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On the Road Again

April 24, 2012 by Pat Bean

“…On the road again

goin’ places that I’ve never been

Seein’ things that I may never see again

And I can’t wait to get on the road again …”

Purple mountain majesties -- Photo by Pat Bean

Me, Pepper and Willie Nelson

I’m a big Willie Nelson fan, and there’s nothing better than slipping his “On the Road Again’ tune into my CD player when I take off for someplace new. I’ll do just that later this morning when Pepper, my new canine traveling companion and I began to take leave of Texas.

I have 18 days to travel 1,300 miles to my destination. This means I can, as Frank Sinatra, sang: “Do It My Way.” And my way is slow and easy with lots of stops to take in this beautiful country.

 Just thinking about the sights I’ll see already has another tune whirling through my brain. This one is the song  I believe should be our national anthem, “America, The Beautiful:”

When i see flowers survivng harsh conditions to give us their beauty, I think of the tough times we Americans are facing these days, and gain confidence that we're tough enough to take it -- and survive. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of gain; for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain! America! America. God shed his grace on thee, and crown they good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea… ”

These word easily bring tears to my eyes.  I’m so very blessed in that I have seen this country from sea to shining sea. I’ve seen its amber waves of grain and its majestic mountains.”

So now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pack up and Me. Pepper and Willie Nelson will get on the road again to see it some more.

Bean’s Pat: 10,000 Birds, http://tinyurl.com/87y7am3 Montana landscapes and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Wildflowers | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Introducing Pepper

April 23, 2012 by Pat Bean

Note the tail kink -- Photo by Pat Bean

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles Schulz

Already the Love of My Life

I wanted a 20 to 25 pound, female canine, one to three years old, from the sporting group of dogs, as the replacement for Maggie, my treasured, Cocker Spaniel traveling companion. I got an 11-pound, four-month-old puppy instead.

It was meant to be.

She’s a cross, most likely, between a Scottie and a Schnauzer. I’ll never know for sure because I’m not going to pay the $60 for DNA testing. It really doesn’t matter.

She has chocolate, melt-your-heart eyes, when you can see them beneath her long silky hair – I think we’ll do a little trimming soon. She bounds when she runs, has a kink in her tail and bless my lucky stars, is potty-trained.

Why won't they play with me? -- Photo by Pat Bean

She came from the third animal shelter I visited, it being the Second Change SPCA Shelter in Plano, Texas.

I’m not sure if I picked her, or she picked me. It was as if our eyes met and we both knew we belonged together. The deed was sealed when someone put her in my lap and she nestled down as if this was where she belonged.

Although friendly with everyone, she has already decided she wants to keep me in her sight. For example, she’s lying at me feet right now as I sit at my daughter’s dining room table, and she followed me into the kitchen twice when I got up to refill my coffee cup.

Photographing Pepper wasn't easy. Not only was she constantly moving, her black fur made her look like a bundle of rags in most of the pictures I took. She actually has some red and blonde tints in her coat, the kind women pay a fortune to achieve, that show well in the sunlight. -- Photo by Pat Bean

When I went out to my RV, Gypsy Lee,  for our first night together,  she eagerly bounded into the motorhome and was soon settled comfortably beside me on the over-the-cab bed. When I got up in the middle of the night to visit the powder room, she greeted me on my return as if I had been gone a week.

I’ve named her Pepper, partly because of the spice I know she’s going to add to my life and partly because she is so full of it. She acts as if that’s been her name all her life, even though the shelter called her Kenzie.

I yelled Pepper yesterday evening when I saw her headed for the kitchen and the food bowl of my daughter’s two dogs. I yelled because her tummy was already full, and I didn’t want her eating more and getting sick.

Face-off with my daughter's Cocker Spaniel, MacBean. -- Photo by pat Bean

She immediately did a U-turn, jumped back up into my lap and gave me puppy kisses.

Pepper and I will be getting on the road heading west tomorrow. She has already tried out the co-pilot seat and it fits her well.

I suspect that when we pull away from my daughter’s home, I will turn to Pepper and quote Dr. Seuss: “Oh the places we’ll go, and the things we’ll see.” That’s what I told Maggie when we got on the road eight years ago. And we did.

Bean’s Pat: Stopping the Wind http://tinyurl.com/cbtkqwo Mostly a reblog of Trey Ramsey’s blog by someone trying to change their future. It includes some hard-nosed, kick-butt advice for all of us who are trying to meet new goals. I took notes.

 

 http://tinyurl.com/cbtkqwo

Posted in Dogs, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 40 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sun

April 21, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Are you upset little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don’t worry … I’m here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you.” – Charlie Brown to Snoopy.

Life-Giving

Without the sun there would be no sunflowers.

Sunflower at Cedar Hill State Park in Texas. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Or poppies.

Poppy, Ogden, Utah -- Photo by Pat Bean

Bean’s Pat: DENY Designs http://tinyurl.com/crbdgud Thinking outside the box. Since I live in a 22-foot by 8-foot RV, this one blows my mind. But it’s fun to think about.

Posted in Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, Wildflowers | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Searching for Creativity

April 20, 2012 by Pat Bean

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath

Great blue heron hunting for its dinner along the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades.

