Noury's Creative World…

This morning during our walk, Miss Raylene and I were talking about a lot of things, and suddenly, I was thinking that I love taking pictures of nature and mainly of flowers.  They are so beautiful and splendorous.  Then, I imagined how the life of a botanist would be.  Then I said:  “That’s what I want to be in my next life, a botanist.”  I can only imagine what a beautiful profession that would be.  Your whole life concentrated on flora and I guess fauna also, so you know how to combat the friendly beasts and reptiles when you encounter them.

A botanist is a specialist in botany or in a branch of botany.  Botany is a branch of biology dealing with plant life.  Sounds just perfect for me.  I imagine myself somewhere in the Amazon, or some part of the tropics, or in Antarctica, looking for plant life.  I cannot imagine something more interesting or fascinating to do.  The only risks with this field, I could see myself fending snakes, leeches, frigid or hot inferno weather, or plain savage animals.    Ummm…Need to give it a bit more thought.

These beautiful images I borrowed from the book “Nature Notes for 1908” by Edith B. Holden.  She also penned The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  It was one of my best sellers when I had the bookshop.  Beautiful illustrations!  I imagined Ms. Holden had a beautiful life.  That’s the reflection I get from her books.

I also remember once in an Estate Sale in Florida, I bought an old suitcase for $5. and when I went home and opened, there was a collection of weeds from the late 1800’s all classified with their latin names, each displayed on a piece of board.  There were around 200 of these weeds.   I sold the set to a gentleman from New England for something like $600.  I really didn’t want to depart with them, but needed to pay rent.

How can you not like flowers.  They are a beautiful part of life.

This is from Miss Raylene’s garden.  It is a Weigela bush.  

These are on the right,  a Candy Tuft (white) and Dianthus-Fire Witch (pink)and on the left, blooming Azaleas in white, soft pin and reddish colors.  A sight to behold!

And here’s Pepita the squirrel having her breakfast.  This time she allowed me to come closer to her than ever before.  I love nature!  Here’s some information I copied from Purdue University’s “Women in Physics” site online, about one of our famous female botanists.

Elizabeth Britton

(1858-1934)
(September 1998)

Vital Life Statistics

Elizabeth Knight Britton was born on January 9, 1858, in New York City, New York. As a young girl, her parents moved to Cuba, and she was raised on the sugar plantation her family owned. She attended school in both Cuba and New York. She performed especially well in science.

Britton graduated from Hunter College in 1875. There she worked for the next ten years, dabbling in botany. Through her work, she established herself as a leading amateur botanist. She married Columbian College geologist Nathaniel Britton in August 1885.

She helped to found the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY.  In 1902 she founded the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America.

Elizabeth Britton died in the Bronx, New York, on February 25, 1934.

I hope you have enjoy my somewhat different posting as much as I did preparing it.  Expanding our horizons.

So it was today, 14th April, 2011 in Happyville, and on the way of becoming a botanist!

Your Happy Contessa

The name of this month, April,  is derived from the Greek word for “opening.”  From the “Nature Notes for 1906”  book.

This morning I went for a walk by myself in my own neighborhood, and I was feeling like the happy camper I am training myself to be.  Snapping pictures here and there, not a cloud for my collection on the beautiful blue sky, but the sun was in full blast at the time of the day…just all the ingredients to be grateful to be walking around.

Then…all of a sudden…two humongous dogs started charging towards me and the “I don’t care if they wreck you” owners were saying “they won’t hurt you, they are friendly dogs…” yeah! right!!  Those vicious dogs were trying to get a piece of my 62+ young body as a snack before their lunch time.  Thanks God I always carry with me a stick that looks like I took the plunger part out and I was just carry the remaining part.  Really, it is part of an extension pole I bought at the $ store.  Well, let’s continue with the attack.  I have yet to meet dogs that are labelled according to their owners, vicious, or be afraid, that they’ll bite you dogs.  Owners like to assume that their pets are just toys or human buddies.  Dogs are just that, dogs.  They need training so they can become your buddy or show some restrain.    Somewhat like human beings, we need training to learn how to behave.  Some of us skip that stage of development. 

