June 30, 2012 Storm and Schedule Updates

Time flies between blogs! It’s not that there isn’t much to write about, I guess it’s more of a lack of time & energy.

Here it is 4^th of July, “Independence Day”, which means more to some of us than others these days. Never thought I’d be writing about this as I too used to be one of those people. 4^th of July was just another holiday, a day of summer barbeques, going to the beach, the boardwalk & a day off from work.

Another spin on this day are thoughts of a popular movie, “Independence Day”.  We’ve been through something this weekend & as bad as it is, it could have always been worse. It has been a rude awakening for a lot of people that we need to be more prepared for these challenges when they do come along.

I was not here to witness the nonstop lightening, rain, winds, sound of trees snapping all around & in some cases falling on houses & cars. The horrific stories don’t end. And still, as bad as it has been, it could always be worse.

This storm called a “Derecho”, hit without warning. They are extremely rare & we may never experience another in our lifetime. It took down the tallest & oldest trees all around us, straight from the root system. It never seems to amaze me how shallow a root base these tall, old trees have.

I was down in Ocean City, Maryland, drinking & dancing at a famous place called “Seacrets”, celebrating a special friend’s birthday for the weekend. We never heard a thing. We left there around 4:30-5am, it was raining, but, very little. It had obviously rained quite a bit while we were in there. My neighbor called at 7:30am to tell me he just wanted to let me know my house was ok. OK?....there was a pause….then he went on to say what had happened & that our neighborhood had been destroyed. There were trees on at least 3 houses in our 17 house neighborhood, 2 cars, & many, many more trees were down all around the rest of the neighborhood. Mind you, I’m still drunk & trying to process all the information my neighbor is giving me. We got up, gathered our belongings that we had just lugged up there late the night before & started back home. We had to wait 3 hours for a ferry, but, what were we in a hurry to get to at this point anyway?

We are hard core survivors here. We spent 2 months in Africa, higher temperatures, in the bush with much, much less & did way, way more. These last few days, we had the luxury of a generator so we at least had the fridge & freezer running & also a fan. We’re also fortunate to have city water, (never thought I’d say that!) sewerage & gas. We looked in on neighbors throughout the day & made sure everyone had all they needed to get by. We have 2 neighbors whom are suffering with Alzheimer’s; one is on hospice & the other not far behind. There is a neighbor whom just gave birth recently to their 5^th child, but they opted out for the conveniences of electricity, rightfully so. There is also a couple recently married & are spending their honeymoon in Europe. No sense coming home from there! We are a tight neighborhood & it is times like this that make us even closer.

The images posted here are all taken within a 5 mile radius of my home on Saturday evening through Monday. (Most are only within 1 mile) I find it difficult to visualize even in my photographs the extent of the damage in our area. I stand in one spot & turn in circles. It’s everywhere I look. I will be only posting 5 images here & then I'll post the album on my facebook page.

Our power was restored late last night. We had the best night sleep we’ve had in days! Thank you so much to all the workers whom made this happen. To all the people who still don’t have power…hang in there. It’ll make you appreciate it all the more when you do get it back. Don’t you remember growing up? We all made it to this point! We never had air conditioning.

To the people who are complaining about not having the services they usually do…” where are all the people to come & help us”…..are you kidding me?? SUCK IT UP! You could live in Colorado & not have a house at all to come back too. People are helping people all around us. Be one of them.

One quick story to give you something to think about…………. I called my grand children’s mother to check on all of them & she told me they were camping down around Ocean County when the storm hit. When the first lightening strike hit, she took the children out of their tent, put them in the truck & took them home, against the wishes of her friends she was camping with. The next morning, they returned to the campground to gather their things & there was a tree, 3 foot in diameter, laid across the tent the children were sleeping in. They would have been killed. Sunday we awoke to news that 2 children sleeping in a tent were killed by a tree falling on their tent.

For all of those who came out of this unharmed, this is what you have to be grateful for. Food, houses, cars, can all be replaced.

I am grateful for my awesome family, friends & neighbors. I have a lot of people out there that make my life that much better because they are part of it! Thank you for your help & offers of convenience to make my life easier during these last few days! We really are all in this together.

Today….back to work.

Schedule:

July 14^th, 2012 Saturday Beachfest I Arts & Crafts Festival
Place: Bicentennial Park * Engleside Ave, Beach Haven * LBI, NJ
Time: 9:00AM to 4:00PM *

August 3, 4, 5, 2012 Friday thru Sunday Ocean City Boardwalk Art Show                                                                                                             Place: Ocean City, New Jersey, Boardwalk                                                                                                                                                            Time: Friday, 9am till 6pm Saturday, 9am till 8pm, Sunday, 9am till 4pm

November 3 & 4, 2012 NOYES MUSEUM of ART CRAFTS MARKETPLACE 2012
Place: The Noyes Museum of Art
733 Lily Lake Rd., Oceanville, NJ 08231
Time: Saturday, November 3: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sunday, November 4: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

On another note...I won’t be going to Rwanda to trek silver back gorillas this year as planned. The trip has been postponed till the end of next June.

I will be going on some sort of other adventure sometime in the very near future, just not sure where or when yet, but, I’ll keep you posted!

Stay well & be happy my friends! Life is too short & remember this is NOT a rehearsal!...MAKE IT ALL COUNT!!!

Peace!

