Having fun here on a Friday afternoon…
1. Favorite Harry Potter Movie: The first, because there you have all the rest to look forward to.
2. Favorite String Instrument: Ukulele, which I am learning to play. It’s therapeutic, since my hands have nerve damage from decades of walking around with long crutches. But really — because it’s such a cheerful instrument!
3. Favorite Extreme Sport you’re too scared to do: Rock climbing, since I live near Yosemite and not infrequently hear of really good climbers falling off those granite cliff faces. Not that I would likely engage in any extreme sport, even if I learned of some for the wheelchair set.
4. Favorite Childhood Memory: Wandering freely through the woods, meadows and along streams with my grandmother and small brother before paralytic polio got me when I was five. Grammie instilled such a love of the natural world in us, it’s lasted a lifetime for me.
5. Favorite Place to Shop: Er, I dislike most kinds of shopping intensely. Had fun in the Yosemite National Park gift shop last May — resisting everything except a laminated card to help me identify trees in the park, and a sturdy backscratcher, which most often helps me reach things. It was such fun on Mother’s Day (the day after our visit) to find that my daughter had sneakily bought me a bear mug and magnet. She is familiar with my love of bears. I carved so many of them back in my woodworking days. Um… Trader Joe’s is kind of fun, once a year or so…
As a side note — Yosemite, thanks to the long covid-19 related closure, has had far more visible wild life than tourists get to see. They’re just wandering where they like for the most part. Sure do wish I could peek in on them… Here’s a bear, enjoying herself with some fresh fruit:
6. Favorite Candle Scent: So long as it’s a beeswax candle — bayberry, going back to my youth in eastern Massachusetts.
7. Favorite chocolate candy: Endangered Species 88% dark chocolate.
8. Favorite Hobbit from Lord of the Rings: Love them all, rather identify with Frodo, but most admire Samwise.
9. Favorite place you’ve been to but would return to: Israel, especially Haifa, where the Baha’i World Centre is located. Besides being what the name suggests and very beautiful on various levels, it’s also a World Heritage Site.
10. Favorite “Perfect Day” Weather: In the 80s, with a little bit of cloud up there, and a light breeze. Especially in spring. Geese and egrets flying over, Anna’s Hummingbirds pecking at the window, wanting their feeder refilled, Mockingbirds making a racket, Scrub Jays doing their patented squawk, making me gasp at their blue-ness…
11. Favorite Food to Cook/Bake: Truth to tell I hardly ever cook as I now live with my daughter and her family. She actually enjoys cooking! In the past I enjoyed making bread, and also now and then eggs, fried or as an omelet, topped with roasted green chilis. Those last you can only get in New Mexico, in the fall.
12. Place in the U.S. you haven’t seen yet, but need to see. The red rock country around the Four Corners region.
13. Favorite Country you want to visit: Always wanted to go to Britain. Old Blighty more recently got upstaged by Tuva, a result of watching a movie about throat singing in that tiny little country notched into the northwestern edge of Mongolia. Later it was France, especially the southern regions. These days I can envision retirement life in Mexico next door. There’s always something, though — Medicare doesn’t work outside the USA, so here I am for the duration.
14. Favorite Breed of Dog: Elf the Corgi would snub me indefinitely (treats would speed up a return to good humor) if I said anything but Pembroke Welsh Corgi. As she is dozing nearby right now I’ll add in mixed breed in honor our late Opus, the snuggly Dachshund-Terrier. German Shepherds are also on this list. But really, I’ve loved all my dogs over the years, from poodle, cocker spaniel, German shepherd, large mixed breed, and samoyed, to those last two mentioned above.
15. Favorite Music Artist: Changes all the time, as I listen to many kinds of music. Right now? Jake Shimabukuro, when he plays Bohemian Rhapsody. Astounding ukulele performance, at a TED talk no less. Check it out.
I got this list, in a slightly different order, from another blogger, and thought what fun! Life at Cheshire Farm
Rising Over the Smoke 
My daughter started playing the guitar this year at high school and wants to also get a ukulele
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Music is such a gift… You can get a ukulele for not very much, but to enjoy it it’s a good idea to test one out to see if it fits you, and that it has a good sound. Solid wood is great, but a bit expensive, so one with a solid wood top and laminate elsewhere also sounds great. They make good sounding carbon fiber ukes now, too, though they tend to be expensive. They also come in a crazy, wild array of shapes and colors. Lots of ways to have fun with ukuleles.
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