ForumGarden

along-for-the-ride;1269204 wrote:

"From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens -

the garden outdoors,

the garden of pots and bowls in the house,

and the garden of the mind's eye."

- Katherine S. White


beautiful pics!:guitarist:guitarist

We have not seen any snow here...............yet. I like these pictures of dancing in the snow.

If you do have snow already, bundle up and go outside and enjoy it. Have a little fun for yourself. I know, I know...we are so busy during this time of year preparing for the holidays...but do take time for yourself.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas



Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light

From now on,

our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Make the Yule-tide gay,

From now on,

our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,

Happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more.

Through the years

We all will be together,

If the Fates allow

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

Watch the wonderful Judy Garland make magic with these words.

along-for-the-ride;1270412 wrote: We have not seen any snow here...............yet. I like these pictures of dancing in the snow.

If you do have snow already, bundle up and go outside and enjoy it. Have a little fun for yourself. I know, I know...we are so busy during this time of year preparing for the holidays...but do take time for yourself.


We had just a bit today, more for Wednesday, it was so nice to see.



pretty dancing in the snow pics.

An early Christmas present for the eyes and the ears; Enjoy!



YouTube - Pretty Little Baby Child

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Abby: In cities large and small across the globe, a sad reality occurs year after year. Children die. The causes vary —an auto accident, suicide, drive-by shooting, fire, illness, war or something completely different.

For the past 13 years, the Compassionate Friends, a national self-help support organization for families grieving the death of a child, has sponsored a Worldwide Candle Lighting during the difficult holidays to honor the memory of all children, no matter their age, who died too young.

Dear Abby readers, whether or not they have been personally touched by such a tragedy, are invited to remember all children who have died by joining in the Worldwide Candle Lighting on Sunday, Dec. 13. Although officially held for one hour at 7 p. m. local time, this has become an event where hundreds of services in memory of children are held throughout the day around the world.

Those unable to attend is encouraged to light candles in their home. Please join us in honoring these children who are loved, missed and always remembered.

Patricia Loder, executive director, the Compassionate Friends

Dear Patricia: I am pleased to help spread the word. Your organization is a valuable resource for families and friends of those who have experienced the loss of a child. Readers, you can locate local services on the Compassionate Friends Web site: Home or by calling (toll-free) 877-969-0010.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will light a candle for my first son who died in infancy of meningitis.

Favorite Christmas Quotes

#1 What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.

Agnes M. Pharo



#2 And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

Dr. Seuss

#3 The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

Helen Keller



#4 Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don't quite know how to put our love into words.

Harlan Miller



#5 I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.

Shirley Temple

#6 Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

#7 Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.

Unknown

#8 What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.

Unknown

#9 If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.

Unknown

#10 I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

Charles Dickens



:):-6

#6 Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale



:-6

Hey Odie!

Now...................let's go for that sleigh ride.........

YouTube - Sleigh Ride- Boston Pops

along-for-the-ride;1272386 wrote: Hey Odie!

Now...................let's go for that sleigh ride.........

YouTube - Sleigh Ride- Boston Pops


awesome AFTR!

nothing beats seeing wild horses running in the snow!:guitarist

Are you young at heart?

Young At Heart

Fairy tales can come true ~ it can happen to you

If you’re young at heart.

For it’s hard you will find~ to be narrow of mind.

When you’re young at heart.

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes

You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams

And life gets more exciting with each passing day

And love is either in your heart or on its way.

Don’t you know that it’s worth

Every treasure on earth

To be young at heart?

For as rich as you are~ it’s much better by far

To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105 ~ look at all you’ll derive

Out of being alive~ and here is the best part~

You have a head start~ if you are among the very young at heart.

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes

You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams

And life gets more exciting with each passing day

And love is either in your heart or on its way.

Don’t you know that it’s worth every treasure on earth

To be young at heart?

For as rich as you are~ it’s much better by far

To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105 ~ look at all you’ll derive

Out of being alive~ and here is the best part~

You have a head start~ if you are among the very young at heart.



