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Spring is Springing down here in Florida!  Last weekend, I walked out into my yard where I have planted lots of herbs and plants to attract all kinds of wonderful critters and flitters!  My first sign of feeding was my bees on the basil  bush!  What a show!  I just plopped down in the grass and was amazed at these tiny flitters hopping from flower to flower enjoying the yummies.  They had no idea that I was anywhere in sight.  They were intoxicated by the freshness of this simple and small bush.

I also thought about these 2 very natural things which we personally can enjoy the fruits of THEIR labor.  As most of you know, my husband and I love to cook!  There is nothing more incredible than walking out my front door with scissors in hand and snipping the fragrant and delicious basil.  We use it in so many sauces but my favorite it just taking the whole leave and adding it to a tomato (also fresh from our garden) and a slice of mozzarella...don't forget the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  What a treat!

The other element of our bees is the HONEY!  I have not gotten into bee keeping yet, but I have several friends who are making this their hobby!  I feel honored to help them pollenate.  With so many chemicals in our world today, it is a challenge for our bees to find happy places.  Getting and having natural honey is also a delectable treat!  I just made some tasty barbeque sauce using a local honey!

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What a wonderful way to start off 2010!  My "girly" friend Melanie and her husband joined us at our hunting camp this past weekend to enjoy the last weekend of white tail rifle season.  This was a first for my fashionista friend who has never been a cold weather fan.  ( our temperatures were in the teens).  My friend had also never been hunting.  I packed her warm and cozy camo clothing which had a flair of high fashion.  She always dresses and looks adorable!  As they drove into camp, she got out with her darling little grey uggs, matching jeans and a frilly pink scarf wrapped around her neck!  Her makeup was flawless and she carried in gold and leopard bag full of clothes and toiletries.  

Our first hunt would be the next morning bright and early.  We climbed up into my shooting house which I call my tree house and we sat quietly as the cold wind blew in with great force!  All of a sudden, Melanie is waving her finger at me and pointing.  She spotted the first deer of the morning, 3 does and as we were climbing down out of the tree house she spotted a small buck.  I was so proud of her.  I had no doubts my friend would not excel at this sport because of her background and love of sports, she has awesome eye and hand coordination.

My friend had never shot a rifle but she took this opportunity to learn everything she could about hunting.  She was such a sponge, just soaking it all in!

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As hunters we are always thinking about our scent in the woods!  Well I would like to share about scents in the house.  During the last few months, there has been some mighty fantastic smells coming from our kitchen.  There is nothing better than having the smells of turkey, bread, cookies and anything else we might bake up "Stinking up the house".  This is what my Dad calls it!  When I was little, my Mom would put our Thanksgiving Turkey on the night before the big day.  When morning came, the smell would levitate me off my bed, down the steps to the kitchen....mmmm good.  This year my Husband cooked a standing rib roast with a horseradish, garlic, olive oil and rosemary rub.  The roast cooked for almost 3 hours and I wanted to just put a cot by the stove and inhale!  Maybe the spa should try this over burning essential oils.

When I traveled through airports a few years ago, They could have blind folded me, flown me around, dropped me off and said "where are you?".  With one big sniff, I could say Cinnabon, that is Cincinnati airport.  Smells can reach way back in our memory banks and revive an old feeling or place.

There are some smells we might like to avoid but most smells are good.  This may sound crazy but I love the smell of the skunk.  From childhood we are automatically taught that when we smell this smell we reply "PEWWWWW".  It was not until by adulthood that a friend, Tom, told me he liked the smell of the skunk.  I thought about this for a while and determined he was right.   I agreed even more when I moved away from Tennessee to Florida, where I do not get those whiffs much anymore.  When I drive home and get that scent of skunk, I feel at home...silly but true.

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I am so thankful to my wonderful parents for teaching me Honesty and Integrity.  The values and morals taught to us as children give us a compassion for life and the ability to care for others.  I believe that people who enjoy the outdoors have an EXTRA level of love and compassion.  When our feet can crunch through leaves in a forest or we can hop rocks in a creek bed, we become engaged in the energy of Mother Nature.  There is no greater therapy or medication than being in the outdoors.

In our world today, it seems we need to wear a haz-mat suit daily just to keep the negativity of unhappy people and all the goop from television off of us.  I wanted to call Chick Fil A and ask if they could share their training program with the world.  I am ALWAYS so impressed with their kindness of their employees...they are happy, friendly and say thank you...WOW...AND the food is usually fresh and hot!  

Maybe we could all get together and go out into the world and smile and say HI (honesty and integrity) I know eventually that positive energy would spread!

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I wanted to tell you about the 2 newest DoeVille employees, Dots and Bob.  Dots appeared outside the DoeVille headquarters several months ago.  He is a young and quite curious cardinal.  Not only is his personality incredibly enjoyable but his unique markings earned him the name "Dots".  You see he has these bright red dots on this breast, they are adorable.  In the beginning, Dots was the only cardinal that would appear to investigate our feeder just outside the office window.  Now his entire family has joined him.  His family consists of 2 sisters and a brother as well as Mom and Dad.  It was like they sent Dots on a reconaissance mission to make sure our office and trees were a safe place!  They could not have selected a more loving and caring home....we love our Nature around here!

Recently, Dots and his family got a new neighbor Bob.  Bob is new to our community.  He is a feisty squirrel with a bob tail.  We have decided that he looks and acts more like a rabbit than a squirrel.  These creatures all share well together.  We also have an enormous dove and butterfly community which add both audible and visual excitement to our work place.

