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Violet wrote:..I'm not sure what you mean by "The Navajo Nation was at your door".. did I overlook something?.. (again)..

Our Navajo neighbors, who live across the street in the park here, are going through difficult times. I overlooked something. :-)

Casey

Well, Silver is loaded, Violet. You're enthusiasm appears to have waned a bit, but once I commit to something I'm like a pit bull of sorts. So we'll see what we see for you. (This is our way anyhow, though it's better to have somebody to blame if something goes wrong. :)

Casey

.. oh, no!.. my enthusiasm hasna' waned.. it's just a time thing.. I have to be judicious in terms of the amount of time I put in here is all.. no, I am quite delighted thinking of you and E out scouring the landscape for signs from God.. you can't know how that touches me.. (good luck, you two)..

Hello cable modem. Hiya, Sissel, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?

Well... It was a day of perfect beauty, the weather and the clouds, up through Zion and the valley that goes up to Bryce Canyon, where we finally decided to go again. Got lots of Zion pictures. Silver did a standout job of getting us up there, though once again we arrived at sunset so I figured we'd get Bryce-in-the-sunlight pictures in the morning. We'd prepared for three days to sleep in the truck, we remembered everything except my reading glasses. We went through Panguitch and up the hill to find a place off the road. The first one had a great view but was too windy. The second one wasn't windy but had a cow skeleton beside it (people hijack cows at times here). The third one was full of beer cans (E didn't care for that). The fourth one only had a sheep carcass 20 yards away, BUT there were three little stuffed ducks there dressed in suits and carrying tiny Aflak briefcases (in great condition so we brought them home).

So we knew that was the place.

I got everything set up and we ate. E set up the cushions we're using for a bed in the back of Silver. I'll leave out a lot of irrelevant details. Anyway we both got in the bed and fit okay. Mr. Darcy was just trying to get used to sleeping by our feet instead of our heads as he normally does, and the party pickups started arriving. I guess that site is a favorite for beer parties and this was Saturday night. Even if the partiers hadn't shown up, it was so quiet you could hear the bats' wings snap. I could tell I'd never make it. But the important part is that we succeeded in getting set up. We just forgot the air conditioner too, say.

Here are a few photos from the trip - two of human signs we saw along the way that I thought you might appreciate with the morning tea.

Spotted at Zion View Estates:


Spotted just outside of Panguitch:


The first campsite with the great view:


A Turkey Vulture over Zion:


A picture of Zion's "Watchman" mountain and Virgin River from the "Bridge of perfect photography":


We got home at about 1AM after avoiding more mule deer determined to jump in front of me than I've ever seen in my life.

There was a wonderful consolation prize, though. Driving back through Zion under a nearly full moon was just awe-inspiring. It all looked so surreal and peaceful, like a warm Antarctica where the white sandstone is, dark and brooding where the red sandstone is. Very cool, I want to go back and try time lapse when I figure out the manual settings on this camera. Very cool, anyway.

On a sadder note, today we said goodbye to Dorothy, our Ruby Slippers from Kansas. We traded her straight across for Navajo jewelry created by our artisan neighbors. Really elegant stuff, silver and turquoise and bone and all kinds of different stones.

When I handed over the title, this little yellow bird... one sec... a Green-Backed Lesser Goldfinch, picked this bare branch right above us to sit on where he sang and sang (they sound like kittens, singing "tee-yee", "tee-yee"). He sang back to my whistle even. One of those things you just stare at when it happens.

Good to know your enthusiasm for our work is still unbridled.

I'm almost recovered from our campout... (AFLAK)

Casey

Hi Casey,

I realize they are posted here for Violet, but I'm really enjoying your beautiful photos. Love the road signs and the river photos. Is the small black dog in the 'great view campsite' photo Mr. Darcy? If so, he is perfectly named...

Hi Casey.. (oh hi, I. F.. these photos are beautiful, aren't they?)...

I don't know if this is a sign or what but we had a severe power outage up here in my little corner of upstate New York today, and there wasn't even a storm.. the power just got turned on, but most of the day we had no light, no pump for the water, no computer, etc.. We have a small generator, but we're really not prepared for a serious outage..

.. I like your human sign pics.. I may look into those numbers.. and the photo taken on The Bridge of Perfect Photography is.. well, just perfect.. it reminds me of a place called Cathedral Rock in Sedona AZ.. or even Monument Valley.. as no imperfect pictures are even possible at such sites..

.. oh, I like considering what gets forgotten.. so, here you are looking to read signs.. and you forgot your reading glasses (!).. perchance you don't need them to do this sort of "reading"..

