This week I took the time to sit by the river with my oldest daughter, to hear her voice, to feel the beauty of nature with her. I intend to do it as often as I can in the precious years I have left before she launches into her adult life.

Took my camera with me when I just went for a short walk from my house: igidi imdia!

Generally, when I've got a couple of hours to take some exercise or enjoy the countryside I get in my car and go to one of the beautiful parks or nature reserves we have some five or ten miles from home. Less often I just walk straight from home.

But today I walked from home and took my camera with me. The camera was better before I sat on it with the lens extended. :(

But with a little manual assistance to prevent some nasty whirrings and jarrings when the lens comes out I can still take photos of a sort, though without any optical magnification.

Even so, I think you can see why it's easy to take the familiar for granted.

Great views, great wildlife.

From looking up at the clouds to looking down at the flowers round my feet, this has just got to be the very best time of the year!

This is such a wonderful thread. Thank you so much for starting it.

Yes, yes, take lots of time with your children. The time goes by so quickly. We seem to always be putting off things to do tomorrow and then you wake up one day and there are no more tomorrows. Your kids are grown, they are living their own lives, maybe even moving to the other side of the world. So, take the time to do it today you will never regret it.

As for me, I did something this week that was long overdue. I forgave someone very dear to me for a terrible wrong they did. I finally realized that I could not change what happened and that I did not have to condone it but I simply could not live with anger and resentment building a huge wall between us. So, I decided to forgive and to practice what I preach about loving unconditionally.

My God, what freedom forgiveness can give to all parties concerned. I am now free to love again, they are now free to love me back and we can both now move forward free of anger and pain. I highly recommend forgiveness and in the future, I intend to practice it a lot more. Life is just too short to waste any of it living in anger.

Jackie,

That's so well put! While I've been struggling to post actual images, you've conjured up a wonderful verbal picture of time you've shared with Cassandra, sitting by the river just enjoying everything all around you.

Brilliant!

As for Evvy-the-Brave, forgiveness take real courage!

I'm glad you like the thread. I was going to post immediately that I was glad I'd started the thread...

...then I thought: what if no-one reads it! LOL

Thanks David. I think we need threads like this. Most of us here take so much time doing for others but we don't take enough time for ourselves. And you are right, nothing is small or insignificant when it comes to taking or finding pleasure from somthing in this crazy world.

Maybe the purpose of this thread will be to encourage all of us to do something, anything, that is uplifting just so we have something new to post. You may be able to teach us all to (pardon the cliche) just stop and smell a few roses as we travel down our busy and cluttered roads. I've put this on my watch list and look forward to reading future posts.

About a month ago now, I took a totally frivolous trip to Bangkok. One of my former students, Minnie, was in a group representing Bangkok in the National Yamaha electone competition. What a joy the trip was! I took the overnight train and arrived early enough that a fellow grad student invited me to his home to shower and have breakfast with him and his lovely wife. Then I went to the concert at the Cultural Center and unexpectedly ran into the father of another student, Bill, who was representing Bangkok in the solo competition.

Minnie I started teaching in 1999 when she was 2 1/2, Bill I had in my last kindergarten class in 2004-2005. The were both so incredible! Neither of them won the competition but as an impartial observer, I am sure that something was wrong with the judging because they SHOULD have won!!! :-D

That evening I went to dinner at one of the finest Italian restaurants I have ever been in (and I have been in Italy) with Minnie and 3 sisters who were all former students of mine. One of the sisters was one of my very first students when I came to Thailand all of those years ago. They are all so grown up now. I guess we are suppose to understand that when 10 years passes. In many ways, I am like an adopted grandmother to these 4 girls and it was such a joy to spend time with them and hear their stories and share their laughs.

Teaching older kids is a different kind of challenge and reward but teaching babies is a joy every day because you impact their lives so much more. I can look at those girls and see things in them that are there because of me and it makes me appreciate the importance of being our best all the time for the people who look up to us.

Oh, yes! IMDIA!!!

I agree, Linda. Who could be more impartial than an adopted grandmother!