Please keep your out of proportion dogs on a leash.  It is the law.  You see where I am going here, don’t you.  If you don’t,  don’t feel bad.

After yelling “stop” for I don’t know how many times, and moving my stick trying to keep them away from me, finally the owners came and took them back.  They acted as if they were the offended ones.  How typical of humanoids.  I was all shaken up, my heart racing and my mind full of dangerous thoughts.

That’s when I thought, this is the time where I need not to let what just happened affect me and the rest of my pleasant walk.  It was not easy at the beginning, and then that’s when the thought came racing across my mind. 

“My life as a whole is bigger than this single moment.  In the last moments of my life I am not even going to remember this incident, so I need to move on.”

I decided right there and then that I needed to move past that moment and concentrate on what I wanted to accomplish for the rest of my day.  Took a few deep breaths and kept on walking and concentrating on the beauty of the day and the moment.  Well, besides the “friendly doggies.”

I was bitten by a sweet cute doggie once.  That’s why I am always concerned about being around doggies per se.  My human mechanism has an alarm when I see a dog.  Sorry, dog owners and lovers.  I think they are adorable, but at a distance.

The point here is that I am continuing to learn that I need to control my emotions and what fuels them.  Mind over matter.  Old saying, but practical all the time.

The beautiful picture above is from a tree that I really don’t know the name, but it looks so beautiful.  Don’t you agree?  See the picture of the tree below.  And the fire hydrant for…the dogs.  How proper.

So it was today…13th April, 2011…a day that went to the dogs, and some exercises on  controlling my mind and my emotions.

Your Happy Contessa

“Some people come into your life for a season, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.”  Anonymous

Secretly,  I think most of us wish that our lives would be such as a fairy tale.  I am speaking for myself here.  Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and etc., etc.  Those little girls or women never get old, as in no-wrinkles.  They didn’t have to deal with finances, cleaning…toilets, having to seat down and do taxes.  That will be the day when we have a fairy tale that talks about doing taxes.  It will be called a nightmare!

Going back to fairy tales, sometimes I make a lot of “I wish my situation was such that I could…”   Well, when the situation I was wishing for materializes,  I start looking around like pretending that I don’t get it, that actually, the Big Guy has delivered.  Yes, the situation I had been wishing or hoping for is delivered by UPS, Postal Carrier, or just naturally.  Then, I am left with a big “What do I do now?”  This is what I have been asking for, and now I don’t know what to do.  I am 62+ young and at that moment I feel like a baby that does not have the foggiest idea what to do with a pork chop if you were to give it to her, just being 2 days old.  Are you following me, or am I too out there?

Case in point, my life is pretty uncomplicated as I write these words.  I need some stimulation, challenge, or something other than to think what I am going to blog about and taking pictures to add visual effect.  The taxes stress is outdated by now.  I miss the days when I used to complain that life was too difficult and that I wished that I would have some kind of peace.  I have 100% unadulterated peace.  Too much peace and quiet.  The fish?  I even thought about getting a pet.  Fish are the easiest, don’t balk, don’t have to take them out for walks twice a day, don’t have to clean up after them, well, to a certain degree…but the issue here is…I am still responsible for them if I need to travel in my search to complicate my life a bit more than what it is right now.

Remember when rocks used to be very popular as pets.  What decade was that?  The sixties, when everything went, well…I don’t remember, but I even considered making my own pet.  This is the ideal pet–total silence at all the time–but I don’t need to add silence to my already overbearing peace!  You must think I am nuts, but then,  people used to make fun of Einstein, hello!  I am not thinking for even a nano second that I am that bright, but I like to think out of the box.  So I am entitled to think and do what I want.  Fringe benefit of being 62+ something young.  Isn’t she a cute pet?

Frankly, this posting came out of desperation.  Not too much inspiration for today, so I had to concoct something.  And the fish gave me an idea when I was visiting my favorite rectangular box marketplace.  You know…the big W. 

Now that I have a decent amount of words, and the nano word counter is somewhat happy, I will leave you with two photos that I took this morning for my new collection of clouds.  I really like this new hobby.  I look at the sky now with a whole new meaning.  Hope you do the same too with whatever it is that pleases you.

