'Ello, poppet...

Two days ago our travels led us through small villages to a wind museum, an olive oil museum, and a monastery/natural park. I'll speak of the natural park, as this is the most entertaining to me, and proves a pretty post. Some of these pictures, reflecting the things that I've seen, remind me repeatedly that there indeed is an energy flowing through every living thing that needs to be respected as the force that it is. It is when and where this force become perverted and twisted that we encounter problems and devastation.

Think of the beauty and perfection that is Nature as you contemplate this pictorial narrative.

The last one reminds me so much of that fish thing from which we serve water at functions in the Happy Hamlet of Hampstead.

There was one thing, though, about this place, that deeply upset me. We got to the end of the trail and before us sat some kind of huge bird--not a vulture, but similar--hunched on a twig in a cage far too small for even its wingspan. It was tied down so that it could not fly. Trying to find my way to the exit, I walked by a few dozen more birds all tied by their legs down to a metal arch inches from the ground, water bowls nearby. I wanted to set them all free. People were watching a show of some birds in a field nearby, and I seriously contemplated walking over into the trail of the birds and unstrapping them all. Would they even know where to fly, so trained? I got so upset and angry that I started crying.

I cannot imagine anything worse in the world than being a bird who is not allowed to fly.