Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park

Take that number 5!

5!  Five-year survival rate! Getting so close to that 5 year mark!  Ready to celebrate life, and beating the odds!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

We've been taking photos of some watches to list on ebay for my dad and I loved finding the tiny 5 on one of the winding keys. :0)

How to cheer up a depressed betta (fighting fish)

I appreciate everyone caring about my depressed fish.  My husband, the wise one in this house ;0) did a search on the internet and found that depression is pretty common in Bettas /Fighting Fish.  He read that changing their environment can help - they get bored, lol.  He also read to try giving them bloodworms or brine shrimp to encourage them to eat.

So, this has been Ember's home for as long as I've had him, the mirror is not normally there, I put it there seeing if he would attempt to fight with himself - this was also a tip Dennis read while researching so I was on the right track.  But, I made a mistake - the plant is a plastic plant and apparently this is not good.  Bettas like their plants but the plastic hurts their fins.

If you look back up at the top photo you will see that we replaced his plastic plant with some live plants.  I don't know how long they will actually live with so little light but I'm hopeful.  We also found bloodworm and low and behold he ate!  Each morning since the change he has been eating at least one pellet and one bloodworm.  And, last night he was flitting about in his tank - he seems happier.

same inside

On the outside we may appear flawless, made up, ready to face the world, while inside we're crumbly and scared.  That smooth facade not only hides the crumbles but helps hold them together.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

Mountain Flowers Macro Monday

The point and shoot offered its services while hiking in Glacier National Park. I didn't think these turned out too bad. :0)

This one even had a little visitor in it.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign MckLinky. :) MM started on Sept 29, 2008 - Thanx to all of you for helping make it such a fun start to the week!

company

Unexpected company is often the best kind!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

This fellow decided to step over our fence (it's only 2' tall) and visit our dogs, he was huge!  He followed Brodi to the patio while I ran in to get the camera, when he looked up and I snapped the point and shoot in his face he growled low and I backed off and into the house really quickly!!! Eek!

sooc #25 Scary-cool!

I was surprised at how narrow the road (Going to the Sun Road - neat name too!) is going through Glacier National Park.  This is actually one of the wider places, lol.  There are a few tunnels, one lane, with traffic lights allowing one side through at a time.  Our first day there we had a gorgeous sky!

The next day, cloudy - was supposed to rain all day but we stayed dry most of the day.

I think it would be scary-cool to travel the road on a motorcycle!

But when we pulled over to take a peek I was more than a little nervous - look how close he parked me to the edge!  I was a little scared I would get dizzy and topple over, lol.

And it's a loooooong way down! Personally I loved that there weren't rails trapping us back, we were able to feel the thrill - but I was surprised at the lack of rails.

Murrieta365

double exposure-like

I am complicated.  It is possible for me to feel many things at one time and to appear confused to others.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

I was shooting for the algae in the water and at first I was disappointed by the reflections, but the more I looked, the more I liked, it reminds me of the old double exposure possibilities with film cameras, and that in turn makes me think of my dad - he had a camera store when I was growing up called, Double Exposure. :0)

Who is Chicken George?

When I moved my blog a couple of years ago I wasn't able to get all of my old posts moved over, so from time to time I like to grab a post and bring it over. I've been asked about this post a couple of times recently so it seemed a good one to move.

originally posted Friday, 30 November 2007

A couple of days ago I shared with you the gravestone memorial of Chicken George and it seems there are some questions on who he was. You ask questions and I try to answer so, you can find the full story by reading (or watching) Alex Haley’s Roots.
But to get directly to Chicken George and how he came by his name I snagged the following from Wikipedia:

