My two memes delayed and combined

 For Saturday's Critters...a bit late to the table due to the holiday!

Some photos of my 3 sons and myself (with curls and a bandana) and my ex-daughter-in-law.

Not sure which grandbaby is shown here, but likely William. The kittens are Tiny Patches, Garfield and probably their mom, Patches.

Sharing with Saturday's critters!

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And for Sepia Saturday...another favorite meme that I sometimes contribute to...usually a day early, and seldom on topic...

How about free art?

A clay puzzle piece, size 14 x 22 inches. Backed permanently on a piece of board...it is rather heavy and ready to hang...with a wire attached on the back. This is more or less the true color.

But I don't want it any more. And so I gave it to the local thrift store Kiwanis.

I meet the theme of this week on Sepia Saturday by having a sepia art work in clay. Sepia, I tell you! Sepia!

In everyone's life, at some time,

our inner fire goes out. 

It is then burst into flame 

by an encounter with 

another human being. 

We should all be thankful 

for those people who 

rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

 -Victor Hugo, novelist and dramatist (1802-1885)

Savor moments big and small,

Let worries go then watch them fall.

With open heart, dear grateful soul,

In every breath let joy unfold.

                      blogger Cloudia 

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Climate Change notes:

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re already well into a hot summer - and Reuters just launched Climate Monitor, an interactive globe showing how much hotter (or colder) today’s temperature is compared to what was typical on that date between 1961 and 1990.
 
I spent a few minutes on the site. Where I live in Dallas: 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 2.6C) above normal this past week. Toronto, Ontario, my hometown: 19.6F or 11C degrees above normal. 11C above normal is incredible to me, and in case you didn’t know, Toronto’s one of the World Cup cities with an outdoor stadium! That stopped me in my tracks.

Yesterday, Philadelphia cancelled their 250 year celebration parade as the heat index soared to 118F, and in DC, temperatures 22F above normal led to the closing of the Great American Fair on the Mall.
 
This week, take just a minute and look up your city. Look up where your parents live, where your kids go to camp, or somewhere currently experiencing a heat emergency. And don’t stop there. Talk about it! Share what you find out — not as a lecture, but as a conversation starter: “Did you know it’s 6 degrees warmer than normal here right now? I just found this tool that shows you in real time.” 
 
Abstract statistics about global average temperatures are easy to dismiss. But when someone sees that their hometown is running 8 degrees hotter than usual, or that the town where their grandchildren live is having its warmest July on record, it hits differently. Climate change stops being a headline and feels personal. 

Thanks  Katharine Heyhoe

Fighting for freedom

  

Continental Army’s North Carolina Brigade marching through Philadelphia on Aug. 25, 1777

This is a great drawing of the American Revolution, showing women and children in the wagon, taking their parts in the conflict.

This 250 year long experiment in democracy by a republic called the United States of America is not doing so well at this time.

Whether it shall long endure has become a question in many people's minds. In the months until the November election there are strange and awful possibilities to be thrown at the world from the current authoritarian clown.

We shall see...

Me visiting my second son and his family in Atlanta for the Fourth sometime in the  early 2000s. This year he and his family will be in Philadelphia at a World Cup Soccer game!

The frequent and well populated demonstrations show that many many Americans are opposed to the actions coming from the White House.

What is the United States of America? See Rebecca Solnit's article in The Guardian.

that article link is worth reading!

Independence Eve

 This is the beginning of the celebration  of this 250 year experiment, which has abjectly failed in the last 2 years. But then again there were more than a third of us who didn't bother to vote in the presidential election that got us into this situation...

Of course the experiment which our "forefathers" envisioned didn't include people of color. But with amendments available to the constitution, there have been efforts to rectify that shortsightedness. Unfortunately the laws don't govern day to day bigoted people. They may attempt to, but too many people just blatantly ignore the law, including those who make changes to laws.

This was actually published before the War with Iran in 2026.

Lest we forget!

Heartbreak and hope are not mutually exclusive. We can be angry and sad and filled with longing for something we cannot have, and simultaneously we can be grateful for what we’ve got — aware, for reasons we’d never choose, of what really matters and what doesn’t.

LENNON FLOWERS

Hodge-podge day

 

Posted to Southwest US on Facebook. I don't plan to be hiking much, but it's nice to know that others can!

These pop-together toys were only available for a while, and I saved this one for my inner child to play with.

An old saying (don't know who wrote it or drew the sketch) which I liked enough to keep in  spite of the damage.

My Uncle Jimmy sketched me when I was about 10 years old. He was an accomplished artist for an insurance company in Wisconsin. I used that knowledge to study art for years myself, hoping that I could have some of his talent in my genes.

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I'm so sad from the recent Supreme decision that will put so many immigrants in jeopardy. The political situation will probably hit me one of these days...from losing some programs which help me live to maybe infringing on my voting rights. I will sure make a lot of noise, if that happens. But I also make a bit of noise now, though I feel pretty powerless. The least I can do is to say something here.

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An old photo of my ex hubby's family, with our two sons as kids. Only the 5 people to the right are still alive, my ex (with the beard) and his sister and her hubby, as well as the kids. My ex just turned 87. 

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

"Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much."

 -Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)