A Rosy August 9th To You!

 I present, for your approval, the best

in my possession.

One of the benefits of August are the roses.

Which I photographed yesterday.

I hope you have a delightful day.

And!

May the Almighty bless you with his presence.

🐦‍⬛🍁🐈‍⬛

Poets & Thinkers & Singers

 

 
            “Tell me, Ralph,” said Millicent one day while seated on a piece of river driftwood by the Silver River watching it flow, “What is the essential nature of the Forest People?”
            “Oh, I see,” said Ralph. “You’ve been pondering verities again.”
            “Don’t tease me, Ralph. Isn’t that question at the very nub?” said Milly turning her blue eyes upon his brown eyes, gauging his expression.
            “I’m not really teasing you, Milly. It’s hard to explain, though you might be one of the few to get it,” he was watching the river murmur and roll too. He was thinking that somehow its continual motion must be a metaphor for something. There it was, and there it went!
            “OK, since time on this particular planet began, there have been several, at least, types of human. We are human and you, are the latest version of human.
            “You could almost see it as a huge Venn diagram reaching back into the unknown history of life on Earth. There is a considerable overlap between you and we. You know that. You’ve met my family,” said Ralph.
            “No question about that,” agreed Milly. “Then why all the mystery and the hiding, and how are we not alike?”
            “You could see it in terms of a myth. In the story, perhaps, there was a time of deciding and dividing the races of man. Your people chose material progress, and were very good at it I must say! But, in the story, my people chose to be skilled in the intangible. You could also say that this choice pleased the Creator and that He blessed us. He gave us physical strength, but more than that He allowed us to develop the unseen arts. He enlarged our memories, our ability with language too. Think of the Sagas or the songs of any non-literate society. We are like that to some extent. Our words, though many, are not written down.
            “As for remaining hidden, it’s pure self-defense. You know what has happened over and over among men toward other men. You saw what happened to the people who lived here, and were shoved to the side.
            “The fear and disdain of mankind is born into us,” said Ralph, though he was smiling.
            “How is your ability with language different from ours?” said Milly.
            “Well, I have noticed that a lot of human talk is void. Nothing comes of it,” said Ralph.
            “I have to admit that’s true. Sometimes it seems like a sort of human barking!” said Milly.
            “The Power that Spoke the worlds into being, gave us a tiny sip of that ability. That’s the gift of being able to speak a thing into existence. Or out of existence for that matter.
            “I will say that I think that ability with words and concepts is latent in your people too, if they just knew it. There is a kind of blindness among men,” said Ralph. “Some lady I heard of said ‘Words make worlds’, and that is true.”
            “So tell me about hiding from us. And what’s the deal with all those tree and stump stories online?” said Milly.
            “A guy comes out into the forest. He is or isn’t looking for one of us. If he is, and succeeds, what he sees will look like what he expects to see. A monster perhaps, more or less, depending on his heart. So we try to avoid him. There’s no use trying deceive us, we can hear your heart and intentions loudly!
            “One of the best ways of remaining hidden if he suddenly meets one of us, is to shield him from the shock by causing him to see a tree or a stump. Now, some people can see through this, hence the stories!” said Ralph.
            “How can you do that?” asked Milly, perplexed.
            “It’s kind of an override. I sort of tell him that he sees a tree and he sees a tree.”
            “Telepathy?” said Milly, nodding.
            “Yeah, but the trick is to not have him notice it happening,” said Ralph.
            “Does any of that help?” he asked.
            “Yes..” she said slowly. “How it looks to us is that in some ways you perform magic. To a materialist world, it seems impossible. To most people it’s just imagination or lies.”
            “And it seems to us that mankind wants to capture and categorize everything, render it into data, then discount it as nothing at all,” said Ralph, gazing around at the sky and the river and the forest.
            “You know, there’s only one thing that can break this divide. You and I, and my Ramona and children, have done it!” said Ralph. “Ranger Rick and Dexter and Hannah too!”
            “Love and Only Love,” said Milly. “It’s a song.”
            “Can you sing it to me?” said Ralph with a grin.
            “No! I have to play it for you on a small machine!” said Milly, laughing.
            “I’m getting a little chilly sitting by this river, can we go hang around with Ramona?”
            “Sure, she’d like to see you, and it’s warm by the fire,” said Ralph.

🍁🌲🍁

August 8, 2020

             This nice fellow guards the sheep on a farm beside the small highway which leads to Silvana, WA. He, or another just like him has been there for as long as I've been driving up to the country butcher. I've long puzzled over the orange ball attached to his collar. Maybe it's to keep him from leaping the fence when people like me stop to talk to him.

            He has no sense of humor whatsoever. It's all duty with that guy.

            A little further down the road you can make a right and cross a small river and head out to the blueberry farm. It looks like nothing is out there, so they put encouraging little signs on the power poles.

            What a green place!

            I just wanted you guys to know I was thinking of you, even if I didn't have time for a story to be born.

            These are the good old days! I wish you all the joy your hearts can hold.

🍁

Fall is coming!

