Spring Flowers Have Arrived!

Here Come the Flowers

Blessed Rain

On behalf of all our flora and fauna, and with an “attitude of gratitude,” we give thanks for the cleansing, nurturing rain.  The world is green and refreshed and yes, Kermit, beautiful!

Blessed Rain

Thoughts for the Work Week Ahead

“Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it.”

 – Ralph Marston

I never get tired of telling people “thank you”  and it’s always a treat when the favor is returned.  These two  little words can pack a powerful punch, turning a dismal day into something to celebrate. Demonstrate an “attitude of gratitude” and watch how those around you respond.  Try it! It works!

Today I have a very special and long overdue “thank you” to send out.  Often readers comment on the beauty of my sparkly graphics but truth be told I cannot take the credit.  Everything I do is made possible by a wonderful website called Online Image Editor. 

The site is easy to use, yet, as anyone who regularly visits Reflections can attest, provides webmasters with first-class graphic abilities.  There is no charge for the use of this site nor any irritating downloads or registration required.  Online Image Editor is run by Marcel Wouterse who has created an amateur graphic designer’s paradise.  With exciting new tools added regularly, it’s obvious that Marcel puts a lot of time, love and effort into this amazing website – and all for the benefit of others. 

Translated into ten languages, Online Image Editor is used, and adored, by bloggers around the world!  Thank you Marcel!  You are an incredible and selfless person who is making the worldwide web a more beautiful place.  Every time I put up a graphic and use your site I say “thank you”  and today I’m taking my gratitude public!  

http://www.online-image-editor.com/ 

From My Library

I love to read.  Since I was a small child, it’s been one of my passions.  There’s nothing that  quite compares to getting lost in a great book.  My friend and twin cities author Brian Freeman is the king of the detective genre and writes page-turning mysteries that contain more twists and turns than a May Township back road.

I can always count on Brian, my longtime stalwart, Stephen King, and a few select others for an excellent read.  But discovering an extraordinary new writer is exhilarating: like finding an agate in a gravel pile or a wild flower in a patch of weeds. A few weeks back a friend passed along a soft cover that she had received from her book club.  At first glance, she didn’t think much of the storyline so she asked if I wanted it.  Shirley’s loss was my tremendous gain.

The book is  The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss and it’s set in eastern Oregon in 1917.  World War I had just started and most of the young men were overseas so women were doing jobs that had traditionally been done by men.  Enter our heroine.  19 year-old Martha Lessen is what we now know as a horse whisperer.  A tall, quiet and dignified young woman from an abusive background she has an amazing gift: through love and kindness she can communicate with and train even the most damaged horses.   Leaving home with her three equines—one of which had been badly burned in a barn fire—Martha winds up in the small town of Shelby, where farmers George and Louise Bliss convince her to stay the winter after she domesticates their broncos with soft words and sweet songs instead of lariats and hobbles. News of this stalwart young woman’s success soon spreads and in no time she is traveling from farm to farm in Elwha County, or “riding the circuit” as it’s called, breaking horses.

This is a the tale of Martha and her effect on animals but it’s also about the people she meets and the lives she changes.  This novel is an incredible slice of life from a bygone age that will engage and charm as it draws you in.  By book’s end you will truly care about these plain, hard-working people and understand what life was like for our  forebears.

The book had special significance for me.  Martha was the same age in time as my paternal grandmother who died in the great 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed between 50 and 100 million people.  I’d grown up hearing stories that Grandma Bridget was a real pioneer for her day. I’d like to believe  she had a bit of Martha in her. 

As a professional writer, I’m fussy about the tone of books.  For a period piece, I could

Author Molly Gloss

not have been more impressed with author Gloss’ spare yet elegant  prose. She perfectly captures the difficulties and simple joys of  life before the modern era. 

