Show Me: A View and Something that Relaxes Me

Robert at Thoughts of a Father is trying his hand at a photo meme. He has named it Show Me and each day he will ask us to "show him" a photo relating to a specific request. I skipped yesterday in favor of letting my 9/11 post stand alone, so I'm going to do two days in one again. I don't know that these three things represent my favorite view - I already posted the view out my back door (see show me your kitchen) and have posted elsewhere the park-like yard across the street. Instead, I've chosen three small things that delight my eyes on a regular basis. As for things that relax me... well, when Angel isn't driving me crazy doing something naughty she give the best hugs in the world and when Tara Grace isn't yelling at me she has the loudest rumble and the sweetest spirit you could wish for. They give me joy. They are my kids. I considered taking a page from Robert's book and letting them stand as both my favorite view and something that relaxes me, but... I had already uploaded these other four yesterday so...

This tree trunk is what I see if I look straight (well, almost straight - if I look straight I see a wall) ahead. There are often squirrels running up the trunk, sometimes a woodpecker and often wonderful sunlight. I love that stone wall too. Hancock is famous for it's blue stone quarries. I think that's what it's called.

One of the aforeomentioned squirrels looking very cute.

And many mornings if I look up at the sky, I see the turkey vultures circling. When I look out the back door in the mornings, I often see their shadows. Keep wishing I could figure out how to capture the shadows on film but haven't figured it out yet.
I love this birch tree. It's in my neighbor's yard and I think its just one of the most beautiful trees ever. Not my best photo of it, but I (well, my friend Nate did it, actually) moved all my photos into a new external hard drive and I haven't quite got a handle on getting them from there to here yet.


This is Tara Grace. As I'm typing this she is running around the room playing with a little mylar toy. She's so darn cute when she plays. She has come such a long way since being rescued. I'm repeating myself from other posts, but Tara moves like a ballerina and talks like a long shore-man. Here is some very modest (she's MUCH MUCH MUCH louder) footage of her.

Angel has the face of an innocent - and the spirit of an innocent - just a very very very very very creatively naughty innocent. My friend E. - who has many, many cats - took care of Angel and Tara Grace when I was in limbo in a motel before the deal on my house finally got settled (long horrible story). Anyway. E always says that having Angel around was like having another 11 cats. If she can't find mischief she invents it. And then she gets all snuggly and gives you a hug so you forget that you want to wring her little furry neck.

Show Me: Mailbox

(Please scroll down for One Single Impression.)

Robert at Thoughts of a Father - who makes me cranky on the political front.... actually, to be fair, it is probably me who makes him cranky - is trying his hand at a photo meme. It will last for 7 days starting today and each day he will ask us to "show him" a specific place or thing. Today's theme is "your mailbox".

Since my mailbox is outside the house and I'm not - and because I can't stand up for long and I have to make sure that Angel doesn't run out the door - photos of my poor rusty old mailbox were something of a challenge. Also, it's old and rusty and not terribly photogenic. Anyway, I stuck the camera and my arm out the door a few times and then made a collage of the terrible pictures I got in that process. I'm not liking today. I posted rotten poems and now I'm posting a collage of rotten pictures. Since the theme of One Single Impression (below) was "defenses down," I figure I'm living that a bit by even posting these. Oh, the joy of living a shame-filled life. So I guess I can't stall any more... here's the collage...