Western Australia pt. 1 (Dec. 20-25, 2006)

Hello again my dear friends & family,

Here is the first part of my update on the great visits & explorations I have been having over in Western Australia with some of my Seed Mates in & around Perth.

Dec. 20, 2006 - A highlight of my flight to Perth was the dessert we were served on the airplane by Qantas ... ice cream bars!!! Not just any plain, non-descript kind of ice cream bars, but a yummy creamsicle type that was covered in a mango/passion fruit layer ... & apparently made with real fruit juices :)

Phoebe, one of my lively & very excellent Seed Mates picked me up at the airport & we proceeded to Jo Vallentine's home ...

Jo is a real treasure and she welcomed us wonderfully into her home where we visited into the early hours of the morning before Pheebs finally headed off to Gaia House where she is currently living (& where I am staying now) and I stayed over at Jo’s.

Dec. 21, 2006 - The next morning, after “brekky” ... a walk around Jo’s splendid labyrinth ...



... & meeting up with the always spunky kt for lunch (rescuing her from an office Christmas party where they ran out of the veggie selections near the start of the party ...

kt, Sherpa Dog (on her knee), & me (Dec. 21, 2006)
fun with kt & Sherpa Dog in a park near the Wilderness Society office where kt works

Jo & I (in the same park as above, which is also near her old Senate office) (Dec. 21, 2006)

... we headed north with Shanti, Jo’s most excellent little black dog


... up to Jo’s family’s beach house/cottage at Guilderton ...

Western Australia's Christmas trees, aka " "

the cottage is called “Rangimarie” (a Maori word that means peace, & is pronounced ‘rang i mar ee eh’).

Jo at Rangimarie (Dec. 23 2006)

Rangimarie sign near the front door at Jo’s cottage ... a sign that the people who lived in the cottage before Jo’s family bought it had left intact on the door frame. This is quite telling given Jo Vallentine’s commitment to PEACE and our dear Gaia :)

Dec. 22, 2006 - Jo, Shanti, & I went out for a morning swim in the Indian Ocean, to catch the more gently rolling waves at the beginning of the day. It’s amazing how what seems to be very cold water, turns into quite a comfortable temperature after you hang out in it for a little while.
As I was in the process of acclimatizing to the water temperature & Jo had already dove into the small waves to “get the cold shock over with”, .. all of a sudden, something grabbed the outside of my right foot, I called out to Jo that something bit/grabbed me and after the initial excitement & my success in swiping at whatever was attached to my foot below the water, I concluded that I was “grabbed by a crab”. Not long after that, I finally got myself immersed fully in the ocean & then proceeded to enjoy bouncing & floating about in the waves :)

Our time at Rangimarie was very peaceful, relaxing, and rich with the visits & explorations I enjoyed with Jo & Shanti throughout our time at the beach house. After a tasty lunch & an all important ‘nap time’ ... something I enjoyed at Glenda’s as well (Glenda calls them her granny naps :) Jo, Shanti, & I headed out to their canoe to enjoy time out on the Moore River as the sun was setting.


What a peaceful and glorious time it was to enjoy the river, as we were passing quietly through the unique and magnificent malaluka (paperbark) forests that we came to know & love down at The Cove for our Seeds for the Future 30 day intensive in SW Australia (almost 2 years ago now!)
We then mustered up our paddling chops and headed across the river to the big sand dune to watch the sun set on this Summer Solstice evening ... no problem :)

We could see a little piece of the Indian Ocean through some of the trees on the dunes and the sun going down & disappearing below the horizon ...

After that, Jo showed me some of the special places out on this big sand dune ... where she & her daughters camped out the night that welcomed the year 2000 into being ...

& the circle of rocks that Jo made that night, which are still in place ...

