I still remember my first time...

A resent trip town had us driving in on a cool spring day with the windows open and the sweet breeze blowing in. The air was wet and smelled  strongly of spring rot and  growing foliage. I was enjoying the ride, and the cool air since the air condition is shot in the pickup.  Then I smelled it. Honeysuckle, the bane of my existence. Boy does that bring back memories. Painful, itchy memories. I was about 5 years old when we first discovered I was allergic to poison ivy. I didn't just one itchy patch as a warning.  I had to go for the full body out break.
     We use to live in a little house in town (if you want to call the small collation  of houses and one church a town). It was up on a hill, with woods to the back and a road out front. There was a wall of shrubs along the road, providing some measure of privacy. There was tiger lilies in the ditch and a snowball tree down at the far end of the yard.  And out back there was the shallow puddled that existed over the septic  tank after  it got dug up one exciting month (Visiting family and freezing weather were involved.)
     I remember that spring was wet, and for some reason it cause a wall of  vine that hadn't done any thing for year to erupted in to the most intoxicating wall of honeysuckles I've ever seen. Me and my sister spent all day playing in the wall of flowers... Unfortunately that wasn't the only veining plant growing there.  The details of how fast it took for the blisters to form  are lost to me, but the next few weeks I was covered in chalky pink calamine and oozy sores. I'm sure there are photos of me a swollen up and blistered somewhere in a box.
After that I was banned from going anywhere near the honeysuckles, or anything that had three leaves and  grew on a vine.  Over the years I've had plenty of run ins with the horrid stuff,  some almost as bad as that first day.  Still, forever in my mind  honeysuckles  will be tied in with poison ivy. I haven't picked a honeysuckle since that day.

Thanks for the memory

2014 is gone, and I couldn't even be bothered to see it leave. 

I'm not gonna say 2014 was the worst year, ever, that isn't  true.  But it sure felt like all we did this year was break even or keep our heads above water.There were some good. my mom got the foot surgery she so badly needed to stay on her feet, we have two lovely healthy calves,  we got the new kitchen up and started.  But we setbacks. The one cow we've been trying to get bred won't bred, and the vet finally told us he thought she was a lost cause.  The rabbits are stressing me greatly with their healthy and breeding.  We need to get the shop cranking up more.  Ling to replace, here, there, unexpected expenses. The bull we bought died. It goes on and  on, little thing like that. 

 It was a depressing year death wise too (thankfully for me none close, but).  For artist and entertainers. For equality and right. And for death of the trust and respect some of those people commanded before their true self came to light. Death of the people my parents called friends growing up, 4 or 5 in a row.   One could argue this was the year of many little deaths.

I never really found a gear work wise with my craft this year, and that is depressing me. I haven't been as motivated to DO what I need to do, which is a poor excuse not to do it. But a covente one if you're looking for one.  

Perhaps it's fitting then that we spent the last month of 2014 locked in to clouds and sick.  Not the flu, but damn it, I hope this isn't going to be a tradition of  me spending Dec 26th in bed sick and puking.  Thankfully I was the only one who got that, everyone one else just got achy and tired and choughs. 

I will probably do my yearly "the year in photos" blog in a few days. 

Any way, 2015... Just be gentle. I'm not gonna ask for the moon, not for the stars, not richs.  Just enough to breath. 

Stone Rabbits

Many years ago, when we would go to town, we'd drive past a little low stone house, and on two stone pillars in front of the house were two stone rabbits. For years, they were there, facing the road, just sitting there.I never saw who lived there, never saw how many there were....

One day,  while driving to town, mom pointed out the rabbits. "Look!, Look at tbe Rabbits!"  Instead of both facing the road, one rabbit faced the house, another faced the road.  The unmoving stone rabbit had moved. It continued like that for months. Every time we drove past, mom would slow down the car and we'd look at the stone rabbits.  They were always moving now. Sometimes they both faced the house... Sometimes the were staring at each other across the driveway, and once they were both back to back. It was fascinating. The stone rabbits were alive, after years of sleeping.  Then one day.... They were gone. There was a moving van, and the house was striped bare. The house sold, and the new owners have a wind chime out front. There is nothing on the stone pillars.

