Teeny Tiny Tito

Teeny Tiny Tito came to spend the night

His Mom and Dad were gone 4 days

He was, at first, a fright!

But after just 2 hours

He saw we were alright...

Then he guarded our front yard,

Like he was Mighty Mite!

ELEGY FOR DANIEL Part I Medium

ELEGY FOR DANIEL- Part II - Medium.m4v

Movin' on Art

Big Dude/Little Dude

It's not easy to make Big Dude Look Little! But this chair DID !!!! This was the part of the adventure White Haired Lady and Big Dude laughed hard about. And as I watched them, I realized they were just little kids in adult bodies! And if laughter is the best medicine, well today, they are the healthiest people on earth!

Day Trippin'

Thats what I heard White Haired Lady say. She told Big Dude it was up to him. If he wanted, today was one for day trippin' and he would make the choice. When they started packin' the cooler, I made my plan. When she set the cooler down by the Big Black chariot, I jumped inside the outside pocket and hitchhiked into the adventure with them!

The curvey winding highway made Big Dude drive slow enough for me to see all those trees and hills out there. Picture taking was on the agenda, so I got to see those awesome views of layered hills go on forever. That clear blue sky and rolling hills and valleys seemed to me to be a speck of heaven on earth today.

At the bridge across the White River, which by the way is Not white but a most incredible deep aqua-green, more photo op gave me a chance to look on that body of flowing life and dream of a float trip someday. If we turned around and went home right now, it was already a great day! But on we went, to that place they call the Mountain View, or something like that.

You know, White Haired Lady and Big Dude went inside a house , but it is a store where you can buy music instruments now, and got directions to another house, that has a studio now, and all this is very confusing to me... houses that aren't...

Anyway... the best part of the whole day trip was there.... at the studio-house-place. The most awesome garden of goodies I have ever seen!

I heard this farmer dude tellin' about this bein' the second planting already, freezin',cannin', bakin', eatin' and my eyes and my mouth were spinnin' and waterin'!

There were tomatoes, beans, squashes, melons, plums on a tree with boards holdin' the heavy and filled branches up, corn tall to the sky, and grapes!!!!

I considered stayin! REALLY! White Haired Lady has her wonderful little roof-top-container garden goin' pretty good. BUT THIS WAS HEAVEN !!!!!!! and I could live here forever on just what I was lookin' at!

Listenin' to them talk about how the garden is treated, something about organic, and tilled and replanted, I got the notion, that maybe, Big Dude and White Haired Lady were learning how to make their garden better next year. SO I figured, what the heck, the grass might not be so green here after- all.

When White Haired Lady and Big Dude headed for the Big Black chariot, I was already on board waitin' for them. Besides, the adventure wasn't over yet, and I had more to see.

Funny, Fat Robin

Funny Fat Robin sittin' on the box!

He says, " I like your music! Ya know! I think it ROCKS!"

When the song was over, the robin flew away!

He said,

" I hope I get to hear that song, again some time today ! "

Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein

This is Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein recalling the tournament where he suffered an injury... thus the contemplating moment out on the jousting field... leaving the jousting spear behind as he and his horse trotted off the field.

RAIN- FOREST - RIDE!!!

It rained last night! Lightning split the sky and the rain poured over everything!

And this morning... the sun rose and painted the air in orange!

Even my smile is orange!

Rooster 'er-er-eeeerrrrrrrrr's' his daily duty... and the sounds of life in action are everywhere!

Around the corner, the water runs into the woods... perfect for an adventure!

A ride is no problem. Folks around here just let their trash blow in the wind!

White Haired Lady says "the Indian must have never cried here - about litter - back in the '70's...".

So I jump on the first piece of plastic going by and off I go!

The water's runnin fast through the trees and over the BIG rocks!

Bumping through here makes me SHOUT! and LAUGH! "WOO HOOOOOO!!!!"

Great pines, oaks, and dogwoods are all around my river. This is awesome!

Fat Robin, Cardinal and Finch see me race to nowhere, and that sassy squirrel in the tree clucks an' chatters!!

There are raccoons, armydillows, turtles, and frogs!

And spiders' webs float from branches in the morning breezes.

The sunrays through the trees sparkle like diamonds on the cotton candy strings of the webs.

In my plastic ship on the flowin path of last night's rain I hear the big machines of the factory just ahead in the woods.

Big Dude says they make floors there.

I don't get it! Who needs floors when there's all this ground?

My ship flops over branches and trees roots that almost turn me over!

I laugh so hard, I almost don't see it!

The lake!... with beautiful green water!

And all this new water flowin' to it!

And right in the middle, what do you think I see?

Three BIG OTTERS!!

Happy as can be!

Swimmin' - divin' - floatin' - and we're all havin' the best day ever!

SNAKES! TICKS! and TURTLES! It Must Be Springtime!

Part One

A box turtle? Doesn't look like a box to ME!

There he was... right by the front porch! In the cool shade... in a clump of clover growing wild.

At first I thought it was one of those fake ones from the yard around the pond.

But how did it get over here?