Jo also showed me a number of the Tuit trees that are starting to make a comeback on this property that was slated for housing development but has been halted due to the most excellent citizen actions on behalf of the fragile dune ecosystem :)

kangaroo tracks & rabbit 'poo'/droppings out on the dunes

Then we hopped back into the canoe & headed back to the other shore of the Moore River ... passing along the trees filled with various marine/shore birds known as 'darters' & 'shags" ...

The next day, Jo, Shanti, & I enjoyed another morning swim, a little later, around 10:30 a.m. or so ... I managed to get do swimming ‘laps’/strokes in an attempt to get my body more in tune with water activities, which I will be doing much more of with the Outward Bound ‘mob’. No crab grabbing my feet this time ... and the Indian Ocean welcomed us again with its never-ending cycle of tidal rhythms and waves.

bob-tailed goanna below the verandah at Rangimarie

After Jo & I enjoyed a late breakfast of fresh fruit (mango, strawberries, ‘banahnahs’, pineapple, kiwi fruit, grapes, apricots, and nectarines), yoghurt, & mueslie/granola, ... Phoebe arrived ... & after visiting to catch up with Pheebs, the only sensible thing to do, was have lunch! So we did :) After that, we headed off to catch the setting sun again, this time we also got to see the small sliver of sun reflecting off the new moon ... what a treat, these wonderous sights the universe shares with us ... as long as we are out there to happen upon them or seek them out :)

sunset over the Indian Ocean with Phoebe & Jo ... the day after Summer Solstice (Dec. 22, 2006).

'breakie' the next morning with Phoebe & Jo (Dec. 23, 2006)

Wishing everyone a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, & a Happy New Year ... as the shortest day turns toward the light back in the northern hemisphere & the longest dat turns toward the dark down here in the southern hemisphere ...

I wish all of you great peace & joy through this holiday season & throughout ALL of 2007!

Hugs ‘n’ Bugs, love,
Teresa

p.s. I will now try to get out to a phone booth soon to make a few calls to catch folks gathering on Christmas Day :)

Dharma Festival in the Dandenong Ranges & CERES Market Garden in Melbourne (Dec. 16-20, 2006)

G’daye my dear friends & relatives,

... Happy Solstice, Happy Hannukah, & Merry Christmas

It’s been a while since my last post & I finally have a chance now to update you on my time in Melbourne ... & I have GREAT NEWS!! It looks like I have finally figured out getting my pic's added in to these BLOG postings :) It takes a bit of time to get the pictures downloaded but I have it worked out ... YIPPEE!!

I arrived into Melbourne Saturday afternoon, Dec. 16th ... after Bec & I met up in the morning before Bec dropped me off at the Sydney airport ...

Bec taking me to the airport in Matilda ... the 40 year old Holden car :) (Dec. 16, 2006)

... where I was met by Adrian (Glenda’s husband) and he helped me figure out transport out to the Australasian Buddhist Festival 1 hour east of Melbourne ... through the mobile phone passcodes he shared with me to tap into the wireless ‘puter connections at the airport. I had planned my Melbourne time to overlap the timing of this festival, on the off chance it would work out for me to catch part of the festival ... & it did, particularly since my Seed Mates in Melbourne were not so readily available until the latter half of my time in the state of Victoria!!

After Adrian dropped me off at the Southern Cross Train Station (a big one similar to the ones I have seen in Europe but much more architecturally interesting (& expensive) with its undulating open air roof top (this is true of many of the buildings in Melbourne, ... a much more creative architectural community has been involved in the building of this cosmopolitan city than in most others). The timing worked out so that I had a chance to buy my train ticket, grab a bit of lunch to take with me, and then the train arrived heading toward Lilydale (for those of you in Edmonton, I actually transferred off before getting to Lilydale, so I am not sure if there are heaps of chickens living there or not, as one might think was possible given the Lilydale chicken processing plants around Alberta :)