The Purrsday Meow & Review

 

 
            “Good morning! Happy Purrsday to all, as Purr usual!,” said Suzy, enjoying her own mild joke. “So, I guess what we are doing here is having an informal sort of round robin interview.”
            “It’s good to catch up with each other, and give the readers a gentle heads up,” added Toots.
            “This IS the MEOW, after all,” said Suzy. “Do you have news, Toots?”
            “Only that my shop mate,  dear Sammie, caught and devoured a living cricket! Then, having consumed it, it made her tummy funny, and she urped its particles up!” said Toots.
            “Well, I, for one, am flat jealous,” said Suzy. “There is no prey around here. I haven’t seen even a spider or a fly, let alone a mouse.”
            “Mr. Baby, it’s good to see you today. Kind of you to visit,” said Toots.
            “Thanks, but it wasn’t my idea! She had to go today, so she dumped me here and took Charley along. Apparently, Charley possesses no initiative,” grumped Mr. Baby.
            “That just means that Charley doesn’t try to run away all the time,” said Suzy.
            “But, I bet it’s nice to be near Suzy,” giggled Toots.
            “Hey!” yowled Suzy.
            “Any other news?” said Toots smoothly. “How about those Tomkittens?”
            “There’s always something. Let’s see. Oh, the new backpack. Someone left it down where they could get at it, then Sweetie got the zipper open. He was apprehended wholly inside looking out. Booker looked on, full of admiration.
            “Never in all my days has it occurred to me to do such a thing,” mused Suzy.
            “What say you, in your defense, Sweetie?” said Toots.
            “Only that it is my sworn duty as a Scout to defend our Beloved Mistress from all dangers!” said Sweetie, solemnly.
            “You cleared her backpack?” said Toots.
            “Yes. I wasn’t sure about that package of jerky, so I bit it, to make sure,” said Sweetie.
            “Good man!” said Mr. Baby. “Let’s hear Booker out. What say you, Young Sir?”
          “I climb, Sir! No spot is too high, no slope too steep, for the sake of Herself, I climb to spot trouble. From my vantage on top of the easel, or the fridge, I see all below!” proclaimed Booker proudly. “Wow! M’WOW!”
            “Order!” yelled Sammie. “Please refrain from yowling during the meeting!”
            “Sorry,” said Booker. “Sometime I just feel like yelling Wow.”
            “I’m sure we all do, from time to time. It’s OK,” said Sammie.
            “I wish I could eat a cricket,” said Sweetie. “How did you like it?”
            “I saw the thing hopping around, and my compulsion to hunt just took over! I pounced on it and crunched it down! It was glorious! Then something happened and it just came back up, but for the moment of triumph, it was worth the barfing!” Sammie looked pleased.
            “Buddy, are you there?” said Toots. “News? Opinions? Wisdom?”
            “I’m listening,” said Buddy. “Regarding yowling, I quite understand the need. Didn’t you ever suddenly get lonely, just somewhere in your house? At those times it’s best to call out as loudly as you can! Sing it! Let them know you’re lonely!”
            “Oh, quite, I’m sure,” said Sammie, courteously.
            “Anything else?” said Toots.
            “Yeah!” said Sweetie, “You guys ever jump in the fridge? You should! It’s great!”
            “It is great!” said Booker, who always goes second.
            “Shall we take a vote?” said Toots. “All those who have ever jumped into the fridge, raise your paw!”
            Sweetie and Booker were the only cats waving their paws, and giggling.
            “Just as I suspected,” said Toots.
            “Well, that’s the Purrsday wrap up, I believe,” said Suzy. “Shall we call it done, Toots?”
           “Yes, dear, that’s enough for today!” said Toots. “Thank you all for Purrticipating™! See you next time!”
            “Meow, over and out!” said Suzy!

🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛

It's Just Ralph and Maeve Talking

 

            “What’s the word bird,” said Ralph, comfortably suspended in air like he does sometimes, legs crossed, yoga style.
            “I’ve got one,” said Maeve. “This is from Millicent’s Colin, by way of Millicent.”
            “I hope it doesn’t make me put my feet down,” said Ralph. “What does her public want now?”
            “Three different readers, over the last year, have said your kind are nothing more than Indian paranoia, laid on top of Old Timer’s lies, and modern wishful thinking. IOW, you ain’t real because nobody finds bodies or graves. They think this is a fine, conclusive argument. No bodies, no Forest Giants. Obviously.
            “Well, Boss, Milly says she ignored the first two, but when the last one wrote in, she decided she needed to address the question,” said Maeve. “Then Colin asked her the same thing at home.” 

