A Mosaic of My Making

I saw this great meme over at Dog's Eye View and thought it looked like a fun way explore and share the photos on Flickr.

Here’s how it works:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

d. Save and share your mosaic.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. What is one word that describes you?

12. What is your flickr name? (Note: I don’t have a Flickr account -so I used the name of my blog )

If you give it a try, let me know. I'd love to see the photos you choose for your answers. The whole mosaic is created by beautiful photos on Flickr! See if you can figure out my answers to each question based on the photo. I was pleased how mine turned out once it was pieced together.

A Field Trip to The Big Lake

Today three of us took our group of middle school students down to Lake Roosevelt for a field trip. We are fortunate to have the lake walking distance from the school. The purpose of the trip was to review cultural learning about the tribe, be reminded about native artifacts, and conduct a scientific study of the habitat around "The Big Lake."JF works in the archives and archeology department for the Colville Confederated Tribes. She is also a grandmother and auntie to many of our students. She spoke about leaving artifacts where you find them, saving the environment, and how our native and non-native students can learn to preserve the history surrounding Lake Roosevelt.
The day was perfect for catching photo images of Lake Roosevelt in the late morning sun. The drawdown has ended and the lake is filling up quickly.Along the shore we spotted wild lupine, children played on the rocky beach, two students listened intently to their history, and the clouds moved in.

One of the students wore a favorite shirt of mine today. The front is easy to see, but the last line on the back is not as clear.

"It takes a community to raise a child."

I Stop Writing The Poem

I Stop Writing the Poem

to fold the clothes. No matter who lives
or who dies, I'm still a woman.
I'll always have plenty to do.
I bring the arms of his shirt
together. Nothing can stop
our tenderness. I'll get back to being
a woman. but for now
there's a shirt, a giant shirt
in my hands, and somewhere a small girl
standing next to her mother
watching to see how it's done.

Tess Gallagher

Sibling Assignment # 65: Tender, Gentle Heart

The sibling assignment this week came from Raymond Pert. "What do you understand about The Wizard of Oz as an adult that you didn't understand as a child?"

Raymond Pert's will be here and Silver Valley Girl's will be here.

"I'd be tender, I'd be gentle

And awful sentimental

Regarding love and art

I'd be friends with the sparrows

And the boy that shoots the arrows

If I only had a heart."

-EH Harburg

sung by The Tin Woodsman in "The Wizard of Oz"

As a child Judy Garland was my idol so I paid more attention to Dorothy. I knew all the words to " Over the Rainbow" and " We're Off to See the Wizard" and I was pretty good at clicking my shoes and saying, " There's no place like home." The scarecrow always stuck in my mind more as a child that her other two friends. Perhaps I could relate to a scarecrow and the tin woodsman seemed somehow different or odd. The lion certainly provided some comic relief that was needed during a few scary parts of the film, but again it was harder to relate to a scared, talking lion.

As an adult I do relate more to the Tin Woodsman. One scene that always sticks in my mind is when he has tears running down his cheek and feels emotion again. In my early adult life I wore my heart on my sleeve and cried over everything. I was sentimental over old birthday cards and favorite songs. I felt gentle love for puppies in a commercial on TV. I sobbed when I said good-bye to friends at summer camp or college roommates.

Because of a series of events in my adult life I forced myself to stuff those tender, gentle feelings inside. I didn't trust myself and thought sometimes if I started crying I may never stop. I almost had to walk away from students as the year ended because I knew I would tear up and sob at saying good-bye. When I met somebody I really liked I was afraid to get too close. I couldn't sort out my emotional self. I often felt a sadness that I couldn't shake when I left home after a family gathering.

The lesson I have learned as an older adult is the importance of having heart. I trust myself again to show those emotions and not fear a crying breakdown. I am able to show my love through simple gestures or big demonstrations. I can love my pets unconditionally, but am prepared when I have to say good-bye. At least five people in my life have lost husbands or fathers in the last month. Rather than feeling sadness and falling in a black hole for them I now find ways to show love whether it be simple words, a promise for dinner out, or a card. Writing has helped me sort those emotions, whether with a journal, a blog post, or a memoir piece.

I surround myself with people that accept me unconditionally. I try to remove myself from situations when people are hateful or negative. I care deeply for the well-being of my students, and "I am tender, I am gentle" and have a better balance in what I can handle. I put my heart into the beauty of nature, art, the written word, a circle of people, my pets, my faith, and photography.

When you knock on my chest now it doesn't sound hollow. I may still have an emotional breakdown when a student loses a mother or my dog is injured, but the upside of that is the warm feeling that comes when my husband kisses me good-bye in the morning and says he likes that color combination I are wearing or when my sister says thanks for helping her daughters surprise her for Mother's Day.

I just found out when my husband was in elementary school he played in the Wizard of Oz on stage. What part did he play? Of course, the Tin Woodsman! Take a few minutes and enjoy once again "If I Only Had a Heart" from the original movie.

The Run of the Roses

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." —Shakespeare Each year we always love to have a friendly bet on which rose in the gardens will bloom first.

The Rio Samba, which gets lots of morning sun, won the run of the roses this year.

The America is in a close second as the bud is getting close to opening.The Pink Iceberg will take third, but outdoes the other two with the number of buds.

The rest of the pack are close behind and they all smell as sweet.

Beautiful Results from a Mistake

JEJ is enjoying his new camera, but somehow last week the color got switched to cyanotype on the camera. His camping images and some from home were not in color. He was disappointed with the mistake. I loved the beautiful results, especially when I did some fine tuning with Picasa . Enjoy his photo images. This image caught Annie and Shelby in the window seat of the tent trailer watching for squirrels.I love this way this one frames Annie in the screened window.This looks like an old-fashioned photo capturing our bridal wreath spirea in full bloom.Here is the picnic table and the gazebo sitting in the morning stillness.