A Sensual Post

Wednesday was such a beautiful day that I spent a lot of time on the back porch.  I am reading a good book which I should finish soon and I drank my pot of coffee out there and thoroughly enjoyed sitting and soaking it all in.

The windows were open and the AC turned off and I was smelling the air with its light fragrance coming from somewhere. The feel of a light breeze plus the beauty of a summer day (look closely at the purple flowers contributed to a sense storm that I was undergoing. Add the bees and the butterflies as they flited from place to place.

The birds and the bugs   serenaded me with the constant noise from the (locusts perhaps) and birds singing to us from inside the bushes which also move constantly in the breeze.

I sit and read for awhile and then look up and take it all in.  I come inside for lunch and then late afternoon I go back out to sit some more and take it all in again. Life is beautiful. Life is good.  I am grateful for the creation which I am a part of and for the creatures who share my world. HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.
P.S.  I also got a nice nap in this afternoon and so did Miss Molly (she used the recliner).

They've Got to be Carefully Taught - A Video Editorial

Got the message?

And just this morning I got this in my in-box.  101 ways not to raise your Kid. It is seems to fit in.

Tuesday

 This is the group picture from Saturday's meeting of the two Conclaves of the Red Cross of Constantine. We held the meeting at the Grand Lodge of Iowa and it worked out nicely.  The Knight Companions in the picture are: Front Row (L to R)  Greg Andersen, B.O. Bryngleson, Steve Elliott, Jay Cole Simser, I.G., Colby Withers, Shane Harshbarger, Don Stamy, P.I.G.

Back Row (L to R) Wade Sheeler, Kevin Smith, Don Sardeson, Marion Reinhart, Kurt Hoffmann, George Gay, Ed Blinks, John Klaus, Rusty Hill, Don Mosier, P.S. - St. Ignatius, Craig McFarland, George Harrison, P.S. - St. Bartholomew, Randy Crouch, Gary Bergman, Charlie Smithson, David Dryer

 It was a very nice meeting and I think the Knights enjoyed seeing the work. The Red Cross of Constantine is an Invitational Masonic Order. If interested you can read about it here. The Stain Glass was something I had not seen before.  It is displayed under the pictures of the Past Grand Masters and I thought it looked quite nice with the reflection.

 When I drove home I was grateful for the clouds because I was heading west and it is hard enough to see driving into the sun anyway.  I love taking pictures of clouds.

 And I love driving on Iowa Highways, especially this time of year when it is green.

 Molly was glad to see me return,  I think the clouds in the above look a little like her.. with the sun as her nose.

My days and nights seem to be mixed up.  I woke up at 3:00 on Saturday morning and then could not get back to sleep.  Then driving to Cedar Rapids and spending a long time there and when I got home I was really tired so I went to sleep and then woke up and did some things until around midnight.  Sunday night I did the same thing.  I woke up at 3:00 and could not go back to sleep.  So I opened my book and read.  I am reading a detective novel.  There is an author who was showing us a picture of his new book in a bookstore and I saw this one sitting beside it and it looked interesting so I went on-line and ordered it for my Kindle.  Whish, Boom, Bah and it was here and I could start it.  Good thing too because I finished The Son and was ready for something else. I love my Kindle.

Don't get me wrong I love books and for some I prefer to have the book.  But for just reading stories and novels I find the Kindle is a wonder.

Well, the Royal Baby is here.  I guess I am happy for them because they have a family but when you think about the life he will live.  Always in the spotlight, People hanging around you 24/7. You are stuck with a job which you may or may not want with no real power.  People will be bowing and scraping to you all your life and you will inherit some of the most beautiful places to live that there are.  You will have to travel the world promoting the family business (Gr. Britain)    You won't every have to worry about money even if the government stops paying you because your family estates (which you will inherit) produce more revenue than the government gives you anyway.  I know that I would not have wanted to live under a microscope. I admire the Queen for the service she has given to her country but really would you want her life? (besides I'll bet that crown is heavy,)

I think you all know that my nephew, Jon, is attending University in Tempe, AZ.  One of his areas of study is bees and he texted me some pictures from there.  They have been having some rain and storms.  I believe they call them monsoons.

