MONDAY MUSINGS: UNPLUGGING FROM THE COMPUTER AND PLUGGING INTO LIFE

This past three days I’ve unplugged from my computer. In fact, this is the first day I’ve been back on the computer since Friday. I was surprised with my sense of reluctance to even turn on the computer today. I don’t even want to know how many emails I have. I’ll look later.

  

We used the time to go a few places we’ve wanted to explore. Nothing spectacular. We chose to follow our curiosity with a few day trips. It was a beautiful weekend for driving. When we drive someplace together we also do a lot of talking and that might start out with family happenings, work, and then branches out into all sorts of interesting topics. My husband is well read and has many interests, as do I, and he’s a good conversationalist. I love those times when we can talk about all sorts of things. Saturday and Sunday, we spent the morning out and about and the afternoons and evening watching movies I haven’t had the time to see. I finally got to see the second Captain America movie, which I loved. A lot of action and suspense and it was good to see Robert Redford back in the movies and in a good role. 

This morning has been filled with ticking off a couple of projects that need to be done here at the McKye household. Later this afternoon is cleared for baking. I’m making bread and saving enough extra dough (to be stored in the fridge) for cinnamon caramel pull-apart bread for later in the week. Yummy stuff!

I know I need to unplug from the computer more often and plan on doing so more this summer. I’ll be around, but not as much. We have lots of things we want to do, both projects here at home and places to see. I need to take some time off from the ball and chain that is my computer and concentrate on some of the simple pleasures in life. Taking time to savor the small adventures and break away from the fog of ennui. You know living and experiencing life rather than intellectualizing it via computer. 

I’ll see you again for IWSG on Wednesday. 

I hope you take some time, as I will be, to smell the roses and explore and appreciate your corner of the world. Have a great week!   

MONDAY MUSINGS—LETTING THE CREATIVE SPIRIT PLAY

I thought I’d start the morning out with something Celtic and energetic—not sure about you guys, but I need it. Plus, I love Slainte and really like Heath’s fiddle playing and his bagpipes. These guys are having a great time playing and that’s always a joy to hear.

This past weekend I actually only worked a half day on Saturday and off on Sunday. It’s been a good long while since I had almost a whole weekend off. I was planning to go see Jurassic World but Dan decided he’d rather see it next weekend. Quality time off, what do I do? Write? Well I do have some clamoring characters but I told them they’d just have to wait (although I did spend some time writing in my notebook while sitting outside).  When you spend as much time in front of a computer as I do, the last thing you want to do is sit in front of one and so writing was out. I couldn’t face my office or my computer another minute.

  

I exercised my creative spirit in other ways. I worked in my garden, admired my tomatoes, planted some more blueberries, counted my healthy strawberries—about half are doing fine and I’m looking forward to eating lots of them soon. I also worried about my eight new fruit trees—they’re not responding from bare root. I’m giving them another week and then if they still aren’t responding, me and the nursery staff is going to have words.

  

My creative spirit also wanted to play baker. I haven’t done a lot of baking with yeast in several years. I used to make my bread and rolls. Between having had MRSA and then the shoulder reconstruction, I got out of the habit of that kind of baking.  For one, it takes quite a bit of time and physical effort. I had a hankering for yeasty cinnamon rolls. The recipe I have used for years produces some yummy cinnamon rolls and I used to know it by heart. I had to dig it out so I could proceed. Sheesh.

The first batch…well…let’s just say they weren’t great. Personally, I think they’d have made great hockey pucks although the horses thought they were great. Second batch were good but still not great. Part of it was adjusting for my new stove (relatively new—2 years old so the proofing of the dough was different as was this oven’s temps). The other part of the problem is when working yeast dough it takes practice. I don’t use a bread machine and then there is remembering temperatures for liquids so you don’t kill the yeast or being too rough with the dough so it becomes tough. Use the skill or lose it. It all comes back, well most of it, especially the second time around. Third batch will be a charm—just as soon as I buy more yeast.

• So, how was your weekend? See any good movies? Read any good books?

• Did you let your creative spirit out to play? How did that work out for you?

MONDAY MUSINGS THE PAUSE BETWEEN SPRING AND SUMMER

When my spirit is troubled, sad, or feeling stressed, I tend to walk. There’s something about being out among the trees and pastures that soothes me. Everything is so lush and green. Part of that is because we’ve had a cool spring and a lot of rain and part of it is because June is a beautiful month; it’s that moment’s pause between spring and summer.

My walking path meanders all over our property, looping back and forth leading me through trees and shrubs and across the pastures. There are many little hidden glens filled with wildflowers. As I wander and pause, hidden in the trees, I see all sorts of critters.