After an hour long wait at the train/bus station at Belgrave, I caught the bus I needed into Monbulk & had a very generous bus driver offer to drop me off quite some distance past her only stop in Monbulk, to help me get closer to the Kadampa Meditation Centre www.kadampa.org.au/kmca.html How very kind of her to do this for me & what a splendid bus route to get out to Monbulk ... I enjoyed looking out the windows at the very splendid rainforest with tall eucalyptus trees in their sky reaching grandeur and tree ferns in their fanned out & spiral sprouting greenery. I believe we entered into the first part of the Dandenong Ranges as the landscape so magnificently grew up around us.

splendid tree fern frond in the sunlight ... near the creek at the KMCA (Dec. 17, 2006)

After the bus driver dropped me off near the blue KMCA sign, which indicated it was 2 km along the gravel road, I headed off in the late afternoon with my green MEC week-end pack on my back and the sun shining quite warm in the patches between shadows of the nearby forests. It was great to not have anything to carry in my hands, since I had sent my small suitcase, ‘puter, & snorkel bag with Adrian, which I retrieved when I visited with Glenda & Adrian in Melbourne. I am looking forward to learning the art of travelling lightly through the course of my Outward Bound training :)



Although I arrived at the KMCA just as the final teaching of the day was over, I did catch the Wishfulfilling Jewel chanted prayers (also called a “puja”) that evening & again the next evening after the full day of teachings. It was great to see so many folks that I had met at the Australasian Festival that I went to at the start of my 1st trip “Down Unda” ... it was also fun to notice the reactions of some folks who did a bit of a double-take, knowing that they recognized me & seeing their expression as they remembered how & when they last saw me. The Dharma community & its visitors at the KMCA are able to enjoy a most splendid 20 acres of rainforest along a hillside that runs down to a creek. What a great location for a retreat centre and Dharma residence! How fortunate the Aussie’s are to have this new Centre, I do hope to make it back for another visit sometime later in the year when my training schedule permits. To any of my Dharma friends from back home, if you are planning to go to the Singapore festival in October, the KMCA is the great venue that will host the Vadrayogini retreat that will be offered the week after the festival.

World Peace Cafe at the Kadampa Meditation Centre Australia (KMCA) ... 1 hour east of Melbourne (Dec. 17, 2006)

In addition to reconnecting with my Dharma friends & making new ones, ... other highlights of the festival were the teachings that Gen-la Samden shared, the production of the play about the life of Buddha Shakyamuni that the Sydney mob offered on the last day of the festival, plus the food which was quite delicious & the hot chocolate & brownies served at the World Peace Cafe during the festival were definite highlights of the festival as well. Also, despite the warnings on a few notices about the possibility that leeches might want to join along on any hikes near the creek, I managed to enjoy my morning walk without any uninvited invertebrates.

Dharma friends from Aotearoa (New Zealand) ... Jill, Lizzie, & Rebecca (Dec. 17, 2006)

After the festival was over at lunchtime on the Monday (Dec. 18th), I stayed to help clean up after the festival with many other folks. After supper & the evening puja, I headed back into Melbourne with a carload of Kiwi’s (Nichole, Andrew, & Sara) & Tony from Melbourne. It was soooooooo very lovely to seeing Glenda’s beauty-full beaming smile when I arrived at her home. After bidding the Kiwi’s (New Zealanders) & Tony adieu, my visit with Glenda & Adrian began ...

We stayed up a little while to visit over tea and as we did, I came to understand more clearly, the excellent renovation project that Glenda & Adrian had undertaken to rebuild the back half of their home and make it as energy & water efficient as possible, while maintaining the heritage integrity of the front end of their home (a requirement of the heritage district they live in).

What a great house!! ... 7 solar panels, a greywater system for reusing water from showers, dishes, and laundry for toilets and plant watering, as well as a 24,000 litre rainwater storage tank for use in the dry season, and various other details, including the newly arrived extremely energy efficient refrigerator. Sunpower Design www.sunpowerdesign.com.au/SPDFrameset.htm is the firm that undertook this project for G & A and their home is featured on the website under “projects” at: www.sunpowerdesign.com.au/SPDFrameset.htm

Glenda is majorly active with local food security, GMO free food production (Genetically Modified Organisms), and community garden organizations.

