Listen Carefully to this narrator.

I'm calling this a public service announcement.

The narrator is talking about what is happening on public lands that already belong to the people, but which are being increasingly used to generated money for a forest service that doesn't show any inclination to explain why they collect them or who gets the fees.

Big shock, Blogger is now limiting the space for pictures.

If you have blogger you also got a new limit to picture space allowable due to it's being bought by Google which will not let you web host your pictures anywhere else. I used to be able to have mine hosted on a free web site and could upload the pictures from it to this blog.

I noticed that I am using 20% of this space when I tried to upload a picture recently. I suppose you can't complain about a free service but still... If I pay, I'm going to want something a little more functional than this one.

New Button for Ravelympics

Crafty Gryphon made a button for our team in this special event at Ravelry. Actually she made it for an avatar but I thought it was very spiffioso so I borrowed it for a button in the side bar here.

I'm trying my luck for Team Resolutions 2008 in WIPS Wrestling competition (an orange short fingered glove that's been languishing in the dark interior of a knitting bag), and "Sock Put" competition which is the gutsy knitting of a mate to Jane's Hedgerow sock. The first sock can now cease to pine for the red Trekking boot sock, which it mistook for it's mate at picture taking time. As if....

Back to our knitting. The Olympics are very close!

Ooooops!

I was not finished with that post! Mary, thank you so much for putting me on the trail of the vest. And Jan, thank you, too, for so diligently looking through all of your books for the pattern.

Regarding blogspot... if the enter key is pressed while another key, I suspect the control key, is held down the post flies into cyberspace and sticks itself, hopefully right side up, to the blog. I'm about to conduct another experiment. Never read the notes or directions. Surprises are the spice of life and we need more of the harmless kind so we can get over our fear of them. Wish me luck?

OK, here's how it's done. First, Highlight the Title, and then hit enter. It goes Faster than a cat up a tree when a dog lights out after it.

Getting ready for Sock put, Wip's Wrestling in the Ravelympics

Jane's Hedgerow is my sock, and I've put the ball of yarn next to the needles. I've got my track suit cleaned and at the ready, and the comfy chair fully supplied with small tables for the necessities of food and drink, videos stacked up, DVDs ordered. Can

-- this is where the discovery of the trick with Highlighting was conducted.... Hmmm, can? can of soda, Gatorade, Piña Coladas ??

So much for second sock syndrome! I've also gotten out Gretchen and started knitting it again. With weather as cool as it's been this last two weeks, this is asking for the heat to rush in from somewhere but what can you do. If the whole weather machine is keyed to my knitting needles, I guess you know who to blame now, don't you?

Off to search for a very important magazine.

Mischievious Mouse says goodbye

 

They hid the pizza boxes behind the African violet pot, and the tortoise looks very wise because he knows where the beer keg is hidden.

Trying to find a vest pattern

I would appreciate it if anyone out there knows where this pattern can be located.

I know this is in a book, and I want to buy that book, but I can't figure out where on earth I saw this pattern on the web. It's one of those things that you think you will never forget where it is. But I did. I want to make it for my DD. I found it on the web and then emailed the picture URL to her and then lost track of it.

Other than that my world is complete and the planets have almost aligned for some WIP dusting off and getting things rolling along for the lovely Gretchen Shawl, and The Manly Aran Drops Sweater. Beauty and the Beast!

Mouse is saying goodbye to all his friends today, in a little very quiet spooky night party under the african violet. They posed for a picture earlier. Jazzie's sparing partner, Old Devil, took to mouse because they share a common set of coloration. New Devil is away from home at the moment so he couldn't pose. I think he's examining the dust bunny infiltration at a friend's house.

For Sandy

 

These are a few of my favorite things...

It's one of those days

 

This cartoon, by Kathryn LeMieux, just puts the whole political scene in a practical frame. Save yourself the price of wrinkle/worry/frownline cream by turning off the Daily News! And so I have. That doesn't mean I've stopped reading all the Guerrilla news sites, like Salon, or Democracy!Now, or Democracy UnderGround. For balance, I still read The Onion. A woman has to know what's going on, after all. I think we've all reached the same level of confusion that the candidates have reached. They, who cannot decide which way the political wind blows, are trying to take their hints from us, the clueless populace. This is setting up a cyclonic Opinion Storm that is just whirling aimlessly somewhere over the key states in the Mid West.

I'm knitting a sock for the Ravelympics WIP Wrestling competition. The sock is the mate to Jane's Hedgerow Sock, knit from her pattern which was published in Knitty. I think it's a really pretty sock but the kitchen took away nearly all my energy, so there's been a bit of second sock syndrome developing here. I'm on Team Resolutions 2008. Go Team! I thought about knitting 11 mice for the competition, but really, that would be a cheat. I could photoshop that one too easily.

