A little tune I hum

I was strolling through the fields one day.

In a not-so-very-merry way.

I was taken by surprise

by a pair of bright green eyes.

While strolling through the fields one day.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

What lies around the bend

Just around the bend, nobody knows

Still that's where everybody wants to go

Might be a mile ride up ahead

All I really know is that I'm not there yet

I don't know what waits but I am not afraid

I'll just make my own sweet way around the bend.

~ Randy Travis

Until we meet again

Our mother awaits you in heaven, dad.

You will always be in my heart.

Samuel Clarke John Long

August 23, 1918 ~ October 3, 2008

We little knew that morning

That God would call your name.

In life we loved you dearly;

In death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you,

But you did not go alone,

For part of us went with you

The day God called you home.

You left us beautiful memories,

Your love is still our guide,

And though we cannot see you,

You are always by our side.

Our family chain is broken

And nothing seems the same,

But as God calls us one by one,

The chain will link again.

Author Unknown

My favorite colors

I took a walk this afternoon in the autumn chill. George loved it, but got hit on the tail end by a falling walnut at one point. He probably thought I did it!

I love the colors of autumn and found these leaves to share with you.

I'm still wearing the big boo boo bandage on my finger, and even though I type a lot for a living, it's amazing how my middle finger has taken over and is now in charge. If I could write poetry, I'd write an Ode to My Middle Finger. In this poem, I would lament the things for which I've used this digit in my past. Like the time the trucker in the 18-wheeler tried to run me over. He backed off after I opened the sunroof of my Volvo and used my middle finger on him. I don't do that sort of thing anymore, however.

But I would like to publicly thank this hardworking finger. It's taken over and has earned my respect.

Back to the colors of fall, however. Black and white is also one of my favorites.

Do you see that tail wagging? Oh yes, this is a happy dog.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

How did they know?

Today at school, I was given a lovely surprise from the children who had Library class today. It came at the end of the day and was a paper bucket filled with kind thoughts.

They are reading Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?, which is a Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids, written by Carol McCloud and illustrated by David Messing. It's based on Merrill Lundgren's thirty years of teaching. He has traveled the world teaching the importance of using words to lift people up and how detrimental words can be when used improperly and set out to write a book helping young children understand the importance of words.

The story is simple, yet profound and the images truly capture the heart of the story: every human being has a bucket that gets filled or depleted based on what others say. It's up to us to choose how to treat people. It's an excellent little read, and after our students read this book, they worked on a project.

Imagine my complete surprise to pull out their little slips of paper, written in their own hand. Here are a few of them:

"Thanks for helping me."

"I like you curly hair! and your self-estem!!"

"Your nice."

"Hi!"

"You make me giggle."

"You are very nice."

"I love your hair."

"You are funny."

"I like your sence of hummer."

There are a lot of reasons why I work where I do. I love the children, from kindergarten through high school, I love the people I work with. But most of all, I feel appreciated for what I do. It's a family. It is home.

And besides, I have an excellent sence of hummer.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Today's quickie

Sometimes you feel like a nut.


Sometimes you don't.

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

~ Cary Grant

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Conundrum

I took this photo while visiting my son in New York last month. Things don't look good, and it's not just everything that's going on in the country today.

I am just worried. And it's just been one of those days.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Into our hearts

I was just thinking that it's been a year ago since our beloved border collie, George, came to live in our home. My husband had been missing our former border, Ralph, and was thinking of getting another dog.

When Ralph passed away, my husband swore he'd never own another dog. And for a year, nothing was said about acquiring one. But then, slowly, talk about a puppy would occasionally enter the conversation.

For over a year, I threw every excuse at him. I reminded him how much trouble a puppy was going to be. And the fact that we'd need a fence. And how we wouldn't just be able to fly to Paris on a whim. And we'd have to plan our vacations and trips around the fact that we had a dog. And you know I was kidding about the Paris thing, right?

We fell in love with George right away. And even though he gave my husband a difficult time in the beginning, especially when it came to training him, they are the best of pals now.

I will add here that he never gave ME a difficult time while training.

I am so glad he is in our lives.

Halloween Give-Away winner announced

And the winner is . . . MAYBELLINE.

Her memory was rather gross, but Halloween can be that way sometimes, right? Congratulations, Maybelline! Please e-mail me at katydid56@gmail.com. And don't forget to go over to A Picture A Day and choose the photo you'd like to have sent as an 8x10 print.

I did not choose a winner based on their memory, in case you didn't know. I assigned a number to every comment and pulled the number from a bowl. (Hey, that rhymes.) It's the old-fashioned way, just like I like my Halloweens.

I want to thank everyone who participated in this contest. I know it's a bit early for Halloween, but I wanted to get your decoration to you early and besides, with the difficulty I'm having typing, the contest was a fun and easy post to leave up for a couple of days. I am even thinking of doing it again soon.

