PS...

please note it was just a week or so ago when my blog included out of honor and love a picture from the oft read and much enjoyed book "where the wild things are" and do you know, they've got the unmitigated gall to go and make a MOVIE out of it????

i'm stymied, really, at a loss if you will because i'm not sure whether i want to run to the theater on opening day or shun the movie altogether with altruistic fidelity to classic childhood literature...

what to do????

okay really...enough about the dogs!

this afternoon i was reminded of how much encouragement we humans need just to function from one day to the next...
one afternoon i was on a beautiful drive from point a to point b (yeah, most such drives ARE beautiful) but on this drive i couldn't help noticing the trees as they sped by waving their graceful branches at me on my way...

if you listen closely you can hear the deep earthy hum of their ancient song but if you don't, likely you'll hear a breeze and maybe brush your hair out of your eyes with a little irritation...this is the song as they told me: (sorry, you'll just have to imagine for yourself the deep warm dreaminess of the melody)

mmmmm slowly i march
deep are my roots
i drink the water
from deep below

slowwwwly i march
wisdom i seek
as i drink the water
from deep below

i've grown so long
memory refreshes like dew
my mother brought me
from deep below

changes i've seen are many
some worse than words can say
and i draw strength
from deep below...

as you know trees are much older than we are...if I sang to you the whole song we'd both be here for quite some time but the truth is, if you pause to take a look at the trees you drive by, try to hear them...they sing beautifully!!!!

the wisdom of Sandy...

Now you may not know this, but I have NEVER been THAT person who cried when their kitty got hit by a car...or stayed home for a week when my fifteen year old cat (Peter Nutley was his name) finally gave up and left this world...nope...I would grin sheepishly so as not to guffaw outright...

Then came Sonny...

who not only loved me unconditionally but very often would "herd" me about as he had been instructed by Mr. Man to "watch over Missy Ma'am when I'm not here"

After Sonny came Daisy who loved nothing more than for me to sing to her "Daisy, Daisy...give me your answer DOOOOOO I'm half crazy all for the love of YOUUUUU" she would laugh and dance around like a crazy ballerina dog...she one day just left and never came back - I surmised that she had found a path of excitement and pranced off with her Daisiness to go check things out...my son just looked at me with pity and said ..."oh mom"

What I'm here to share though is Sandy...his wisdom is such that when things go awry he either wants to just lie down in his cozy bed and snooze the stress away or he will run like the wind up and down the prairie hills around our home...
this is the kind of wisdom that makes me echo the wise saying "be the person your dog thinks you are..."
THANK YOU SANDY!!!!

hmmmmm, wonder if it's become an obvious theme that I am a lover of dogs and other furry and/or winged creatures???? yes...I am:-)

Who invited the Goops to my home????

now this might take you wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back...i remember as a child having this book read to me and although i no longer own the book i clearly recall this line: "The Goops they lick their fingers, And the Goops, they lick their knives, They spill their broth on the tablecloth, Oh!, they lead disgusting lives!"

i remember shivering with horror and delight...ohhhh i NEVER want to be a goop!!! but OHHHHH they're DELICIOUSLY naughty!!!! so apparently the naughtiness won over and i've allowed them into my home...they haven't only licked their knives and spilled their broth but they also haven't done the dishes or the vacuuming and they've for some reason left the tipi standing a full week after Round Up was over!

albeit they've brought a lovely childhood memory back, i believe that today will have to be their last day at the Little House on the Prairie...last night i overheard Rocky telling one of them "you're worse than a coyote" and if you know dogs as i do, you'll understant that he was insulting the Goop in the most horrific way imaginable.

bottom line is as one who resides in a home with such items as monarchical divans with luscious purple silk fluffy pillows and lamps of sparkling delight (it's my favorite in the world, thank you) should be more cautious of whom is invited to stay for long visits of laughter and stories told deep into the night hours! Surely, the Goops are not appropriate guests!

Say good day to them, they're leaving this afternoon!!!!

don't let's be silly!!!!!

at our household...the little house on the prairie if you will, we constitute quite a little crowd, first, there are the two humanoids - that would be my brother (mostly known as Mr. Man by the furry and/or winged creatures) and me (also known as Missy Ma'am by there aforementioned), there are the two Esteemed Ones, Rocky and Sandy who watch over us diligently night and day, there's Eyak and Oyak, the teenage pheasants who are both raucous and bawdy and they imbibe a little too much for good taste, there's Aristotle, the wise and thoughtful toad, Gilbert and Heather, the head of the Hawk families, there's Anastasia, the mama starling, and never to be left out, there are many who go unnamed but do not for one day go unnoticed and those are the UCLA (Upper Cayuse Lower Adams) Lakuts (that's mouse in Nez Perce by the way) clan...

Friday we took the long trek to the Far Away City of Wondrous Adventures and Many Beautiful Lights of Grandeur...at least that's how Bella has expalined it to Rocky and Sandy, you know they believe Bella to the very core of their beings.

While there, we visited with relatives and friends...also doing some business along the way.