The book is also a reminder of what the world was like for animals in general around the turn of the 20^th century. Much is written today about certain species facing extinction but, speaking generally,  animals are far better off today than they were 100 years ago. Gloss tells of how ranchers killed everything in their quest to protect their livestock. Horses were sacrificed as “living bait’ to draw wolves and other predators in so they could be shot. The novel also touches on the plight of horses who were shipped overseas to participate in World War I.  As illustrated in the film War Horse millions of equines were treated horribly.  The book goes on to reveal that after honorably serving their country, most were butchered to feed starving Europeans.  It would have been easy to paint people as villains for their disgraceful treatment of animals but instead Gloss takes the more difficult route.  With a couple of exceptions, she shows us that most folks—overworked, underfed and exhausted—just didn’t know any better. 

The human race has far to go but we have greatly evolved with our thinking about the animal world.  Today there are laws and special interest groups that protect all living things.  My hope is that in another 100 years we will have travelled leaps and bounds in both our understanding of and appreciation for God’s creatures.  I firmly believe that it’s thoughtful and intelligent books like The Hearts of Horses that will help us reach that lofty ideal.  

http://www.mollygloss.com/hearts.html 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hearts-Horses-Molly-Gloss/dp/0618799907 

More Crow Stories

Special thanks to our friend Chandel for sending along the wonderful photo below of a crow targeting a bald eagle.  

More evidence of crows bravely serving as sentinels of the forest.  In this case, she explained, the eagle was unfazed and did not retreat, however, the crow’s commotion served as a warning and saved countless creatures like rabbits, muskrats, ducks, geese, raccoons and even fawns!  All hail, the incredible and courageous crow!

(from around the web)

 --crows can scavenge twice their body weight in food each day.

--cows have funerals for their dead comrades in which hundreds of crows from all around attend.

--crows are known for their adaptable characteristics as they can survive in a variety of habitats, from the icy polar areas, woodlands, plains, mountains, to farms and urban areas as well. 

--The first crows appeared in Miocene, 17 million years ago, in Australia and Oceania. Crows belong in the Corvidae family, which counts over 120 species spread all over the world, excepting Antarctica.

--Crows are the smartest birds in the world. They are much more intelligent than the owls or any other prey birds. Besides, they are more clever, sly and tricky than a parrot.

--When specialists made some intelligence tests on dogs, cats, pigs and crows, the last ones won beyond question. Moreover, a study made in 2004 revealed that crows are more intelligent than bonobo chimpanzees. In other words, crows are the smartest creatures on earth, after humans. This is why, many scientist started referring to these birds as feathered apes.

--Crows have a complex language and each “caw” can have a different meaning. They can warn a dangerous situation, they can mimic the sounds made by other animals, or they can even learn how to associate noises with certain events.  Captive crows can learn to talk.

 

--In the wild, crows live an average of 10 years. In captivity they can live up to 30 years.

--Crows are omnivores meaning they eat everything from meat and bugs to grains and vegetables.  They also eat carrion and thus play a role as "nature's clean up crew."  Farmers don't like it when crows eat their crops, so they put up scarecrows, however, the crows aren't really scared of them because they're smart enough to know it's not a real person.  But the farmers are mistaken because crows don't damage the crops that much.  Instead, they actually help farmers by eating the bad insects in their crops.

--Crows store some of their food in short-term caches, which are hiding places for food that are scattered around, rather than in one place. They may be in tree crevices or on the ground, where they are often covered with leaves or other materials. Crows are also tricksters and pretend to cache their food when another crow is looking, then later they hide it in another spot.

--When not breeding, thousands of crows gather in areas called roosts where they sleep together. It is safer for them to stay together and avoid predators like cats, owls, hawks, snakes and humans. Crows will group together to caw (yell) at and chase predators. This behavior is called mobbing.

--Crows are very social and live in family groups from 2 to 15 birds. They forage (look for food) together and preen (clean) each other.

--Crow offspring (children) often stay with their families and help raise new babies.

 
--Crows, Ravens and other Corvids, are considered to be the most intelligent of all birds. They  make and use tools such as bending a piece of wire into a hook to retrieve something they want, or placing nuts in the path of an oncoming car to break them open. They have an excellent memory and can recognize people's faces. Your neighborhood crows will get to know you well especially if you throw them shelled peanuts or dog kibble.

--Corvids are also self-aware like humans, primates and dolphins.