In my writing group, we were asked to write about something that really makes us happy and that we really love for a Valentine's Day thought.  We were given an Oscar Wilde quote as a stimulus to get us started.  " Keep love in your heart.  A life without it is like a sunless garden where the flowers are dead."  It reminded me of one of Wilde's beautiful stories, "The Selfish Giant".  I won't repeat it here but it is about the power of love - and the little children who brought spring back to the Giant's garden after he had closed them out.  So what makes me happy?  ..the power of the innocence of children.  Their giggles and laughter make me smile and live life through their eyes.  I love to watch them play together and build a make believe world of fun and happiness. This love and connection with each other is the hope for our future.

This is a picture of my granddaughter Caelan and her cousin Greta that I have always loved for the spontaneous affection it shows between them.  It was the holidays and they were playing; they did not know there was a camera focused on them. Maybe Caelan was telling Greta a very important secret in their personal game or maybe she was reaching over to kiss her.  Whichever it was; I love the sweetness between them.

submitted by Laurenn (Mimi)

For a garden club show, an artist friend and I created a display that was different from everyone else's.  We created a springtime scene.  She painted a mountain waterfall and lake for a backdrop and I created a running brook in the foreground and put one of my small sculptures beside the brook.  We then decorated the scene with moss and colorful little succulents from her garden and finished the scene off with pink leptospermum (myrtle family) twigs from my garden for a flowering tree. We created the whole scene on plywood mounted on top of a large metal baking pan several inches deep which we filled with water to allow a small pump (under the rock dam) to recirculate our brook.  We won "Most Creative".

The idea for this project came from memories I have of going into the woods with my children when they were young and gathering moss and little plants to make terrariums in small plastic fish tanks.  We would then bury a bowl of water in the middle for a pond.  It's a fun project for children and they can add "elves" and "fairy" dolls to make the scene complete.  It is a creative way to teach them to appreciate the tiny growing world that we sometimes fail to notice.

submitted by Laurenn (Mimi)

This sounds like an odd thing for someone in southern California to be concerned about but even we have our cold weather and occasionally we have rain!  A few weeks ago we had both. I had appointments and had to leave my little "pound pups" Tinker Beau and Figgy Newton out while I was gone.  One of the best investments that I have made this year is a dog house big enough for both of them.  Even though they sometimes fight over food or attention, they curl up together snug and warm in their doghouse with their pillow bed and all of Tinker's plush toys.  These pictures are of Tinker and Figgy in their house in the misty rain and later at the door telling me that they were ready to come in.  Please remember your pets this winter.  When we are cold they are too and they sometimes need our help to stay warm.
Posted by Laurenn (Mimi)

The ocean is (and all of our water bodies are) the source of creation and home to so much essential life on earth.  A few months ago, I was reading Sierra Magazine and was curious about the beautiful, yet haunting artwork on the cover.  Looking closely and reading about the piece inside the magazine, I realized that the art relief consisted of  discarded plastics culled from the beaches and oceans in artist Pam Longobardi's travels.  Longobardi makes art out of plastic - specifically, out of sea-worn trash that she's hauled from beaches worldwide.  She transforms the flotsam into powerful pieces of art, this one called "Plastic Looks Back" and she has founded The Drifter's Project to encourage cleanup of the trash from the beaches and oceans.  The piercing green eyes in her artwork ask us to think about what we are doing to our world's waters.  It is estimated that there are 300,000 tons of plastic in the ocean today.  The biggest plastics vortex is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch but the Atlantic and Indian Oceans also have trash vortexes. Even shipping routes in smaller bodies of water, such as the North Sea, are developing garbage patches.  

The good news is there is a growing awareness that we must do something to reverse the trend of thoughtless discarded waste.  The same issue of Sierra Magazine highlights schools and universities from coast to coast with innovative programs, courses and infrastructure to heal the planet.  

Little children like my grandchildren are also talking about picking up trash that they see discarded and recycling and reusing.  I love seeing how important they think that it is because they are the future.  In my next book, At the Beach, Lae Lae and her friend Timmy take a trip to the beach and, while they enjoy playing in the ocean, they also learn about recycling and cleaning the beach.  
Submitted by Laurenn (Mimi)

A fun and simple project for children which they decorate with foam sticky back designs (no messy glue!) Foam door hangers from a craft store provide the backing for New Year's Resolutions created by the children.  I wrote their resolutions on the back as they told them to me and they can now hang them on their doors to remind them of what their goals are.  Goals such as to play nicely, to pick up their toys and clean their rooms, to take horse back riding lessons or maybe get a pony, to spend more time at the beach (this is Southern California) or a personal favorite...to eat dinner without complaining and take the clean plate to the kitchen after dinner.  Wonder how long these resolutions will last?  At least the intentions were set and they had lots of fun!  Here's to everyone playing nicely this year!
Posted by Laurenn (Mimi)

As Southern California experiences very cold temperatures and even snow, I
am watching the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.  The Rose Parade home, Pasadena,CA, is 36 degrees right now!   Seeing all of the beautiful floral designs of the Rose Parade makes me think of my own beautiful roses.  Last summer I took a photo of a beautiful  "Joey" rose from my Fallbrook garden. This blossom is almost six inches in diameter and all of the blossoms on the tall rose bush are equally big.

But spring will come and summer, fall and finally winter will follow again (although in Southern California our seasons are less distinct than in some other areas). All the seasons are special with their own characteristics ... so Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes as we go into the seasons of 2015!
posted by Laurenn (Mimi)