Doing New Projects

When I visited my friends Marykay and Mike, there was a birdbath outside their backyard window. Their backyard is a haven for small critters including squirrels.  The squirrels enjoy the birdbath to quench their thirst. Marykay and I both enjoy watching them.  When Marykay is on walks, she picks up acorns to leave out for the squirrels. Mike then stated that he sees them as rats with furry takes. My husband Paul did not have kind words for squirrels either. I always was taking pictures of them. He finally got me a squirrel statue to look at through my back window. It broke and I think I'll get another so I can see one in my yard. 

Years ago soon after I adopted my daughter Ronda, we went camping with an adoption group we belonged to.   I had a package of Stella Doro cookies opened on one end on the picnic table at our camp ground. Most people were away from the site and no one was at the table. I noticed a squirrel go up to the package of cookies and gently pull one cookie out and then head to the tree line. When I looked back, there was another squirrel doing the same thing then also going to the tree line and then another one. I looked where they were coming from and there was a line of squirrels each waiting patiently it's turn, not moving forward until the last one had left the table. I was fascinated with this behavior. That incident increased my interest in them. 

An attempt at drawing a squirrel.  I'll do a better one next week

Our Red Hat group was much smaller this month. However, we still enjoyed each other's time together. Catching up is good.  When I was looking at us, I have this sense I'm shrinking.  Maybe it is the angle of the pictures.

Evelyn, our Queen, Judie and Pamela

Claudia and Me

Our Small Group this Month, Left to right,
Claudia, Me, Evelyn, Judie and Pamela

I got a notice urging people to go to the Board of Supervisors meeting to attempt to stop them in putting control of our county library in the hands of a private corporation from out of state. . Our libraries have been woefully supported for years, to such an extent that hours have lessened drastically, they buy few books and they have few librarians. Our county is rated poorly in reading ability.  Many are illiterate. The library is very important to encourage reading and to supply the reading material. We are requesting an 1/8 percent dedicated increase for our library system. The majority of people support a dedicated tax because without it being dedicated, it gets pulled to cover shorts in other areas. We are requesting this be put on the June ballot.  We'll see what happens. 

This is a nice picture of Bakersfield looking over a vineyard before it starts greening up. I got it on Facebook. I think that Mary Wardell may have taken the picture, at least it was on her Facebook site. Beautiful!

Vineyard in Bakersfield  by Mary Wardell

 Here are pictures of two my great grandchildren. 

Nylah has character!

Nylah is pretty when she sleeps too!

Kason is one happy child!

So I have a couple of projects I have taken on. One is reading the Qur'an, The Bible and the Talmud. Fascinating!  I finished the the Qur'an and about a quarter of the way through the bible. Though the Old Testament is a part of the bible, I want to see if the Talmud is different. 

The other project is the development of a family tree. My friend Mike is the one who started this and has done an amazing job. My cousin Barrie gave me the name and email of a second cousin Simy. She has responded with great detail.  Now it is my turn to give her information. I'm hoping I can get some dates to correspond to the people she listed. I also need to give her pictures. I have a lot of research to do. 

I hope your week has gone well. What I'm doing is very different from what I've done. I'm enjoying it. I hope this next week is good for you and I'll see you next Sunday.          

Rachel