the healing power of SOUP

I had  been ill for several days last week.  I was not interested in eating, or even getting out of bed. My legs didn't work, and my back pain unbearable,  I wanted to just lie there and sleep, so I did.
I decided that I was retired. and If I didn't want to get up, I wouldn't.my sweet husband was concerned so he asked the Pastor to pray.  Then my best friend from Desert Aire called and said that
she had made me some soup. and would come by to drop it off.,  I had discussed my medicine intake with John, and realized I had forgotten   a vital medicine I take. With the consumption of the medicine, which we had just picked up, an appointment with my hair doer, my friend came by with the soup, I felt like sitting up for the first time in days,


I know it was the magic of her visit, and the delicious soup got me on the road to recovery, 
With the knowledge that she would be by, plus the fact that no one could see me in such a mess
spurred me on to think of ways to get up.  I do feel that soup is good for the soul,  .Not your own soup, but from someone who cared enough to help you get well.  I did get up, and although my walking isn't too good yet, I am on the road recovery.  All because of some special, tasty soup.

Pelicans part 2

                                      photo by Linda Marie

This is a photo of a gathering of pelicans I took last time the salmon were everywhere!  I was amazed how big they are!  As I said in my last blog, they must be Our Creator's first bird.  They are like Howard Hughes' Spruce goose.  I love the way the move their giant wings to take off and fly.  Apparently they do form couples.  The white pelicans bob for their food..  The brown ones, who look like they got mixed with a seagull, dive for their food, and were very plentiful in Newport, Ore,  They had stores full of pelican things, and I took many pictured of them on the open Atlantic Ocean.  We had a campsite that was right next to the entrance to the beach full of brown pelicans.  They were there for several years, and then suddenly vanished.  What a magical trip we had!  I even swam in the ocean, which was a little cold in September.  I will try to find my brown pelican trip photos.

We are now back home to our Columbia river abode.  Perhaps when we take a boat trip, I will get more photos of our other exotic birds like Herons!  I love this place!

Sunshine @ Pelican Reach

We call our place Pelican Reach. 


12 years ago, we bought out  Home, and just now have begun to live here full time.
I noticed on one of our visits, there were a little family of pelicans.  I was stunned!  Not having ever seen a pelican in the wild, we rode by in in our boat,, and they were much bigger than I had imagined.


I was amazed by them, and took pictures when ever I could.  I imagined the first bird God worked on.
It was kind of like  the Spruce Goose of God's birds.  It looks big and awkward, like the silly plane
Howard Hughes put together,  seeming out of proportion to his feet, his huge wing span.  Perhaps a swan and a duck got together, and had this amazing duckling that was not a beautiful swan! I will have to write a part 2 to this when I get my pelican photos, and that of the beach, also.  We are getting into Spring and summer, and I will have lots of photos to show!

BRAINS 2

This is a visual of what the jars of various brains look like.  I don't know if Einstein's brain looks much different, however the folds in this matter suggest that they are all different, and possibly Einsteins brain, especially in the frontal lobe. where we do all of our thinking, memory, imagination, may be where his might vary. I have only seen photos of him by a blackboard adding more and more calculations to this theory to prove his Theory of Relativity.  How one proves such an idea with math formulas is beyond me but I think he had a fellow professor show him some mathematics to help him on his equations .Of course we can't study our own brains yet, or that of another genius like Stephen Hawkins, I imagine there would be differences in all of them, just as you can't tell how smart a person is by looking at their face.  I can tell the intelligence of a person by looking at their eyes.  If they meet your gaze, and have depth in them, it helps.  So Linda Marie's theory of Intelligence links the visual Memory, with the frontal lobes.  Visual Memory is an area of vision that sometimes is overlooked.  But I think it has a great connection with vision.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Spring

One thing I loved about being a Teacher, and being a Florist, is that we always decorated for every season.  The kids would cut out flowers and Shamrocks for both, and we would staple them all over the room, especially on the bulletin boards where their writing for spring poetry or St. Patrick.

I still decorate just for my house.  Of course Florists get iris and daffodils & cut tulips that come in Jan and Feb, and March and your spring bedding plants like primroses and pansies &  bulbs to plant are all coming in, so it isn't time for feeling bad that Christmas is over!

HAPPY SPRING!

My new Plants

I did begin blogging about mt  new plants.  We haven't lived here until we just retired a year ago.
When we first started, 11 years ago, we did put in 21 Arborvitaes.  Now they are huge.  I missed
my lilacs from the other house, so we just bought a baby one to raise.

I also put in roses at that time, and they are huge now.  I bought one more white on to replace one that was too  large.

