I LIKE HOBBIT SIZE HOUSES

Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Their housing is funky and habitable, yet small.


I like small funky houses.Why? Because if you find the right one you can transition it into a warm cozy cottage. Unfortunately, the house in the photo above is not for sale right now. But it would be an ideal candidate to turn into a hobbit  place that I could move into.


I think the angular jutting out of gables and shed roofs adds a playful feeling to the place. It is probably only one room on the first floor with a small add-on mud room and kitchen. The upstairs is probably one big bedroom. I would guess the entire house has about 500 to 600 square feet plus or minus. The porch although sagging a bit could easily be repaired.


What would I do if I could live in this house? First I would paint the exterior all over with a dark leather brown paint and replace the front door with an old door painted a dark eggplant. I would put some shutters on a few of the windows, probably a dark pumpkin color?  I would plant a wild patch of various sunflowers and tall golden cosmos around the house -- hundreds of them and just have a dirt path winding through them to the front door. I would put two old metal chairs on the porch (painted a dark eggplant) and invite a good friend over for coffee or tea. I would swing a circle of natural wood fencing around the whole place.


I would have my grandchildren call my lttle place -- the hobbit house


Do you ever fantasize about what kind of house you would like to live in?


I just did about this house. Being retired, I would like somewhere to live that is easy to care for and sweet to enjoy. I do like the house I live in now but it requires a lot of work to keep it in shape. Too much for this little lady. 


Maybe in the future I will find a place like the one in the photo and trade out this house for a cozy hobbit sized house. It might not be in Middle-earth but it would hug Mother Earth.

EASTERN PHOEBE --- LIFE AND DEATH -- Sunday Simplicities

Female Eastern Phoebe Nesting on My Porch

A few hours ago an Eastern Phoebe chick fell to its demise apparently from its nest. It landed on my cement porch. A sad occasion for the parents as well as for me. I had watched the parents from the start -- selecting the site on the top of one of my porch columns -- building the nest- sitting on the eggs to keep them warm, and nourishing them with food once they hatched.

Here is how I discovered what had happened. I heard the Phoebe's urgent distress calls outside my door. I thought some critter was disturbing the nest. When I looked outside the door -- there on the porch was a well developed little bird, not alive. I had been out on the porch about 15 minutes before this disturbance was set off. Apparently, I deduce, it happened right after I went back inside.

For the past three hours the parents have been circling the area constantly crying fee-bee and making a rapid clicking sound. A few times flying to the empty nest, perching on the edge and looking downward into the nest. A nest that was now empty.

I had seen one other baby in the nest -- perhaps he/she fledged and this one just didn't have the wing power when he/she fledged.

The parent's are acting very stressed. And why shouldn't they be. All that love and care they had given their brood.

We are all connected -- no one can tell me differently. Emotions are within all animals. Although, many will disagree, I recognize grief and that is what I saw and heard today.

And as I say these words above, I think of the wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico. In my heart the grief that is emanating from its wildlife is numbing and overwhelming.

SIMPLE GIFTS

NATURE'S GIFT -- LIGHT FOR OUR DAILY PLEASURES

Today I read a Mary Oliver poem on the 7-0 blog. Titled, The Gift, you can check it out here. It required a couple readings before I realized the significance of it.

NATURE'S GIFT -- SCENTED PINES

My homestead property is surrounded by hundreds of acres that march up Bear mountain and down the other side all mostly wild land. I feel fortunate to live in such a place as I revel in all that nature gives. And that is the key word in this post as well as the Mary Oliver poem that I mention above. Nature gives to me -- Oliver calls it a gift. And in her poem she gives back. It made me take stock of what I give back.

NATURE'S GIFT -- SOIL ENRICHMENT

For me I can give back simply. Live lightly on the homestead, avoid chemicals, protect from unwanted intruders, and welcome nature in all its forms.

NATURE'S GIFT -- WILD STRAWBERRIES

Any other suggestions to give back to nature?

ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL

NATURE'S TAPESTRY

The Vernal Equinox happens at 1:32 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, 2010. That is tomorrow for me as I write this post. This is the day of an equal part of daylight and an equal part of night. Spring will officially be here! Here is a quote from Henry David Thoreau, found in his journal dated March 18, 1858. The Blog of Henry David Thoreau recently featured this quote and I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the Equinox.

Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we hear it again it is reminding us of a previous state of existence. How happens it that the associations it awakens are always pleasing never saddening: reminiscences of our sanest hours? The voice of nature is always encouraging.

SASSY SPRING BRINGS LIFE

RED MAPLE -- BUDS BLOOMING WITH LIFE
Acer rubrum

SHED NEEDS PAINT TO ADD SOME LIFE

GARDEN WAITING TO SPRING TO LIFE

WILD ONIONS GIVE MY SALADS SOME LIFE

MY GARLIC WILL ADD ZEST TO MY LIFE

ANTS GATHER FOR SOCIAL LIFE ON MY PORCH RAILING

A DOG'S LIFE -- SAL CATCHING SOME RAYS

MY BACK OBSERVATION POST WHERE I WATCH LIFE SPRING INTO ACTION

CELTIC "KICK UP MY HEELS"

Today is a "Celtic Kick Up My Heels" day for me. After being property bound for almost a week I am going to town. You see I live on a ridge that has a private road up to my home. It is steep in one little spot, but that one little spot can be mighty slick when we have snow. So I usually stay inbound for about a day until the temps rise and I can go about my business around the country-side.

But this darn weather with its continuous snow, low temps and overcast has kept the road too icy to venture forth and as a result I have been home bound for about six days (don't have four wheel drive!). Really no big deal one might say. Yet, this has been "off and on" weather around here in Kentucky for a few months and I am now suffering with "cabin fever."

Today is sunny! And I am going to try and make a break for town. Wish me luck. I have avoided news during these latter days as it is so depressing. Why add to my diminished state of mind -- corporate shenanigans, political bickering, affairs by who cares, and all the constant trivia that emanates from the media.

Now that I know that I am going to get in my car and make a break out from the "cabin," I will wish every kind and generous person a good day with a little of my heritage music from a youtube video. Good Day.

FULL MOON BRIGHT TONIGHT

WOLF MOON
Flickr: Nounou12Maryse

The full moon was yesterday but the sky was so dark and overcast that I could not observe it. Tonight it shines bright, large and clear, looking milky white through the black-cast tree branches. Native Americans have a name for this January moon, the one following the Yule. It is Full Wolf Moon. Let's all howl at the moon.

SWINGING WOODEN FOOTBRIDGE -- KENTUCKY COUNTRY, VERNACULAR

SWINGING WOODEN BRIDGE SNAKING TOWARD AND OVER RED LICK CREEK

When I was a small girl my parents took me to a park that had a swinging bridge. They convinced me that it was safe so I began to walk with them over the bridge. Then the swaying began and I ran back to where I had started. No threats or smooth-talking could convince me to cross that moving bridge.

I hadn't seen a swinging bridge from that long ago time until I was riding through Red Lick Valley along beautiful Red Lick Creek last summer. It was difficult to make out as the nearby trees were hiding parts of it with their leaves. but I knew what I was looking at when I blinked a few times.

STARTING POINT TOWARD WALKING TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CREEK

That particular day I was out investigating the area. It is a mix of old and new ways. Farms dot the valley in this section of Estill County where I was driving. I had been this way a few times but never spotted the bridge before.

I was lucky to find several people that knew about the bridge and this is what I found out from them. That the bridge had been there at least fifty years, maybe longer. That it was used to get over the creek when it was flooded to feed the farm animals that were located on the other side of the creek from where the farmer lived. That at one time there were several swinging footbridges along Red Lick Creek but now were gone. That this particular swinging bridge was probably the only one left. A large flood some years ago damaged the bridge and they didn't know if it had been repaired. Builder was unknown. As always, one finds out plenty about an area through local folks.

WAVY CONSTRUCTION

In late fall I made a return trip to the swinging bridge. I purposely came at that time as I knew the leaves would be off the trees resulting in exposure of the bridge.

As I am not an engineer I still will attempt to describe its construction as a layperson. Here is my description. Full length cables, one on each side, run along the bridge's walking platform. The cables are attached to large cylindrical vertical posts that are placed along the side of the bridge intermittently all along its course. The cables have wires leading down to crosswise boards beneath the walking platform. The cable line would be about waist high when walking the wooden planks of the bridge. Ever so many feet along the walking platform would be an "H" structure built out of cylindrical logs. In the above photo the high part of the platform is where it crossed over the "H" structure, the dipping part was only supported by the underneath boards attached by wires to the cable. When you stood back and looked at the whole it appeared to run along like waves.

