The Secret

[sammy]

Mmm...Yummm.

LOVE!!!!

[Sandy]

To tell you the truth I was sort of thinking along those lines too Sammy...We just saw on the news that eating bugs and "what nots" is becoming more popular all over the world.
xx Sandy

[sammy]

UG! A year or 2 ago it was time for the 17 year Cicada...like lotus sort of...big, harmless but NOISEY and EVERYWHERE...constant swarms. Anyway, people were eating them in sandwiches and stuff...YEE-UCK!
LOVE!!!!

[Sandy]

We had them too those big ole 17 cicadas where we lived in Ohio. The first year they decimated my young saplings I, unfortunately, planted just before they emmerged. My kids loved them though...not to eat but to observe. My youngest was always interested in the natural world and especially insects. I always thought he might grow up to be an entomologist (sp>?) But wasn't to be. Can't imagine eating them..bleah... but I bet they would be high in protein.
{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}

[sammy]

Dogs LOVED them!

[Petra Wilson]

They taste like prawns! Ask Phil....

Love, Pet

[sammy]

ok...what's a prawn...do I even want to know!

[sammy]

Pet...that's not what you had for dinner last night is it?

[luvinlife]

You know when we eat "comfort" food? No, not the prawns! I'm talking about this thread. This thread is my "comfort food". I love you all!!!!

Love, Clare

[CutieKenge]

Hi Kendra

this all sounds so wonderful,,,babies are blessings ,, for sure..

now you take care of Mama,,,good nutritious food and yada yada yada,,you know,,,and you'll have toins of help.

loves to you all

pp xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hi PP,
Great to hear from you! Thanks, I sure will! Pretty particular about what goes in and on my body...especially now! I used to drive my fiance crazy in the beginning. lol. But I do have to admit...I do crave pizza and ice cream once in awhile! lol Much love to you!

kendra... i take comfort in your happiness

you're a blessing to this board

peace my friend

Awww, wow, thank you! Your post was so heart warming - Thank you, my friend. This board is blessed to have you, as well. You have such a great energy about you. Thank you for sharing that with all of us. Lots of love!

ok...what's a prawn...do I even want to know!

All this talk about Prawns is making me hungry! They're shrimp! Hehe. Yummy.

{{{{HUGS all around}}}}
Love,
Kenge

[aqualeaf]

Hi Everyone ,

It's great to see you all! First of all, congratulations, Kenge, on learning that Nubbs is a boy! How exciting for us all to finally know, and for young Nubbs to already have such a large extended family all interested in him! :-)

I'd meant to write in to this thread again much sooner, but then got sidetracked: It's so funny, Sandy , when you mentioned the ups and downs of the first art gallery we were in (which I wrote about here at length way, way back on this thread as some of you probably recall), and I kind of mentioned vaguely that there were some ups and downs again this time around, except I haven't talked about it much this time, since the place is a lot more public and visible than the previous one was...

Well, to make a long story short, the online group gallery we were in quite suddenly ceased to be a group gallery on April 15th. The owner converted the group gallery back into just her own store, some of the artists formed their own group gallery, and others of us congregated and formed a support group on Facebook (so now Ron and I are at least finally on Facebook and learning how to use it! ), where we are encouraging and advising each other as we are all in the process of re-starting our own eBay stores again and scrambling to get back up to speed and reach a new equilibrium as soon as possible. Whatever else can be said for the experience, during the six months we were there, we at least acquired a whole lot of invaluable skills and knowledge from a master marketer and highly successful art seller that we can now take back and apply to selling on our own again. Following the lead of several of our fellow artists, we've been working long hours each setting up our own art-only websites and blogs, and reopening our stores. I'm about 1/3 of the way through relisting the ton of ACEO (art card) prints that I had up there before, but with an updated template, so it's all been tons of work and long nights (including several near-all-nighters -- I've been kind of sleeping from about 4am to noon on average lately on the nights when I've gotten enough sleep ). Fortunately, though, some of my customers from the group gallery found me, along with some of my old customers from before the group gallery phase, so I've actually been doing quite well so far for just starting out again. We're definitely starting out way ahead of where we were when we first started out on eBay a little over a year ago now, so that's a good thing.

A friend, upon hearing about this, jokingly said to me and Ron, "You guys should write a book on how to close an art gallery!" It's true, we must still be working out some resistances to making a living from our art for us to have attracted such an experience twice in a row! But at least this time around, the whole thing was much better and at a higher level than the last time, so at least we're progressing!

Well, back to work soon for me, but I've been wanting to write in and say hi for ages. By the way, Sandy, we did try that basil lemonade, and it was pretty good, very refreshing! Now, after a period of trial and error, we've started putting raw spinach into all our smoothies because it interestingly doesn't have much of a taste (whereas lettuces, which tend to have less vitamins, seem to have a much more detectable taste), but is so nutritious, and it's such an easy way to get extra servings of vegetables. It's one of our best discoveries of the year so far! Now it'll aslo be so nice to get past this hectic readjustment phase and eventually get back to healthy habits like exercising and meditating and such. Never a dull moment around here!

Oh yeah, I have a really cool story for you all -- a few days ago, I ordered Doreen Virtue's Archangel Michael oracle cards, and the very next day, someone named Michael bought a copy of my Archangel Michael print from my store! And there was a "444" in their address, AND they lived in a town called "Paradise!" How cool is that?!

Lots of Love to All ,

Aqua Deb

[memawlaura]

To all of you,

Aqua Deb, it seems third time is the charm if I remember right If its what you truly desire it will be yours. just keep those vibrations up and we will all get where we want to be. Its been along time since I've been on here.

Sandy, since your from Ohio and I just went thru the Allgehny mountains of W. Virginia into Ohio your the perfect person to ask. I kept seeing these trees with very little leaves and it looks to have big enormouse cobb webs all over them. My husband said they were catipillars, do you know what they are?

Sammy, I agree with you I dont want NOOOOOO BUGGGS to eat I see them in truck stops even all crunchy and BBQ yuch!! I sure wish I was on that waterslide you were definitly having a blast.

Kenge, congratulations and being a mom is the greatest joy I ever experience, we cant wait to see the little guy.

Pet, How are you and your brood doing in Corsica? I haven't talked with you in quite sometime. I've got such a dinosauer of a computer I must upgrade myself because it keeps me from friends. Where's Gypsy and whats she up to?

Love to all that I didnt mention I could only read a few pagess.

[Sandy]

Hello everyone...

AquaDeb, I just love your avi picture! You are a little ray of sunshine with that lovely green shirt and bright smile. (Green has always been my favorite color. )
I was sorry to hear about troubles with the online gallery but it also seems that maybe it was for the best and will lead to even greater things for you. I am wondering if the time there was meant as a learning experience for you... learning as you said from a master seller how to better market your own art.

You know...my basil is at the peak of perfection right now. I should try some of your basil lemonade. Is there a set recipe or do you simply add a little basil to lemonade, stir and see how it tastes? I have recently planted some lemon grass, chives, dill and tarragon in our little raised bed garden. Oh yes and a little rue to encourage the neighbor's kitty to do her business somewhere else. You know, I could grow chives without even blinking an eye back in Ohio, but I cannot get it to grow and mature here...

Laura...oh I just felt a breath of spring when you mentioned the Allegany Mtns of home... How I loved living in Northern Ohio.
Those cob webs looking things in the trees are made by what we always called tent catapillars. (not sure what their scientific name is.) They are a rather cute catapillar that live in groups within the center of those webbed tents. During the day they leave and eat the young tree leaves and then as evening arrives they return to the safety of the nest. Most adult trees can handle the munchers because they are limited to about a month before the new generation turns into whatever it is they turn into...but the young saplings do not fare so well. I remember that some years for some reason were worse then others and just like most bugs they prefer some tree varieties over others.

In the fall we were inundated in September and early October with these large fuzzy black catipillars that could really move when they wanted to. I found myself swerving to miss them crossing the road quite frequently. Once you start to look for them, much like looking for sea shells, it can drive you batty and you can miss other more important things...Still I like to think a few little bug friends made it to adulthood thanks to my watchfulness.


Okay better get a move on. I just want you both to know how special you are... we love you!
{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}
Sandy

[memawlaura]

Yes Sandy those Allegany Mtns are beautiful. My husband thought they were catipillars so I will let him know. Those black catipillars were always around in the summer in Louisiana and you had to watch out for them or they could give you one heck of a sting . Glad I brought you a good memory and you take care say hi to George.

[Petra Wilson]

Hello all and sundry!

Aqua, I'm glad everything's sorted out...again! I'd like to see your stuff on FB.

Hey Laura, all's fine here, except oftentimes Thalia and I reminisce too much about
Wales. I have to stop myself as it's not helping her to move forward.
Last night she told me she's going to concerntrate solely on her studies...she had an
exam in Bastia this morning. Hope she did all right. She knows the work, but her French
is still not 100%.

sammy, sorry it's taken me a while to answer...prawns are shrimps I think! hehe. I could
go for a bowl of them now. When I think of shrimps, I always remember Bubber and Forrest
Gump scrubbing the floor with their tooth brushes and Bubber telling Forrest all the different
shrimp recipes, I lurrrvvve prawns/shrimps!