You should see the incredible pictures shown on the Cloud Appreciation Society’s website.  They will take your breath away.  Check them out.

So it was for today…12th April, 2011 in Happyville, with lots of happy clouds all around.

Your Happy Contessa

“The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.”  From an email I received about friends and people in your life.

Yes, you read it right.  I am into cloud collecting as of this cloudy, very cloudy morning.  Sorry about those wires.  Something to consider for next mission in my search for clouds.

In this morning’s paper in the Science Section, there is a big article about the Cloud Appreciation Society whose motto is “Look up and Wonder.”  This made me think seriously about taking upon this new interest.  Don’t need anything but a pad to jot down observations.  But you know how we humans like to take something simple and make it complicated.  I thought that I need to learn about clouds.  There are a few books about the subject matter, but I think I’ll just learn something in the Free University (Google) and go from there and do the best I can. 

We like to complain on cloudy days that we miss our sunny sun, and that cloudy days make us blue, depressed, and on and on.  Well, this society has a membership of over 25,000 people and they are in over 87 countries and counting.  They are into changing the way we look at clouds.  Count me up!

I am wondering now what type of people love collecting clouds.  Are they as imaginative as I am?  Are they a bit nerdy?  Oops! not good labelling people.  Back to cloud collecting.

The good thing is that you don’t have to store or buy anything.  You just enjoy the sights, write it down and probably take a picture and move on to the next cloud.  This will be a wonderful thing to do when I get to visit Heaven.  Big clouds there.  Not so fast, cloud girl!

“We belive that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.”  A quote from the article.  Right, think about it, clouds inspire art, literature, mood swings, and sun bathing, and whatever else you can add to the list.  I am always looking for things to enrich my life and learn something new. 

These two photographs and the one at the beginning of the post were taken by me last August, 2008 on a trip to the Outer Banks, NC.  Probably my subconscious was already into cloud collecting, because I have many more photos of clouds.  They are so pure, magnificent looking and just there for all of us to admire.  But there is much more to clouds than it may seem.  I am about to find out.  I’ll share my new knowledge with all of you once in a while so we can learn together.  That’s if you are interested.  I hope you are.  Just thought about collecting sand from different beaches I visit.  Nice!  Always thinking.  My neurons are always restless.  Type A++

Now, this is today’s cloudy day.  But now it doesn’t seem that bad.  Learning to appreciate clouds in all forms, shape and how much space they take.  Today, they are covering my whole little piece of sky.  But it doesn’t bother me as much as before.  A toast to learning about our beautiful skies and its clouds.

So it was today…a beautiful cloudy, very cloudy day, April 11, 2011.  If you are into details, notice what is the background of my blog.   Clouds!  I took that picture also.  Just letting you know…

Your Happy Contessa

“Happiness does not come from wanting to be somewhere else, happiness comes from finding beauty and a stimulation or interest in the everyday surroundings in which you find yourself.”  Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Life is full of surprises…and today I received a very nice and happy one.  My daughter and her boyfriend were in Durham for a class reunion and on Sunday morning they surprised me with a visit.  They came bearing gifts.  I love my cutest bear and my “very favorite from now on” bag.  It felt like Christmas morning.  I have a lot of Christmas mornings throughout the year.  And I love them.

For mothers, children are the apple of our eyes.  What exactly does that mean?  I have yet to see an apple in the middle of anyone’s eyes, but that saying must have a powerful meaning, because we all use it.  For me it means that you are the most important thing in my life.  There it is.  Very meaningful.  I am saying for mothers, because I have never been a father, but I guess the meaning goes for them also.

It makes us all very happy when we see our children.  There is no parallel feeling created with the same meaning.  It does not matter how old our children get, they are always our babies.  I am 62+ young and my mother says she sees me as when I was a baby.  My mother has an incredible imagination.  But going back to what I was saying before, when  I see my daughter I see the beautiful baby she was.  Now she is an incredible gorgeous young woman.   Thanks sweetheart for the very lovely surprise!

