A favourite lurking-place of fairies....

Digitalis purpurea

It happens, moreover, the name foxglove is a very ancient one and exists in a list of plants as old as the time of Edward III. The "folks" of our ancestors were the fairies and nothing is more likely than that the pretty coloured bells of the plant would be designated "folksgloves," afterwards, "foxglove." In Wales it is declared to be a favourite lurking-place of the fairies, who are said to occasion a snapping sound when children, holding one end of the digitalis bell, suddenly strike the other on the hand to hear the clap of fairy thunder, with which the indignant fairy makes her escape from her injured retreat. 

So sayeth Wikipedia :+).  This has always been my most favorite wildflower of the Pacific Northwest.  I really was always entranced with it, growing along the roadside and in the meadows up on Mt. Rainier.  I even had a planting just off my kitchen when I lived there.  They grew to be about 5 feet tall, and when I was working in the flower beds during seeding time, the seed pods would pop open and it felt like they were attacking me, lol.  I also remember a story about an older couple who decided to make some foxglove tea....digitalis...and they died.  Together.  I couldn't decide if that was something very sad, or not.

So, that's all I have to say about foxgloves. 

There's not a whole lot that is new and different these days.  We continue to work (a lot) and play (not a lot) and have good times together.  Life is good. 

If I were going to really open up a little and have a heart-to-heart sort of blog post, I might say something about, oh, let's see.  How about discrimination?  Yes.  Shirley Sherrod has gotten some press lately on that subject.  I'm with her. 

You know, we've had some dealings with discrimination, too.  It's hard to believe that here in America, in this day and age, that people can be so, what?  Dense.  We've seen it with co-workers, acquaintances, friends, neighbors, and----yes---family members.

Hello.  When it comes to what we believe, to whom we pray or don't pray, what form our worship takes, where we work, what we do and say, where we live, and with whom we sleep---

Read my lips.

YOU. DO. NOT. GET. A. VOTE.


But hey, do have a nice, big day!!


Shawn
**** 

"To err is human, but it feels divine...."

In other words,

"A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up...When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before."  ~Mae West~

And:
It's better to be looked over than overlooked.
A hard man is good to find.
Men are my life, diamonds are my career!
When women go wrong, men go right after them!
When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better.
Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution.
It's not the man in your life that counts. It's the life in your man.
Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?
I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it.
I only like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign.
Too much of a good thing is wonderful.
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
Don't marry a man to reform him. That's what reform schools are for.
It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.
I wrote the story myself. It's all about a girl who lost her reputation but never missed it.
It ain't sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.
Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.
Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else.
I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.
I do all my writing in bed; everybody knows I do my best work there.
Few men know how to kiss well. Fortunately, I've always had time to teach them.
I always save one boyfriend for a rainy day . . . and another in case it doesn't rain.
Why don't you come sometime and see me? I'm home every evening . . . Come up, and I'll tell your fortune.
I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live the way she does if she does no actual harm to society.
The man I don't like doesn't exist.
I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.
I'm not good and tired, just tired.
Men are easy to get but hard to keep.

On style:  It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.
On love:  A man's kiss is his signature.
On growth:  He who hesitates is a damn fool.
On desire:  Sex is an emotion in motion....love is what you make it and who you make it with. 
****
Mae West is numbered among my favorite platinum blondes ;+).  When Somebody on Facebook shared one of Mae's quotations yesterday, it naturally got me to investigating and collecting more of her quips.  There's a lot of truth in what she says, isn't there?!

I trust there's something here that will at the very least, provoke a smile (and if it doesn't, please, have your pulse checked, lol!!)

Happy Weekend~

Shawn
****
photo courtesy of:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsN4t7YWyIYAF69TJTs9h4O3OvO9GVIEu2S7n6Vy_jJMn5kBl8kGv846lwc6kgIiynRU5cWeQZwTnLG2ibewhh9cJxfTqOBimrzFHujSCNdX-NIw5nq3JYE1iP8vopQWSsqshZOkur6w/s640/MaeWest.jpg

Passiflora caerulea....

This is what greeted SGTex this morning when he was giving our potted plants a drink on the front porch.  I was so excited when he came in to tell me, and there it was, my first "in person" Passiflora!  I've been watching our plant grow along the wrought iron railing and have been (im)patiently waiting for the first bloom...(Thanks, SpringHill Nursery!)

It's also host to the Gulf Fritillary butterflies. They've been coccooning and emerging to flit (frit?) about for awhile, then they find their way elsewhere in the neighborhood. They're beautiful, and it's fun to watch it all happen up close-like :+).

I am so loving this place called Texas these days....

Shawn
****
photos courtesy of:  http://www.infojardin.net/galerias/albums/userpics/FlorPasion.jpg
and http://www.carolinabutterflysociety.org/smith/images/gulf_frit_cat01.jpg
and http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/gulffritillary071124-2623brnswckz.jpg

Survival of the spiritual....

"From one viewpoint, religion can be seen as sort of a luxury. If you have religion, that’s good, but even without it you can manage and survive - but we can't survive without human affection.

While anger and hatred, like compassion and love, are part of our mind, I still believe the dominant forces are compassion and affection. Therefore, usually I refer to these human qualities as spirituality."  The Dalai Lama  

I like this very much.  Yes, I do.

Shawn
****

...add color to my sunset sky....

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

                                                           ~Rabindranath Tagore

This is how it looked in Virginia this evening.  I'm not sure if we had a sky as pretty tonight here in Texas.  If we did, we missed seeing it, as SGTex has been hard at work here in the office and I'm keeping him company. Thank goodness it's the weekend, as we're both pretty tired, having had more stress than we needed this week. 

We did have some positives to balance the negatives, so we're grateful for that.  What do they say, "Every cloud has a silver lining?"  I don't know who "they" are, but I would imagine it's true, or people would have stopped saying that long ago, right?  LOL. 

