Lise's Ramblings

As much as we may joke about winning the lottery and countdowns to vacations or retirement, most of us appreciate holding down jobs, particularly for the regular pay cheques and health benefits to keep bills at bay. That’s the gainful employment part. For the safe part, I don’t mean a secure job for as long you want to work; we all know that no longer exists. No, I mean not worrying about being abducted and forced to work in unsafe conditions for measly pennies, in the sex trade, or in other undesirable situations under threat of death. Is this the 21 st century or not? By safe, I mean we enjoy the freedom to: walk in public without the danger of being hauled into an unmarked van and whisked off against our will to serve someone’s bidding; have jobs that don’t jeopardize our physical safety; make mistakes in a role without worrying that we or anyone with whom we associate will be severely reprimanded or tortured; and, accept or decline a job offer without fea...

That says it all, doesn't it?       AWESOME!!!

Happy World Turtle Day, everyone! Every May 23 rd , people the world around celebrate turtles and tortoises. These slow-moving reptiles date back hundreds of millions of years ago. Imagine all they’ve witnessed during that time. Respect these ancient creatures; take care of their marine and land habitats. We’re so fortunate to share this world with such ancient creatures.       AWESOME!!! One of many green sea turtles swimming around us in the waters between Hawaii's Maui and Lana’i. A giant tortoise , one of the special residents at the spectacular San Diego Zoo.

Magnolia Warbler belts out his tune along the Desable River, PEI. Right now, spring migratory birds dot treetops, power lines and feeders. As the days and weeks pass, foliage becomes denser making it more difficult to spot the songbirds. Lucky for us, the males go to great lengths to attract their mates.   The boys sing cheery melodies and show off bright plumage. The bonus for the rest of us: both those activities help us spot the tiny songsters. It is next to impossible not to smile when you hear or see those colourful flirts.        AWESOME!!!

I am amazed that according to the journal Science , bedecking ourselves in jewellery dates back to at least 90,000 years ago . In more recent times (the past 5,300 years or so), body art has become another way to adorn our bodies. People shifted from just wearing adornments to painting them directly onto skin. The early Egyptians began applying cosmetics to temporarily emphasize features, but others went for more permanent adornments—tattoos. Although body art is considered quite mainstream today, during the 19 th and 20 th   centuries people associated tattoos primarily with sailors, secret societies, criminals, outcasts (think Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hector Prynne) and hard-core rock stars.  Prior to those sub-culture associations, tattoos held cultural, spiritual, hierarchical and personal significance. Polynesians, the Celts, Aboriginals in New Zealand , Australia and the Americas , the Japanese and others inked their skin with varied symbols. My ta...

It’s hard to pinpoint why, but toiling away in gardens is one of the few chores I enjoy. I love puttering in gardens. The sun doesn’t even need to shine. Rain showers release the cedar scent from the mulch and loosen the soil to make my work easier going. Sure, my clothes and hands get filthy. Biting insects feast on me. My back, neck and hamstrings remind me that I’m no spring chicken. And weeds grow back faster than I can pull them. But none of that matters when I see leaves unfurl and blooms pop. Novelist and poet May Sarton summed it up beautifully, “ Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”       AWESOME!!!

After weeks of consistent sunshine, heavy rains struck us for two days. Those grey days contrasted nicely against the colours brushed across our landscape. In April and May, spring’s splashes of yellow are especially evident.   Goldfinches dart about from tree to tree. Gardens and lawns are spotted with daffodils, crocuses, tulips, dandelions, Northern Gold Forsythias and hyacinths. And when the sun reappears, well that’s the best yellow imaginable.       AWESOME!!!

Our modest penny has suffered decades of indignity. First, rising inflation caused the penny’s value to tumble. Then, Canada needed to lower material costs, so our 98% copper coins became copper-plated steel discs. Larger, heavier and more valuable coins arrived in 1987 and 1996 (the loonie and toonie respectively). How could the lowly penny not get a complex? Following what other countries did years ago, Canada minted its last one-cent coin on May 4 th at a facility in Winnipeg . The reason: compelling economics. According to the federal government, each penny costs Canadian taxpayers too much to make and distribute. An estimated $11 million in annual wasted spending derives primarily from the fact that it takes 1.6 cents to bring each new penny into the world. ( 03/2012 news ) I get the financial rationale. I even know why many people dislike pennies. They weigh down purses without presenting major buying power. The older pennies (pre-1997) oxidize a...

I originally posted the rambling below as my first guest blog entry on 1000AwesomeFriends.org , but I'm also re-posting the text here, where it is searchable. (I've written so many posts that the only way I can only avoid repeats by searching my own site to see if I've written about a topic or simply thought about writing about that subject.) Has your birthday come and gone? Are there no statutory holidays on your horizon? There’s no need to wait for a day off from school or work to let loose and shake things up a bit. Just go ahead, pick a festivity from another nation or culture, then find your own way to mark that occasion. As it is, people around the world wear shamrocks, listen to Irish tunes, and eat and drink green food colouring on March 17th. Do we all have ties to Ireland? No, but that doesn’t stop us from whooping it up on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s easy to find something to celebrate. Take today for example, it’s Cinco de Mayo. That party is no longer just...

There’s a certain sense of freedom in being a guest for a meal, an overnight visit, an extended stay or a party. Think back to those times when someone asked you to wear the “and a guest” title at a wedding. That was almost always a sweet deal. You could enjoy the food, the dancing and the party, but you didn’t have the same gift planning pressures, required schmoozing, pre-wedding obligations or any other nonsense. Just show up and enjoy. The same is true for dinner out. Your kitchen stays mess-free. You get to enjoy the company of friends and a delicious meal, yet someone else does all the fussing. (Unless, of course, you’re one of those awesome guests who turns up at the door with homemade crème brulée – thanks, Trish!) Thanks to Nutmeg Designs  for making this image available via Creative Commons. Apart from meals and visits, there are other types of guests. I recently got a kick out of being a virtual guest.  Saturday marked my first time as a guest blogger. I enj...

Complaints abound about how toys don't last very long. Pieces break off. Electronics stop working. And the list goes on. Doesn't that make you yearn for indestructible playthings? Try as she might, the puppy next door couldn't chew that toy to bits. Your class bully couldn't break it by tossing it out the school bus window. A sibling couldn't trash it by knocking it down the stairs. Now those were toys. Tonka trucks come to mind. You could stand on them. Drop them from a treehouse. Crash them into one another. Leave them out in the sandbox. No matter what, those yellow trucks pulled through to see another play date. Maybe it's a pail in a wooden sandbox. What's the worse that can happen? The handle might snap off your pail. That won't stop you from filling the pail up again. Your sand castle may crumble, but the sand is there for future play. Rain may flood the box or snow may temporarily bury the sand, but you know a little sunshine will rest...