Just when I’m trying to decompress after the election and wanting to relax a little about the economy, I just heard the Christmas tree industry will suffer its effects. I don’t want to hear anymore. Turn the volume off on local and world news. Let’s have quiet.
The sparkle, wonder, and beauty of the Christmas season are on my list of favorite things. I love the surprises, too. But at this moment, as I write, the stress is making me sweat, struggling to keep up with the ususal daily stuff.
Speaking of surprises…
Weeks have gone by without a glimpse of my friend, the Stinker. Yes, he's there with his eye on me.
Hello. It’s only me, and I see you, too.
So, are you going to just sit there?
Do something! I want to try a new feature on this camera to capture your usual flight away from me. Come to my house and snack on my overload of fishies…on second thought, don’t!
Eastern Bluebirds are back after a few weeks away.
Nice surprises :o)
Still begging for food
until the seasonal weather stuns them enough to sink to the bottom of the pond
and the frogs disappear ‘til Spring.
37 comments:
I'm so not ready for the commercialism of Christmas so early. So I've decided simply to ignore it. I'll shop and celebrate when I'm good and ready! And that won't be before I enjoy Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays.
Love the shots of the Heron. He's got you figured out all right.
HAHAHA! Me first!!
Don't get me started about Christmas ads in November, October...
I just can't stand it. I LOVE Thanksgiving and refuse to budge past it until we're past it.
PS: love the sneaky stinker!
Waaa... not first...
word verification fits my mood:
feronsiv
Nice shots, Mary! Beautiful fish you have there, hope the stinker does NOT come for a meal!! :-(
Christmas........blah, not wanting to think about it just yet, it's WAY TOOOOOO early.....but hey, I want to come and see Peppermint the Pony! LOL
I am still wondering about the motorized mascara.....what happens when the batteries die in the thing?? However can you color your lashes? By hand???? and will you have forgotten how to use the darned thing since it was motorized??? what a dilemma!!!
verification word "pedinta" is that short for predicament???
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones because I don't have anything to do with Christmas. The lights and things on other people's homes are pretty and I like looking ~ but I have none of the associated duties at all.
They're probably starting so soon, hoping they'll get people to shop earlier.
The truth is ~ with the economy ~ there will probably be very little commercialism. There's no point - and maybe that's a good thing.
Word verification: I wonder what gresigu means. It looks like some obscure Latin term. LOL
~*
*Susan swoops in to save the sanity*
Mary. Mary. (slap)
It is not necessary for you to be stressed about Christmas. Focus on Thanksgiving. Just because the retail industry has their panties in a knot about how they will make all their money, doesn't mean YOUR panties need to get into a knot, too.
Say it with me, ladies:
"Panties, UNTIE! I shall NOT succumb to the idiocy of Christmas festivals BEFORE Thanksgiving! I shall OVERCOME!"
Zoiks! Let's just try to get through one holiday at a time, shall we? If and when I survive Thanksgiving, I'll start worrying about Christmas!
And I love the shots of the sneaky heron: "Nobody here but us tree branches!"
Haha - my word verification is "swine"... Hmmph. What does it mean by that, do you think?
Oh Gosh Mary, we had our Christmas Open House where I work this past weekend. Crazy, I know. However if businesses don't do this early they get left out of the christmas buying frenzy. My boss tried not to do this so early for a few years and it hurt her cash flow. It is too bad.
Love seeing your Great Blue Heron. Those big fishes of yours are like big pets. Do you talk to them and pet them??
Raking leaves, mulching leaves, bagging leaves...raking, bagging, these are the ways I keep myself grounded that Christmas is not "right around the corner"! Try and ignore all that commercialism!!
Did you name the heron? Great name!! ha ha. Your posts are too funny. Thanks enjoyed my visit!!
I'm not going to do a thing about X-Mas until Thanksgiving is done. I actually started hearing an X-Mas song on the radio the other day and I switched it off quick. It was all of Nov. 8th.
HA! I am so with the rest of you on this, enough is enough. I had to go up to the mall today and they had these honkin globes all over the place adorned with honkin ornaments. At first I thought they were new traffic lights or something but this was much worse.
And yes we too have the 24/7 Christmas radio stations in the Boston area already.
I too am going to ignore the madness util after Christmas. I am one of those rare types of females though that doesn't start my Christmas shopping until a week before Christmas because I can't be around a bunch of people or I go nuts. I hit the stores at 6am and it works out fine.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pictures of the heron and how you add a little story behind if. Very enjoyable to look at and read.
stinker is sooooo cool. what a neat-o bird friend!
what awesome pix, Mary! are you sure you aren't a professional??
I'm with you on the making Christmas earlier...let's stick to Thanksgiving week, k folks?
Susan, "PANTIES, UNTIE?" Do your panties untie?
Why, yes they do, you saucy minx.
Jane, at 5:45am, it takes skill to use that mascara. I don't even bother that early in the morning and instead use my regular wand. But I must admit, the motorized wand does a better job if the operator is fully awake and cooperates :o)
I noticed on my way home today that the Christmas decorations had been hung on the town's lightpoles. Of course, Walmart had their Christmas candy out the day after Halloween:) Whatever happened to waiting until Christmas Eve to put up your tree??
Lovely to see all your birds and the sunshine, when it's cold and rainy here.
After years of working retail I don't even want to look at Christmas decorations. Sad isn't it. In a few weeks we can worry about Christmas.
Love the photos of your little stinker. Made you work for them.
No Christmas music "up here" but we've had teasers of snow - maybe it's the Christmas merchants trying to get us in the spirit!
