** Finding Bliss in Every Day Life **

 Nick Nixon & me 10/23/10.



A few months ago, I wrote a little on my blog about Nick Nixon. Nick was a country music singer/guitar strumming star in the 1970's. I'm pretty sure when he first began, I wasn't "into" country music yet. I grew up mostly on The Beatles and Motown, and didn't care much for what I thought was "that-old-twangy-hee-haw" kind of stuff!  But, that changed when I was married to First Husband (FH). Country music was a regular part of military life, especially the years we lived in Germany. There wasn't any American television, but we had one radio station: Armed Forces Radio Network. I listened to every kind of music they played and that's when I began to like country.

Okay...getting back to Nick... jump ahead about 40 years and I discover he's a member of Saturday Writers , plus the "Coffee & Critique" group I recently joined! That man can write stories as well as he can still sing!  He's currently working on his memoir and we know thousands of readers out there will also recognize his talent.

 These 2 pictures were taken Saturday at the Kisker Road Library in St. Peters, Missouri. Nick participated in an event which featured local authors. I surprised him when I walked in with this old LP of his, which I found on E-bay! (I wish y'all could've seen the look on his face when I first held it up!) I asked him to autograph it and he signed it to The Ronald and me. Of course, I've already played both sides a couple of times, and he sounds great. His voice is obviously different, but I can tell it is him. I really believe his voice has gotten better with age. I think these days he sounds a little like Merle Haggard, whom I love. AND, the best thing about all of this.....Nick Nixon is one of THE nicest, most talented men you'll ever meet.....And he's still so darn cute, isn't he?!  Here's a You Tube link, if you'd like to see and hear a slightly younger version of Nick:  Trust me...you'll love it!!

                                                        

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The trees in my part of the world are so gorgeous right now! Some are a little past their peak and some are just getting there. This one is in my neighborhood and I just had to stop and take a picture of it Friday. My subdivision is a fairly new one, therefore we don't have large, old trees. But the colors on this one just took my breath away. That's what fall leaves do to me. They literally make me stop to catch my breath, and utter words out loud, even when I'm alone. It's like watching fireworks on the 4th of July: Ooooh...Aaahhhh!  I SO wished I had my camera Sunday, because a friend and I went shopping and passed dozens of trees that shouted out to be photographed. Then Sunday night, we had thunder storms and I'm so afraid the trees will look entirely different today, but I'm going back to the one area that is nearest my home, and this time I'll have my camera with me.                                                                                                                              

I took the picture below to share one of the views from our deck. That large, dead-looking tree is where we've seen our owl friends, sitting on the very top branches. There's usually just one owl, but a couple of times, we've seen two of them. Maybe a mom and a pop? In the late evenings, I hear the hooting quite often, but it's usually too late and dark by then, and so I can't see anything.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have quite a few magnificent tree photos to share!

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree” -- Emily Bronte