GIFTS SHARED

Some of you might remember, a few weeks ago I shared a few pictures with you - things I saw that were a bit out of the ordinary. I have always considered these brief moments of beauty and wonder gifts. The first time I remember using that term was one summer day, my aunt and I were returning to our home in the Poconos from grocery shopping, and I decided to take the old back way home, a seldom traveled road winding over the mountains. It was a slow ride, the road was in bad repair, but we didn't mind. As I came around a curve, there in the middle of the road was a red fox stretched out. I assumed he had been hit, and slowed down to stop and move him off the road, sprinkle him with a little sage and tobacco, bless him on his journey to his next life, when he raised his head and looked at me. By then I had stopped. He got up, walked to the side of the road and cut me a look that said, "Gee, can't a fellow catch a little sun anymore without somebody interrupting him?" He sat in the tall grass and weeds at the side of the road, barely visible as I slowly drove by. Then when he was satisfied I was not coming back, he sat down in the middle of the road again, probably to take the rest of his sun bath! All I could say was - "What a gift!"

Since then, I realize any day I see anything is first the gift of sight which I do not take for granted - and if it is something that is not seen everyday or even very often, I consider it a gift. So, I asked my friends to send me their "gifts." Some folk put their pictures on their blogs, some sent me pix to put on mine. So, I will try to find where I stashed them and share them with you. Probably my favorite is this picture of a black bear sent to me by spaceflighter... the bear resides in Maine, the home of this chippie, another favorite animal of mine. We don't have bears or chippie around here. This sunflower is from my neighbor Dorothy Perrucci (Onley Images) who said it was a real gift because they did not plant it. She also sent this sunset picture. Don't you love sunsets? I think this is Lake Gaston?

Another friend (Julie) has a little family of mushrooms that come up each year in this spot. Another neighbor spotted this fungus on my Buddha stump. The bright red only lasted one day.

Another very special gift is to have these pileated woodpeckers living a few hundred feet from my house. Tho I have seen them recently, this picture is from last winter.

One of the joys of living here on the Shore is spotting one of the wild ponies on Assateague. They are not that rare, but they have to be kept behind fences since the public doesn't seem to understand they are wild and apparently can't read the Please DO NOT FEED the ponies signs. Ponies, like many wild animals, can become moochers, and are not afraid of humans, especially humans with snacks. The sad part of this story is then folks who then come along and think they can pet the ponies because the ponies are coming to their cars and they often get bitten when they do not feed them. The hand comes out... the pony opens his mouth... One year I saw a father try to put his kid on a pony's back while Mom took the picture. The kid got tossed and kicked in the head. Of course, it was the pony's fault - sue the park.

This little fellow kept jumping up at my front door. Sorry the shot isn't better - it was thru the plexiglas.

Send me a gift - I will put it on here!