I'm sorry, but NO Christmas here until AFTER the turkey. That's just the way it is darnnit! :c) I hate going into stores and hearing Christmas music now. Geeeshh.
I can remember growing up the most exciting thing about the day after Thanksgiving was going into the stores and seeing them all decorated for the first time! By the time Christmas comes around now, you're tired of it. I was astonished to see Santa Claus in the mall yesterday! I try not to let it all bring me down though...I'll celebrate each season as they come.
I heartily agree with all of your post! :) I'm still in August, so what's up with the Santa and commercials already?????? I even still have Lantana blooming---and I too haven't caught up with Thanksgiving yet, so why are THERE ALREADY PEOPLE WITH THEIR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ON????? I think I'll just go back to bed. :D Your photos are wonderful.
Dear Mary,
The birds and bees never worry about Christmas so I don't either.
Blue Heron is beautiful.
It looks warm at your house.
I think Indian Summer will come this weekend. I cannot have sugar plum fairies when the leaves are dancing and the turkey's are trotting.
May you enjoy walking in the Autumn air. Winter is still over a month away.
I am all for easy, enjoyable, stress free holidays.
I think I will fix the birds a cheese ball for Thanksgiving!
Sherry
That's it, girl! Call 'em on their obnoxious Thankoweenmas push. Don't buy into it. It's hard to escape the music, though, and that bugs me, because while you can deliberately look away from an out-of-season Christmas tree, you can't not hear something. It's desperation, is all, on the merchants' part.
Your huge pic of the heron looks fabbo!! I love that sequence! Too bad you can't pack him up and ship him to Nina to gorge on little bullfrogs.
Word verification: unditio. Seems apropros to Susan's comments.
Let the merchants push what they will.
Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been one of my fav holidays. It is so American, and it is focused on family and has nothing expected of it except good food and company.
The best.
So, hang on to it.
I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit much, either. So your nature photos and captions were a great spirit lifter for me in the middle of November. Thanks! I like seeing things from your point of view:)
Hi Mary,
I LOVE the Heron! I took some pictures of one recently but they don't look as good as yours! How I love their gracefulness, especially when they fly. And that golden eye is so cool.
Due to the economy and it's effects on our household I this is one year I won't have to stress about what to buy for Christmas. Because I'm hardly buying anything! And I'm not going to worry about it. That means there will be more time to relax, drink eggnog, and listen to Christmas music : )
I'll bet you'll find some outstanding bargins when you do finally start shopping!
Sharon
Bah, humbug!
Christmas cannot be right around the corner--my garden still needs to be rototilled!
Yard raked, closets cleaned,...
And whether I give myself one week or one month (plus or minus a few days)
I will be ready.
Starting the fuss now only puts more $ in retailers pockets.
And more crazed shoppers on e roads!
word ver= silly
BTW--waiting for a large package from you!
:-)
Nina, Delia so loves my Great Blue Heron that I told her I would make every effort to become fully aquainted with him enough to bring him to West Virginia in April. By then, he'll be a good passenger and you can take him from there... He'll enjoy bullfrog from breakfast, lunch, and dinner :o)
Totally agree with you Mary! Little can be done about it though. As some one else said, I'll do my Christmas shopping and celebrating in my own time thank you very much.
Your heron pictures are beautiful! Love that new camera and it's zoom. So delightful to see signs of early fall yet at your place. Thanks for sharing and making this gloomy day a little brighter.
I love your Stinker and his game of hide & seek.
November 15 is too early for Santa to leave the North Pole! The rush to rush Christmas is sad. There were stores here that had Christmas decorations in one aisle and Halloween pumpkins in another. I agree. Ignore it all! I don’t shop for Solstice or Christmas before December. I want to be as far away from the stores on Black Friday as possible. Even the idea of being in that mess makes me nervous.
fluse. I fluse to buy sugarplums in November!
I'm with you all.....don't think about shopping for the holidays just yet! Enjoy Thanksgiving for heavens sake! I so dislike all of the holiday hype! It just isn't time yet.
Your pics are wonderful....as usual. You heron is very shy Mary. Maybe by April you will have lured him well! Bullfrog ugh?
I luv-luv-luv the koi! They look huge.....and are so beautiful. Thanks for posting.
word veri - ziesse -
Hi Mary! I was just talking about this with my friend. "Remember the days when you saw nothing of Christmas until Black Friday?" I was talking to another friend and said, "I am already tired of Christmas. Every set of commercials has at least one. And this Saturday, 'The Grinch that Stole Christmas' is on." Ugh. My radio station announced today that beginning Thanksgiving Day, it will be 24 hours Christmas music. Double Ugh.
As always you have lovely pictures. It appears the fish are stocking up before winter gets here. Lisa
Mary, I don't think we're supposed to be prepared quite this early! I refuse to listen to holiday music this early (which I'm already hearing on the radio and in some stores) - it just doesn't feel like it's time yet.
My boss had Christmas music on in the office on Tuesday. I made him turn it off.
Nice zoom on the heron, I wondered why the heck you were posting pics of a dead tree!
They're playing Christmas music in the malls up here in Canada too. Even though our Thanksgiving is over, I'm still in pumpkin mode.
I will do my Christmas shopping later. There's no rush.
My son used to do his on Christmas eve. Now that he's married I think his wife does it. LOL.
Love the koi fish. I didn't know they slumbered on the bottom of the pond. Bluebirds back? Do they go away again??
Pretty soon--we'll be celebrating Christmas right after Labor Day.. Forget about Halloween and Thanksgiving! GADS (I hope not!!!)
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