Pooh Bear

Gideon and I got to explore the Winnie the Pooh Trail today.  Prior to going we sat and watched some episodes of the show on YouTube.  He didn't remember much about the stories.  He had started reading the book some time recently and found it confusing.  After listening a little to the book and he and I talking about it he is less confused.  After listening to it myself again, I can understand why he was confused.  The play on words that Milne uses is brilliant, and perhaps more difficult for a very literal mind of the twenty-first century.

All that said, Gideon seemed to have a great time.  Running between the signs and skipping and singing despite the cold.  His favorite "house" along the trail was Pooh's.  He liked that there were jars set out for honey.  My favorite would be Eeyore's house; it was a nice wooden hut.  Although, Rabbit's house pretty cool too, it looked like the root system of a fallen tree. 

Hiking this trail with Gideon is my happy for today.  I'm grateful to have heard about this trail from someone at work and to have found it close to where I am house sitting.

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Black Friday

It is 3:40 PM and I am sitting in the old mill that houses Tandy Leather.  The smell of the leather is always wonderful.  I'm not sure what that smell is and it seems like such an odd fragrance to enjoy-dead animal.  However, I think it is the odor outside the store in the mill itself that I am enjoying more.  The smell of old wood I guess.  Perhaps lingering with a bit of machine oil.  Whatever it is, I'm sitting for a few minutes to appreciate it.

Six hours later I am back in my current temporary house after a nice relaxing afternoon and evening with a friend.  We went for a walk, ate and watched stuff on the television.  I'm very grateful to have friends that I can just chill with.

Things for me to be happy about today:

• Research, even though I didn't find what I am looking for.
• Old mill smell-no, I don't want it bottled.
• Walks.
• Friends.
• It is only Friday.  There is still more weekend. 

On the ceiling of the mill.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Good food, good company, good day.

This Thanksgiving was spent at a beach house with Z's family.  I spent a fair part of the day walking along the beach and nearby area.  The temperatures were in the mid 40's and I dressed for it and kept warm.  I'm grateful for the time I got to spend out in the fresh air today.  There were so many wonderful sites:  multi colored rocks, birds, shells, beautiful houses, islands, waves, the sunset and the moon rising with Venus.

My happy for today is the time spent with family and friends.

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Earlier, when looking for someplace nearby to walk, I thought I found a rail trial.  After wandering around in town today I did not find a rail trail.  When I thought I was close I would look at the map on my phone and there was no rail trail that I found   There are rail road tracks in town.  I am may have read the map incorrectly or just not gone far enough to find the trail.

The rail trail wasn't found but I found a nice, small park.  There was a sign that read that walking around the park was 1/3 mile.  I only went around it twice because I was looking for the rail trail.  There was a superette with a butcher that I may end up at again.  It was small, but but quaint and had what I needed.  I am thankful for the little store and happy that I got out for a walk before the rain came.

 Some art along the trail.

These were done by Adam Pearson.

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Tuesday the 26th of November

It was such a busy day and I was so tired I actually forgot to Blog last night.  😲  It was a busy day.  After work I went to my real home for a visit and to watch Gideon so his parents could go out to dinner with a friend.  The drive there from work was bright.  The house I am staying at is in the opposite direction from work so I don't have the sunrise in my face on the way to work or the sunset in the evening.  Whether I miss this or not is still being debated in my head.

The thing that I am most grateful for and happy about from Tuesday is getting my repaired computer back!  Z worked on it, saving all my stuff and then getting rid of whatever had caused the problem by doing a factory reset.  Had he not been able to pull things from the hard drive I would have lost all my pictures and documents.  I want to say, lesson learned, I will remember to regularly back everything up in the future.  I doubt I will.  But hey!  Here is your reminder, reader.  Back up your computer!  😊

Gideon and I made pumpkin gooey for Thursday.  We played Minecraft after dinner together with my friend in Texas.  We also watched an episode of Darkwing Duck on Disney+.  K has been enjoying reliving some of her childhood with this new streaming service.  I'm looking forward to some of the movies now and then.  I want to say that I don't watch much TV, but it tends to be on as background noise house sitting this time.  That or music from my phone.  Gideon and I had a good time tonight.  He was so helpful and we were both in a fairly good mood. 

At work today I got inspired to do a little bit of writing and scribbled a story/fan fiction.  It isn't complete, but I may continue it and actually finish it and show it to the teacher.  We'll see how brave I am feeling if I get it done. 

Now to start on my day so I have something fun to write about tonight.  😉

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Run On Sentences

Today went much better at work than I thought it would.  The kids were rambunctious, but not horribly so.  The weather was clear, so I went for a walk after.  There is a trail sign I have been passing on the drive back to the house after work and it was calling me.  I know why now.  Some of those reasons are mine though and I will not dwell on them here.  Those reasons pulled at heart strings that played a sad tune. 

