Let's just sit out here and watch the world go by for awhile.
Are you a people watcher?....I am!...I check out their clothes, how they treat people....especially their children; their gestures and expressions.

I really have strange thought processes sometimes!
Look at that couple walking down the sidewalk. Her hands are waving all over the place....you know she is talking ninty miles an hour!!!
He's walking along with his hands shoved in his pockets, eyes roving off in the distance...his whole attitude says 'boring'!
I watch people a lot and have come to realize I'm seeing the same things, over and over...gestures, body language, facial expressions; even laughs and giggles. All seem to be universally the same, used to express something, or as a reaction to something.

BUT...the really weird thing is....we all, each one of us, feel that each expression or reaction we use is unique to ourself.

I know I sometimes catch myself wondering how many thousands of people have made the same gesture I just made, in response to the same thing??

I've thought things which I have felt were really 'deep' and 'profound', and then wondered if anyone else ever thought that before. Then later on, I hear it from someone else, or read it in a book or article. I gotta tell ya....it's very deflating to ones ego!!

We all use the same facial expressions to show sorrow, joy, tiredness, anger, and on and on. It's no wonder we can have little gremlin faces to use to indicate these feelings! They're universally the same.

Have you ever noticed this while watching people? Or even thought about it before? Check it out sometime.

Yet...these same universal reactions...in various combinations, help define our individual personality! And help make us recognizable as who we are. Authors use these in books to help define a character.

It's all really weird to me....but then, maybe I'm weird!
It makes me realize the truth to a passage in the Bible which simply says, "There is nothing new under the sun".

Well, I hope I haven't bored you too much, or that you haven't found me too strange!!
Hope you'll come around again, and I promise I won't be this odd too often....I hope

See ya later, Shirls

Hey You!!
Come on in and join me in the kitchen. Coffee?
I’ve got my photo album out her on the table, browsing through
my memories of places I’ve called home.
This is me when I lived in Lake Havasu Arizona. I am watering my cactus (which I stole from the desert!!).

The cactus is surrounded by black/brown lava rock (which I stole from the hillside up from the house!!!).

The fill-in is white quartz rock which you can walk through the desert and pick up (it's FREE!!!).

Out from the front of me and the cactus is about a four-foot hill down to the street. This hill is lined from top to bottom and side to side with black/brown lava rock (you know!!!!).

The rest of that yard remained desert. I lived in the desert; I loved the desert! No grass going in there!!!

If you could enlarge the picture you would see that the property is up on a high elevation. That whole area sloped upwards from the Colorado River, to the hills. You can barely see, way out there and below a faint strip of blue which is the river.

Lake Havasu City was way down there by the river. It was small, just being built actually at that time. It has grown a lot!!!!! I lived here when they brought over the London bridge, stone by stone; dug a wide and deep trench between the city and the airport which was on a finger of land, making it an Island; and built the London Bridge there, reconnecting the airport to the city. It was fun to watch!!!

One day I was scrounging around down in the bushes and rocks along the river, picking up smooth, polished river rocks to take back to my cactus beds; found a beautiful gray and white snake skin that had been shed. Of course I had to cart that back home too. Kept it until it began to stink!!

My sons caught a scorpion in a jar and their father showed them how to make it sting it's 'own bad self ', as my friend would say!

Once they caught a really cool grasshopper and put it in a cage, and put a saucer of water in there for it. It drowned in it's own drink!! (Sounds like me!!!)

My sons would wander the desert around our house; this was their playground. They took the youngest with them, who was barely more than a toddler, and he fell into a cactus!! (That was fun....for me!!!)

We, as a family, would take many trips out into the desert and explore; gathering (stealing!) cactus and rocks and strange pieces of wood; exploring mines, and observing wildlife.

I loved Arizona!!! It was my favorite place of anywhere I have
lived.

Oh, you have to run? Well, I hope I haven’t bored you with my pictures. See you later on.
Shirl:)

Hi there...glad you stopped by!

Come on in and join me on the couch. I’ve been looking through one of those big, coffee table books. This one’s about Italy, one of my favorite places! Look at this picture; the colors seem so different there! The very air looks different. And this one....Tuscany....it looks like an old oil painting!!!

If I had a genii in a bottle....and I rubbed him until he popped out....up....uh, whatever....and if he granted me a wish to go anywhere in the world....I would pick Italy!
Then if this genii would transport me there....on a beautiful magic carpet.....I would have him gently lower me to earth upon the soil of Tuscany!

But, Venice would be a wonderful place to be transported to also..standing on one of the humped up bridges ..watching the people!
The sexy Frenchmen...with their berets and striped jerseys....the singing gondoliers....the piazzas and side-walk cafes.....the vivid colors that sing and ripple!

Ahhh...to hope.....to wish.......per chance to dream!!!....

Oh, sorry, I went off into my own little world there for a minute.
I wrote a poem if you’d like to see it? Here:

Italy Oh Italy
Tuscany of mellow light,
The golden hue,
The brush of green.
Tuscany of blue-washed height,
The creamy stone,
The dusty road,
Tuscany....a pleasing sight!

Well, if you must go, that’s OK, but I hope you come back soon.
I’ll see you later...
Shirls:)

Hi, all you bloggers!

Come on in and lounge about with me for awhile.

I recently took a trip, by bus, to Hershey PA. While driving through the countryside, as the scenery changed, I couldn't help but notice the differences, contrasted with the Ohio I had left behind.

My mind was capturing many images, which I was afraid I would forget. So out came my notebook and I started jotting down words, which would remind me later, about things I was seeing. Those single words started coming together so well that a poem was practically writing itself!!! So, I turned it all into a poem which I will let you read, if you wish.

Pennsylvania Countryside

The hills swept by, rolling and green;

Tall, skeletal trees spiking through the canopy.

Stone, layered and tilted, spilling sideways

With edges rough; colors gray, brown and creamy.

Burned out trees; their limbs artfully twisted,

Clawing for the sky through lush growth below.

A hawk, wings spread, floating quietly aloft,

Fierce, golden eyes from early morning's light aglow.

White and black trees, with leafless stems,

Dancing and twisting through forests green.

Protruding stones, chipped with gargoyle faces;

Others layered, sharp, with a watery-wet sheen.

A dusty road meandering off to nowhere;

The greens of the woods spiking across the horizon;

An Amish farm with rows laid out so clean.

The sun's glory, over all, has risen.

I guess one of the most intriguing places to me was Intercourse PA !!!! I can't begin to imagine who would come up with that name! Or why!! Even the church group I was with laughed and snickered! All of my friends on the GardenersHelper forum who know me well will be proud of me!! I spoke nary a word!!! Can you believe it??!! Me, who would normaly be saying all kinds of raunchy things??!!! I even amazed myself!!:)

I did love browsing in and out of all the crafty shops. I needed Loz the Shopping Queen with me though! I didn't seem to care about looking for bargains and all. There was so much I left behind that I wanted!:) And, I found the horses pulling differently designed carriages very charming....but the town did stink! Piles of '----' here and there does make for a rank smell !! I guess they don't know about 'pooper-scoupers' :) :).

I went through HersheyPark Chocolate Factory! It didn't look at all like the movie :) :) ! I also refrained from buying bags and bags of chocolate!!! Three bars only, so there!!

I really would have liked to bring home some chunks of that Pennsylvania rock which had fallen by the roadside from those colorful seams of stone!!! But, there was no way to stop and accumulate 'art'.

So, that was some of my adventure, going to Hershey PA.!

I hope you will stop in and visit again. See ya'