Mohawks and head banging - Mother Nature's heavy metal style.

Part of my morning routine is cleaning the cats' litter boxes. Being the 'greenie' that I am, I use a brand of litter called Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter. It's clay and chemical free, and that's most excellent. I like it, cats like it, and the birds like it. Win-win!

But, I digress ...

Anyway, I stepped out the front door to fling the scooped stuff into the woods (bio-degradable wheat - you can even flush this stuff!) and heard a familiar, rapid bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap sound somewhere in the trees. The best description of this sound I can give you is try to imagine the sound of someone banging a tack hammer on a 2x4 in an empty room in really fast bursts of banging.

Mr. and Mrs. Pileated Woodpecker were here for a visit. This is the bird good ol' Woody Woodpecker was modeled after. The sight of them never fails to impress the heck out of me. These birds are big, 'bout the size of a crow. In North America, the only other birds (of this species) close in size is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which, sadly, are so rare they may now be extinct.

This pair, as is typical for a mated pair claiming territory, hang around my house all year. I'm not sure what their range is. Sometimes I may not see them for a couple of weeks or more. Other times, they seem to think my little acre is the best spot in the neighborhood. On occasion, like this morning, I only see one of them. Today, it was the misses. I can tell her from the male because he has red on his chin and she doesn't. I call her Lucille. His name is Theodore. I was pleased that Lucille flew over to a tree very near me, flapped her wings a bit and held a posed with her head looking back over her shoulder at me, as if to make certain I was taking proper notice of just how lovely she is. Yes, Lucille, you're a 'looker' all right.

I remember the first time I saw them. Scared the bee-jee-bees out of me! Early summer, beautiful day. I was sitting on my front steps enjoying the sunshine when I heard what sounded like something large running through the woods to my right, about 150 yards from where I was sitting. My first thought was big dog. I like dogs, but ya' just never know, on initial introduction, if the dog is going to like you back.

I looked over in that direction, but didn't see anything. The sound stopped. With me looking that way, I heard it again. It stopped. Again. Stopped. Again. Stopped. Now I'm gettin' a bit spooked. I'm thinkin' there is some freaky big animal tramping all through the leaves, basically right beside me and I can't see it. Y'all, that's not a particularly pleasant feelin'. I heard it again. Then movement, about 15-20 feet up a tree, caught my eye. Something big and black flashed among the leaves. It zipped around the trunk of the tree. To my surprise, I saw a second flash of black go around the tree right after the first one. What the???

I'm sure the expression on my face was one of total comic disbelief as I watch these two large birds chase each other all around, up and down, that oak tree. They were behaving exactly like squirrels. Because they were mostly hidden behind all the leaves, for a few minutes I thought they were two crows who had completely lost their minds. I thought that right up until the minute those birds took flight, huge wing span with loud swooshing noise, and aimed themselves like missiles straight in my direction. At about 15 feet from me they banked a hard right, parked themselves on another tree, and resumed their squirrel-like chasing game.

It was then I realized just what kind of birds they were. Pileated woodpeckers. Big, beautiful black birds with white and black facial stripes and that extraordinary, fire engine red mohawk hair-do. I was speechless. I had never seen one 'in person', only pictures. I didn't know they were native to this area. I thought, though I have no idea why, they lived some place like the north west - maybe northern California or Washington state.

I was amazed. I watched them for probably two hours before they flew off to squirrel-dance somewhere else. I just couldn't get over how big and beautiful they were - and that they were in my yard! Wow. Just Wow.

Naturally, I did a little research on the internet to find out more about them. But I also did some research on what they mean as Animal Guides. I knew such a visit had to be a message and I wanted to understand what it meant to me personally. This is what I learned about Woodpecker Medicine ...

There are about 180 species of woodpeckers in the world. Most spend their entire lives in trees. Woodpeckers are climbers. They climb by propping their stiff pointed tail feathers against a support while shifting its leg hold. With its body close to the trunk or branch and its head bobbing, the bird hitches upwards, back down spiraling and nimbly darts sideways at incredible speeds. Because of their speed predators have difficulty catching them.

Their flight patterns are unique. Woodpeckers fly up, coast down then fly upwards again. Those with this totem often find that their path in life will not always conform to society's standards and that their personal unique rhythm needs to be honored. Woodpeckers teach us to honor our personal truth and move through life with perseverance and inner strength. By staying grounded in our pursuits our goals can be obtained.

