Backyard Neighbor

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT MY BLOG

 

 

My dear blogging friends,

I am taking an extended Blog bteak for a few months.  It has been on my mind for a while.  My reasons are related to some goals I have set for myself in 2014.  I find myself in the position of procrastinating projects that I have neglected way too long. Blogging is taking so much of my time each day and when I try to cut down I find myself neglecting my dear blogging friends way too much.  It is a form of stress that I need to find a way to stop.  I could go on and on about how much I will miss something I have loved for nearly 6 years. Most of all I will miss my dear friends that mean so much to me.  I will still be on facebook and so many of you are on facebook too. 

Please wish me well and know that I will visit you when I can.

 

Blessings and love,

Jeanne

DOWNTON ABBEY SEASON 4 - BLUE MONDAY

Please visit Sally at Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.  If you are in love with the color blue, don't miss a visit to Sally's blog today. Thank you for hosting Sally.  

DO YOU WATCH DOWNTON ABBEY?

 

Season four started on Sunday night. We are totally addicted to this wonderful series. The cast is outstanding

 

 

 

 

 

Maggie Smith's quotes are the most amusing part of this show.  I love her.

 

Do you recogonise Shirley MacLaine?

The drama and the acting is outstanding.  The story line and the writing is five star. It appeals to everyone and is the best show on TV. (My opinion) Smile!

Bill and I are hooked.  He loves it as much as I do.

Tune in, you won't be disapointed.

Masterpiece Theatre PBS 9:00pm Sunday night.

Tell me what you love about this series... if you are watching it.

Happy Blue Monday

Blessings and love,

Jeanne

INSPIRATION FOR A WONDERFUL 2014- PINK SATURDAY

Beverly, at, How Sweet the Sound is hosting Pink Saturday Thank you Beverly for  your dedication to Pink Saturday. May 2014 bring Pink Saturday through another glorious year.

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

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties,” – Helen Keller

I so believe this quote.

 

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."

(Little Gidding)”
― T.S. Eliot

 

INSPIRATIONAL WORDS FOR THE NEW YEAR

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”

― William Arthur Ward

William arthur Ward was an American author.  He was born in 1921 and died in 1994.

He also said...

The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.

Which one describes you?

I am an eternal optimist with a bit of realist thrown in the mix.

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

MY WISH FOR YOU IN 2014 IS THIS...

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.”
― D. Simone

 

Blessings and love,

JEANNE

 

THIS WILL GET YOU THINKING - A MUST READ

 

 

A MUST READ!

I ADMIT TO BEING SHOCKED ABOUT THIS BUT IT MAKES SENSE.

                                                                   
                   Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime:
        This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.
         Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.
         
         1. The Post Office
         Get ready to imagine a world without the post office.
         They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just
         about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

         2. The Check
         Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.
         It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.
         Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check.
         This plays right into the death of the post office.
         If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

         3. The Newspaper
         The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition.
         That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it.
         The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance.
         They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

         4. The Book
         You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages.
         I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD.
         But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price
         without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.
         You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy.
         And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience!
         Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story,
         can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

         5. The Land Line Telephone
         Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore.
         Most people keep it simply because they've always had it.
         But you are paying double charges for that extra service.
         All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

         6. Music
         This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death.
         Not just because of illegal downloading.
         It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it.
         Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing.
         Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with.
         Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit.
         To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book,
         "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

         7. Television

         Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy.
         People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers.
         And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV.
         Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.
         Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
         I say good riddance to most of it.  It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery.
         Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

         8. The "Things" That You Own
         Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future.
         They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents.
         Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be.
         But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."
         That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system.
         So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet.
         If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud.
         And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.
         In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device.
         That's the good news.
         But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?"
         Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical?
         It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

         9. Joined Handwriting (Most schools no longer teaches cursive)
         Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly
         everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended)

         10. Privacy
         If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone.
         It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone.
         But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View.
         If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits..
         "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

         All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".

THIS GETS YOU THINKING DOESN'T IT?

Blessings and love,

Jeanne