Attached files

I can still hula!:yh_rotfl

I betcha can, Odie! :wah:



Little Christmas villages...................do you set up one in your home? They are just too cute.

Attached files

along-for-the-ride;1273016 wrote: I betcha can, Odie! :wah:



Little Christmas villages...................do you set up one in your home? They are just too cute.




I can hula, I just look funny now!:yh_rotfl

Oh the Christmas villages are adorable, I do have one, it has lighted street lamps, the houses and church are lit-up, I also have little benches with people sitting on them and a glass skating rink with children skating....but 2 of my 4 cats are always eating it.:yh_rotfl



I used rolls of cotton to make it look like snow.



it been away now for 4 years now because of the cats.



yours is spectular!:-6



the little cars are so sweet!

much much bigger than mine.

love your 2 Christmas trees to!:guitarist

"Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true"

Hey Kids!

"What is on your wish list this year? You've not created one yet. Get busy and start making one now. Santa Claus will need to know what you want. Instead of saying, "I wish I had", start asking for specific things.

Do you really think that he is a mind reader? Well come to think of it he might be but lets be safe and make a list anyway. In it you'll want to list everything you want, need, or desire. Start with the most important things first then continue writing until you're finish.

In order to be eligible to get the things on your list it will be based on if you are naughty or nice. Be sure to be as good as possible to make Santa Claus nice list. The harder you work at it the better you will become and will want to do it all the time.

That's right Santa is magic, his mind is made up easy, and is extremely hard to change unless you change. So that means you will want to influence, persuade, and encourage him to like you. Point him in a direction in your life where you are excelling. Make serious suggestions that are likable and are influential.

In closing, Santa Claus checks his naughty and nice list twice. It's up to you to be good and I mean very good. So that you will get as many things you put on your list as possible. A visit from him would mean the world to you so don't forget to set out some milk and cookies."



:D

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I'm among great company.

I like being a hot topic of the week. It's a lot better than hot flashes. :wah:

Attached files

Time Magazines 2009 Person of the Year:



Ben Bernanke

A bald man with a gray beard and tired eyes is sitting in his oversize Washington office, talking about the economy. He doesn't have a commanding presence. He isn't a mesmerizing speaker. He has none of the look-at-me swagger or listen-to-me charisma so common among men with oversize Washington offices. His arguments aren't partisan or ideological; they're methodical, grounded in data and the latest academic literature. When he doesn't know something, he doesn't bluster or bluff. He's professorial, which makes sense, because he spent most of his career as a professor.

He is not, in other words, a typical Beltway power broker. He's shy. He doesn't do the D.C. dinner-party circuit; he prefers to eat at home with his wife, who still makes him do the dishes and take out the trash. Then they do crosswords or read. Because Ben Bernanke is a nerd.

(See pictures of Ben Bernanke's life from childhood to chairmanship.)

He just happens to be the most powerful nerd on the planet.

Do you agree with this choice?

Atleast back in 2006,according to Time magazine, WE were special. :wah:

along-for-the-ride;1273564 wrote: Atleast back in 2006,according to Time magazine, WE were special. :wah:


:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

Imagine that. :sneaky:

Twiggy's Photoshopped Olay ads banned in England editor

Perhaps we should start calling 2009 the year of the airbrush. The latest Photoshop scandal involves not an emaciated model nor a bizarrely-retouched actress on the cover of a fashion magazine, but instead a 60-year-old icon with not enough crows' feet for anyone's liking.

Let's catch you up: Last summer, beauty company Olay debuted its Definity eye cream campaign depicting model Twiggy looking far younger, smoother, and firmer than her then 59 years should suggest. The '60s fashion star appeared virtually wrinkle-free in the ads and, since her baby-faced visage was selling anti-aging cream to older women, quite a few people—including bloggers, news outlets, and the British Parliament—grew quite disturbed.

