SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND: COLOR IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST SPRING

 

How many shades of Grey?
Just walk,
quietly,
and be receptive...
Color doesn't shout here.
But it will reveal itself,
if one has the patience
for small things.
And subtlety.

 

 

 

 

~*~
A visual hush.

WHADDYA MEAN SNOW?

 

SNOW?

 

SNOW?

 

NOOOOOooooooooo!!!!


 

Everybody gettin' mad, heh-heh.
No Easter bunny, just snow.
Even Vinny mad, Ha!


 

SNOW?! WRaGrrrrrrraGrrrrrrr!!!!


 

Calm down, spring will come.
(not really.)


 

WAAAAHHHRRRRGGGG!


 

ME, TOO: WAAAAAAAAARRRgggghhh!



 

Ma, you promised us an Easter Bunny
who'd deliver Vegetable Matzohs 
to our hay bins,
not THIS, NOT THIS!


 

Nobody sees me.
I haz HAD IT
with winter.

Happy Spring (not really.)
from all of us
to all of you. (really.)
love,
(((us)))

Song of the Open Road

 

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose."
~ Walt Whitman
"Song of the Open Road" 
from "Leaves of Grass"

Squirrel is OUT! Before him lie paths between cages to
explore, piggies whose scents must fill his lungs, hay
through which to forage, tunnels of flannel and sticks
through which to race!

O, Squirrel, I am such a fine boy! Poos to identify then leave
my own as proof I lived well and thrived here! Treats left
behind to discover and digest, my happy feet and curious
toes to travel throughout the Sanctuary in search of what
can never be found in my Habitat: FREEDOM!

Roaming is my Middle Name, Squirrel-Roaming my calling,
so off I go, naming some things, allowing more to remain
NameLess in essence for what is a name, anyway?
Only what people call things, but can "hay" define the 
taste, the texture, a long stem with a flower on the tip: 
a hay-flower Divine to eat, hay to chew, nosh, or - in
YumYum's case, hay within which to dig a burrow,
a burrow of comfort in his woven basket! It soothes him.
He remembers His Wildness from our Ancestors,
and when I am on the Open Road
I, too, remember them, for we are descendants from
the Andes in South America where we once roamed free
but not without danger -
We roamed in herds, they say descended from much
larger animals called Capybaras: I dispute this!
We are too perfect exactly the way we are to
have evolved from anything one might call "better" -
for there is no better, no worse, 
Here five guinea pigs live with our own quirks,
our own differences, our own individualities,
united in our love for one another, food, mom,
and 
The Song of the Open Road!
~
Thus spoke Squirrel

K.d. Lang - Hallelujah (Live Olympic Games 2010 Opening Cermony).avi

I am so sorry I don't know how to put this on so you can just press
"Play" to see and hear this. And the link doesn't work. 
I am leaving it anyway because this is what we listen to, what gives us the endurance to Keep On Keeping On: how we clean the guinea pig habitats and Runabouts when I am too weak to stand, too weak to sit up, too weak to breathe...this song BRINGS IT!
LISTEN TO THE LYRICS...I'm too weak to write them. Our friend walzed into the Vancouver Olympics ticketless only to get a front row seat the night she performed this. So we listen to it because of the Truth, that "Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah..." when I am elbow deep in guinea pig poo, wondering from where the energy will come to do what must be done each evening.  

Yet happy and grateful because this song always reminds me that when I fall, when I fail, still somehow the cleaning and chores get done and continue to be because somehow, somewhere, in that Great Mystery wherein we may sometimes hover in the worlds between Life and Death is a great and glistening, agonizingly pleading...and ALWAYS answered prayer for help: Hallelujah. We have a Sanctuary. We have each other. We have clean living space, 10 refilled water bottles, fresh hay, newly filled food bowls, anything and everything that needs doing, gets done. Since I don't know how this miracle sustains us in the exile of illness, HALLELUJAH!

GUINEA PIG MAGAZINE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! AND WE'RE IN IT! WHEEK!

 

EXCITING NEWS SPREADS LIKE LIGHTNING 
THROUGHOUT PANDA PIG'S PEACE SANCTUARY!
WHAT CAN IT BE?

 

PETER: "Bhindi, you look absolutely ridiculous in that crown.
Take it off before I - "
BHINDI: "Before you WHAT? Have you seen the latest issue
of Guinea Pig Magazine mom just got in the mail all the way
from England?"
PETER: "Not exactly. Did it come with that crown, because if 
it did, then I'm not sure I wanna - "
BHINDI: "WE'RE IN IT! WE'RE IN IT!
News more exciting than the Queen knighting me,
which, by the way, she DID!"


 

BHINDI:
"WE're on Page 24, on the bottom, just like this!
Kinda. Sorta...but before my knighthood, alas."


 

PETER:
"WHAT COULD BE MO'BETTER THAN 
US BEING FAMOUS?
WHAT?
WHAT?"
 

BHINDI:
"Yes, that's RIGHT! 
Guinea Pig Magazine has rocketed
into Cyberspace and is now available for
only...only...uh...mmmm...huh."

PETER: "What?"

BHINDI: "What is that funny "f" thingy?"

PETER: "OH, That's English for how much
mum weighs in pounds."

BHINDI: "Mum weighs f3,500 pounds? ICK!
(Everybody: "OOoooooh, when did 
that happen? Not to mention when did we
start calling her "mum" instead of "mom?")

EDITOR: "That is NOT what it stands
for, how dare ye? I drew my best version
of English pounds, 3.50, which is the official currency of the United Kingdom, 
which means SAVINGS FABULOSO since no
shipping fees apply!"

 Just pip-pip to the official 
website:
 www.guineapigmagazine.com
and you are THERE!!!
Check out the newest issue hot off the press:


 

SO beautiful and full of Guinea EVERYTHING!
Even an exclusive feature with Michael Bond,
author of Olga Da Polga!
SQUEEEEEEE!



 

My name is Squirrel and how much ya wanna
bet I get in Guinea Pig Magazine, too?
Just look at this face, how cute am I? Too cute!
Yes, that's right:

www.guineapigmagazine.com

where you can see Bhindi and Peter-Peanut
and even a picture of our living room
on page 8, but know what's BEST?
"The Beginners Guide to:
Catering for Guinea Pigs"
by Mary Hiles
FOOD! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD!


 

Our very own, beloved Taj Mahal 
graced the 2012 New Year's edition,
but that was the winter we tragically
lost so many of our brothers,
- Taj, Raj, lil'Calvin, MacNutPie,
...oh now mum's crying, so we'll stop 
naming every one of you but -

we love you more than words 
can ever say,we miss you so...
we always will.
~*~
This blog post is dedicated to All of You
upon whose shoulders we now stand,
who trained mom to be our slave.

And Alison, founder and editor,
but - most of all - friend;
Thank you for Guinea Pig Magazine!

Love,
All of us at PandaPig's Peace Sanctuary
So go check out us, me, our living room,
the NEW, HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS online magazine because it's
the ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD
that gives us a Voice and chance to
endear you to the subtle, wheeky Wonder of 
the Guinea Pig Nation!