On another subject matter…do you have a designated bunker just in case tornado alley pays you a visit?  This is my very personal bunker with guess what…a toilet!!  Last Saturday night we had so many thunderstorms, that I had to stop watching my recorded soaps and move over to my bunker.  I was ready to face the consequences of lighting, thunders and come to think of it, I need to make room for a mattress to cover myself in case my house decides to crumble under the stress.  It has to be a mini-mattress because as you can see, there’s hardly any space for anything much.  I can read, twist and turn plenty of times for circulation sake, so I don’t die from a circulation problem instead of a tornado adventure.  All and all this was my life for the past two days.  Hope yours were as exciting and happy as mine.

So it was today and last Saturday, April 10th, 2011…

Your Happy Contessa

“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”  Goethe, German poet, novelist, playwright and natural philosopher.

We human beings have had this need for validation, I think, from the moment we are born.  What is it to be validated?  In my book of definition, validation is when someone approves of you,  your actions or your situation.

Yesterday, I had a great moment.  I was pondering while cleaning the front door, and the thought that I don’t need to be validated crossed my mind.  I felt so liberated!

I do things because I want to do them.  Like this blog, I have a decent audience, for which I am forever grateful, have had nice milestones accomplished, but…I do it because I want to do it.  Not because I am looking for any kind of feedback or approval.  I love writing about the way I see things, and love even more sharing what I think are my beautiful pictures with you.

I believe we live in a world of a constant need to be validated.  Cars, houses, how many toilets your house has :), and so many other things.

Growing independent from this need is not easy, because that’s the nature of our ego.  The need to show them how good we are and seeking applause or approval.  But the funny thing is that everyone is playing the same game.  Merry-go-round.  The marketing companies love this weakness we humans have because that’s the way they make their living.  Oh well, someone has to do it.

I am trying to grow more and more independent from the need to be validated, because that helps me to avoid disappointments.  The moment I feel something is not deriving any pleasure or joy for me, I let go of things.  And that’s a good thing.  Hello Martha.

Validating aside, this little rascal has been voiding my camera every time I see him/her.  Today I had a somewhat decent opportunity to get a shot.  Here’s for your enjoyment.  I guess this rascal does not need any validation.

Today’s posting is short, but immense with wisdom.  I think.  Hope it makes you ponder over the very nice and happy weekend you will have.

So it was today, Friday, April 8th, 2011…Make it one of the happiest weekends ever!!  Just because.  See you next Monday!

Your Happy Contessa

“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”  Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and one of the most important logicians of the twentieth Century.

This is not the picture from yesterday’s post…Look and you shall find.

Somewhere in the Bible it says…Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, and knock and the door will be opened.  Have you ever put these words to the test?  I have.  I have been in the search for a small garden flag with a pineapple on it, because it is the symbol of southern hospitality.  I don’t want to extend hospitality to anyone looking at my house, I want them to BUY the house.  But I have to be subtle.  Welcome as it says on the flag should get them in the house and maybe if I tell them that they can keep the little flag, the plant and the wreath on the door, this may entice them to buy the whole house.  Let’s hope this cheap just created psychology of mine will work.

Let’s go back to ask, seek and knock.  Yes, I have put these words to the test.  And they work.  Just with a little asterisk (*) next to each one of them.  Take for example the garden flag with the pineapple on it.  If I wouldn’t have gone all the way to the next town to continue on my search…guess what…I would still be waiting for the answer to my asking.  In short, you can pray all you want, beg, cry and say that life is unfair, etc., etc., but if you don’t get off your derriere and do whatever it is your role to do…guess what…nothing is going to happen.  You can read the Holy Book and wear yourself out, waiting for the Almighty to deliver your golden knight, but if you don’t do your due diligence, no golden knight, or pineapple garden flag as in my case is going to show up.

Whatever you ask, seek or are knocking for, do it with absolute faith…but get the ball rolling and get going.  You have to meet your miracle half way.  That’s the definition of faith.  Expect things to happen, so go about your business as if they have already happened.