As when I was young, on this day I would not dare walk on the bridge, especially, as I had been told about its flood damage. However, one can enjoy it by standing on the creek's sloping bank and imagine the times when it provided a way to get across the creek for the farmer to feed his animals. It probably would have been an edgy experience if the creek was on a rampage..

RED LICK CREEK RUNNING LOW

Red Lick Creek runs shallow most of the time. One could wade across it or drive a truck through it. Here, I am looking from one side over to where the farm animals are kept. A barn can be seen across the creek. In this area one finds wildlife, mountains, farms, history, peace and quiet -- and a piece of material culture unnoticed for the most part -- the swinging wooden footbridge.

Another swinging footbridge can be viewed at the Arkansas Historic Preservation site, click here.

RED SKY -- GRAY SKY

RED SKIES AT NIGHT -- A SAILORS DELIGHT

Red skies at night -- a sailors delight. An old adage that was oft repeated when I young. A red sky meaning similar to the above photo that I took as the sun was setting last night. Although it looks a bit beige in the photo it was quite red just minutes before. My thoughts were that the next day would be sunny and bright.

However, the photo above was taken today, the morning after the red sky at night, and it is not sunny and bright. But that is OK. It is gray and foggy yet beautiful. It certainly has a mysterious quality about it. I love the ability to sit at my computer and view nature's changes out my window.

THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSE

January is a time of a harvest festival in India. It prompts Carl Sagan to ask questions about the creation of the universe. For a thoughtful presentation by Mr. Sagan, click on the youtube below for his fascinating talk.

SUN RAYS THROUGH MY WINDOW

PAPERWEIGHTS ON MY WINDOW SILL ABSORB AND REFLECT SUNLIGHT ON A COLD AFTERNOON

Daylight begins its trek toward longer days. Let the violins play and the trumpets blow their sounds of hallelujah! At least that is the feeling of joy I have when the winter solstice turns mother nature in that direction. I dig out my vintage catalogs to peruse. They tell so much about gardens, gardeners, and our culture. It is now the time of ritual -- the time when folks start their annual garden planning with seed catalogs. Hallelujah!

FANTASTIC BIOLOGICAL SOURCE ON THE WEB

PAGE SOURCE: HANDBOOK OF FROGS AND TOADS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
by Anna Allen Wright and Albert Hazen Wright, Professor of Zoology, Cornell University, 1932

Now maybe everyone knows about this source but me, but I was sure glad to have discovered it today. I was perusing one of my favorite magazines, UTNE, when this article appeared, The Encyclopedia of Life, which was the name of an internet site. Apparently this internet idea was a dream of E. O. Wilson. His idea, in his words were, Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on earth .

Wilson's dream is now a website called The Encyclopedia of Life which allows all 1.8 million species known on earth their own page!

I turned to my computer and typed in its address and was taken to a registration page. After an easy registration I was able to take a test run of the site. I just took "frogs" as an example to search for and ended up knowing just about all that I could possibly think to ever know about frogs.

The photo at the top is just the tip of the iceberg of the knowledge represented and available on the site. You can open old documents and books and page through them. There is much more but I will let you check it out for yourself if you haven't already.

BEAUTIFUL PRE-SOLSTICE SNOWY DAY

VIEW FROM MY FRONT PORCH LOOKING DOWN ON MY NEIGHBOR

Solstice is coming. And what a beautiful entrance Mother Nature is providing it here in central Kentucky. The sky is filled with overhanging snow clouds and the mountains in the distance cannot be seen through the mist. Quiet abounds.

MY SILVER MAPLE BRANCHES BALANCED WITH THIN ROWS OF SNOW

I hear on my radio that a huge snow storm is rushing up the eastern coast and will reach New York sometime this afternoon as a blizzard. Perhaps it is mother nature's way of churning everything to a halt and saying, " stop shopping, you're using up my resources."

PINE BRANCHES PROVIDE MASS FOR SNOW BLANKETS

The dogs and I are cozy. No need to go anywhere as we are food stocked and warm.

SAL GALLOPS CRAZILY THROUGH THE THREE INCHES OF SNOW
What a delight it is to experience the sheer joy snow brings to Sal and Lil.

LIL AND SAL COMPLETELY WEAR DOWN THE SNOW AS THEY PLAY
After a hard romp in the snow their eyes shift toward me. They tell me its time to eat.

