The Swallows of San Juan Capistrano

Back from winter vacation in Argentina

The famous cliff swallows of San Juan Capistrano, that leave town every year in a swirling mass near the Day of San Juan (October 23), are returning from their winter vacation spot 6,000 miles south in Goya, Corrientes, Argentina.

They land at the mission in San Juan, California, on or around St. Joseph's Day, March 19, to the ringing bells of the old church and a crowd of visitors from all over the world who are in town awaiting their arrival and celebrating with a huge fiesta as well as a parade.

Seeking Solace in the Mission

Legend has it that the swallows took refuge in the Mission San Juan Capistrano from an irate innkeeper who destroyed their muddy nests. The swallows return to the old ruined church each spring knowing they will be protected within the mission's walls. In fact, the city has taken their safety seriously passing an ordinance against destroying their nests.

So-called "scout swallows" precede the main flock each year by a few days but the majority of the small birds usually arrives on the 19th and begins rebuilding the mud nests that cling to the ruins of the old stone church and throughout the Capistrano Valley.

The Oldest Building in California


The mission, originally built from 1776–1806, was seriously damaged in 1812 by a deadly earthquake and was never fully rebuilt. It is the seventh in a chain of 21 California Missions all supposedly separated by the distance of a day's walk. The Mission was named for the Crusader, Saint John of Capistrano, who had taken the name of his Italian birthplace. Padre Junipero Serra was a Spanish Franciscan priest who founded the church on November 1, 1776, and the adobe Serra Chapel section of the mission has been rebuilt and it is now the oldest building in California still in use today.

The mission is located near two rivers and was an ideal spot for the swallows to nest for years because of the abundance of the insects on which they feed. The reduction in numbers of the insects, largely as a result of the development of the area, has caused some of the swallows to locate further from the center of town and explains why there are no longer huge clouds of swallows descending on the Mission. Still, it's quite a sight.

And The Sign said Long-Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply

Sign, Sign, everywhere a Sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?


Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?


So I got me a pen and paper and I made me my own little sign!

One of my personal life long favorite's, Bytown~Ottawa, Ontario~ Canadien~ Les Habitants~ Dream Voices (and I am a party to harmony, if that wasn't clear; and to obvious retorical questions like this song invoked in me in my childhood. Kids and questions, then top it off with people singing about how things might be questionable, makes you think?)
The Five Man Electrical Band's 1971 hit 'Signs', what were they thinkin'?

LOVE

Sharing Love is like
sharing a
song with someone
who will sing it strongly and
right there with you.
Right there, making it a harmony!

And so much more~~~~~~~

I love you Man, Woman, God's and Goddesses


Namesta!

©Allisonians

Photo from Pink Sherbert (Yummy! I love rainbow sherbert best!)

A rare glimpse of the cave of crystals From BBC News

Mexico's Cave of Crystals stunned geologists when it was first discovered in 2000. The underground chamber contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found - some of the selenite structures have grown to more than 10m long. Professor Iain Stewart got a rare glimpse of the subterranean spectacle while filming for the new BBC series How the Earth Made Us.

Professor Stewart describes the cave as a geological wonder of the world
We kept on being told how difficult it was going to be to film in the Naica Cave, but nothing really prepares you for the extremes of that cavern.

It's about 50C in there, but it's the virtually 100% humidity added on top that makes it a potential killer.

That combination means that when you breathe air into your body, the surface of your lungs is actually the coolest surface the air encounters. That means the fluid starts to condense inside your lungs - and that's really not good news.

When the cave was first discovered it was just an accident.

Miners working in the Naica silver mine broke through the walls of the cavern and were astounded to discover these enormous crystals - the biggest anywhere on Earth.

But when the first people went in to explore, they were almost overcome by the conditions - and there's some pretty hairy video footage of them coming out of the cave on the verge of losing consciousness. So we knew the dangers were real.

When you first look at the kit your first thought is: "Is that it?"

There's a special cooling suit - which is basically like a suit of chain mail but filled with ice cubes.

Then there's a breathing system which feeds cool, dry air into your mask.

It's OK to take the mask off for a short while, but do without it for more than about 10 minutes, and it's likely that you're going to start keeling over.

I was lucky of course. All I had to do was stand there and talk, but the cameraman and all the others helping set out the lights were having to work in these conditions, wearing these cumbersome suits, and they really struggled.

We had a doctor outside the cave to monitor our vital signs, and we were coming out of the cavern with our heart rates up at 180.

The biggest danger was falling over; rescuing someone inside would have been very tricky.