Sandy, my balcony plants & herbs are coming along well. I've got rhodedondruns, huge lavander,
8 sunflowers and lots of basil, coriander, parsley and chives! But they're not fully grown yet. I will
take some photies and show you all, yeah?

Love to everyOne, Pet xxx

[Sandy]

Hi Pet, I'd love to see photos of your balcony plants. When we were babysiting Geoff's house a year ago we walked past a back yard where the owner was gardening using styrofoam crates! He must have had thirty of them filled with growing things. Gosh, we used to have stacks of those things when the fish would arrive at the pet store where I once worked. But I had plenty of room in the yard for a nice sized vegetable garden herb and flower gardens so they went unused. (actually, they were reused and recycled by another local fish breeder.)
I've always had a bit of a green thumb with oudoor plants but my poor inside babies don't fair as well so I try to raise only the hardiest of hardy plants. I have to say my favorite is a snip of a plant that I found in Geoff back yard. He called it a noxious weed that was trying to take over his back yard...But one look and I knew it was the wild relative of those lovely Shamrock plants that are so popular in March in North America. I had to beg for the right for one small plant but he made me promise that I would under no circumstances allow it to crawl into the wild and multiply.

As you know I have moments too when I look back at the country and town I left behind... I believe some day these memories will be viewed without the longing and missing I experience now and so try not to travel down that well worn road too often. But I was told some good advice once... that If I needed to walk down memory lane perhaps go further back to a time that brings a smile and peace to my heart. So I go way back to some rambling times as a young girl running through the woods and fields growing up. Some times the memories are so sharp that I can still smell the smells and feel the sunlight on my back.

When I first left my home in Tennessee for Ohio I was a bit homesick as well. I used to cry every time we visited when it was time to leave the family and home I had grown up in...but after a few years had past and I staked my claim to new memories centered around the home and family I helped create then I realized that home is where we love and are loved therefore it is an entirely mobile kind of thing. What is it Buckaroo Bonsai said in that movie years ago? ..."No matter where you go..there you are!" hmmm still trying to work that out...
Anyway, sis...I certainly understand what you and Thalia go through when you reminence. It begins good, but doesn't always remain good as longing for cherished sites set in. ((((HUGS)))))
Laura, I didn't know those black fuzzy catipillars could sting! Good thing I never picked one up.

Love you guys...
Sandy

[Petra Wilson]

Hey Sandy, I feel that this really won't last very long, this feeling of missing my past. I was never such a
person. I embraced every move and new experience with zest and excitement. It's just that here, there's
the racism thing. You see it every day, whether from the Poles fighting the Arabs, Corsicans, or simply the
graffiti: "FN", "Arabs to the sea", and others equally not nice! To be fair, Phil says the majority of people
here are actually good and nice. It's taken my neighbours (all of them) a whole year to accept us. Well, the
woman downstairs still mutters her complaints when we pass, you know, things like: "Have to really scrub the
front door step, what with all those children coming and going!" or: "Remember children! two till five is siesta
time in summer!" Much improvement from last year when she used to scream at them and lock them out!

It certainly doesn't help matters when one of the main reasons we left Wales was because Phil was so fed up
of the lack of sun. Guess what? Corsica's never been so wet apparently. It's warm but it's been raining almost
every day this year. Shocking, according to the locals.

No matter where you go..there you are!"

I love it. I think I get it.
And as for home being where the heart is, well, we all know that deep down.

Mathilda got a bit of a shock yesterday and was crying quietly. I sensed something straight away and she told
me between sobs that she was given a form from the teacher. I couldn't translate it 100%, but it basically said
she was going to sit that year again! I'm like: SORRY??? Come again??? Her work is excellent, her French
almost perfect, better than Thalia's and Thals would be the first to agree too. I checked her work, all very good,
19/20, 20/20, 15/20, 18/20 etc, yet her 'controle' (exam) was very poor. She gets very nervous before an exam.
Anyway, after 3 hours of on-off crying, Phil comes in, looks at note and declares: "That's just not going to happen!"
It happened to Phil at the same age, just so the school could keep up the number of pupils!
It was a suggestion, for us to approve. Well, unapproved thank yer very much! At least she'll be seeing some of her
old friends from Saint Lucie school...

I'd just got the washing almost dry when it started raining hard! I don't even care though!