I loved reading your comments about your Halloween memories. Most had me smiling wide, some made me sad, and several made me laugh out loud!

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Time's Up in the Halloween Give-Away

Thanks to everyone who responded. I will assign each comment a number and have a drawing, remembering that those who posted about the contest on their blogs will receive 2 votes.

The winner will be announced later this evening!

Until then, my friends.

Enter the Halloween Contest and win a Primitive Jack-O-Lantern candy box by leaving a comment telling me what your favorite Halloween memory is.

Hurry! Contest ends at Noon (EST) this Saturday, September 27.

When I was a child, I loved Halloween. In the old days, my parents would take our family to neighbors' homes along our surburban street, where we would perform a song and receive candy and treats as a reward. But as I grew older, the fascination with the holiday began to wane. Yes, I took my children to neighbors' homes, and had some Halloween parties, and I always carved beautiful jack-o-lanterns but other than that, it's just a good night to sit tight, watch Casper and have a few glasses of wine.

Now, some people have oodles of decorations for Halloween, but I really don't. In fact, this is probably all I have left of the few decorations I haven't either taken to school or given away. And I've always liked this little treat box and have kept it in pristine condition.

It stands approximately 9 inches high and is made of a type of papier-mache. I can't take it to school because it's just slightly on the disturbing side, and since our school is a K-12, I really don't need the littles having nightmares of pumpkins with teeth.

If you would like to acquire this decorative Halloween item, all you have to do is tell me a favorite Halloween memory. I'll leave this contest open until Saturday at Noon, EST. Then I'll draw numbers and choose the winner. Plus, if you pimp this contest on your blog, I'll give you two entries to double your chances of winning! Remember, contest ends Sat., 9/27 at Noon.

This is the tag that was attached when I purchased it.

And what the hey, I'll even throw in an 8 X 10 of your choice of any photo you desire on my Picture A Day blog.

Until tomorrow, my friends!

Oh, good grief

And ding dang diddly combined with it. Okay. It's difficult to type. Yet again!

You've heard about my unfortunate incident involving a glass that broke in my hand earlier this month, right? As you can see, it's healing just fine. But what is that big boo boo thing on my finger? Wel, when I visited the hand surgeon after the initial ER visit, he was more concerned with something other than the stitches. I never mentioned this because I didn't think it was such a big deal at the time.

I had a small cyst removed from the joint of my finger; the same finger that I just cut. I won't go any further into it, other than to tell you that I have to keep this big splint and bandage on it for the next two weeks. I can't get it wet or dirty.

I was pretty depressed about the whole thing, mainly because something has been wrong with this finger since the 6th of this month, and I type for a living. I mean, typing is a big part of what I do. Think, for a moment, about all the things you do with your hands and fingers. I can't wash my face with two hands for the next two weeks. Writing is going to be a trip, too. Filling up my car with gas? How cumbersome. And the dishes? Well, I won't miss them.

I got over it pretty quickly, though. I mean, this is nothing really, compared to the troubles of others. And just to show what a good sport I am about the whole ordeal, I'm giving something away on this blog tomorrow. Something for Halloween, too. So stop back to see what I have for you.

Ok. I need a drink now. I think I'll go get a glass of milk. And a cookie.

Until tomorrow, my friends.

George gets a new toy and I get an award

I took a different route home in order to stop at the Hallmark store and I happened to drive by a pet store. I realized that I hadn't bought George a new toy for quite some time now and so many of them are getting pretty ratty, so I turned my Honda Element into the parking lot and went in. I came out a short time later with a couple of fun new toys and a new ID tag for my favorite dog. When I came home, my husband was doing the dishes. You have no idea how much I love seeing a tall, strapping man doing the dishes. And then he started getting out pots and pans to begin cooking dinner and I had to get outa there before I just got way too excited! I took George outside and let him choose one of the toys. I tossed it and he caught most of them and kept bringing them back for more. These pictures are not blog-worthy as far as I'm concerned, but they're all I got tonight! It is pretty difficult to toss and snap at the same time and there was no way I was going to disturb the dinner process by asking my husband to come out and toss while I snapped photos. Then it was walk time and George decided to bring his new toy with us, dropping it just ahead of me so that I could keep picking it up and throwing it to him. By the end of the little 20-minute walk, he was tuckered out. And as I'm writing this, it's an hour and a half later and this dog is STILL playing with this toy. He loves it!


