Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Thursday Thirteen--Colors of Sand

1. Gray Sand, Iceland--Doesn't look too Inviting, but I think that is caused by those frosty-looking little chunks of ice floating out there under a gray sky. I'm sure that on a summer day, you'd love to bury your toes in that gray sand. Wait. It's Iceland. Oh well.
















2.
White Sand, Florida--There were a multitude of pictures of Florida beaches and most of them looked like this. I don't know how they got the college students off for the picture, maybe they took it at 6:00 A.M., an hour as of yet undiscovered by most college students.








3. Coral Sand, Utah, USA. This one is very pretty, but I don't remember seeing any water nearby, and from the looks of this, I think I'd be wanting some right away.









4.Red Sand, Australia. This one is even a richer shade,
but, once again, it's in the outback,
not on a beach. It's gorgeous, nonetheless.












5. Silver Sand
, Scotland--This one even
sounds lyrical and inviting. The water looks cold,
but a walk along the beach in the evening
would be priceless, provided you take a good sweater














6. Cream Sand
, Trinidad. This one looks warmer,
and the water like milk against the cream.













7. Pink Sand,
The Bahamas-This one is rare,
caused by some type of quartz, I suppose,
a pink beach.












8. Yellow Sand,
Hawaii. I think I found
almost every color of sand in Hawaii.
Talk about a beautiful place.













9. Green Sand, Big Island, Hawaii














10. Golden Sands--
Luzon, Philippines--Although
you have to wonder how much of that golden
sand is really just golden sun.













11. Copper Sand--
Chili. Do we play in it
or just start mining?
















12. Black Sand,
Once again, Hawaii is back,
this time with rare, volcanic, black sand.


















13. White Sand, Texas.
This one was a bit of a surprise. It is composed of gypsum and flows through areas of dark sand in
the Guadalupe State Park. Looks like snow, but I think it is probably
warm and not too pleasant to bury yourself in. So please don't rush out there to do so.








Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Thirteen Characters Created by Charles Dickens

Claye is a real Charles Dickens fan. She owns most of his books and has a few favorites. I asked her to do a Thursday Thirteen for me, so she compiled descriptions of all her favorite characters, from her "least favorite" to the "most favorite". I tried to find a picture on the internet to fit that description and I linked each picture to its original site.

13. Michael ("The Poor Relation") I am a solitary man, and seldom walk with anybody, not that I am avoided because I am shabby, for I am not at all shabby, having always a very good suit of black on (or rather Oxford mixture, which has the appearance of black and wears much better) but I have got into a habit of speaking lower and being rather silent and my spirits are not high, and I am sensible that I am not an attractive companion. The only exception to this general rule is the child of my first cousin. Little Frank. I have a particular affection for that child, and he takes very kindly to me. He is a diffident boy by nature and in a crowd he is soon run over, as I may say, and forgotten. He and I, however get on exceedingly well. I have a fancy that the poor child will in time succeed to my peculiar position in the family. We talk but little; still, we understand each other. We walk about hand in hand; and without much speaking he knows what I mean and I know what he means. When he was very little indeed I used to take him to the windows of the toy shops and show him the toys inside. It is surprising how soon he found out that I would have made him a great many presents if I had been in circumstances to do it.

12. Mr. Grimwig (Oliver Twist) At this moment, there walked into the room: supporting himself by a thick stick, a stout old gentleman, rather lame in one leg, who was dressed in a blue coat, striped waistcoat, nankeen breeches and gaiters, and a broad-brimmed white hat, with the sides turned up with green. A very small-plaited shirt frill stuck out from his waistcoat; and a very long steel watch-chain, with nothing but a key at the end, dangled loosely below it. The ends of his white neckerchief were twisted into a ball about the size of an orange; the variety of shapes into which his countenance was twisted, defy description. He had a manner of screwing his head on one side when he spoke, and of looking out of the corners of his eyes at the same time; which irresistibly reminded the beholder of a parrot. In this attitude, he fixed himself, the moment he made his appearance, and, holding out a small piece of orange-peel at arm's length, exclaimed in a growling, discontented voice.
'Look here! Do you see this! Isn't it a most wonderful and extraordinary thing that I can't call at a man's house but I find a piece of this poor surgeon's friend on the staircase? I've been lamed with orange-peel once, and I know orange-peel will be my death, or I'll be content to eat my own head, sir!' ...I feel strongly on this subject, sir...there's always more or less orange-peel on the pavement in our street; and I KNOW it's put there by the surgeon's boy at the corner. A young woman stumbled over a bit last night, and fell against my garden railings; directly she got up. I saw her look toward his infernal red lamp with the pantomime light. Don't go to him,' I called out of the window, "he's an assassin! A man-trap!' "