If you want to read something funny, wild and deeply insane, try the book called, Moo, by Jane Smiley. I was first put on the trail to this midwestern saga by Meribeth. Thank you, Meribeth! I'm looking forward each day to reading more about The University somewhere in the MidWest. You know, that place where a normal everyday sunrise can scare the hell out of someone seeing it again after having lived for months in mountainous regions.

That's all for this day.. maybe this week. I'm digging through dusty boxes again and moving some ferns. So exciting, I know. Please don't overdo the celebration of your freedom from inane musings from the edge of a big Ocean.

Comin alive. ooo ooo ooo

 

Guts in place and sutured, ears in place, not sutured. I'm going to send this North anyway and let the The Lions of the North decide it's fate...

Mischieveous Mouse with guts

 

It's a toe from a knee high. The catnip goes in it so it can't dribble out the stitches. I cannot felt this little rascal, so this is a test mouse, to be sent out to a friend for testing. This is like trying to stuff a tiny turkey.

Saturday Sky Shot

 

The lovely, cooling morning cloud cover is just breaking up. The big cape honeysuckle is in full bloom again and is attracting many birds. There have been two resident hummingbirds (Costa's and Anna's), lots of house finch, and even some Lesser Goldfinch visiting.

Stop Whining! It will all go away!

It's All in Your Head

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Now, think "deep midnight sky bloooooooooooooooooooooo"

Breathe deeply..........

There all better?

America, don't try this in Europe, because it will cost you way too much to get there! Unless you are really good at stowing away, and have one helluva parachute... Golden maybe?

I is for Imagination

We use Imagination all the time, to project our desires into some future reality, or to create forms that will serve a function in our daily life and our surroundings, perhaps to illustrate our inner feelings for the benefit of others, in a wordless way of combining color and form on paper, or speaking about these feeling so evocatively that they take form in someone else's imagination.

I like little drawing tools found on the web that help people create images from their "imagination" and share them. Here is one I just found:

Imagination Cubed

One of the beauties of Imagination is that we can use it to make a more beautiful and functional life for each other. I'm not sure GE has been at the forefront of such a movement, but we can use their tool anyway. Have fun!

I think you will love this site if you like Japanese toys

Try it, you'll like it.

This designer made the mouse and snake toy, and many other adorable ones on her site. Too, too cute for words and I think kids will love them. I know six cats who are going to get the mouse. Downloadable PDFs, easy as pie and no costly gasoline to burn getting them. Yay!

well darn I knew that was the wrong way of going about that...

Hot link to MochiMochiland

Scroll to the bottom for her blog, where she has some fall over on your face adorable free patterns. I found her on Ravelry but luckily she's got a blog and all on the out side of the fence. hehe

Mouse nose from Ravelry toy maker

 

Sock yarn and size 1 needles. This thing is the cutest little mouse. But I swear I will just crochet that middle part next time, or drink a strawberry margerita first.

Montage

 

Mine is left, NASA's is right.... Big Sur, Pacific/Perfect Storm - Atlantic

Ocean Colors, and ya, a few wind surfers, too. Lol

There's just nothing like the colors of an ocean wave. Nothing. Not even sunsets, but those I have to admit, are close......

Color play.

 

Playing with my photo image handlers I discover this feature. Two of them were free and one of them cost a tiny bit. Where would we be without people who wanted to give us little toys? The picture is of some plants that went through the frost and turned slightly pink with some green, taken with a flash at night. It's a lot of fun. Take your photo handling programs through their paces. I'll bet they give you a few hours of pure fun with colors. Enough to lighten the mood for a bit. Avoidance of sledgehammer thoughts. It's important to do this sometimes.

Try fractals, too. There's a few free web sites that have fractal generators. Those are REALLY interesting and take your breath away with their beauty.

Yesterday at Lunch...

 

Yesterday my sister told us what is going on in her life. Looking up at the sky to let my mind flood with images or words to offer solace to her pain, I saw the angles of the most incredible intensity strike my eye with their sharp and perfect alignments. They instantly reminded me of the edges that living gives us to work our lives out around. You may know them, too, those painfully sharp ones. I took a snapshot to remind me of this day, and the feelings.

I've added three colors over the cloudy skies, to represent feelings that were going through my head while I was talking to my sister, whom we had taken out to lunch to try to cheer up a little. The the colors of the sky filtered to be dark blue for spirit of unconditional love, violet for her considerable fears, and a tiny splash of pink in the corner for our hopes for her.

