I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

 

		I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, And the faint perfume from its chalice steals — I know what the caged bird feels! I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would be on the bough a-swing; And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse again with a keener sting — I know why he beats his wing! I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,— When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings — I know why the caged bird sings!        Paul Laurence Dunbar
	"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" is a very good book by Maya Angelou but did you know that it was inspired by this excellent poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar?  If you click on his name above, that will take you to a website that has several of his poems listed along with his biography. I find his connection with the Wright Brothers fascinating . It appeals to me that this poet wrote of the love of freedom through birds and the Wright Brothers pioneered the freedom to fly that we enjoy today. Our cherry trees are in full bloom just now and this photo with the cardinal was taken yesterday in our own front yard!  My header photo was the sunrise from this morning with the cherry tree in the foreground, also in our front yard. (You might recognize the pine trees from past sunrises.) With all the rain that we have had, the cherry trees are their finest...frilly and light pink, just beautiful.    RICHARD TOOK THE PHOTOS, OF COURSE!!  :-)   The poem is really about freedom and besides thinking of the poet I am also thinking of Col Ben Purcell and Ryan Ferguson,  men that I have written about before.

Love And Freedom post    Ryan Ferguson post       Click on those and read them if you can and maybe you will see why I am reminded of those posts.  

Go To Your Happy Place

 

 

Oh dear, I had a fun trip to the dentist's office this afternoon.  It reminded me of this scene from "Little Shop of Horrors".  NOT that I am saying that my nice dentist is ANYTHING at all like the way that Steve Martin has portrayed a dentist in this movie.  Having said that, it was necessary for me to "go to my happy place"...

 

 

 

 

In the Peace which passes all understanding...

 

 

 

 In the fresh English air...

 

 

 

 

Gazing at Stone Mountain...

 

 

 

Having a good cuppa...

 

Walking on my beloved Arabia Mountain!

 

 

All of these make me happy, like I am on top of the world!  (And I needed it, after 2 1/2 hours in a dentist's chair!)  What is your happy place?  Do tell! 

 The photo above is on top of Panola Mountain this past Saturday and NO, I did NOT slide down on my bottom. I was the first one down! Let's hear it for the old lady. Please don't notice bandage on my nose, you should have seen the other guy!

 

 "Recall a happy memory as often as you like, you can never wear it out".

 

Christ The Lord Is RISEN Today

 

 

 

Alleluia !

 

Red Tailed Hawk...Sorry, Red SHOULDERED Hawk!

 

 

Hey! Let's observe a live cam of red tailed hawk's nest at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  Shall we?  I just discovered this and I was very happy to find it.  There are three eggs in the nest now and if you go to that link you can also see a video of the bird laying the eggs. There is also a clip showing one of the birds on the eggs all night even with the snow falling down!

 

 The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks in North America. Richard took a photo of one on the mailbox across the street from us.  This month, we had to take some trees down and a hawk landed on either side of the trees being cut down as if to say, "Well, I hope you're not going to take them ALL down!"

 

(Don't worry, we won't!)

 

Red tailed hawks are very common in Georgia.  Their loud cries are very commonly used in movies, often described as the sound of an eagle! You may read some interesting facts about the red tailed hawk here.

UPDATE: If you look at the comment below, you will see that this photo is of a red shouldered  hawk, it is similar to a red tailed hawk but the markings on the wings of the red shouldered are more distinctive and that is what Richard has photographed for you here!

 

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."   I really love this quote...I just found it scribbled on a piece of paper in my handwriting but I don't know who said it or where I found it.

 

Wish us luck, Richard and I will climb Panola Mountain tomorrow in the final monadnock climb for our Monadnock Madness climbs in March.  There is a 70% percent chance of rain and the final descent is called the "butt slide" since it is so steep, some come down on their backsides!

 

 

Spring/ I'm Making Believe

If you were reading my blog last year, do you remember that I went to a baby shower in March?  On March 25th, to be precise! The leaves were in their full Spring green at that time whereas this year, we are just now beginning to see the leaves to bud on the trees... I am not complaining, mind you, just making an observation that Spring is later than usual.  I took the following photos from the back of my sister's van on the way to the baby shower.  It really was a fine day, the countryside looks nice, don't you think?