11. Mr. Tulkinghorn (Bleak House) Mr Tulkinghorn, sitting in the twilight by the open window, enjoys his wine. As if it whispered to him of its fifty years of silence and seclusion, it shuts him up the closer. More impenetrable than ever, he sits, and drinks, and mellow as it were, in secrecy; pondering at that twilight hour, on all the mysteries he knows, associated with darkening woods in the country, and vast blank shut-up houses in town: and perhaps sparing a thought or two for himself, and his family history, and his money, and his will—all a mystery to everyone—and that one bachelor friend of his, a man of the same mould and a lawyer too, who lived the same kind of life until he was seventy-five years old, and then, suddenly conceiving (as it is supposed) an impression that it was too monotonous, gave his gold watch to his hair-dresser one summer, and walked leisurely home to the Temple, and hanged himself.

10. Rosa
(Bleak House) A dark-eyed, dark-haired, shy,
village beauty comes in—so fresh in her rosy and her delicate bloom that the drops of rain, which have been beaten on her hair, look like the dew upon a flower fresh gathered.













9. Estella (Great Expectations) It happened on the occasion of this visit that some sharp words arose between Estella and Miss Havisham. It was the first time I had ever seen them opposed. We were seated by the fire, as just now described, and Miss Havisham still had Estell’s arm drawn through her own, and still clutched Estella’s hand in hers. When Estella gradually began to detach herself. She had rather endured that fierce affection than accepted or returned it.

“What!” said Miss Havisham, flashing her eyes upon her, ‘Are you tired of me?’

‘Only a little tired of myself,’ replied Estella, disengaging her arm, and moving to the great chimney piece, where she stood looking down at the fire.’

‘Speak the truth, you ingrate!’ cried Miss Havisham passionately striking her stick upon the floor; you are tired of me;
Estella looked at her with perfect composure and again looked down at the fire. Her graceful figure and her beautiful face expressed a self-possessed indifference to the wild heat of the other that was almost cruel.

“You stock and stone!” exclaimed Miss Havisham. You cold, cold heart.’

‘What, said Estella , preserving her attitude of indifference as she leaned against the great chimney-piece, and only moving her eyes, ‘do you reproach me for being cold? You?

8. Ghost of Christmas Past (A Christmas Carol)
It was a strange figure—like a child yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view and being diminished to a child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and face most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest whites and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was that from the crown if its head there sprang a bright, clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness, being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body…And in the very wonder of this it would be itself again distinct and clear as ever.

“Are you the Spirit, Sir, whose coming was fortold to me?” asked Scrooge.
“I am.”

The voice was soft and gentle, singularly low, as if instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.

“Who and what are you?” Scrooge commanded.
“I am the Ghost of Christmas past.”
“Long past?” inquired Scrooge, observant of its dwarfish stature.
“No, your past.”

7. My Lady Dedlock (Bleak House)

She had given him her hand in an indifferent way that seemed habitual to her and spoke in a correspondingly indifferent manner, though in a very pleasant voice. She was as graceful as she was beautiful, perfectly self-possessed, and had the air, I thought, of being able to attract and interest any one if she had thought it
worth her while.






6. Jo (Bleak House)

"I'm a-being froze," returned the boy hoarsely, with his haggard gaze wandering about me, "and then burnt up, and then froze, and then burnt up, ever so many times in a hour. And my head's all sleepy, and all a-going mad-like--and I'm so dry--and my bones isn't half so much bones as pain.