Then I touched it! Looked at it underneath! It did look fake, but real too!

It was closed up, TIGHT! I couldn't see any place it could open up and let a head out!

I shouted.... and laughed.... and took it to let Big Dude see it.

He said "it's a box turtle! Yep! That's what it is!"

He put it in the sun... so it would get hot and come out.

That didn't work. He put it in water... to make him come out for air.

That didn't work. He put bricks around a little area for a pen, in the shade, for him to live in.

I put some spring mix and carrots in front of the shell. And waited.

I said, " are you sure he can't climb over the bricks and leave?"

Big Dude said, " naw, he's not gonna get out by climbing over that wall."

And off we went about our chores.

I walked over to the pen and what do you think I saw? A big... long... colorful neck with a head sticking out!

I took pictures with my camera! I laughed... danced... I shouted!

Then I asked Big Dude, " think we should put some sort of cover over the pen to keep the wild animals out?"

Big Dude said, "naw, nothin's gonna bother him right next to the porch like that."

So off we went about our chores.

Just a little while later, when I stepped out of the kitchen to look at him again, what do you think I saw now?

NOTHING!!!

Box Turtle was gone!

YEP! Climbed over the wall of brick... and RAN AWAY!

Sure wish I could have seen that!

Part Two

Shakey and Spazz had been running free all winter. No leash for them now.

And boy! Were they happy dogs now!

Shakey didn't look so much like a small horse anymore... not so fat !

And Spazz liked laying around on the porch, sunning himself, snapping at the flies.

Pushin' his nose at White-Haired Lady to get her to pet him.

Every morning they bolt out the kitchen door and run for the woods!

They stay gone for a while, but always come back for breakfast and drinks.

Lots of times,they drink from the pond! You should see the fish scatter then!!!!

Most of the time Spazz just stays close to the house when White Haired Lady is out, but Shakey, well you can tell he is on an adventure in those woods!

Barking at who knows what! Running back and forth after something I never see! Sniffing like an old steam engine up a steep hill!

And always has a smile on his face when he comes back!

Just tellin' him he has to get back in the house makes his head drop, and ears hang low, and his tail falls to the ground.

That is one free spirit!

Until... last Saturday.

Big Dude and White Haired Lady were relaxing after chores in the front yard, when Big Dude started looking at Shakey real close.

After getting Shakey to lie still on his back next to him, Big Dude started pullin', T-I-C-K-S!

a-a-r-r-r-g-g-h-h-h-h-h-u-h-h !!!!!

e-e-e-e-e-ey-y-y-y-y-y-ye-e-e-e-e-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-u-h!!!

White Haired Lady was not close enough to see, and Big Dude wasn't tellin' her how many were on Shakey.

But soon enough, Big dude said, " think we better get him in for a bath."

So White Haired Lady and Big Dude took Shakey in to the bathroom, and began the task of

"Tick-Pickin'".

Nobody countin' to be exact, but there was more than a hundred of those ticks on Shakey!

And White Haired Lady was near tears when it was all said and done.

Shakey had a body full of tick welts, and sad eyes too!

Sad because he knew there was no more "runnin free" in the woods now that the ticks were out.

And next was Spazz's turn in the tub.

Part Three

The weather turned cool last night, and the morning was perfect for an after breakfast pull.

That's what it's called when T Bird holds the leash.

Cuzz the dog at the front end of the leash T Bird holds does all the pullin'!

Pullin into the sunshine and springtime breeze made my eye-(the bad one)- water up.

So when the pullin stopped off to the side of the road, I took a second to clear the tear.

A sudden jerk on the dog end of the leashes caught my attention.

Shakey made a kind of snorting sound... like blowin dust out of his nose... but that didn't startle me.

It was the long, shiny thing danglin' across the stretched out section of the leashes that got my heart in my throat.... which by the way, kept the scream from comin' outa my mouth!

Yep! Shakey and Spazz had just got introduced to the business end of a snake!

And that snake just got introduced to the business end of Shakey!

Twistin and thrashin on the leash until he dropped to the pavement... that snake just realized he shoulda stayed in bed this morning!

Bravin' the distance 'tween him and me... I got a look at those round eyes shinin with shock!

I attempted to determine if Shakey had gotten a bite, by asking him! "Did he bite you Shakey?"

Shakey just kept sniffing the ground by the side of the road, which meant he did not even know that he had made that snake airborne my way!

So, at first I thought, " I am glad these dogs are with me to protect me from the wildlife."

Then I thought, " SHAKEY!!!! YOU THREW THAT SNAKE AT ME !!!!! "

Then I thought, h-m-m-m, that snake doesn't have long for this life with the hole in him from Shakey's teeth.

And while all these thoughts were in my mind, my heart was settling down, and there was no chance of a blood curdling scream from me, the snake twisted himself over two or three times, with belly up to the sky, and head and tail, each end up to the sky, and I said last rights over him and off we went for a pull.

And when from a safe distance away I turned to look again at the sly serpent who met his match today, I saw him limping, as only an injured snake can do, off to the side of the road where he met Shakey, on a pull.