Could your child survive alone in the woods?

The kid had been out for a minimum of two hours, she thought. A lifetime for worried parents.

But toddlers didn’t have any real sense of time. Children of his age were very mobile, she mused, and didn’t always understand the concept of being lost. They wandered, distracted by sights and sounds, and had considerable endurance, so it might be hours of that wandering before Hugh tired out and realized he wanted his mother.

She watched a rabbit skitter away into the brush. Peck had too much dignity to do more than spare it a passing glance.

But a little boy? Fiona thought. One who loved his “Wubby,” who enjoyed animals? One his mother said was fascinated by the forest? Wouldn’t he want to try to catch it, probably hoping to play with it?

He’d try, wouldn’t he, to follow it? City boy, she thought, enchanted with the woods, the wildlife, the other of it all.

How could he resist?

The Search 

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There's a hierarchy of survival skills that are appropriate for children.

For any parent, the idea of your children wondering lost and alone in the wilderness is a terrifying one. A family in California had their worst fears come true on March 1, 2019.

Two sisters, ages 8 and 5, miraculously survived 44 hours alone in the woods in freezing temperatures. But it wasn't just luck that kept them safe.

mother nature network

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“Where'd you find him?” Trent asked Nathaniel quietly.

“Up on the cliffs, holed up in a crevice in the rocks.”

“Good God.” C.C. shuddered. “Did he spend the night up there?”

“Looked that way. I had this feeling, I can't explain it. And there he was.”

Megan's Mate

“Pearls lie not on the seashore. If thou desirest one thou must dive for it.” Chinese Proverb

“And the pearls?”

“These.” He lifted a finger to trace them. 
“A symbol of family, endurance, innocence. They suit you very well.”

“They— I know I should have found a way not to accept them, but when Suzanna 
put them on me upstairs, they felt as though they were mine.” 

Megan's Mate

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By Hannes Grobe/AWI - Own work, CC BY 3.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12457319

Use Pearl when you need a boost of happiness in your life

The Meanings and Myths of Pearls

Birds are wicked smart, despite their small brains

Seconds later, a shrill wolf whistle sounded from inside, followed by a muffled scream. 

He was grinning by the time Bird squawked out his invitation: “Hey, sugar, buy you a drink? Here's looking at you, kid.” When Bird began to sing a chorus of “There Is Nothing like a Dame,” the children collapsed into fits of laughter.

A few minutes later, Megan carried out a tray of drinks. Bird's voice followed her. “'Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score!'“

She arched a brow as she set the tray on the deck. “Bogart, show tunes and poetry. That's quite a bird.” 

Megan's Mate

________________

By pionetes - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3454725

Crows and ravens are really smart. Parrots and cockatoos are very intelligent. Magpies, macaws, jays and parakeets ... all brilliant birds. But how is it that these avian animals are so clever when their brains are relatively small? After all, isn't it our big brains relative to our body size that makes us humans so amazingly smart? Turns out, not necessarily.

mother nature network

On this day

Everything You Need to Know About International Women's Day on March 8

..................................................................................................

Nathaniel didn't share his former shipmate's disdain of women. 
He loved them, one and all. 
He enjoyed their looks, their smells, their voices, and was more than satisfied to settle in the family parlor with six of the best-looking women it had been his pleasure to meet.

The Calhoun women were a constant delight to him. 
Suzanna, with her soft eyes, Lilah's lazy sexuality, Amanda's brisk practicality, C.C.'s cocky grin, not to mention Coco's feminine elegance. 
They made The Towers Nathaniel's little slice of heaven.

Megan's Mate

American adventures

“Then you're in for a treat.”

He was absolutely right. The long, winding drive in the spectacular T-Bird was joy enough. The little villages they passed through were as scenic as any postcard. The sun dipped down toward the horizon in the west, and the breeze in the open car smelled of fish, then flowers, then sea.

The restaurant was hardly more than a diner, a square of faded gray wood set on stilts in the water, across a rickety gangplank. The interior decoration ran to torn fishnets and battered lobster buoys.