"When did he come here?" I asked the woman.

"This morning, ma'am, I found him at the corner of the town. I had
known him up in London yonder. Hadn't I, Jo?"

"Tom-all-Alone's," the boy replied.

Whenever he fixed his attention or his eyes, it was only for a very little while. He soon began to droop his head again, and roll it heavily, and speak as if he were half awake.

"When did he come from London?" I asked.

"I come from London yes'day," said the boy himself, now flushed and
hot. "I'm a-going somewheres."

"Where is he going?" I asked.

"Somewheres," repeated the boy in a louder tone. "I have been moved on, and moved on, more nor ever I was afore, since the t'other one give me the sov'ring. Mrs. Snagsby, she's always a- watching, and a-driving of me--what have I done to her?--and they're all a-watching and a-driving of me. Every one of 'em's doing of it, from the time when I don't get up, to the time when I don't go to bed. And I'm a-going somewheres. That's where I'm a- going. She told me, down in Tom-all-Alone's, as she came from Stolbuns, and so I took the Stolbuns Road. It's as good as another."

5. Wemmick (Great Expectations)

"What do you think of my meaning to take a holiday on Monday, Mr. Pip?"

"Why, I suppose you have not done such a thing these twelve months."
"These twelve years, more likely," said Wemmick. "Yes. I'm going to take a holiday. More than that; I'm going to take a walk. More than that; I'm going to ask you to take a walk with me."
I was about to excuse myself, as being but a bad companion just then, when Wemmick anticipated me.

"I know your engagements," said he, "and I know you are out of sorts, Mr. Pip. But if you could oblige me, I should take it as a kindness. It ain't a long walk, and it's an early one. Say it might occupy you (including breakfast on the walk) from eight to twelve. Couldn't you stretch a point and manage it?"

He had done so much for me at various times, that this was very little to do for him. I said I could manage it - would manage it - and he was so very much pleased by my acquiescence, that I was pleased too. At his particular request, I appointed to call for him at the Castle at half-past eight on Monday morning, and so we
parted for the time.

Punctual to my appointment, I rang at the Castle gate on the Monday morning, and was received by Wemmick himself: who struck me as looking tighter than usual, and having a sleeker hat on. Within, there were two glasses of rum-and-milk prepared, and two biscuits.

The Aged must have been stirring with the lark, for, glancing into the perspective of his bedroom, I observed that his bed was empty. When we had fortified ourselves with the rum-and-milk and biscuits, and were going out for the walk with that training preparation on us, I was considerably surprised to see Wemmick take up a fishing-rod, and put it over his shoulder. "Why, we are not going fishing!" said I.

"No,"returned Wemmick, "but I like to walk with one."

I thought this odd; however, I said nothing, and we set off. We went towards Camberwell Green, and when we were thereabouts,

Wemmick said suddenly: "Halloa! Here's a church!"

There was nothing very surprising in that; but a gain, I was rather surprised, when he said, as if he were animated by a brilliant idea:

"Let's go in!"

We went in, Wemmick leaving his fishing-rod in the porch, and looked all round. In the mean time, Wemmick was diving into his coat-pockets, and getting something out of paper there.

"Halloa!" said he. "Here's a couple of pair of gloves! Let's put 'em on!"

As the gloves were white kid gloves, and as the post-office was widened to its utmost extent, I now began to have my strong suspicions. They were strengthened into certainty when I beheld the Aged enter at a side door, escorting a lady.

"Halloa!" said Wemmick. "Here's Miss Skiffins! Let's have a wedding."

( Miss Skiffins was Wemmick's Girl and he had brought Pip to be his best man.)

4. Pip (Great Expectations)

But, when she was gone, I looked about me for a place to hide my face in, and got behind one of the gates in the brewery-lane, and leaned my sleeve against the wall there, and leaned my forehead on it and cried. As I cried, I kicked the wall, and took a hard twist at my hair; so bitter were my feelings, and so sharp was the smart without a name, that needed counteraction.