Not surprisingly, the gardens Glenda is nurturing in the raised beds made of various recycled materials (corrugated sheet metal & PVC pipes) make the backyard a gardening wonderland!

In addition to Glenda’s raised garden beds, on the other side of their backyard is “Luscious Lane” the community garden space that Glenda & Adrian share with some of their friends in the North Fitzroy neighbourhood of Melbourne.

”Luscious Lane”

On the 19th, I went with Glenda to the CERES market garden to help with her volunteer shift,... we picked spring green onions and tied up tomatoe plants which were about 1- 2 feet high.

Gorgeous Glenda ... the stylish Garden Womon ... in her butterfly hat, an “Op” shop (thrift store) find ... just say "no to GMO's!! (Dec. 19, 2006)

CERES Market Garden near the Merri Creek (Dec. 19, 2006)

You can find out more about their market garden & all the other excellent & amazing things they do at their Community Environment Park at: www.ceres.org.au/index1024x768.htm We visited this park briefly that afternoon (after stopping spontaneously at a house near the market garden that had a sign that read:
“Please pick the yellow plums” and picking a third of a grocery bag of yellow plums, yummy!!) Dec. 19, 2006).

We also went to the CERES Env't Park the next morning so that Glenda could get her veggies & fruits from the final Wednesday market of the year.

Rooster (or "Chook", as the chickens are called Down Unda)strutting his stuff below the CERES nursery seedling display stands (Dec. 19, 2006)

Merri Creek near the CERES Environment Park (Dec. 20, 2006)

The night of the 19th, I met up with Ruth, another dear Seed Mate, and we went for dinner at “Lentil as Anything”, a place where the menu has no prices fixed to it, ... you decide how much the food you enjoyed was worth to you & you pay accordingly. The food was quite tasty although the server was a little bit “snarky” ... most importantly, it was truly splendid to catch up with Ruth, she is such a dear, kind, compassionate, and caring soul :)

Ruth & Glenda ... 2 of my dear Melbourne Seed Mates (Dec. 19, 2006)

On the 20th, it was a treat to visit the CERES market. Most noteworthy was the real cost pricing for the corn-on-the-cob at $1.70/cob ... which accounts for the major water and labour inputs to grow & harvest organic corn in a region that has a limited water supply. Most of the signs for the produce at the market identified the area where the food was produced & how far from the CERES park the food was transported. The green onions we picked the day before were there & the sign indicated that they were from 2 km away :)

Glenda at the CERES Market (Dec. 20, 2006) ... look at those lovely green onions we harvested just the day before :)

I wandered around CERES for a couple hours after that while Glenda did some errands. What a most excellent community space!!! I have visions of Cityfarm Edmonton having the potential to grow with CERES as a model to guide their planning. (Maureen & Mair, please share the CERES website with Susan Penstone or let her know to check on my BLOG so that the Cityfarm folks can check into this great interactive and educational community place. As well, Glenda is involved with the planning committee for a conference coming up in March 2007 that will cover 4 hugely important themes ... local food security/production, community gardens, city farms, & a 4th theme that is escaping my mind at this moment.


Some of the great murals & signage on the CERES buildings ...
At the base of this “rich countries, poor countries” mural ... I came across a tiny little friend in great need ......

Mina bird chick that had hopped or fallen out of its nest but not yet ready to fledge ... I let one of the staff know & he returned the chick to its nest ... not sure if it survived the heat after such a big ordeal ... my estimate, from my tree swallow field work days, is that the little chick (perhaps about 16 days young) still needed to wait about 5 days before it would be ready to fly off, with all its feathers finally intact ...

some of Michael Leunig's work, on an outside chalkboard at CERES ... he is great & many of my Mates down here quite like his cartoons :)

After spending the better part of the 20th at the CERES Env’t Park, Glenda & I visited awhile longer back at her amazing home before it was time to get me to the airport for my flight to Perth, in Western Australia.

