Weekly Photo Challenge: Big

Sigh. It has been a BIG week.

I have just about had it. I am so tired of snakes showing up and freaking me out. They have at least 40 acres of land behind the house, a whole mountain to roam, and for that matter an acre around the house (although I don’t want them on my property at all!), but where do they go…on my deck! The deck is supose to be a peaceful area, an area for me and my dog to relax out of the sun. The deck is his bedroom, his living-room, just his… DANG IT!

I went into the living-room for two minutes and all of a sudden I hear a skittering of dog claws on the deck. Linus lives on the deck so it wasn’t like the deck was empty. Anyway, I knew something was wrong by the amount of skittering so I ran into the kitchen to see Linus about one or two feet behind this beast standing nearly four feet high off the deck like a waving stick. I ran to the front door and yelled for Linus to come to the front in hopes he would run away from the snake and out of harms way. Finally he came and I got him inside.

I ran back to the sliding screen doors to check on the type of snake and make sure it could not get in the house. We have a hole in the screen and it could easily get in! By this time the snake had weaved itself into the plastic on the screen so I slammed the glass doors shut. It, stayed put. Through the black screen I couldn’t tell what kind of snake I was dealing with but from the far glass door I could make out the colour and finally the head when it turned to check me out.

I ran back to Linus felt him all over for any wet spot and then grabbed the camera to take a few shots for identification and then checked on line to see what exactly I was dealing with. Seeing the colour and the fact it had climbed the screen, to some extent made me feel better as I was pretty sure it wasn’t and eastern brown but I was aware most snakes are dangerous here so my dog could still be in serious trouble.

Luckily it appeared to be a non venomous tree snake and Linus showed no signs of distress. About 15 minutes later the snake removed itself from the screen and slithered off into the pool area and into the trees…

Might I add that weaving itself into the screen and covering itself in spider web and dog hair proved to be a BIG FAIL for camouflage!!!!!

On a happier note, yesterday was a much better day, but I have no pic to show you of the sweetest puppy I have ever seen. She has nerve damage and cannot walk properly but she is so adorable and is such a little trooper despite her problems. I got to hold her and snuggle her. When I got home Linus was sniffing me like made. Mummy had held another dog! That’s okay, Linus gets snuggles and cuddles every day so he was not too concerned once he got over the initial shock of mummy smelling of puppy.

Then I got an email from a friend who has just got a kitten. It too is oh so cute!

I’m hoping things will be calm and peaceful today…

Living Without in the Information Age

I don’t own a television, radio or mobile phone. What, you say?

I have had them in the past but to be honest living without them makes me realise just how attached others are to their noise makers. The other day I was sitting in a meeting and mobile phones went off at least 12 times in a group of about 35 people. Only one was on vibrate or silent mode. Some had an individual sound for ever button they then had to press to read their message! Okay, is that really necessary?

Others had to answer their phone so they did the tip toe thing out of the meeting to answer the call. Yes, we are all busy people but really could the person on the other end not have waited until a break in the meeting to hear back from you? I highly doubt it was an emergency that couldn’t wait. Point in case, one of the gentlemen at my table actually spent half the meeting either texting or talking to various people on his phone. On two occasions he was talking to people at our table to discuss meeting matters and when the phone chirped in he excused himself in mid conversation to take the calls. These calls turned out to be something to do with sports stuff that would be occurring that evening…

I must admit I still need my computer and internet to get by or I’d be a little too cut off. However, it seems many of the gadgets today are about filling a space, being heard immediately. They have become a life line in an age where we can’t seem to go without some sort of social fix. We no longer live in a small community of family and friends like many did in the past but is it really any different from the past? Isn’t it really just another form of communication? Well, yes, to some extent that is true but there is something more to it than that.

I must admit that I still get a good deal of information via the neighbour, work and the like. “Did you hear about…, oh, ya, you don’t have a tv…,” and then they proceed to tell me about whatever was on the news anyway so I did not really need the tv and as such I’ve saved myself the trouble of hearing it twice so I’ve acquired time for other things.

So what is the life line of a person without these?

I’ve gone back to using the more creative side of my brain including writing, painting, textile arts, baking, walking as well as other things that present themselves. My life line relies more on me than on others and as such I think that is important. Finding what represents you, the real you, only happens by stopping the noise and looking inward. That is not to say there is not advantages of having information age gadgets. I just think we depend on them a little too much to fill us up.

What might fill you up from the inside if you just gave it time and quiet to emerge?  Step outside the box…