In August, British lawmakers called for a ban on the digitally altered ads, suggesting they mislead the public. And, in the ensuing months, the U.K's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received hundreds of complaints from the public, claiming the Olay images were "socially irresponsible" and could have a "negative impact on people's perceptions of their own body image, " The Guardian reports.

Finally, yesterday, the ASA banned the complete set of Olay Twiggy ads, ruling that the post-production retouching could give consumers a "misleading impression of the effect the product could achieve."

You think?

In the ads, Twiggy says, "Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes" and "Because younger-looking eyes never go out of fashion...[it] reduces the look of wrinkles and dark circles for brighter, younger-looking eyes."

However, since Olay admits to "minor retouching" around Twiggy's eyelid area (essentially wiping out any indication of undereye darkness, bags, and fine lines), we know the cream is not really her secret. Instead it's a skilled computer technician, which is something you just can't bottle and sell for $23.89. Nor is this "secret" available to most women. Honestly, it's refreshing that, with the banning of these ads, finally someone is saying just that.

Source:

The Guardian, Celebitchy

Just for fun, let's watch Santa dance. (He's especially jolly after visiting Kathy Ellen on the beach.) :wah:



Christmas games, Christmas music, Christmas karaoke

Another sad example of the old adage, "Money can't buy happiness".





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



By Brenda Jones

Dec 19, 2009



A man won part of a $19 million jackpot and has vanished into thin air, leaving his wife evicted! Arnim Ramdass had the winning ticket along with a group of co-workers in June 2007. They hit big and after taxes, fees and other charges for taking the cash up front as opposed to a 20-year pay out, each worker had about $450,000 of winnings left. That was enough to leave wife Donna Campbell.



Lottery Winner Leaves Wife Homeless - Vanishes

The house they shared still had a mortgage and bills, but the husband stopped paying them, vanished and now she is out! The couple are still legally married, but with no money and a husband in hiding, this past Tuesday Donna was evicted from her home.



***



"I have asked myself over and over what I did to deserve this, to deserve this ending," Campbell said. "I have no idea where he is." According to "The Financial," the house was "auctioned off in July, but the owners let Campbell stay until now as she tried to untangle a complicated legal case that is still being fought in family court."

"I thought winning the Lotto was supposed to bring together a family, a husband and his wife,'' Campbell said earlier this week, right before getting the boot. "But all I got was deception and lies.''

Christmas at my office:



I am responsible for the little village on top of the filing cabinets, the decorations on the bulletin board and the wreath on the window. We all decorated the tree.

Remember.............I work in Personnel at a Poultry Plant. :wah:

along-for-the-ride;1274650 wrote: Christmas at my office:



I am responsible for the little village on top of the filing cabinets, the decorations on the bulletin board and the wreath on the window. We all decorated the tree.

Remember.............I work in Personnel at a Poultry Plant. :wah:


you did a great job decorating the office!:guitarist

broc, broc, broc, broc!:yh_rotfl

Well today is Monday. but..............I'm not at the office. Sick Day for me. Bad cold.I'll probably take another nap after while. Achy breaky body.

along-for-the-ride;1274793 wrote: Well today is Monday. but..............I'm not at the office. Sick Day for me. Bad cold.I'll probably take another nap after while. Achy breaky body.


ahhhhhhhhhhh hope you feel better, drink lots and rest.:-4

Thanks, Odie. I did get plenty of rest and drank lots of fluids. I went to work today. I still have my cold, but I do feel better.



AaahChooo! :wah:

Need some last minute Christmas gift suggestions?



“Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

Oren Arnold



:)

along-for-the-ride;1275340 wrote: Thanks, Odie. I did get plenty of rest and drank lots of fluids. I went to work today. I still have my cold, but I do feel better.



AaahChooo! :wah:


go bless you!

next time, don`t sneeze on my screen!:yh_rotfl

glad you feel better hun.:-4

along-for-the-ride;1275356 wrote: Need some last minute Christmas gift suggestions?



“Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

Oren Arnold



:)




excellent!

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), 1867)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Words to a Christmas carol written many years ago. How true they are today.

