I saw this photo and chuckled out loud making Mimi wake from snoring as she snuggled under her blanket on the sofa and looking at me like something was alarming. Our pets can so make us laugh so I am sending the first picture in honor of Shelley’s cats over at Quaint Revival. They always have interesting stories about us hoomans.
Hooman I need you assistance as this prehistoric creature bited me.
The other picture is my crazy dog Mimi trying to entertain herself tonight in negative temps and many inches of snow because she did not want to come in. She was jumping up hitting the leaning over evergreen. When she realized just how cold she was getting she came running in.
She already pulled the icicles off and ate those.
Yes our pets do entertain us from time to time. It is what makes them special to us. And as my closing always speaks of kindness and we are talking of our pets, I though I would share some of my favorite pictures of animals showing kindness. We could learn a lot from them.
Linda is winding up Just Jot January with us sharing a favorite post from the last year or month. I have not been blogging but a few months(Aug 2018) so I will just go with a favorite of mine plus one that seems to get a lot of likes for it. It started first as a picture from Irene of Heaven’s Sunshine and I loved that photo so much I wrote a poem about it. Since it is a small poem, I will just repost it all here.
TO THE TOP for THE BOTTOM
One of the most enjoyable things about blogging is the amazing photographers, professional and non-professional that share their photographs for all to enjoy. A lot of the photographs that are shared are due to various challenges as the one I will be sharing with you today, well technically it’s night (2:30 am)but I couldn’t sleep so I am writing.
Irene from Heaven’s Sunshine was following the challenge for stairs from Pic And A Word by Patrick Jennings. Her picture was so inspiring to me, I told her I was going to write about it, so I did. I hope you enjoy it and do stop by Irene’s blog for some wonderful pictures.
Bailly Cemetery – Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
THE CLIMB
I see and maintain it still is not fair,
I have nothing to lay at the top of the stair.
It’s not my fault, I did nothing wrong,
Well, maybe I did, it’s just been so long.
How long has it been since I climbed to the top,
I remember it’s relief, Why did I stop?
How can a symbol of such astounding grief,
Be given to us to bring so much relief?
With love so amazing, to the cross did He die,
To flood us with gratitude that still makes us cry.
The burdens we carry don’t always seem fair,
Always we can lay them at the top of the stair.
The first step looks brittle, can it carry my weight?
This burden is heavy and may seal my dire fate.
As I touch each step and climb ever higher,
Is this what I should do, is this really my desire?
As I clear the last step, the cross is before me,
I question my worth, did He also die for me?
As my knees get bent, I am smothered by His grace,
And I lay all my burdens at the accepting cross base.
– Anita Tillman Neal –
Always remember there is a burden carrier and it isn’t you. Scripture tells us repeatedly that He is there to carry our burdens for us, we just have to be willing to give them to Him.
And as always, I remind everyone the much loaded value of kindness. Carry it with you where ever you go and share it as much as possible.
What an interesting prompt today from gc. Adult coloring books have been an interest of mine for a couple of years. Linda G Hill does a monthly adult coloring prompt that shows a lot of different talent as well. For Christmas this year my daughter gave me a different version of adult coloring books, an etching book.
You use the wooden tool on the side
The premises is opposite of adding color as you are scraping away black. The page has a design already made and depending on how much of the black you scrape away gives the page your own touch. There are guidelines like the one below but after I did the first one, well, I kinda do my own thing.
Before and after sample page
The contrast of the black background really makes the colors pop. This next photo is probably one of my favorites so far, as I am partial to butterflies.
Butterflies are special
If you pull just a touch outside the lines of given shape, you get a contrasting color which highlights the shape. I found this by accident and really liked what it did to add depth to the item. I also received new regular adult coloring books to play with and yes the do help pull the stress out of you, at lease they do for me. I keep mine by my bed for nights when the brain will not turn off. I highly recommend them if you haven’t tried them. Plus they are just fun.
And in closing, as I do with all of my post, I remind all of the immeasurable value of kindness. It could be the very spark for someone’s dark day to help them see the day’s beautiful light.
Prayerfully waiting for the 60+ degree warm-up on Saturday of 40+ degree highs with one sentence but many pictures. Thanks to John for the picture I am copying as it helps give the visual of…GOOD GRIEF!