... I did manage to look up the symbolic meanings associated with "hare".. and I'm not done reading yet.. I had reason to want to know about this subject, in any event (oddly enough), so my seeing this hare has served to remind me to get to it.. Though by no means an expert, I can say that the hare is associated with the moon in various ways.. so there's that moon again.. some cultures even refer to The Hare in the Moon.. as opposed to The Man in the Moon.. and you spoke of that lovely moon lit drive through Zion, which was so otherworldly sounding.. which reminds me.. there was something I read about the hare in relation to that rather fragile land between the unconscious and conscious mind.. the hare being "the messenger" from the unconscious, as it were.. this being said to do with transformation, as cited in reference to the trickster tradition, in this case, Native American.. oh, and the moon, as I've said elsewhere, is itself associated with the unconscious..

.. in any case, the moon on your moon lit drive transformed the landscape, and the drive sounded in some ways a transformative experience..

.. maybe to be truly awake (in the profoundest sense) one has one foot planted in this conscious reality and the other in that unconscious land that tempers all we see.. wondrousness, then, may well be when one experiences the world and something of its latent potential or latent self -- all at once, as it were..

..oh, I read too about the baby hare being born with his eyes opened.. I don't recall now how this was interpreted, but I so like the image of that..

.. Anyway, I will read a bit more on this.. and am still looking at your other posts as well.. sorry you lost Dorothy.. though Dorothy is never really lost, and she's an apt reference, existing as she does between this conscious world and that world beyond.. those magic ruby slippers symbolic of self knowledge, it seems.. for isn't it through just such self recognition that she finds her way "home"?.. For you and E, Dorothy's in some sense a trickster, having transformed herself into this lovely Indian jewelry.. I love that silver and turquoise.. and believe that's another symbolic trail here (of course, there is the Turquoise Trail itself).. so later on that..

.. anyway, for now, I hope you don't mind all this free associating.. like Dorothy, it's not for me to know exactly where the heck I'm going.. or, in the turquoise and silver sense, what it is I may be turning into (!)..

.. all of which might be to say that we look outside ourselves so to see ourselves at times.. while the Buddhists see the notion of "self" as illusory to begin with.. but.. well that's a slightly different matter.. for now, most of us are in the land of self and other selves.. we are as limited as the world is delineated for us.. still, we are perhaps possessed of unlimited potential..

... well, maybe all of the above has something to do with your travels, you and E. (beneath those open skies where our spirits soar like birds)..


.. home is.. well, wherever we are.. though most especially where we find ourselves taken by all that awes us..


v i o l e t (flower).. drinking English Breakfast tea (don’t tell Georges)..
.. it’s rather cold up here.. and dampish..

.. oh dear.. forgot to mention the three Aflak ducks.. and we do need some good insurance against bad signs (!).. (oh, and there's something about Three Hares too)..

.. [to be continued..]...



.. morning edit, over green tea.. just a tweak or two.. where our spirits "soar" instead of "fly".. nicer, I think..

A rare opportunity to post one from the archives, my favorite from the Bridge So Far:


Cottontails, like hares, nest above ground. When E was teaching in Lima, Ohio, I uncovered a "form" of tiny baby cottontails with the lawnmower (confessing how long it was between my mowings). We raised them and kept one. Symbolic uses of rabbits remind me of "Jaws", as we called him. I can tell you they were the cutest refugees from nature we raised - with the exception possibly of the baby ducks that followed me around my cabinet shop like I was their mother.

As for the silver & turquoise with other precious stones, remember that when I say "I" it's really "We", and, while We have made progress, expediency dictates compromise. Besides, I love that stuff. I could get rich on eBay maybe.

Also... The Navajo are a proud people.

I see the hare on the moon, the hermit crab on the moon, and the Chief Crazy Horse bust on the moon. When I was shown where the "man in the moon" was supposed to be I couldn't believe the stretch that was necessary for that!

I'm glad I'm Buddhist but don't have to become one. I am a chronic toucher.

[Edited for brevity's sake, hopefully you got what I meant]

While we have made progress, expedience dictates compromise.

Casey

Casey.. okay, I don't have time to write much, but something's going on with me, psyche wise.. I woke up very early (I sometimes suffer from morning insomnia, starting about four a.m.).. anyway, there's something going on here with the three Aflak ducks.. and the Three Hares.. since what came to me at 4 a.m. was the Three Little Kittens (the ones that lost their mittens)..

.. hmm... how does that go?.. there were three little kittens who lost their mittens and didn't know where to find them.. leave them alone and -- oh no, I'm mixing rhymes.. that's little bow peep..

