Blue Wordless Wednesday Joy
Author Archives: dawnkinster
Hanging with my sister
Katie here. Even though I’m a princess and sometimes come off as being a bit….well…high maintenance, I know that I have a pretty good life. My folks and lots of other people make sure I get to have special times with friends and family.
And this past weekend I got to see my half sister, Payton, and show her (and her parents and her sister Tally the Gordon setter) my park! I was so excited to share Katie’s Park with my sister. And, like sisters do, we joined forces to make sure mama couldn’t get a decent picture of the two of us.
That was part of the fun!
It was a perfect day for a walk, not too hot, and a bit of a breeze to cool those of us still wearing winter coats. The folks made sure we walked at a leisurely pace, though at the beginning I was raring to go!
We stopped at the overlook deck halfway around the park to rest and enjoy the view. I told Payton all about finding a cracker there once and how I’ve been looking ever since for another one. Payton’s dad gave me a treat to make up for the lack of crackers.
I even shared my annual photoshoot in the yellow flowers with Payton! Mama takes my picture over at my park every year during the yellow flower season.
Payton’s like me – she doesn’t get why that’s so special, but mama is insistent and it’s easier to just let her get the picture than arguing with her.
Most of the time, though, we were able to foil mama’s attempts at getting a nice picture of the two of us together. She did manage to get several sweet pictures of Payton though!
I decided it wasn’t all that bad for her to be focused on someone besides me! That way I got to nap mostly uninterrupted under the picnic table.
We had a great time and I’m really glad Payton’s parents brought her over for a visit. We decided we’d get together again next fall when it’s cooler outside for another walk.
On a much sadder note, we learned yesterday that our friend Sophie got her wings on Friday. It’s a shock because we hadn’t heard that she was ill. She was one year younger than me, and still exploring her yard, swinging with her mom on her swing and supervising everything in the house.
We will miss her daily posts terribly. Mama has been giving me extra hugs and kisses on top of my head and her eyes are all leaky again. It’s hard to understand why some things happen, but we know that we’ll get to see her again, she’s just on the other side of the bridge. Please send good thoughts to her mom and dad who are very very sad right now.
Talk later, I have to get mom some tissue cause her eyes are damp again. I promise not to shred it immediately, I’ll do that later in honor of Sophie, who, just like me was an expert shredder!
-Your sad but still happy Princess Katie.
Cowslips for Mom
Happy Mother’s Day up in heaven, Mom. It’s been sixteen Mother’s Days without you now. That doesn’t seem possible, it been only moments since I got the news that began the landslide in our family.
But today let’s just remember the happy Mother’s Days, lots and lots of them, when you were here to get our homemade art projects and cards and all the flats of petunias and marigolds we brought home for you from the local nurseries.
This year I found cowslips for you just like we used to when we were young kids. You remember those golden yellow flowers that bloom right around Mother’s Day.
Glowing in the swamps we used to tromp through they were obvious gifts that we lugged home in buckets overflowing with black peat sludge that ran down our legs and into our boots.
We planted them for you along the lakeshore in the backyard. I don’t remember that any of them lived, but it was the thought that counted. Right?
Anyway, this year I found some cowslips for you but I didn’t dig them up. Didn’t even get my feet very wet. I figure it’s easier to send an image up to heaven than a bucket full of mud, roots and blooms.
I hope you enjoy the flowers, Mom. We miss you every day, but we smile, too, with all the great memories.
Sending you hugs, please share a few with Dad.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Hope
I’ve told you about this fluffy bit of joy before. But I just have to tell you about my experience this morning.
Even though I stopped filling my bird feeders this spring, due to the bird disease in our state, many of my little birds are still stopping by. I watch them check out where their feeders used to be, or be-bop among the branches of the trees and shrubs we planted just for them.
And lately whenever I go out on the deck one particular chickadee arrives, almost instantly, and looks at me intently.
So I go down the steps to the seed bucket and grab a small handful. By then the little bird is waiting expectantly in the beech tree near the bucket. He won’t come land on my hand, but if I move it toward him he doesn’t fly away. And he will move closer and closer, until he’s on a branch within my reach. Then he carefully leans over and selects a seed from my palm.
Generally he flies to a higher branch and eats it, then flies away. He has never come back for a second helping, though he always makes me smile.
But this morning, as he was hopping down the branches to my hand another fat chickadee landed near the top of the beech tree and started to make a lot of noise while flapping it’s wings. I thought it was admonishing my little guy for getting too close to me.
Still, he reached down low, hanging almost upside down and carefully selected a seed, then flew part way up the tree and cracked it open. And then he flew up next to the noisy chickadee and fed the precious treat to the other bird!
By now I was smiling ear to ear as I stood still, hand still out, more treats awaiting. Would he come back?
And he did; almost immediately he bounced back down to the branch near my hand, grabbed another seed, moved up and opened it and then took it to the chirping fat bundle of feathers near the top of the tree.
Then he came down a third time. This time he and his friend (or mate?) took off with the seed, maybe to their new home.
I think there’s something right in the world when a tiny little bit of nature can trust us scary humans. I’m still grinning hours later.
I hope you’re smiling too.
Blackened
I went for a walk at one of my favorite parks a couple days ago. It wasn’t a pretty day but at least it wasn’t raining. Or snowing.
I went because I hadn’t been in awhile and because I was feeling sad about a friend of mine who is going through some tough stuff.