Borderline Ridiculousness
And this is my local area. Live within 15 minutes of the Quad City Intl Airport @ -52
Linda G Hill with the final guest prompt by Jim has challenged us with “dirty”. Right now I am more consumed with snow and cold than dirt but I have heard cold being called “stinking cold”. Stinking usually refers to something really smelly dirty. So I am going with the cold being dirty. At least it is leaving a mess at my front door.
Dried melted salt and salt crystals in the carpet
I just came in from getting the mail and these new pictures and the current temp is 3 degrees and steadily falling with the onslaught of this polar vortex. Temps to drop to an estimated -22 with a wind chill of -51. For all of you also in this dirty stinking cold, stay inside as much as possible. I am praying we don’t get further damage from this cold air mass. Sunday we will be basking in heat at 44 degrees. That’s 60 degrees warmer so it will feel great.
I am adding in a few pictures of the snow. While I know it is silly to post snow pictures but being from south Georgia, this is not a normal scene for me. So chuckle with me and stay warm.
Knee high
While the angle is not good, the snow is knee high and drifted higher in some areas.
Front yard
The mound in the center of the yard is the Christmas decorations and a small live Christmas tree. The decorations may have to wait until spring to get remove.
Archway over the sidewalk
I hope these evergreens are resilient enough to straighten back up with spring.
Even though we are stinking dirty cold, we can always be crystal clean kind. Sometimes when things are under stress, kindness is more important, more needed and much loved on the receiving end. So remember to be kind.
Cutting is down to the basics, in my mind, a photographer is one who has a eye for capturing and balancing the right angle of a subject to reveal an awe inspiring moment that makes the rest of us drool at its beauty whether it is a split second action shot or the beautiful contrast of nature at it best…or worse in some cases. Who are these photographers? Anyone who has the passion for being able to capture these awe inspiring moments. There are some amazing photographers I have seen in this bloggosphere world – if that is such a word, spell check says no, but I am sure you all know what I am talking about.
Examples of amazing photos I enjoy come from experts like jansenphoto of Dutch Goes the Photo, Irene of Heaven’s Sunshine, Debbie Smyth of Travel With Intent, Norm 2.0, Pedrol, and so many more. Check out their work as it truly is amazing. Then you have people who love photography and take pictures to add to their fun as they blog like me, and Shelley, Laurie, Dan, and again so many more people. Photography, while it can be very technical, it speaks to the eye then quickly moving to the heart to be shared in awe for all viewers. A wonderful and fun medium of expression.
I say all this to be able to share a meteorological phenomenon that I saw today called a Sun Dog. I had never seen or even heard of one until someone told me what it was.
Sun dog
Description
A sun dog or mock sun, formally called a parhelion in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22° halo.Wikipedia
Yea, what he said. Regardless it was amazing to see. Oh, and the temp was -8, with a wind chill of -30 degrees. Really? This is western Iowa, not Alaska.
So sometimes photography is being at the right spot at the right time, like I was this morning. About an hour later it was snowing again. Total for the year so far is over 40″ (its still January) with another 4-8″ possible on Sunday thru Monday. That’s a lot of snow for someone who was raised in south Georgia, 15 minutes north of the Florida border. Now I am trying to balance 20 pounds of clothes to keep from freezing to death.
But even in the cold you can still find time to be kind, maybe even more so. So I remind all, of the wonderful attribute of kindness. I promise, sharing it will balance your day.
We already had two systems come through totaling 13 inches and now another comes through dropping another 6 1/2 inches of snow! Enough already!
Even with the cold white stuff, kindness still prevails. Due to my inability to be fully stable on both feet, my dear neighbors out of their kindness cleared my sidewalks. So I remind you of the truly valuable gift of kindness.
You have seen my post where I talk about kindness but I believe that animals, even in the wild, understand kindness and compassion, sometimes better than we humans do. The photographers across the internet are fabulous and I really enjoy viewing their work. While I was going through some new pictures from Pinterest, I ran across these and thought I would share them with you.
With domesticated animals we can kind of understand it as they sometimes get their cues from us humans. Even on the farm there seems to be some compassion spread about especially with younger ones who may have lost parents.
But sometimes you see it in zoo situations with the more fierce creatures where the animals become somewhat conditioned to trust and feel secure in their surroundings.
Amazing
May we all show compassion in like kind to our human specie as needed.
For the Love of 