On the topic of retirement: Some people go sailing.

Some people restore toy boats they made as children.

And some people just take pictures of stuff!

Whatever we do, we are profoundly grateful for the privilege and the freedom.

A quick entry - for something quite charming, google google's doodles! I will be back! Note: In order to keep up with this blog I am going to have to write 10 entries today! Hold your breath!

If I were a gardener, this is what I would garden...it is a safe garden...

My friend in Victoria is recuperating from a spider bite...a black widow spider bite...a black widow with a red violin on its back spider bite...

And my other friend...Let her words speak for themselves:

"My problem however, is a groundhog! He is kind of cute and was OK while he was just eating the clover on the law. But he has now moved into my vegetable garden and is destroying my beans. My carrot and beet crops have already failed, thanks to him or some other creature. My workman suggested a small shotgun...but he lives in the country. He says there wouldn't be enough left to identify...or maybe he was talking about squirrels. It could be fun picking the squirrels off the fence. I'm not sure I could stand the gore, but I guess they would fall into my neighbours' yards. Oh - I might get "shot" holes in my fences...I don't want that. You aren't into saving squirrels and groundhogs, are you? Only cats and dogs, I hope!"

This is not a violent lady. She already has a hose with a sensor set up to chase that groundhog. I didn't know about that one...I didn't get too wet...

But I'll settle for a pot of flowers...if I become a gardener...

I am suffering from a fit of jealousy. I have just discovered Sharon Creech Love that Dog - a novel. It is a severe case of why-didn't-I-think-of-that combined with a journey through all those wonderful poems that I loved when I was teaching.

The main character, Jack, writes:

I don't understand

the poem about

the red wheel barrow

and the white chickens

and why much depends

on them

And that is just page two!

First a segue...I still remember chaperoning a school dance and having one of my senior students dance by and call out, "Hey Mach - my mother would be proud of all those years in classical ballet!"

I don't think her mother had tumbling around in a dark room in mind.

And now I can say, my mother would be proud of the time she spent taking me to the down town YWCA so that I could learn to swim on the end of a pole...for what seemed liked years...I never swam competitively but that I blame on my grandmother's penchant for tailoring. She insisted on hand sewing my bathing suits...fashioned after sundress patterns...created with pure linen with a cotton lining. I sank to the bottom every time I entered the pool!

All of which is to say that I will do everything not to clean my apartment including (and this is how extreme it was) trying on my 20 year old bathing suit. It fits! It's not a pretty sight...but I have a bathing suit.

Obviously the above is a picture of the cottage I am going to...since said cottage is outside of Huntsville they did have visitors during the G-8!

Shakespeare knew human nature. (There's a doctoral thesis.) I awoke this morning thinking about: To be or not to be. No I'm not suicidal...it is that whole decision making process that one has to deal with. And then I started playing with it. To have or not to have. To want or not to want. To clean or not to clean...the list could go on. And I apologize for the obvious pun. I am surprised at my collection of bee pictures...obviously the creature fascinates me.

And the obligatory ice berg!