Sherburne Wildlife Refuge

Are There More Butterflies?

• Some people own very large vehicles, my Dad on the other hand fixes pretty much everything by himself and has never needed one.
  
• Over the years my Dad has mellowed and I have become more assertive, so helping him with something like this is certainly less stressful.
• I used up the cottage cheese. (I'm not a big fan. I bought it for a recipe and I had extra.)
• Butterflies - Has anyone noticed a large number of butterflies this year? I see them all the time. When I was in CO in July I thought, "They have a lot of butterflies here." Then I returned home and I thought the same thing.
• Items from the garden - tomato, green pepper, cucumber and pesto (from the basil) making a delicious sandwich.

Dimming of the Day

(I had a visit from Darth Vader last weekend.)

#2811 - Learning that I was correct in my wonderings if I should snip off the tops of the basil plant (where it was starting to seed).

#2812 - Most of the time when I'm biking, I'm biking to "get somewhere." Today while I was doing this I stopped at a parkway just for a moment because it felt peaceful. This pause is I'm guessing why a block or two later the thought popped into my head, "I love riding my bike."

#2813 - I kind of had a weird (unusual) thing happen to me today. I am not going to explain it, but I am grateful that it somehow went around me instead of me getting caught up in it - like water that goes down a side channel instead of through the rapids.

#2814 - I'm reading Black Elk Speaks (as told through John G. Neihardt) and this line stood out to me today.

"Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world (85)."

#2815 -"I need you at the dimming of the day" - Dimming of the Day (song) by Alison Krauss & Union Station

Motivation for Diaper Change

#2671 - There is a large lake near where I live that takes a couple hours to walk around. Some years I have walked around it once a week. Sometimes I love walking by myself. Sometimes I get tired of it. This year I haven't walked around it much, in a good way, I've done other things, but last week when the weather turned cooler it made me long for that long walk, and yet I didn't feel like going alone. I asked a friend that came to mind, thinking it wasn't likely. The last time she took that walk with me she was pregnant, over two years ago. She came though (and as usual she kicked me butt, she walks fast.)

#2672 - I thought this posture in the stroller demonstrated deep relaxation, but I didn't interrupt our walk to take a photo of it. When we finished I grabbed the shot and right after he pulled his foot down.

#2573 - How my friend motivated her child to come for a diaper change. The first time she found a rock in the car (that he had put there) and asked him to come see it. The second time she found two sticks for him to come check out :)

#2574 - That my friend has found more books she doesn't want to put down (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series).

#2575 - That she took two cucumbers home with her. (I gave three to my soccer team on Sunday but I am still overwhelmed by the production of our single cucumber plant!)

Cardinal - Omnivore

#2631 & 2632 - Going to an outdoor yoga class. The fact that it was outdoors motivated me to go in the first place and being in a different setting made familiar poses new.

#2633 - I've felt peaceful today. I'm attributing this to the weather which is still with occasional light breezes and a quietness in the air.

#2634 - The active bird life in my backyard and learning that a cardinal is an omnivore because I saw one with a dragonfly (or some large flying insect) in its mouth.

#2635 - Using greywater -s o water from your shower, washing machine etc, (when you don't use harmful soaps) to water plants etc. This was featured on The Story (radio program) I listened to today.

Poetry and the Thrift Store

Just want to mention a beautiful video my friend sent - a woman sews poetry into thrift store clothing. The poems are short, just one line and look just like an instruction tag, but beauty instead....so many ways.

New Weekly Schedule

• Finding some websites that articulated much better than I could why I don't use plastic water bottles. (I couldn't explain it well to a friend on Saturday).
  

• Using this website that lets you find a radius to a location on a map for work. The supposed "free" website would at certain (unpredictable) instances take you to an ad. It reminded me how it might feel to sit at a roulette table - would something suddenly happen? It was suspenseful (tiring but engaging).
  

• I tried freezing some yogurt with fruit in it, inspired by a friend. Interesting.

• After taking a break from the computer while visiting friends recently, I wondered if I wanted to post less often. Why we do things is so tricky at times. I remember a prominent yoga teacher, Shiva Rea, saying once that what frees us can also become our prison. Right around the time I was thinking about this Jason Mraz (my favorite blogger) wrote that he was taking a break.

• I still wondered about it though, then when I thought about posting about once a week (rotating the day I write) - I felt a deep feeling of peace.
  

So that is the new plan.