Following Trails

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Rabbits in my yard and I have been going down a rabbit hole. I don’t mean I am diving into rabbit dens. I have been traveling down a twisting passage following the trail of my ancestors’ lives. I have found a lot and not quite enough, birth and marriage records, towns where they lived, even some old addresses. It was exciting to see names on passenger lists of ships and trains. Names mentioned in newspaper obituaries confirming names of children. A great-uncle’s name mentioned on a train passenger list told me he lived in Montreal. A great-grandmother’s journey traced from her marriage in England to her death in California. I have come to realize that these are only the tracks and traces of lives. It makes me wish I could find their diaries so I could really get to know them.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “start with a noun.” Start your post with a noun, and write about whatever it is. Have fun!”

Featured image ‘Great Northern Railway’ of Canada via Wikimedia.

Words I Can’t Pick Just One

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I like a lot of words. You might say I never met a word I didn’t like but that would probably not be true. It’s just that I like the sounds of words and the different spellings. I like to look up word origins to figure out where words came from. I like the way words feel when they come out of your mouth. Thought of a few just random, Succotash, sassafrass, and calabash. A lot of ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds.  I’ll have some sassafrass tea please or some sarsaparilla ( the ‘r’ is silent). Cowboys in old time westerns sashay up to the bar and order a sarsaparilla. Allemande left and do si do, promenade off the floor.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt for today is ‘your favorite word.’

Texas Star Square Dance by Square Dance History on You Tube.

Pink Perfection Camellia by Trish Hartmann

People Making A Difference

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The title of this month’s blog for We Are The World Blogfest is from the Christian Science Monitor’s online section on people who are working to make the world a better place. I go to this site often to find stories for my monthly posts. This month I am sharing a story about a non-profit organization in San Francisco called Miracle Messages. It was founded by Kevin Adler who was inspired to create his non-profit to help homeless people make contact with family members because of his late Uncle Mark who had been homeless for 30 years. The story “He helps homeless people reconnect with loved ones through video messages,”  by Bailey Bischoff describes how he has been able to reunite 100 individuals with friends and family and helped some of them to secure stable housing. It is very touching to read some of their stories like Mr. Spires who had lost touch with his daughter when his wife moved away and had not seen her since she was 3 years old. Miracle Messages was able to locate the daughter and reunite them online.

Kevin Adler wants to eliminate the stigma surrounding homeless people.

“A big part of our work is reframing people who are homeless as someone’s somebody”…( Kevin Adler Christian Science Monitor)

He has a goal of reuniting 1 million people by 2023 and has a hotline set up, 800-MISS-YOU.

Miracle Messages.org for more information on this organization.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, “seeks to promote positive news. There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world.”

Cohosts for this month’s #WATWB: Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal, Peter Nena, Andrea Michaels, Damyanti Biswas.

Click on the We Are The World Blogfest link if you would like to participate.

We Are the World Blogfest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured image Pink Perfection Camellia by Trish Hartmann on Flickr.

 

Hollow And Empty Spaces

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My Echeveria plant has a hollow space in the center under its leaves but it is not empty inside there. Some birds have chosen to build a nest in the interior. I saw one bird land and hop over to the side of the plant, look around for anyone watching, then hop inside the opening. I am afraid to be seen hanging around near the Echeveria because I worry I will scare the birds away and the nest will be abandoned.  Recently made a visit to Joshua Tree National Park, with my daughter, and enjoyed many different views empty of people but not empty of interesting rock formations, Joshua trees, and different varieties of cacti like ocotillo, cholla, and others whose names are unknown to me. The rock formations gave the impression of prehistoric times, cavemen with their blocks of stone, Fred Flintstone at work in his quarry.

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According to the National Park Service post about the geological formations the stones are monzogranite and were formed over 100 million years ago.

Short Video about Rock Formation at Joshua Tree

 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt for today empty/hollow.

Bird And Rabbit Sightings

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“Here comes Peter Cottontail’

Hopping down the bunny trail..”

We have a rabbit visitor in our back yard again mooching off our greenery. I completely support his eating the wild grass and Sorrell but I get worried when he starts nibbling on my Wooly Thyme ground cover. I don’t mean to be gruff but it is just starting to come in full and I do not want it trimmed by rabbit teeth. They eat it down to the roots and that’s just not being neighborly in my view. I wanted to catch his photo but I am having a hard time with the new cell phone camera. Not as user-friendly. I consider it user-friendly if I can push a button and it takes the photo.  This one is not cooperating with me yet. There were some good shots I missed while I was trying to get it to work. You have to take my word for it but the rabbit was up on his hind legs looking at me who was looking at him with my cell phone.

I do have a small bird’s nest inside the Echeverria plant. I think it has 4 small spotted eggs. I confirmed it by peaking inside today but I startled the little chickadee out of the nest. I hope it comes back. Need to steer clear of that plant for a few days.  I think the bird was trying to divert my attention from the nest by hopping around the yard tweeting and twittering at me. A good future photo may be of the nest after it’s no longer in use so I don’t caws any more disturbance said the crows.

I just checked my cell phone photo gallery and guess what? I did get capture a photo of the rabbit but I wish I could have zoomed in more.

 

Rabbit in planter, need to zoom in
Wooly Thyme coming in nicely
Wild Sorrell and grasses
Blue Sage and Cranberry Sage

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “on the farm.” Find a word that has a farm animal sound in it, i.e. sMOOth, and use it in your post. Bonus points if you include three or more.

Farm animal words; moo, ruff, neigh, tweet, twitter, caw. Ok, caws could be questionable. 😉

‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail’ song by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins.

Love Lost And Found

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Annie enjoyed walking with her dog in the meadow that surrounded her property.  It had been a warm day but now dark clouds were blowing in with the wind.

“We better get inside pretty soon Rusty. It looks like the weather may be changing.”

Annie was about to attach his leash when the dog’s ears rose to a sound only he could hear and he bolted off. Annie knew she would not be able to run after him but walked as fast as she could manage in the direction he had gone calling out to him. She found him sitting near the old car.

“What are you doing boy? It’s just an old wreck of a car.”

Rusty stayed with his eyes fixed on the window. As Annie stood looking at the car she was reminded of Jack. Her father never liked him. They had spent a lot of time in his old car making love and planning for the future. They planned to marry after Jack returned from the Army. He never made it back. She was looking at the window when she saw him.

“Jack?”

They found her body near the car. The doctor said her heart must have failed.

Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner Week #19-2018 is hosted by Roger Shipp.

Word count: 202

Women Of Letters

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In the Regency Period of England, when Jane Austen was writing, people wrote with quill pens and ink. Good penmanship was important. The quill pens were made from bird feathers, usually goose or swan, with sharpened tips to be dipped in an inkwell. The ink was applied to the paper with light pressure. It must have taken a lot of practice to get it right. Jane Austen published her books anonymously because it was not acceptable for women to be writers in her time.

Glad that women can write in their own names nowadays.

Jane Austen writing sample via Wikimedia.org

It would’ve been wonderful to receive a letter from Jane.  🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt ‘letter’. Use it in your post or theme your post on any meaning of the word “letter.”