BREAFAST TIME -- SAL AND LIL HEAD TOWARD THE DOOR TO COME INSIDE.

WINTER SOLSTICE 3000 YEARS AGO

LOTTERY WINNERS CONGREGATE
Photo: knowth.com

The above photo is of people in Meath County, Ireland, who were previous lottery winners, experiencing the Winter Solstice event at the Newgrange ancient burial mound. About fifty people are selected for the sunrise event out of about 24,000 entries. Archaeologists date the mound at around 3000 years old.

Photo: knowth.com

Let's understand why so many people desire to experience the solstice at the Newgrange burial mound. Little is known of its history. Here's what we do know. It dates back to the New Stone Age of the Neolithic period. The Neolithic period was the beginning of agriculture as we know it in our civilization. Also, at this time, rituals and burials became a part of life. Art flourished. Not knowing about the how, when, and who of the place seems to set it into the realm of the mystical. Especially, because the entrance to the mound has an opening right above it, like a door transom, built of stone, where the solstice sunlight shines into the interior passageway to light the central chamber. Only at the time of Winter Solstice does this happen. It's architecture is very sophisticated.

It is thought that the Winter Solstice was perhaps significant in the life of the ancients as it was a sign of birth and renewal.

This year we realize the solstice on Monday, December 21st. Current recognition for some is a time of contemplation and wonderment, and for others a time of ritual and festivities.

The below YouTube video was produced by tubelookjohn. He captures the sense and spirit of Newgrange.

WORLD COMMUNITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The following article appeared in many newspapers around the world -- speaking as one common voice.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Referenced from Worldchanging Bright Green

BEAR MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE HABITAT

CAPTAIN SAL IS A HAM FOR THE CAMERA -- WILDLIFE HABITAT SIGN

On the two plus acres where I live are scores of nature's treasures. In addition to my homestead, I am partially surrounding by a forest of beech, different types of oak, black ash, persimmon, redbud, maples and other deciduous trees. Also, several species of conifers. It is a steep piece of land that is reached by climbing up a one lane dirt road which dead ends just up from my house. Having lived here for two years, I feel I am just beginning to understand the land.

WEEDS AND WILDFLOWER GUIDES
"weeds are in the eyes of the beholder"

This fall I established my place as a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat area. I feel I have a commitment to the land, plants and the critters to provide, as much as I am able, an undisturbed place.

BIRDS NESTS, CATERPILLARS AND MOTHS GUIDES
birds' nests book great to use after the leaves have fallen or the field has died back

I am like a child, learning the alphabet, reciting the plants and animals as I learn about them. I have found so many books useful. Several I get out of the library, some I buy at used book stores, and yearly public library sales; many I have owned for several decades dragging them all over the country as I moved around.

ANIMAL TRACKS, INSECTS AND HAWKS GUIDES

Too many good books to list here. However, I will mention a few that are fine guides that I found great for becoming acquainted with mother nature. See list at the bottom of this post. Also there are so many nature blogs with terrific information. Check out the Nature Blog Network for a list plus check out my "good blogs" section on my sidebar.

Become a life long learner about our natural world. Reserve an area for wildness.

DRAGONFLIES, DAMSELFLIES, TREE FINDERS AND NON-FLOWERING PLANTS GUIDES

List of above books below:

1. Hawks; Peterson Field Guides, William S. Clark/Brian K. Wheeler.

2. Insects; Peterson First Guides, Christopher Leahy.

3. Caterpillars; Peterson First Guides, Amy Barlett Wright.

4. A Field Guide to Animal Tracks; Peterson Field Guide, Olaus Murie.

5. Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, Lawrence Newcomb.

6. Weeds; Guardians of the Soil, Joseph A. Cocannouer.

7. Eastern birds' Nests; Peterson field Guides, hal H. Harrison.

8. Discovering Moths; Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard, John Himmelman.

9. Non-Flowering Plants; A Golden Nature Guide.

10. Winter Tree Finder, Mary Theilgaard Watts and Tom Watts.

11. Dragonflies and Damselflies, Steve Gordon and Cary Kerst.

ENJOY!

MY WINTER SKY

Tis the time when mother nature lets us know that winter is fast approaching. I'm almost ready for it. My tiny garden has been planted with a small winter crop of turnips and kale. The leaves have fallen providing a nutritious blanket for the garden. There is a feeling of stillness to nature.