Creative Chaos Award – Thanks Lady Barefoot Baroness

I’ve always thought the Creative Chaos Writing Award was awesome and I really believed I would never be chosen to receive it. So when Lady Barefoot Baroness last week granted me this award I was so tickled.  Especially since Lady Barefoot Baroness has two blogs.  You may want to check out her that she just recently started Full Circled Me, whose blog is all about her struggle and triumph in regaining her health.  This first paragraph of her new blog reads

Finding out that you are sitting through life on a brick wall that you’re going to tumble off anytime is dis-heartening in a lot of ways. Some people may even find it earth shattering, especially if they happened to be an athlete. I’m blessed in that I am not an athlete and the diagnosis of the condition of the mechanics of my body being in such poor shape has actually been validating. For the first time in two years someone is not just listening to me but is being proactive.

Anyhow I would really like to thank her for granting me this award!  I feel truly honored!!

Now this is the fun part of the award.

As always thank the person who granted it me.  Thanks Lady Barefoot Baroness!!!!

Take your best shot at the 3 tasks listed below.

First Task: Three weird things I  do: 

One…  I never mix my food.  I always eat my food in this order, my favorite first, then my next favorite and so on.  It drives Chris crazy, because she loves her food all mixed together.  Here I would eat the eggs while they are still warm, bacon and then the french toast.

Two..  I let MacKenzie lick my face when I lay down to sleep.  It seems to be a ritual for MacKenzie and she just loves it.  It is as if she is telling all about her day.

Three.. I can’t leave the computer without completing a task I’m working on.  The words pause or break really don’t exist in my vocabulary.

Second Task: You must tell why you look at the “glass half full” scenario and ask “what? No coffee?”

I don’t know if I can tell you why I look at the “glass half full”, but I do.  One thing that Chris has always said is that I taught her how to the bad things into good things.  Guess it is just part of my nature.  It isn’t something that I had to learn.

Third Task: You find yourself in a desolate place when your car breaks down. You have no cellphone service, no Wal-Mart, and only a candy bar for food. It is 150 miles to the closest town. What color are your under pants and why? 

First of all I would never breakdown.  It’s has never been a part of my history.  In my fifty plus years of living, I’ve only really broken down twice.

Once when I was in my early 20s and I was driving from Southern California to back to Denver.  My muffler pipe broke in half when I was in the middle of the desert in August.  A nice driver who had tools stopped within a couple of minutes, removed my muffler and said I should be good to go….just keep a window open.

View from Twin Peaks Campground which was the destination for the weekend.

The second time I got stuck in the middle of nowhere, Chris and I were on a high mountain pass which was right by a mine that was closed and locked.  We flagged down a driver and he just happened to have access to the mine so we could use their phone and we called Ford for a tow.   The Ford customer service person who was from a large city in the south by her accent asked what were the cross streets.  We said there were no cross streets just a Highway 91 and we were on top of the pass at Climax Mine.   We told her any tow company from the Dillion or Frisco Colorado area would know exactly where we were.    So about an hour or so later, a tow truck came to tow us back to Frisco.  Ford also set us up in a Hotel for the night.

Oh yeah, the question was what color was my underwear.  My favorite color of course…..royal blue.

True stories…except may the color of my underwear!

Fourth Task: Nominate 5 people who recently followed your blog.

First I want to say, any blogger who would like to receive this award please feel free to accept it with my blessings.

Here are my five (OK sic)  bloggers:

OneLifeThisLife

Being Arindam

Jenny’s Serendipity

Genie Speaks

Russel Ray Photos

Small House/Big Yard

Hope you enjoyed!!!

Hugs and blessings

Cee

Help End World Hunger – Free Rice

Chris Donner wrote in her blog today about a website that gives  Free Rice and is in run by the United Nations World Food Programme.  The website has fun educational games that you can play.  For each correct answer, 10 grains of rice gets donated to the World Food Programme by corporations whose advertisements appear on the site.

The little word game is quite contagious….I just earned 400 grains of rice for someone and in just a few minutes.  Check out Chris’s blog for more information.

 

Hugs and blessings

Cee

Weekly Writing Challenge: It had been years since…

It’s that time again for Chris’s Writing Challenge.  This week she has us finishing this sentence.

It had been ___ years since I had seen ____________

Here is what I came up with.

It had been 25 years since I had seen my high school best friend.  I wondered whether I would recognize Stephanie or not.  Would she recognize me?  Surely she would, I don’t feel that old?  We haven’t seen each other since the summer we graduated from high school and now for some quirky reason we both have decided to meet at our high school reunion.

This was me in my first car (I was 20 or so). One of the few photos I have of me from that long ago. I had that car for 18 years.

Hugs and blessings

Cee

Mad Hatters Party with the Red Hat Society and Cardboard Ruthie

Friday night Chris and I had our second meeting with our Red Hat Society group.  Cardboard Ruthie. This was Ruthie’s first adventure with us.