My sister's bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be
exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter. Within myself, I had sustained, from my babyhood, a perpetual conflict with injustice. I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me. I had cherished a profound conviction that her bringing me up by hand, gave her no right to bring me up by jerks. Through all my punishments, disgraces, fasts and vigils, and other penitential performances, I had nursed this assurance; and to my communing so much with it, in a solitary and unprotected way, I in great part refer the fact that I was morally timid and very sensitive.

I got rid of my injured feelings for the time, by kicking them into the brewery wall
and twisting them out of my hair, and then I smoothed my face with my sleeve, and came from behind the gate. The bread and meat were acceptable, and the beer was warming and tingling, and I was soon in spirits to look about me.

3. Joe (Great Expectations)

You're a-listening and understanding, Pip?"
"Yes, Joe."
"'Consequence, my mother and me we ran away from my father, several times; and then my mother she'd go out to work, and she'd say, "Joe," she'd say, "now, please God, you shall have some schooling, child," and she'd put me to school. But my father were that good in his hart that he couldn't abear to be without us. So, he'd come with a most tremenjous crowd and make such a row at the doors of the houses where we was, that they used to be obligated to have no more to do with us and to give us up to him. And then he took us home and hammered us. Which, you see, Pip," said Joe,
pausing in his meditative raking of the fire, and looking at me,
"were a drawback on my learning."
"Certainly, poor Joe!"
"Though mind you, Pip," said Joe, with a judicial touch or two of the poker on the top bar, "rendering unto all their doo, and maintaining equal justice betwixt man and man, my father were that good in his hart, don't you see?"
I didn't see; but I didn't say so.
"Well!" Joe pursued, "somebody must keep the pot a biling, Pip, or the pot won't bile, don't you know?"
I saw that, and said so.
"'Consequence, my father didn't make objections to my going to work; so I went to work to work at my present calling, which were his too, if he would have followed it, and I worked tolerable hard, I assure you, Pip. In time I were able to keep him, and I kept him till he went off in a purple leptic fit. And it were my intentions to have had put upon his tombstone that
Whatsume'er the failings on his part, Remember reader he were that good in his hart."

2.Neville and Helen Landless (The Mystery of Edwin Drood)

An unusually handsome lithe young fellow, and an unusually handsome lithe girl; much alike; both very dark, and very rich in colour; she of almost the gipsy type; something untamed about them both; a certain air upon them of hunter and huntress; yet withal a certain air of being the objects of the chase, rather than the followers.
Slender, supple, quick of eye and limb; half shy, half defiant; fierce of look; an indefinable kind of pause coming and going on their whole expression, both of face and form, which might be equally likened to the pause before a crouch or a bound.




1—My Favorite-- Ham (David Copperfield)

The agony on shore increased. Men groaned and women shrieked. I found myself frantically imploring a knot of sailors not to let those two lost creatures perish, and they were making out to me in an agonized way that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago and could do nothing, when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front. I ran to him as well as I know to repeat my appeal for help, but the determination in his face and his look out to sea awoke me to a knowledge of his danger. I held him back with both arms and implored the men with whom I had been speaking not to listen to him not to let him stir from off that sand. Another cry arose on shore, and looking to the wreck we saw the sail, with blow on blow, beat off the lower of the two men and fly up in triumph round the active figure left alone upon the mast. Against such a sight I might as hopefully have entreated the wind. “Mas’r Davy.” Ham said cheerily, grasping me by both hands. “if my time is come, tis come. If ‘tain’t, I’ll bide it, Lord above bless you! Mates, make me ready! I’m a going!”


For More Thursday Thirteen, Check Here


Arkansas Mornings in May

Arkansas is a beautiful state--all green and flowered and moisty-morninged, and I'm on my way there to take care of my mother-in-law for a while. She is being released from the hospital, but, since that broken vertebra is still healing, she is in a cast and needs supervision. Probably, there will be no internet access, since she doesn't own a computer. I will be reading a lot and using this time to create a curriculum for our Vacation Bible School this summer. We are using our normal background--a Bible times village--but writing our own scripts.

Anyway, I have a couple of "Thursday Thirteens" scheduled to post, but other than that,
you will probably not hear from me until I return.