We're on the *wedding home stretch* these days, so that contributes to the heightened emotion around here...look out!!!  Yesterday morning the phone rang and woke us up, and it was about a package that was being delivered with the wrong address.  I evidently mixed up my old house number in WA with our present street name here in Texas....duh.....but sure enough, this morning the dogs started barking and here was the package being delivered, in spite of my dufusness ;+).  Talk about service, huh?!  And no, it wasn't by USPS, if you were wondering, heh heh. 

Anyway, I just stopped by to share this beautiful picture of a sky that gave some encouragement to my friend Jeannine, the photographer.  She knew which direction to look when she needed a lift, and so do we...I hope the same goes for you.

Happy Weekend!!

Shawn
****
photo courtesy of: My friend, Jeannine Coats Cooper, photographer (who can be found on Facebook)  ;+)

Reunited....

Baby Hope crossed paths with her Momma Lily, and they've been together for the past few days again. We're so glad that they're together again! 
All is going well, especially for Hope.  I just hated to think about her being such a little bear in such big woods, all alone. 

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures with you who don't happen to be on Facebook, where it's been plastered all over my home page, lol. 


Shawn
****

Photos courtesy of:  Lily the Black Bear on Facebook
07.12.10

Shoo, fly! Shoo, wouldya?!....

Baby bear Hope vs. a deer fly....

I thought this picture was just too awfully cute not to post!  Just look at those paws...HaHa!! 

Well, it's a breezy, sunny Sunday here in Texas and all is well.  We're being around-the-housers pretty much today.  Must get some indoor stuff done and some outdoor stuff done, as usual. 

Things around here pretty much involve domesticity (more tomatoes and zucchini are coming on).  SGTex brought me some beautiful brandy roses from along the fence yesterday.  We've got Heavenly Blue morning glories blooming on our trellis arch, too, and the Passiflora is about to pop along the front porch wrought-iron railings that he painted black not long ago.  It looks great, matching the black front door with a "This is a Buddhist home" brass plaque.  Pretty spiffy ;+). 

Speaking of SGTex, he was featured in the local newspaper this past Friday.  The story and pictures were about being Buddhist here in West Texas.  It was a great article.  My Celebrity :+). 

Of course, much of our conversations throughout the day center on what is happening to the Gulf, and we continue to be concerned, sad, angry, appalled, bewildered and horrified at the thoughtlessness and lack of concern on the part of the BP Oil Company, and their willingness to not just allow, but perpetrate such destruction on wildlife and the habitat is beyond comprehension.  Their coldness and greed, their utter disregard of those whose lives and livelihoods have been lost leaves me absolutely--well, evidently not quite, speechless.  

Shawn
****
photo courtesy of:  Lily The Black Bear on Facebook 07.10.10

After the storm....

I thought I was done here at the desk for the evening, but for some reason I'm lingering.  Some might say that most of our time here at home is spent in our office.  That would be true...Why am I still here?  I suppose it's because SGTex is still working hard at it behind me at his desk.  I appreciate that, and I like having him close by. 

As the day wore on, things got better around here.  Maybe it was the thunderstorm working its way up into a full boil...or would that be roil...?  Whatever the word, it was nice to have the rain come down and clear the air for a bit.  It's still warm out there, but not like it was.  There's something awfully romantic about a thunderstorm around here, anyway, so maybe we can stir one up later on... ;+)  It's nice to open the windows and let a bit of the outdoors in. 

Earlier, we had a little visitor.  Sebastian the Havanese Hellboy was in the kitchen and he kept jumping and standing on his hind paws at the back door, looking up at the window.  I was busy at the sink and noticed him doing that (he does this from time to time, and now I know why), and he was extremely, shall we say *intent* on whatever it was.  I opened the door for something and here was a big, plump, long-legged bug, lol.  I called it a grasshopper, and it was caught between the screen and the window, decidedly undecided about how to extricate itself.  So, of course I did the thing that I do, and I called, "Honey, can you come here?"  Honey did, and went out and rescued the poor thing, releasing it into the back yard.  Freedom!!!  Honey informed me that it was a locust.  I was pretty impressed, and both pups were glad to have that little issue resolved.  It was quite cute, and I suppose I can say that because this isn't Kansas or North Dakota in the 1800s and I'm not a wheat farmer with a plague of them descending upon my crop.  I guess one won't do our backyard garden any harm :+).  Things are different around here, bug-wise, compared to the Pac NW, that's for sure.  We had a much less welcome, much less cute visitor in the medicine cabinet last night, and it *hissed*  at me.  Yes, it did!!!  Honey tells me that hissing was its undoing....ugh.  I won't go into that story, but I'm told that 91% alcohol does the trick.  It came to a less fortunate end, than did the locust, thanks be to the gods~and Honey.

I don't know how I got on the subject of bugs, but pictured here is a pretty Hibiscus (Texas Star, I'm told), and we have some lovely specimens of different varieties in our yard.  We're drying some of the flowers to scatter at the park for our wedding morning.  Hey, did you see how many days are left?  WoW.

Having said that, I'd better just say g'nite.

Shawn
****
photo courtesy of:  mostlytexasnatives.com 08.27.08 texas star hibiscus

Bombs bursting in air.....

Okay, I know that's not quite what was meant at the time those words were written, but the fireworks reminded me of those lyrics, and it just so happens that...

SGTex was standing behind me massaging my shoulders, and it felt really good.  I said, "Honey, you're the bomb!"  And he said, "I am?  Well, I hope we can defuse me before somebody gets hurt!"  Hahahahaha~

So, that is about all I have to say regarding the Fourth of July, at this point.

Happy, Happy Independence Day!!!

Shawn & SGTex
*****