Loose Leaf Notes

1. How to make a swing HERE.

2. Seen on Facebook: I started a new exercise routine. Every day I do diddley squats.

3. This weekend, during my first visit to Spikenard Honeybee Farm and Sanctuary, I held a honeybee in my cupped hands and was promised $1,000 if it stung me. It didn’t because it was a drone.  Story coming soon. 

4. Emily Dickinson’s version of the sign of the cross, which was taught to me by a monk in South Carolina: In the name of the birds, the bees and the breeze.

5. Because of the picture below I had to explain what a rickshaw to my 6 year old grandson Bryce and he was as appalled as I was when I first learned that a person pulled a cart that carried another person.

6. New school shoes flash dance show HERE.

7. After posting this question on Facebook: “Does anyone know what kind of bird or animal could remove a whole sunflower head flower from a 12 foot sunflower stalk behind a 10 foot electric fence without bending the stalk or leaving a trace?” I got answers ranging from “reports of the pot choppers flying very low” to “chipmunks with chainsaws.” And then this: “Many years ago I watched a flock of goldfinches tire an entire sunflower from its stalk. It might have been numerous finches. They’re capable of it.”

8. Can you find the golden finch in the 2nd photo above, taken at Spikenard Farm?

9.  Putting a gas pipeline at the headwaters of a watershed (Floyd) is like building a nuclear power plant next to a school. – More from Sideline the Pipeline HERE.

10. I tried to get the Floyd Happy Dance dancers to drop buckets of ice water over their heads while dancing to Pharrell Williams’ Happy Song, but no one was having it.

11. SeeSaw: I swing from trust to fear / from confidence to no confidence / and sometimes I let go of it all / in a moment of self-acceptance / flying carefree down the slide ______________

12. I’ll be going to the Floyd YogaJam this weekend. Here’s an excerpt from the story I wrote about last year’s Jam: The tents are bigger and new showers have been built. With over 30 teachers scheduled, 35 hours of inspirational workshops planned and 18 bands ready to get you moving, excitement is mounting for the second annual Floyd YogaJam, set to take place over Labor Day weekend at Burnette Farm Retreat in the Willis part of the county. “The focus is healthy living, healthy movement and healthy community,” said festival co-founder Laura Polant. She noted that the wellness focus will come in all shapes and forms “from the health benefits you get from yoga practice to the joy of dance, to the freedom of expression in our Art Village, to our KidsVille and good food.” – More HERE.

13. The suspense is killing me. Baby goats on a seesaw. Wait for it HERE.

__________Thirteen Thursday