In the next two days, as she faces a layoff from a job she has held many years, and one she still desperately needs, I'm feeling dread for her but still remain hopeful that, what ever happens, she will be cared for. Her disease is making this thing enormously important because, where others just have an uphill slope, she has to climb a sheer rock face.

I know this feeling!

 

I get a monkey brain next, it seems the one from the four day old corpse of a blackbird was a bit decayed.

Knobs and Pulls

 

I am happy with these even though they are not the acorns and oak leaf design I expected, they are the same overall look. Sometimes things go south when you aren't looking, and go extinct. My acorns are extinct.

Edit!!! They are the same.. I just don't know what is happening to my brain. This may be my last post until I get the transplant.

I'm so glad that we can unpack the kitchen this weekend. DH is sure that he will have to set up a camp kitchen outside somewhere now. He just doesn't want to give up that great feeling he gets from foraging for utensils and other kitchen equipage in an unstable, stacked set of drawers from the old cabinets.

Everywhere you look....

 

There it is, telling you about eternity, serenity, real reasons for being alive, and awake and in tune with your surroundings. The Earth, it gives and gives.....

I am so restless and unsettled. It's time to freak out.

Glorious Beauty at Mendocino Gardens

 

Immunity forever

This is a link to A PDF file of the actual document:

The Document

In passing this, the senate has given the Telecoms in question the right to destroy records, and immunity from present and future litigation.

Isn't that special?

We now have,rolling around under our feet, agencies that can know everything there is to know about a person, either a union leader, a housewife or a senator. Just think of the power they now have over us all. They could make us dance naked in the street if that is what it takes to keep them from revealing our quiet unhappinesses and secret sins. Be careful America....

Tonight's Fortune Cookie

 

Is that Kismet or what? Karma? Twilight Zone? My jaw dropped when I cracked open the cookie tonight and read that.

Perhaps my mission in life is not so much political as it is to keep an eye out for tiny beauties. But I so want to kick some political arse! Then again, maybe the Taoist's are right after all. But then, that seems lazy to this Revolutionary War buff. What to do, what to do?????

New Towels for a new kitchen

 

Aren't these sweet? A dear friend sent them as a kitchenwarming gift, and they got the DH seal of approval yesterday as he used one to take a casserole out of the microwave. He looked at the design she had embroidered and said, "These are beautiful. Do you mean she made these?"

Thank you S!

Acorns for the knobs and pulls have not arrived as of yet, so we are still, "camping out". DH said that he is getting used to it, in fact, he kind of likes it.

To my readers..

I'm going to be posting more political stuff here because it seems important to try to save the Constitution.

I do know that many of you come here for other things, and I'm sorry, truly that there will be less of that. I am still going to keep posting as much beauty and fun as I find around me but the Constitution is vastly more important, and it deserves any and all of our voices speaking out in it's defense. I just watched a video of Phil Donahue standing up to Bill O'Reilly, and it was so magnificent and inspiring.

The Senate just caved into the white house, AGAIN, and passed immunity to the companies -not limited to but including the once mighty AT&T- who set up listening posts for the NSA for warrantless wiretapping. AT&T is a company that is also after the internet, to be able, in a relentless puche, to sell our own net back to us for money, which they so desperately need. I think this is monstrous, it's not going to do anything but limit free speech on a venue that is just about the last free frontier un-maligned by corporate pressure.

Here's to the Librarians and all the others who, either singly or forming groups, are standing up to the madness and the apathy. I salute you!

Colbert roasts Bush

I love this guy!

Raging Grannie Hat

 

This is dusty, so just ignore that part, please. I just had to do something after seeing a very impressive demonstration at, of all places, Thomas Jefferson's Montecello. Did you see it? The woman with the red cloth sign with black letters was magnificent. She bravely showed just how little freedom of speech is now revered in this country. The president never sounded less sincere or more ridiculous.

As I said, I just have to do something... Raging Grannies, about so much more than flowered hats but it's a beginning. If we keep being so polite, these brigands will end up enslaving our grandchildren.

Mysterious boulder construction by an alien

 

And you thought I wouldn't notice your little singer.....

Saturday Sky Shots

 

Let there be Humidity for Healing of the scars of the fires.. To remind us of the unending solace of beauty set before us by a very gracious diety who wants us to remember compassion, kindness, veracity.

A Venting

I am reaching a point where the only thing that works for me is to contemplate Taoist Reality, which is to say, and to really believe, that nothing in this world is real. A sort of belief that Jesus was more "real" than the door He walked through. We just haven't figured out that the Real People are all around us but we just can't see them. Current events have brought me here, balancing, or unbalancing as the case may be, between Taoist-Quaker realities.