We are still new and finding our way around with the group.  Our group is quite active and they come up with some wonderful topics each month.  This month was the Mad Hatters Tea party.  One challenge was to come with a really cool, unusual hat.  Not all hats were red for this event, but there was some very unusual hats.  Chris won the Mad Hatters prize for having the most creative hat.  Chris is a balloon twister and made her hat out of balloons.

I guess we’ve been accepted into this wonderful group of the Red Hat Society.

I got a photo of Cardboard Ruthie at our meeting and then one with both of our hats at home.

Cardboard Ruthie posing with her wine. We all got china tea cups filled with tea and shortbread.

 

Ruth with Chris's winning hat and my hat. Photo taken at home.

Here is a slide show of these photos and a few other photos from our evening with the Red Hat Society.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To read more on the Red Hat Society, please check out the Barefoot Baroness blog entitle “For My Friend Judith”.

 

Hugs and blessings

Cee

 

 

Jakesprinter SUNDAY POST: Culture

Jake you nearly had me stumped this week because I really didn’t think I had a lot to offer this week … until I told Chris about Jake’s topic of culture.  She thought for a moment and then said agriculture.  We live in the part of Oregon that is known as the Central Willamette Valley.  We are right on the 45th parallel, which is just perfect for a lot of grapes, hops (beer), nuts and flowers.   The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of the Earth’s equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is actually 10.1 miles (16.2 kilometres) north of the 45th parallel because the Earth is oblate, that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.  At this latitude the sun is visible for 15 hours, 37 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours, 46 minutes during the winter solstice.

When we drive the countryside we see plenty of orchards, nursery and tree farms.  Here are a few photos from some of the agriculture right around where we live.  I hope you ENJOY.  As always scroll down to see larger versions.

Hops. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. Oregon is the second largest hop producer in the United States.

Wooden Shoe Tulips farm.

Grape vineyard. Wine is a big industry in Oregon.

Swan Island Dahlias. Largest dahlia farm in North America. Located in my home town of Canby, Oregon.

Schreiner’s Iris Gardens is over 75 years old. Their gardens are spectacular. They grow 100s of varieties.

Hazelnut (Filbert) on tree.

Hazelnut orchard in the winter.

Thoughts and Photos on Ripples

I was trying to think of a blog topic today while in the swimming pool.  The idea of ripples and reflections popped into my head, via Chris’s suggestion.  So I thought I would break them up into two different blogs.  This is all about ripples.

How many ripples have you caused in your lifetime?   I bet it is thousands and the majority you are not even aware of.  How many times have you seen someone smile, when you needed it the most?  Or someone told you to go ahead in line?  How many have had a teacher, boss, or co-worker say “good job”?  It is the little ripples that add up to a huge wonderful and beautiful wave that is filled with so many colors it is just magical.

Photo taken near Coos Bay Oregon.

Thousand and thousands of little ripples make up this perfect wave. Photo taken near Newport, Oregon.

This is photo is so zen-like to me. Photo take at Bob’s Wayside near Florence, Oregon.

Low tide ripples in the sand around a rock. Photo taken at Bob’s Wayside in Florence, Oregon.

Ripples on a pond. Photo taken in Canby, Oregon.

I love the ripples that this little duck is making. Photo taken in Canby, Oregon.

 

I love the idea of ripples.  Think of your favorite person or persons who have ever lived or is even still alive.  Did you realize that you are breathing the same air and drinking the same water as they did?  Air and water sustain all living things.  Last I knew we didn’t import air or water from another planet.  If you are a musician or appreciate music  you are breathing the same air as just a few of the following classic composers:

• Ludwig Van Beethoven – 1770-1827
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – 1756-1791
• Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – 1840-1893
• Frederic Chopin – 1810-1849
• Richard Strauss – 1864-1949
• Aaron Copland – 1900-1990

For those of who love writers, what about the following authors:

• William Shakespeare
• John Milton
• Charles Dickens
• Jane Austen
• George Bernard Shaw
• Gertrude Stein
• Virginia Woolf
• Mark Twain

Now for us science people, here is a list of a few scientists:

• Isaac Newton
• Albert Einstein
• Charles Darwin
• Louis Pasteur
• Marie Curie
• Edwin Hubble
• Euclid

These lists could go on forever.  I love how people can make ripples in other people’s lives.  You just never know who you are touching and reaching out to.  The universe is huge and expansive and a mystery that works in such great harmony and balance.  What ripples have you sent out lately?  What ripples has you welcomed into your heart and life lately?  The life and the human race is huge and wonderful and ever present in our lives.  Embrace the ripples that come your way and bless the ripples that leave your heart and warm other hearts.  We are breathing not only for us, but we are breathing the powerful, energetic breath of the past and future.  What a glorious gift we give to the universe in every breath we take.

Here are some photos I have of water ripples.  ENJOY and I hope you take some pleasure from them.  As always scroll down to see larger versions.