I’ve caught sight of foxes and their kits, the quiet glide of a coyote with her pups and watched them play like the puppies they are. We have two ponds on the property. I usually stop at the one about a quarter of a mile down behind the house. There are a lot of interesting sights to see if one is quiet and still. Lot of wildlife. At one end of the pond a pair of wood ducks have made a home and raise their babies. There’s a big abandoned tractor tire that we leave down there for them to hide in or around. I have yet to be able to get a picture of them. Always I see the ducklings swimming near the tire when I don’t have my camera.

The pond is a nursery area for deer, turkeys, quail, and I’ve seen woodchucks and armadillos—which are quite comical to watch. They’re also very playful and it lifts even the lowest spirits. There is a small herd of deer that graze on the other side of the pond and let their fawns run and play. They bring a smile to my face as they play tag and dash about. Usually this group raises several sets of twins. They’re fun to watch. The deer bed down not far from the pond at night. I’m assured of seeing them in the late afternoon.

Being outside on the property strokes all my senses. I breathe in the rich smell of growing things, the scent of the forest, a hint of wildflowers and wild roses tickle my nose. Birdsong fills the air, the hum of bees, the greeting from my horses, and company of my pride of ‘walking’ cats. We have many butterflies feasting on the wildflowers, the comedic antics of the hummingbirds fussing and chasing each other. They make me laugh, silly things. This afternoon there was an added addition of a turkey hen and her brood of about 9 chicks, I say about, because they tend to move rather quickly so it’s hard to count them accurately.

That pause between spring and summer is a great time to walk. It's where I find my peace and I smile.

MISSOURI YELLOWS

Yellow has always been a favorite color of mine, especially in flowers and birds. After a long winter of grays and whites, it brings a lift to the spirit.

Yellow-Belly Sapsucker

Funny how such a cheerful color also has negative connotations, but it does. The color yellow has traditionally been associated with cowardice, treachery, inconstancy and jealousy. Interesting that in France, the doors of traitors’ homes were daubed with yellow. It’s also been used as an insult or challenge. “What are you, yellow bellied?”   I’ve even heard the term, “you yellow-bellied sapsucker!” That term originally applied to birds that literally have a yellow belly, like the yellow-bellied sapsucker. Later came to mean a term for a low down coward. Poor maligned bird.  
 

We do have Yellow-Belly Sapsuckers in Missouri and they forage on trees in forests, orchards, and parks for insects and they also eat fruits, nuts, and berries. Sapsuckers are woodpeckers that drill small, closely spaced holes in trees to reach the sap and insects drawn to the sap. They aren’t bright yellow on the bellies but more of a light yellow wash.

American Golden Finches Male and female at the feeder

Missouri, like many other places, do have bright yellow Goldfinches. We do have them year round although there is an influx of them in March and April.  I smile every time I see them in the trees or at the feeders and they’re like flying yellow flowers. Goldfinches pair up and begin nesting in July and August when the soft milkweed and thistles begin to bloom. They like to use thistle silk for their nests. I keep a feeder with thistle and other goodies for the finches.  I love the contrast of seeing the yellow finches and red cardinals at the feeders.

We also have Eastern Meadowlarks. Very unassuming colored bird and blend right into brown underbrush. In the winter they're much easier to spot against the snow. Like the sapsucker, they’re not obviously yellow, just their bellies.  They’re here year round and I actually see them more in winter as they forage in the fields but I hear them singing throughout the warm season.

Another bright yellow bird that I first mistook for a Golden finch, until I got a closer look, is the Prothonotary Warbler. It’s named after the Roman Catholic clerks who wore yellow robes. They tend to forage for insects in fallen trees or dead standing trees and can be found near water. We have a pond across the county road from the front yard and we have a stream that’s shaped like a giant U around the back of our property. They’re year round residents but, like the Goldenfinches, the rest show up in Missouri in April and begin nesting.

Missouri has lots of yellow wildflowers to delight the senses. They’re common sights along roadways and in fields. I have many, many wildflowers growing in the fields and love my walking track that brings me up close to so many. It makes walking a joy.

Yellow Rocket Flower

 

Yellow Cone-flower, aka Echinea

Finch among the Tickseed Sunflowers

Common Mulleien

Although Missouri has many outstanding features to see and experience, for me, it’s the beauty that surrounds my house on any given day. The animals, birds, and flowers. I love how the birdsong fills the air, the gossip at the bird feeders, the cry of an eagle, the fuzz of yellow-green oaks covering the hills in the spring amid the carpet of wildflowers. It’s a wonderful place to be.

There are so many beautiful places in this world and I hope you've enjoyed a view of my corner of it, here, in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. 

Alley Springs Mill and wildflowers

Photos: Missouri conservation, Missouri field guide to flowers, and personal