Merry Christmas to all my friends here on Forum Garden wherever you may be.

May your day be filled with joy, love and peace.

Merry Christmas!:-4

Christmas Day in Southeast Georgia..........



The weather outside is frightful.

Our tree is so delightful.

As long as we don't complain,

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.



Having a cozy Christmas. :wah:

along-for-the-ride;1275965 wrote: Christmas Day in Southeast Georgia..........



The weather outside is frightful.

Our tree is so delightful.

As long as we don't complain,

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.



Having a cozy Christmas. :wah:


same poem for here!:wah:

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. ~Hamilton Wright Mabie



Or woman either.

Just for laughs, visit this website and browse the photos of "bad" Christmas gifts. You may take issue with some of the items on display (I did)..............they weren't so bad.



Bad Gift Emporium





:wah:

along-for-the-ride;1276435 wrote: Just for laughs, visit this website and browse the photos of "bad" Christmas gifts. You may take issue with some of the items on display (I did)..............they weren't so bad.



Bad Gift Emporium





:wah:


I was never that bad!:yh_rotfl

Tonight we are supposed to have a hard freeze...as opposed to a "soft" freeze.

Temps down into the mid-twentys. Brrr.

I'm thinking.....winter gardens................

along-for-the-ride;1276832 wrote: Tonight we are supposed to have a hard freeze...as opposed to a "soft" freeze.

Temps down into the mid-twentys. Brrr.

I'm thinking.....winter gardens................


your yard looks stunning in the winter!

-4F here!

Rare New Year's Eve 'blue moon' to ring in 2010

Associated Press .

LOS ANGELES - Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve.

Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue — the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.

A full moon occurred on Dec. 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the full moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.

The New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas. A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.

Blue moons have no astronomical significance, said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Blue moon' is just a name in the same sense as a hunter's moon' or a harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

The popular definition of blue moon came about after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misinterpreted the Maine Farmer's Almanac and labeled a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the almanac defined a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.

Though Sky & Telescope corrected the error decades later, the definition caught on. For purists, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a blue moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.

:-1;)

I've got an idea.........................let's face the music and dance......:guitarist

YouTube - Blue Moon - The Marcels (1961)

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

G. K. Chesterton quotes (English born Gabonese Critic, Essayist, Novelist and Poet, 1874-1936

My New Years Day Dinner Menu:

Barbequed Boston Butt Roast

Blackeyes Peas

Turnip Greens

Brunswick Stew

Rice

Biscuits

Ya'll come.

Hubby and I just ate a plateful of the previous menu. It did turn out delicious. We are full. I do have leftovers. :wah:

Well....it's Saturday and I'm here at work. I've been un-Websensed for today anyway so I can enjoy the internet here at my desk. I found this article about working on Saturdays:

Ultimately, working on Saturdays is great because it doesn’t feel like work. You don’t have to be working if you don’t want to. You choose to.

So if feeling like we’re not working helps productivity, let’s dissect the ways that Saturdays are different than workdays.

•Easy pace- Weekends usually seem to move a little slower. In the every day hustle-’n-bustle of our crazy workdays, it’s nice to have a change of pace. The slower pace of the weekend is great for really buckling down and focusing.

•More focus- Social media sites are dead on the weekends, and the internet as a whole is a ghost town. People are typically just not around their computers or phones on the weekends, except for social reasons. There’s no stuffed feed readers, no full email inboxes, IM pings, or any other web-related distractions to speak of. Just interruption-free productivity.

•No pressure- You only have limited hours to every workday to finish up projects in the business world. However, weekends don’t really have the imaginary boundaries of 9-5, so there’s no constant pressure to get everything done in our short work days.

•No deadlines- Because weekends are supposed to be for resting, it makes sense that there is less pressure to finish projects and tasks. The mood of a weekend is much more relaxed, and odds are you’re just working to finish up a few details.

•The little, extra things. The coffee, the relaxing music, the casual clothing¦ all of these things add up to make the Saturday work experience more enjoyable.