Woodpeckers are opportunists. They know when to fly out from a perch to catch insects in the air or on the ground. Their barbed tongues and strong chiseled beaks symbolize life lessons associated with discernment and proper use of speech for those with this totem. 

In spring the loud calls of woodpeckers often augmented by drumming on hollow wood are the sounds of males holding territories. Woodpeckers defend their territory aggressively. Those with this medicine need to be in control of their personal environment and will not tolerate others trying to change it. Although personal space is very important for woodpecker medicine people, control issues can sometimes be a problem and flexibility needs to be learned.

The woodpecker is known as the Earths drummer. Drumming is the heartbeat of mother earth and is associated with shamanism and the ability to move into other dimensions at will. For those with this totem the woodpecker represents self discovery. As they peck into and through trees and dead wood, hidden layers of ones psyche are revealed. Those with this medicine are good analysts and have strong mental capabilities. They make excellent psychiatrists and psychologists. Woodpeckers are active birds so caution is advised to maintain balance when reviewing any situation or issue. Too much analyzing can result in procrastination.

The woodpecker is able to find food hidden under layers of bark and wood and teaches us to dig deeply to find truth and deceptions. Woodpecker energy is associated with prophecy and the ability to see deeper than surface lies.

Woodpecker speaks of not being hard-headed because they are able to use their beak to peck at trees. Woodpecker is telling us that even if something seems difficult to do, not to give up. To do what works, even if it is unconventional. To set your own pace, your own rhythm.

People born under the woodpecker sign need safety and security and are often wary because of their extreme sensitivity to their surroundings. This totem is the power of rhythm and determination; stimulates new rhythms. 

Woodpecker folks are able to "ride the flow of life" and to receive in silence. They are gentle, sensitive and dreamy folks who tend to both absorb and reflect things around them. They are here to learn more independence and stability.

So it seems, the animals are talking to me these days and I really need to pay attention and act on the lessons. Hopefully, some of this also holds meaning for you as well.

Namaste', y'all ...

Carol

The best laid schemes o' mice and ... cats ...

This little guy (girl?) started off my Saturday morning. Well, technically, being awakened at 7:00 AM to the sound of scratching and growling was the start of the adventure. I know the sounds for exactly what they are because I've had many a mouse adventure in my house. 

I live out in the boon-docks and a mouse in the house in the winter months is not an out of the ordinary occurrence. This one at least had the decency to get the party started at a reasonable hour. Several years ago I had a mouse adventure at 3:00AM which ended with me standing out in my back yard, stark naked and freezing, with a mouse in a jar and a really pissed off, fat orange cat named Creature glaring at me through the window as if I had just single-handedly destroyed the world as we knew it. Ain't life grand?

Anyway, the growling I woke up to this morning was Zipper, the Mouse Warrior ...

The scratching was Tuck, the Guardian of the Realm ...

When it comes to mouse visitors, these boys are on it like white on rice. As a rule, Tuck has an incredibly sensitive nose for smelling a mouse in the house. But, well, he's not so fast on the catching part. Zipper, on the other hand, is like greased lightening on the catch, but not so much on the ball in realizing the mouse is even in the house - at least not until Tuck flushes the poor thing out into the open and starts the chase. These two would probably fair okay as tag-team wrestlers.

I have two large paintings propped against the wall in the bedroom that I haven't found places to hang yet. Now, where the mouse first came in from I don't know. What I do know is his wee self was squeezed in between these two paintings and the cats had him surrounded. Zip on one end, growling. Tuck on the other, poking his paw between the frames and scratching the glass. "Caught between rock and a hard place" probably doesn't even begin to describe what that poor mouse was thinking.

Unlike a lot of people, mice don't freak me out. I don't jump up in a chair and wail like a lunatic when confronted with a mouse situation. Nor do I start swinging a broom at everything. I stay pretty calm. Actually, I had pet mice when I was a kid. The difference between the pet mice and a wild mouse is the proclivity of the latter to bite when scared, caught or handled. Mice = okay. Bite = not okay. I think it could go without saying this mouse visitor was scared. Given that, I threw on my sweatpants, sweatshirt, and boots. Something about being bitten on the toes does give me a slight case of the willies.

