the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is? Well the answer to that second part is easy, I think every bird in eastern north carolina has moved into my garden due to the endless all you can eat buffet being out for them. But, joyously Spring is truly here in my little corner of the world, as evidenced by the flowers in bloom. The birds are spooning, I must check out my decrepid greenhouse tomorrow to see if the wren has begun building a nest in the dead hanging baskets. This morning the Mocking Bird was sat on the Sycamore tree singing, and I don't mean a normal mornings singing, I mean, a full blown, joyous, serenade to life, he sang his little lungs out, he sang his songs, other birds songs, he sang for hours, glad as was I, that the temperatures today were going to be in the high 70s. I cleaned up my gardens, cut back all the dead foliage, put out my new yard art, power washed my porch and pathway and generally spruced things up. If that was not enough it was my birthday today, I had felt a little depressed about the entire thing, turning 46, you know being closer to 50 than I am to 40, but with the weather today, and the sun on my face, and a film of sweat on my brow my spirit soared, and then there were the flowers, ah the flowers of spring, if that won't make your spirit soar then nothing will....

I have spoken of this before, of being a transplanted English Rose, trying to grow in the heat of a North Carolina summer. With some limitations I absolutely adore where I live (just give me a good old fashioned English grocery store and I would be in heaven, oh and a proper fish and chip shop *LOL*) I happen to think that this part of North Carolina is just about perfect. It is metropolitan (being the home of a Marine base we have people from all over the world living here), we have the beach (some of the quietest and most beautiful beaches in the country if you ask me), less than 30 minutes away (actually less than that if you go on base, the Marines took all the nicest land *S*), we have Raleigh, with its theatres and culture just a couple of hours drive, we have Wilmington with its port and wonderful night life about 45 minutes away, we have Myrtle Beach, with its carnival atmosphere just a couple of hours drive away, and for a longer trip we have the beautiful mountains of Maggie Valley and Cherokee. And yet my home is nestled in the depth of the woods in a swamp (okay so that would NOT be a selling point for alot of people but for me it is), quiet, secluded, virtually no crime and yet I am a ten minute drive from my office. I love this part of the country, I love the fact that I am near water (I am a pisces, it is important to me), no matter where I go around here, and the New River and its inlets, as well as the White Oak River and the Cape Fear River basin which surround us are just wonderful places waiting to be explored. After our trip around the Swamp in South Carolina over the holidays my husband and I took a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Myrtle Beach and looked at some really nice large canoes. Not huge ones that would require a trailer, but a decent size one that we could put on a rack on the roof of the car. I just can't wait to get one so that we can get out there on the river, following the inlets so see what we can see, just so long as I don't fall in with my camera I should be fine. I like this shot, I call it New River Morning. I am looking forward to when I have my wide format printer so that I can get this framed and on the market.

So NASA has announced that it has found liquid water on one of Saturn's moons, and where there is water there is of course the possibility of life, even primitive microbial life. But you know for those of us who believe that life does exist out there this is no surprise. It appears to me, (in my humble opinion) that for us humans to assume that of all the planets in all of the universe that Earth is the only planet with intelligent life is such a hugely ridiculous assumption that it borders on the absurd. I mean how arrogant can a species be? It is almost like us Westerners saying that because there are not millions of single-family homes, grocery stores and gas stations in Africa then "life" as we know it simply cannot exist there. We have no idea how life on other planets exists, because we assume, in our ignorance, that every life form must be "carbon based" as we are. I am firmly convinced that there is life on other planets, and I am firmly convinced that they are doing just fine, thank you very much, more's the point, I am firmly convinced that these beings watch our planet with a weather eye to make sure we are not getting out of hand. Was I the only one who wondered why the Mars Rover vehicles kept suddenly breaking down just when they began to work and gather data? It will come as no surprise then that some of my favorite movies are "ET" "Abyss" "Mission to Mars" (I think, anyhoo Gary Sinese was great in it), and "Contact" (Jodie Foster's most brilliant performance if I may say so). I also believe in dragons but you know if you had read the books I have read then you would too. I end with a quote from "Mulder" of the x-files, "have you ever wondered about how much the face of a praying mantis looks like the face of an alien"

if you knew me, which of course most of you don't, you would know that the geese (or more generally the birds) are my barometer, they tell me when it is winter and they tell me when it is spring. I think they are much more reliable than the local weather man or mores the point some gopher in a hole somewhere. In recent weeks I have heard the geese flying overhead, their familiar honking drawing my attention to them. In the fall, when they head south, it is the harbinger of doom for me, the herald of winter, when my gardens die, when nothing blooms, when the only joy I have is to take photographs of my birds gratefully enjoying the food that I provide. In the spring however, they are the harbinger of warmth, of new growth, of life again. This evening as I left my office there was a flock going overhead, honking for all they were worth, in their famous v-formation. I pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store that I stop in to on my way home and I noticed another flock of birds, not so much a flock as a nation, I stood for a moment and watched, streams and streams of birds went overhead, from their shape they looked at little like seagulls but obviously they weren't. There were adults and youngsters, you could see by the size, I watched in awe at the convoy flew north then after a while went into the grocery store. When I came out, they were still there, the line, which appeared to be never ending were still flying overhead. The flock must have been hundreds of thousands of birds large, the line, by my estimation was two to three miles long judging by the time it took them to fly over while I was in the grocery store, and when I pulled out of the grocery store parking lot and turned onto my exit they were still going overhead, just the stragglers at this point I think. Ahhh spring, don't listen to the weather man, don't listen to the naysayers. Just watch the birds and marvel in their instinct that it is spring, time to head north to breed. My heart is so joyous it is fit to burst. SPRING! And soon, ahhh soon, my flowers will bloom, the birds in my yard will breed, and life will begin again. I am waking from a sleep I think, bring on the butterflies.