•Looking forward to the rest of the day. Odds are you’ve got fun things planned for the reset of the Saturday (or you should!). Having activities to look forward to can vastly improve one’s mood.

The common denominator in the above list appears that to be that these factors soften the edges of traditional work environments. Stuffy, fast-paced, multi-tasking environments aren’t good for any worker. Granted, we’ll probably never get rid of things like deadlines and work hours in the business world, but the trick is softening the edges around these “requirements that the rest of the world has. Here are a few easy and quick ways that help:

•Take. More. Breaks. – A rested mind will work much more efficiently than an overloaded, circuit-blowing mind. Resting at timed intervals forces us to slow down. I recommend the cocktail approach of planning my day around big breaks and using Anti RSI (mac only) to make sure I’m taking smaller breaks at regular intervals. Switching activities also helps keep the day interesting.

•Tune Out. We choose to be immersed in distractions throughout the day. We have the power to tune them out, if we really want to.Disconnect from the internet, don’t check the email every 2 minutes, turn your cell phone off, set the IM client to away¦ these are just a few quick ways to keep digital distractions to a minimum, allowing you to work more efficiently.

•Automatically chop off a few tasks from your list. Humans are usually pretty bad at gauging what we’re capable of doing in a given timeframe ( and I’m the poster child for it). Odds are we’ve already scheduled too many things into our workday, making us stressed because deep down we know we probably won’t get to everything on the list. Starting the day behind can give add some serious strain to anyone’s day, even Mr. Covey himself! Chopping a few tasks off your list won’t hurt your productivity, because let’s face it, you probably weren’t going to get them done anyway.

•Add “padding to all deadlines. This may not be an option for everyone, but if possible you should always add a little padding to every deadline. If you think you can get a project done in 2 weeks, say you’ll get it done in 3. This allows for those unexpected setbacks to happen (as they always do), without messing up yourtimeframes and adding stress to the project. You can work without having to worry about the deadlines.

•Create inspiring work environments. If your work environment is pleasing to you, your work day will be more enjoyable. Little things like having good coffee or tea on hand can be soothing. A little mellow music like jazz, blues or classical adds that light, relaxed coffee shop feel to it.

•Plan fun stuff into your day. The reason why we dread getting up in the morning is that we have nothing fun to look forward to. Working ourselves silly for 8-10 hours a day so we can pay bills isn’t exactly a huge motivator to rise and shine. But, what if we did have other things to look forward to in the evening, or even while at work? Having little things to look forward to during the day greatly speeds up the work and lightens the mood. Try spicing the work day up with break times that include activities that you really enjoy out of your work area. Watch your favorite TV show, eat some ice cream, chase squirrels, anything that makes you look forward to the next break. [Note: If you already hate your job, this will help a little, but you'll probably still loathe getting up in the morning.] [Note #2: Contrary to popular belief, chasing squirrels can be very therapeutic.]

Any work environment, (save for maybe the military), can benefit from a little softening of the hard edges that we’ve grown accustomed to in the business world. More realistic expectations and a more casual approach to work can actually help us become more productive.





Let's go chase some squirrels............................

great info and so true!

sorry you had to work today.

Reminicing........

One of the pleasures of the "Home from School for the Christmas and New Years Holiday" week was playing a brand new game. We had no computers yet and the weather outside was cold and snowy and icy. We usually got a new game for Christmas, so my brothers and sister and I would stretch out on the floor or sit at the kitchen table and play a game. Fun times.

One of those games was called "Cootie" and looked like this:

Do you remember...

The Giant Cootie Game?



The Cootie game has been a favorite for over 50 years. Roll the Cootie die and if you roll a 1, you choose one of the Cootie bodies. If you roll a 2 you select a Cootie head and so on. The first to build a complete Cootie bug wins the game.

Do you have a favorite board game that you used to play?