I hope everyone's fine today. Clare, I'm thinking of you... and all of you wonderful souls XXXXX

Pet XXX

[Sandy]

Hi Pet,

I'd just got the washing almost dry when it started raining hard! I don't even care though!

George would just say..."The laundry is getting a second rinse."

Please give Mathilda a hug from George and I. That young lady is smarter then the two of us put together... {{{{{Mathilda}}}}}

You are in my thoughts too Clare. Here's a hug for you too. {{{{Clare}}}}
Love,
Sandy

[memawlaura]

Speaking of Laundry girls you never forget to give the clothes on the line a good shake or those catipillars will sting your fanny

Those are the things that need to change life is challenging enough without a school telling our young people they are not good enough to move forward, nope let her move on Pet and you tell her its not their job to judge her. This new Heaven on Earth needs to come on and get here for our youth so they dont have to put of with the stuff we did. So glad that Thalia's getting her french down it will help her in the future to know other languages how are you doing with the language? Hope your weather gets warm and sunny so you can have your fun adventures you tell us about.

Rob and I went from warm to tornados to snowed in what a crazy weather pattern this spring has had. We will be in Las Vegas tomorrow so I can put on my favorite attire shorts, tank top and floppers.

Hello to everyone and hope your all doing great

[luvinlife]

Thanks, Pet. Everything is sorting itself out. Doesn't it always? I love this thread. Laura, that's my favorite thing to wear, shorts, tank top, and flip flops! Anyway, all of you, I'm praying that everyone is doing okay. Rebecca???? I hope to be back a lot more in a few weeks.

Love, Clare

[Petra Wilson]

Laura wrote:

Speaking of Laundry girls you never forget to give the clothes on the line a good shake or those catipillars will sting your fanny

That's a rude word in the UK! fanny I mean. But I assume it means bottom in the US? Like when I go on about
having a fag, and American's give me a or even walk briskly away.
I've only once seen a little tornado in the sea near here. It looked quite amazing. I do love extreme weather.
So? Las vagas eh? I was watching Ocean's 13 two nights ago.

I'll tell her Sandy, she's with Phil, working. Manny has been with him all morning and so far he's earned €33!
They went back to school last week only to have Thursday and Friday off because Thursday was Ascension day...
I didn't know the French took religious days off. Doesn't matter though.

Phil's brothers are reuniting here in the aurtumn! They haven't been together since 1998, and we'll finally meet
Masami, Phil's and my sister-in-law. We finally figured out the conference call on Skype and had a really good chat
on video. Pat told us he'd made this really nice German friend...turns out he had his dead wife in his freezer for
months!!! Grizzley or what? These things happen to Pat a lot.
Well, it's going to be another busy summer for me. I've got relatives coming out of the woodwork wanting to come
and stay...had to tell 'em to wait in line behind the others! Wish I could put them up in those gorgeous empty
apartments upstairs.

Anyway, love you guys, take good care!

Pet xxxx

[luvinlife]

turns out he had his dead wife in his freezer for
months!!!

Pet, only you can come up with these stories! You must know quite a lot of interesting people!

Hi all of my wonderful friends! Have a great weekend. Can you tell that I'm feeling better? I was a bit overwhelmed for a few weeks, but it's better now. Thanks for the prayers (seems they worked)!

Love, Clare

[Petra Wilson]

I'm so glad you're feeling better now Clare. I am too. Probably due to the improvement in weather.
Things always look better when the sun's shining. Between you and me I think it's trying to kill me though!

I think Phil's sorting it out with Mathilda...honest to God! She worked so hard this past school year and always was
either top or the top 5 in her class. I simply didn't understand why her teacher wanted her to repeat...till she made
a comment how she likes Mathilda so much; such a model pupil...ol' Teeta could get the class to hush up in a jiffy
when things got too loud!
No, she is going to college next school year or she ain't going at all!

Love to you all and I hope all's well with everyone on this blessed fine day!

Pet XXXX MMMWWWWAAAAAAAH!

[luvinlife]

Back at you, my friend! Love to all of my friends here. Kenge, where are you?????

Love, Clare

[memawlaura]

Pet didnt know that was a bad word but it does mean the bottom. The one you said I heard long time back out of my dads mouth, I thought he was talking about those living an alternate lifestyle but he was talking about cigs. Yes the weather always makes one feel better and I'm sure glad that crazy weather is gone.

Claire, sorry didnt see you been feeling down its been quite some energy we have endured and it causes many symptoms. Just know your lucky to be a part of this grand plan. Loves to you and you to Pet