I'd like to think the stone rabbits, one night after being moved around after years of sleep, woke up. And they stretched their legs, and they ran. And ran, and ran. And in the morning, when the homeowners woke and found the rabbits gone, they went looking for them. Hence why they moved.
    Of course I'll never know the story, but I'm sure it not as interesting as that one.. It probably involves a new job, or family, or kids going to college. But when my mind wanders, and I think of that house, I hope, somewhere out there, there are two stone rabbits on pillars,  and that they never face the same way each morning. And that somewhere out there there is someone who notices. 

a slight reflection .............

Time for the year in review post.   The year isn't *quite* over, but it close enough to start reflecting on it.  It wasn't a horrible year. But it definitely had it moments.  We literally  started this year with the traumatic event of our new Dexter  heifer  going into labor with a full term bulldog calf ....  Plus side is we had wonderful fresh milks for 10 months.  We got goats, and Tamworth pigs, we had a beautiful dun calf..... which we lost severely month later heartbreakingly. The garden was..... Underwhelming at best.  I lost a very dear friend, (Still getting use to that one.  It's funny how small thing will remind you of someone when they are gone).   I got to meet some new friends, and got to meet the team from TheOneRing.net  (THAT was fun!) this year.  We had the strangest Spring weather wise I've ever seen .

Still, looking back, the theme this year was hectic, barely keeping up.  We'd finish one thing, and then plow in to another with barely any time in between to catch our breath.  It was exhausting, and frankly I feel like I've aged a lot this year mentally (and physically).  Dear gods, please let the next year be less...hectic.  

It's not "Door to Heaven"... it's...

Sooooooooooooo... With the recent new that Roland Emmerich is planning to reboot Stargate, I've been sent on another nostalgic musings.  I didn't get to see Stargate when it came out, my mom  recorded on a trip back visiting her folks (that was probably 1996).  I gobbled it up, and got my second childhood geek crush on Dr. Daniel Jackson   ( I already had a crush on Indiana Jones.. Yeah, you can see a trend here).  I was a fan. I got a huge poster off eBay, and original movie pins (That as much as my meager allowance would allow), browsed web sites, had a Stargate desktop theme...   When news came out there would be a TV show, I was excited.... Till I saw it. I. HATED. IT  (didn't help that I thought a lot of the early alien costumes look cheap. Yeah, I'm a snob). I still dislike it but don't hate it. Subsequently I've ignored the other shows mostly (ok I've seen some of  Stargate: Atlantis... It was amusing. And the first episode of the last one, SGU Stargate Universe. Didn't really do anything for me.)  my fever for the movie has faded a little, but I still love it.  I was always disappointed that Emmerich didn't get to do a trilogy, though as I saw more and more of his movies I  thought "maybe it for the best".  Godzilla was a mess (and please  DO NOT mention that movie in the presence of my brother. That kid has been watch the old  ToHo Godzilla movie since he figured out how to run a remote) I never got into Independence Day...  I just never click with another of his movie (ok, I will briefly bring it up... I've often wonder if it is because Stargate WASN'T his movie, but an idea he lifted... Some info here, everything else I've found online is pure speculation). 

Now... he wants to remake it?  Ok, it's his movie and all, but I can't help but feel it the $$$ involved more than anything. Stargate the movie from 1994 is a timepiece of the 90s. It's simple, unburdened by a bunch of the mush and pomp that is clogging up so many Si Fi movie today,  The special effects have held up surprisingly well, the story is nice and coherent ( cough, Prometheus, cough), the acting isn't bad. Why fuck with a good thing?  Meh.  It doesn't' help that it seem every popular movie is getting a sequel, or getting rebooted  (Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator,  Avatar,  Pirates of the OMGwhydon'tthyeletitdie )  What are your thoughts, spooky?  Could this be a good thing? He obviously can't  cast the same actors, they've all aged way to much.