Next is to get a wide-mouthed Mason jar for catching. I've learned from numerous past experiences this is the best. The hardest part is keeping the cats at bay long enough to get the mouse into the jar. I've had to pry a mouse from cat jaws on more than one occasion and I don't like that. Thing is, I don't want the mouse to get hurt. It's bad enough that I have to take it outside into the cold, it being scared as all get-out, and set it out in the woods away from the house. I always think about how that would make me feel if I were the mouse .... cold, lost, deathly afraid and all alone. It just sucks. Of course, even though I do, the mouse doesn't realize the alternative is a Hell of a lot worse.

When I set that mouse out this morning onto a pile of logs beside my driveway he did an amazing thing ... he ran forward like a flash to the next log, but then suddenly stopped and looked at me. Sat perfectly still, turned his little head and looked right at me. All I could do was look back at that cute little face and feel honored.

All right, that might sounds nuts to some people, but to others, they know exactly what I mean. Mouse is one of the creatures in my personal Animal Totem Guides. Animals share this Earth with us, playing their parts in the grand design of life. Provided they aren't invaded, destroyed, and abused by the human population of the planet, they live in harmony with the environment. We humans have evolved to live in a manner that I believe is in utter dis-harmony with our environment. When we stop and see with both our hearts as well as our eyes, the animals can teach us much deeply valuable wisdom for living a life of harmony.

In the Native American culture the humble mouse 'medicine' teaches lessons hundreds of times its size. This is a brief synopsis of that medicine ...

 Mouse medicine is both a great power
and a great weakness.
It is good to pay attention to all details,
but bad to over-analyze every little thing.

Mouse people can be fixated on methodology and appear to be nit-pickers.
They will make the simplest task fraught with difficulty.
Everything must be in order in a Mouse's house.

Often, Mouse people are fearful of life.
You should try to see the larger picture
Even if you live in a small house in Los Angeles,
you are also part of the Earth, galaxy and universe.

If a Mouse totem has recently entered your life,
ask yourself if you have neglected the trivial but necessary things in life.
Have you become too focused on one or two activities
and neglecting opportunities around you?
Or are you trying to do too many things at the same time?

Mouse medicine can show how to focus
and how to attain the big things by working on the little things.

*********************************

So what I take from this morning's mouse adventure is that I have a job of needing to refocus my life. I have indeed been too consumed with a few things that I need to re-prioritize in importance to be able to give my best to them. I am indeed trying to do too many things at once, and getting very little productive work done on any of them because I've been too scattered. I've also been too analytical about some other things that I would be better served to just hand over in faith to a higher power to deal with.

Yep, tiny visitor really got my attention. Thanks Little Mouse!

Namaste', y'all ...

Carol

The Christmas Countdown ...

I was sitting at my desk today and glanced over at my calendar.  I can't believe it ... 18 days until Christmas. Scary. Where has the year gone? I had a big ol' long list of stuff to do during 2010 and I'm about half-way down the list. I don't think I can get it all done in 18 days. Nope, not a snowball's chance in H.E.double-hockey-sticks. Good thing I'm okay with that.

One of the things on my '10 To Do list was buy myself a present from The Frog Store. This is what I wanted ...

Sterling Silver Adjustable Frog Ring

I think it's awesome, really wanted it, and have absolutely no clue why I've not bought it yet. Sometimes I think it's because I'm overly practical. I'm not a woman who wears a lot of jewelry - although I do have some really nice stuff in my jewelry box. Most of it has been gifted to me by the husband and by some wonderful friends. So, I guess I'll move this To Do purchase over to the 2011 list.

Speaking of lists and the upcoming Christmas holiday ... if you have a frog lover on your list to buy for, hop over to The Frog Store and check them out. Crazy variety of froggy stuff!

Of course, you could also hop over to our CafePress store and get an awesome skinfood sweatshirt, tote bag, t-shirt or other really nice gift for yourself (or friend/family member) and get your frog on for the holidays! A nice and green 1 ounce container of the original skinfood makes an impressive stocking stuffer, too. I'm just sayin'.

Namaste', y'all ...
Carol

At 7:00am in the morning I got it.

My husband has been home for two weeks. He left at 3:15am this morning. Originally scheduled for vacation the week after Thanksgiving, it worked out that he got the extra days before the holiday as well. Won't be grand on the pocketbook, but he really needed the time off. And, much to our happiness, we managed to get a very large project 98% completed with that extra time. We built a brand new, custom to my specifications, computer desk! Still need a filing cabinet, but that will be taken care of soon and I can certainly live with the wait. 

