The Foils of Nature on the Family Car

                                                             

                                               

 

I love nature and so does my husband, Dan. After growing up and living in Philly most of our lives, my husband and I were ready to live alongside the plentiful Jersey flora and fauna. We even built a beautiful pond in our back yard to encourage the visit of woodland creatures. Life was good as we added all types of beautiful trees and plants that attracted humming birds, bees and butterflies.

Then it happened!

My husband’s pride and joy...his GMC Terrain had been invaded...but Dan found out the hard way that this invasion had even taken place the day his car began to act up. You can imagine my husband’s surprise after taking his car to Jim Reid’s Auto Repair Shop. A few important engine wires had been chewed in half.

                                                            

 

After the car was fixed, my husband was told to put some moth balls around the engine to keep all furry critters away from the engine and wires. The moth balls had no effect on the critters, but I began to smell like a dry cleaning service every time I used the car.

Killer Squirrel

After several trips to the Reid Auto Repair shop to repair more chewed up wires, my husband bought an animal trap. Dan’s mission was to catch the little bugger and drop him off in a park far, far away. He put the cage inside the engine, and inside the cage he placed a few crackers with peanut butter.

                                                          

   

Then he waited. The next day, the cage was empty, but the crackers were gone. There was a note from the squirrel. It was a menu for its next meal. Jersey squirrels are known for their sense of humor, but my husband wasn’t laughing.

                                                         

 

It took two days of empty traps and continuous damage to the engine wires before my husband finally caught the squirrel. It was huge. When caught, the squirrel was wearing a tee shirt that said, “Make my day!”

Conclusion

My husband took the squirrel for a long ride. He didn’t want the squirrel to easily find its way home. Killer Squirrel is now living at a nice park, and hopefully, Killer Squirrel has forgotten where we live. Just to play it safe, hubby is leaving the trap under the hood for a few more days.

                                                         

 

I didn’t have the heart to tell my husband that I’ve recently noticed a few chipmunks surveying the car. I better get that box of moth balls from the garage. We might be very busy with potential squatters.

 

                                                                  

Candles, Books, Tea, and Frogs...Oh My!

                                                          

We like to celebrate life in grandiose ways, but it is the smaller celebrations that bring us so much joy. This weekend was a true celebration and it was because I spent it with friends and family. My neighbor and adopted niece, Isabella, who I have been babysitting and teaching since she was three months old, has just turned seven.
                                                                  

 

I’ve been reading to Isa since she was three months old. She is now entering second grade and is reading at a fourth/fifth grade level. Her younger brother is following in her footsteps. He enjoys having me read to him.

Books are the fastest gateway to universal knowledge. When you read to a child, then teach them to read, you allow them to use their minds. This is the most powerful gift to give to a child! Knowledge gives a person the gift of discernment. When we teach a child to read, they gain the ability to find the truth hidden within the lies. Happy Birthday, Isa.

Speaking of books

This weekend was the Authors’ Bonanza that I hosted at the Treehouse in Audubon New Jersey. We have many talented people in the South Jersey Writers’ Group and many of them had recently published a new book. I also had friends at the event that were not part of the writers’ group, but were also published authors.
                                                             

Check out this link to learn more about the authors. It was a success in spite of the ungodly heat and, I plan on doing another Authors’ Bonanza in early December.

Tea Party

Many of you know about my psychic abilities and my love of ghost investigations. I have many friends with this special gift. We call ourselves the “Golden Seers.” We ladies are on a journey to learn more about the Universal Collective and to tap into the spiritual realm.
                                                          

I hosted a Tea Party for my friends and it was fabulous. The afternoon was filled with topics on Angel Card Readings, spirits and, secret gardens.

Speaking of gardens

Rita, Blanch and I were already Pros at making garden ornaments. We'd been gathering items from various yard sales and thrift shops. After a leisurely lunch, the Golden Seers began a new garden project. My basement was a flurry of glue guns, beads and glassware. Luckily, I did not glue myself to any of the projects. Here is one of the completed items created by my daughter.
                                                              

Speaking of gardens part 2

I was born and raised in South Philly. We did not have gardens in our back yard, nor did we have a pond. Our yard was nothing more than brick and cement as witnessed in this photo with my mother and brother.
                                                                

After moving to Audubon New Jersey, I made it my life goal to plant as many trees and pollinator attracting plants as possible. My husband is worried that I’m trying to create my own rainforest. I am! This year, our pond has been the pivotal point of the garden. We have guests. Frogs! One of the frogs is huge and has earned the name, KONG.
                                                                 

                                                        
Did you know that bullfrogs can live a long time? Did you know that they can get big enough to eat birds? We have 16 fish in our pond, 3 large frogs; Kong, Hopper, and Tiny. We have migrating birds stopping at our feeders and, we have lots of hawks.

We, as a species, are destroying too many natural habitats, but although the rest of the world appears to be circling the drain, my home will always be a refuge for wildlife.
                                                          

How about you? What are you doing to protect the birds and the bees? Send me a photo of your garden.

Yield Signs to the Enlightened Life

                                                           

When you’re behind the wheel of your vehicle and you come to a yield sign, what do you do? Do you ignore this traffic sign? Do you plow through oncoming traffic like you own the road... like the idiot that almost broadsided me today? Or, do you slow down and observe before proceeding on your merry way?

Why do we have yield signs? A yield sign calls on the driver to slow down and defer to oncoming or intersecting traffic. It’s there to make you aware of possible danger, and once the way is clear, to continue on your journey.

Life is full of signs and most signs are very helpful. They: warn, guide, inform and regulate. We are surrounded by signs in our physical world, but did you realize that there are traffic signs for the spiritual world, too?

                                                                 

                                                            

If we are like that guy in the silver pickup truck that whizzed past his yield sign and almost into me, then we are going to create a lot of heartache and problems for ourselves. Being cautious is not a sign of weakness, but a method of survival.

Enlightened Traffic Signs to help us:

Belief: Do we strive for a better us by believing that we are all worthy of love? And, if we are all worthy of love, then we must live and let live. Our Creator made us in HIS/HER image. The Creator wished for all of us to be free people, equal in all things, worthy of love.

Trust: Do we hold back because we are afraid of being hurt? Life is a chance; it always was, and if we don’t trust in ourselves, how can we trust others?

Knowledge: As long as there is breath in our bodies, we should never stop learning. We become stunted in mind and soul when we settle for what we think we know. We don’t know much. Read and research. Take classes; join groups that are interested in the arts, science or travel. Think outside of the box.

                                                          

Truth: They are many truths in the world, or so we think. But the soul knows and so does the heart what is truth and what is lie. Truth will never have to explain. It’s there for you to dissect. Lies must hide behind a curtain of illusion, the tale changing when caught under bright lights. If you are truthful in small things, you will be truthful in big things.

Honor: An honorable person will never destroy another’s self-worth. An honorable person will never bully or belittle or shame another person. Be someone that you can face in the mirror.

Duty: There are things in life that we must all do to survive. Unless you were born into wealth, we all have to work, pay the rent and care for our families. But who is our family? Are we talking immediate, extended...global? We have duties that need tending to not only for ourselves, but for the good of the planet. We must keep our bodies healthy and we must keep what goes into our bodies healthy. Right now, our planet is sending out many signs that it is sick. We are the cause. We can be the cure.

                                                           

Go organic. Eat non-processed foods. Keep yourself free of toxins. Protect the environment in your home and outside of your home. I'm talking nature. We are the caretakers of all the wildlife on the land, in the sea and, in the air. What happens in nature will happen to us. We are not above nature, but part of it. We can be wiped out as easily as the dinosaurs...not by asteroid or meteor...but by our arrogant sense of entitlement.

Mercy: We are only as strong as the weakest of us. Think about it... really think about it. We will not grow into our enlightened selves if we don’t protect the other humans who live on this world with us. Mercy is as important as love...and in times of war and famine...mercy may be more important.

Love: The most important of the road signs is love. We are unable to love another until we can love ourselves for who we are; exposed with all faults displayed. Only then can we love another without strings attached.

                                                             

And, if we claim to love a GOD, then we are forbidden to hate another of HIS/HER creatures. We don’t necessarily have to like our fellow man, but to strike them, terrorize them, enslave them, exploit them, or kill them, makes us unhuman and an affront to the universe.

                                                           

                                                        

So, as we all travel through this life, watch out for the Yield Signs that call for us to stop and observe and, before you pull into the oncoming adventure called Existence, look out for roadblocks and potholes better known as racism, greed, violence, pride, and aggression.

Steampunk Granny's Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

                                                                      

I love my grandchildren and this year, as a high school graduation present, my granddaughter Kathryn Gilbert came out to visit my husband and me. She also had time to visit with some of her cousins. Kathryn comes from a very small town in Wyoming. She was in for a cultural shock. While she tends to be quiet, we on the East Coast are anything but. As an extra treat, my youngest grandson, Nathan, was also able to spend the week with us because his parents were visiting their oldest son, Jimmy, who is a Marine.

                                                                       
                                                                         

                  At the Franklin Institute with Katrina, Kathryn, Nathan and Granny

 

We were able to spend some time with my granddaughter Katrina before she left on her own vacation to Arizona. What I enjoyed most about Kathryn’s visit was that we had a chance to talk about our writing. Kathryn will be going to college with hopes of teaching English in school and Kathryn, like Katrina and I, is a writer. She plans to one day publish the book she’s been working on. I asked Kathryn if she would like to do a review with me about a film we saw this past week, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. She said yes. This is part one of a two part post and we’ll begin with my take of the film.

 

                                                                           

                                                                          

                                                                 Planet of the Apes

If you’re my age, you’ve probably seen the original 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston as George Taylor the American astronaut who with his crew crash landed on a strange planet after spending thousands of years in hibernation. The film which is based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel, La Planete des Singes, introduced moviegoers to intelligent gorillas and speechless, animalistic humans.

                                                                               

The film’s ending, along with Taylor’s shocking realization of his true location, is seared forever in my mind and I became an instant fan. Unfortunately, I found most of the sequels to Planet of the Apes a big disappointment, but at the time I wasn’t sure why. It was only after watching the 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes and this year’s blockbuster, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes that I understood what was missing from the earlier films.

 

                                                                             

                                                              Rise of the Planet of the Apes

To give my thoughts on The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I do need to mention the 2011 film The Rise of the Planet of the Apes which was directed by Rupert Wyatt and starred James Franco as Will Rodman and Andy Serkis as Caesar. The 2011 film did what all the previous films in the franchise did not do. It allowed the movie audience to become one with an intelligent species that is endangered in the real world.  Will Rodman (Franco) a scientist from the Sen-Sys Biotech Company is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, a disease that his father is victim to…but we all know that the plans of mice and men often go astray.

                                                                           

The company does its research on chimpanzee subjects and the drug ALZ-112 makes one of the chimps, Bright Eyes, extremely intelligent, but she goes on a rampage. Due to this mishap, Will is forced to take her infant and raise it. Infant Caesar grows more intelligent each day, but he still has animal tendencies that Will Rodman must deal with. The drug may be a blessing for the primate characters of the film, but its side effect on humans is catastrophic. While the airborne disease becomes a pandemic nightmare for mankind, Caesar and his fellow intelligent chimpanzee friends escape to Muir Woods; their new home. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes changed the game plan on the franchise by telling the story from a new perspective. We began to identify with Caesar. He was the hero of the film; the survivor against man’s cruelty towards non-humans.