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, this should look just like this within just a few weeks, so I am not absolutely NOT complaining!  I saw on the news that earlier this week, exactly half of the country was covered in snow! We even had a few snow flurries yesterday in the Atlanta area and it was one of the coldest days we have had (even though technically it is Spring!).  I could show you photos of the bare trees now, but since we don't usually take photos like that, you will just have to believe me!

I found another song for you.  It is Bill Kenny of the Inkspots singing with Ella Fitzgerald.  I think this should be played on the radio, on the hour, every hour, for all to hear!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks and Misty Mountain Cold

Thank you to all of you who went to Paul's blog and left him comments of support and encouragement.  (Read my last post if you missed it!)  That was so very kind of you.  I appreciate it so much and Paul has left me word that it really lifted his spirits!  If you are reading this blog for the first time, you are in very good company.  The folks who read my little blog are the BEST.  Thanks again!
As I told you, Richard and I watched "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey".  Well, what can I say, I loved it!  How can you not like it?  It has a great story with a perfect cast and beautiful music all through it.  "Honour, loyalty and a willing heart"...so nice to have a movie made these days that is true to the author's intentions! (Okay, I admit it, I haven't read the books, but I think I do understand them, maybe just a little!)  One of the songs was extraordinary.  It is only short so I hope you will listen to it.  The actor, Richard Armitage, is the main singer, and he is joined by the other dwarves, James Nesbitt being one of them. (I know this actor from other British TV shows.)   I have read that when folks came back for repeated viewings of the movie, many of them would sing along with this song.  I love that, but only if they could sing as well as these actors!

 

You know, I did tell you that we have been having quite a bit of rain.  We saw the most water cascading down over Arabia Mountain that we have ever seen.  I wish you could hear this water with the birds singing and the low whistle of the train from three miles away...that is all we heard on this day.  It was beautiful.

Colors On Arabia Mountain/ Prayers And A Song

 

We need more color in our world.  Hopefully, color from flowers rather than the color codes on TV showing the heavy bands of rain...

 

 

 

 

Yes, that's much better.  The blooms on the rabbit-ears (hairy groundsel) look so pretty against the green moss at Arabia Mountain.  I told Richard that  this photo that he took looks like a post card to me.

     Hey! Can you see that the diamorpha smallii is growing now? And look at the reflection of the sky in the water beside the diamorpha, I love that combination of red and blue.  (And speaking of blue, I love the sky too!)

Of course, the red against the gray rock is a beautiful sight also.

 

I love the way the sun lit up the pale green leaves on this plant.

 

  I have been crocheting a multi-colored striped scarf. If you click on that link, it will take you to a nice lady's blog where she gives you the pattern and a lovely photo.  Mine is not as good as hers but hey, I still like it!  See, I told you I wanted more color in my life!  The scarf reminds me a bit of the Joseph's coat of many colors...

Do you remember that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber did a musical about Joseph?  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat was the name of it.  Some years ago, they had the best show on TV in England, where they had singers to compete for the lead role in that musical.  I really enjoyed that show.   One of my favorite parts came at the end where the one who was eliminated had to sing a song called "Close Every Door". Sometimes they sang it with a touch of anger.  I really liked the ones who sang it with all they had, as if do say, THIS is how good I can sing, and I will give it all I've got.  I finally found a video of one that I really liked, they called him "Rob" the builder.  (He worked in construction, I think, and since his name was Rob, it sounded so much like "Bob" the builder, a children's book character.)

Anyway,  hope you like this video. I was so pleased to find it.

One of the nice readers of my blog, Paul Forster from New Zealand had a very serious accident in a bike race and broke his hip just recently.  Please pray for Paul and if you click on his name there, it will take you to his blog.  Pay him a visit and tell him Kay said, "hey!".  Thanks, Paul, for all the great shots you have shown me of New Zealand!

Richard and I are going to watch "The Hobbit" tonight!  Of course, everyone knows that it was filmed in New Zealand, right?  

Colors or colours, I wish this for you all!