Thank you so very much for the great visit and your splendid hospitality Glenda & Adrian. All the best to you in the new year!!
Glenda & Adrian in their amazing backyard in Melbourne (Dec. 20, 2006)

I will share my update on my time since landing into Perth in my next post ... as I continue to enjoy a quiet time here at Gaia House getting caught up with my dear friends and family “back home”, with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) playing a few Christmas tunes (& all kinds of lovely classical music) ... reminding me that indeed, it is that time of year ... something that seems quite surreal given the hot, sunny, 30-35 degree Celsius weather which has me wearing shorts, sunscreen, & floppy hats, instead of parkas, muskrat mitts, and fuzzy toques (sp?).

Be well,

Teresa

p.s. by the way, this time of year is also known as the “Silly Season” down here in the Land of Oz ... because of the sillyness that comes with the busy schedules and shopping frenzies that have come to be part of the festivities in many places.

p.s.s. thanks Mom, Colleen, Laurelie, & Deanna for your comments to my previous posts ... it's great to hear from you & to have the updates on your preparations for Christmas Mom ... thanks for sharing the news of the yummy festive foods that you have prepared for everyone to enjoy ... I will miss the kutya for sure & the perohy, holubchi, and so many of the other very delicious dishes that appear only at this time of year ... the prune perohy are another treat that I will miss

,,, YIKES a 1-2 inch long cockroach just caught my attention ... but I have scared it off with the vibrations of my quickly stomping feet on the cork flooring here at Gaia House ... I added this in especially for you ... Colleen, Mom, & Jill :)

"may all beings be free from suffering" & may I continue to be open to sharing this great planet with ALL the critters that call our dear Earth/Gaia home :)

DECEMBER 16, 2006 (3 days ago) ... more from Sydney ... my 1st stop in OZ

I wrote up this post while in the Sydney airport, waiting to fly over to Melbourne, but wasn't able to actually post it until today, Dec. 19, 2006 from here in Melbourne ...

Teresa, the "not too tired Tigger", near Bronte Beach (Dec. 14, 2006)

I was able to reconnect with a few of my Sydney-based Seed Mates (friends from the "Seeds for the Future" intensive with Joanna Macy in SW Australia in 2005) during my first leg of my newest Aussie adventures. The morning I arrived on the 13th of December, Simon was able to pick me & all my gear up at the airport. We enjoyed breakfast overlooking Bronte Beach after a little swim/beach walk and then I eventually checked in to the Bondi Beach House YHA Youth Hostel.

The next day, I enjoyed a great 3 and a half hour walk along the coast & beaches from Bondi Beach south to Coogoo Beach where I met up with another Seed Mate, Sue.

amazing colours of the Tasman Sea

another great beach between Bondi & Coogee beaches in Sydney (Dec. 14, 2006)

barnacles & tiny periwinkles

Gaia's sandstone art

We missed out on the Iyengar yoga class that Sue invited me to join her for (because of the late arrival of our bus). So we headed to Bondi Junction nearby & searched out the most excellent “food court” food that I have ever tasted. The “food court” is not the typical set-up as those in the Canadian or U.S. shopping malls that I have experienced. This one had dark hard wood floors and no commercial advertising for the food vendors, all of which seemed to be independent, quality food vendors. The East Indian food we had for dinner was most excellent and very much affordable.

Sue & Teresa at the Bondi Junction bus terminal (Dec. 14, 2006)

As it turned out, I ended up back in that same area the next day with my dear Seed Mate Noel, where we tried to search out a fife for Noel to take with him for the week-end in the Blue Mountains, but alas, despite the massive, 6 stories of shopping mall sprawled out over a few blocks, there was no proper music store, only CD’S, DVD’s, etc. We did seek out some of the very tantalizing dessert treats from that very nice food court & celebrated Noel’s 70th birthday that happened last month :) Happy Birthday Mate!!

