Meanderings of a Mermaid

To my Far Flung Friends; BS, the furry kids and I have arrived at Home North. Two weeks here and we are settling in nicely. The weather is co-operating very well, although we could use a good long rain. The lake level is down, due to a poor snow this past winter. We need to get that baby full before the pickerel season opens! BS is such a creative guy that improvements to life here are happening. Too many to mention, and why ruin the surprise? I think y'all should come to visit and see for yourselves. So from the Greening Up North I say hello and report that we are all fine. I can't seem to attach photos via my blackberry and so you'll just have to wait. The Mermaid, from her North Rock Home North, where the skies are blue and the heart beats true Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.

Friends, I give you bouquets of bluebonnets. Enjoy. It is still early in the season but get a load of the gorgeous mini-lupin that graces our roadsides and fields. That's my pear tree on the right in the first photo, but the home is a neighbour's.

Inspired by my friend's blog with her top ten signs of spring (see link to her blog, Green Bananas below), I thought about what I am noticing here in Texas. 1. Thoughts of preparing my income tax return flit through my mind, interspersed with notions of doing some sort of filing first. Naturally neither is being accomplished. 2. Mowing of the grass has increased in frequency and I have all my blue bonnet patches marked out to avoid! This is going to be an awesome year for bluebonnets. 3. I am thinking about the migration I am about to undertake , to return to Canada. I look forward to seeing friends there. 4. Romance is in the air: from the cardinals cavorting at my front porch; the songbirds who wake me up each morning; the wailing cats who pad their tracks over our trucks. This ardour spreads to the new relationship with BS, although he doesn't chirp or wail. 5. The peach stands at the side of the highway are being spruced up, in preparation for local produce. 6. Weazie...

Hey Folks, Back from Tucson and Phoenix trip. What a blast that was, meeting his family and seeing where he grew up. We bought a new trailer... and then loaded it up. Once ready we waited for the killer snow (ah....) to come to an end. Then we drove it all home.

So here we all are in Phoenix, the land of the sun. And in case you've never been here, the land of the rich and the botoxed. The only reason we "naturals" are allowed in is to that the beautiful people can look even more beautiful by comparison. OK so I am kidding around here... But one thing that really strikes me is the excess here. In every aspect of life. The huge amounts of water used to simply irrigate someone's front lawn and rose bush. A plant that should not be growing normally in this desert environment. The water that spills down the road from a broken lawn irrigation system, owners oblivious to the huge waste. Green grass lawns..??.... they look so out of place here. Homes are on the huge side and too large for a typical family size. And it seems the contents of homes are too much as well. So far at the curbside trash I've picked up great lumber (including redwood planks), a fancy bicycle trailer for towing children (or maybe dogs who are quite aged)...

So many gorgeous minerals are found on earth. Here is just one example of misolite. Delicate and spectacular, this prized specimen was on display at an Indian mineral exhibit. (Tucson gem and mineral show 2010). For scale, it is over two feet long. At the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Co-op, this fellow was a little under dressed for the occasion. If you look carefully under the belly you might pick out the baby wooley mammoth. Just for scale, these two are a tad over two feet long! And just when you thought nature by itself is not gorgeous enough, we came across this lovely carving. Now wouldn't that cup of coffee taste great in the morning served on this lovely fossil table? A huge fossil ammonite at one end echoes the smaller sliced and polished ammonites in the table top. By evening we'll switch over to using these lovely wine goblets. Beautiful earth tones in the agate invite caresses and the enjoyment of yet another glass.

Time has come to prepare for a road trip. The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show beckons once again. Every year in early February the promise of sparkly gems and exotic minerals is too hard to resist. The fact that it is almost February again just blows me away. We all know that as we age it seems that each year goes by faster and faster. This year was a particularly momentous one for me. Over the past year I enjoyed getting acquainted with many new friends, as I spread my wings and flew into early retirement. I moved to a new home and began the routine of being a snowbird. It was a time to move out of places and a time to snug into new ones. The treasures encountered along the way were the relationships with friends. This year I lost one good friend, a traveller who enjoyed exploration and learning as much as I did. His spirit for adventure will guide me for a long time yet. The path ahead follows a curvy road. It may not be smooth either. I have seen enough and experienced enough to know...