4th of July weekend & Upcomming show schedule

This weekend we'll be spending it in Galeton, PA, Potter County. I just found out the other night that this is the darkest place on the east coast & astronomers come from all over the world to view from this area. How cool is that??!!
Besides that, there is a very cool lumberjack festival, a carnival & the best fireworks display we have ever seen!
We'll be staying at a cabin way up on the mountain without electricity or phones. However, there is a generator. We're sooooo looking forward to this!

On another note...I miss Africa every day.

Upcomming shows.....This is the schedule so far.....August 6, 7, & 8th, I'll be on the Ocean City Boardwalk, NJ.....September 11th & 12th, The Brandywine on the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware.....September 18th & 19th, The 28th Wings n' Water Festival, at The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ.....October 17th, The 25th Annual Batsto Country Living Fair at Batsto in Hammonton, NJ

Mayfest at Smithville, NJ, May 15 & 16, 2010

This weekend I'll be showing my art at The Mayfest, in Smithville, NJ. I'll have new work from Africa, "Ukutula", The White Lion Conservation Reserve!
Stop by & say hello! My booth # is 114.
I hope to see you there!

Leaving Africa....

As I sit and watch the sunset over Johannesburg, memories of my experiences at Ukutula play through my mind. It's almost gone now...I watch the last minute...it's over.
Although it has only been 2 1/2 weeks, it seems so much longer. I already miss the cubs, Emma, (the 18 month old cheetah), the tiger cubs, and the roaring of the lions throughout the days and nights. The sores on my hands will linger on for a short time longer, but the bottle feedings from which they came will live on in my heart forever. I will miss being in the bush for I am a bushgirl in my heart, my soul and from within my every being. There is truly nothing else like it. The peaceful, zen like atmosphere can not be duplicated. The sounds of the wild, the air that you breath, the smell of the earth in its purest form. It will all be sadly missed.
Although it rained often, even if it was very unusual, it was a blessing, even though it sometimes kept us from what we would rather have been doing.
I have learned so much here.
I have met many new friends from many different countries and hopefully our paths shall cross again someday.
Yes, I am in love with Africa, but not as much with what calls me home, but I shall return again, and again and again.

New Baby Lion Cubs!

We retrieved the new baby lion cubs from their enclosures today. The rangers had moved their Moms to another area before we got down there. Upon their return, they may only look around for a few moments, then go on about their business as usual. This is what would happen in nature as well.
When we returned to the lodge with the cubs, we weighed them, bathed them, held them some more and named them. I wanted to name one after Richard, but with all the controversy between the volunteers, it got voted out. Still not positive what the final outcome of names were except 1, Michelle. She was the only white one and a female who was named after one of the volunteers that was here for several months and had left this afternoon.
There was 1 other female and 3 males. There had been one more, but earlier in the week there had been a disturbance between the lions and the cub had been killed in the middle of it all.
It was absolutely incredible to see them, hold them and photograph them especially at such a young age. (Less than 2 weeks old!) Although this was unusual to take them as soon as we did, this is usually done at 3 weeks old.

Lion cubs growing up...

I was on cub team today. The cubs are now too big to feed with a bottle anymore. Today will have to be the last day. They are too aggressive while feeding them and scratch and bite us. For now on they will be having only meat. In the morning we will be taking the new cubs away from their Mothers and putting them in with the other cubs. These are the cubs that were born when we arrived. It'll take them 2-3 days before they begin to suck on the bottle. It should be interesting to watch from the very beginning!
We had lots of guests today including a school from Brits. I really enjoyed working with them and Vince, the lion I had was extremely good!
We leave on Monday and it's so hard to believe it's been almost 2 weeks. I will miss this place a lot. It has been quite an education and the interaction with the lions has been amazing! Gill and Willie keep this place in such incredible shape, not an easy task, but they work very hard at it and it shows. The whole family works at it together. It'S a beautiful thing to watch. It's a wonderful experience for anyone who comes here.

Africa in 17 Days!

17 more days till I leave for Africa. I can hardly wait! I've updated my shots, I only needed a polio booster as my shots were still current from the last trip to Africa 3 years ago & of course I am taking a supply of antibiotics, just in case, & malaria prevention medication.
I keep in touch with the other people I've met online that will be going as well & I look forward to meeting them in person. We will be connecting before the project begins as some of us will be there at least a day early.
With weekends off, I plan on utilizing my time in Africa as best as I can with exploring the surrounding area, going on game drives, photographing wildlife & taking in a culture village experience.
I have another blackberry with internet & email & hopefully, it will work this time as many of you may recall the issues I had the last time I was there.
The only other thing that would make this trip complete would be if I met with Jane Goodall herself while there!!

Adventure in Africa

On April 17th, 2010, I will be going back to Africa. I'll be staying in Brits on a white lion conservation reserve taking care of baby white lions, lions, cheetahs & other animals on the reserve.
I can't wait!
I'll be blogging while there, although, the internet is not the same as it is here. It actually takes longer than dial up. So, I'll do my best to keep up as often as possible.
I will be returning on May 5th, 2010.
I will be going alone. There will be someone picking me up from the airport, from there, I'll stay at a backpackers hostil till the following day when someone comes to collect me. We will do an orientation & then on to the reserve where I will be staying for the next 2 weeks.
My aim is to learn all that I can about the animals that I photograph, about conservation & any other useful information I can learn while there.