After bidding Noel farewell back at the YHA, Fumiko (Fumi) & John, good friends of my Auntie Evelyn welcomed me to their home last night for dinner & a comfortable bed away from the backpacker hostel mode of sleeping :) Fumi’s very sizable Honda Civic handled my boxed up bike & bags with great ease. I am extremely grateful for Fumi & John’s kindness in welcoming me to their home out in the North Shore area of Sydney as well as their readiness to have me store my large baggage & bike while I head off to Melbourne & over to Western Australia for the next couple of weeks. THANK YOU, thank you for welcoming this Outward Bound Canadian. I look forward to continuing our visit upon my return to Sydney in the new year.

I am now at the Sydney airport after a visit with the beautiful Bec, another Seed Mate here in Sydney.

"Matilda", Bec’s 40 year old white Holden car got us their in good order & I had time to spare since the flight was delayed 15 minutes :)

Good timing indeed, ... I have just finished this post for my BLOG & now they are boarding the airplane ...

I'll write more shortly on my time near Melbourne at the Australasian Buddhist Festival out at the newly opended Kadampa Meditation Centre 1 hour east of Melbourne and the visits I am having with my Seed Mates Glenda & Ruth ...

Here's a couple of web links to give you a taste of what I have enjoyed at the Festival & my time with Glenda so far today :)

Australasian Festival http://www.australasianfestival.org/

Community Environment Park http://www.ceres.org.au/index1024x768.htm

Be well,

Teresa

p.s. I still haven't figured out how to get any pictures posted to my BLOG yet ... Deanna (thanks for your note :), Maureen, or Mair, please send me any advice you may have for doing this ... it seems that my picture files are taking too long to upload ... even the smaller resolution files that Maureen created for me ... any helpful suggestions you have for me & this new MacBook I am using would be greatly appreciated :) FINALLY GOT THIS SORTED OUT ... YIPPEE!!

DECEMBER 13, 2006 (yesterday) SYDNEY

When I arrived it was 15 degrees Celsius but likely got up to the high 20's

I am in Sydney now ... it's pretty sunny & hot ... so the sun screen & hats plus hiding out in the shade will be top of my mind.

Everything went quite fine for my flights through to Sydney, even slept on the plane a decent amount. My friend Simon, one of my friends from the course with Joanna ("Seed for the Future", which I refer to as my Seed Mates) Simon met me at the airport, which was great but he doesn't have a place for me to stay with him as he is in betweeen places himself. SO, my first challenge is in trying to connect with my other Sydney Seed Mates ... I hadn't had the chance to properly connect with them prior to my arrival & so I had to book myself into the hostel I stayed at when I first arrived last trip ... a bit of a "groundhog day" thing going on with being here again.

I need to go get some breakfast in me & see what else I can do to connect with my mates here ... seems at this point in the morning, I will likely be here at the Bondi Beach House YHA another night, since check out is in a few minutes.

Oh well, I will have time for me & the beach if I don't get to see my Seed Mates this first few days & I will make some solid plans with them for my return back to Sydney the 2-6 iof Janaury.

Teresa

Teresa has "taken off from the Great White North"

SAN FRANCISCO 1:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time

Hello my friends & family,

I did it!! ... We did it!!! ... I managed to get myself packed up and out the door to the airport early this morning ... thus the new adventures will really start to unfold. I am a pretty tired pup ... but as I am able to catch up on my rest/sleep, the knots of excitement and anxious anticipation in my stomach that were so very present this morning and yesterday afternoon/evening can begin to transform into wells of positive energy and sheer delight!!

