This morning around 3, I woke up and was thinking, what a strange world we live in, where we are supposed to admire actors in films and tv for their performances, and watch them win trophies and pat each other on the back every now and then for their work, when in real life you have cops and various operatives going undercover in the the most dangerous of situations. Now that is real acting, yikes.

Still working on getting my arm back in shape. Fractured elbow, sprained wrist and thumb. My first time breaking a bone as far as I remember, although it should have happened before with all the sports injuries in the past, various accidents including cars, bicycles, and whatnot. A little under a month ago I fell out of a step-ladder with wet boots, landed on my left side on a cement floor. A 180 pound thud from 3 feet up. Not writing to receive sympathy, everyone has problems. What surprised me is, the first doc I saw said to wear a sling. Then I saw the orthopaedic specialist, and she immediately told me to ditch the sling and do some specific exercises. The training has been painful but I'm working every day to regain my range of movement and some strength. Going to be a long process but it's coming along. Hoping to not have lingering effects. Ah, we sure don't heal as fast from these things at 58 as we did at 18. Will have to be more careful!

An Irishman was walking home late at night and sees a woman lurking in the shadows.

''Twenty pound," she whispers.

Paddy had never had a hooker before, but decides what the hell, it's only twenty pound.

So they hide in the bushes.

They're going at it for a couple of minutes when, all of a sudden, a light flashes on them.

It's a police officer. ''What's going on here, people?'' asks the officer.

''I'm making love to me wife'', the Irishman answers sounding annoyed.

''Oh, I'm so sorry'', says the cop, ''I didn't know''.

''Well, needer did I'', says Paddy, ''til ya shoined dat fokin light in her face''!

At the very end of our yard, where the forest begins, Daisy took a pic today, Easter Sunday, of these tiny and lovely crocus flowers. We still have snow on the ground in areas, and it will be a while still before leaves come out on trees and other flowers follow suite, but these are so beautiful and delicate, yet very hardy.

On one of the photos we can see clearly that a hungry critter has been munching on the greens. Might very well be our chonky little (Easter) bunny.

Does nature not have the ability to stir deep emotions in you?

...while I was hand-picking Japanese beetles off of our vine leaves, I spotted this lovely cicada, immobile. Parted a leaf or two to get a better photo.



And then, it just jumped right on my shirt!


Aww, looks like the good boy wanted to be petted.


Then I set him on a flat surface to finish the shoot and he gave me his best pose.


He rested a bit and a few minutes later, was gone, perhaps high up in a tree.

During our honeymoon this year, Daisy and I spent a fair amount of time in the sun, on beaches by the sea. We wish we lived closer to these elements.