deponti

I left St.Louis, to come home and do some wildlife trips...but I did not realize that we were going to have our own wildlife there...





How rare would it be to have a Lion in St.Louis!

Hm, as a fond gramma I hope this was only accidental and not deliberate...






Isn't she the most beautiful baby in the whole of the universe? (Of course she is, that was a rhetorical question!)

I remember the baby that was the logo of

Murphy Radio

...I didn't know I'd be looking at a similar tyke one day....

Well, here are three generations of women:




(photo by KM)

....and here's Recycle, Re-Use, but DON'T Reduce! For a few minutes, The Biddles was the center of attention of several people at the airport and everyone had a hearty laugh!

Would you think something that looks like this would be useful for a small baby?





Here's the whole product:





But it IS most useful. We are using cloth diapers for GD, and here's how

the "Snappi"

keeps the nappy together:





and of course, if the lingerie fits, it means a Biddles who ...er...reflects upon her nappiness happiness:




Sometimes, good design is counter-intuitive!

Her eyes tight shut,
She sleeps, her mouth in a beautiful bow;
Is she dreaming?
What do babies dream about?
I don't know...

All I know is, my heart goes out to her.
I caress her downy cheek.
I must live half a world away from her...
I must get used to not having her in my life
After having seen her, every hour,every day, every week...

Sometimes, toes can be as beautiful as lotuses....




No need to tell anyone to whom those toes belong!

Having not had much success with hiking the previous day, we decided that we would make a more concerted effort to find a trail that would accomodate a perambulator (or a stroller, as it is called here.)

Now,KM is famous for getting names wrong, so we fell about laughing when he started calling it the Fig Leaf Lake. We corrected him and told him it was Fallen Leaf Lake. So....when his elder brother called up, he said, "We are at Fallen Fig Leaf Lake".....!


We went to

Fallen Leaf Lake , which is quite as stunning as the larger Lake Tahoe near it:




( lots of pics of Fallen Leaf Lake and the Glen Alpine Trail )


Well, it was a long day, but one spent outdoors, amidst great natural beauty....so it was most enjoyable!

Approaching motherhood
Colours one's life, one's thoughts.
So it's fitting
That one's hands and wrists
Are filled with colour, too;
The rainbows that the little one will soon bring,
The good wishes that friends pour into one's life,
And the prayer that the baby will be healthy and happy.





The baby for whom this was done is now more than a year old! :) And she is a real delight.

We did, finally, manage to drive out for a bit of exploration; first, in the Lake Tahoe Basin





we went to see the Inspiration Point:




But the trail wasn't really suitable for walking with The Biddles, so we decided to just look at Emerald Bay and see if other trails would be easier. But Emerald Bay itself was quite breathtaking....




( more about Emerald Bay and Eagle Falls trail )

We left the Eagle Falls trail only at sunset...





The next day, we went to Falling Leaf Lake, and to Glen Falls...watch out to see what KM called the former!

GD took the two flights (St.Louis to Phoenix, and Phoenix to Reno) very well, and was, in fact, quite playful on the plane:




As usual the view from the window was just fantastic, as we flew over the deserts of Arizona and Nevada, and saw parts of the Grand Canyon once again. Here's a lovely blue river in the sandy wastes:



( more about the trip to Lake Tahoe )

I came back, hoping that we had some plans of hiking, and found KM in the sunshine, framed in the window, cooing away with GD:



We did go to Emerald Bay and a short hike up to Eagle Falls....but that's the next post!

I've been collecting songs for The Biddles, aka GD...and here's one of her father's childhood favourites that I like too...

This is John Denver's rendition:




This one's a long recreation of the various sounds, with some text interpolationsm by the group which originally performed it.... Peter, Paul and Mary:




And one by someone else:





And this one's by Chris Westfall:





And of course...the lyrics....



When I was just a wee little lad full of health and joy
My father homeward came one night and gave to me a toy
A wonder to behold, it was, with many colors bright
And the moment I laid eyes on it it became my heart's delight

Chorus:
It went "zip" when it moved and "bop" when it stopped
And "whirr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.


The first time that I picked it up, I had a big surprise
For right on its bottom were two big buttons that looked like big green eyes.
I first pushed one and then the other, and then I twisted its lid
And when I set it down again, this is what it did:

Chorus:

It went "zip" when it moved and "bop" when it stopped
And "whirr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.