I think we can learn many things from our friends in nature.  They work very well together and if one of them gets in another one's way they just give them a peck and keep moving forward.  My favorite saying is "Go Back to Grazing".  This is what horses do in the pasture.  If another horse snips or gets in their way, they may kick back or snip back but then they go back to grazing!  It is good for us human folk to just stop, watch and listen to the birds and the bees.

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What makes your spirit bell ring?  Mountains or Oceans?  I ask this question many times of myself.  When I am in the great big mountains overlooking wide open spaces, my body feels so grounded, so at home.  Spending many summers on horseback for a week in the Teton National Forest elevated my spirit and my creativity.  I never came back from these adventures the same woman!  As I meet many people they seem to feel the same passion.  I have also met people here in Florida who say when they get away from water and the ocean they feel lost.  There are also those beings who straddle the fence, loving both.  I encourage you to ponder what and where your SPIRIT bell resonates and rings the most.  I feel it is an important item for us each to recognize and to place ourselves there often.  To just be still on a rock surrounded by big aspens or to dip our toes in the sand to quench that place that feels sooo good.

The great thing about being in the outdoors is that we can enjoy our hobbies of fishing, hunting, photography or just being in that moment.

In a few weeks this WILD WILD Woman of the West will be in those Tetons, on horseback hunting Elk and just soaking it all in...placing in my mind memories and photos which will not exist on any camera or computer but in my SPIRIT. 

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My friend Kathy has been placing photos of her new and innovative dinners on her facebook page.  Every morning I see these delicious treats before my eyes and want to run to the Kitchen to find a snack.  Two nights ago, she made my husbands Risotto recipe and was basically turning flips of joy after eating it!  My husband is Italian so Risotto is a staple item in our household.  It is the entree that soothes the soul and nurtures you to the bone.  When I lived in Tennessee, my "risotto" was good ole' mashed taters with sour cream, cream cheese and cheese all whipped in together!  The other "food of Love" for me is my Mama's biscuits and sausage gravy....Oh yea!

It is so delightful to see how cooking in the kitchen with our family and friends is making a come back!  We are surrounded by wonderful shows like the Food Network which shares wonderful recipes and ideas.  The internet is so great to just type in what you want to cook and there it is!

The Kitchen is a Sacred Place, a place of love where many memories can be made.  When my husband was courting me, he STOLE my heart with Elk Tenderloin over Arugula!  I FELL in LOVE!  We even have our own "Food Challenges" on Saturdays and Sundays.  I am proud to say that I currently hold the honors of the BEST vennsion chili.

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We have all heard of Horse Sense and how these 1200 pound animals are so intuitive...well...it is true!  I just spent my weekend at KingsWood Stables at the Epona Rivers www.eponarivers.com Equine Facilitated Experiential Program.

We began our retreat on Friday in a cozy room filled with lots of horsey items, beautiful fresh flowers, essential oils scented the room with love and relaxing music coming from an Ipod mounted to speakers....WOW....can I just stay right here?  Holly Pollock began by telling us she was holding space for us to explore and enrich our lives.  She provided us with so many wonderful tools from handouts to books.  In our cozy room sitting on sofas and fluffy chairs, we learned about our Authentic Self Voice and False Self Voice.  This may sound a little "heady" but with the tools given you are able to embrace and learn.  Next we went to interact with the horses.  Doing ground work in the round pen with our selected horse, we learned about setting boundaries....POWERFUL.  I often forget that NO is an answer too.  This interactive session taught us to recognize when someone is pushing into our space and how to extend our energy to keep them at a safe distance.  This keeps us healthy and safe.  Very powerful for our personal relationships and in our professional and career lives.

We also did lots of journaling (using the Doeville hunting diary) what a great way to document so many things.   It was also great for sketching since the journal has no lines to hold us in!

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Priceless!!!  I guess the credit card company that used this tag line in their advertisements did not know they would describe my week in Tennessee.  My parents went on a mini vacation and are the primary care takers for my two 94 year old Grandmothers.  My husband and I decided to head North to take my parents place so they could relax.  My Nana Ruby lives with my parents and she is as perky as ever!  Every morning I would rise and shine, put on a pot of coffee and start frying a little bacon and down came Ruby...her sense of smell so keen.  We would sit at the table, sip our coffee and watch the birds fly to the feeder.  Ruby shared so many stories of her childhood.  My husband would give her hugs and kisses everyday and she would light up like a lighting bug.  Her sense of humor is amazing and her mobility is incredible.  Some days, I found is hard to keep up with her!

My Nana Maymie, also 94, lives on her own.  We would cook up some delicious vittles and take to her everyday.  She can cook herself but this was a little treat for the week.  One morning we went to Cracker Barrel and had a yummy breakfast...She had the Old Timer's Breakfast...I thought that was cute.  We left there and headed to South Pittsburg, TN which is home of the Lodge Cast Iron Skillet outlet.  My husband loves to cook so he had a blast here!  We also went to Hammer's Store which is an institution for hunting clothes!  If you think my Nana was tired...she wasn't!  We headed to Sonic where she wanted to treat us to a Malt.  She was still going strong into the afternoon!

Our week was a treasure.  I am so thankful for our time together.  Many people commented to me that I had good genes but I believe when you see the Hearts and Love of my two Nana's, you know that it is this gift that continues to bless them everyday.  They are Priceless!

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As hunting season approaches, it is a time for excitement and anticipation!

I also look at my scouting or hunting as a shopping trip for items to adorn our hunting camp and or my home.  Nature finds are some of the greatest and most unique accessories on the market.    Here are a few of my favorite items and decorating ideas to go along with the treasure:

Pine Cones-  small ones are fabulous to pick up and put in a wooden bowl to place on a coffee table or a center piece for your dining table.  Large pine cones are a REAL treat.  These can just stand alone on a bookshelf or as an accent in any room.

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