It’s a beautiful Wordless Wednesday. Let music and flowers speak to you. Take a walk around my yard with me as you listen to this amazing You.Tube of the Canadian Brass.
Up from the downstairs guest bedroom
TazE says, “Okay, time to go for a real walk!”
Enough “wow”-ing for now. So much for being “wordless!”
It’s a different kind of Independence Day weekend in the USA. Our little town of Ennis WILL have its annual rodeo tonight. Social distancing is easy in that outdoor venue. But we will not have the 4th of July parade. Our population of 1,000 grows on that day to about 6,000 typically – and the sidewalks are wall-to-wall people. So for public safety, it was cancelled. We are free to just BEE this year… and grateful to bee alive!
The rodeo will happen as usual, but the crowd will be greatly diminished.
We’ll miss the parade, but we’ll celebrate here at home – quietly thanking God for our freedom and renewed health.
Yesterday Bob was delighted to be able to spend a day on the Madison River with our friend, Scott. The fishing was good – and the weather was beautiful. The wildlife were out enjoying the sunshine, too.
Scott took this picture of the moose who entertained the fishermen.
He managed to get four of the five fox babies in one photo. He said they were quite entertaining!
Yesterday while Bob was out fishing and I was recuperating from my surgery, a couple of my girlfriends and a dear couple from our church made sure I was well taken care of. Terry (on the left) made bran muffins for my breakfast and gave me a darling, soft and cuddly angel blanket. Elaine (on the right) brought lunch and we shared it as we visited for a couple of hours. Then later in the day other friends brought us a delicious dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes, salad, and cookies for dessert. Yum!!!
Today is Terry’s birthday! Happy Birthday to my sweet, beautiful friend.<3
I know I am super blessed to have such wonderful friends. I hope you are equally gifted.
On another topic, you may have noticed that yesterday’s blog “Learn to Say NO,” with a series of Haiku was all in capital letters. I was not intending to shout at you. I was just trying to enlarge this font that WordPress suddenly has decided to use as a default. I found out how to enlarge the first letter in each new text entry. That’s fun, but do you have advice for how I can default back to a larger text for the body of my posts?
I hope you’re having a fun-filled weekend… even if it’s not the typical Independence Day celebration.
Happy 4th of July weekend!
Celebrate your FREEDOM to BEE! See ya tomorrow. Love from JanBeek
I know a lot of you love art as much as I do. I am the president of our Ennis Arts Association. As such, I rub elbows with a lot of talented people. Today I met a new artist: Akie from Japan. I LOVE her art! Take a look:
Japanese artist Akie Nakata (known simply as Akie) transforms found stones into animals you can hold in the palm of your hand. Isn’t this amazing? You thought it was a real bird at first, huh? I did, too.
Here are some more of the rock art creations:
Which of them do you like best? Have you ever tried painting on rocks?
Today I am having a COVID-19 test. I have no symptoms, but the test is required before I can have surgery. I am scheduled to have a hernia repaired on Tuesday. Should be a simple in-out procedure.
Please keep me in prayer that the robot knows what it’s doing. I’ll keep you posted.
Hope you are having a Marvelous Monday. Love, JanBeek
Well, my WP friends, I told you I’d post pictures this afternoon of our river float, right?
Nope, that’s not my photo. I found it on the internet. It’s where I’d like to have been – with that blue sky dotted with clouds, but alas…
Bob’s out weeding – no blue in our sky!
Take a look at that gray sky. Does it look like an inviting time to go out on the river? Temperature’s not bad, though – even though rain is threatening. Look, Bob’s weeding the garden in his shorts!
Come sit on the porch with me; we can watch him work!
Look at that sky – Threatening!
That’s the direction of the river… and if this were a video, you’d see the trees and bushes blowing in the wind. It isn’t a pretty time to be out rowing!
So, let’s have some fun at home instead. Set those best laid plans aside. Make lemonade with those lemons!
That wind and those clouds were sent by God. I wrote a Haiku this morning about the way the wind blows the clouds away. Hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day.
Meantime, let’s just find some ways to smile and enjoy some laughter inside on this Saturday afternoon.
I needed a therapy dog because my husband has a habit of walking around without clothes on. Well, we ARE separated from other houses by a few acres, right. But still…
Hah! No, I’m just kidding… he never walks around OUTSIDE naked!
With all this refrigerator time, I should start using my recumbent bike more often… develop some sort of exercise routine and keep my TOPS weight under control, right? But…
Did that one make you chuckle?
I was looking for something to distract me this afternoon from the coverage of Donald Trump’s rally where all those people are crowded into an arena and only about one in ten are wearing masks. So I logged on to Derrick’s garden.
Do you follow Derrick’s delightful posts at derrickjknight ? Today his post was “Night and Day” – and his roses were captivating. Check him out! He and Jackie have a flower garden second to none. And Derrick’s photography is magical.
Here is a rose for you from their garden:
Have a Happy Father’s Day, my friends.
If you don’t get to go where you wanted to go (for whatever reason), make the most of it where you are.
And don’t worry about being too sexy… God loves you just the way you are, and so do I!
What did you do today? And which of my offerings make you laugh out loud? Share!