When I was a little girl we used to attend a church in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. They ended every service by singing "Una Manana Cristo Vendra". We all shook hands in parting, not in sadness, but in a shared, woven-into-the-soul, joyful hope.

Did I ever tell you how much I love mornings!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Storms at Harvest Time

This evening when I stepped outside to survey the lawn and try to overcome my enertia of rest long enough to run the weed eater, I was more impressed with the untidy sky than the lawn scraggles. Looking up at the underbelly of cloud cover was like looking at a box of cotton balls, each with its own swirly distinctness. Usually, that means hail, and we are three days from the beginning of harvest. All the land between these little towns is a waving, gorgeous, mix of white gold and bronze. I’m sure all the farmers, and the relatives of farmers, and those who care about farmers were praying that the high flying winds would carry those ominous clouds away. I know I was.

The lightening started at about eleven. Elijah had called to say that he was on his way home from friends, so I worried—as is the fashion of moms—until he walked through the door. Then I unplugged the computer and went to bed.

A phone call from a friend woke us at 1:30 AM. There was a tornado to the northwest of us. That’s not the one you fear because they travel from southwest to northeast (usually), but the sky was exploding with lighting bursts and whenever it lit, you could see dark clouds dipping low. The siren went off about the time we all found our robes. Turtle, Elijah, and I moved the pile of “ready for the garage sale” stuff in the garage so we could pull Elijah’s car alongside mine. Turtle was resplendently in command—shouting in the storm, while I kept telling him to come back inside and get to the basement, so he wouldn’t be struck by lightening. He was worried about the church.

In minutes, really, we were all sitting comfortably in the basement, watching the news as a great mass of meteorologists tracked the storm. They kept re-assuring us that the entire crew had been called to the newsroom to protect us in some mysterious way, because that’s how much they cared. Maybe they were all manning phones from spotters on the ground, energy levels sparking, each anxious to reveal the latest new threat, or maybe they sat wishing they were home, huddled with their families in the hallways as the radar scans kept sweeping over the screen, updating, updating, updating until they updated the storm right into the next county.

Babystepper called from her mother-in-law’s basement (which doesn’t have a television) to see if it was safe to emerge. It was. Cell phones are wonderful. The ground was wet, so I suppose it rained, but no trees were down; that's a good sign.

We all went back to bed.

This morning there is no news about it on the internet; in the scope of world interest we rate very small, and that's another good sign. A catastrophe would have merited a headline at least. Elijah has gone to work at the COOP. The "give us this day our daily bread" part of the Lord's Prayer takes on an extra shade of importance for the next few weeks.

It's a gorgeous morning--cool, damp, sun still dimmed by high clouds. Maybe I'll run the weed-eather.


Update:

Well, I just talked to one of the local farmers who lives a mile north of town. He actually saw a tornado on the ground just north of his house. He was outside, watching the sky--which is actually a more up-to-the-minute way of getting the weather news--when, in the middle of a dead calm, he saw the funnel. He said there was a blast of warm wind, then a terrible cold wind, and he could hear debris flying. He went into the house and helped his wife down to the basement where they waited until the storm passed. Optimistically speaking though, he reported that they had received an inch of rain, but very little hail. I guess this will be a farmer by farmer report, because there was that much variety.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

They Say You Never Forget...

...how to ride a bicycle. So I put them to the test. Claye has an old one that she hasn't ridden in years, and, upon cleaning the garage and moving it around for the umpteenth time, I had a brainstorm:

"So, Claye, do you plan to take this bike over to college and ride it around?"

"No."

"Do you think you will ride it here?"

"Not really."

"So will you ever ride it again?"

"Probably not."

"Do you mind if I ride it?"

"Not at all. Go ahead."

And that's how I got myself a bike.