Saturday we were growing weary of such fun and frivolity and after roaming from one amazing Goodwill to another, we took our tired selves to the homes of Puppy Lee and Puppy Jill (although these two are 21 and 23, the dogs will NEVER stop calling them Puppy...therefore, the children of these two become the Puppy Pups...it's complicated).

I sang a few songs for the two Puppy Pups - Nellie and Kyla, who sang along with me for a few minutes, then turned their attention to more important activities such as trying to eat the toy that makes beatific music and trying to walk from point a to point b...these are very highly prized achievements and not to be taken lightly.

Mr. Man napped along with Puppy Lee who although fairly young seemed quite tired...

All in all it was a successful visit but we were happy to go home to our little menagerie. The long drive from the Far Away City of Wondrous Adventures and Many Beautiful Lights of Grandeur to our Little House on the Prairie was peaceful and joyous although frought with many empty calorie type snacks and a LOT of diet peach snapple...utterly antipodean...candy bars...DIET tea and I hope you know I chuckled aloud for the chance to use that word!!!! When we got home we did a few homey things and then we invited the dogs to enter through the Forbidden Gate into the Wondrous Room of Colours and Sounds (our living room) but the dogs looked at us as though we'd gone mad and said "come in????" I implored Mr. Man...I said "I just want them to have a quick nap with me!!!" and he took pity on me and PHYSICALLY invited them in...this is not an engraved invitation so to speak but rather, the act of bundling them one at a time into his arms and carrying them to my monarchical divan...I later invited them back outside, an invitation they heartily accepted then ONE more time I again invited them inside...they chuckled kindly, then gave in to full on guffaws with much paw slapping and chortles "don't let's be silly!"

I could hear them outside in the tipi as I closed the door..." come IN she said..."

ohhhh how i love the smell of sour milk and kisses!!!!

the four grandkids visited this weekend...they had quite a time really, nellie and kyla berry are within months of each other yet they have quite the amazing sibling dynamic going. they don't exchange looks, rather, noises and grunts accompanied by the occasional pat or hair tug.

these four are so different from each other and yet if you watch them they are saying the most amazing things:

Kyla: Nellie, would you please hand me that toy? I like the pretty colors and I want to play a Concerto I wrote yesterday.

Nellie: Kyla, I'm using this right now to bake a ham and maybe some couscous...you might try to use THAT toy.

Kyla: Nellie, I don't actually wish to use the other toy, I had really planned on using THAT one and will most likely not be satisfied until I get it.

What you and I might actually hear is AHHHHH then EEEWAHEEEEHAHA and then CICICIIJREKOC then finally we would see Kyla run to her Auntie Tarynina and asked to be taken outside for some fresh air...

Kyla then proceeds to share with Rocky and Sandy about Nellie's unwillingness to share the toy and Sandy's response is that Kyla should relax a little and maybe take a snooze in the tipi...

Auntie Tarynina all the while unknowingly believes Kyla to be singing to her and smiles beatifically.

I could be wrong you know...but that's how it seems to have gone...

It was an amazing week and weekend. Autumn and Izzy shared their moments as well, they're story is a bit more involved and will take more time to tell...

but ohhhh how I love the smell of sour milk and kisses!

calloo callay!

it's been one of those weeks - you know the ones, where you're half way in between wanting to drink a fifth of Jack Daniels or join a monastery...

so here's the solution:

Rocky and Sandy Have a New House

It was a balmy summer's end evening when Mr. Man decided to go ahead and put up the "Old Tyme Home From Way Back When" which you must know at first made Sandy and Rocky quite nervous...

First Mr. Man drug some long naked trees from the side prairie (they are silly, they don't know it's just the part of the yard that doesn't get mowed as often as the other...they call it the prairie). This embarrassed Rocky and Sandy a little because even a dog knows that fur must be worn at all times! He then stood them all up in a tall somewhat threatening stack and began throwing one of Missy Ma'am's biggest blankets around them!

Ohhhhh they look at each other and blink - this can't be good...

and yet it IS good...Mr Man says a few strong words, Missy Ma'am comes out of the house with a steaming hot cup of glorious spicy smelling elixir (tea)

Rocky and Sandy looked askance at such shenanigans for truly, the idea of drinking hot water infused with floral and/or medicinal leaves was pure idiocy. They kind of smiled at Missy Ma'am and went back to watching the whole saga of the "Old Tyme Home from Way Back When" and saw that Mr. Man had indeed mastered the big blanket he was throwing around over the naked trees. The two looked in awe at the final product in the waning sunset...hmmmmmm, very interesting to be sure!

Sandy broke into song which happens from time to time

ohhhhhhhhhhh there's a new house in our yard...
there's a new house in our YAAAARRRRDDD
we will not chew and we will not pull
for putting it up looked real HARD
and ohhhhhhhhhhhh there's a new house on our LAND
there's a new house on our LAAAANNND
and we will not bite or lift our leg
because this new house was made by HANNNNNND

I don't know what to tell you about Sandy...he's a very unique and gifted dog...please note that he WINKED at the end of his song!

