FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

Officially, it's the first day of Spring anyway! Outside here we still have snow, although it has been slowly melting. I took this just the other day, a gigantic spikey killer thing hanging off our garage:




It had to be as long as I am tall. After I took this shot I knocked it down, so as not to endanger sister Pammie's 2 little doggies if they walked under it and it fell. Yikes what a thought!

There isn't a lot of newsworthy goodies here to talk about, just plugging along and happy to report that my annual flu shot last fall has once again helped me through another winter! Both of the other 2 adults who live in this house (sister Pammie and my hubby) have had bouts of colds and or stomach viruses over the last while. My flu shot always boosts my immune system so that if I feel anything coming on I just load up on Vitamin C and Echinacea for a day or so and it's gone. With the help of that, and endless wiping of doorknobs etc. with my handy disinfecting Lysol wipes and constant cleaning my hands with alcohol hand sanitizer and soap and water, so far I've managed to stay healthy!

Now that I've said that out loud, my flu shot would be wearing off by now and God help me if hubby gets his usual very bad spring head cold. Ugh!

I had a lovely dinner out last evening with some of the girls from my department at work, and tonight I've got another dinner out with a girlfriend I only see a few times a year so I'm looking forward to that. I'd best get my week's laundry started so that I will be ready to go when she gets here!


As promised awhile back here are the last of my photo collages. I hope you enjoy!









I hope you all have a great upcoming weekend, take good care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude

"WINTER" THEME WINNERS!

Congratulations to Tracey for the winning shot! And thank you to all who participated in the voting process and to all entrants, without you there would be no contests.

Stay tuned for the next photo contest at the end of this month over at Stardom Awaits!. The theme will be "Macro", or closeup shots. It should be full of gorgeous photos!

PEACE!
Love Jude

SEE YOU AGAIN ONE DAY

As any of you who read Lois' Homefires blog may already know, sadly we have just lost a fellow blogger, Hoss. The Old Horsetail Snake was a frequent visitor here and I will miss him, as will many others in blogland.

Hoss, wherever you are up there, God bless you. I know you'll have many an angel in stitches with your great sense of humour.

My heartfelt condolences go out to Hoss' loved ones; it's the ones left behind who need us now.

I remember a couple of years ago when I first discovered the video capabilities of my old camera. It was spring, I think, and I was as ever greatly enjoying the robins singing in our flowering Mayday tree out back. I took a couple of videos of the "choiping boids" in that tree and it was Hoss who, with his ever present wit, informed me that one can only enjoy so many videos of a blasted tree! LOL

Ah Hoss, you will be sorely missed.

PEACE....

BLACK AND WHITE

Life just isn't all black and white, there are many shades and different colours and thoughts in between.

I was just having a discussion with a group of friends about 'rights' and marriage. Gay rights and gay marriages to be exact. I have several truly loving and wonderful online friends who happen to be gay, and this one friend in particular was the reason for our discussion. He is in a long standing relationship with his partner and they would dearly love to make it official. They live in the southern U.S. though, and cannot. It's so sad! Can you imagine being in love for a long time and not being allowed to get married? I know this particular subject isn't new to my blog, but bear with me as this is something I'm very passionate about. Skin colour, relilgion and sexual preference just shouldn't be allowed to come into play when judging people whether they are "good" or "bad" people, or whether or not they should have "rights".

I'm not here to debate the church vs the state thing; more so I am talking about people's RIGHTS. Women were finally given the right to vote. I can't believe that we of the female gender were subjected to that kind of prejudice beforehand, and that it is still a way of life in some places in this world today.

And people of colour, what kind of rights did they have at one time? This world has come a long way in that regard but there are still ugly heads of hatred and prejudice rearing toward black people in this world. Why? I believe that hatred and prejudice stem from one thing: fear. In these cases however, I find it hard to fathom what there is to fear, but I know it's a part of it.

Going back to gay rights, the one thing that makes my voice get louder is the belief some people hold that homosexuals "chose" that way of life. They chose it?? And do the people who believe that actually recall a time in their own lives when THEY made the choice to be heterosexual?

Ah well, I always hoped that before this lifetime is finished for me that all of this will have changed. But unfortunately there is still far too much hatred in this world and a far too large number of mankind still hasn't learned to let go of it. And I'm turning 57 soon, so it's not like I still have another 60 or 70 years left to see it happen. One can only keep praying.



Keeping to the title of this post, as promised here is another photo collage that I put together. I hope you enjoy!





And just a reminder to anyone who hasn't yet done so and would like to participate, please head on over to Stardom Awaits! and cast your vote for your favourite "Winter Theme" shot. Voting will be open until Saturday 14th. or thereabouts. Thank you!

Have a great week everyone, and don't forget to take care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude