Happy 5th of July!

Isaac and I had a wonderful time at Irish Family Vineyards last night. Fantastic fireworks and lots of wonderful home made dishes, smoked meats, desserts, and wine. The BEST wine! Russ and Joan Irish's vineyard is in Vallecito, and you MUST visit if you come to gold country (Hwy 49). Vallecito is just above Angels Camp, the home of Twain's Celebrated Jumping Frog.

How do I choose the movies I watch? Always with the objective to learn, but topic is chosen by mood. Today I was in the mood for strange.

From The Phillyist

Ressurect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynebee Tiles was a very interesting documentary about these mysterious plaques or tiles placed in open spaces such as roads and crosswalks, most in the United States, all over the world. The tiles' creators, installers, or meanings are a mystery, and over time people have become interested in solving the mystery. In the end, the movie is a connection of thoughts revolving around spirituality, heaven, the movie Space Odyssey 2001, humans as energy, and what happens when we die.


The movie inspires wonder about coincidence, and what it really is or if it really is; if coincidence didn't exist in this story, then what would it be called? Conspiracy? Connection? Fact? Another thought is inspired by this film: Human's want to learn and when they are self motivated, they will pick a mystery through the bone to get at the marrow, without being pushed by anything other than curiosity and a desire to know. In the process of learning, more often than not these students find company with similar pursuit and new or affirming information. A good lesson for teachers.


Is this man, the one responsible for the tiles and the ideas behind them, insane? I suppose the same was asked about Copernicus, DaVinci, Einstein, Newton, Gallileo, and even Jesus of Nazareth. In the end it is about the ideas, not the man named James Morasco/Sevy Verna. In the end, it is a story that makes me smile for several reasons.


Some of the scenes in the film include some beautiful artwork; I was impressed by water color images in mostly black and sepia tones, with very sophisticated and emotionally expressed characters. While I couldn't find the artist, I did find the that Justin Duerr (the protagonist) is an artist and I've chosen to show you my favorite pieces by him.

Polenated Love Letters from the Universe

Check out this photograph I took today! I haven't washed the summer pollen of the front porch and was sitting today, and noticed this obvious pattern of flowers in the pollen, and then a lady bug, and then that there were many more flowers in this one foot section of my porch. Can you see them?

What on Earth could have done this?! Has someone been on my porch and made these perfect designs. I imagined a cute little girl, wandering through the neighborhood, blessing all the front porches, as she walks through the imagination land that is my neighborhood, seeing cool ponds in the old blue kiddie-pool leaning against my wall, and the red pony of a snow shovel, waiting for a ride as it waits for the next snow. Or maybe it was a very, very talented bug, sending me a message from the Universe?! How special am I to be so blessed with such an unexplainable, mysterious tiding of happy, pretty, playful totems?!

So I had to take a picture, because no one will believe it. And I have to put it on my blog to share the blessings. And I have to tell you to believe you are special too and to just look at what is around you and not to miss a sign. And finally, I have to tell you to look at the bottom of your slippers!

I am the little girl of mysterious and playful tidings of joy. Don't miss a beat, but imagine in an audacious way. Even if you are making your own slipper prints, even a moment of imagination to remember how special you are, to pretend the prints are a sign, to understand you are the creator of prints, the creator of meaning, and making joy with your meaning, to live is an fantastical thing.