Current events may cause the "Real People", those who run this holograph for the unsuspecting, somewhat evolved pond scum called Human Beings, to stick a finger in our water drop, stir up a miracle that the organized religions will all proclaim is the finger of God (a God whom they all half suspect never stops laughing at them), whilst the scientists, who insist that there is no God in such occurrences, will all encourage each other to debunk these new myths with large scientific Truths.

Once these two camps engage each other, we (those left here in the middle of THIS reality, who desperately need to know that there IS a God who actually cares .. we, the future angels balancing on the head of our Storied Pin, will seek solace in each others dreams. We will stare, starry eyed, at each other, smile and keep dancing to the only drummer who ever counted.

Somewhere in the middle, somewhere, Truth might exist.

How I Knit.. A flicker.. And a Good Lost Dog Tale...

I saw this on YouTube

A discussion in the KR about knitting styles made me think it was time to do a video of my own hands but this one is almost a perfect match to how I knit. Thank you to the nice person who produced the video. :)



And that's just about how I knit, only closer with the lever like right finger.

Dog Tales:

Last night DH and a neighbor were outside in the soft dark of late night, chitchatting, and suddenly a big dog came out of the dark and sat by their feet. They decided that this sweet dog was a female, and told me so. She snuggled up a little, and sat there panting. The network went into operation. DH checked animal controls data base and found an owner, but the information wasn't current, and besides the dog was not a "female". When he tried to contact this owner, it was a wrong number. Lesson here? Keep information with pet agencies current as to phone numbers, please?

Next, DH walked the dog, who, with a bit of frisking (by me) was determined to be female, with some sort of large tumors in the belly area. Did I say this was a very FUZZY dog? After going blocks and blocks with the poor tired doggie, DH brought her home and and I walked her up to the end of our street, and low and behold, SHE lifted HER leg and peed on a telephone pole. So, with that mystery solved in a dramatic and unarguable way, I walked HIM back down the street towards my home, hoping he would recognize HIS own home place.

At 12:30 after another long walk of blocks and blocks, DH threw in the dog mat, we brought our boy into the backyard, put out the giant welcome mat over the soft chips of the ground cover, gave him water, and bedded him down. He went right to sleep.

This morning DH had posted some signs, and I posted on lost pet lists. When animal control came this am, we have a no kill policy in our city, the owner yelled from down the street. The dog was overjoyed to see his master. We were happy because no one likes to have to turn a stray over to anyone but the owner, and the animal control agent was happy to be able to ask the person to update his dog's info. We also found out that if the owner can't be located, dogs are turned over to rescue organization specific to breed.

Jazzie is still looking for that big BOY dog - he knew right away- in HIS backyard. We keep telling J that Big Doggie went home to his Pappa. Off to take the signs down. Yay! Happy endings.. You gotta love them.

I've tried the "seamless" upload from YouTube three times..

Will this work????

Update is that it did work, and no more will such non-descriptive titles be used.

Anky, "Queen of the Dance" and a Grand Champion dressage rider, riding the magnificent Bonfire. Enjoy this. The music was set later, to the video.

Bird in the Photo

Someone had asked me about the bird in the photo. We're pretty sure it's a California Condor, a very endangered bird.

Today is another day, but there's a chance of drizzle for tomorrow. Please, God, let it be so!

I've been playing "escapist" by knitting the endless red sock and watching idiotic but fun movies like "Ocean's 13". I'll watch that one again today because it's a movie with a happy ending. Movies without happy endings may be Art, with a capital "A", but they aren't the sort I want to see, usually. That's just too darn much like real life!

May a Tear Not Betray Me

I've been thinking about the dilemma of modern writers, how hard it is to bring forth a phrase, such as the title of this post, that is not already set down in stone or even on parchments somewhere. Originality is increasingly hard to come by!

I'm trying to remember when the last time I spied elegant English in use, except in the New Yorker Magazine, pardon me, there is some there, and even in Harper's or "Sun" Magazine. There may well be thousands of examples out there. These are only my own.

But there are writers who can capture human emotions with pristine insight, such as when e. annie proulx's wrote the following in her book, Accordion Crimes:

"Now Baby understood his father's greatness without jealousy or envy. Saw his inventiveness, his place in the history of the music. When they sang together now, he felt his voice embrace that of his father, a kind of sexless marrying like two stream of water, coming together. Together they were in a closeness not even lovers could know, as the shadows of two birds at different altitudes cross the ground touching."

Having sung duets from time to time, I know this feeling. There really is a moment when the voices are blending that the only descriptive emotion is that of some unearthly sort of Love. It's mysterious how it happens, but e. annie proulx captured it, in words. She is a marvelous writer.

With the thousands of words available to us, writers are struggling. May a tear not betray me, but I'd love to write with such power and insight.

Newest Fire Map for Big Sur area..

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