.. little bow peep lost her sheep and didn't know where to find them.. leave them alone and they will come home wagging their tails behind them..

.. then how does the three little kittens go?.. (need to look it up I guess)..

ANYWAY.. then I finally got some sleep and awoke at a later hour, and what was on my mind, but.. what?.. oh god, I can't remember now.. oh, Three Blind Mice..

.. three blind mice, three blind mice.. see how they run, see how they run.. something about the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a something knife.. have you ever seen such a sight in your life as three blind mice..

.. SO CASEY.. hmm.. something's brewing in the netherworld of my unconscious it seems.. the number three is involved (very holy methinks).. and all these little critters..

.. I shall keep you posted.. if something occurs to you on this, let me know.. (if three holy men come up to you and explain the secrets of existence, for example.. that would be worth mentioning I think..)...

.. bye for now, C,
late morning English Breakfast, honey and milk.. (very good)..
v i o l e t (flower).. hmm.. I seem to have three purple petals missing..

.. oh, and the photo.. that view.. just stunning..

... I wanted to add another "three" issue, as today is 09 09 09.. date wise (thank god those nines aren't upside down (!).. oh, and I saw a license plate with 89 on it.. that number stood out somehow, and is on one of your road signs.. need to look into that number I think..

.. (even later note).. oh, the farmer's wife cut off their tails with a carving knife.. it just came to me..


.. okay.. on late lunch break.. found the words to this..


This Nursery Rhyme first appeared in the "Only True Mother Goose Melodies" in 1843.

Three Little Kittens

Three little kittens they lost their mittens, and they began to cry,
"Oh mother dear, we sadly fear that we have lost our mittens."
"What! Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie."
"Meeow, meeow, meeow, now we shall have no pie."
The three little kittens they found their mittens,
And they began to cry,
"Oh mother dear, see here, see here,
For we have found our mittens."
"Put on your mittens, you silly kittens
And you shall have some pie."
"Meeow, meeow, meeow,
Now let us have some pie."
The three little kittens put on their mittens,
And soon ate up the pie,
"Oh mother dear, we greatly fear
That we have soiled our mittens."
"What! soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens!"
Then they began to cry, "Meeow, meeow, meeow"
Then they began to sigh.
The three little kittens they washed their mittens,
And hung them out to dry,
"Oh mother dear, do you not hear
That we have washed our mittens."
"What! washed your mittens, you are good kittens
But I smell a rat close by."
"Meeow, meeow, meeow" we smell a rat close by...


.. I'm concerned about the rat somehow, Casey.. I guess we need to apply some caution..




edits.. the farmer's wife cut "off" their tails.. and I cut an 'f' off of 'off' twice.. having written cut 'of' their tails.. hmm..

.. I'm concerned about the rat somehow, Casey.. I guess we need to apply some caution..

Ms. Glick's wonderful analytical talents are certainly being curtailed by something. As are Mr. Obama's, Mr Robertson's, etc... etc... etc... snicker...

A pack rat, perhaps.

The Poets define Fire - who can intervene for the Poets but a Poet.

Casey

.
#9 #9 #9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwQiQLqAKOA

- - -

Casey like I.F. I've been enjoying these images.

.. okay.. this is a first.. I went once again to look up the symbolic significance of Three Blind Mice.. and found my own thread on, uh, Google, cited thusly..

5. leonardcohenforum.com • View topic - I'll not love again
"I did manage to look up the symbolic meanings associated with .... knife.. have you ever seen such a sight in your life as three blind mice. ..."
viewtopic.php?f=11&p=193020


.. just thought I'd mention it.. be back later..

.. (could it be I smell a rat?.. I don't know.. it's all a bit too big brother-ish for me I guess.. I mean, can't we be left alone in this little back room of the Turning Ugly Losers Poetry Section?? .. (*).. isn't that what distinguishes us, sort of like the kids at the back of the class room that throw spit balls and stuff??.. oh, well.. I guess sooner or later you get "ratted" on..)..



* edit.. oh, correction.. the Turning Ugly Losers Poetry by Forum Members Section..

Don't look at me... You're the genius, the elder, the multi-tasker mom always likes best. I'm just a dreamer.

Casey

.
from Cate:

#9 #9 #9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwQiQLqAKOA

VERY spooky Cate! I had forgotten about The White Album – brain cells going...

After I listened to that, I listened to the next YouTube on the list – Revolution # 9 backwards (yllauqe ykoops!)

(Apparently, another single digit revolution date won't happen again for 92 years...)

92 years - well I guess we must make the most of today then!
hope you're have a lucky day.

meh