Newsflash November

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I used to do a newsflash at the end of each season, but this year I missed out on summer in all our mayhem and now it's rapidly nearing winter. I'm way overdue!

Many of the photos I'm using here are ones I promised a while back - photos I took of Aberdeen when we were there with dad in hospital. Sadly every one of them came out blurry as there was a problem with my camera. In a way it is pretty apt; all our time spent in Aberdeen feels kind of fuzzy looking back...

Nature Entertainment Wise words Spirit
Family Lessons Artist Smiles Home

NATURE

Last time I wrote in spring we'd had Bunny Boy (Bunny Girl?) return for the year with... two tiny babies! Over this year we've watched them grow up and it's been a delight to see that even a creature as "everyday" as a wild rabbit has character. Over the summer two fuzzy blobs grew into two distinct personalities - Flopsy (who would drape and snooze anywhere) and Cottontail (hyper energetic and given to trying to tease other rabbits into games of chase-me). I'm pleased to say we do still see them now and then, but as winter comes in the rabbits go out - back into the wild places. Be interesting to see who returns next spring!

Otherwise the biggest Nature treat was when we spotted a whole flock of waxwings last month. They migrate here from Scandinavia. We stopped the car on the road side and I managed to take this photo. It was through the window (hence the reflections), because I didn't want to scare them.

ENTERTAINMENT

The best entertainment in Summer was going to the Speyfest music concert for my birthday. I'll never forget it. :-) It was such a fun night.


The best entertainment for Autumn has got to be Blogblast for Peace, even if I was offline on the day! Do go look at the list of participants HERE, there are so many fantastic entries this year.


WISE WORDS

My Wise Words choice are always from a fellow blogger. This time I'm picking my friend, Amel,

"I was once browsing for some food recipe and I noticed that in the comment section somebody started a HEATED debate between non-pork eaters and pork eaters. And as usual, once a couple started that debate, more and more people chimed into the argument and they started calling names and stuff.

I mean...HELLO?!?!?!?!?!

The recipe writer only wanted to SHARE recipes, but that was the "junk" she got in return? She didn't even write anything "controversial". It angered me to read all those nasty comments. I just wanted to shake them all and say, "What the HELL do you think you're doing here??? Can't we all be decent human beings who agree to disagree? Why do you have to attack one another like that?"

Sometimes I'm just sad at the nature of human beings, including myself. It's just so easy to spread "junk" without thinking first. When you're struck, your first instinct is to strike back. No wonder the world's never going to be able to enjoy true peace. That doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't try to create peace as much as we can, though. I'm also not saying that we should all lie and shut up and that we shouldn't express ourselves or rant if we need to, but we should all restrain ourselves to some degree, even in cyber world, esp. when it comes to throwing junk to other people's "areas" (blogs, video posts, recipes, etc.)"

SPIRIT

This year the biggest spiritual lesson for me has been realising that miracles can come through my refusing to believe in bad things.

Sometimes trying to have faith and keep trusting in good gets a bit scary, especially when you have all sorts of drama thrown at you - money worries, health worries, etc.... we've had them ALL this year, as have so many of my friends. You can start to feel like this is how life is always going to be, but when dad took ill we all said, "No WAY is this ending badly!" and we fought back with faith that came from refusing to believe in gloom and doom.

FAMILY
Last time I did a newsflash I wrote,

"Spring has been pure chaos. All four of us have had some form of test and at least one trip to the hospital."

Little did I know it would get worse. Since then we've had all of us in and out of doctors, dentists and specialists and then the biggest shock of all... the only healthy person in the family , dad, gets rushed in to hospital and nearly dies. Every one of the tubes and wires in this photo were attached to dad... and that was BEFORE they moved him to the Intensive Unit in Aberdeen.

It has been surreal to say the least...

Dad's due for a check up next week, so we'll find out then what the doctor thinks about his recovery so far. I had foot X rays last week and am waiting for the results. It's the foot that started them thinking I have fibromyalgia. It hurts to put weight on or walk and I'm really struggling some days.

Mom will be going in for surgery in January. It was going to be end of November, but she asked to postpone as with dad home recuperating, Christmas a month away and me having problems it felt all too much. Hubby had X rays for an old back injury in August, but he hasn't been back to the doctor to see about them yet as right after that dad took ill and we have just been too busy. He says he'll go when things are calmer... and I'll keep reminding him. ;-)

LESSONS

The lessons for Summer and Autumn? My biggest lesson was that when you come close to losing someone in your family you realise how some things you thought mattered really don't. I'm not worrying as much nowadays. Money worries and possessions seem really trivial by comparison.

ARTISTMy Artist choice for Spring is blogger, Bryan. I love his calendars for 2011. :-)

You can order them HERE.

SMILES
Just...


HOME

Home reminds me of a very amusing sign I saw in Aberdeen. Sadly the photo didn't come out clearly, so I'll have to explain what it's about. The sign was up on a pole outside a Burger King place on Aberdeen beach front. It reads,

"HOME OF THE BIG WHOPPER!"

So what makes this so funny?

...there's a rabbit warren entrance at the bottom if that sign.

Aberdeen Bunnies are big and brawny and proud of it! ;-)

This photo above is of the road from where we were staying going back in to Aberdeen It seems to sum up the journey of this entire year - long, kind of bumpy with unexpected twists. It stretches out into the distance... leading where?

Where will I journey next year? Where will you be on your life road? Who knows! All any of us can do is hold onto our map books and hope for good weather and safe roads but even more important - you need good travelling companions. :-)

I've had excellent company this year, both in my literal travels with my family and in my online 'travels' with friends. I'm very grateful for both...

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