Jun 26, 2010

best movie ever? could be!

still the greatest movie ever made...EVERYONE is in it! and great music too!
who better to watch with than a drive-in full of tinies!


and Makepeace!
it's
THE MUPPET MOVIE!!!


Jun 23, 2010

madeleine sighting!

"i saw madeleine!" said john.
i was amazed and very happy!
last year our new next door neighbor was clearly pregnant, and sometime in the winter, when neighbors don't get much of a look at each other, she became coat-won't-button size and then apparently had her baby.
we didn't see baby, but john talked briefly with mr. neighbor one day and asked what they named their baby.
"madeleine" was the reply. they aren't the talkative sort.
usually people walk up and down the street with their offspring on their back in the winter, but they didn't.
then spring came and we listened for baby sounds from next door, but heard none. we saw them in their back yard, chatted with them across the poison ivy patch that makes good neighbors, but never saw a baby. and they never mentioned one!
we began to wonder if perhaps ... something bad... had happened?
they'd had a baby and given her a name, but didn't seem to have one? not something you can ask about after 6 months!
then finally today summer came, and after about 8 months, there was madeleine being strollered up the street for all the world to see, and cute as could be!
whew. we are sooo happy!

Jun 20, 2010

Raglan Shire vs Elf Clan

a few snaps on the Tiny World Cup match referred to on my previous blog
it turns out Osprey was a ref! sorry i mean she was a goalie!

here's a detailed description by Elf Clan's Erin Padar
http://elfclan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/da-greatest-soccer-game-ever

Jun 19, 2010

it's a tie!


i did it!  i went to a second life event and remembered to take pictures! it wasn't hard because whenever i am at events with tinies, i just reach for my camera cause they are SOOOO CUTE!  today after the Tiny World Cup game with the Elf Clan (it was a tie) the celebration was mostly tinies, who love any reason to celebrate!  here are some snaps. i forgot to get names, altho the debonair warthog in the tux and top hat is my friend Monty. oh and i am the gerbil in the pith helmet with goldfish swimming round me.


Jun 17, 2010

Eshqua Bog June 15

1700 miles from my everglades walk, another kind of orchid is in full bloom.
the Showy Lady's Slipper, threatened or endangered in most states, is alive and well in Vermont's 2 acre fen called Eshqua Bog.               my pictures don't do it justice!
just a few miles from my office, on a dirt road off a dirt road off a back road. the show goes on for one rainy week each year. you walk on muddy trails or some boardwalks with orchids on every side, in amongst the ferns and cattails and all manner of bog plants.

there are some informational signs near the ground. at one spot if you push away a pretty 3-some of green leaves, you can read a sign that says "poison ivy" and gives its latin name.

and best of all -- there are no alligators.

Jun 15, 2010

bumper cars!

when i get involved in something fun in Second Life, i forget to take pictures! what kind of blogger is that! on Sunday at Show & Tell, Lorin showed the cutest funniest little bumper car that you wear as an avatar, with the funniest sound effects and crazy physics. 
he blamed it on Madcow, altho Lorin did the sounds of course. then he gave them out free to the audience and we started changing into bumper cars and it was a free-for-all! so much fun, but i never took a single snapshot! 
oh and then Blood showed a tiny flying pirate ship he's made, that you wear and you become the captain behind the wheel as you fly around...he wasn't giving them away, but they will surely be available in Raglan.  again...no picture to paste here! i vow to do better by my blog in the future.
here's a picture of me as a bumper car, taken later
 

singing!

what's that?
some kids.
oh it sounded like music.
it is -- they are singing.
outside?
yes two girls going down back street.

my mouth and eyes open round in astonishment
i thought that went out with hula hoops!
my friends and i used to sing all the time
walking all over town
even in college walking to get our mail we'd sing.

we did too -- even guys did
we sang top 40's songs
walking around, boys and girls,
or in the gym.

we sang on the playground too
do kids still do that?

*shrugs*

why did they stop?

Jun 13, 2010

uncanny cat

i was sitting in my gypsy wagon home in second life. i'd stopped in after a few days absence to check messages and clear up notices. some commotion was going on under the wagon...oh it was fussby, my cat, banging around disturbed and frantic.
i know very well he is just a computer program, a very clever one that behaves like a cat! and yet i felt his disturbed state. he wanted to be with me, but has never figured out to go up the stairs and enter the wagon.
i went outside and he ran to me right away. a creepy feeling came over me. he missed me. he was lonely. omg. too creepy.
i sat on the ground and he came over to my lap. i petted him. he purred.
i'd been about to click off, but decided to put a pillow down by the river and lie down. he came over and lay near me, calm now. 

i left my computer on so my avatar would remain with him until i went to bed in real life and left second life.
this morning i checked on him and he was sleeping peacefully in his basket, even as i did a few chores around the wagon.

 
it's the uncanny valley created by my own projections...or is it?


-

Jun 12, 2010

bats gone

evenings we sat out late with friends at the picnic table and at dusk the bats appeared.
startling and a little frightening, they'd fly right towards you and then
suddenly
without slowing down
fly up
over
or around you.
we learned not to freak out
they ate the mosquitos, and
they were our bats after all.
sometimes the children danced around as the bats swooped.
bats sleep more than any other mammal, so soon it was dark and they were gone to roost. we never knew where ours lived, never saw them come out of some hole or tree.
we assumed they lived in the old barn two houses up, or maybe even in our garage, altho we never saw one there.
one summer a single lone bat lived in the eaves of our back porch and we had to sweep bat shit off the chairs every day.
probably a male, as we read that they live alone, but we called it Nora Batty after the tv character.
each year we had fewer bats it seemed, until we hit six.
in spring we watch for them and count.
they held steady for a few years
against white nose fungus and upgrading of houses,
but this year
there are none.
the empty dusk feels lonely.

Jun 8, 2010

strange doings in town

the phoebe, guarding his nest, is making the cat-alert sound.
eventually an orange stripey one materializes from under the car
and saunters off past our garage leaving momentary silence.
which is when i notice the background noise, actually quite loud,
but so familiar to me from my childhood as to be of no interest - construction/destruction noises. the beep beep beep and crashing and wrenching.
something is being torn down.
oh yes, Jason's house. one block over
right by the brook, the river, the rushing tumbling frenzy
of rocks and ice-cold water cascading down the hills over rocks and ledges,
making waterfalls and swimming holes where generations have bruised their
numb blue feet and learned to swim.
a rich man, a very very very rich man,
has decided this ugly house should not rest beside and in fact own all this natural beauty.
Jason was raised in the house, and now raises his family there,
his parents have moved a few towns over.
he has site preparation experience and the contacts
and equipment needed to destroy his own house.
first he is demolishing the garage ... which was his father's livelihood years ago,
but burned to the ground, and we the neighbors all pitched in so he could rebuild.
sure it was ugly, but the river and falls were beautiful despite it, and they are good people.
happily, Jason and his family will still be in town. 
they're buying 70 acres of woods and meadow
and building themselves a log home.