Our daughter, DeAna, sent us this video this morning of her duet with Sylviane, her “Swisster.” It warms my heart to see and hear them singing together. De is the one in red.
“Syli” (as we nicknamed her) lived in our home/became our daughter and De’s “Swisster” in Modesto, CA when De was a senior in high school. DeAna then lived with Syli’s family in Sierre, Switzerland the next year. When she came home, she brought Syli’s first cousin, Andre’, home with her! They were married a year later.
Seeing and hearing these two sing together is such a joy! (Sit back a couple minutes and enjoy)
De & her “Swisster”
Our grandson, Chris, was named after Syli’s brother, Christian. Christian was our AFS exchange student in 1980-81. That’s how this whole Swiss connection got started.
If you have followed my blog for awhile, you met our grandson, Chrissy, when he came to Montana last year and attended the Job Corps program.
And you saw Chris with his girlfriend, Natalia from Colombia, in this related post:
In this next video, De and Chrissy are singing a duet to Natalia.
It’s a beautiful day here in Montana – and a wonderful way to start the day with these videos from my DeDe. I hope you enjoy them, too.
Here’s my view yesterday afternoon. Today the clouds are gone and the sky is blue blue blue:
Those antelope babies I showed you a couple days ago were back yesterday afternoon, crossing that field between us and the “next door” neighbors. We call that path “The Antelope Highway.”
Look carefully. There are four little ones with a yearling. That one trailing is not old enough to be the mama. Must be a babysitter!
One of the little ones ran on ahead. They are so cute! OK, enough cuteness for this morning… I gotta get busy.
Bob just left to go fishing, and… my Writers’ Group is coming to the house this morning. It’ll be our first meeting since all this COVID-19 stuff. We can socially distance in my living room.
I’ll tell you all about it this afternoon. Come on back!
We spent the day in Bozeman, Montana. Bob & I had much-overdue dental appointments to get our teeth cleaned. Then we did our grocery shopping, bought a tree to plant at our church where a tree died and needs to be replaced, and then had “linner” (lunch + dinner) before heading home.
It was a rainy drive home.
Got rainier as time went by.
When we arrived home, our neighborhood antelope were there to greet us.
Look carefully – there’s mama antelope followed by her two babies in the field.
Yesterday I watched them out my living room window.
A second antelope joined them. She has little ones, too, but they weren’t with her. Probably hiding in the grasses – not too far off.
It is such fun to watch them.
A Fun Place to Live
In the picture below, our house is behind those trees… a wonderland for birds – and a haven for us. That field on the left is where the antelope were today.
Isn’t it fun to live in a neighborhood where the deer and the antelope play? You know that song, right? Home on the Range, a favorite from my childhood.
“Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.”
Sing it with Roy and me:
Do You Remember Roy Rogers?
You may be too young to remember this cowboy – or you’re living in a different part of the world. Roy Rogers was my favorite when I was a child back in the 1940s. As a real treat, my sister and I would go to the Saturday matinee at the little theater in Newman, California. I loved Roy Rogers even more than the Micky Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Popeye cartoons! That’s really saying something.
Roy’s sidekick was Trigger, his beautiful palomino. His wife, Dale Evans, was his singing partner. As a child, I was sure Dale Evans would grow old and die – but Roy Rogers would never grow old. And after is wife died, then I intended to marry him!
Did you dress up and pretend to be a princess when you were a child? Or did you imagine yourself to be Roy Rogers’ wife and ride away into the wild blue yonder?
Well, if you dreamed of being a princess on a horse riding off into the wild, blue yonder, come to Montana. This is the place where such dreams come true!
Join us where the deer and the antelope play!
Hope you had a good day. Tell me about it... or share a childhood fantasy.
You know I need you. We’re wired for connection, Love and belonging.
Me (Jan) with Lexi, Bernie & Suz
Birthday girl needs love. Friends need connectivity. We crave relations.
We’re in the same nest. We’re born in this together. But don’t smother me!
I rise with the sun Into a brand new morning Facing a new day.
Connected to God. Learning to live cautiously, Leaning on my Lord.
Proverbs 27:17
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
When is it Time?
If baby robin #4 in that nest up there doesn’t sharpen her will, poke her beak up with the rest, and open up, she will be doomed to the nest forever!
So, we who need one another are asking ourselves, “When it it time to open up? When it it time to let our courage and our natural need for connections take hold? When can we do it safely?”
Should we wear a mask or not? Should we join the protestors or not? When it is time to believe COVID-19 is safely at bay?
Each Person is Different
Not only is each person different, but each area of our world is different, too. Here in Montana, I could join my friends for a small birthday gathering outside (only 7 of us) and feel safe. I realize everyone in the world does not have that luxury.
But while we each are different, so are we all alike in many ways. We all crave genuine connection.
Matthew Lieberman, a Harvard-trained psychologist wrote,
“The human brain is wired to be social. Love and belonging might seem like a convenience we can live without, but our biology is built to thirst for connection because it is linked to our most basic survival needs.”
Birds of a feather Flock together, connecting Love and harmony.
Likewise, we humans Crave times to touch each other. Isolation hurts!