Hello Diana,



Happy New Years to you and family:-4



I was thinking about you the other day. I was watchin PBS and they have a new food show on called...." Gourmets Adventures with Ruth." The show visited the "Blackberry Farm" in the Smokey Mountains. Wow, it was such a beautiful show.



I was wondering if you ever visited this place. It's a small, lovely hotel that gives you the real feel of a farm. You go out to the garden and pick the salads and veggies for lunch and then go fly fishing to catch salmon for dinner.



Try to look for the show. I think you'll love it. I'll try to post a few bits of info about the place.



Now I want to visit the Smokey Mountains:yh_rotfl



Gourmet Magazine: gourmet.com





YouTube - About Blackberry Farm - Gourmet Magazine





YouTube - Blackberry Farm



Blackberry Farm

Wow.....thanks for sharing, Kathy Ellen, looks like heaven. Hubby and I would enjoy spending the day on that farm.

Green acres is the place to be

Farm living is the life for me

Land spreading out so far and wide

Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside :wah:

While we are on the subject of "Farm Living", I found this article to be humorous. I do play the Farmville game on Facebook. I know it is just a GAME, not reality. :wah:

What Does Farmville Mean for Farmers?Borborygmi > Peter Smith on December 17, 2009 at 6:24 am PST



Stop caring about your virtual farm and start caring about real ones.

The sun always shines. Pink cows produce strawberry milk. Soybeans take two days to grow and ripen. Something is not right. It’s too clean. Nothing smells. Coffee bean grows next to squash. Millions of first-time farmers plant new crops every week. And—finally!—people pull out their wallets to support local agriculture. Welcome to Farmville.

Farmville has become a viral internet trend since its launch as a Facebook application this summer. It has now grown to 70 million users, making it the number one application on the social networking site. Players sign up and get fields, infrastructure, and cash. They’re tasked with creating bigger, better, and richer farms. The game is a rehash of the addictive Tamagotchi pet toy of the early 1990s, but instead of feeding a little “animal, you’re caring for a digital homestead with insatiable livestock and crops that need regular clicking and attention.

The virtual farm provides an odd mashup of social networking with back-to-the-land fantasies. Farmville offers no real sustenance, but its emphasis on cooperation, strategy, and creation represent a culturally significant development in the often violent world of gaming. It’s a simulation with less stimulation, a sort of virtual country calm that transports us somewhere else for a minute or an hour. In doing so, the game taps deep into the American psyche, and the longing for an idyllic agrarian past. “People just want to get back to something simpler, one tech writer told NPR.

While using new media to express old agrarian values may seem paradoxical, Yi-Fu Tuan points out in his book Topophilia that the romantic appreciation of nature in literature has always arisen from wealth, privilege, and the urban advancement of society, which distances us from a gentle, unselfconscious involvement with the physical world. Farmville is just the latest iteration of the theme.

But Farmville’s farms don’t actually mirror reality. In Farmville, farmers can get high returns. Seeds mature at impossible rates. It’s a place without slaughtering. There’s little of the harsh reality that Americans value food only enough to spend 10 percent of their income on it. If you had any doubts, know that Farmville is complete fantasy.

In 2004, Eleanor Agnew wrote a memoir, Back From the Land, about her homesteading experience. After being lured by the idealism of living in nature and trying to live off the land, she eventually moved back to the city. Life in the country was tough. She spent an exorbitant amount of time making ketchup. Her marriage disintegrated. “Liking the idea was not enough, she writes. Liking just the idea of farming has little potential to transform the world; Farmville’s online community of artificial soybean farmers won’t improve our food system. To do that we need real farming, and that's not a game. It’s time to support actual small farmers and stop playing around.

Think positive:

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

John Ruskin

Winter Morning Poem

by Ogden Nash

Winter is the king of showmen

Turning tree stumps into snow men

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes

Smooth and clean and frosty white

The world looks good enough to bite

That's the season to be young

Catching snowflakes on your tongue

Snow is snowy when it's snowing

I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going





Let's go back to 1959 .......The Lawrence Welk Show.....and the Lennon Sisters...........A Cute Winter Song: