Bluebirds and Birch trees

 Right outside my window, it a group of tall and slender trees, they sway with the wind that blows by almost daily this spring. Today I saw the reason I have had a Cardinal flying back and forth almost every time I sit down at my desk. There is a nest.  She comes and goes every now and then, but today is the first day that I have seen the nest. I'm excited for when the birds will hatch, because to have a life like that right outside your window... it's beautiful!  Outside my window, perching so fondly,  a little bird visits me daily.  So pretty with her beak of orange,  her feathers of a soft brown.  A cardinal sits between the branches of my tree,  and with her, her nest will be.  There with here, her young will soon join.  And presently, the lives of those new birds will join us.  So small and frail, yet stronger at times than I.  They will be willing to take that leap one day,  to fly from that tree they w...

 A productive day, which followed a not quite so productive one. But a day where half of it was spent outside, and the other half being about as productive if not more so, inside. Taking pictures that followed to raising of large cedar posts and planting of grape vines, then switching to scholar mode, and managing to read nearly twenty pages of history. The sky today was grey for the most part, but times would come where the sun would peak out for maybe a minute, and everything would light up brilliantly! Now, in the evening and late afternoon, we have rain. And lots of it. I enjoy rain, it's nice after a week of seemingly no change, it offers a refreshing feeling once it's finished.  Well, dinner time. I'll write again later.  -Mae

 So although it's more typical to say a day off, I prefer it to be a day away, but honestly, in my case it usually will result in being away from the doldrums of day to day life.   I had forgotten the pleasure of setting a room in order after unpacking things, and getting it the way you want it to be, after it's been a wreak for a long time. Putting up old and new pictures, artwork from friends, and posters. Getting things put away, and throwing away other things, and then getting ready to sell a little bit more. Which will still leave me with quite a bit of stuff. But this is a season of new beginnings. And I welcome a change that is showing me that things go better when I embrace who I am. I'm excited for a year where things will be full of an adventure that is my life. And I'm ready, or at least as ready as I will ever be when the time comes. Adventure is always around the corner, I just have to recognize that it's there!       I'm ...

 I wish I could say I had put a whole lot of thought into that title, but reality, it only made itself known as soon as I was looking for synonyms for the word gallimaufry. Which has rapidly become one of my most favorite words. Now, they all mean something similar, which is another thing that makes me happy! Medley :   a varied mixture of people or things. Motley :   incongruously varied in appearance or character. Gallimaufry :   a confused jumble or medley of things. So to say the least, I can say that I am a medley, a motley, and a gallimaufry!  -Mae

 So today I am snow and ice bound once again. But one way to ride out the slowly but ever thawing cold is to make a cup of tea!  The one thing that I did differently this time, was add chocolate. Putting a number of large chocolate chips into my cup with the teabag while the water boiled. True, it will not be a sweet cup of tea without something else to sweeten it, but all I needed was a half spoon of honey, and a dash of milk. Now I used black tea, and I do not know how it would taste  otherwise, but for myself, I rather enjoyed it!  -Mae

 So I was trying different types of braids and including my new elastic headbands, and what I came up with, was dutch braiding my hair, partly over and partly under the headband, to give a regular headband type of look. So really, the headband is just decorative at the moment, but small steps.  So I dutch braided my hair, then, I tugged at the sections gently, which gave it that nice full look, which although my hair is thick itself, the braid itself becomes surprisingly small. So a side dutch braid + yellow headband = a boho look. And, Boho (it took me a while before I actually looked it up) or bohemian hairstyles tend to work very well for my hair. And the fact that I like how they look in a grand plus! And experimenting now before the weather gets super hot again is going to be nice, also, it's hard to find easy but nice looking style for long hair that's not a type of ponytail, and this is a braid, but not to many braids actually get the hair off your neck. So hopefully I...

So in trying a new Hairstyle today, I found that I not only (1 Have an excessive amount of hair when it comes to styling it. But that (2 I really need to use the right hairstyling stuff.  The style was putting on a headband over the hair, and taking small pieces and twisting them, then twisting them around the headband, until all the hair is wrapped around the headband and, if needed, use a couple of bobby pins.  I used a thin elastic headband to put up my hair, and lets just say the resulting hairstyle was rather unexpected. I expected a nicely rolled up out of the face and off the neck hairstyle, while what I got was a really puffy on top, widely rolled slightly spikey roll. The result when I first saw it, I thought I was attempting to be a Greek Goddess for some sort of party! But I like it nonetheless. It's only the first attempt, and to be honest not all my first attempts look quite this nice.  So really, if your hairstyle when you first try it doesn't look that g...