The Volunteers Seem to Thrive

My husband and I were working in the area around our front patio this weekend. Over the last year, we changed out some of the plants and added some new ones. There’s a lovely new agave that we’ve planted and artfully swirled around it, a flowering vine has grown. I mentioned the vine to him, impressed that it had grown on it own. “We didn’t even plant this yellow microdot.”  His comment back, “yeah, the volunteers always seem to thrive.”

In surveying our yard, I quickly decide this is a truth. Some of the things I’ve purchased at nurseries didn’t make it but many of the plants that were taken as cuttings from others or that have come up on their own – aka volunteered, are thriving.

flickr.creativecommons/photos/heraklit/169568227

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Tammy’s Top Ten (t3 report) Food Songs

I thought it would be hard to find ten. But the struggle came in the whittling down of a brutally long list of food songs. Who knew there were so many and that I’d have had to spend hours on youtube listening to ensure that I’ve happened upon the right selection. I don’t know that I have. I loosened my criteria. Weird Al was disqualified. I closed out anything from Sesame Street or Raffi. And while Taco Wagon by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones is right up there for great music, it had no lyrics. The good news is, that while there are oodles of old songs about savory morsels, the new genre is keeping up just fine. This however, is a sort of an oldies list.

I’d never heard this song before and thought that it was quite fitting for my own story.

Agrigirl’s List of Food Songs

1. Canned Goods by Greg Brown (more…)

Inventing a New Year

On the first Sunday of 2011,  I slept until 10:10 am! Amazing. Clearly my body and perhaps my mind were in need of the rest. Ahhh. I felt refreshed and renewed and then, argghhh.  The reality of the clock set in. There was no way that I could get ready and get myself to the 11:00 healing prayer service that I enjoy attending. And by missing it, I was neglecting one of my main areas of focus for the year – to cultivate greater spirituality in my life.

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2010 Photos – A Year in Review

Are pictures worth a thousand words? I usually only shoot for 500. And I do shoot!

Howdy Y'all and thanks for reading the Blog!

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Beans, Books and Blogging

I’m cheering for Auburn in the BCS Bowl. Auburn is in Alabama – a state I’ve never visited. I don’t even like football much but I do read a mind-stretching blog by Professor Jose Llanes, of the Education Department there and hence, I now find some affinity with this Southern school.

flickr.com/photos/lulieboo - Go Tigers!

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Tammy’s Top Ten (t3 report) Easy Holiday Appetizers

I’ve had many comments from readers who thought the idea of knowing how to prepare one easy appetizer really well was a great idea. It’s that time of year when we’re invited out and it’s nice to take something along to share. So, I sat out to make a list for us with the rule being that I can’t link to a recipe. Rather if it’s truly simple, I can explain it in a few words and you can replicate it.

flickr.com/photos/ceanandjen/3133691882

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Guest Post: Ollin Morales

Thanks to Ollin for the invite to guest post at his blog, Courage 2 Create. Click over there to read my contribution, after you’ve read what Ollin has to say about how nature can inspire us and our writing.

The Creator of Courage

By Ollin Morales

I walk through a little dirt pathway, hugged on either side by bright green grass. There are trees all around that seem to greet me in their silence. The little stream whispers, “Hello.” A leaf or two can be seen falling to the ground, with the power and grace of any Olympic diver. There, in this sacred place, you feel yourself embraced by a cool, tender brush of mountain wind.  There, you can almost swear the branches are speaking to you in a language all their own. There, you are almost certain that a squirrel, who freezes just underneath the sunlight as you approach, is reminding you of something you forgot. {That living occurs in the moment.}

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Looking at the World through a Rose-Colored Glass

Optimism, joy, chuckles, bliss. It seems that so many places we turn, people are talking about the elusive concept of happiness. We can speculate at the reasons; a tormented economy, the sandwich generation, increasing social pressures.  I’ve read unfortunate tales about the increase in the use of antidepressants in adults and in children. Frankly, I think happiness is a difficult thing to calculate. How do we really know of its existence or its intensity unless we’ve measured it against sadness?

Rose Colored Smoothie

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Telling Our Stories

“When a community loses its memory, its members no longer know one another. How can they know one another if they have forgotten or never learned one another’s stories? If they do not know one another’s stories, how can they know whether or not to trust one another? People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover, they fear one another.” (Wendell Berry, What Are People For)

 

Wendell Berry: Farmer, Writer, Academic - photo courtesy of thebridgepai.com

 

 

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Talking with Our Mouths Full

What a couple of weeks these have been! My middle guy just returned from a school trip. I was at a company meeting for three overnights. Upon returning home, my husband had an evening meeting and there was the annual dinner for our Economic Council. I hope it doesn’t sound like a complaint as we enjoy an abundant life but what do I really miss when our schedule fills up like this? Dinner time!

 

flickr.com/walkadog/3432071719

 

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