna sit down, put on my long white robe ,sit down beside my Lord
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

On Monday - I'm gonna tell a story
On Tuesday - 'bout those saints of glory
On Wednesday - take a walk in the Garden of Eden, I just want in on the land of freedom
On Thursday - be free from pain and misery
On Friday - gonna sit out and rest with the weary
On Saturday - gonna look up John and Job and Enoch, I got sins to prophecize
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye!

Oh, bye and bye bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home beyond the sky
Far from the land of worry and pain sickness will never come again
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

All in all, I cannot think of sadder, happier, better, more powerful place to have been on 9/11/2001.

I write this as I’m watching the 9/11 tribute live from New York City. Paul Simon has just started singing The Sound of Silence. Beautiful, appropriate, haunting. Tears begin to fall again.

Bob and I had many years together, wonderful years with many conversations, and I can’t remember any of them anymore. But I do remember distinctly, very distinctly, talking with him, at this exact time ten years ago. And on this very sad day, that makes me happy.

May God bless all our loved ones, present and passed.

A day in the life

Clean up storm damage - done!

Sort through large tub of three weeks of held mail - done!

Have calm conversation w/contractors who break through bedroom ceiling while insulating the attic - done!

Place new wrought iron armadillo on front patio - done!

Return to better dining habits after three weeks of gonzo-eating - done!

Repair newly corrupted iTunes Library -  frustratingly not done!

"Supermoon" rises over Marietta on 19 March 2011

 

Georgia

Georgia

A song of you

Comes as sweet and clear

As moonlight through the pines

 

I feel like Snow White!

Little gray screech owl, Olivia, sunning at her front door around 630pm EDT today.

And as I take her picture, she drops down into her box --- and a bluebird flys over to see what's going on.  Can you see him perched on the branch up in the top left corner of this photo?

A season of renewal

Many months have passed since my last post.  Life interrupted my blogging - I hiked in gorgeous autumn-leafed Gatlinburg with my wonderful sister and celebrated Christmas with loving family. Sadly I lost both The Helens within days of each other, but I have been thrilled to help my parents fill in some of the blanks in their past family histories.  Now I am reveling in the joy of rust colored Oscar and grayish Olivia Owl nesting in the box just outside my kitchen window, planning the Cajun Roots Road Trip, the July Alaska Cruise and the September Switzerland hike - all while enjoying the beauty that is Georgia in the spring.  My yoshino cherry, weeping cherry and tulip magnolia trees are all in bloom, as is the forsythia.  Soon the dogwoods and azaleas will join in.  I couldn't ask for more!

Molly The Barn Owl

Here's the overview article that ran in Febrary 2010 in San Diego's "North County Times".  Currently, Molly is raising her second clutch of owlets.  Come join with me, and 15,000,000 other viewers, to watch live streaming video of Molly and her newest three little owlets at http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox.

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One of San Marcos' newest residents is keeping thousands of people around the world glued to their computer monitors this week. "Molly" is a cute barn owl that moved into an owl barn in San Marcos residents Carlos and Donna Royal's back yard last month.

Molly's careful tending of the nestful of eggs she laid inside the barn since then has captured the hearts of people watching the bird live via a 24/7 feed the Royals are broadcasting over the Internet. The Royals, who watched the eggs being laid, said they expect the five eggs to begin hatching at any moment.  In the meantime, viewers can watch Molly as she sits on her nest, getting up every 15 minutes to roll each egg and shift her position to make sure they stay equally warm.  When she's not doing that, the mother owl is sleeping, grooming herself, or tearing apart and eating the rodents her faithful mate McGee brings her each night.

The "show" ---- which includes Molly's soothing chirps and coos ---- had just 10 viewers when it started about a month ago.  As word about the live feed has spread, the number of people who have logged on has jumped to more than 360,000. Thousands are also following Molly on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter and "her" online blog.  The bird seems oblivious to the small camera, which Carlos Royal mounted inside the owl barn before Molly moved into the pole-mounted structure that looks like a large birdhouse.

Sitting at a computer from which he controls the camera, Royal said Thursday that he and his wife started the live feed for fun and with no idea that it would "go viral."  Self-described bird-lovers, the two said they installed the owl barn in their Twin Oaks Valley yard with high hopes two years ago, only to see the barn sit empty.  On Jan. 21, however, a major windstorm blew down a fence between the couple's yard and a neighbor's. Carlos Royal said the two men were discussing repairs when the neighbor mentioned seeing two owls fly inside the owl barn during the wind storm.

The barn's camera was already connected to cable leading to a television in the Royals' family room.  "I immediately went into the house and plugged it in, and there was Molly sitting there," Carlos Royal said. "We started jumping up and down."

His 17-year-old grandson, Austin Faure, helped him set up a live broadcast of the camera's images through a live-streaming company called Ustream. E-mails and calls began pouring in as more and more people found the feed and told friends.Teachers were among the first to contact the Royals, and Carlos Royal has been using Internet-based telephone service Skype to conduct live chats with students as they watch Molly.

Donna Royal said some viewers reported that watching the owl helped soothe loved ones who are ill.  She and her husband said they are getting as much of an education in owls as viewers. Some of the lessons ---- including watching Molly eat an egg that went bad and tear into the small animals McGee brings for dinner ---- are hard ones, the Royals said.

Nonetheless, they said they are committed to letting nature take its course without human interference. That includes watching Molly, McGee and the owlets fly away when the time comes, even though the Royals already know that will be difficult.

"Oh yeah. We watched a hummingbird with her babies as they grew up," Donna Royal said. "And I cried when they left."

Home Administrivia

It's way too hot to do anything outside past about 8:30am, and those of you who know me know that I'm not alert at that time of day.......so I have spent the last few days mired in the joys of home administrivia.  Fun projects have included my annual alteration of passwords, cleaning out the fireplace, hanging a birdhouse (the one thing I did before 8:30am), sorting though all the cookbooks you all know I never use, reconfiguring the wireless printer to recognize the new router password, cleaning out/combining storage baskets in the catch-all closet, creating a new coupon holder for my purse, and clipping the very few recipies that I have found interesting along the way.  Somehow, however, there is great satisfaction in organization!