It first marched left and then marched right
And then marched under a chair
And when I looked where it had gone, it wasn't even there:
I started to sob and my daddy laughed, for he knew that I would find,
When I turned around, my marvelous toy, chugging from behind.

Chorus:

It went "zip" when it moved and "bop" when it stopped
And "whirr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.


Well, the years have gone by too quickly, it seems,
I have my own little boy
And yesterday I gave to him my marvelous little toy.
His eyes nearly popped right out of his head
And he gave a squeal of glee,
Neither one of us knows just what it is,
but he loves it, just like me.


It still goes "zip" when it moves and "bop" when it stops
And "whirr" when it stands still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

We get these weather maps when cyclones are about to hit....and indeed, we HAVE been hit by Cyclone Kavya, and our lives will never be the same again!





The joke is that many Americans exclaim, "what a lot of hair!" when we are referring to the Bald Eagle in our midst! By Indian standards, she has hardly any hair at all.

But...isn't it nice to be at an age when having rolls of fat on the body, not having any neck worth speaking of, and no hair or teeth...is supposed to be beautiful!





My life is going to be torn from now on...when I'm in India I'm going to miss this mini-female, and when I'm here I'm going to miss home.... delightful dilemma! DnA had better inspect my luggage carefully when I leave, or this may happen...

Through the day, I am generally alone with The Biddles, as we call GD. Conversation is, of course, of a high intellectual standard. She and I discuss disestablishmentarianism, and go from aardvarks to zygotes...she was one of the latter recently, so she has a lot to say about it.

But this leaves me weary and rather over-stimulated, and I look forward to DnA's return home. Ah, I think to myself, how nice it will be to have everyday, simple conversation...what did you do at work? What's happening in the outside world?

So then, A comes back and indulges in the following very meaningful monologue:





You can hear me complaining that even poor GD is not getting a chance to get a word in edgeways!

So...conversational IQ levels go down sharply, along with the sun, these days...

A song that I heard on my parents' old record player on the 78RPM records....


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chinna pApA enga chella pApA | Upload Music


How sad that the song talks about the father's anger and his ill-treating the child!


Lyrics:


chinna pApA-- enga chella pApA
shonna pEccha kEttA thAn nalla pApA (chinna)

chinna unakku cheeni mittAy vAngi tharaNumA?
silk chattai cheenA bommai balloon vENumA?
kaNNAmoochi Attam unakku solli tharaNumA?...appO...
galagalannu shiricchukittu ennai pArammA...(chinna)

kObam theernthu appA unnai kooppiduvAru...
nee konji konji pEshinAtthAn shAppiduvAru!
kOzhi mithitthu kunju mudam Aagi vidAthu...
unakku koyyA pazham paricchu tharEn!...azhugai koodAthu! (chinna)


small baby..our dear baby...
listen to what you're told, there's a good baby....

Does the little you want sweets made of sugar?
Silk dresses, porcelain dolls, balloons?
Do you want to learn how to play hide-and-seek?...then...
Laugh out loud and look at me, baby!


After his temper has cooled, Father will call you...
Only if you coo at him, he will eat!
A chick will not go lame if the cockerel steps on it...
I'll pluck a guava fruit for you...you shouldn't cry!

Have you seen people praying with their feet?




She IS more than two feet tall, but she likes to remind us of the fact!

Today, most unusually, Biddles fussed, and fussed, and fussed...I think the milk was NOT to her liking....I have not had a minute all day, and I am tired! So..no write-worthy thoughts occur to me, except the attraction of that bed upstairs...but she's smiling up at me so sweetly and cooing...

I need to record these epitaphs:

Here lies John Bunn
He was killed by a gun
His name was not Bunn, but Wood..
But Wood would not rhyme with "gun"..
And "Bunn" would.


************


Here lies a man who was killed by lightning
He died when his prospects seemed to be brightening.
He might have cut a flash in this world of trouble...
But the flash cut him....and he lies in the stubble.

Presenting Big Chief Half-Indian...complete with "Head....Dress"!





And when we've had our fun, she goes peacefully to sleep:





What a JOY a child is...I think EVERY child should be called purely_narcotic! (ha, ha, ha.)

Where does her appeal lie?
In her cheek, or in her eye?
Can someone tell me why
I feel so strong a tie
As she listens (wide awake) to my lullaby?