Next, I am getting a Weeping Alaska Cedar..  I think I talked about it on my last blog, but there is a space for in in the yard.  I love trees, and hope we won't look so much like a desert.

I do plan to get a palm tree, also that can survive this climate.

Brains

 I know nothing about brains other than they have Einstein's brain a jar next to several others.
I guess it's the frontal lobe that has all of your imagination, memory, and the way you see things..without it and Broca's area for speech, and Warner's area for understanding speech.  I know I have been dropped on my head to many times, but if one like Einstein who has had a perfect brain and a bit more lobes in it and especially enlarged frontal lobe, it may be possible as to why he dreamed up The Theory of Relativity.  I suppose he went to a university and learned the basic math to prove his theory,  I still don't understand this theory, because it is not much different than dropping things off of the Tower of Pisa, but he would need to go up in a satellite and drop thinds to see if there is a curve when they are on the way down.  I would welcome anyone who knows more about this theory to put in their input.  i imagine that Quantum mechanics could show this.  I do love physics, and had taken more of it as a young student!

Cats

 I listen to "Wait Wait,  Don't tell Me "  on the radio, and we love it.  They were giving facts about cats

The first thing they said one day was that cats do not like the scent of humans, so that is why they licl themselves after you touch them. So John (my husband and dual cat owner) and I each touched Willard (our 20 lb. white beauty with green eyes, and a loving disposition) did not lick himself.
Next we touched our part Main Coon, not as large as willard, but we do call her Lily the Psycho-cat,.
She did not lick herself, either.  In fact, we have a game I call "Brusha", where she jumps into the bathtub and I brush her and sing Brusha Brusha to her.  She will not leave the house before she is
 by me, and also given water from  the tap/

They  ("meaning the show) next claimed that cats do not forgive.  John has forgotten to give them their food one night, and I have left Lily out overnight (I thought she was hiding inside.  Not only did they forgive us, they even slept on their side of  the bed on their blanket.  Now I am not saying that
they don't punish us..  Sometimes it may be days before they come out of their hiding places, but they
do forgive us, and  leave a mouse carcass or a poor dead little bird at the door as sacrifices for being our pets.  And also, they speak,  I say Good Morning to Willard, and he says "Meorning".

 I ask Lily if she wants out, and she says "meono"

I read my new friend's message about her rose and mine today is about TREES

''I adore trees and flowers.  When I think of the poem TREES by Longfellow, I think of his words


A lovely tree whose mouth is pressed
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast (giggle giggle by 12 year old boys)


A tree who lifts his leafy arms to Pray/


Well that is why I love the Weeping Alaska Cedar.  We are getting one next week.  It looks like it is an art form of all trees, with its cedar branches opening, and its top leaning down to pray.  My new friend and I also got a new rose.  they are a gift here in Desert Aire, and grow so beautifully.

Our Glorious winter

Not that I mind a snowfall, or my cross country ski trips, this winter was exceptionally nice.  A few weeks of cold temps, and a more than stubborn cloud cover, lasting a month was the extent of it.
As beautiful as snow is at Snoqualmie Pass,it still was as bare as a bald man's head.  It was the second time I can remember the lack of snowfall there.  With the East coast and South so crippled by snow, it seems odd that we are now enjoying spring weather, and sunshine, and toasty warm temperatures.  I plan to go down to the beach today, for we expect 70 degrees today.  I will don on my bathing suit, albeit maybe a parka over it, and sit on my lounge chair, enjoying the water of Priest Rapids "Lake" (which is made from being between the Priest Rapids, and the Wanapum Dams on the
Columbia River.  This is where my home, Desert Aire is located.  Not to be surprised, I still keep expecting a Spring snowfall, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Lonely for My latest books that I have read

I love to read.  When I am involved in the story, I really get into  back ground of the book.  Sometimes I have to do a little research like where this character really lives, and some of the events
happening during the time of the novel.  It is really important to finish the book, because It will pull all of the events together.  After putting this time into reading this story, the finished book is lonely for me when I have finished.

Thoughts for the Day: Going to Heaven

Thoughts for the Day: Going to Heaven: My book club book is called "Can't .wait to go to heaven".   I love books about people who  really say they have died and gone...

Going to Heaven

My book club book is called "Can't .wait to go to heaven".   I love books about people who  really say they have died and gone to heaven .  They all have different stories.  The child that made it into a movie had stories about what we learned in sunday school.  Another book had another completely different story about flying about on a butterfly's wing (or was it a dragon fly's wing?)  This author had another approach that was a joy to read about.  I am going to collect different interpretations of the Heaven thing