Speeding

This is a street in a nearby city. It is a main thoroughfare for school buses, this is the Daycare there. People drive at high speeds on the street.

After the neighbors turned a petition into the city, they all get together and painted this large flower at the intersection. Their hope was that speeding cars will slow down to look at it. A few of the students signed their names in the border. It is fading now, so it will get a new coat of paint this May.

Across the city, neighbors got together and painted a sunflower in one of their intersections where speeding was a problem.

Your children tell you casually, years later, what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time.

 ~Mignon McLaughlin

The Snowflakes

I just read an article about Michael Peres. He is an expert at photographing snowflakes. In the article, he was saying how he does it. First, he lets them land on a baking sheet lined with black velvet.

The process also involves different kinds of light, and a microscope. So it is nothing I will be doing. Here are some of his results, REAL snowflakes!

And here are a few by other people. This first one is on a car windshield.

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake. ~Marie Ray 

13%

I read about a new study in the local paper last week. Eating a meal of regular fried chicken once or more a week gives one a 13% increased risk of premature death.

The study was done on 107,000 post-menopausal women from the 1990's through 2017.

ONE meal of fried chicken a week!

But why did they run the study only on women, and why were they all at such an older age? A fried fish sandwich has a 7% higher risk. All I know is that if something tastes divine, you can be sure it's bad for you.

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.

Maya Angelou

A Day In The Rearview

“The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it.” ~Dudley Moore

In The Deep Mid-Winter

We all need Poppies in the sun right about now. And I have just the thing. Light & color.

I read this description in the local paper awhile ago. 

"Poppy seeds are as fine as dust, and the petals as delicate as fairy shawls."

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

While driving one day, we came across this tree. It had been painted bright green.

Not only that, there was a hen underneath it, painted very prettily.

As if that wasn't enough, there was a little horseshoe painted on it. A mystery for sure.

Several miles away are two schools across the street from each other. An elementary and a high school. We spotted the students with buckets and brushes painting the trees in the parking lot bright blue. At both schools! They only painted as high as they could reach.

Any thoughts? Now that they are all dressed up, I wonder if the trees want to clap their hands?

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Isaiah 55

Through The Wires Thursday - Twilight

A teacher's job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well- grounded.

 ~D. Martin 

The Elf

We happened to drive past this the other day. I had never seen anything like it. After taking these pictures, I did some research.

It has solar panels on top and pedals; a cross between a bike and a car. See the pedals? It is shaped like a backwards tricycle.

It has a rechargeable battery and does not use gas. They cost between $5,000 to 10,000. This sign warns to keep your feet on the pedals!

My question is, how do you keep it from being stolen? It is awfully cute though.

“It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible — elves probably more so.”

~Charles de Lint

The Vultures

Several days ago, I opened the local paper to see these headlines.

 Yes, the vultures love it here; more and more come all the time. We now have several hundred. Almost every day, you can see them circling overhead. A group of flying vultures is called a "Kettle".

Driving by the river, we spotted this group. They had found a meal. A group of vultures that is feeding is called a "Wake".

More were flying in. They may be graceful in the air, but on the ground they hop around in a clumsy and ungainly way.

I'll leave you with this thought: They mate for life.

“Fear the vulture, and the vulture will come. Fear nothing, and you are the vulture.”

 Suzy Kassem Fear