It turned out to be a beautiful day...

with bated breath!!!

ahhhh the summer was long and the days were HOT - it seems like a blur really, with focused moments here and there - i wonder if you know what i mean? i mean like you're scanning a crowd for the face of the one you love - THERE? no, that's not....no THERE? nope again wrong face...okay, but i digress - AGAIN

this last weekend, labor day weekend, was FINALLY our trip to wellpinit...we loaded up our van (his name is Chaz), Beaver (our travel companion, you might think he's stuffed, but DANG he's busy!) was prepared with his medicine bag and snippy remarks. We kissed Rocky and Sandy (yes, KISSED THEM) good bye and asked them to watch the house (they are SO impatient when we do this, they're like "what do you think we DO all the time? like, do you think we're busy playing DOG scrabble and leave the house to chance? NOOOOOO, that's what we DO with our lives is watch the BLINGBLANGY HOUSE!" so we kissed them again, apologized for offending them and off we drove!

when i'm happy or excited i have a tendency to be somewhat chatty...i began discussing different moments of brightness and before we knew it the trip had dissolved into miles and miles of laughing over the silliness and fol-de-rol (ohhhhh how i LOVE that i used that word!). Beaver gave us a "tsk tsk" from time to time but truth be told he was pretty chuckly himself over some of our nonsense.

Stickgame songs rang out from our van, who knows how loud we were or who we may have disturbed, i think the sheer joy of singing at the top of our lungs was enough in itself.

as we drove into the evening anticipation was palpable in the air - from time to time i really just had to laugh out loud with the absolute excitement of our trip - finally WELLPINIT...the stickgame of the summer...and not only the joy of the game but the beauty and artistry of Creator continued to bring smiles to our spirits.

We arrived at Wellpinit and there it was, the cloud of dust you can see from a mile off even in the dark - people milling about preparing for their category of dance or still making camp, some of them just going around greeting old friends and hugging family still, the rapid drumbeat of the stickgame arena could be heard echoing through the grounds with the deeper steady beat of the pow wow drums in the background. Pow wow food aromas wafted through intertwined with campfire smoke and different medicines being burned in preparation and/or celebration.

we're HERE...we set up our camp quickly, grabbed our chairs and I grabbed my bell rattle - off we went to the stickgames! How refreshing to hear these songs again - it's like the first headlong plunge into the deepest coolest mountain lake at the beginning of summer - the shock awakens you to the depth of your being and before you know it you're singing along - even if you DON'T know the song! We played for a time and then went to bed all tired, dusty and happy.

day two (Saturday) awakened to a cool mountain breeze, i woke up and sat in my chair just watching the grounds until Brother woke up. it was awesome to watch - different ones brewing camp coffee and cooking sausages on campfire stoves, but today we also had a plan:-)

we drove to Spokane where the first order of business was finding this little out of the way restaurant we'd discovered a year or so ago - named "dolly's" after the owners little dog...can't think of the breed but they're little and cute...anyway, the atmosphere of this restaurant along with the utter homey-ness of the food made it worth finding again...we had our breakfast then headed off to have our showers at the flying j truckstop...we had PLANNED on doing some "old ladying" (thrift store shopping) but somehow the gambling itch of last night's stickgame stuck and we found ourselves heading over to the casino in Spokane...where we gambled our asses off but fortunately my brother is wise enough to hold on to some stickgame money...

we returned to Wellpinit - singing more songs at the top of our lungs - laughing about even MORE deep silliness...enjoying every single SECOND of this break from the world...got back to the grounds a little after dark...set up our new little cookstove, built a fire and ate the most delicious delectable hot dogs you've ever tasted - in our language these are called "may may" (pronounced my my). went back to the stickgames and played in several games - lost but didn't care...finally across the arena we saw our dear sisters jacky jim and beebas! YAY!!!!! ran over to hug and talk and ended up playing a couple more games with them

we were TIIIIIIRRRREEEED and would you believe it? it started RAINING during our game and none of us had even noticed! we headed back to our little camp tired, voices raspy and although we'd lost, we were FULL of songs and fun...brother says "i'm done...are you done? let's pack up and head out!" i agreed, we'd consumed about all the rich songs and hearty friendships topped with sprinkles of joy and seasoned with loud bursts of laughter that we could, it was time to waddle on home and flop down on our couch! we broke camp in the rain (by the way, our blankets were soaked anyway) and i wondered aloud if perhaps we might get a room on our way...yes, we might! yay! a warm soft room! we hopped into the car after breaking camp when brother exclaimed "Get the Y&*^&*% out!!! do you see what TIME it is?????" i blink and look at the clock- by cracky it's 5:effin30!!!!! WHAT????? no hotel for us! it's just off and home!

we drove part way...napped....drove some more...napped...drove for awhile and got some really sad news that one of our beloved grandmas - a stickgame player no less, had a stroke and had been life-flighted to portland...we sang for her, napped one more time and HOME!!!! it was early afternoon when we got home and ahhhh how amazing that couch felt...we awaited news of our beloved grandma and rested.

you probably don't know this, but the sound of the sun setting over wheat fields in late summer? like a crystal bell...the smell of coolness after a hot late summer day? like rich rooty medicine when you have a sore throat! home is so good.