If only for the day, Spring was a welcome visitor around these parts. The temperature rose to +20C, - the warm wind blew gently (until late in the afternoon when it got all pumped up and sent great gusts of warm air across the meadow and through the Valley).

Off to the north west the last vestiges of winter capped Apex mountain...



...here in the Valley the clouds were wispy and spoke of summer. In the south the moon was faint against the brilliant blue of the sky.

The curly willow is a delicate golden filagree at the edge of the garden


and down by the river the leaves were tenderly green on small bushes, whilst the buds on the cottonwood still cast a yellow hue to leaves just partly opened.


Before the tulips appear in their delicate spring colours, Spring clothes herself in ravishing yellows and the daffodils and forsythia are bright and glorious....


The buds on the flowering Almond .....so anxious to add a little pink flavour


and driving past the Lost Garden yesterday I noticed the Star Magnolia and the Forsythia were beginning to bloom.

I carry a little picture of them around in my memory....
and sometimes my heart truly aches for the peace and the happiness that garden brought to our lives.

The weatherman does not have kind words about tomorrow's weather......

The term Internet meme (rhymes with dream) is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads in a faddish way from person to person via the Internet. (Wikipedia)

A neologism is a word, term, or phrase that has been recently created (or "coined"), often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts.......etc.

Dictionary.com is even more specific - a meme is a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

And now that biology has been mentioned - Memes are the basic building blocks of our minds and culture, in the same way that genes are the basic building blocks of biological life.

According to Richard Dawkins this phenomenon is surely a catalyst in an ongoing cultural revolution.

The subject gets deeper and more fascinating, opening up new avenues of understanding, - but on the lighter side this method of transmitting information can be clever, amusing and creative, as well as intellectually challenging. Great entertainment, as witness the many fun memes that pop up like corked bottles while I am out surfing....

I found a "picture meme" on one of my regular visits to Pie in the Sky, which required that you use pictures from Photobucket to answer pre-set questions. When I visited the available pictures on Photobucket I found I was right out of my generational depth....WOW

Pie in the Sky had remarked on the possibility of creating a meme using pictures you had taken yourself, and that seemed to make the whole project more realistic. She issued a general invitation to participate, and I couldn't resist it...

So here goes.....

1, What is your current relationship status?

2. What is your current mood?What is your favourite band/singer


What kind of pets do you have?
Where do you live?

Where do you work?


What do you look like?

What do you drive?



What did you do last night?



What is your favourite T.V. show?
Describe yourself.



What are you doing tomorrow?


What is your name?


What is your favourite movie?

"Truth to tell," sez Husband, "this business of Memes is somewhat beyond my ken"

And I look at the definitions of memes and acknowledge that they are somewhat ponderous and there is a simpler explanation of the concept.

And so I sez " When millions of people huddle over their computers at night they tell stories and exchange information /misinformation through blogs and memes, surfing and stumbling, and in this way contribute to a vast surge in ideas, contacts and influence. The world becomes a village (somewhat raucous at times) and Marshall McLuhan gives a little sigh of contentment and turns over to sleep another 100 years. The building blocks of the mind accumulate and as we absorb and share on such a grand scale our culture gathers it all in, ferments a little - the world quivers slightly and changes its mores and its ways, - in more ways than one, if you will forgive the play on words.

Memes are the sparks from the campfires of ancient days, and the lingering stories of strangers passing through."

Well, this is what I think.

I am driving home from Bell practice tonight, and off to my right a sliver of a moon is lying on its back balancing what looks like a very large beach ball on her tummy. She is skimming the top of the western hills (probably on her way to a strip of sand in Aussie Land) when she slips from view over the top of the mountain as I make the little rise up to our turn-off.


Too many people away for it to be a very productive Handbell practice, but vigorous and fun as we put our best effort into Early One Morning, A Little Wheel A-turning, and a nice Suite for Bells. The level of proficiency we reach remains the same, but the difficulty of the pieces we attempt changes constantly with the shifting of our group from experienced to beginner. So that we play simple pieces with aplomb, and remember when we could play difficult pieces quite elegantly before our more professional musicians drifted away out of this small community.

This is the Jubilation Handbell Choir from the Baptist Church in Birdsville, - but it could be us just as easily........we are not the Raleigh Ringers (sigh)

Monday evenings are always pleasurable, and the moon tonight was just the icing on the cake.