;)

It's funny where I live it seems to go from Spring cool to Summer hot rather suddenly. The transition comes with a couple of weeks of stormy weather. Pittsburgh has an arts festival during those two weeks:-) I always love the twilight, especially in the warmer weather. It's my favorite time in the garden. Tonight the moon was a banana-moon (waxing crescent). The moon looked so big and lovely as it was setting in the Western sky around 10PM. I'm glad I took a few moments to enjoy the moon. I must do it again.

Oh my gosh, I just discovered something really beautiful. I stepped out my back door. I know that may sound silly but I just never go out that door. I use the front. Out back there is just a little space and nothing more, or so I thought. But this morning, for some unknown reason I opened that door at about 6:30 am and discovered that right beside the little back porch is a whole flower bed that is full of beautiful irises. They are in full bloom and were just georgous! I felt really dumb cause I didn't even know they were there. I have been meaning to work in the yard but haven't made the time other than to hire the teenage boy down the street to come and mow the grass.

So this morning I took a chair and had my morning coffee sitting by a lovely patch of purple flowers that seemed to have magically appeared. What a joy to discover something so beautiful right outside the door. What a shame to know that they were there all this time and I didn't even know. I really need to get out from in front of this computer more and explore the world around me. We all need to do that. Who knows, there might be a lot of things right under our noses that we don't take the time to see.

I am so glad that I opened that door this morning.

Evvy, perhaps we all have a back door somewhere that we've forgotten to use? That's a great thought!

The week before last I told my wife Christine not to worry if the Sweet William she had by her bedside started to die, I could always bring in some of the purple Irises that were flowering outside our back door. But the Sweet William lasted much longer than expected and when I went to get the Irises in, they had all died!

Sometimes it takes someone else's words to re-frame for us what we are doing in order for us to appreciate it properly.

Today, I took the car in for an exploratory investigation to find out what needed to be done about my noisy air conditioning that had also started to smell of burning. The car dealership is about 20 miles away on the outskirts of Bedford. I asked how long they would need it before they knew what was wrong. I hoped they would say "about twenty minutes" (in which case I would sit and wait and have a coffee) or else "about two hours" (in which case I would put my backpack on and wander round the country trail that leads eventually to Bedford Country Park. I would take my binoculars as always and hope to see some interesting birds).

But they said "an hour".

So I headed off through the industrial estate for a quick visit to the Country Park, knowing that by the time I got there I'd soon have to start thinking about heading back. For that reason I walked a little more briskly and when I got to the Country Park I couldn't help thinking how much nicer it would be to carry on along the country trail and do the full two-hour circular route as I had originally planned.

I figured that it might take me about an hour and a half. But what if the car service people couldn't proceed without my agreeing to the proposed repairs? And why hadn't I remembered to take my mobile phone? Then all these agitated thoughts disappeared as I came to a gravel pit with a Little Egret, Lapwings, Redshank and a Little Ringed Plover. I just had to stop for 10 minutes.

So now the idea of completing the full circuit seemed crazier than ever. Even so I was reluctant to head back and determined instead to keep going. AND I'M GLAD THAT I DID.

Not at first. I just kept thinking this is crazy. It's a hot day and I'm rushing along, feeling uncomfortable and rather unfit and I've just made a stupid (if minor) decision that will annoy the very people I'm hoping are not going to charge me too much for my car repair.

By this time I was walking along a long, attractive and very empty cycle way leading out of the east side of Bedford and leading eventually to the village of Willington. I wasn't even enjoying the experience as much as I should have been. Then a man on bicycle came by and we exchanged a few friendly words. A minute later his partner also came by, obviously struggling not only to catch him, but evidently to catch me as well.

"That's some power-walking!" she said.

Suddenly I was no longer a frenzied, foolish figure but a person of purpose, a person to be admired!

From then on I remembered that that was what I was doing - power-walking! Just the thought made me go faster and faster. And even though I lingered a little over a Grey Heron and an Oystercatcher, and then over a pair of elusive Yellow Wagtail, I still got back to the car dealers in one hour and 14 minutes.

And then had to wait for three-quarters of an hour while they finished the job off! And I'll still have to take it in again on Wednesday so they can fit the part they didn't have in stock.