There were happy reasons that the trail called to me too, those reasons I will share.  There was a waterfall.  Not a huge one.  It was one that set my mind to dreaming.  I dreamed that instead of just capturing this place with a photo, that I could art.  That I could sit on that nearby rock with a pad of paper and be able to find a way to draw or paint that black water as it sped along to turn a dingy white as it fell, roaring down to scramble away over the rocks and then relax again as it spread out toward whatever lay ahead.   A daydream that within it had me sitting there long enough that I would be able to hear the water as if it were music and that I would be able to discern the different sounds within the roar like some hear the different instruments in an orchestra.   These thoughts energized me and lifted my soul.  These thoughts and daydreams are my happy things for today.

These things that made me happy are also to be grateful for.  I am also grateful for the long conversation this afternoon with my friend from Texas.  Because of that talk I sat down and did more weaving, ate dinner, and she inspired me to do some writing.  I haven't been good about writing this month of November.  Over 900 words today and I think I may at least have written more than the last time I tried to do anything for NaNoWriMo.  If I write the entire long weekend, it is doubtful that I will get the 50,000 words for the month.  More than last time is good enough for now.

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Short post

Yesterday I managed to complete all the things on my to do list and there were 11 things.  Today I got 4 out of the 5 done.  It was a cold rainy day and I spent the day inside not feeling well.  I did do a bunch of research on starting a business which was not on my to do list.  I also took a nap. 

Even though I wasn't feeling well, there are still things to be grateful for.  For starters, I am thankful that I had the time to relax today and hopefully fight whatever might be bringing me down.  I'm also grateful that there were leftovers from last night's dinner to heat up tonight.  An easy dinner that included vegetables and proteins was appreciated, the alternative would probably have been a peanut butter sandwich. 

My happy for today is that I have a good beginning to a weaving task.

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Blue Job Mountain--picture heavy

According to this website there are 17 active standing fire towers in New Hampshire.  Today I found one atop Blue Job Mountain, elevation 1357 ft.  This marks the second fire tower I have been to this year and I feel that I must now search out the other active ones over the next year or so.  I may decide to include the 12 inactive ones as well.  There are 62 that are no longer standing.  I wonder what it would have been like to be a person who watches for fires back in the days before cellular phones.  Perhaps that is research for another day.  I did research a little and found this article about Blue Job Mountain that I figured I would share.  My hope was to find out how this mountain got its name.  That is still a mystery for me.

There are many things for me to be grateful for today and most surround this hike. 

• Often, when I hike, I thank things I pass-trees, rocks, the hawk I saw.  It may be that they are beautiful, or placed in just the right spot for my foot to not get wet, or provide a strong hold when the trail is rough.  There were many to be grateful for along the way today.
• My shoes may not be the best quality, but they kept me from slipping on rocks today and I am thankful for that.
• Smiles and greetings from passersby.
• Snow on the White Mountains.  I'm grateful to see this, it was beautiful off in the distance to see a white snow-capped mountain.  
• Thankful that I remembered to bring my battery pack so I could continue to take pictures and have a map on my phone for the entire hike.
• Along the hike I took a bunch of pictures (thankful for the camera in my phone) and I tend to go for taking just a corner of my face.  However, I have been considering making some kind of video journal thing that would require me to video record myself.  This is still very much up in the air, but I took some selfies that included my face today.
• There were eleven things on my to do list for today.  I have nine of them completed so far.
• Pond ice that made me think of ice skating.  It is still too soon for that.
• Dreaming with K about starting a business.
• Just thankful that I was able to push myself to get out and do things today.

That was a longish list of things to be grateful for so I will chose just one thing to be a happy for today and that is my feeling like I can accomplish things.  Some days are not so productive or are a different kind of productive.  It was a good day.  And yes, hiking today was productive.

Map

Something has been eating this tree.

The fire tower and cellular tower.

They may not be the prettiest things, 

but I am thankful for the cell towers too.

Views from the tower.

The panoramic views are tiny on my monitor.

I'm not sure how accurate the PeakLens app is, 

but I climbed Mount Major with friends earlier this year.

 Ice on the pond on my way to Little Blue Job Mountain.

This is looking towards Blue Job Mountain where the fire tower was.

 Snow in the distance!

My best guess is that is Mount Washington.

Close up of the snowy mountain.

The pointy mountain left of Mount Washington and closer is most likely Mount Chocorua.

And I have a face.  😉

The trail came back to the tower and I had a thought.

What if I take a selfie of myself where the "camera in use" is taking a picture of me.

Well, I couldn't find the camera, but the sign is in the shadows behind me.

☮

Orion

Friday!!  The holiday season is rough in the school system.  The students tend to be distracted for one reason or another and difficult to manage.  That season is here.

This is also the season for gratitude.   This evening I went home to visit the family and go to craft night.  I also did some laundry to bring back to my house sitting place.  My gratitude is for my family.  The laughter, sharing, plans and a little bit of the PBS special are what my mind needed tonight.

My happy is the view when I walked out the door tonight.  I tried to capture Orion hanging in the night sky.  It looks pretty good on my phone.

☮