Cellphones. I hate them. I have a cellphone simply because a) occasionally my boss needs to get hold of me during the weekends and I don't like sitting home by the phone and b) occasionally I have to drive long distances and I don't much fancy sitting by the side of the road with a flat tire. Other than that I have no use for cellphones. In fact, very few people other than my boss and my husband have my cellphone number, simply put I do not want to be "got hold of" if I am for instance wandering down by the river taking photographs of geese. I rarely answer my home phone at the weekends unless it is my mother or another member of my family calling. I answer phones 9 hours a day 5 days a week, the last thing I want to do when I am relaxing is to answer the phone. It drives me almost to distraction then when I am wandering round the grocery store doing my weekly grocery shop (a chore I loathe but which must be done if the dogs are not going to be forced to eat the cats to survive) and my musings in front of the pet food aisle are interrupted by a cellphone which is generally answered thus "hello" (guessing the other end, "hey whatcha doin") "oh nuthin, I'm at the grocery store, whatchoo doin" (guessing the other end, oh nuthin I'm at the shoe store") "so what's up" (oh nothing what up with you) "oh nuthin" ad infinitum for the rest of the conversation. There must be millions of minutes of completely worthless conversations going on every hour of the day on this planet consisting mainly of "whatcha doin" "Oh nuthin" which is fine, I don't have a problem with that, what I do have a problem with is that I have to listen to it, what is worse are the conversations where some stupid woman is fighting with another stupid woman over a man (there are about 27 billion men on the planet girls, trust me its not worth it) and then relaying the gory details of her fight with another stupid women. "so I told the bitch you stay away from him or there is gonna be trouble" you know the routine. I mean really?

Which brings me nicely to another subject. Women fighting over men. I spend alot of time in court, as you know, and it is truly sad and really quite pathetic the amount of women who end up in court charged with assault because they have been fighting over a man. Now if we were perhaps talking about Keanu Reeves, then maybe and it is a big maybe it would be worth a spirited debate over, but a physical fight? Ending up with criminal charges and a day in court? I don't think so. AND the sad fact is that when you see the object of these women's affections in court along with one of them (presumably the winner of the fight) he is invariably a sorry looking, sullen, jobless, worthless piece of S**T with his jeans by his knees and his hands in his pockets who is basically a waste of the oxygen he is using up, and mores the point has probably fathered at least half a dozen illegitimate children with half a dozen females. I mean come on girls, get some self respect, have some pride in yourself for goodness sake, there are 27 billion (or whatever the number is) men on the planet and while you have a pulse and are at least moderately attractive (either inside or out) you can snag yourself one who is not only going to be nice to you but more than likely is going to be more than willing to support the child he impregnates you with, let the bitch have the deadbeat, do better for yourself PLEASE.

Oh and while I am talking about court. It is amazing to me the clothes that people choose to wear to court. While one would assume that anyone charged with anything would attempt to dress at least respectfully for an appearance in court, thinking that perhaps it will make the judge have a much more favorable opinion of you. You would not believe what people show up in court wearing. Some of our Judges are more strict than others. One particular Judge is very strict, when he is holding court the bailiff comes out and makes a speech "this is Judge "Bloggs" courtroom today, take off your hats, your t-shirts will be tucked into your pants so we can see your waistband, you will not be sagging and bagging, if you are we will provide a belt, if your cellphone goes off during court it will be confiscated and it will cost you $100.00 to get it back" and there is actually a supply of belts in the Judges chambers for those sagging and bagging types. We had a client show up for court the other day, he is a construction worker in real life, so his wardrobe consists almost entirely of jeans. He showed up for court wearing a pair of dockers, a nice shirt and a tie and probably the only formal jacket that he owned, which could have done with an ironing, but you know he tried, he looked as smart as a construction worker appearing in court could have done and precisely as I would have imagined a construction worker dressing up smart would have done, freshly showered, hair still wet, wrinkled jacket and nervous as all get out, my heart went out to him. Conversely one other day I saw two men walking around the courthouse waiting for their "day in court" one was wearing a t-shirt which had a dollar bill printed on it and "MY BABY MOMMA MOST WANTED" the other had a t-shirt with the Warner Brothers symbol on it and it said "IF YOU SEE A COP WARN A BROTHER" is it just me are these people REALLY expecting a Judge to look at them and say "hmmmmm this looks like a fine upstanding citizen I think I'll go easy on him" - idiots.

Oh and by the way, here are the geese I was photographing, can you tell how annoyed I would have been if my cellphone had have rung at that moment?