Sister Happy Contessa has spoken for today, another out of this world beautiful, and I mean,  beautiful day…I found what I had been asking for.  But I had to drive for one hour to find it.  Such is life.

Do you think I was invited to a party at our neighboring nuclear plant facility?  No…I was getting ready to go out and clean my lanai (screened porch for non-southerners).  The pollen is so bad, it gets into anything and everything and then it is misery to infinity and beyond.  

So…it was April 7th, 2011 in Happyville after having received an answer to ask and you shall receive.

Your Happy Contessa

“I’ve learned that you learn most from people who are learning themselves.”  Someone at age 62.  Not me.

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011…

You know we are just opening our senses to spring.  The creative juices have been hibernating, and the urge to make our homes look nice and pretty is just emerging from the cold and darkness of winter.

So…I went to our local nursery and bought a small-sized yellow petunia plant.  My house is yellow and that’s my favorite color.  Sunny and happy.  Just like me…sometimes.  I also purchased two stacks of pine needles.  Need to spruce up my front yard, because I am still in my quest to move to Florida, so the house is for sale.  Need to make it look very appealing to the forever evasive buyers.  I don’t know what people do with the flyers they take from the dispenser.  I tell my real estate agent that maybe they use as toilet paper, because they just disappear, but no sale yet.  Hard toilet paper, but maybe they put some softener.  I don’t know.  I am just guessing.  A bit of frustration is percolating in my thinking.

This is how my welcoming front door looks now.  Yellow, yellow and more yellow. 

The grass is still dormant.  It is taking its time to convert to green, in spite of being sprayed the other day with the color green.  The rain washed the dye away.  But I already did what I could to help with the transferring of ownership of this house to next occupant.  I am done here.  Need to move on to a new adventure.  Anyone looking to buy a nice house with three toilets?  Tomorrow I am going to get on my 6′ step ladder to wash the front of the house.  Vive la spring!

  This is totally unrelated to all said before.  Miss Raylene gave me some oranges.  I was reluctant to try them, because sometimes oranges can be a bit tart.  But yesterday out of desperation because I ran out of snacks, I took one orange and peeled with my hands and put a piece in my mouth…and the angels in heaven started singing a beautiful tune.  I had never tasted a sweeter orange in my life!  I love these oranges.  I gulped the first one in less than a minute, I think.  A toast to sweet oranges.  Muchas gracias Miss Raylene.  Let me add that the scent from the orange peel is just intoxicating, but in the most exquisite way. 

A close-up of one of the branches of a dogwood tree we saw this morning during our walkabout.  Sometimes I feel like a bird wanting to sing the beauties of spring.  It is a magnificent season…

I guess today I feel I have accomplished some minor tasks I had on my list of things to do for today.  Poco a poco…little by little.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  Use your imagination for the parallel symbolism here.  I have never eaten or plan to eat elephants.

So it was today…another glorious day in my quest for significance.

Your Happy Contessa

“You are only as good as the questions you ask.”  From a business magazine I subscribe to.  Now I really have to think hard before I open my mouth.  No stupid questions allowed.  As I said before, let them think that I am dumb, than open my mouth and remove any doubt.  We can make life sooo complicated!

When one of the most important thoughts of my day is “I need to clean the toilets,” all I can say is wow!  Do I have real problems.  I have three toilets in my little house.  Why the heck do I have so many of them?  Some people in the world don’t have any.  A little hole in the ground does the job.  But I live in a civilized society, so I need three toilets.  How many derrieres do I have?  A disappearing one!

This made me think this morning that…I need to get a life with less toilets.  Need to occupy my mind with other things.  Not important things, but things of significance.  That’s the difference.  I blog (really, it is a lot of babbling), try to eat healthy, clean my house, and clean it again.  And, oh yes, clean the toilets!  So much vacuuming is pulling the carpet away from the walls.  The dust recycles itself inside the house I don’t know how many times;  I also watch college basketball.  Sadly, season is coming to an end today.  I take lots of pictures to share with y’all, color my hair, read a lot, watch my Spanish soaps (leave those alone), etc., etc.