 

                                                                               

                                                     Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 

The 2014 film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, Jason Clarke as Malcolm, Gary Oldman as Drefus and Toby Kibbell a bonobo and Caesar’s second in command, focused on the lives of the primates living in Muir Woods.  Have you’ve ever truly looked into a primate’s eyes. I do whenever I am at the zoo or when watching all the National Geographic documentaries about the dire conditions of a species, be they Chimpanzee, Bonobo or Gorilla. There is intelligence in those eyes and before we split off from our cousins millions of years ago, we were just like them and we have the DNA to prove it ranging between a 95 to 99% similarity.

                                                                             

In the 2014 film we see Caesar in charge of his troop of fellow primates.  They’ve not only built shelter for themselves, but they successfully hunt for food. When Drefus (Oldman) the leader of a small band of human survivors living in a section of San Francesco sends Malcolm and his team to check for a source of water power to keep their city running, they encounter Caesar’s son, Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and Rocket’s son, Ash (Doc Shaw). Ash is injured.

                                                                              

The film deals with Caesar and Malcolm trying to keep peace between the two species, but mistakes are made by both sides and it’s not only the humans who thirst for supremacy; stupid choices are made by both men and beast alike.

Conclusion

Humans have this false illusion that we are above nature. It is because of this mistaken belief that our oceans are polluted; our air dirty and species around the globe go extinct at an alarming rate. We forget that the havoc we cause to nature will eventually come back to kick us in the butt. If we don’t respect nature and the other life forms that share this planet with us, then we are doomed.

                                                                               

When you look into the eyes of any animal, you see a comrade that has survived, like us, the evolutionary trip through time. They deserve our respect. See the movie. We are witness to an old story told through new eyes and it feels right.

Kathryn Gilbert’s review of the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will be posted here on my blog next week.

Under Glass, A Victorian Obsession

                                                                  

Calling all lovers of science! The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is hosting a free event featuring Author John Whitenight on Tuesday, October 8th at 6:30 p.m. The event will take place at the Academy of Natural Sciences on 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103

 

 

                                                                      

 

 

 

Spend an evening at The Academy of Natural Sciences with author John Whitenight as he explores the role that natural history played in the everyday lives of people from the 19th Century. During that era an obsession developed with the natural world which has never been surpassed. Mr. Whitenight will be sharing images and information from his book, Under Glass, A Victorian Obsession, which is a comprehensive study of the incredible array of objects that were created and presented under glass. Included will be botanical arrangements made from wax and sea shells as well as domes and cases filled with beautiful birds of every description. The focus will be on how the Victorians not only embraced natural history but included it in their home décor.

 

                                                                          

 

John Whitenight was born over 50 years ago in a small upstate Pennsylvania town. By the time he was five years old he had developed an avid interest in art. This continued into his teenage years when he decided he would explore this talent further and ultimately share it with others by pursuing an Art Education degree. Upon graduation he began his art teaching career in a senior high school where he remained for the next 30 years eventually becoming the chairperson of the department. During this period he also acquired a Masters equivalence in decorative arts-related studies in Philadelphia where he now resides.

                                                                          

Always a collector of Victoriana, one fateful day in 1973 friends gave him a small glass dome containing three canaries. The following decades have been rich with the study of the why and wherefore of these lovely domed items. Currently, the author’s collection contains over 175 domed displays ranging in height from four inches to some over a meter in height.

http://www.ansp.org/Visit/Events/Details/?eid=3610&iid=12123


I'm sending a shout out to all my Steampunk friends; this is a lecture that would interest you. To all my Facebook, Twitter and Google friends, check out the Academy of Natural Sciences' site for the listing of all their family friendly events. Tell them Steampunk Granny sent you.

A Little Science and an Old Childhood Song

                                                              

This past Tuesday, my friends and I went to the Cape May Zoo and we had the best time.

