Loose Leaf Notes

1. One of my nicknames as a girl was “colly dog,” but I’m actually more of a watchdog because I follow the news like a hound.

2. Some people knit. I thrift shop and then spend hours sewing the clothes I found to make them fit.

3. Looking for shoes on Amazon is like looking at suspects in a police line-up, and they keep posting duplicates to trick me.

4. We just got a new electric massage chair and I’ve started to enjoy teasing Joe with ‘you’re going to get the chair!’

5. Mother’s Day Love.

6. Sheryl Crow wrote THIS song for her sons and it really chokes me up.

7. When I image googled Lady Slippers (a wild orchid) to see what colors they come in, actual lady’s slippers for the feet came up. More from Name That Bloom HERE.

8. Cinderella’s Lost Lady Slipper / If the shoe fits, wear it / If the song lifts, hear it / Don’t wait till midnight.

9. “Falling in love can be exhilarating, but it isn’t the secret to happiness per se. You might more accurately say that falling in love is the start-up cost for happiness—an exhilarating but stressful stage we have to endure to get to the relationships that actually fulfill us… the secret to happiness isn’t falling in love; it’s staying in love. This does not mean just sticking together legally: Research shows that being married only accounts for 2 percent of subjective well-being later in life. The important thing for well-being is relationship satisfaction, and that depends on what psychologists call “companionate love”—love based less on passionate highs and lows and more on stable affection, mutual understanding, and commitment…” More from The Type of Love That Makes People Happiest – The Atlantic, HERE.

10. You vow not to forget love’s lasting imprint when life has been spent and time no longer counts you. More HERE.

11. We discovered the lady slipper croppings off the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Smart View Recreation Area, which the National Park Service said was named for the “right smart views.”

12. On the Smart View trail you will find this Trail Family Cabin, no relation.  “Built by W. J. Trail in the 1880s, the cabin is typical of the early style Appalachian cabin. “This one-room cabin style was common in the area. Oftentimes the initial home was a simple structure—people needed a decent shelter fast so that they could move on to other activities that sustained their livelihood. Over time, as families grew and became more established on the land, extensions would be added to the house or a new home might be constructed nearby. Once this cabin no longer served as a home, it was used as a barn.” -National Park Service

13. “When I haven’t any blue, I use red.” Picasso

____________Thirteen Thursday