When I got to the park there was a warning at the gate about a prescribed burn. That’s when parts of the land are deliberately burned to ward off weeds and nonnative plants.
Much of the nature trail area was black, which accentuated the hills that I’m always trying to photograph. For that reason alone I didn’t mind walking along the scorched earth, or the smell that can sometimes be overwhelming.
As I walked I stopped often to take pictures. No surprise. It took me forever to walk the four miles, but it didn’t feel like forever.
It felt wonderful. Spring is arriving, though slowly. Tiny wildflowers are popping up. More will follow.
I thought about my friend and hope he is able to come on a walk with me soon. He’d find hope in the woods, even the burned parts.
Of course yesterday, listening to the Supreme Court news, I felt sadness overtaking me again. The world seems to be a darker shade of burned right now.
I’m trying to remember that deep in the woods hope is poking up from under last years debris.
I think I’m going to need another walk real soon.
Lunch N Learn
The Truck Safety Coalition has started a series of interviews, done during lunch hours, of different people working on issues within the truck safety world. The series is titled Lunch N Learn.
Earlier this year we did an interview with Michael Belzer, former truck driver and now a PhD and professor at Wayne State University, focused on the purported driver shortage. Dr. Belzer authored “Sweatshops on Wheels,” a book about the deregulation of the trucking industry. You can go to the video library on the Truck Safety Coalition’s website (trucksafety.org) and click on “Debunking the Driver Shortage” to see that interview.
This Thursday, May 5th, at 12:30 p.m. eastern daylight time, we will be interviewing Representative Andy Levin who has authored a bill, H.R. 7517, the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act. We’ll be finding out what led him to the writing of this bill, and how he hopes to move it forward.
You can tune in to hear about this industry changing idea yourself, just by clicking this link on Thursday at 12:30 eastern.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time you’ll know that most truck drivers are paid by the mile, not by the hour, and that creates a lot of the safety issues that we all face when we’re sharing the roads with big commercial trucks.
I think you’ll find the Congressman interesting and informative. I hope you can join us. And if you can’t, I will post a link later for you to watch at a time convenient to you.
A day at the beach
You all know that my happy place is just about anywhere on the shores of a Great Lake, but especially Point Betsie, a lighthouse on Lake Michigan.
It has sentimental value because it was a favorite place for my parents, who camped near it on their honeymoon back in 1952.
Though when I think about camping in a green army pup tent in October I have to wonder what my dad was thinking.
But they stayed married for more than fifty years.
This week I had the opportunity to wander the beach at Point Betsie with a friend and her two cocker spaniels. We had a beautiful day, cool for the dogs but a bit of sun for us.
I took my camera equipment including the tripod, in case it looked like we’d have stars. My friend was willing to stay up late with me while I tried to capture the Milky Way.
I don’t think she realized how late that would have to be; the Milky Way isn’t really visible until almost morning at this time of year.
But as we walked the beach the clouds rolled in and after a few hours of rock hunting, and a great lunch at a park beside the Platt River in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, we decided to head home.
The next day I saw beautiful images posted on Facebook of stars and the Northern Lights, taken the night before at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Yep. I told my friend if I ever suggest we head home early she should just kick me.
Katie says it serves me right for going on an adventure without her.
Sigh.
Katie’s definition of dichotomy
Katie here!
Guess what? The weather changed! I know that everybody thinks they have the most crazy weather around, but I’m here to say nobody beats Michigan for crazy!
As you know, last Saturday I was with my mama and our friend at a Michigan state park. It was sunny but cold and windy. Perfect.
Then on Monday it snowed! Yes, snow. Not just a little bit either. It snowed most of the day, big wet, sticky flakes of snow that piled up.
The birds didn’t know what to think of it all.
But I knew exactly what we should do — we should go out and explore! So I bugged my housekeeper mama and out we went!
We had so much fun! Mama said it wouldn’t last long so we should enjoy it while it was there. She said she’d try not to grumble about it too much.
Then we got a couple days of rain. I don’t mind rain, it just gives me an excuse to be lazy and nap all day. (Not that I need an excuse, I get to do whatever I want because I’m the only royal resident around here.)
Thursday the sun came out and mama said we shouldn’t waste a sunny day either. Especially a sunny day that was still cool enough for me to enjoy it.
So off we went to one of my parks and we walked in the woods for a long time.
Mama had her stupid camera (of course) so she was lollygagging along taking pictures of not me. I don’t know why.
I had to wait for her all the time. But that’s not unusual. When I think about it, I’m always waiting for my mama.
Waiting to go outside. Waiting to go on a walk. Waiting for an adventure. Waiting for my supper.
Well. I don’t wait for supper very long because I tell her off if I have to wait for that! Anyway, we had a wonderful time in the woods, and there’s proof of spring popping out all over!
Mama says if we just wait a bit it will probably snow again, and I wouldn’t mind that at all, but daddy says enough is enough, he’s ready to get on his big riding mower and take a spin around the yard! And mama says it’s time to clean up the gardens.
She says we have a lot of work to do out there.
I don’t know who this we is that she’s referring to. She’s probably hired help or something.
Of course I’ll be out there to supervise. Royal responsibilities never end. Talk later, I need to get rested up for the upcoming royal weeding.
–Your favorite weather girl (and princess), Katie.
Change Is Hard 