The sun is shining in southern NH and I've just returned from moving the car back to the apartment parking lot after the street sweepers made their yearly pass. Freshly buffed pavement -- can there be a surer sign of spring? Ok, there's also the low nightly hum signalling the awakening of the mini-golf course next door...

For weeks I've been looking forward to tricking out our little balcony. Since we live literally in the shadow (or glow, depending on one's perspective) of Wal-Mart, it made sense to stock up at the W-M garden center. I've bought gerber daises, azaleas and a Thai hot pepper plant and transplanted some herbs from inside into this very nifty planter (forgive the sickly appearance of the herbs):



I'm also excitedly awaiting the arrival of this "storage cocktail table" we ordered from Target:



To complete the look we need to find a couple of comfortable chairs and an outdoor rug. I'm envisioning something along these lines for the rug:




With a string of pink star Ikea lights, a couple of hanging lanterns and our (hopefully) abundant plant life, it will be a perfectly cozy summer space. My excitement over this little project comes down to this: when it's sunny outside and I'm indoors, I feel like a caged animal. Trying to suck it up and exist indoors can make for a long, miserable summer. In order to spend as much time outside as possible, a welcoming place to go is a necessity -- hence, the "balcony project." Since I work from home, writing, I intend to slather on some sunscreen and adopt the balcony as my summer "office."

I realize that I've been MIA from the Mindsay world for, oh, nine months -- so maybe an update is in order! Here's a brief recap of life since last August:

- moved to New Hampshire from Canada
- got married
- started new business

Amazing how few words it takes to sum up some major changes! A year from now the list might read like this:

- turned 30
- bought house
- made baby

Those six words encompass too much change for the ol' brain circuits to handle at once -- for now maybe I'll just stick with getting through tomorrow. ;)

If you don't already think animals are sometimes more spiritually attuned than we humans, think again. Stuart Brown describes Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada's Hudson Bay. The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in, but ... you can see what happened.

 

The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.
 
May you always have love to share,
 health to spare,
 and friends that care. ~ B

American Refugees are flooding into Canada: Tens of thousands of Americans are now economic refugees

In September of 2007, the city of Windsor, which borders the United States, officially asked for financial assistance from Ottawa to deal with American refugees flooding into Canada. This is proving to be the tip of the iceberg, and only the first wave of economic refugees that have been created in the United States.

There are now tent cities being built outside most large metropolitan areas, one of the largest of which is in Los Angeles. The following report from the BBC highlights the consequence of the US subprime meltdown and the fears that the crisis is growing.

The homelessness situation has grown so rapidly in the United States that certain cities are issuing color-coded wristbands – blue for those who can stay, “orange for people who need to provide more documentation, and white for those who must leave.” Refugees will no longer be able to stay in one area, meaning that many towns and cities will now have to be prepared to receive migrant refugees displaced by local governments from other districts and States.

click to enlarge - source

Canadians will also need to be prepared for this influx, especially considering that the average processing time for a refugee claim in Canada is currently 14.2 months, “a period during which the applicant is eligible for financial and other support. A failed claimant then also has the right to seek leave to appeal his or her rejection to federal court.” If the American refugee crisis continues to grow as analysts predict, then the cost to Canadians will be astronomical.

Aside from tens of thousands of Americans becoming refugees in their own country, there is another problem. As The Atlantic is reporting, “the subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in American life may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements.” Over 60% of the homes in certain communities “were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in.”

“The experience of cities during the 1950s through the ’80s suggests that the fate of many single-family homes on the metropolitan fringes will be resale, at rock-bottom prices, to lower-income families—and in all likelihood, eventual conversion to apartments… much of the future decline is likely to occur on the fringes, in towns far away from the central city, not served by rail transit, and lacking any real core. In other words, some of the worst problems are likely to be seen in some of the country’s more recently developed areas—and not only those inhabited by subprime-mortgage borrowers. Many of these areas will become magnets for poverty, crime, and social dysfunction.”

All of this is occurring while: the US government bails out Wall Street; credit card companies raise record amounts of money by issuing shares; the economic crisis draws comparison to the 1929 stock market crash; investigation of predatory banks gets killed; The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prepares for bank failures; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta releases a crisis peparedness video.

And some thought that Stocking the Root Cellar was only for conspiracy theorists.

NOTE: Some Americans are discovering that they are able to keep their homes and save themselves from becoming refugees by challenging the banks. All they are doing is asking the courts for proof that the banks own the mortgage notes that they claim to own. “Judges in at least five states have stopped foreclosure proceedings because the banks that pool mortgages into securities and the companies that collect monthly payments haven't been able to prove they own the mortgages.” More on this at “Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish.” I personally know what I would be doing if I owned a mortgage in the United States. Good luck, and remember, according to the ex-Comptroller General of the United States, the top accountant for the United States of America, “deficit spending and promised benefits for federal entitlement programs have put every man, woman, and child in the United States on the hook for $175,000”. In essence, the United States is bankrupt.

Hey Lovelies!

It's time for a new layout.
I need something spring-y


I am sick of snow.
But.. haha, here are some picture from my house, yesterday, as we had to shovel a shit load of snow.
Yes, it's an excuse to use my camera! :P

Dixie currently feels:

COLD 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

IT'S SO BLOODY COLD.

March is SUPPOSED to be the first month of spring!

 

It certainly doesn't feel that way.

 

I'm sat in my bedroom, I've just had a shower - a really warm shower... Ahhh, heavenly bliss, it was.

I get out, put on my robe, and come in here.

 

NO HEATING, NO RADIATOR.

The coldness smacks against my wet self - and makes me SHIVER.

 

I had to walk up to school today in HAILSTONES.

With NO COAT.

 

Fine, it's England - it's only about... 2 degrees?

Fine, in Canada, Iceland, Russia, Scotland - it'll be in the minuses.

From -5 to -20.

 

But... ARGHHHH...

They're USED to it!

 

It's NEVER this cold in England!

 

HOW I HATE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE CHANGE.

 

Global WARMING?

More like GLOBAL FREEZING.

 

 

...Dixie needs a nice warm hug.

...Emily - where are you...?

 

I'll tell you where Emily is - or, where she bloody will be soon - packing off on a holiday and leaving me all on my Billy Todd.

How grand.

 

And she's off to bloody Florida - you know, the SUNSHINE state!

 

I'D KILL SOMEONE FOR SOME WARMTH RIGHT NOW.

 

 

Dixie is so damn jealous.