Despite all the dangers, my overwhelming memory is the sheer beauty of the place.

Whenever people around me were faffing around with equipment, I'd just stop and look around at the crystals.

It's such a glorious place, it's like being in a modern art exhibit.

I kept reminding myself: "You're in the Naica Cave", because there's only a handful of geologists that have ever been in there, and so I was aware of how incredibly privileged I was.

Yet remarkably, for the people who own and run the Naica mine, the crystal cave is a side-show, a distraction.

They don't make any money out of it and sooner or later, when the economics of the mine change, it will close.

The pumps will be taken out, the mine and the cave will flood, and the crystals will once more be out of our reach.

But perhaps we should console ourselves with the thought that there are certainly lots more crystal caves waiting to be discovered.

For starters, the geology of the area around the cave suggests that there could be more crystal caves in the area around Naica.

But more broadly, the Earth's crust must be riddled with wonders like this.

We know more about the outer edges of the Solar System than we do about the first kilometre of the Earth's crust.

As we learn more about the crust, we can be sure that there will be discoveries even more spectacular than Naica. I just hope I'm around to see them.

How the Earth Made Us: The epic story of how geology, geography and climate have influenced mankind is on Tuesday 19th January on BBC Two at 2100 GMT

From the BBC News.

Tinking on the title will redirect you to the original article with a really interesting video of the cave. Surreal.

True Nature Centre Founded in New Zealand by Elysha and Sarah

There is a free ebook that is also quite interesting here called
7 Steps to Living In Your Freedom. Just wanted to share.

Please let me know what you think!

Namesta,
Allisonian

6 Ways to Relieve Stress Written on 1/05/2009 by Henri Junttila

Fr: http://www.dumblittleman.com/
Simply click on this title to redirect to the website which this article originated from. The blue moon is in representation of the blue moon on new years eve.

There is great advise here, and I have used some of these. I will be posting some of my experiences with a technique or two in the near future.
ENJOY!
Allisonian




Advise from Henri Junttila

We all battle with fear. Just a few short years ago, the underlying current of my, Henry's, being was filled with fear, worry and anxiety. When your whole life is controlled by fear, it starts to get to you.

Fear isn’t your enemy; it is through fear and hardship that we grow the most. When you think about it, if your life was free from any challenges, it would be fun for some time, but ultimately it would get pretty boring as you skated through each day without any challenges.

Fear is the spice in our life and using it to your advantage can make the difference between being miserable and being happy. But before you can do that, you should probably know about the following 6 ways to conquer fear and make it your ally.


1.Use Your Curiosity
Fear is painful when you try to push it away. Don’t resist. Allow the fear to fill your whole body and be completely aware and curious of how it affects you. A funny thing happens when you do this, the fear usually disappears because you’re not afraid of it.

Remember those dreams where you’re being chased by something horrible? Fear is the same way. It’s chasing you, but once you stop running and turn around, it goes up in smoke, because it was an illusion.


2.Emotional Freedom Techniques
EFT is almost like acupuncture, but without the needles. I have been using it on and off for several years. It is very helpful in neutralizing fear. It works by tapping (with your fingers) on acupuncture points on your body, which then balance the energy and thus neutralize bad feelings.

It looks weird and I don’t do it in public, but it works. The first thing you might want to neutralize is how ridiculous you feel while doing it. The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in your body’s energy field. EFT is then used to neutralize and balance your energy field.


3.Sedona Method
The Sedona Method is another tool that is a lot simpler than EFT. It also helps you to release painful unwanted feelings by asking yourself a few simple questions.

The only drawback is that the Sedona Method has a price attached to it, while EFT is free and you can download a manual from the EFT website. I recommend both, because they are some of the most effective ways I have found to eliminate fear.


4.Gratitude
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to be afraid, angry or depressed while thinking about what you are grateful for? There are many exercises you can go through, but I’ll spare you, because there are no rules needed to take advantage of the feelings that gratitude provides.

What I do is I sit or lie down, go through everything I am grateful for and keep doing it until I feel satisfied and happy. I then bask in that feeling and really get curious about how I can feel so good and how I can feel even better. Ask the right questions and magic happens. There’s no room for fear when you’re in a deep state of gratitude.


5.Just Do It
If you’re the kind of person that likes doing things the easy way, then you might like just letting the fear be there and doing it anyway. There’s no rule that says that you have to let fear control you. When you’ve done things in fear a few times, it starts to go away on its own, because you begin to realize that there’s nothing dangerous about fear.