This morning, before the heat of the day grew oppressive, I decided to take it for a courageous spin. The first thing I had forgotten was that hand brakes are not as convenient as foot brakes, but I found them. The second thing, which actually caused me to turn around after the first block, was the bone-jarring solidity of the seat. Fortunately, I had once bought a soft cushion for a bike seat, and--since we had just cleaned the garage--I knew where it was hanging. Ah. Providence. I set out bravely toward the center of town, being thankful for my sense of hearing, that I might survive by not venturing out too far into the middle of the road, where the cars were whizzing by at the top of their fearsome 25-mile-an-hour speed limit. It was uphill riding. At the drugstore, I purchased blood pressure medicine and headed home, sailing downhill with the wind in my face.

They are right. You never forget.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Limerick and Haiku--Dating



This is in response to Mad Kane's Limerick Challenge
The Topic is Dating.

Limerick

He thought her a bit over-rated
She firmly pronounced him out-dated
Yet, odd to discover,
They married each other
And they blissfully live—syncopated

Haiku

Fussing with my hair…
How do I know what he likes?
Fluffy, Styled, Straight? Wild?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Thirteen Things I Found in my Attic

Well, I said that I would clean out the attic and, in keeping with my good intentions, I've tried. Every day, I bring down a box and sort through it, or I go up to the attic early, before the heat climbs that high, and I shuffle boxes around, putting each in a spot that fits it better than the spot it sat in before. The stuff I keep running into is fascinating...and I don't have time to find another Thursday Thirteen, so here you are:

1. The first item is a trunk--an old army trunk actually that once held tools in the garage. It was hopelessly cracked and seemed destined for the garbage, but my little daughter once needed it for keeping dolls and toys. So we painted. We used several layers of fabric paint and filled all the cracks with gold glitter paint. It was as good as new, and you couldn't even tell. That was fourteen years ago. To this day it is full of treasures...who knows. Claye likes a good lock on her stuff.


2. Ah, but don't they look hopeful. My ice skates. I can't believe that it has been ten years since I lived in Gunnison, Colorado. I loved ice skating at the park in the winter, but I couldn't use the real leather skates. My ankles were fine in these. In Oklahoma there is seldom weather cold enough to use them. Sigh.











3. Now this seems a little funny to me.
Where are Elijah's musical instruments?
Behind the couches in the front room. Where is the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu equipment? Where are the boxing gloves? In a box in his bedroom. The computer games? Out on the bed, probably. The Basketball? In the attic. Did I ever tell you that we don't quite fit the mold? Well, watching a game on TV is sooo dreary.


4. Every year at Christmas time,
Turtle buys another moose. Every year I ask him not to because, honestly, how many moose does a family need? Besides, what do moose have to do with the Nativity? Did the Magi ride moose? The shepherds bring moose furs? Nooo, but every year another moose appears in the front room beside the tree. It's his little joke. We have boxes full...as you can see.



5. This--yes you are seeing right--is a log.
No. It isn't a yule log; it's Bois D'arc wood. And apparently it needs to cure in a hot, dry place. Every young man feels more manly if he has a log curing so that he can make his own bow and arrows. This wood is so heavy I can't move it. Turtle and Elijah felled the tree after getting permission from a local farmer. It is nearly impossible to chop or saw because it is so heavy. If I dare complain about it, they remind me what fantastic wood it is. Not everyone has such a treasure. Now the flowers...I don't know how they got there, but they add a little something that was missing from the manly presence of the log.


6. A foam sculpture. um huh. It's an eyeball. Claye had to pick some kind of shape for the first sketch in her first sculpture class. She chose an eyeball and lived to regret it, as every project they did that semester had to be based on their original choice. If it's any consolation, the pupil actually moves around.



7. This little wedge-shaped suitcase is full of costumes.
Yes. We were a "dress up" family. All those "special dress-up-in-honor-
of-homecoming days" at school were a treat. Someday I'll have to do a TThirteen just on that. The hat is a Peruvian hat once worn by Elijah as part of a fourth grade slide show project to illustrate his report over Secret of the Andes.


8. My favorite painting.
I bought it at a garage sale some years ago and hung it in our old house. The mist and the moon just seem peaceful to me. Somehow it didn't fit this house, but I had great plans for it...then it was temporarily stored and the canvas got warped by another frame that fell against it. Now it graces the attic, and probably gets quite appreciated there....hmm, if I could straighten the dent, maybe I could take it to school. Students need to sit in the presence of fine art...calming fine art.


