Author: boomingbanter

Krishna is working his way through a mountain of papers. Most days this brings a discovery of some kind that is shared with Aaron and me.

Yesterday he uncovered some old photos that were among my Mum’s papers.

These included photos of both my grandfathers.

I’d never met them as they had died many years before I was born and yet I feel I know them.

With Aaron being adopted I so wish we could find out something about his family tree.

The way Grandpa Barr is sitting with his cap on and his kind smile reminds me a lot of my Dad. He looks very approachable and simple. He even folds his arms just like my Dad did!

Grandpa Gibson looks very handsome and much more authoritative as befits the winner of the Military Medal for bravery.

Is this just my imagination or is it because we hear so much about our grandparents that we feel we know them?

Do we see our parents or loved ones or even ourselves in their faces?

What is it we know and what is it that we inherit?

Blessing # 66 – Knowing where we come from

We has a sad event at the start of the week.

Early Monday morning Aaron spotted something in the neighbor’s yard.

We hoped against hope that it was an extra large mole hill of which we have many.

Alas no it was a dead fawn.

Aaron was brave enough to inspect it and it looked like the work of a Cayote.

Our neighbor called Wildlife Ohio and they came immediately to pick up the poor creature.

The wildlife specialist explained that the fawn may have been injured by a car but managed to get to the yard.

Since the Coyotes follow the herd they can pounce when any injury occurs.

No sooner was the little creature taken away than down came the buzzards.

They set about a clean up of their own. All part of the food chain and life in the wild I suppose.

While the buzzards were still at work the Doe returned looking for her baby.

Not even these massive birds or Dibley barking frightened her away.

A live life lesson in nature that I’d really rather not have seen.

Blessing # 65 – Mother Love in Mother Nature

 

Comedy is one of those things that is very much part of our culture.

Each country has its own sense of humor and of course we think our own is the funniest.

In our house British Comedy is highly valued and, not being biased of course, is considered best.

Nearly every Saturday evening, thanks to our wonderful PBS WOSU-Columbus, we watch Mrs Bucket or Mrs Bouquet on Keeping Up Appearances.

All of us know someone like Hyacinth Bucket. She is out to impress but has a heart of gold and is the go to person in times of crisis!!!

Maybe it is because the characters are all parodies of people we know that we can watch the same episode many times and still chuckle.

Came across this clip this morning. It is one of the all time classics from Hyacinth so thought it would do us all good to have a giggle.

What’s your favorite sketch.

Share it if you can.

Blessing # 64 – Laughter

What’s blooming at your place right now?

It seems in India something really special is happening with the once in a generation blooming of the NEELAKURINJI

I’d never heard of this until yesterday when Krishna Venkateswaran posted a cartoon about it by GREEN HUMOUR

A selfie with a Neelakurinji may be out of the question for most of us. Any of you who are close to some though please do take a pic and post.

For the rest of us let’s just snuggle up with our best bloom.

Nothing blooming?

Hug a tree and share for fun!!!!!

Blessing # 63 – Hugs the best of the season

 

This morning I saw a post from friends who had been to the beautiful Botanic Gardens in Belfast this weekend and had taken some lovely photos.

These gardens have been open to the public since the 1890s and much enjoyed by the people of Belfast and beyond.

The beauty and the adventure of these gardens meant so much for city kids like my friend Carol and me.

On good days we would walk, or run, the two miles from our home to get to “The Tanys” as we fondly called the gardens.

This was 50 years ago, so we were really quite young when we took off there for the day.

Sometimes we would take a drink and a sandwich and lie in the grass for our picnic. Often we made daisy chains to take home.

No one worried back then about dangers and in good weather children were outside from dawn till dusk during the school holidays.

The smell of the roses and other flowers was wonderful and the Palm House was like something out of a movie.

The Botanic Palm House was the inspiration for the one later built at Kew Gardens in London and was packed with giant plants including banana trees.

Can you imagine how much this meant to kids from terraced houses to see a real banana growing.

We would also pretend when we were in that palm house that it was the Day of the Triffids and that things would hatch from the massive plants.

It is great to see that these gardens are still as popular today as ever.

Sometimes a banana is needed just as much if not more than an apple!