But I was beyond caring much. I was glad I had become a Power-walker AND I MUST DO IT AGAIN!

edit: Willington not Wilmington

Thats a great story David. It makes me want to go take a long walk and I think I will go out the back door. :)

Great stories!!!

For now, mine is short and simple: I borrowed a bike to ride back and forth to the offices while I was working last week in Eugene (away from home). I want to do that again! I got to see a different way through the city. I must to do that again.

IGIDI

Asked Meron if I could use her wonderful Computer Rainbow image in my DESIGN21 Competition entry

and she said "OF COURSE"!!

:)

IMDIA

ahh I love that photo!

just to think that computers from the Yukon Territory traveled all the way to Lesotho! still blows my mind :)

WYDIA? {Will you do it again Jackie? ;-)}

you just try and stop me... :)

We have a request for another 40 computers to go to Lesotho

YOU BET I'LL DO IT AGAIN!!

<grins>

I'm glad I planted vegetable seeds this year, albeit rather late: carrot, spring onion and lettuce in drills in the ground and tomatoes, dwarf french beans and courgettes in pots.

I haven't done this for many years, and then only with limited success.

But we've been in our present house for 26 years now and in all that time I've tended our flowers and lamented the fact that we don't really have anywhere we want to grow veg. I've often hankered after an allotment plot, but Christine (quite rightly) has reminded me that I would lack the commitment to maintain it properly. After all, my efforts in the garden are pretty spasmodic!

But since retiring, I know that I can't really use the don't-have-enough-time argument any longer - I can only use the don't-have-enough-time-to-choose-to-use-that-particular-way argument instead.

So when the husband of the volunteer coordinator at Paxton Pits (who lives in the same village as me) was talking about his two allotment plots at the end of his garden, I couldn't resist asking whether there was a waiting list for vacant plots.

"You don't want to do that" he said. "Why not have part of one of our allotments instead."

And so, just over a month ago, I started cultivating my first vegetables for over a quarter of a century.

And despite the modest growth I've achieved so far, I'm revelling in it!

I'm glad I started tending vegetables: I must do it again...

...and again and again and again. Otherwise they will all perish ;)

<giggles> David, if you mangage to find the secret of long term faithfullness in tending plants you must share it I'm dreadful at it :)

good thing the kids don't need watering...oh wait! maybe they do...<grins>

I've been to Canterbury to see my mother today and amongst other things, I asked her about old postcards.

I did this because another lady (who, like my mother, is now in her nineties) was asking for donations of old postcards for an ex-health worker discussion group to which she belongs. The idea is that they sell the donated postcards and spend the proceeds on a project they are supporting in a developing country.

Now I remember back in the far off days when I was young and still lived with my parents, there used to be dozens of old postcards in our house, kept in the same cardboard box where all our family photos were kept. So I asked my mother about these. And IGIDI.

Although most of the postcards had been disposed of over the years there were some old family photos that I do not recall having seen before. One in particular - of my mother's Nan (my maternal great-grandmother) - led to a very interesting conversation.

My mother has very fond memories of my great-grandmother. She told me that she was widowed and lived in a rented room in East Ham in the one of the many poor parts of the East End of London.

But although she had to squeeze all her belongings into a single small room, my mother, as a child, was so envious of her. The reason for this was that she had a fireplace in the room as well as the double bed in which she slept. To my mother, used to waking each morning with cold feet, the idea of a bedroom with a fire in it was simply heavenly! Particularly on the special occasions each year when she alone was allowed to stay with her Nan and sleep with her in her shared bed.

My great-grandmother only stayed in her rented room for the early part of winter. As soon as there was the first sign of spring, she would abandon the rented room and travel down to Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary where my mother lived with her parents and elder sister Phyllis. My great-grandmother would usually spend the whole summer on Canvey Island before returning to London in the autumn (Fall).

And as my mother told me this today - for the first time ever! - I started building up a picture of my family's daily life back in the 1920s. At that time Canvey was still very rural and a real island with self-built seaside bungalows, connected to the secondary school on the mainland only by a ferry. Now it has been almost entirely concreted over and the oil refineries that replaced the the farmland in the years following the disastrous East Coast floods in 1953, have themselves fallen into decay. It has become largely derelict industrial hinterland, swallowed up by the expanding boundaries of the neighbouring towns of Basildon, South Benfleet and Southend. The wide road bridges built to accommodate the oil tanker-lorries now disguise any indication that Canvey Island was once a real island.