9. A bear.
Well. Everybody needs at least one bear in the attic. Save them for grandchildren, I say. You can't throw away a little bear, particularly one this cute.







10. This horse I bought for Babystepper's children,
Zaya and Mim. Well. They are growing up...but I wonder if other little grandchildren might like it some day. It doesn't mind the attic, so I let it stay.


11. This is a "Moises",

a baby basket brought back from El Salvador by my sister, so that my babies could use it as a bed. She couldn't put it in the baggage compartment of the plane and had to carry it all the way. We made a tight-fitting foam mattress and my mother even made a little bumper pad. Claye slept in it for six weeks; Elijah was almost too big for it at birth, but he lasted a week or two. Then I passed it down to four little nieces and nephews, two grandbabies, and a few dolls. Still looks pretty good for all that wear. So how could I possibly get rid of it? You try.



12. Baby clothes.
I saved a few, in a few select boxes. Here's one from each of my children. They are safe in the big, plastic bins. Thank goodness. Because in one of the cardboard bins--full of winter clothes and thoughtlessly left open, I found little Mr. Thirteen.


13. He was in the barrel
that I cleaned out today, along with a sister or brother...no sign of the mother. She had shredded a winter sweater to make their nest. Notice that he's on the grass. This heartless landlady evicted the poor thing.
It's ironic that there are no mouse traps in my attic, but I think maybe one is in order.

For More Thursday Thirteen, Check Here

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Turtle

We were all sitting around the kitchen talking and I asked my husband what he wanted me to call him on my blog. He suggested "Turtle", and everybody agreed, so that's what I'll call him.

However, I do have one reservation. Let me hereby declare to the world, that I did not acquire him because I have a turtle collection.

Here's the true story. When we got married, Turtle was appalled to discover that I didn't collect anything at all. It was somehow un-American, uncivilized, and utterly unnatural for someone not to have a collection. He had, at the time, a stamp collection, rock collection, record collection, and a boy scout badge collection. Since then he has added several collections, most of which involve books, bees, bows, bikes, or boats in some form or another. Well, I was a new bride and in order to please this man, I told him I would collect turtles, because I already had an onyx one. Well, you know what happened. Everybody started giving me turtles. Now I have a real collection.

Several years later, Turtle joined a church camping fraternity. He had to have a name to put on the stick thing that identifies each wild, buckskinner of a man's tent, so he chose "Bellowing Turtle". He does bellow at times...and he is a little slow, particularly when we are all trying to leave for a camping trip or something, so the name stuck.

Now, I guess he is stuck with the name in Blogville. Way to be famous, Turtle!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Soaring

Soaring...
Eagles and aspirations.
Reaching,
Bracing breeze and circles
High above the tedious earth,
Lifting up my face to feel the light of God's face.
And thus seeing--far below--that beloved speck of dust called earth
The shimmering lakes and the green of lawns
Where little people play out the passion of their short, frenzied lives.
From my mighty spot, aloof and lonely, I am strangely moved;
My heart is sore--for their frailty, their glorious plans gone wrong.
They weep in the dirt, and I so want to carry them...up...up...up
Into my arms, soaring.

Our Sunday Scribblings prompt is Soar/Sore

I cannot think of this prompt without thinking of that marvelous chapter 40 of Isaiah.
which ends like this:

28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,

31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Keep Walking...Keep running...Keep Soaring.


(The picture is from www.flickr.com)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

So I like Oddities...

"Mom, it's just a terribly messed up cup I made the first year of clay class, a mistake."

"I think it's neat. How did you get the glaze to crack that way?"

"It cracked because it wasn't good glaze. It didn't work."

"Could you find that glaze again, because I like the way the face peeps out."

"No. I don't even know what kind it is; someone had mixed it and left it and it was ruined. That's why it didn't work."

"It looks a little like wood. How did you do that?"

"I had to stain it, and it wouldn't take an even stain. You can't even drink out of it. It's toxic."

"Well. I like it. It has personality. It will also remind you of the first year of clay class."

"I know."

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

My House, The Dead Sea.