As pleased as I am with my new work area, I have to admit the construction zone that became my house for two weeks almost made me nuts. Yet, the worst part, was not the mess of having stuff sitting all over the place. The hard part was being without my computer until this past Saturday night. That, folks, was bordering insanity. You don't realize how used to a piece of electronics you can get until you don't have it. It's really not a happy place to be.

One of the things the husband and I did while he was home was Black Friday shopping. He discovered what Black Friday was all about last year. Scary thing, that. Needless to say, he'd been surfing the net for Black Friday sales ... spent several weeks plotting his game plan for that day. He needed a new drill. We needed a paper shredder. And during his internet pre-shopping, he discovered some pretty awesome sales for things we didn't "need" but would like to have. One of those was a new camera. Okay, some back story ...

The husband and I both love photography. I had a Minolta X-370 I had bought in my early days in college for graphics, and he had a Nikon F3HP he had purchased overseas while serving in the Marine Corp. Both cameras had lots of extras, both were dearly loved. As most people know, traditional photography is now a dinosaur in this age of digital cameras. We understood this. 

We even own a small Nikon CoolPix 7600 which we bought several years ago for taking photos of my art to make it easier to put images on my website. It ain't all that great, only 7.1 megapixel, but it served it's purpose. But for "real" photography, we both found it pretty lacking. Still, our beloved 35mm's languished on the shelf in our closet, snug in their protective cases, pitiful and mostly unused for the past eight or nine years. It became harder and harder to find good film, get decent prints, etc. We finally bit the bullet and sold them on ebay this past year.

Discounting the small Nikon, that left us pretty much camera-less. It has never sat well with either of us, not being able to indulge our love of taking pictures. Hence the husband's itchiness for Black Friday and the possibility of changing our camera-less state of existence. We were in Asheville at the butt-crack of dawn (4:00am) on Black Friday, raiding the tool department at Sears for his new drill (and yes, some other great toys, too!) and then wheeled it a short zip down the road to Best Buy, where we became the proud new parents of a Cannon Rebel T2i. Sweet, sweet deal.  

Yes, I played with the camera later that afternoon while the husband worked on the computer construction zone. He, very graciously, allowed me a couple of hours indulgence. He's such a nice guy.

Now, I confess that I've always been a photography snob. Such a bad attitude toward digital because I know the mechanics of traditional, old fashioned photography/printing very well. The difference in quality was just far too much for my old-school expectations. But then, my experience with digital cameras was limited, nothing over 9.9 MP. I seriously disliked the cameras delays when set at their higher resolutions, limited abilities to override settings, their stinkin' built-in flashes, limited macro (close up) abilities, and most of all, camera shake (out of focus images). I'm sure most of y'all know what I'm talking about.

This new Cannon has fully automatic settings, but fully manual as well - Nice! Shoots at 18.0 MP - Sweet! Two impressive lenses, a 18-55mm and a 55-250mm zoom - both with Image Stabilizer technology - No.More.Blur.! I feel like I need to put about seven hundred bazillion exclamation points after that last sentence. But aside from all it's lovely features and functions (which will take me several days to figure out), it has a bonus feature I never considered until just this morning. 

Digital photography is actually very GREEN. And y'all should know by now how much I'm about earthy-crunchy, eco-friendly green stuff.

I'm guessing the reason this photo-greeness never occurred to me is because I was too busy being snobbish. Shame on me, I got it.

But when I woke up this morning it was like an miniature epiphany. Traditional photography is a zone of incredibly hazardous stuff. Miles of film and the chemicals to make it, process it, not to mention the wasted film from photos that turned out bad. All the trees cut down and used for pricey and more chemical laden paper for prints. Tons more trees used for all those photo albums with their pages sleeved in plastic. From beginning to end, the journey for one traditionally printed photograph is a toxic, earth destroying nightmare.

Going digital cuts out staggering amounts of all of that. No film - just a memory card that doesn't need developing, and is reusable as well as recyclable. Don't like the photo, erase it! Print only if you want to. Instead, store all your photos on your computer or online photo album services like Flickr or PhotoBucket. Share them with family and friends through email (or on a blog!). No, it's not perfect. There are still chemicals and plastics involved, but it's a huge and significant improvement in the world of photography. With the evolution of digital cameras, even the quality of the photos are so vastly improved I'm totally, truly impressed.

Love our new camera!

 Weeds

Mums

Glasses

Tuck Butt

Namaste', y'all ...

Carol