Good Morning!

This little beauty showed up in the backyard today. I check on my plants about 50 times a day; each time I step out to have a smoke, OK, maybe a few more than 50!

This guy shows up over nite! The particular cactus this one comes along with (from) has been the same height since I put it where it now lives. I've often thought about how this plant is just stunted, but it stays green, and I still give it the daily love. Look at its "brother", planted the same time, about 8 foot tall. I call it Eli.

I'm hoping for some more from this part of our world. I'll keep you updated here. [As always, click on the pic for full size view.] On morning two, the beauty opened. I suppose it was wide open all nite. Before I took this picture there were about 30 or 40 what looked like little bees having a feast inside. Yesterday it looked all male, this morning, all feminine. I know ya'll get flowers on your cactus all the time, this is our first, and we've had these guys about 4 years or so now. Yum.

Merton Quotes

I like Merton. A nice part of starting the day with some soul-searching and meditation. Anyway, check him out here with HH.

Three quotes from a couple of books I'm currently reading.

… but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life.

A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.

The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living. For until we have begun to live our prudence has no material to work on. And until we have begun to fail we have no way of working out our success.

What about me?

Check out this video.

Another Trip To The Mountains

Cathy and I found our way up to Alpine, Arizona for the 4th year in a row this summer. We weren't as photo-happy as in years past, but took a few pics you may enjoy. Cathy was there for the first two weeks with Angel, alone , enjoying the everyone-needs-a-little-time-away game. I came up for the 2nd two weeks and brought my own special set of needs for her to deal with. Sorry Cathy. Some rememberances and then the pics (remember, you can click any of these pics for the full size). Cold water comes from the taps (if you're in Phoenix this time of year, you know what I mean!). Elk, Horses, Skunks, birds-of-color, aspen, rain, napping when it rains, mountain hikes, lots of down-time, did I mention naps? We found a new spot this year, Escudilla Mountain. Oh my, what took us so long? A 3 mile hike to the top. Aspens, altitude, the works: And then, a few more of our favorite loves, the horses Honey and Papoos! There's nothing better than some horse-soul-love every day! We again, came back to Phoenix so very thankful for our chance to enjoy some mountain time together with each other, Angel and long-rainy-afternoon-naps!