 

“I Always Wanted To Write” Challenge: Characters

Chris started this “I Always Wanted To Write” Challenge last week.  This is a continuation of what she started last week with a new twist.  Here is what Chris would like to see this week:

Last week I challenged you to come up with some plots off the theme “Pat always knew this day would come.“  Now I challenge you to pick the one you liked the best and describe Pat.  Here are links to my blog with your answers, and here is Cee’s reblog where others of you posted, just so you can remember what you wrote.  If you didn’t do the challenge last week, you’re welcome to catch up with us, or borrow a plot that someone else came up with.

Note:  On Chris’s blog she has some ideas for you to get started with a description.

Since all of you fell in love with this photo …. I thought I’d write up Pat’s Description for this week.  As a reminder, I’ve copied what I wrote last week.  So read below to see my description.

Pat always knew this day would come.      

Pat lived her younger years in a beautiful house in the country about an hour outside of Portland.   Pat had her own swing hanging from a tree.  Her childhood was like a fairly tale.  When her father died from a farming accident, she and her mother moved to Portland so her mom could get work when Pat was barely 10 years old.  Pat had such fond memories of the little house in the country.  Whenever she could, she’d go drive by the house.  And about 40 years ago, she noticed that no one lived there anymore.   She asked her great-granddaughter, who was named after her, to drive her back to her old house to celebrate her 100th year birthday.  Pat wanted to tell her namesake all about this glorious house and her youth.  When they got to the location of the house, it had been torn down.  Pat always knew this day would come.

_____________________________

Pat’s Full name is Patricia Winifred Powers Alexander.  Winifred was her mother’s name.  And Pat always thought it to be too old fashioned.  She loved her surname Powers.  She always thought it gave her strength especially after her father’s death.  As a child Pat was definitely a tomboy, which is why Pat became her nick name and not Pasty or Patty.  She married, Anthony Christopher Alexander when we was 23 and she loved everything about his name.

Pat never did live in the country again.  Her mother bought a house near Burnside Street on the west side of the Willamette River.  Her mother died when Pat was in her early twenties.  And Pat inherited the house and she still lives in now.  Her oldest son, Joseph grew up to be a general contractor and has remodeled the entire house over the years.  So Pat has all the conveniences of modern day life.  Pat had three children.  The oldest was Joseph and her only son.  She had two girls, Jessica and Sarah.

Pat being now 100 years old still lives by herself.  Her husband, Tony left her enough to money when he died twelve years ago at the age of 88 to hire a nursing aide so Pat would never have to live in a nursing home.   Pat and Tony were both born in the same year about one month apart and Pat was the oldest of the two.

These are the hands of a 93-year who I had the privilege of photographing.

Pat was once a tall woman and loved spending her time outside. She was never thin until she reached  80 years of age.  Food just didn’t seem to taste good anymore.  She loved being outdoors and still sits on our back porch in the summer and watches the birds gather around her bird feeders as she relaxes under the trees in her back yard.  She loved trees of any kind.  She even has a swing in one of her trees for her great great grandchildren.  In fact all the generations have had a tree swing to play on.

Pat was now gentle and loving.  She loved having people over, because she didn’t travel much anymore.  The stories she could tell about Portland and how it grew up to be such a great city could keep you on engaged for hours.

Hugs and blessings

Cee

 

 

Wednesday Song Title Interpretation: Just The Two Of Us

Rois has an interesting challenge every week, where she picks a song and we find photos to make the topic of the song.  So here is my interpretation of the week’s Wednesday Song Title Interpretation: Just The Two Of Us.  It’s kind of a continuation of my Theme Tuesday which was all about things that make me smile which I posted this week.  Hope you all ENJOY!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hugs and blessings

Cee

Weekly Photo Challenge: Part Two for both Through & Unusual

I was feeling a bit down today, so Chris took me out on a spur of the moment photo shoot.  We went to see how the tulips are doing at the Woodenshoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon.  The tulips are barely out as you can see by this wide angle photo that Chris took.  Anyhow, We took a couple of photos and got back in our car and started to leave.  When we saw a truck pulling a climbing wall enter the parking lot.  Woodenshoe has a festival every year that lasts about a month long and it starts this coming Saturday, There were a couple of vendors setting up their tents and displays.  Here are some of the photos I took of the climbing wall which was still on the truck.

Click on the two links to see other Weekly Photo Challenge entries for both “Through” and “Unsual”.  Needless to say that I cheered up considerably after my photo shoot.  Chris called it a Miracle Walk for us.

As usual please see larger versions of the photos below.

Up close view looking through the trailer of the climbing wall.

View of climbing wall drive through the parking lot. You can also see through the wall.

View of climbing wall. You can see how big it is with Chris standing next to it.

Side view of this climbing wall.

Free - Family or Personal Story

Reblogged from Chris Donner, Mystery Writer:

Do you have a personal or family story that you really wish you could put down on paper but you just don’t know how to do it?  Do you enjoy genealogy and want to see a history written to go along with the charting you are doing?   Then I have a deal for you!  I will write it for you free of charge.

Read more… 84 more words

Everyone has a story to tell...whether you think your story is worth telling or not! I love to hear people's stories and history. They all fascinate me. Please look into Chris's FREE offer to have your story written.

Here is a link to Chris's blog drop her a line. Hugs and blessings Cee