But against these material ravages of time, my mother's words have demonstrated the enduring power of an oral tradition to preserve the things we have lost, which might otherwise be forgotten or very little known.

I'm glad I asked, I must do it again before it's too late!

edited to complete the story

I had a hunch that Linda and my young friend Mary would hit it off, so asked Mary if she would put Linda up for a night.

IGIDI!

Mary, who is a doctor working on a poor housing estate in Huntingdon, went to Peru last December on a medical mission to help remote communities along the upper reaches of the Amazon and its tributaries. I thought she'd be interested in Linda's experiences in Thailand and Uganda.

I also thought Linda would like staying in Mary's cottage. I hoped Mary would be able to join us on our early morning safari, but she was called in to work on her rest day :(

But I'm glad I backed my hunch.

I'm buying increased vehicular capacity today.

Watch this space.

(Am I beginning to twitter?)

Do you Twitter, David? I don't see updates on Facebook from you. And I haven't been able to get into the habit of making Tweets mydself. Maybe giving Twitter a try would be IGIDI IMDIA for me.

I like vehicular capacity and am looking forward to what your increase might be.

The property we live on is about 3 acres. But it's a complicated property to mow. We have a small diesel tractor which pulls along a mower, but the long turning radius really makes it impractical. So I use a walk behind mower. Nice gadget that, but imagine the engineer who designed it is named Rube Goldberg. A spindle from one of the mower blades broke earlier in the season. I replaced it, but the mower didn't sound right. I'm somehow able to fix things by following the diagrams, but don't really have a sense for why things are the way they are.

I thought that the other spindle--there are two--needed to be replaced as well. But I decided to visit a neighbor of mine to explain my reasoning and see what he said.

My neighbor Charley is a wonderful and kind man. He spent his whole career as a printer, beginning when he was just a teen during WWII. In the later years he made textbooks primarily for one customer and everyone at the plant knew that there would come a day when that customer wouldn't need them anymore and it would be over. That happened at the first of the year. So Charley doesn't print anymore.

I showed him the parts and explained my reasoning. I can't tell all the things that he showed me about the mechanics of the mower--a machine he'd never seen or worked on before. He helped me get it running right.

While I was over at his place I asked if he had saved the old barn door hardware from his barn doors, because I knew he'd replaced his hardware. Well, that question lead to what I wanted to do, and as you might suspect what I wanted to do was a bit circuitous. It involved stealing the hardware from one of my barn doors for another, and then fixing and then fixing the broken piece of hardware and putting it back on the door I robbed the hardware from.

I love Charley. He understood, with a little questioning, why this approach made any sense at all. While I knew what I wanted to do, I'd encountered a few stumbling blocks which prevented me from actually accomplishing it. He figured a way around each of the stumbling blocks. We took the old piece apart and developed a plan to get it back together. What we needed was a wheel to replace the broken one. I wasn't sure where to begin looking for one.

The next morning I looked out the window and saw Charley down by the barn. I went to meet him. During his sleep the night before he dreamed of a wheel he had that would suit the bill. When he woke up he went to get it. He looked at it and figured out how to put bronze bearing on it. He used two sizes one inside the other to get the proper dimension.

I'm so glad I went to my neighbor to ask for help. When I open the barn door everyday, now it opens easily and I always feel gratitude to my kind neighbor. Gratitude feels so good. I hope in someway I can return the favor. Still, I'm glad I did it and won't wait until I can return the favor to do it again.

Do you Twitter, David?

No, John, not yet. I just thought "I'm buying increased vehicular capacity today" sounded rather twitterish.

Anyway, this is what I bought:

(For Linda's benefit, I thought I'd add that the picture was taken on the road between Brampton Wood (horsebox?) and Mary's cottage. In the foreground is a perfectly well-functioning bicycle having a rest ;))

Buying the trailer has help banish my Tuesday bitterness.

And IGIDI! (I'll explain in due course)

Sweet!