Two Photographs

When I haven’t a clue as to what I’m going to write about, I first turn to my list of potential blog topics.

That didn’t work this time. In fact it might be time for me to clean up the long list as I didn’t understand half my suggestions. Bright ideas, I’ve discovered, often lose meaning if left stagnating too long.

There is also the fact that what you write one day will never be the same thing you will write about the next day. Our perceptions about the meaning of life, or whatever, are constantly changing. Knowing this, I think, is why I’m such a fanatic journal keeper.

"Won't you step into my Everglades parlor?" -- Photo by Pat Bean

Anyway, with my written list failing me, I turned to my photographs and came across two that actually turned on the electricity in my brain. One was of an alligator lying in wait for a meal, and the other was of a great blue heron quietly waiting for its dinner to come into reach.

The differences had me thinking how all living things on this planet have the same needs. And about where each of the species fit in the food chain.

The two photos also spoke to me of patience, a thing I seriously lack. Without a bit of patience, neither of these species would have their next meal.

Then I thought of the different reactions the two photos would elicit from viewers. Oohs and aahs for the heron of course, and probably some yucks for the alligator. When I post a photo of one of these reptiles I usually get an e-mail from a daughter-in-law telling me not to get too close.

Putting two unlike things together, according to some of the self-help books I’ve read, is a good way to spark one’s creativity. I haven’t done it much, but I’m now convinced I should do it more. I mean it got me off the hook for today’s blog.

Now I’m curious as to readers’ reactions to the two photos. Tell, please.

Bean’s Pat: A Word in Your Ear; http://tinyurl.com/74zt46m For those of us who miss too many sunsets.

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Favorite Things: Egrets

April 19, 2012 by Pat Bean

Egrets
 
Where the path closed
down and over,
through the scumbled leaves,
fallen branches,
through the knotted catbrier,
I kept going. Finally
I could not
save my arms
from thorns; soon
the mosquitoes

This great egret regally watched all the comings and goings from its perch aboard a boat at a Key West, Florida, dock. -- Photo by Pat Bean

smelled me, hot
and wounded, and came
wheeling and whining.
And that’s how I came
to the edge of the pond:
black and empty
except for a spindle
of bleached reeds
at the far shore
which, as I looked,
wrinkled suddenly
into three egrets – – –
a shower
of white fire!
Even half-asleep they had
such faith in the world
that had made them – – –
tilting through the water,
unruffled, sure,
by the laws
of their faith not logic,
they opened their wings
softly and stepped
over every dark thing.

        — Mary Oliver
 
Snoweys, Greats, and Cattle
 

Snowy egret on left, great egret on right, northern shoveler in the water in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. -- Photo by Pat Bean

When I first became one of those crazy birders, it was easy to identify a snowy egret, which for a long time was the only egret that I saw.  They were these tall, white, graceful birds with a long, slender black bill, and black legs with golden-yellow feet, which I liked to think of as their slippers.  I saw these delightful shorebirds just about anywhere there was water when I lived in Northern Utah.

 
The next egret I saw was a shorter, chunkier one that looked like parts of its body had been dipped in liquid wheat. occasionally I would see one with a wheat-colored crest, which I learned was its breeding cap. These were cattle egret, and wandering around a herd of the four-legged critters were where you almost always found them.
 
It took me a long while before I saw a great egret in Northern Utah, although when I traveled east of the Rockies, this was suddenly the most common egret I started seeing. It’s a tall, lanky bird with a long, slender yellow bill and black legs and feet.
 
Egrets, well the snowy and the great since the cattle egret didn’t migrate to America until the 1950s, were the inspiration for the creation of the Audubon Society. The main purpose of the conservation organization, of which I’m a proud member, when it was first formed was to protect the egrets from extinction. They were being killed by the thousands simply to provide fanciful plumes for women’s hats.
 
Tsk! Tsk! I’d like to think we vain females know better these days. Most of us do, I believe.  
 
Bean’s Pat: Serenity Spell http://tinyurl.com/6wgdtdd Since it’s a bird day, read all about red-winged blackbirds.
 

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Favorite Places: Lake Wister State Park, Oklahoma

April 18, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Wilderness begins in the human mind.” Edward Abbey

The Poteau River

Letting the worries about tomorrow and finding help for my ailing RV, Gypsy Lee,go, I watched as a great egret fished for its dinner on the opposite bank of the Poteau River. -- Photo by Pat Bean

It was late evening when I arrived at Lake Wister State Park, a place of refuge for the night while I pondered my first on-the-road crisis in my RV, Gypsy Lee.

I watched the sun as it sank beneath the horizon and allowed it and the river to soothe my soul. I felt grateful just to be alive. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The crisis turned out to be simply a need for new brake pads. The pads, however, had to be specially ordered, which gave me three days to enjoy the park.

The first night, a Sunday when all the places that could service my RV were closed, began as a tense one at the park, where I had parked below the dam beside the Poteau River.

A walk along the river with my canine traveling companion just as the sun was bidding a good-night to all on this side of the world with a pink glowing sky, massaged away the tension in my body.