I would not have been able to get everything done that I was able to pack into the past few months without the help of soooo many of you. In particular, Laurelie and Colette, thank you sooooo much for all that you did to help me get moved out of my basement suite and boxes shuttled out to my Dad's & elsewhere! I am so blessed & truly grateful for all the wonder-full people in my life, it was especially lovely to see how all of you stepped up with offers of help, transporting items away from my home, and all of your words of encouragement and support. Dad & Cecilia, thanks again for building the shelves in the garage that helped me store the smaller boxes in a dry, secure place. It was great to see & talk with all of you as I was winding down my time in Edmonton. Thanks also to everyone for coming out to my gathering on Saturday and/or your phone calls and other visits.

I will add a little more for this update now but I need to rest my eyes & mind more in the quieter space I have found in the SFO airport to wait out my 10 hour layover. I head out tonight at 7:15 p.m. PST (8:15 p.m. AB time) for Auckland,NZ (Aotearoa) and then on to Sydney.

So far, the highlights of this first leg of my 2nd trip "Down Unda" are ...

1. the help & kindness of the United Airlines gate person who charged me only $50 CDN for my bike to accompany me (the amount I was told by Aeroplan, United/SkyWest apparently charges twice as much) ... & of Laurelie for getting up before the sun to take me to the airport ... we managed to fit my boxed up bike, 2 checked bags & my 2 carry on bags all in Hylda the Hybrid, WOW!! Now Laurelie & the cats can enjoy the larger expanses of space that has been freed up in her home again. Thanks Laurelie for enabling me to stay with you & the "livestock" while I was in between places to rest my head after I moved out in November.

2. the great Mexican burrito I had for lunch YUMMY! ... as I did some resting and people watching ... we are really quite a lot like ants scurring about in such big numbers and at such quick paces ... I met a womon who came to share my table who works of a works for a company that makes family board games ... "Simply Fun" I believe was the name of the company ... but who knows, I think that is what the womon told me, it just came back to me ... here's a website I searched out on the Simply Fun folks http://www.simplyfun.com/

3. the overwhelming surges of love that have come over me a few times so far & will likely arise more as my journey continues ... as my emotions now have a chance to catch up with the scurrying around that I have been doing (of which the activities and visits have been truly rich and full in many great ways) ... when I start to burst with overwhleming gratitude for all the truly beauty-full, caring, and supportive friends and family I have in my life ... the tears that arise are filled with the love & joy that I have for the bounty of ALL of YOU. Eac of you are with me as I journey forward and as I share back news of my latest adventures ...

"Mahsi cho: ... thank you very much ... as the Dene people of the Northwest Territories would say

I will try to add another post before my flight boards this evening ... until then, I wish each of you a very splendid day and many blessings of compassion, kindness, & sunshine ... it's an overcast day here in San Francisco but apparently 7-10 degrees Celsius. I will go step outside for awhile before I check in and do the "security check" thing ... I'll just need to wind my way around the many people I have encountered walking along & seemingly talking to themselves ... then I notice the beetle sized ear piece that is plugging them into a whole world of connecting through wireless technology ... something I am doing this very moment, as I finish posting this note to my blog through the SFO wireless network :) Oh yeah, there have been numberous annoncements of how we are in the Department of Homeland Security's threat level ORANGE and others invites to military folks to enjoy the hopsitality of the USO lounge.

I'll sign off now, more time to reconnect with you again later (and to play around with my new Apple 'puter) after I have rested & more likely on the long plane ride ...

Be well,

Hugs 'n' Bugs, love,

Teresa

p.s. I would like to encourage you to add a comment to any of the notes that I post ...

REMINDER: these comments will be able to be read by anyone who visits this blog ... & that's the fun of this electronic bulletin board type of journaling.

I look forward to the interactive connections and conversations that may arise as you share some of your insights or questions or funny stories that may come up as you read the notes that I post :) Cheers!

p.s.s. once I figure out how to get pictures downloaded onto this blog site I will share some ... it seems to be taking a long time to download even the lower resolution files that Maureen A. created for me ...?