                                                             
                                               Saw some of my favorite animals

                                                                
                                              and one that I wasn’t expecting.

                                                                
I began to sing the song that I had learned at summer camp to my friends, who by now have grown accustomed to my strange outbursts.

                                                                      

             The woman behind us remembered the song too and joined in.

                                                                          

                               So here are some fun facts for you to enjoy.

                                                                           

The Kookaburra is the largest member of the Kingfisher family and comes from Australia and New Zealand. Even though you would expect with a name like kingfisher, that the bird would love to eat fish, it doesn’t. Their habitats, found in open forests and woodlands, offer a different menu.

They like to eat reptiles, rodents and frogs. They wait patiently until able to grab their prey and then the Kookaburra will fly the food up to a tree where it proceeds to whack the heck out of the animal against a branch.

                               This not only kills the food, but tenderizes it.

                                                                      

Does anyone remember the song about the Kookaburra?

This is the way I remember it:

Kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree

Eating all the gum drops he can see

Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra

Save some gumdrops for me.

Kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree

Counting all the monkeys, he can see

Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra

That’s no monkey, that’s me.

Please feel free to send me the version that you know.

Have a great weekend, “Go Play”

Cheering for the underdog

     This past weekend, my daughter and two of my grandsons headed out to the movies to see the film, The Grey. Great movie unless you're afraid of flying, and I've already informed my sister she is not allowed to see this until we come back from our trip to California. The main star is Liam Neeson, and his job is to protect the oil riggers who work in the Alaskan Wilderness from any stray or hungry preditors, such as polar bears or wolves.

     Now the people following my blogs are already aware of my working at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and even though I'm retired from this wonderful museum, I still try to instill the love of nature into my grandchildren. I may have done too good a job. Let me explain.

     I won't give away too many details because it is a good movie and you should try to see it, but the film starts with an overview of the oil rigs and the pipeline and Nathan right away says out loud, "This isn't good. Isn't grandmom protesting drilling in Alaska?"

     "Shush," my daughter says. "Don't get her started."

     "I'm okay. You can all relax," I chime in. Joshua keeps silent. He has seen me in action before.

     Anyway, the movie then pans to Liam, who has spotted something in the distance. He takes his rifle, aims and shoots. A wolf goes down. Liam's character is protecting the oil riggers from these beautiful animals.

     Intent with watching the movie, I hear Nathan whispering to his mom, "Why did he shoot the wolf? It was minding its own business."

     "Her reply. "Watch the movie and don't talk."

     Without giving away more of the movie, we watch as a group of men try to find their way to shelter, but they are being followed. It's beast against man. Now I'll stop with the movie details and go straight to the conversation going on among the grandkids.

     "They're getting even with us," says Joshua.

     "We're destroying their habitat and their hungry," says Nathan.

     "I'm betting on the wolves," adds Joshua.

     "Oh God, we have tree huggers in front of us," says the poor soul who happened to sit behind us.

     "Look what you started," says my daughter to me. She then tells the boys to zip their lips.

     "I haven't said a word? Why are you mad at me?" I plead my case.

     When the movie ended, and as we were leaving the theatre, my daughter began to chuckle. "I was afraid we were going to get thrown out."

     "I didn't do anything wrong," I said in my defense.

     "I don't know about that. I'm still trying to forget all the times, you would bring home the Madagascar Roaches to visit the boy's school. I still get the chills."

     "But mom, she taught us to love nature," Nathan chimed in.

     "All fine and good as long as she keeps nature outside, where it belongs."

    "Mom's so not going to survive the zombie apocalypse," Joshua teased as we climbed into the van.

   "I don't care how hungry I become, I will never, ever, eat a bug," my daughter replies and then starts the motor.

   Everyone is quiet until, Nathan says, "I want to see that movie, again."

  After we all had a good laugh, I said, "We better wait awhile. We might be barred from that theatre."