This is a lot easier said than done, so do it in small steps. Be okay with not being perfect. It’s easy to get bogged down by perfection. We’ve been taught unconsciously since early childhood that making mistakes is bad.


6.Be Present
If you haven’t read the The Power of Now, I suggest you pick it up. It changed my life and is one of the few books that I’ve read multiple times.

Being present simply means being aware of your body. You can focus on your muscles, your breathing or the sounds around you. It all depends, but you know when you’re doing it, because you will feel energized, calm and content



Written on 1/05/2009 by Henri Junttila. Henri is addicted to living a free and passionate life. He runs the Wake Up Cloud, where he shows you how you can learn how to find your passion and live consciously.

Eat the weeds dot com

My favorite little star (chickweed) is on one of his(Deane's) videos
Stellaria media, Stellaria pubera,

Here is a cute little video link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy3vRYftDqE

Here is his website link;
http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWeeds.Com/EatTheWeeds.com/EatTheWeeds.com.html
(As always; You can just click on the title and it will redirect you to Green Deane's website. Ah, me and my mother nature style food stuff. Enjoy, and please feel free to comment. ;)Allisonian

Merry Christmas!

I remember a Christmas Story in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Books.


Their Pa had gone out in a terrible storm. He was supposed to be home with needed staples (food) and was late. They weren't even sure what day it was, but they were not too concerned with that. What they wanted was their Pa's safe arrival home. He did, indeed come home on Christmas day. He'd been detained because of the horrific storm.
They were overjoyed that their Pa was safely home with the help, I think, of their neighbor, Mr. Edwards. They had a simple dish that they were so happy to have and Pa brought them a single candy stick each. They were happy with it. That winter was cruel and daunting for them, but they made it. Their family stayed true to each other. Of course their need existed, but the simplicity of the story comes back. I haven't seen a life like that. Simply, primal with necessities that preceded anything we know, but still, simply elegant in the imagination, their simplicity of a season and a holiday.

I may not have the exact details of the story; or be even close, I do apoligize if this offends. Otherwise, I am happy to share my simple and sacred imagining. I couldn't find my old book to be sure of her words compared to my memory of that particular story, but the nature it brought me exudes life.

Giving thanks for my simplicity of this year,
Merry Christmas!
Allison

Merry Christmas

Well, I can't really say why Lakewood is especially important to me; but this story says it all for itself.

~~Semper Fi ===Latin== Always Faithful~~


Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am
A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department station Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an officer enough that the officer wanted to share it with friends.

One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that they thought it should be shared with the community.

Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:

December 13, 2009

I’m not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn’t even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at all. I’m sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here in Lakewood two weeks ago today – four of our officers, four people that have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together, were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother – all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families – now dead. The grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.

It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want to send out a Christmas letter. I’m here at work and was just out in our secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old, calling, “Excuse me….” through our locked gate. She had apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there, it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed dinosaur.

The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4 slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had written “AJ….From me to Pleec. I Love You.” And then, with tears in his eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ’s mom explained that he wanted to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.

We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2 weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven’t talked to for years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood Police Department today.

So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.

I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little

Cheese, cheese~ the wonderful~~ food

With all of this weather, it's no wonder we need an outlet.
Cheese Page.........




http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/CHEESE.HTML

June 1st and the Midnight Summer's Dream

Ode to this beautiful time on earth.
The one where we were all birthed.
To learn from it is at all intense.
The lessons are all so immense. Unless they are modest.
To all of my fellow travelers converge.
And we'll learn from each other or we'll even merge.
To one another where we came and to where we go?
Does anyone ponder these things or say,
I have to now, I have you today??
What of tomorrow, where will we all go?
Or does it even matter how one doth flow?
Forever onwards to what, do we know?
Do we need to identify,
Or are we all where we should already be for?
And after.

My personal rhyme of the day.
Please listen and don't think I'm astray.
I may always have been this way,
I may not want to be any other day.
We might meet and say, yes we are and here we are now,
Or when we go will we go far?

I only know I am so glad for all of the times and places we've all had.
And to you who consciously make a difference, thank you and blessings and happily puristic!
And not to say we don't always any way make a difference how ever it is deemed.
For this I know to be true, do you?
Have impeccable speech
Speak only in Truth. Even if our truths vary, they are easier to read.
Don't take anything personal.
Don't make assumptions.
Do your Best.

Peace out!

©Allisonians
June 1st 2009
From June 1st 1962
Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing before you purger (plagiarize) yourself. silly silly