Scarred tables dotted the equally scarred floor. The booths were designed to rip the hell out of pantyhose. A dubious effort at romantic atmosphere was added by the painted tuna can and hurricane globe set in the center of each table. The candles globbed in the base of the cans were unlit. Today's menu was scrawled on a chalkboard hanging beside the open kitchen.

“We got lobster rolls, lobster salad and lobster lobster,” a waitress explained to an obviously frazzled family of four. “We got beer, we got milk, iced tea and soft drinks. There's French fries and coleslaw, and no ice cream 'cause the machine's not working. What'll you have?”

Megan's Mate

_________________________

Ansel Adams [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

From reliving the Wild West to hurtling round a legendary race track to climbing up an American icon, we bring you 33 fabulous American adventures everyone should experience.

MSN

_________________________

Take a minute, look up there. That's a sight, isn't it?"

Her heart was still beating too fast for comfort, but she looked up. And there, above the ragged shadows of the mountains, hung a full, white moon.

Stars exploded around it, as it someone had loaded a shotgun with diamonds and blasted away. Their light turned the icing of snow on the peaks an eerie blue, and dashed the crevices and gullies into deep, rich shadow.

This, she thought, was what she missed when she allowed nerves to hunch her over, to force her gaze to the ground. And though she might have wished shed had this moment alone, she had to give credit to Lo for making her stop, making her look.

"It's beautiful. The guidebook I bought called the mountains majestic, and I thought no. When I saw them before. I thought not majestic but tough and rugged. But that's how they look now. Majestic."

"There are spots up there that you have to see to believe, and they change, even while you're looking. This time of year, if you go up, stand by the river, you can hear the rocks clack in the spring runoff. Take you on a ride up. Nothing better than seeing the Tetons on horseback." 

Angels Fall

What's in a Name?

“What's his name?”
“Dog.”
She looked up from the puppy's adoring eyes. “Dog? That's it?”
“He likes it. Hey, Dog.” At the sound of his master's voice, Dog immediately cocked
his head at Nathaniel and barked. “See?”
“Yes.” She laughed and nuzzled. “It seems a bit unimaginative.”
“On the contrary. How many dogs do you know named Dog?”

Megan's Mate

_____________________

Your pet is an important part of your family. So when you bring a new furry friend into your life, you should show the same careful consideration when choosing his or her name as you would when deciding what to call your newborn son or daughter. 

"People see their pets as companions," says Frank Nuessel, Ph.D., a linguistics professor at the University of Louisville and editor of NAMES: A Journal of Omnastics. "So it makes sense that there's a link between how we name children and how we name animals. The act of naming is such a symbolic thing," he says. 

YAHOO! SHINE

_____________________

“A bird?”
“A parrot I picked up in the Caribbean about five years ago. That's another reason I
bring Dog along with me. Bird might eat him.”
“Bird?”

Megan's Mate

Lobster Rolls

“I said bring Kevin along. We'll take a drive out to this place I know. Great lobster rolls.”

He gave the word lobster a broad New England twist that made her smile. 

“I can't claim they're up to Coco's standards, but there's plenty of local color.”

Megan's Mate

_________________

The Classic Maine Lobster Roll




KITCHEN DAILY

_________________

 

“I've never had a lobster roll.”

“Then you're in for a treat.”

Megan's Mate

Dutch sniffed, gave Coco the once-over. She'd done herself up good and proper, he
noted. The fancy-shmancy dress glittered and flowed down, stopping plenty short to
show off her legs. Her cheeks were all pink, too. And he didn't think it was from
kitchen heat. His lips curled back in a sneer.
“So what's he, your boyfriend?”
The pink deepened to rose. “Certainly not. A woman of my...experience doesn't
have boyfriends.” Surreptitiously she checked her face in the stainless-steel exhaust
hood on the stove. “Beaux, perhaps.”

Megan's Mate

_____________________________

Style Advice from the World's Chicest Grandmas

 

 

 Style is one of those things that gets better with age, right? Well if that's true, then you have no better place to look to for inspiration than your elders.

 

>SHINE<

________________________________________________

 Nathan managed to nod through these rapid-fire statements before turning to greet Jackie's mother. This was what she would look like in twenty or twenty-five years, Nathan realized with a jolt. Still lovely, with her skin clear as a bell and the grace that only years could add.

Loving Jack