This is the muddy ride to the Apiary 

This is what they do when it is hot or rainy.  Trying to cool off.

The Apiary or bee-yard

From a distance

Jon rides his bike out to the Apiary as he does not have a car down there.  Around 20 minutes in the hot son.  I told him to keep hydrated.

 This is the plant outside my picture window.  The bees are all over it.  Jon thought it might be Wild Bergamot also known as Horsemint. I had identified it as Horsemint because I saw it on a blog Out on the Prairie which I read. I think it is spectacular.

 And this is the corner prairie which Jon planted.  It is too bad we can't burn it.  It needs some work as we have some volunteer trees growing up in it. Also in the Wild Bergamot.  I hope that Andrew will take care of that for me.l

Molly on Monday

 Molly here,

It has been a quiet week here in Casa Molly.  B G has not been gone much (he says the cost of gas is to high) and so he stays home a lot.  It is also to hot for him to take me when he runs errands because I would die in the car with the windows rolled up.  I would not like that.  So mainly we sit around and enjoy the fact that we have air conditioning.

He did take me up to Story City to have my toe nails done. It is nice not to go click, click, click when I walk on the floor.

He also tried some things called "effects' with his camera.

 He says they look like someone called Andy Wooorhaul (I don't know who he is or how to spell his name.)

Then he took some "head shots"  Nothing spectacular but it makes him happy.  I don't mind.  He tried taking some videos but he messed up. One would have been of me doing some "grass swimming" but he only got the first part.  Oh well.  It is a learning experience.





I went out in the back yard.  The grass used to be green.  I don't much like this brown stuff.

This was the start of my grass swim.  B G thinks the plant with the purple flowers is called "horsemint"  Doesn't matter what it is called it is pretty and it attracts the bees!

Here are this week's vid clips.

The other video is when B G woke me up by playing something on his computer - Some other dog was excited and the noisee woke me up and I had to try to figure out what was going on.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a woof of a week!

Sunday

We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness.

Ram Dass,

Giving is so often thought of in terms of the things we give, but our greatest giving is of our time, and kindness, and even comfort for those who need it. We look on these gifts as unimportant - until we need them.

~Joyce Sequichie Hifler

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven 

around the heart of wonder.

~ John O’Donohue,

 What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

~Albert Pike

"It’s not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left."

~ Hubert H. Humphrey

But listen to me. 

 For one moment quit being sad.

Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.

Rumi

Something Yummy for Saturday

Lemon Cream Cheesers (Submitted by Frances Cole Dawson)

½  cup            Butter 1¼ cups          Flour ½  cup            Quick cooking oatmeal ½  cup            Brown sugar ½  tsp              Salt 1   8 oz. pkg.   Cream cheese

1/3cup   Sugar 1             Egg 2 T         Grated lemon peel 1T          Lemon juice ¼  cup    Milk

Procedure

1   In a  bowl,combine: butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, and salt.

2   Spread in greased 9 x 9 pan.

3   In a bowl mix:: cream cheese, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, and milk.

4   Spread on top of of flour mixture.

5   Bake:  350°, 30 minutes.

Yield: 9 x 9 pan

Lemon Bars (Submitted by Frances Cole Dawson)

2  cups   Flour 1  cup    Butter ½ cup    Confectioner's sugar           TOPPING 4        Eggs

3T             Flour ½               Lemon juice 1½  cups    Sugar 1pinch         Salt                    Confectioner's sugar

Procedure

1   In large bowl, combine: flour, butter, and confectioners’ sugar.    5 Pour over crust.  6 Bake: 350°, 30 - 35 minutes 7 Remove from oven.  8 Sift confectioners sugar over the top.  9 Don't cut until cool.

2   Press in 9 x 13" pan

3   Bake: 350°, 25 minutes.

4   In mixing bowl, combine topping ingredients.

5   Pour over crust.

6   Bake: 350°, 30 35 minutes.

7   Sift confectioners sugar on top.

8   Don't cut until cool.

Yield: 9 x 13