Julie’s Bits – Page 2

The best thing for being sad

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

movie night

Watched a movie tonight while eating some takeout. Reminds me of the early days of my marriage.

Standing in line to VOTE

It took about 20 minutes to get through. Casted my vote and now waiting to see how the election turns out.

Sanctuary

I dwell in a forest of oak and pine
Where deer trails converge to a single line
That leads to a spring and a pond beyond.
Each night I drift off to peaceful sleep with ease
As Nature plays a rustling breeze
Through the scrubby brush and the tops of trees.
And I awaken each morning to the cardinal’s trill
With a lifted heart and a silent thrill
In knowing I belong to such beauty and grace
As the forest of oak and pine in this place.

I transverse the thoroughfares of working life
Amidst a jungle of concrete and steel, where
So much energy is wasted in the busy-ness and strife
Of productive occupation;
And where I am tossed in a roiling sea
Of mindless conversation.
I armor myself with competency and success
To blunt the blows and mute the stress of meaningless proliferation.

And at the end of a long, hard day,
I am more than glad to be on my way
Home to this forest of solitude and rest
That enfolds me in its loving breast
And fills my heart with home.

Autumn Cues

The summer heat continues, but
spiders spin their intricate webs,
hummingbirds urgently swarm porch feeders,
soon they depart on their perilous southern journey,
reds and oranges appear in the underbrush.
The shortening days signal the change that is coming,
and the spider lilies are blooming again.

The Indigo Bunting is at the feeder

We saw the Indigo Bunting at our feeder for the first time two years ago. We missed them last year, but we’re delighted to see them again this year!

I snapped these pictures while standing at my kitchen window. Thankfully, I have a really great camera that has a nice “window” setting and a great zoom feature.

April showers bring beautiful things to the garden

4/23/2018

The Blueberries are coming along nicely

Native azaleas blooming in my shade garden

Ivy on the Oak

Irises along the fenceline

SHARED: Flickr bought by SmugMug, which vows to revitalize the photo service

I’ve had a Flickr Pro account for several years now, and I’m glad to read this announcement this afternoon. In the last several months I’ve cleaned up my Flickr account and have started taking pictures with my good camera in my quest to become a better photographer. I’ve been uploading my better pictures to my Flickr account, which you can view here.

“SAN FRANCISCO — Flickr has been snapped up by Silicon Valley photo-sharing and storage company SmugMug, USA TODAY has learned.

SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill told USA TODAY he’s committed to breathing new life into the faded social networking pioneer, which hosted photos and lively interactions long before it became trendy.

SmugMug, an independent, family-run company, will maintain Flickr as a standalone community of amateur and professional photographers and give the long neglected service the focus and resources it deserves, MacAskill said in an exclusive interview.”