            She was on his shoulder, so she was levitating, too even though it’s silly for a bird to levitate, if you think about it.
            “Did she remind them that nobody finds bear bodies either?” said Ralph, putting one foot down on the forest floor.
            “She hasn’t written yet, Boss,” said Maeve.
            Ralph sighed and put his other foot on the ground. He took a seat on his cedar log.
            “They don’t find our dead because we are not animals, and we don’t want them to find our dead. Doesn’t that make sense?” he said.
            “It makes sense to me, but I bet that letter writer would like to know more,” said Maeve.
            “Tell Milly to tell that guy that we bury them deep and put a boulder on top that a Cat couldn’t move. That’s all  he needs to know. We bury them deep. If somebody did figure out where, they are very unlikely to dig one up. Of course, that’s just for public consumption.
            “The truth is a little more complicated,” said Ralph.
            “How complicated?” said Maeve.
            “I guess it’s OK if Milly knows this, but she has to not let on to anyone, oh maybe Colin is OK too.
            “Basically we hide our dead deep in the ground, or under a boulder, or deep in a cave, out of sight. But the body doesn’t stay there long. Over the course of a few days, it evaporates away, bones and all. The spirit goes back to the Maker, and the body returns to the world of matter like that. It just isn’t there after a while. Of course nobody has found a body. Our bodies don’t keep. We don’t preserve them, or burn them, or anything else,” said Ralph.
            “Well, that sure maintains the mystery,” said Maeve.
            “Yup. That’s the way we like it, nobody can prove one way or the other if we exist or not,” said Ralph, smiling again.
            “I like a mystery,” said Maeve.
            “So do I,” said Ralph. “But just between you and me, Birdy, some, such as babies, or very pure souls just leave. Poof.”
            “A mystery, within a mystery,” said Maeve.
            “Yes,” said Ralph, resuming his position in the air. “Mystery within a mystery.”

⭐

August 4, 2026, A Tootsday Thread

 It was a stormy day, with that dramatic lighting,

Somewhere in flyover country.

June 29, 2016.

I bet it was Montana. 

Where do you think we were?

I'm going to start letting my camera record where I was!

Have a beautiful day mon bon amies!!

🐦‍⬛🖤🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🖤🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

A Foot In Two Camps

 

            The next time Ranger Rick saw Ralph they were sitting in the station office, chewing the fat, as per usual. Neither one of them was very worried about some camper bursting into the room suddenly. It was a quiet day in the campground. One tent camper was out there hiking or something.
            Anyhow, Ralph had this vanishing thing down. He could do it in the time it took to take a breath.
            Rick had picked up a couple of day old Smørkage at the bakery, and he and Ralph were working on those and the first pot of coffee of the day. Dexter hadn’t shown up for work yet.
            “So, Ralph, my ebullient old buddy, I’ve been thinking,” said Rick, setting his mug down with a small thump.
            “Now, Rick,” said Ralph, “You know no good can come of that!” But he was laughing of course. And he set his mug down too.
            “What is it this time, my small relatively hairless confrere?” Ralph inquired.
            “Why all the slipping around? Why the hiding all the time? You know your people, and you know mine. You have a foot in both camps, kinda, sorta,” said Rick.  “It’s like you guys bounce off of us or something!”
            “In a nutshell, and getting down to it, your kind, except me and thee, and all that, are dangerous and loud!” said Ralph. “I’m used to it, like you said, two camps. But to your average backwoods Forest Man the noise is maddening! I tune it out. Most of them can’t.
            “I’m not claiming that every human person is dangerous. Most are just loud. I mean, if I wanted to I could tell you what that camper out on the trail is thinking. It’s like a P.A. system. It never shuts off.
            “We know what you’re thinking and want, loudly and clearly, from a long way off. Scary stuff, Rick,” Ralph sat back and waited.
            “You know, Ralph, I’ve often thought that it’s a huge mercy that we don’t hear each other’s minds rattling on,” said Rick. “It must be maddening. Can’t they shut it off?”
            “That’s hard because it’s both repellent and attractive. We are a curious lot, some of us have pretty goofy senses of humor, and we want to know, if we run into a human person, what they want out in the woods,” said Ralph.
            “It’s mostly that, plus the mothers and fathers don’t want their kids full of human ideas. Disruptive to peace that would be! They want the little ones uncorrupted, I’m sorry to say,” said Ralph.
            “I can’t say I’m terribly surprised, or proud of that,” said Rick, selecting another piece of cake and shoving the plate toward Ralph.
            “It’s a situation alright, but you know, on the other hand, sometimes we will run into human person who shines with love and innocent good intentions. It’s worth the price of avoiding the others. Little people usually start out that way. We enjoy their sweet minds. That’s why you hear often of human children being watched over by one of us,” said Ralph.     “Long ago, when I was pretty young myself, there was a child, younger than me, that I followed through the forest just making sure that she was OK.”
            “She never knew you were there?” said Rick.
            “She probably has figured it out by now,” said Ralph.
            “You know, Ralph, for a Wild Man of the Woods, you are a really sweet guy,” said Rick.
            “Thanks, a lot of us are nice guys at heart, but most of them just want to live in the forest and be left alone.”
            “Makes perfect sense to me,” said Rick, leaning back in his chair and stretching thoughtfully.
            “I better head back home and see if Ramona needs me,” said Ralph.
            “Tell her hi from me,” said Rick.
            “Evermore!” said Ralph. As he left the office, he was scanning the sky, and laughing.

🐦‍⬛