Sharon's Ramblings... Sept 1, 2017

So... for those of you new on the scene, a little bit about me, us/my husband and myself. :-) for there can't be a me without him after 47 years of marriage. We are both from what was small country towns in the south, raised by poor, hardworking farmers and sharecroppers. This is a familiar story when you get to talking to people in the south, but after our marriage, our lives took some interesting turns and twist not common among most of our family.

We married young, really young. I was 16, "almost 17", I'd say proudly when someone asked, and he was 18, almost 19. No, it wasn't a shotgun wedding, although there were many that thought it was. Our son, Mike was born 11 months later. We just met, fell in love and wanted to be together, always, and couldn't think of a single reason we should wait. That's just how it was back then. He'd already been working out of the home at the aircraft plant a couple years, and I, having pretty much raised my much younger siblings, already felt grown. What more can I say.

The night he proposed we decided we wanted two boys and a girl, because boys needed two to play ball and a girl could play with her dolls. Our daughter, Amy, never forgave us for that. And so it happened; We married Feb 6 of 1970, I had Mike, Jan 1, of 1971, then, 16 months later, Amy, a little over 2 years later, Dan.  We wanted kids young so we'd be able to enjoy our grand-kids and so it is, with us now in our mid 60s, 7 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. We are blessed.

We've had a wild and varied life that if I tried to tell it all in one sitting, you'd get lockjaw just from your Ohs of surprise, so I'll give you the short version; in 1976, against family wishes, at least against his mama, we decided to take our small kids to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where we lived for ten years, frequently traveling to foreign countries. In 1987 we moved to Alaska, where we fell in love with the state and lived for over 25 years. I had several businesses there, which I just sold my last one and we have moved back to where we started from, Lake City, Florida, back to the forest, to Sharon's Cabin the Woods.

Here, we live below the towering pines with our two dogs, Pewee and Sugar, our Cat, Melli, and 7 chickens and 2 ducks.

We love to travel and typically take the pups with us, but always miss the rest of our crew when we're gone.

We love our cabin in the woods and spend most of our time coming up with projects to do here, be it a new duck pond (LOVE MY DUCKS) or chicken coop, a screened in porch for our little rental down the road, Deer Cottage, or an arbor for my Cherokee Rose, which we're working on now.

We keep busy for sure. My poor husband gets more exercise now than when he worked. As for me, for the last 12 years I owned a vacation rental business in Sitka, Alaska, and was pretty much glued to the phone and the desk 24/7, so now I revel in being in the yard early morning till the sun gets up, which quickly runs me back inside.

Once inside, after I have my nap and an episode of Columbo, I am typically on the computer facebooking, Pinteresting, or, now, I'll be blogging. "What do I blog about," you ask? Anything that comes to mind as I love to share. My flowers, did I mention I LOVE GARDENING? My ducks, love my ducks, the birds. Country recipes I try. Whatever

Check back this week to see how I come up with a house for my ducks so I can separate them from the chicks as the gander keeps attacking the chickens, plus I"m hoping for baby ducks, and, if you'd like to learn how to make jelly from Beautyberry, I'm gonna give that a try, too and I'll share with you how it came out. Did I mention, I hate cooking.. but, this will be fun!

Thanks Everyone, Let's get it  on! Sharon

Sharon’s Ramblings... 

I have to admit that for the most part I’m a forgiving person.  A stranger, such as a cashier, or even a family member, can be mean or hateful to me and I usually shake it off, and say to myself that they are having a bad day and try not to take it too personally.

This isn’t to say that I don’t get my feelings hurt easily, because I do, and often these "feelings" result in a teary breakdown, but afterwards I can usually pull myself together and try to backup and figure out what lead to this. I try to remind myself that we don't always know what's going on in that person's life, even if it's a loved one, and that everyone has bad days occasionally that can make us short and mean-tempered.

The one person, though, that I do have a hard time forgiving is myself.  If I’m short tempered and snap at someone or say something I know is hurtful,  I soon find myself in tears of regret.  And, of course, the really bad thing is that once a word is uttered, it's impossible to take it back. I learned this the hard way many years ago when I lashed out at someone with words that I was never able to take back. We made up and spent time together, but it was never the same.

Because of that, I learned over the years to consider my words carefully before saying them. If I'm aggravated at something someone is doing, and feel it should be done another way, I ask myself, will what I'm wanting to say actually make them do it different, or will it just create a rift between us? If the latter, I do my best to hold them back.

Some lessons you just have to learn for yourself, and you can’t pull words back out of the thin air once spoken.

How nice it would be if I had an “undo” button, like on my computer so that with a simple “click” of the mouse, the harm is undone and I can back-up and regroup and find a kinder way to say something, or better yet, keep my mouth shut.

Because of my own feelings and experiences on this, I thought I’d just take today’s “Rambling” and use it as a gentle reminder for us all to be as kind to ourselves as we are to others, forgiving our mistakes as we forgive others, for in the end, we are human, not God.

If He thought we were going to be perfect, He would not have given us trials and tribulations.  With each mistake we make, we learn and we grow into a better person... that’s the way it’s supposed to be... Be kind and forgiving to all-that is His instructions, not mine... Sharon

From a song I heard long ago.. Words can accuse and carry bad news, the seeds of mistrust they may sow, but unless you've made no mistakes in your life, be careful of stones that you throw..

Easter 2011 in Sitka..

Nice weekend... Saturday morning found the sun shining and me in the yard looking for spring. It's been so fickle this year with what seems like hourly changes in the weather since March. One minute it's raining, next it's snowing and next it's hailing, all within a morning. Brave blossoms are peeking their heads out, but very cautiously.