When George is born, Kizzy, who is only 17, is horrified to see that his skin is light-colored, not ebony black like her own. Her shame is intense. The other slaves at the Lea plantation advise her to forget about the father, although Master Lea continues to visit her frequently at night. The continual abuse drives Kizzy to depression. But when Master Lea finally leaves her alone two years later, Kizzy bonds to the other slaves and tends to her son as lovingly as she would a child born to her out of love rather than rape.
George is raised like a typical field hand. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging around the gamecock pen and Uncle Mingo, the gamecock raiser, who brings in a tidy sum for Master Lea each year in cockfighting revenues. George instantly takes an attraction to the fighting roosters because of their noble stature. Later he becomes apprenticed to Uncle Mingo and proves himself a quick learner in feeding, capturing, cleaning, and fighting gamecocks, earning himself the nickname, "Chicken George."
After George starts full-time rooster duty, there is a noticeable improvement in Master Lea’s winnings. Chicken George attends his first cockfight at the age of 15. As the years pass, he continues to go to tournaments and backyard fights, wins money, and saves it in order to buy freedom for himself and his family. He and Master Lea become very close. Much of the time, Master Lea treats Chicken George like a partner, not as a slave, thanks to the latter's skill with the gamecocks.
At the age of 18, Chicken George encourages Master to buy a slave girl named Matilda so George can marry her. Matilda gives birth to a large family of eight children named Virgil, Ashford, George, Tom, Lewis, James, Mary and Kizzy. Master Lea loses a bet with an English cockfighter, Sir C. Eric Russell, who has him pay by giving him Chicken George. After Chicken George is sent away Matilda and her children are sold to a kind couple, the Murrays, to pay Master Lea's debts.
In the meantime, Chicken George's third son, Tom, a blacksmith, marries a half-Native American slave girl named Irene Holt. The youngest of their eight children is Cynthia, Alex Haley's grandmother.
Bolstered by Master Lea's promise that he will receive his freedom when he returns, Chicken George comes back and gets his certificate of freedom from Master Lea. Though refusing at first, Master Lea is tricked into drinking before George makes a daring move and steals the paper out of Master Lea's safe. Kizzy and one of their old slave friends are dead by the time he returns. Chicken George finds his family, but he must escape to Canada to preserve his freedom. After the American Civil War, Chicken George and his family are reunited and they move to Tennessee to start a new life as free men and women, continuing to share the stories that their great-ancestor Kunta Kinte had his daughter commit to memory so many years before.

So that explains why I found this memorial in Tennessee. In case you can’t read what it says, “Here they lie from ‘Chicken George’, grandson of the African Kunta Kinte and on down the line to Kunta Kinte’s great-great-great-granddaughter, our mother, Bertha.”
Bertha was Alex Haley’s mother. When you look at the photo below you see the fenced in area. I walked in the fence and looked at the stones. The stone shown above is centered outside the fence and you can easily read it then look up and read all the stones inside the fence. Looking inside the fence in the photo below, Chicken George is on the far right and Bertha on the far left.

Columbian Ground Squirrel

My what big eyes you have. :0)

Unfortunately, this is as close as I got to the Columbian Ground Squirrel while in Glacier National Park.

Buh Bye! Was nice meeting you!

Obviously he wasn't too traumatized by my stalking - he went right to eating.  But I decided to let him dine in peace.  We stumbled upon him after pausing at the waterfall, heading back to the car.

warmth

I love the smell of the crisp air this time of year, it seems so clean and refreshing.  Snow on the ground and fire in the pit, warm apple cider with friends - glorious days!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

Views from the car

First time we've seen such a large sign for a geocache, lol. One side read, "Stop at. . .", the other side read, "Thanks for stopping at. . ."

Shortly after the cache we made it to the entrance of Glacier National Park. Snapped a quick shot with the point and shoot and kept snapping while we drove the road in the park, checking out places we might want to stop and walk the next day.

We still had to find a campsite and stuff for dinner etc so we had limited time to explore when we got there.  But it worked out well checking things out via car.  It was great listening to the owls above us while we sat by our fire in the dark and watching the bats flitting around overhead. Very nice night!

The dessert communication table

Here we have our Thanksgiving dessert table.  It's really hard to gather up the kids once they too become adults, but it's really nice that everyone gets rid of the distractions in order to spend time with each other. :0)  Oh and they put up with my decorate-your-own-sugar-cookie bar with only a little eye rolling, a reminder they are no longer children and a request for more icing colors, lol.

Yeah it's a habit with us - this one was taken February 2009 at Mikal and Amy's place. :0)

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am very thankful for each one of you!

I have been having some internet connection problems, but think I may have narrowed the problem down to my wireless card - hoping my connection will be less sporadic very soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for the turkey in the oven, pumpkin pie on my plate and all of the wonderful people in my life!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

squeals of delight!

Snow brings out the kid in me.  When I see the white fluff falling from the sky I cannot help but squeal with delight!  Immediately, I must bundle up and go out, now!  Find what delights you and let your inhibitions go, be a kid again!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

Falling Water in Glacier National Park