Mother Nature has a way of doing that to me. Despite my RV woes, it’s a night that I remember fondly.

Bean’s Pat: Mike’s Look at Life http://m5son.wordpress.com A gentle landscape and thoughtful blog that lets me see the world through fresh eyes.

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Tax Procrastinator

April 17, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss.” – Robert Heinlein

 

Whew! Taxes mailed. I feel as light as this western tiger swallowtail butterfly is. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Yup. I Didn’t File Until Today

I’m a procrastinator. But in my defense, it’s usually because I have better things I want to do than to do what I always need to do.

Besides, I knew I wasn’t either going to have to pay Uncle Sam, nor get something back from him, which was never the case before I retired and found my annual income down near the poverty level.

I’m not complaining, mind you. I have all the necessities and a great life – based on doing things and not acquiring things. And I do believe taxes are a necessary chigger for a well-functioning society.

But I still agree with William Simon, who believes it would be nice if our nation’s taxation system looked “like someone had designed it on purpose.”

Meanwhile my good news for the day is that my taxes are now done and sent off.

Whew. I feel a ton lighter.

Bean’s Pat: The Meat and Potatoes of Life http://tinyurl.com/6ntp8vw Another view of us last-minute tax filers.

Posted in Nature | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

April 16, 2012 by Pat Bean

“I never saw a discontented tree.  They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel  about as far as we do.  They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!”  ~John Muir

Two Trees

I think of these two live oak trees that grow in a park on the Texas Gulf Coast as two old companions who grew up together and whose roots are now entwined like a rare couple who has been able to weather the hard times and age gracefully together. I suspect they are now so joined that they can not survive without each other. -- Photo by Pat Bean

And is this one tree or two?

And this great willow, that sits beside Lake Walcott in Idaho, reminds me of a couple who married young and then split asunder so that they appear as two trees. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Posted in Lakes, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Deep in the Heart of Texas

April 15, 2012 by Pat Bean

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.  How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?  For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.  That is where the writer scores over his fellows:  he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.  ~Vita Sackville-West

Among My Writing Soul Mates 

So many things I want to tell my writer friends out there about the tremendous amount of energy and good advice going on at the Story Circle Network’s Stories from the Heart Conference being held in Austin this weekend.

Austin skyline from Lady Bird Lake -- Wikipedia photo

Much of what I’ve learned, however, still needs to be digested, and practiced, before I feel I can write about it.

But Gail Straub’s keynote Friday night  presentation “My Mythic Memoir Journey,”  had a secondary significance for me. She spoke about her memoir, “Returning to My Mother’s House,” which is about her relationship with her mother.

 Sitting next to me was my own daughter, Deborah. Gail hit a few familiar notes with her talk and it seemed as if I weren’t  nudging my daughter, she was nudging me. 

University of Texas fountain, a familiar sight to Austin residents. -- Wikipedia photo

Gail’s talk was full of interesting insights, and came at a time when my daughter and I could both recognize them — and most importantly laugh about them.

The best thing about the conference for me is being in the midst of a circle of supportive female writers. It’s not that any of us, well among the many circle members I know, have anything against men. It’s just that our voices are different and it’s nice to be among people who understand female quirks, and the difficulty women often have in finding their voices.

I can say with 100 percent accuracy that this writing circle is the most supportive group I’ve ever encountered in my years on this planet. I can’t think of any place I would rather be this weekend than right where I am — deep in the heart of Texas with writing soul mates.

Bean’s Pat: Darla Writes  http://tomurl.com/77xu6pf  13 Tips From Writers. It seems only fair that today I should give a thumbs up to a blogger who writes about writing,

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Playing Hooky From the Writing Conference

April 14, 2012 by Pat Bean

“The earth laughs in flowers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Wright's skullcap -- Photo not by me (remember I left my camera in the hotel room), and I'm not sure who the photographer was.

A delayed plane and a missed flight put me into Austin after 10 p.m. yesterday. It meant I missed meeting with a couple of old friends here in town, like me, to attend the Story Circle Network’s Stories from the Heart Conference.

Instead I treated myself to a nice strong Jack and Coke at the hotel bar, while I waited for my oldest daughter, Deborah, who is attending the conference, too  to arrive on an even later flight. I woke up this morning, thinking it was 6 a.m., only to discover it was 8 a.m., seeing as how I was in Austin instead of Tucson, where it was 6 a.m.

After taking care of a bit of business for the conference, four of us writing buddies, took off for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. When we arrived, I realized I had left my camera back in the hotel room, which was a darn shame because there were plenty of beautiful flowers to photograph.

My favorite was the Wright’s skullcap, whose blossoms reminded me of Darth Vader.

And that’s all I have to say today. While it’s just after 9 p.m. in Austin, it’s after 11 p.m. in Tucson and my body remembers and is telling the brain it’s time to go to bed. I think I will sleep well tonight, even without a Jack and Coke.

Bean’s Pat: Portraits of Wildflowers  http://tinyurl.com8ywkbd5  Standing winecups. Steve Schartzman’s blog is why I could identify many of today’s plants at the wildflower center.

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments »

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