Where I live

Recently I decided that one way to deal with stress and bad moods at work is to enhance my levels of endorphins - and take advantage of my very own legal high. To that end - I've been taking walks every morning, when the weather is good.


It's been lovely and wonderful and good for my mood. Also - those who know me know that I am a gadget geek so every day I take my iPod - which wirelessly connects to a monitor in my shoe that acts as a pedometer, and then electronically uploads my daily walk into my computer. I'm feeding two parts to my soul and I'm loving it. I dread the next rainy day - not sure what I will do.


My iPod also takes pictures, and I've uploaded a few here from my walks over the past few days. The only problem with taking pictures is that stopping is screwing up my Miles per Hour rate - and the ipod is not impressed with me, but I figure it's a small price to pay to capture mist over a field in a sunrise.







It's a good way to start the day. Good for me, and good for the people that I work with - as I do not bark and growl when I get to work. The trade off is computer time in the AM, but weighing the pro's and cons - I'm sticking with the walking while the weather is so lovely.

Have a lovely day - and try a kick on those endorphins. Better than B12.

A painted ladder

I think I first saw this idea on DebraK's facebook page - maybe or maybe not. Either way - a painted ladder to nowhere makes me happy. So I went out to the garden, scrounged up long and short twigs and branches and painted me up one - just for laughs and giggles. It'll live outside for the season and thats all I expect that it will last. Temporary art, easy to make, fun to look at an nothing that I really have to take care of.

Perfect!!

It's a gorgeous Saturday here in the Northeast after a week filled with strange weather and destructive tornado's. Some cities here really got slammed - houses completely destroyed, schools with their roofs ripped off - 4 people killed. While it's nothing compared to the destruction that has been seen in Mo, its still shocking and amazing to us that we had twisters here that ripped thru towns, flipping over cars and causing havoc everywhere. Everyone I know is safe and has their home undamaged, but many were close to the path of the storm - but it passed them by. The Red Cross is helping those who have lost their homes, and Red Cross is asking for monetary donations. I'm for that - they know how to use the money I think.

Anyway - we hope it's behind us for now and that the good weather will continue.

Have a lovely weekend all

Animal Wednesday - various animals of the week and blogger stuff at the end.

We went kayaking this weekend - which was glorious. First there was a thunderstorm that lit up the sky - we stayed in the car for that! But afterwards - everything felt fresh and cool. Perfect kayaking weather. Of course, I was on the lookout for animals but wasn't having much luck until I got back to the launching area. I got out of the boat and was doing all the clean up stuff that you have to do at the end of a ride....looked up and saw this little guy - sitting like a lookout at the front of the boat. I wish I had gotten a picture of him sitting...but he wanted to get off the boat as soon as it touched ground and wouldn't sit down again. Either way - he's adorable isn't he?


On Monday we went to a Memorial Day parade in a small New Hampshire town, another gorgeous day and a true small town experience. Afterwards we went for a bike ride - and it was warm and buggy but wonderful and fun. Love that ride thru the woods - I really do. Again, not many animals to be seen but right at the end.....

This guy was trying to cross the road and got scared when he saw us. Little tank - love it.


And a beautiful birds nest in the girders of a bridge - no eggs and no babies, but homey looking anyways.

Have a Happy Animal Wednesday - Wednesday sure has snuck up on me this week.

And a Happy June 1st!! and a Happy Birthday to Lori - yesterday.....and who has a very young heart.





Cris left a comment that she couldn't comment on AU's blog - so I went to try and got the usual "go back to sign in" screen. So I found this list of things to do and when I did the first one "uncheck the remember me box" - it worked and I was able to leave a comment. And I am using Internet Explorer. I did not clean out my cookies and milk (oops - cache) cause I have no idea how to do that and would have to have some smart help.
Give it a try....see what happens.

Here are some things that worked for a couple of people.

1) Before attempting to Login in Make sure the "Remember Me" Checkbox is UNTICKED
2) Make sure you are running the latest version of your browser, if not, upgraded it.
3) Make sure you REALLY have cleared both your COOKIES and CACHE
4) Once Cleared shut down the browser
5) Then Open it again and CHeck that the Cookies and Cache are indeed Empty. This is very important. The problem seems to be with corrupt cookies and cache files
6) If that is OK try going to www.blogger.com . Don't login yet, press CTRL-F5 and then try logging in again
7) If that still does not work try logging into Gmail first and then go to www.blogger.com and try again
8) If that does not work try going to this address http://www2.blogger.com/home
9) If that does not work try going to draft.blogger.com
10) If all those fail, try installing another browser to see if that works eg Firefox, Chrome, Opera etc

If those do not work, leave your details on this thread
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4bd36d5355dbcf8c&hl=en

This from Blogger - "known issues"....hmmmm......

We're investigating an issue which is preventing login and comment posting for some users, and hope to have a fix released shortly.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime. — latest update on Tuesday, May 24, 2011

What is up with Blogger???

It appears that I can only leave comments from my home computer - what's up with that? Blogger won't let me sign on from my work computer (during lunch hour!!) or from my ipad. I don't get it...I know KatieJane is having a similar issue - how about anyone else? Any hints as to how to solve the problem???? Does anyone at Blogger give a rat's a**?

Animal Wednesday - a new tenant

In the Yew Tree by our side door - a cardinal couple has taken up residence. They both go hysterical when we open the door, so I had to sneak around to be able to take pictures. Even with a stealthy approach, whoever was on the nest - and I think it was the male - flew away with a huge flutter.

Here is a picture of a parent on the nest - look at that red.


I got a picture of the nest when he/she had flown away. Pulled back a branch and there it was, cleverly disguised from my eyes. Then I held the camera up and tried to get a picture inside of what I assumed would be eggs. Look at what I found - amazing!!



The male and female were flying around squawking like crazy by this point. I got a picture of the female, but couldn't get the male - he was flying around like a bombadier.



That's it for today. I am having computer problems right now, I don't have a cursor when trying to post....haven't been able to leave comments sometimes....and now the computer has lost the slideshow that I have as a screen saver. Oh well.....have a Happy Animal Wednesday!

Rock Pearls

I saw an image in a magazine about an underground cave that had "Rock Pearls" formed from dripping calcite or something like that. I loved the image and have been drawing variations of it for days - using it to learn about color and shading. Here is a watercolor work in progress.....I'll probably do more before I stop obsessing about Rock Pearls.

You can embiggen if you click on it