My mood for gardening has been as varied as the weather, with me stepping out to see what the temp is before I gather my tools. Bout the time I get outside though, it seems like the teasing sun ducks back behind a cloud with a "fooled you" giggle. Sometimes I stick to it and tackle dandelions, other times, I give way to a warm corner and a magazine that promises blooms untold if I just follow their instructions.

Easter Sunday did find me out looking for wildflowers to coax into my garden. I love the woodland mosses and the tiny flowers that grow there. Tiny pieces of art, peeking from within the soft mound of green. Petals so dainty.

Small treasures of wild Columbine, tiny ferns and wild strawberry made the trip worth it.

So, for now, my gardening is low key, waiting for the magic number of 55 that everyone says is when the plants in our area can grow.. till then, a cup of coffee, a good gardening magazine and a warm blanket over my knees will keep me happy...

The herring are coming.. the herring are coming!

Saw my first whale of the season yesterday. I was on the phone with a customer, in my office that sits right on the oceanfront and could barely conceal my excitement!

The herring are coming the herring are coming was going off in my ears as I try to focus again on our conversation..

"Yes, June is a nice time to come," I say again. What I don't say is if I could only have one month in Sitka a year, it would begin about mid March to mid April when all the wildlife starts coming in to get ready for the influx of the herring. Love this time of year..

Sea lions have been gathering a couple weeks and now the whales are here.. I had noticed an increase in eagle activity, too, so knew it was getting close.

In three weeks my cousins are coming from Texas, so I'm excited they'll be here to witness "the feast" as it was called in the BBC documentary that covered it a couple years ago.

And me, I get a front door view as I watch from Sharon's Cabin on the Sound!

The whales, the eagles, and the sea lions are all good tokems saying that winter is over and spring has sprung. On my list today is go around and start looking for crocuses and daffodils!

The earth has music for those who listen...

May Arrives in Alaska

The pulse quickens as May arrives, 

and Whales frolic off the shore

and Sealions gather near the rocks 

as Summer knocks upon our door

Can it REALLY be May in just 2 days?

Okay, so I haven't been here in a while. It' s not because I haven't been writing, I write ALL the time! It's just that either I'm writing for business reasons which keeps me VERY busy or I'm on face book writing whatever is on my mind.

Unbelievable that it's already May! And what an incredible winter and spring. We've been in gardening mode seems like since last summer. Truth is we did not really have a winter you know.

Everything is budding out and it is killing me! Last winter I rented a small section of the RE/MAX office downtown, figuring it would be easier for customers to get to me and such, but now with my clematis beside my office and the honeysuckle blooming, it's killing me to be away for one second!

I wanted to be nestled in my tiny home-office, coffee in hand, peeking through the ferns and foxglove that snuggle against my large view window, watching the hummingbirds and other wild things as they gather near.

I saw my first hummer this morning. Quick as a minute it flew by the window and went and sat in the plum tree that's filled with blossoms right now. I never knew hummers sat still until we moved into the upstairs apartment that looks out on the plum tree. There's been times when I can see 25 or 30 at a time humming around the, frequently settling to rest or work on their nest.

Now I'm waiting for the Cedar Waxwing to return. It had just started coming after several years of me putting out the kind of food that it and other jays like, peanuts, sunflower seeds. Now I wait with bated breath for its return.

Well, I guess that's it for right now. This weekend I get my little office set back up then you won't be able to shut me up as I share the gloriousness of the arrival of an Alaska summer!

till then, take only photo, leave only footprints and kill nothing but time...

Sitka mist settles over the sound like a fine woven blanket

What a wierd couple of days...

Woke Sunday morning as the full moon moved close to the horizon, shining across the slight ripples in the sound. Then, before I could get my camera, it was gone, replaced by a thinly woven blanket of fog that eventually thickened to pea soup.

Yesterday morn no moon, the sound was smooth as glass, the eagles reflections showing as they soared overhead, again, within moments, the fog had moved in.

Today, a light layering of mist hugged the islands across the way, while somewhere behind, the moon or the sun hid creating wierd reflections on the water just around that one small island. Sea gulls flew over, silent.

I considered trying to catch it on film, but knew that no camera had the ability to capture the serene beauty of this morning.

I hate sounding like a broken record, but...

Got up this morning, put on the coffee and walked outside. Okay, so the water is like glass, the volcano is crisp and clear and there just happens to be a full moon rising silver in morning light. In housecoat and slippers, I grab my camera and go on the porch and start shooting.

9, 8, 6.5, I keep changing my aperture to see which is working best. Love digital cameras because I can switch back and actually see the photo and make immediate changes.

Got to get closer. Looking around to see if anyone is about, I slip off the porch to the rocks and shoot. Wish an eagle would fly by or a sea lion would pop their head up to add interest to the pic, oh well, it's beautiful all by itself.

Need to get inside and get ready for my busy day-one more shot, well, maybe two...

An eagle does fly by, but I miss it. Digital cameras are slow, that's one draw back.

Back inside, I cuddle with a cup of coffee watching the moon as it continues its path behind the clouds. I notice a ripple on the surface a sea lion, no too small, maybe an otter. The camera... nah, think I'll just stay here with my coffee and enjoy the view....

Photos here.... www.mysitka.com/

Boats, boats and an occassional whale

Okay, so today is pretty. I got up at 5 this morning to the moon sparkling across the water so bright that at first I thought it was a spotlight from a passing boat. Tons of boats coming in now to get set in case they call the herring fishery is called today. So scenic. Everyday they are testing the roe, measuring the fish, getting ready for the next call. Amazing that such tiny fish can be such a big haul money-wise for so many fishermen.

Photos here.... go to mysitka.com and see photos!

Well, time is short today, so on my way. Have a wonderful day!