WATER

Did Water ever look more beautiful!

Champ Hangin' Out With The Birds

Champ is taking some time out of the lake to check out the Bird House Forest. Located in the swamps just north of Whites Beach, near the roadside, are hundreds of brilliantly colored Bird Houses that hang from the many trees in the thick marshland. According to the owners of the birdhouses, "Well, as you can see, we're surrounded by swamp", he said, gesturing to the swamps surrounding his house. "So there are a lot of mosquitoes here, Or at least there were before we put these up. The bird houses are home to tree swallows, and tree swallows eat mosquitoes. They make it so my wife and I can sit outside on the lawn in the evening and enjoy ourselves. We don't get eaten alive." He started this project 15 years ago, with only 20 bird houses. His wife was the one who convinced him to paint them the striking bold colors. After a year, he went to check on them and found that each one was occupied. So he built more. Now he has over 400 of them. Asked if he was planning on building more. "We'll see", he said chuckling.

Purple Clematis

Lovely Purple Clematis

Classic Farm Moment

Dragonfly & Dristan, Luna & Apollo.

Mother & son alpacas (Dragonfly & Dristan), with 2 Maremma Sheepdogs, Luna and Apollo, usually referred to as just Maremmano, they are a breed of livestock guardian dog indigenous to central Italy, used for centuries by Italian shepherds to guard sheep from wolves. 

These are Huacaya alpacas (Vicugna pacos). They are are a domesticated species of South American camelid. There are two kinds of alpacas. Huacaya alpacas, (pronounced Wuh-kai-ya), are fluffy like teddy bears and Suris have long shiny locks like very soft, slightly curly hair. Alpacas are bred specifically for their fiber. High quality fleece from both species fetches top dollar on the international market. Some hand spinners like to spin alpaca fiber mixed with cotton, wool or Silk. Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to wool. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, ponchos, sweaters, socks, coats, bedding, and a wide variety of textiles.

At the Green Mountain Alpaca Fall 2014 Spectacular. From Parris Hill Farm, in Brownsville, Vermont, the white one is PH Davide and the brown one is PH American Trouper.
Alpacas (Vicugna pacos) are a domesticated species of South American camelid. They resemble a small llama in appearance. There are two kinds of alpacas, the Huacaya (pronounced Wuh-kai-ya) and the Suri. Huacaya alpacas are fluffy like teddy bears and Suri alpacas have long shiny locks like very soft, slightly curly hair. These are Huacaya Alpacas. Alpacas are considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike llamas, they were not bred to be beasts of burden, but were bred specifically for their fiber. Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to wool. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, ponchos, sweaters, socks, coats, bedding, and a wide variety of textiles.

Excellent Herbal Videos

Here are some great herbal videos:

St John's Wort
https://youtu.be/w-uxXUF-MdI

Dandelions
https://youtu.be/1oLVOOmghKY

Calendula
https://youtu.be/EoyRXngV5Xg

Stinging Nettles
https://youtu.be/WFdura21G1Q

Snake Root Medicine | Wild Ginger
https://youtu.be/SAKEanqMNvg

I Believe In Beauty

Sara Steele wrote this on her blog and I could not have said this better myself.

I believe in beauty.

I believe beauty has the capacity to heal, to change one’s mind, to literally alter cells (and I do mean literally not figuratively.) I believe there is far more beauty available to us than we generally notice. I stumble upon it and am stopped in my tracks, breathe in, feel suddenly grateful -- for the encounter, for my capacity to perceive, for the simple fact that both the beautiful thing and I exist.

The beautiful thing is not necessarily an object. It may be birdsong, an angle of light at a particular time of day, a few words I overhear, something I discover while reading, an idea, a sensation. In the moment of that encounter my attention is riveted, and whether for a few seconds or several hours, that is all that exists. There is no ego-me, only the lucky appreciator.

In that space/time when my attention is so completely held, I can almost feel neural pathways re-routing themselves, mapping better, healthier pathways. (Researchers now say this actually happens when one shifts one’s attention for as little as fifteen seconds.)

I believe beauty has the capacity to heal.

This is why I spend my time as I do: because over and over again I have been healed by these encounters. I don’t know what else to do but pay as much attention to them as I can. It is the antidote to despair, to helplessness, to being overwhelmingly saddened to the point of incapacitation by all the devastation that goes on in the world, people willfully hurting others, destroying natural resources, greed, power-over . . . on and on. I can become paralyzed by the vastness of it all.

It is within my power to return to beauty.

I believe beauty has the capacity to heal.

I believe in the possibility of healing.

I believe in beauty.