This Tree

“I read the news today, oh boy” (McCartney/Lennon)

Every morning while we sit drinking our coffee, W and I trade interesting or funny or unbelievable crap we read about on our different news feeds.  Sometimes it’s really entertaining tuning in to the next instalment of the current gong show going on in our neighbouring country.  Sometimes it’s downright frightening.  I’m afraid that all the attention, no matter how negative, simply feeds the beast.  I’m afraid we all might soon be buried alive in alternative facts (a new and improved name for bullshit). I’m afraid there might be some devious method to their madness, piling it on so high and so deep that we lose the will to claw our way out from underneath it.

So in the interests of not feeding the beast (while at the same time not turning my back on him either) here is a slide show of our wintry ice-foggy  backyard.

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I snuck in a couple of shots of my bad hair day to show you how I am becoming one with nature.  By resembling a half dead tree.  Or something way more poetic than that.  This awesome big old tree is the same one in which my sisters grandson discovered an alligator nest last fall.  We had no idea it was harbouring such an amazing thing. Around Christmas time this same grandson explained to his grandma how he could recognize Frosty from the other snowmen by the brown hammer in his mouth. For sure this boy is going places.

I hope gazing at this tree with its magnificent icy alligator nest sheltering branches towering above the other frozen things in our yard on this cold grey January Monday gives you a brief respite from whatever doom and gloom crap is taking up valuable space in your brain.

If not, here’s something completely different.  Not all news is bad.

Family of boy in Justin Trudeau town hall photo to name baby after prime minister

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Share Your World 2015 Week 45

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?

Looking it up in the dictionary!  Even if you think you know exactly what a word means, looking it up can be FUN!

fun – noun – something that provides mirth or amusement: A picnic would be fun.
enjoyment or playfulness: She’s full of fun.
—verb (used without object), verb (used with object), funned, fun·ning.

Informal. joke; kid.
—adjective, fun·ner, fun·nest.

Informal. of or pertaining to fun, especially to social fun: a fun thing to do; really a fun person; the funnest game.
Informal. whimsical; flamboyant: The fashions this year are definitely on the fun side.
—Idioms

for / in fun, as a joke; not seriously; playfully: His insults were only in fun.like fun, Informal. certainly not; of doubtful truth: He told us that he finished the exam in an hour. Like fun he did!
make fun of, to make the object of ridicule; deride: The youngsters made fun of their teacher.

Now what could be funner than reading a dictionary?  Is that not one of the funnest  things you’ve done all day??  My spell check wants to change those words to “funnier” and “funniest”, but it doesn’t know everything, does it.  I’m just funning you, so I guess you have been funned.

Fun to me means whatever it takes to make you laugh or feel happy inside.  And afterwards you say to yourself, wow, that was really fun!

What is your favorite time of day?

From early morning to late at night, every single moment I’m alive and breathing.  Even the parts where I’m not having a whole lot of fun.

Given the choice of anyone in the world, with whom would you want to spend an evening?

Our new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mother, Margaret (former wife of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau).  What a life she has had!  But I expect we might just talk about our grandchildren.  And that would be perfectly fine.

Complete this sentence: Something that anyone can do that will guarantee my smile is…

….compliment me on something.  Isn’t that what makes anyone smile?  It doesn’t have to be much, you can simply say you like my shoes.  And I will say thank you and smile.  And suddenly we will both like each other a little bit more.  Funny how that works.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for an uneventful post surgery week for W and his new super hip and the body’s incredible ability to heal.  I am looking forward to more of that.  And getting back to my art work which has been seriously neglected for too long.  But for now, this temporary lifestyle change has been educational and interesting and has made both of us grateful for a thousand things we normally take for granted.

Hope you all are having a FUN week!  Or a funny week.  Whichever is funner.  Life is too short for anything else.