Blessing # 62 – Parks for Play

In the pursuit of order, the big clear it challenge has moved from the garage to the kitchen.

Quite some forgotten photos that were stashed away in the back of drawers have tumbled out. As you might guess a lot of these are of Aaron including his first passport photo.

He has a nice big bumb on his chin in this photo. We laugh to this day about how he got that. We were in the HSBC in Shanghai and it had a very fancy marble floor. Of course the lad was running around and managed to fall right into a huge waste paper bin!

We also came across many of other family members from years ago.

Photos that seem most touching are those of the people we know as little ones.

This goes for our fur babies too and for all little critters. Take this beautiful photo that Sandy MacHattie took recently of a baby penguin.

Could anything be sweeter.

Blessing # 61 – Little Loves

 

 

 

We have deer all around our neighborhood.

They have certainly been living in these parts much longer than any of us humans.

No doubt about it, the tracks and trails are definitely theirs.

One of their trails happens to be across our yard. This means no plant is safe from a nibble unless behind a solid fence.

Slowly I am starting to understand what they like and what they don’t like to eat and am planting accordingly in the flower beds.

This year, the locally recommended Irish Spring Soap has had some effect in keeping them from coming up to the front door!

Once grated the soap looks like shredded green cheese and smells really powerful. I’m buying it in multipacks now!!!

This year I’ve been able to observe the herd more carefully and have noticed that the Bucks seem to hang out together in a group and the Does in another group with the Fawns.

It looks like the biggest Buck is maybe teaching the younger ones.

A few mornings ago I saw this really huge Stag with about five younger Bucks and it looked very much like he was watching over them.

Wasn’t quick enough to get a photo of that experience but it was surprising as I’d thought Stags would have been singular sorts.

Is it possible?

Blessing # 60– Patient Leadership

When I was taking the trash to the roadside just look who popped out of a flower bed.

A really huge butterfly the likes of which I’d never seen.

Hoping that this whopper is one and the same as BIG BUG who ate our parsley and featured in Banter a few weeks ago.

Just goes to show what parsley can do for you!!!

Fortunately this critter wasn’t moving too fast so I’d the time to run and get my phone to take a photo.

In terms of size you can see it was approximately the same as a 14 oz can that was at hand in the recycling bin.

Was a bit worried that the beauty was about to leave for heaven as it was struggling to take flight but it disappeared while Dibley and I were having our evening walk.

 

Blessing # 59 – Transitions of Bugs to Butterflies

A few days ago coming over the bridge on the Olentangy River by our home I took this picture of a big old tree branch.

It is so solid and majestic and set me thinking about how important tree branches are for our lovely planet.

What would a tree be without them and where would we be if they didn’t exist?

They serve so many purposes, shade, habitats, source of construction material but most of all there is something about tree branches that spells connection.

Today, thanks to Krishna Venkateswaran, came a link to  BRIGHTVIBES about an initiative to build a great wall of trees all the way across Africa.

This has been going on for some time and offers so much promise for the future. Please share to support.

Blessing #58 – Restoration

 

 

Our niece Brinda who is an architect working in Mumbai India  has taken the very brave decision to start her own business Urban Creative.

She is focusing on her passion, the environment, and has just this week announced the launch of her first product.

This is such a big step and one you can follow by visiting her Urban Creative blog.

What Brinda has done made me think of other dear friends who have built their business around their passion.

Take Connie Kelly in Switzerland who has applied her passion for nutrition in starting her own company Connie’s Kitchen and launching the company’s first product a great tasting ketchup just last month.

For my cousin Joyce in England her passion for cleaning became the successful Dolly Mops business.

For my bestie Lesley Megarity, her caring heart for the elderly over the past 25 years resulted in the award winning Domestic Care Ltd that is now a major employer of over 600 people in Northern Ireland

For Jaspal Bajwa who is based in Canada and is the founder of Sunja Circle it was about teaching and coaching and helping other in building leadership skills.

All around the globe there are many like Brinda and Connie who are starting up and others like Lesley, Joyce and Jaspal who now have well established companies.

No matter the phase of their business each one is inspirational in taking their passion and with it truly walking their talk!!!

What is your passion and what can you do with it? Post your story for us all to see.

Blessing # 57 – Learning from the leaps that others take