Seven years ago when we moved into this house we had lots of extra space. We had been living in a small four bedroom house with a bath and a half, and four teenagers; That year our two extras--a foreign exchange student and a foster child-- moved off to college, and we accepted the pastorate of a church near the school where I teach. The parsonage was huge and beautiful. I still live in it with a kind of awe. We had to buy extra couches for the front living room and an extra bed for the guest room, but, for the most part, we left it bare; it was heavenly. That was seven years ago.

Do you remember reading about the Dead Sea? It receives water from the Jordan river and a couple of little wadis, but it has no outlet. The water evaporates and leaves minerals and salt. Fish die. People float. It stinks.

That's my house. Well nobody is dying yet, but I'm floating. There is too much inflow and not enough outflow. I'm on the cleaning offensive. I'm going to dig three canals to the Gulf of Aqaba and let this stuff sail away. Trinkets, extra clothes in sizes that might fit someday, dishes I don't need, even (gasp) books. It's going to go. In a month there is going to be a town-wide garage sale here. I'm enlisting. Here is my junk. Please, please take some.

For years I've been assigning maps in geography and my students have been labeling the Dead Sea. Recently, I google-earthed it and discovered that the resourceful Israelis have drained the water off the lower part--the part below the Lisan. It seems that there is great mineral wealth to be harvested there. When I first saw it, it surprised me. I mean, changing natural landmarks like that...uncovering the bottom of a sea; what admirable nerve! I guess they figure if they did it once they can do it again.

Israelis, you inspire me.
I'm going to harvest this house--pump out the sludge and discover treasures. In fact, I'm starting with the attic.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Poke Lines

On Facebook, you can reach out and poke someone. Whenever they log on to their facebook, they might poke you back. Then you can challenge them to a game or puzzle, and if they are online, you might chat, in a lazy corruption of the English language. Kids love it.

I'm sure the telephone, when my parents were young, seemed just as wonderful. Imagine, touching a family member who lived half a world away, or around the next block. Before that time, if you moved to Wyoming, you were as good as on the moon...letters being slow and unreliable, winters and snowdrifts being long and isolating.

By the time I was a little tyke, phones were a normal part of life. True, families still had only one phone--big and solid and black with dials. I remember giggling with my little cousins as we "prank-called," asking unsuspecting, anonymous voices whether their refrigerators were running, or whether they had Prince Albert in a can. It's a good thing nobody traced the calls. My grandmother would have been indignant, and we would all have been confined to the corners of the living room to sit and pout individually.

Now, of course, cell phones have invaded like vermin. Nobody is ever alone anymore. My children call them electronic leashes: "Yes, Mom, I'm still alive. I'm just leaving for home now." "Just letting you know that I'm out of my studio and back safely at the dorm. Yes. I know it is late, but I have to work on these projects or they won't get done in time." I've noticed, however, that they wouldn't dream of leaving them behind. They have become comfortable with the idea of being able to poke anybody on their list. As a matter of fact, so have I.

Our Sunday Scribblings Prompt was Telephone

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Catching Up


It's interesting how the up on the end of words changes the meaning like it does. For instance, I could never title this post "catching". It would sound like an epidemic was running rampant.

It's Mother's Day, and I feel blessed to be a mother to my three unique children. True, they are grown up now, but they are always my children. Yesterday they all pitched in and helped me clean up the house. They guys took all of Elijah's clothes down to the local laundry place and washed them there, while I washed about seven loads here and hung them up. We all dusted and picked up stuff, scrubbed windows and sorted. I even cooked up a briskett.

Claye began to sort and clean her room/studio/ye olde curiosity shoppe. It's shaping up a little and might actually be livable in a week or two.

Babystepper and Art came over, with the two grand-babies. They really liven things up. They brought me some new glasses from Michigan and we exchanged them for the unmatched jelly jars and mugs that were filling up my cabinets.

All in all, it was a profitable, enjoyable day, thanks to some great family. Things are looking up.

I'll have to 'fess up though, that I tend to overuse the word "up". Do you think I'll use it up?
Hmm. I wonder why it's never confess up?