And now on to the award. Ever since I started fooling around with the little black box, I've been getting visitors from all over the globe on both this site and my Picture A Day photography blog. And some of them are becoming regular visitors. Hello to all of you. Yes, you out there. You know who you are. One such visitor is Suzy at Soo's Stuff. She hails from Cornwall in the UK and has a couple of brand new puppies. I also must mention her vacuum. It truly has a personality of its own. Suzy has bestowed the "I Love your Blog" award to me. And I am thankful. I received another one of these last month and will add this to my collection of wonderful awards. And because I've already sent this award on to three deserving other bloggers, I have decided to be lazy and not pass on, but I will say that I love all the blogs that are on my sidebar here. To me, they all deserve this award.

Until tomorrow, my friends.

The sheep in the meadow

There is a small herd of Suffolk sheep here on the farm where I live. Since I moved here in July, I've been trying to get pictures of them, but they always run away. Run away! Say that like you're watching Monty Python's The Holy Grail.

It's probably because I always have George with me. The sheep see the border collie and they all Run Away! Every single time. So I've been reduced to using my zoom lens. And I was never able to get any good shots.

Well, one morning this weekend, I was taking pictures of flowers and mushrooms with my macro lens and suddenly couldn't find George. I called him and he came running. I saw that he'd been visiting the sheep, who were standing meekly by the fence. And they weren't running away!

I soon found out that the reason they weren't running away was because the cow was in charge, the cow with the awesome hair-do. And when the cow is there, the sheep are ok with having George around. They sometimes follow the cow.

I took these pictures with my macro lens because it's what I had on the camera at the time.

Border collies have been bred to herd sheep, and this is George in his sheep stance.

This is the bravest of all the sheep. She came right up to George at the fence and checked him out. Then she walked back and little bit and was so relaxed that she lay down. I couldn't believe it.

I also can't believe how incredibly boring this post is. But I yam what I yam. And I do hope you don't mind.

Until tomorrow, my friends.

A feather and a compliment

Let me begin by saying that I've been up for hours. Hours, I tellya and I still haven't gotten a lick of housecleaning done. Saturday mornings, for me anyway, are for housekeeping chores. And I actually rather like turning something messy into something shining and fresh. But I do tend to put it off. Um, like today. So far I've accomplished drinking 3 cups of coffee, with half and half. I love half and half. No flavored stuff for me, thank you. And never. Ever. Ever. Skim milk. I'd rather drink my coffee black. But here I go digressing.

I've also accomplished packing up 6 weeks of plastic, glass and paper stuff from the garage and taking it to the recycling center up the road. And then driving down my favorite road to a store to get the aforementioned half and half.

After that, it was time to take George on the Big Saturday Walk. I usually make this an hour and a half so he gets plenty tired and will nap while I clean. It's really difficult to tire out a border collie, however. Anyway, there we were on our walk, and we were heading towards home, down the canopy road. I've mentioned this road before here; it runs along part of the perimeter on this property, is shaded by huge trees and is wide enough for a couple of extra wide pick-ups trucks to pass each other, if need be.

What I haven't mentioned before is that exercise riders also use this road. Every Saturday, I run into at least one or two of them, riding racehorses. Sometimes they're galloping, and sometimes they're so quiet when they come up on me that I don't know they're there until they say something or one of the horses snorts loudly. And then I turn around and am surprised to see four riders right there next to me. But this morning, George was happily sniffing under bushes about 50 yards ahead of me when I noticed a solitary rider turn the corner ahead of him. I can tell the mount is skittish because the guy was patting him and began to approach very slowly.

I whistled to George, who turned towards me and then I told him to sit. Then lie. He does both as I continued walking towards him, telling him he is a Good Dog.

The exercise rider gets closer. He's riding a young horse, probably one that will race at Delaware Park tomorrow. There's a big farm nearby and I don't know if they're racehorses, or if they're steeplechase mounts. But this horse looked like it could bolt. I was at George's side now as he continued to stay down. The rider spoke gently to his horse and then said to me "what a beautiful day, isn't it?" I agreed with him. Then he said, "That's a really well-trained dog you have there." To which I replied, "thank you." He then told me that his mount was a little afraid of dogs, and he wanted to thank me for keeping him still while they passed. I told him "you're welcome", and to have a great day and then I let George off the command.

As we walked, I thought that hey, I do have a good dog. What a nice compliment. Then I looked down and saw this feather. I picked it up and saw that it was a bit dirty, but nonetheless would make a good subject for my macro lens. (Hey, this is about as thrilling as it gets around here, ya know. Newcomers need to realize this.)

So here's my feather. I took it home and popped it into a section of fence to keep it still for my picture. I usually always have my gorillapod on my camera and I wrapped a piece of it around the fence to hold it still, and voila! (Sometimes it doesn't work to click on the pictures and I don't know why. If anyone knows, help is needed.)

And shortly afterwards, my husband drove by in the gator as I was crouching down to take another mushroom picture and shook his head. Ah, well.

Have a great Saturday, everyone! It's beautiful here in Pennsylvania ~~~~

Until tomorrow, my friends.