Hi Folks:
Last year we were feeling pretty avant garde in having our first Free Hugs session on April 1. We did our last 2017 session on December 10, completing 19 rounds of hugging! Well, Easter is on April 1 this year (which really has us wondering what the Easter Bunny is going to get up to this year, but that’s another topic). Anyway, last weekend was so warm and beautiful we did our first 2018 hugging session on March 10! Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
That most special day of the year is upon us once again! While it will be another 97 years before we’ll have a really special Pi Day (3-14-15, 9:26:53), any excuse to eat baked treats is a good one!
Since the idea of combining irrational numbers and desserts is a bit nutty, we thought we’d offer up two slightly nutty recipes for you today. The first comes from the oldest cookbook we have on the shelf (so far): The Good Housekeeping Cookbook (© 1942, edited by Dorothy B. Marsh). Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
The Adventures of Rainbow Mouse continues! Click on the link to the left or the books icon on the right side of the screen to get your own copy!
We are thrilled to introduce you to Timothy Mouse … a shy little mouse who never wants to do anything new without checking with someone else first. Will Timothy be able to save the day when he’s needed? You’ll have to read the book to discover what happens!
This delightful image is of Timothy after his first BIG adventure!!
If you would like to try colouring Timothy for yourself, click on the picture below to download a free colouring book page!
Have fun with it!!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
The Adventures of Rainbow Mouse continues! Click on the link to the left or the books icon on the right side of the screen to get your own copy!
This is Timothy Mouse’s friend, Chomper. Chomper’s real name is Preston. He is always hungry and chomps on food all day long.
If you would like to try colouring Chomper for yourself, click on the picture below to download a free colouring book page!
Have fun with it!!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
Things have been quite around here for a while, but there’s been a good reason for that… 🙂
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
Krinkles, Twinkles and Mrs. Claus
This is Krinkles and Twinkles, and Mrs. Claus, of course. Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Whether you celebrate Christmas or Festivus, Solstice or Saturnalia, the arrival of Sinterklaas or Grandfather Frost, Hanukkah, Mawlid Un Nabi, Kwanzaa or something entirely personal, we send you love. Create an amazing 2018!!
(Merry or Happy Christmas In Different Languages 🙂 )
Hi Folks:
This is the eighth year now that we’ve made our MS Word photo calendar templates available, and as with the past couple of years, we’ve also created a series of templates and calendar images you can use with Lightroom or other graphics software. As we’ve done before we’ve also added a full-page calendar option, below.
I created a template in MS Word that allows people who don’t have Photoshop, Lightroom or the equivalent to make their own photo calendars, so we’ll cover that first; the Lightroom stuff is below that. I used MS Word 2007 to make the template, but saved it as both a Word 2007 file and a Word 97-2003 compatible file. Basically it’s a series of tables, one for each month, that look something like this:
Hi Folks:
We are 8 years old today! Wow… Whodathunkit? Well, we did, one day and one post at a time. So far we’ve posted 549 blog posts (including this one) and 138 pages on a variety of subjects, and we’re just getting warmed up! Those 138 pages include 50 of our short stories (and how many have you read? 🙂 ) We’re certainly not alone in our celebrations, either. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first printed 152 years ago, this month!
How far down the rabbit hole are you willing to go?
In a world that often seems polarized, today we want to celebrate two words that are most often misunderstood: respect and competition.
We use respect as a stick, and wield it over others. Respect your elders, respect your boss, show some respect for ___…
Respect isn’t external, it’s internal. Re-spect: literally to look twice. To live with awareness of your ideas and your choices not because someone else told you that it was necessary but because, after giving it careful thought it makes sense to you. It’s about action, not re-action. Respect is the essence of life, to be true to one’s self.
Competition has an equally bad and equally undeserved reputation. We think of competition as some twisted version of Darwin’s theory – survival of the fittest (Darwin never actually said that by the way, but that’s another story).
We start instead with the Latin word competere: to strive together. One does not compete against anyone. To compete with someone is to seek the best in yourself AND to encourage the best in those around you.
FEAR can seem a powerful voice, but fear is just an acronym:
False
Expectations
Actualizing
Reality
(author unknown, but appreciated)
So, in closing out today’s post we want you to join us in celebrating kindness. Here are a few places to get you started:
Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
More than halfway through October and we have yet to do a Photo of the Month post for September… oh, well. A part of the reason for that is because we’re currently on vacation in northern BC. We’ll have more to share about our adventures as we go along, but just to give you an example, yesterday we took a walk along the Butze Rapids Recreational Trail outside of Prince Rupert. It’s a 5½ km trail, and most people would likely complete the loop in 1½-2 hours, but being photographers we managed it in just shy of 5 hours. As we walked along, racing the snails as we went, we were endlessly captivated by what we saw and captured with our cameras. However, as often happens for us, the longer we were there the more the forest seeped into us, suffusing itself into our Being and making us a part…
Tree House (photo by Marcia)
Suffused
I have been suffused.
It began with the rain, rounding off my hard edges, wicking away doubts and fears and forming a fertile ground.
For the roots that began to seek the cracks, crevices and hidden places, gradually separating my bones and joints…
And planting a tree in my heart; a great cedar that outraced the wind to the sky then settled, staid…
An elder, passing wisdom to the young and listening to the travel songs of the birds, gathered over millenia…
Then leaning, tired, finally coming to rest and drawing a blanket of earth over my skin to sleep…
Only to be awakened by the calls of the young, nursing themselves with the tenderness of accumulated time…
Complete once more.
Nurse Log
Hugs,
M&M