All in all I am busy most of the time, but I feel a need for something more.  Busy does not mean to me being accomplished.  Maybe that’s my problem.  I like to dig deeper and deeper, and one of these days, I am going to dig so deep, that there will be no way back.  Just kidding.  Maybe I’ll find some diamonds.  But I don’t like diamonds, I like pearls.  Well, I’ll go dig in the ocean.  Where is this going?  

I am in a quest to find something to do that will allow me to be so profoundly immersed on whatever it is that I’ll be doing, that toilets will not even enter my list of important things to do.  Just on the things to do list, very low on the list.  Perspective here is good.

As you can tell, this is a conundrum.  I am in the middle of it.  What should I do?  No one can tell me that.  I need to figure that out for myself.  My priorities are just that, mine.  You have your own set to take care of.

In the meantime, I will continue blabbing, taking pictures to share with you and to ponder on what mission I will be on to next with the different routes that I am taking in my journey.  I am searching and looking forward to what surprises may be in storage for me to discover. 

I am a woman with a mission.

Let’s talk about nature for a few seconds now.  You know that I have been showing you beautiful sights of nature, unmatchable to anything else.  Well, last night our neighborhood had some high winds and lots of rain.  It was really bad, but I was so taken with my allergies that I could have cared less if I ended up in Kansas to visit Dorothy and Toto.  But not so Miss Raylene’s beautiful garden. 

This is what happened to her beautiful pear tree.  Around 4:30 am she heard a loud bam,  and this is what she found this morning.  The big branch landed at about less than an inch of her beautiful new car.  Nature is beautiful, but it can be very destructive at the same time also.  I guess just like the rest of us.  Miss Raylene and her car are doing well, thank you very much.

So it was today, Tuesday, April 5th, 2011…another day to be grateful for.

Your Happy Contessa

“Entre Ser o no ser…yo soy.”  “Between to be or not to be…I am.”  From one of my soaps.

There’s a humongous debate taking place in my shrinking brain right now.  Should I eat my lunch (I am salivating like the Pavlovian dogs with no bell around), or just go ahead and start the posting to be published on Tuesday.  The big problema is that it was just now that I decided what the subject matter was going to be.  That’s a quote more or less from Winston S. Churchill. 

Never, never give up, even if the challenge in front of you is bigger than the planet, figuratively speaking.  The reason behind all of this is that in this morning’s paper (yes, Monday was a lucky day for me, I got my paper) in the Sports Section I found out that the Women’s Basketball team from Notre Dame(#2) beat the team of the #1 University of Connecticut (Uconn).  I was flabbergasted!  I had  taken it for granted that Uconn or Tennessee was going to win the National Championship.  Surprise, surprise.  Texas A&M #2, beat University of Tennessee #1, last Saturday I believe.   Life is full of surprises.  That’s why whenever we are confronted with anything that we think it is too big for us to resolve, remember Winston S. Churchill, but most of all the teams of Notre Dame and Texas A&M.  National Championship will be Tuesday night on Espn, in case you decide to watch this very interesting game.  Today Butler plays UConn for the Men’s National Championship.  May the best team win.

But the most important thing to remember is to never, never give up on your dreams, on your life, on your family, friends, and anything else you consider worthwhile.

Now that I have that incredible news off my chest, I will take you on my walkabout with Miss Raylene this morning and the beautiful sights we encounter during this spring season.  It is just magnificent. 

These two are cherry blossoms and a close-up.  They look like soft-pink cotton balls.  If you ever have a chance to see them in Washington, D.C. please make that one of your goals in life.  It is worth it.  It is like being in dreamland.

An azalea bush on the left and a bleeding heart on the right.  I had never seen one before.  If you look really close the little flower is in the shape of a heart, and has a section at the bottom that looks like a tear.  Simply beautiful!

Don’t you love tulips.  They are so beautiful.  Come to think of it, all of nature is spectacular in its own right.  From the very simple to the most elaborate.  Just stunning.  This is the season to admire nature in all its splendor.

Take some time to go around your neighborhood and be charmed with so much beauty.

So it was today…April 4th, 2011…another beautiful day on this side of paradise…

Your Happy Contessa

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”  Winston S. Churchill